THE DECADES

OF

HENRY BULLINGER,

(1504–1575)

MINISTER OF THE CHURCH OF ZURICH.

TRANSLATED BY H. I.

IN A SINGLE VOLUME

Originally published 1549-1552

IN FOUR VOLUMES

EDITED FOR

The Parker Society

BY THE

REV. THOMAS HARDING, A.M.,

OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD, AND VICAR OF BEXLEY, IN KENT.

CAMBRIDGE:

PRINTED AT

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

M.DCCC.XLIX.

(1849-1852)

Formatting, corrections, updated language, and additional notes

by William H. Gross www.onthewing.org © Jan 2009, 2017

Scanned images obtained from www.archive.org

Scripture in notes taken from the New King James Version®.

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Last Updated 10/12/2017

CONTENTS

Note on Modernization.

The Anabaptists

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE

DEDICATION TO PRINCE EDWARD VI.

DEDICATION TO KING EDWARD VI.

ADVERTISEMENT.

A PREFACE

FOUR GENERAL SYNODS OR COUNCILS

THE NICENE CREED

THE CREED OF THE COUNCIL HELD AT CONSTANTINOPLE,

THE CONFESSION OF FAITH MADE BY THE SYNOD AT EPHESUS.

A CONFESSION OF FAITH MADE BY THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON,

THE DECREE OF THE SYNOD OF CHALCEDON IS NOT CONTRARY

THE CREED OF THE FIRST COUNCIL HELD AT TOLEDO

THE CREED OF THE FOURTH COUNCIL HELD AT TOLEDO

A DECLARATION OF THE FAITH OR PREACHING OF THE EVANGELICAL AND APOSTOLIC TRUTH, BY THE BLESSED MARTYR IRENAEUS

A RULE OF FAITH, AFTER TERTULLIAN

THE CREED OF THE BLESSED ATHANASIUS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA

THE CREED OF THE BLESSED DAMASUS, BISHOP OF ROME

THE IMPERIAL DECREE FOR THE CATHOLIC FAITH

FIRST DECADE OF SERMONS

1-1. THE FIRST SERMON: OF THE WORD OF GOD

The cause of it; and how, and by whom, it was revealed to the world.

1-2. THE SECOND SERMON: OF THE WORD OF GOD (cont'd)

To whom, and to what end, it was revealed; also in what manner it is to be heard; and that it fully teaches the whole doctrine of godliness.

1-3. THE THIRD SERMON: THE SENSE OF THE WORD OF GOD

Of the sense and right exposition of the word of god, and by what manner of means it may be expounded.

1-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: OF TRUE FAITH

Where it comes from; that it is an assured belief of the mind, whose only stay is upon God and his word.

1-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: ONLY ONE TRUE FAITH.

That there is only one true faith, and what the virtue of it is.

1-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.

That the faithful are justified by faith, without the law and works.

1-7. THE SEVENTH SERMON: THE APOSTLES' CREED, Art. 1-4.

Of the first articles of the Christian faith contained in the Apostles' Creed.

1-8. THE EIGHTH SERMON: THE APOSTLES' CREED, Art. 5-8.

Of the latter articles of Christian faith contained in the Apostles' Creed.

1-9. THE NINTH SERMON: THE APOSTLES' CREED, Art. 9-12.

Of the latter articles of Christian faith contained in the Apostles' Creed.

1-10. THE TENTH SERMON: LOVE OF GOD AND NEIGHBOUR.

Of the love of God and our neighbour.

SECOND DECADE OF SERMONS

2-1. THE FIRST SERMON: THE LAWS OF NATURE & MEN.

Of laws, and of the law of nature, then of the laws of men.

2-2. THE SECOND SERMON: THE FIRST TWO COMMANDMENTS.

Of God's law, and of the two first commandments of the first tablet.

2-3. THE THIRD SERMON: THE THIRD COMMANDMENT.

Of the third precept of the Ten Commandments, and of swearing.

2-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

Of the fourth precept of the first tablet, that is, of the order and keeping of the sabbath-day.

2-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT.

Of the first precept of the second tablet, which is the fifth in order of the Ten Commandments, touching the honour due to parents.

2-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.

Of the second precept of the second tablet, which in order is the sixth of the Ten Commandments, you shall not kill: and of the magistrate.

2-7. THE SEVENTH SERMON: OFFICE OF THE MAGISTRATE.

Of the office of the Magistrate, whether the care of religion pertains to him or not, and whether he may make laws and ordinances in cases of religion.

2-8. THE EIGHTH SERMON: OF JUDGMENT.

Of judgment, and the office of the judge; that Christians are not forbidden to judge: of revenge and punishment: whether it is lawful for a magistrate to kill the guilty: Therefore, when, how, and what the magistrate must punish: whether he may punish offenders in religion or not.

2-9. THE NINTH SERMON: OF WAR.

Of war; whether it is lawful for a magistrate to make war. What the scripture teaches touching war. Whether a Christian man may bear the office of a magistrate. And the duty of subjects.

2-10. THE TENTH SERMON: THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT.

Of the third precept of the second tablet, which in order is the seventh of the Ten Commandments: you shall not commit adultery; of wedlock; against all intemperance; of continence.

THIRD DECADE OF SERMONS

3-1. THE FIRST SERMON: THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT.

Of the fourth precept of the second tablet, which in order is the eighth of the Ten Commandments, you shall not steal. Of owning and possessing proper goods, and the right and lawful getting of the same; against sundry kinds of theft.

3-2. THE SECOND SERMON: USE OF EARTHLY GOODS.

Of the lawful use of earthly goods; that is, how we may rightly possess, and lawfully spend, the wealth that is rightly and justly gotten; of restitution, and alms-deeds.

3-3. THE THIRD SERMON: BEARING AND ABIDING TRIALS.

Of the patient bearing and abiding of sundry calamities and miseries: and also of the hope and manifold consolation of the faithful.

3-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: THE NINTH & TENTH COMMANDMENTS.

Of the fifth and sixth precepts of the second tablet, which are in order, the ninth and tenth of the Ten Commandments. That is, you shall not speak false witness against your neighbour: and you shall not covet your neighbour's house, etc.

3-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: THE CEREMONIAL LAW.

Of the ceremonial law of God, but especially of the priesthood, time and place appointed for the ceremonies.

3-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: THE JEWISH SACRAMENTS.

Of the sacraments of the Jews; of their sundry sorts of sacrifices, and certain other things pertaining to their ceremonial law.

3-7. THE SEVENTH SERMON: THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.

Of the judicial laws of God.

3-8. THE EIGHTH SERMON: THE OLD & NEW TESTAMENTS.

Of the use or effect of the law of God, and of the fulfilling and abrogating of it: of the likeness and difference of both the testaments and people, the old and the new.

3-9. THE NINTH SERMON: OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY.

Of Christian liberty, and of offences. Of good works, and their reward.

3-10. THE TENTH SERMON: ORIGINAL AND ACTUAL SIN.

Of sin, and of the kinds of it: namely, of original and actual sin, and of sin against the Holy Ghost; and lastly, of the most sure and just punishment of sins.

FOURTH DECADE OF SERMONS

4-1. THE FIRST SERMON: OF THE GOSPEL.

Of the gospel of the grace of God, who has given His son to the world, and in him all things necessary to salvation, that we, believing in him, might obtain eternal life.

4-2. THE SECOND SERMON: OF REPENTANCE.

Of repentance and its causes; of confession and remission of sins; of satisfaction and indulgences; of the old and new man; of the power or strength of men, and the other things pertaining to repentance.

4-3. THE THIRD SERMON: OF GOD AND THE TRINITY.

Of God; of the true knowledge of God, and of the diverse ways how to know him; that God is one in substance, and three in persons.

4-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: OF GOD AS CREATOR & GOVERNOR.

That God is the creator of all things, and governs all things by his providence: where mention is also made of the goodwill of God toward us, and of predestination.

4-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: OF WORSHIPPING GOD IN TRUTH.

Of adoring or worshipping, of invocating or calling upon, and of serving the only, living, true, and everlasting God: also of true and false religion.

4-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: OF THE SON AS TRUE GOD AND MAN.

That the Son of God is unspeakably begotten of the Father; that he is consubstantial with the Father, and therefore true God. That the self-same Son is true man; consub- stantial with us: and therefore true God and man, abiding in two unconfounded natures, and in one undivided person.

4-7. THE SEVENTH SERMON: OF CHRIST AS KING AND PRIEST.

Of Christ, king and priest; of his only and everlasting kingdom and priesthood; and of the name of a Christian.

4-8. THE EIGHTH SERMON: OF THE HOLY GHOST.

Of the Holy Ghost, the third person in trinity to be worshipped, and of his divine power.

4-9. THE NINTH SERMON: OF ANGELS AND DEVILS.

Of good and evil spirits; that is, of the holy angels of god, and of devils or evil spirits; and of their operations.

4-10. THE TENTH SERMON: OF MAN'S SOUL AND SALVATION.

Of the reasonable soul of man; and of his most certain salvation after the death of his body.

FIFTH DECADE OF SERMONS

5-1. THE FIRST SERMON: OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Of the Holy Catholic Church; what it is, how far it EXTENDS, by what marks it is known, from where it springs, how it is maintained and preserved, whether it may err. Also of the power and studies of the church.

5-2. THE SECOND SERMON: THERE IS ONE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

There is one catholic Church: without the Church there is no light or salvation. Against schismatics. Why we depart from the upstart church of Rome. The church of God is the house, vineyard, and kingdom of God; and the body, sheepfold, and spouse of Christ; a mother and a virgin.

5-3. THE THIRD SERMON: OF THE MINISTERS OF GOD'S WORD.

Of the ministry, and the ministers of God's word; why and for what end they are instituted by God. That the orders given by Christ to the church in times past were equal. From where and how the prerogative of ministers sprang. And of the supremacy of the bishop of Rome.

5-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: OF THE CALLING TO MINISTRY.

Of calling to the ministry of the word of God. What manner of men, and in what fashion, ministers of the word must be ordained in the church. Of the keys of the church. What the office is of those who are ordained. Of the manner of teaching the church; and of the holy life of the pastors.

5-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: OF PRAYER, SINGING, & THANKSGIVING.

Of the form and manner of how to pray to God; that is, of calling on the name of the Lord: where also the Lord's Prayer is expounded; and also singing, thanksgiving, and the force of prayer, is treated.

Praying

The Kinds of Prayers

The Manner of Prayer

The Spirit of Prayer

The Ability to Pray

The Place of Prayer

The Posture of Prayer

The Subjects of Prayer

The Language of Prayer

Singing

The Lord's Prayer

Preface

Six Petitions

Thanksgiving

5-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: OF SIGNS & SACRAMENTS.

Of signs, and the manner  of signs; of sacramental signs: what a sacrament is; of whom, for what causes, and how many sacraments were instituted by Christ for the Christian church; what things they consist of; how these are consecrated; how the sign and the thing signified in the sacraments are either joined together or distinguished; and of the kind of speech used in the sacraments.

5-7. THE SEVENTH SERMON: OF SACRAMENTS, GRACE, & FAITH.

We must reason reverently about sacraments; they do not give grace by themselves, nor do they have grace included in them. Again, what the virtue and lawful end and use of sacraments is. They do not profit without faith; they are not superfluous to the faithful; and they do not depend upon the worthiness or unworthiness of the minister.

5-8. THE EIGHTH SERMON: OF HOLY BAPTISM.

Of holy baptism; what it is; by whom, and when it was instituted, and that there is but one baptism of water. Of the baptism of fire. Of the rite or ceremony of baptism; how, of whom, and to whom it must be ministered. Of baptism by midwives; and of infants dying without baptism. Of the baptism of infants. Against anabaptism or re-baptizing; and of the power or efficacy of baptism.

5-9. THE NINTH SERMON: OF THE LORD'S HOLY SUPPER.

Of the Lord's Holy Supper; what it is, by whom, when, and for whom it was instituted; in what way, when, and how often it is to be celebrated, and its ends. Of the true  meaning of the words of the supper, "this is my body." of the presence  of Christ in the supper. Of the true eating of Christ's body. Of the  worthy and unworthy eaters of it: and how every man ought  to prepare himself for the Lord's Supper.

5-10. THE TENTH SERMON: THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE CHURCH.

Of certain institutions of the church of God. Of schools. Of ecclesiastical goods, and the use and abuse of them. Of churches and holy instruments of Christians. Of the admonition and correction of the ministers of the church, and of the whole church. Of matrimony. Of widows. Of virgins. Of monks. What the church of Christ determines concerning the sick; and of funerals and burials.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX I. Dedication to the Marquis of Dorset

APPENDIX II. Dedication to Masters Gualter, Simler, etc.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS AND PERSONS.

INDEX OF VARIOUS WRITERS

INDEX OF PRINCIPAL WORKS

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF DECADES.

Note on Modernization.

The 500th anniversary of the Reformation is upon us. This modernized collection commemorates an extraordinary man, whose labors remain significant. Since first published, Bullinger's work has influenced generations of pastors to follow their calling with conviction and urgency. It has encouraged them to be diligent in their studies, in their duties, and in caring for Christ's body in every circumstance of time, place, and opposition. Bullinger asked of his hearers, "Do not yet cease to pray, that this wholesome doctrine may be taught by me as it should be, and received by you with much increase and profit." (p. i.180) Amen to that!

Bullinger was a 2nd generation Swiss reformer. He contributed to the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566, which was based on his personal statement of faith. These fifty sermons (many of which are treatises) are likewise clear and powerful statements of Christian faith for all generations. Some are intended for ordinary believers, others for theologians and teachers. Yet they all explain in clear, exacting, and memorable fashion, the basic beliefs, doctrines, and practices of the faith at a turning point in history. Our time, the 21st century, looks much like Bullinger's. Hopefully this Reformation edition will sound Bullinger's call to arms yet again (see the Preface).

The references that Bullinger makes to particular personalities and writings, were footnoted by Rev. Harding in the 1849-52 edition (300th anniversary edition). My additional notes are blue to distinguish them from his. I dropped many of his incidental notes. Therefore, footnote numbers will not match that edition, but the page numbers will. These sermons were translated into English some 450 years ago. Thankfully, Rev. Harding modernized the Middle English. But language changes with time; even his 19th c. edition needed further modernization. Italics were added to highlight distinctions; additional paragraph breaks and occasional bullets and headings were added to aid readability; page breaks were adjusted to avoid split sentences. Bullinger's content, however, is unchanged, and his rendering of the Scriptures remains, to the extent that the original translator preserved it in English. Rev. Harding was scrupulous to compare that translator's work with Bullinger's Latin, and to identify additions and omissions made by that translator. Citations and marginal citations are either footnoted, or superscripted in the text. Quaint spellings are uniformly updated: e.g., Jonah for Jonas, Jerome for Hierome (or Hieron.).

Extensive Greek and Latin quotations, and Harding's addenda, were removed — except where Bullinger addresses an original language issue, or Rev. Harding took fair exception to the original translator's rendering. These were subjective choices on my part. My goal was to preserve the content of the English translation, rather than a later scholarly edition of it. Even so, this edition has over 3600 footnotes and 3000 Scripture citations. I added an overview of the Anabaptists, to provide perhaps a more balanced view than Bullinger's. If I missed some things, I apologize.

NOTE: The four volumes of the five Decades are presented here in a SINGLE VOLUME. Originally, Decade 5 was in vol. 4; Decades 1 and 2 were combined in vol. 1. To avoid confusion, sermons are now titled and numbered by Decade (1-1, 2-1, etc.). To allow for citations and cross-references, the page numbers of the 1849-52 edition are included in the text. However, a Roman numeral prefix has been added to each page number, corresponding to its Decade, i.–v., rather than its original Volume; e.g., you'll see pages iii.42, iv.11, v.402, etc. Decade 2 originally started on page 193 of vol. 1; it's now page ii.193. Footnote and Index page references were adjusted accordingly. The Biographical Notice of Bullinger's life, was moved from Decade 5 to the front of this consolidated edition; but the list of principal works in that Notice, and the article it contained on the English translation, were APPENDIXED. The Dedications to Prince Edward VI in Decades 3 and 4, were likewise moved to the front, but their original page numbers were retained. This arrangement allows the sermons to be presented sequentially, without intervening material.

William H. Gross http://www.onthewing.org Jan 2017

The Anabaptists

Bullinger mentions the Anabaptists frequently, and never favorably. To put that in context, here is a brief account of that movement. Anabaptists were called "radical reformers." Some associates of Zwingli, such as Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, didn’t think the Reformation was radical enough. They wanted to end the tithe, usury, and military service. They wanted a totally self-governing church, free of government interference. Other Reformers were content with a state church, merely free of Rome — perhaps fearing that without government patronage, they wouldn't be able to withstand the political intrigues and power of the Pope. Zwingli therefore sought gradual, orderly change – widely acceptable change. So he parted ways with these men.

On January 21, 1525, the Zurich council forbade the radicals from disseminating their views. That evening, they met in a nearby village, where they baptized each other. Anabaptist, or “rebaptizer,” was subsequently applied to them as an epithet. Anyone that wasn't Protestant, Lutheran, or Catholic, was labelled an Anabaptist. Thus, other reformers rejected Anabaptist theology, and considered them anarchists. That was largely because of an incident in Münster, in 1534–35. The Anabaptists came to power there and uncharacteristically took up arms. They practiced polygamy, and claimed to have bizarre revelations from God. This aberrant group tainted the reputation of the rest of the movement. Catholics and Protestants alike persecuted the Anabaptists, executing them by fire, sword, or drowning.

Not having government backing, and being persecuted, Anabaptists created independent churches, and promoted personal evangelism. Both of those were considered radical at the time. These radicals called the very first synod of the Protestant Reformation in February 1527, where they composed their Schleitheim Confession. Its leading figure, Michael Sattler, was arrested in May of that year, by Count Joachim of Zollern, and burned at the stake in Rottenburg.

There were four basic convictions that the Anabaptists enumerated in their confession of faith, that many Protestants later adopted.

First is the need for discipleship. The Christian’s relationship with Christ must go beyond the mystical inner experience of Christ espoused by the monastics, and it must go beyond the acceptance of doctrinal stances espoused by synods and councils. It must involve “a daily walk with God, in which Christ’s teaching and example shape a transformed style of life.” “No one can truly know Christ except he follow him in life.”

The second conviction was the “principle of love” which naturally flows from the first conviction. They treated non-Anabaptists with pacifism, going neither to war against strangers nor to defense of themselves against their persecutors. They also refused to become participants in the exercise of state domination over individuals. Within the Anabaptist community, love led to mutual aid, redistribution of wealth, and in some cases, communal living.

The third conviction was the congregational view of church authority. Membership came only by baptism based on a confession of personal faith in Christ. Decisions were made by the entire membership. Doctrine was established by consensus in open and vigorous discussion. Discipline was corporate, as each individual was “assisted” in living a life of faith.

The fourth conviction was the insistence on separation of church and state. Christians are a “free, unforced, uncompelled people.” Faith is a free gift of God, and civil authorities exceed their competence when they “champion the Word of God with a fist.” The church is distinct from society even when society claims to be Christian. The Anabaptists were the first and foremost champions of religious freedom: the right to worship without state support and without state persecution. [1]

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE

OF

HENRY BULLINGER

[To avoid multiplying references it is here generally stated that the following abstract of Bullinger's life has been compiled from a Diary of Bullinger's, in the Library of Zurich (Acta Eccles. Mscr. F. 106); from a memoir of Bullinger, in the 1st volume of Miscell. Tigur. part 2; from the biographies of Simler, Melchior Adam, and Pastor Hess; and from D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation, (Books viii. xi. xv. xvi.), where much use has been made of Bullinger's own "Chronick."]

HENRY BULLINGER, the fifth child of Henry Bullinger and Anna Widerkehr,[2] was born on the 18th of July, 1504, at Bremgarten, a small town, of which his father was parish-priest and dean, about ten miles west of Zurich. In his childhood he was preserved several times from imminent perils: once from the plague and risk of premature interment; again, when by a fall in the street, a whistle which was in his hand was driven into his neck; and again, when the enticement of a beggar would have stolen him from his home and friends.

His earliest education was commenced in his fifth year in the school of his native place: but such was his fondness for learning, application, and forwardness, that in his twelfth year, June 11, 1516, his father sent him to a grammar-school at Emmerich on the Rhine. There he continued three years, and made rapid advances, especially in his Latin studies. Meanwhile his pecuniary resources were kept so straitened, that he was obliged to beg for a livelihood from one neighbour's door to another, with singing. This severe discipline his father exercised, not out of necessity, nor from covetousness, but (as he thought) to train his son to moderation in his own habits, and to sympathy with the sufferings of the poor.[3]

v.viii

Nor was this hardship, connected as it was with the superstitious notions of his day, uncongenial with young Bullinger's own temperament: rather he has left it on record, that he already purposed with himself to become a Carthusian monk after a few years, because it was the most strict of all the orders.

From Emmerich, Bullinger was removed to the university of Cologne; and entered July 8, 1519, [4] at the college Bursae-Montis. There the works of the school-divines, and chiefly of Peter Lombard and Gratian, soon engrossed his attention — and in the providence of God, were converted into instruments for detaching him from the religion of Rome. For in this course of reading, meeting with frequent extracts from the fathers, he felt an earnest desire quickened within him to peruse their entire writings. Accordingly, he solicited and obtained admission to a well-stored library of the Dominicans; and there he studied with intense ardour several treatises of Chrysostom, Ambrose, Origen, and Augustine. Simultaneously the earlier tracts of Luther, especially his "Babylonish Captivity" and treatise "On Christian Liberty," with the "Loci Communes" of Melancthon, came into his hands. He also procured for himself a copy of the New Testament, and devoted days and nights to the perusal of it, with the aid of the Commentaries of Jerome. The result of these pursuits was that Bullinger's mind and heart opened gradually to the knowledge and reception of the gospel in its purity.

In this transition state, and having taken his bachelor's degree in October 1520, and his master's in February 1522, Bullinger returned in April of that year to his father's roof at Bremgarten. There he devoted himself to the study of the Bible with still greater eagerness; and joined to it the writings of Athanasius, Cyprian, and Lactantius,[5] and several of Luther's treatises, especially "On the Abrogation of the Mass," and "On Vows." These occupations powerfully promoted, under God, his improved views of Christian truth. [6]

v.ix

But his profiting was not to be for himself only. The Cistercian abbot of Cappel, Wolfgang Joner, since his elevation in 1519, had laboured much to improve the moral and intellectual condition of his convent. Having heard therefore of Bullinger's excellent character, studiousness, and abilities, he sent an invitation to him early in 1523, to become lecturer and teacher of the monks and other students in his monastery; and as the offer was disconnected with any constraint of vows, profession, or observances, that could interfere with his enlightened conscience, Bullinger consented to enter (17th January) upon the proposed duties. The engagement, however, was a further development of God's gracious providence toward him; and as it allowed him to discourse on the holy scriptures, with the writings of the fathers and Erasmus and Melancthon, it was a signal means to himself and his hearers of advancement in sound Christian doctrine,[7] notwithstanding severe oppositions even to the risk of life. Six years were passed by Bullinger in this useful retirement. There he also composed, principally for his own practice and improvement, more than fifty treatises, mostly on religious topics: the larger part of which remained in manuscript;[8] but some were either published afterwards, or incorporated in his later writings, or distributed among his friends. [9]

v.x

During the same interval, Bullinger formed an intimate acquaintance with Zwingle and Leo Judae, and was much influenced by the religious sentiments of the former, especially on the subject of the eucharist. Indeed, in the end of June 1527, he obtained from his abbot a leave of absence for five months to attend Zwingle's lectures at Zurich where also ho availed himself of the opportunity to perfect his acquaintance with Hebrew and Greek literature.

In December of the same year, the senate of Zurich deputed Bullinger to accompany Zwingle to the important disputation at Berne.[10] On his return he was prevailed on to undertake the pastoral office; and preached his first sermon on Sunday, June 21, 1528, at the village of Husen, near Cappel.

A new sphere of usefulness now opened on Bullinger; and yielding to the advice of his relatives and patron,[11] and to the solicitations of the inhabitants, he went back to Bremgarten, June 1, 1529, and by incessant preachings and expositions there and in neighbouring places, greatly furthered the spreading cause of the Reformation.[12]

v.xi

On the 17th of August he was united in marriage in the church of Birmenstorf, a small village near Bremgarten, by his brother John, the cure, to Anne Adlischweiler, to whom he had been pledged during his visit to Zurich two years previously, and who had formerly been a nun in the convent of Oetenbach, where daughters of the first families in Zurich were received.[13] During the two years of this residence at Bremgarten, Bullinger composed some of his Commentaries on parts of holy Scripture. He often disputed in public and largely wrote against the prevailing errors of the anabaptists.

In consequence of the disastrous defeat of the protestant confederates at Cappel,[14] October 11, 1531,[15] Bullinger was compelled to remove with his family and parents into Zurich for safety.[16] There he settled on the 21st of November; and on the 9th of December following (at the same time that the senate of Bale applied for him as successor to Oecolampadius,[17] and the senate of Berne solicited him for a pastor) [18] he was appointed by the authorities of Zurich to supply the vacancy in the preachership of their cathedral, which had been created by the melancholy death of Zwingle. Bullinger continued in this important post for the remainder of his long life, labouring with most assiduous diligence and widespread influence.

v.xii

For several years, from 1531 to 1538, his preachings were daily, sometimes twice in the day; his publications, of which many were suggested by passing events, were voluminous [19] and frequent; his pastoral and synodical, civil and ecclesiastical, engagements were unceasing and very various; his correspondence was exceedingly extensive and critical: and his house was always open, and his interpositions ready to shelter and befriend especially refugees from every country where religious persecution raged.[20] And during the protracted efforts to effect a reconciliation between the Lutherans and the church of Zurich on the sacramentarian question, his moderation and sincerity were eminently conspicuous.[21]

In the middle of January 1536, Bullinger was deputed with Leo Judae to attend the conference of deputies from all the Swiss reformed churches at Basle.[22] There he assisted in drawing up the first Helvetic Confession of Faith, and commenced a personal acquaintance with Calvin. His hospitalities also were liberally experienced at Zurich by Englishmen, John Butler,[23] Nicolas Partridge,[24] and William Woodroofe, in the month of August of the same year. Bartholomew Traheron [25] joined them in September of the following year.[26]

A fatal plague in 1541 deprived Bullinger of his aged mother (August 16) and one of his sons (September 30); and in the next year, of his beloved colleague Leo Judae (June 19), in the midst of his invaluable labours on the Biblia Tigurina.[27]

v.xiii

The preface to this translation, which Bibliander had principally completed, was written by Bullinger in February 1543.

In his extant diary, Bullinger has marked March 29, 1547, as the day when Hooper and his wife, in their exile,[28] accomplished their long-cherished desire of visiting him;[29] and March 24, 1549, when they left him for England with their daughter Rachel, his god-child.[30] In the end of May of that year, Calvin and Farell also came to Bullinger, and a "consensus" or agreement was completed on the subject of the Lord's Supper, between the churches of Geneva and Zurich.[31] At the same instant, as appeared by various decrees in the following year,[32] the whole weight of the papal party, imperial and ecclesiastical, was combining to condemn Bullinger and all his writings. But nothing turned him aside from his steady course of usefulness; and early in 1554 the largest influx of English refugees enjoyed his sympathy and interest. Among them were Parkhurst, Jewel, Horn, Pilkington, Lever, Humphrey, and Cole.[33] Italian exiles from Locarno also sought and obtained like shelter in Zurich, through his interventions, in the spring of the following year.[34]

From 1556 to 1564 Bullinger's time and exertions were largely and painfully consumed in combating the errors of Jehoiakim Westphalus,[35] Stancari,[36] George Blandrata,[37] Brenthis,[38] and Ochin.[39]

v.xiv

While in the last-mentioned year, a pestilence deprived him of his wife,[40] and his second daughter, married to Lavater; and in the following year, of two other daughters — his eldest, the wife of Zwingle jun.; and his third, who had married Josiah Simler.[41] By the same plague, he had himself also been brought to the brink of the grave;[42] and not long after, his sufferings from the stone commenced, which embittered the remainder of his days.[43] Notwithstanding his declining health, family bereavements, and public trials, however, Bullinger's manifold labours continued unabated. And in the year 1571, he exerted himself most indefatigably in relieving his destitute country people during a very grievous famine.

Early in October 1574, his last and fatal disorder attacked him.[44] In the first instance, indeed, the severity of the seizure yielded so far to the remedies that were applied, that he was able to resume his public duties. But the disease returned on the 24th of May in the following year, with excruciating violence, and lasted until the 17th of September: when, after exhibiting a bright example of Christian patience, and having taken a touching personal farewell of all his colleagues, and written a letter to the senate of Zurich, to be delivered after his decease — (one object of which was to commend to them Rodolph Gualter as his successor) — he expired, in the exercise of much prayer and in the peace of the gospel, in the 71st year of his age.[45]

His remains were deposited in the cathedral of Zurich, amid the sincere and living regrets of all classes of his townspeople.

DEDICATION TO PRINCE EDWARD VI.

TO THE MOST RENOWNED PRINCE EDWARD THE SIXTH, KING OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE,

LORD OF IRELAND, PRINCE OF WALES AND CORNWALL, DEFENDER OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. [46]

GRACE AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

YOUR Majesty would, I know right well, most royal king, admit a stranger to talk with your grace, if any new guest were to come and promise that he would briefly, out of the statements and judgments of the wisest men, declare the very truest causes of the felicity and unhappy state of every king and kingdom. And therefore I hope that I will not be excluded from the speech of your Majesty, because I assuredly promise to briefly lay down the very causes of the felicity and lamentable calamities of kings and their kingdoms so clearly and evidently, that the hearer will not need to trouble himself with over-busy diligence to seek out my meaning, but only to give an attentive ear to what is spoken. For by the help of God, I will make this treatise to be perceived not only by the wit and true judgment of learned heads, but also to be seen with the eyes as it were,[47] and handled with the hands as it were, by veritable idiots [48] and unlearned hearers; and that too, is not out of the doubtful decrees and devices of men, but out of the assured word of the most true God. Even the wisest men very often deceive us with their counsel, and greatly damage those who follow it. But God, who is the Light and eternal Wisdom, cannot at any time either err, or conceive any false opinions or repugning counsels, much less teach others anything but truth, or seduce any man to go out of the right way.

iii.4

The Wisdom of the Father in the holy gospel cries out and says, "I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Joh 8.12 This eternal wisdom of God, just as it does not wrap things together in a disorderly way and make them intricate, but lays them down in order and teaches them plainly, so it not only ministers wholesome counsels, but it brings them to the effect which they wish, who obey her. Oftentimes, truly, men give good counsels that are not unwholesome; yet in their counsels, what should have been first and especially mentioned, is altogether omitted.

All the wise men, almost of the world, have been of the opinion that kings and kingdoms would be most happy if the king of the country is a wise man; if he has many wise, aged, faithful, and skilful counsellors; if his captains are valiant, warlike, and fortunate in battle; if he abounds with substance; if his kingdom is surely fortified on every side; and lastly, if his people are of one mind and obedient. All of this, I confess, is truly, rightly, and very wisely spoken. Yet there is another singular and most excellent thing which is not reckoned here among these necessaries. And without it, no true felicity can be attained; nor once gotten, can it be safely kept. Just as contrarily, where that one thing is present, all those other necessaries, of their own accord, fall to men as they themselves can best wish or devise. The Lord our God, therefore, who is the only giver of wise and perfect counsels, encloses all far more briefly and better in the gospel, saying in short: "But seek first rather the kingdom of God, and the righteousness of it, and all these things will easily be given to you." Mat 6.33 Again, "Blessed are the eyes who see what you see: for I say to you, that many kings and prophets have wished to see the things that you see, and to hear the things that you hear, and have neither heard nor seen them." Luk 10.24 And again, "No rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it." Luk 11.28 And this thing, [49] above all others, is very necessary: "Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her." Luk 10.42

iii.5

Having my warrant from the word of God, therefore, I dare boldly avow that those kings will flourish and be in a happy state, who wholly give and submit themselves and their kingdoms to Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, being King of kings and Lord of lords, acknowledging Him to be the mightiest prince and monarch of all, and themselves to be his vassals, subjects, and servants; who, finally, in all their affairs, do not follow their own mind and judgment, nor the laws of men that are contrary to God's commandments, nor the good intents of mortal men; but who themselves both follow the very laws of the mightiest king and monarch,[50] and also cause them to be followed throughout their kingdom, reforming both themselves and all theirs, at and by the rule of God's holy word. For in so doing, the kingdom will flourish in peace and tranquility, and its kings will be most wealthy, victorious, long-lived, and happy. For thus speaks the mouth of the Lord, who cannot possibly lie: "When the king sits upon the seat of his kingdom, he shall take the book of the law of God, that he may read in it all the days of his life, that he may do it, and not decline from it either to the right hand or to the left; but that he may prolong the days in his kingdom both of his own life and of his children." Deu 17.18-20 And again, "Let not the book of this law depart out of your mouth," (Joshua, or whoever you are that have a kingdom), "but occupy your mind in it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be happy." Jos 1.8 It is assuredly true, therefore, confirmed by the testimony of the most true God, and pronounced in express words, that the prosperity of kings and kingdoms consists in true faith, diligent hearing, and faithful obeying of the word or law of God; their calamity and utter overthrow follows the contrary.

This I will make, as my promise is in this annexed demonstration, both evident to the eyes, and as it were, palpable to the very hands, by the examples of most mighty kings — not taken out of Herodotus or any profane [51] author, but out of the infallible history of the most sacred scriptures. Saul, the first Saul — king of Israel, was both most fortunate and victorious, so long as he followed the word of God in all things.

iii.6

But once he gave way to his own good intents and meaning, being utterly forsaken by the Lord, he hears Samuel say to his face: "You have refused and cast off the word of the Lord; therefore God has also cast you away, so that you shall not be king of Israel." 1Sam 15.16 I will not stand here to largely declare the miseries and calamities in which he was wrapped from that time forward. For as he himself was horribly haunted and vexed with the evil spirit, so he did not cease to vex and torment his people and kingdom, until he had brought them all into extreme danger, where he and some of his were slain and put to the worst by the heathen, their enemies, leaving nothing behind him but a perpetual shame and endless ignominy. Next after Saul, David succeeds in the seat and kingdom, who without any controversy, was the happiest of all other kings and princes. But what store he set by the word of the Lord, is to be seen by many notable acts of his, and especially in that alphabetical psalm (in order and number), the hundred and nineteenth.[52] For in this psalm he sets forth the praise of God's word, the wholesome virtue of which he wonderfully expounds at large, in teaching what great desire and zeal we ought to have for it. For he was schooled and had learned before, by private mishaps and shameful deeds, and lastly, by the unhappy sedition of his graceless son Absalom, what an evil it is to decline from the word of the Lord. Solomon, the son of David, the wisest and most commended king of the whole world, enjoyed prosperity and praise at the mouth of the Lord, so long as he did not neglect to obey his word with reverence. But once he had transgressed the Lord's commandment, the Lord immediately said to him: "Because this is done by you, and you have not kept my ordinances and my statutes which I commanded you, I will rend your kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant." 1Kng 11.11 Now, mark this saying, for immediately after Solomon's death, the kingdom was accordingly torn in two; ten tribes followed Jeroboam, the servant of Solomon; two tribes still clung to Rehoboam, Solomon's son.

iii.7

For neglecting the word of the Lord, and following after strange gods, Rehoboam is overwhelmed with an infinite number of woeful miseries. For the scripture testifies that the Egyptians came up against Jerusalem, and destroyed the city, palace, and temple of the Lord.

Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, overcame the host of Israel, and bore away a triumphant victory, when he had wounded and slain five hundred thousand men of the ten tribes of Israel. And no other cause is mentioned of so great a victory, but that he believed the word of the Lord. Next after Abijah, his son Asa, 2Chr 14 a renowned and most powerful king, reigned in his stead; of whom the holy scripture testifies that he abolished all superstition, and restored sincere religion according to the word of God. By this he obtained a most flourishing kingdom in peace and quietness for the span of forty years. Again, we read of Jehoshaphat, Asa's son: "The Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the former ways of his father David, and did not seek Baalim, but sought the God of his father, and walked in his commandment." 2Chr 17.3-4 And therefore, for his prince-like wealth and famous victories, he was renowned throughout the world. But to his son Joram, who forsook the word of God, Elijah the prophet said: "Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, and in the ways of king Asa, but have walked the ways of the kings of Israel, behold, with a great plague the Lord will strike your folk, your children, your wives, and all your goods; and you shall suffer great pain, even a disease of the bowels, until your bowels [53] fall out." 2Chr 21.12-15 And whatever the Lord threatened to bring upon him by the mouth of the prophet, the unhappy king felt it with unspeakable torments to his great reproach: being made an example of wretchedness and misery, which lights on the heads of all those who forsake the word of God.

Nor was what happend to Ahaziah, son of king Joram and Athaliah, in any point better. For at the commandment of Jehu, he was stabbed and slain wretchedly, because he chose to follow the laws and rites of the kings of Israel, rather than the very true laws of the Lord his God.

iii.8

Moreover Joash, 2Chr 23-24 a child only seven years old, being restored to and settled in the place of his father by the labour, faith, and diligence of the faithful priest Jehoiada (who was slain before him) reigned most happily and in a prosperous state after the wicked Athaliah was put to death — so long as Jehoiada the priest lived.[54] But once the high priest departed out of this world to the Lord, the king, being immediately seduced by the malice and wiliness of his wicked counsellors, left off following the word of the Lord. And as he ceased to follow the Lord, so felicity and glory ceased to follow him. For the Syrians, coming on with a very small power of armed men, destroyed and put to flight an infinite host of Jewish people. They put to the sword all Joash' counsellors, and made a spoil of all his kingdom. And Joash, for rejecting the Lord, deserved with excessive grief, first to behold this misery; and then to pine away with a long consuming sickness; and lastly, upon his bed, to have his throat cruelly cut by his own household servants.

Amaziah, 2Chr 25.1 the son of Joash, is renowned for a famous victory which he obtained against the Idumites, for no other cause than for obeying the word of the Lord. But afterward, when he began to rebel against God and his prophets, he is vanquished in battle by Joash, king of Israel; by whom when he was defeated, and compelled to see the overthrow of a great part of the walls of Jerusalem, he was himself entrapped in the end by conspirators, and miserably murdered. His son Uzziah 2Chr 26.1 succeeded him. Like the father, he also enjoyed a singular felicity and most happy life, so long as he did not doubt the mouth of God. But when he usurped and took upon himself that office which God had properly appointed to the Levites alone, directly opposing himself to the word of the Lord, he was stricken with leprosy. And for his uncleanness, he was compelled to dwell apart in banishment from the company of men, until his last and dying day.

iii.9

Jotham also, 2Chr 27.1 the son of Uzziah, is reported to have been wealthy and victorious in his wars. As the cause of this felicity, the scripture briefly adds and says: "Jotham became mighty, because he directed his ways before the Lord his God." But contrarily, Ahaz, 2Chr 28.1 the son of Jotham, as he was nearly the wickedest of all the Jewish kings, so he was the most unfortunate in his life. For in foraking the law of the Lord his God, the Lord delivered both him and his people first into the hands of the king of Syrians, and afterward into the hands of the Israelites, who in one day slew one hundred and twenty thousand Jews, and took away captive with them two hundred thousand women and children. So Ahaz himself, and all who were his, by feeling it, had proof of all kinds of calamities, being made an example to terrify all others who doubt the word of God.

The good and godly king Hezekiah 2Kgs 18.1 succeeded his ungodly father in the seat and kingdom. We have this testimony of him in the scripture: "He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David did. He put away the high places, and broke the images, and cut down the groves, and altogether broke the bronze serpent which Moses had made: for in those days the children of Israel burnt sacrifices to it. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel. For he clung to the Lord, and did not depart from him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses." 2Kngs 18.3-6 And now, let us hear what followed upon this obedience and faith of his. The scripture goes on to say: "And the Lord was with him, so that he prospered in all things that he took in hand." 2Kng 18.7 While he reigned, the most ancient and powerful monarchy of the Assyrians was broken and diminished. For when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, besieged the city of Jerusalem, the angel of the Lord in one night slew in the Assyrian camp one hundred eigthty-five thousand soldiers.2Kng 19.35 And the king of Babylon also very honourably sent by his ambassadors prince-like gifts to Hezekiah, earnestly desiring his amity and friendship: for the glory of that most godly king had blown abroad, and was known throughout the world. Again, when his son Manasseh, a very wicked man, did not tread the path and express the deeds of his most holy father, but being made king in the twelfth year of his age, purposefully crossed the word of God, and brought in again all the superstition which his father had abolished, he was taken captive and carried away to Babylon.

iii.10

And although, by the goodness and mercy of God, he was restored to his seat again, yet, when he died, he left a maimed and a troublesome kingdom to his son Amon. 2Kng 21.18 He too, for rebelling against the word of God, as a most unfortunate man, reigned only two years, and was wretchedly slain at last by his own household servants.

In place of his murdered father, his son Josiah was settled in the kingdom. He was a child, only eight years old when he was crowned. Of all the kings of Judah, he was the flower and especial crown. He reigned quietly and in all points most happily for the span of thirty-one years. Now, the scripture, which cannot lie, paints for our eyes the faith and obedience which he devoutly showed to the word of God, for which that felicity accompanied his kingdom. He was not at all moved with the admonitions of his father Amon's counsellors; but as soon as he heard the words of the law read out of the book which Hilkiah the high priest found in the temple at Jerusalem, he immediately committed himself wholly to God and his word. Nor did he wait to look for the minds and reformations of other kings and kingdoms; but quickly forecasting the best for his people, he began to reform the corrupted religion, which he did especially in the eighteenth year of his age. And in that reformation, he always had a regard to follow the meaning of the holy scripture alone, and not to give ear to the deeds of his predecessors, to the prescribed order of long continuance, nor to the common voices of the greatest multitude. For he assembled his people together, before whom he laid open the book of God's law, and appointed all things to be ordained according to the rule of his written word. And thereupon it comes, which we find written, that he did not spare the ancient temples and long accustomed rites which Solomon and Jeroboam had erected and ordained against the word of God. To be short, this king Josiah pulled down and overthrew whatever was set up in the church or kingdom of Judah against the word of God. And lest perhaps anyone should cavil [55] and say he was over-hardy and too rough in his dealings, the scripture gives this testimony of him, saying: "There was no king like him before, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and all his might, according to all the law of Moses: nor did any like him arise after." 2Kng 23.25

iii.11

Though we read, therefore, that this so commended and most fortunate king was overcome and slain in a battle, that his death is to be counted part of his felicity, and not of his misery. For the Lord himself said to Josiah: "I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be buried in peace, that your eyes may not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place." 2Kng 22.18-20 There is no greater argument that the people and very princes of the kingdom under that most holy king were mere hypocrites and idolaters, than because next and immediately after his death, both his sons and peers, rejecting the word of God, brought all the superstition and blasphemous wickedness in again. Upon which we read that for the whole twenty-two years in which the kings of Judah reigned after the death of Josiah, there was no peace or quiet in Jerusalem, but perpetual seditions and most bloody murders.

Next after Josiah reigned his son Jeconiah. But Jeconiah, within three months, was taken, bound, and led captive away into the land of Egypt. After Jeconiah was led away, his brother Jehoiakim wore the crown. In the eleventh year of his reign, being bound in chains, he was slain by Nebuchadnezzar, and lastly (as Jeremiah says) Jer 22.18, 19 he was buried in the sepulchre of an ass. His son Coniah was set up in Jehoiakim's stead; but about three months after, he with his princes and substance, was taken captive and led away to Babylon. After him, the kingdom was given to Zedekiah, the son of Josiah. But because he would not obey the word of God preached by the prophet Jeremiah, he loses both his life and kingdom in the eleventh year of his reign. In his time the temple is also set on fire, Jerusalem is sacked, and most of the people were slain, or led away captive. This much up to here, touching the kings of Judah. For in Zedekiah, both the kingdom and the majesty or dignity of it, failed and came to an end.

To these, if we add the ends and destinies of the kings of Israel, we will again be compelled to confess that all the felicity of kings and kingdoms consist in hearing and following the word of God; and that contrarily, calamities and miseries rise by the contempt and neglecting of it.

iii.12

For Jeroboam, the first king of the separated Israelites, letting pass the word of God, ordained new rites to worship the Lord by, and erected a new temple. But by doing so, he overthrew himself, his house, and all his kingdom. After him, Baasha succeeded both in the kingdom and in idolatrous religion, which was the cause why he and his were utterly destroyed. Then follows Amri, the father of Ahab. For augmenting idolatrous impiety, he is horribly slain with all his family, so that not one of his escaped the revenging sword of God's anger and jealousy.[56] And because Jehu was faithful and valiant in killing those tyrants, in dispatching Baal's priests, and rooting out idolatrous superstition, the Lord promises and says to him: "Because you have zealously done what you have done, according to all that is right in my sight, therefore your children, to the fourth generation, shall sit on the seat of Israel." 2Kng 10.30 And we read truly, that his sons and nephews were notable princes who succeeded in the kingdom, even Jeconiah, Joash, Jeroboam the second of that name, and Zechariah. The other kings, such as Shallum, Manahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hosea,[57] had their kingdom altogether like the kingdom of the son of Josiah: namely, in a seditious, troublesome, and most miserable taking. For they despised the mouth of the Lord. Therefore they were utterly cut off, and for the most part, either slain or carried away captive by their enemies, the Assyrians. From the division of the people into two separate kingdoms after the death of Solomon, there were nineteen kings of Israel, and eighteen kings of Judah. The kings of Israel altogether reigned about two hundred and seventy-two years, and those of Judah about three hundred and ninety-three.[58] Now, for the span of so many years, in the most renowned and peculiar people of God, was a mirror as it were, set before the eyes of all nations to view and behold themselves in. There might the truest causes of felicity and calamities of all kings and kingdoms in the whole world be so lively represented and perfectly painted, that there would be no need to fetch from elsewhere a plainer and more evident demonstration of it.

iii.13

And yet for all that, we are not without other foreign examples by which to prove it. For the Pharaohs of Egypt were the destruction both of themselves and also their kingdom, by their stubborn rebellion against God's word. Again, Darius Priscus [59] and the great Nebuchadnezzar, enjoyed no small felicity because they did not despise the counsels of Daniel. Balthazar, king of Babylon, a spiteful contemner of God and his word, is destroyed in one night with all his power. Babylon, the most ancient and famous city of the world, is taken, set on fire, sacked, and overthrown, and the kingdom is translated to the Medes and Persians.[60] Nor were the kings of Persia unfortunate at all — I mean Cyrus and Darius, otherwise called Artaxerxes [61] —because they favoured the word of God, and promoted his people and true religion. But on the other side, we read that Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, was most unfortunate. Making war with God himself, as it were, he most wickedly burned and made off with the books of holy scripture.[62] Furthermore, we also have as great a store of examples, even out of those histories which immediately followed the time of Christ's ascension. For, as many Roman emperors, kings, and princes as persecuted the preaching of the Gospel, and the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who advanced idolatry and superstitious blasphemy — that many, I say, died a foul and shameful death. Eusebius and Orosius, renowned historiographers, are assured witnesses of this.[63] Again, St. Augustine, Lib. v. de Civit. Dei, affirms that incredible victories, very great glory, and most absolute felicity has been given by God to those kings who have in faith sincerely embraced Christ their Lord, and utterly subverted idolatry and superstitious blasphemy.[64]

iii.14

It is evident, therefore, that felicity comes by good-will and obedience to the word of God; and that all kings and kingdoms will be unhappy, which forsake the word of God and turn themselves to men's inventions. And I trust I have declared this so plainly up to here, that the hearers may seem not only to understand, but also to see before their eyes, and to feel with their hands as it were, the pith and material substance of this whole treatise.

But to what does all this tend? That your royal Majesty, truly, may undoubtingly know, and be assuredly persuaded, that true felicity is gotten and retained by faithful study in the word of God — namely, if you submit yourself altogether and your whole kingdom to Christ, the chief and highest prince; if throughout your whole realm, you dispose and order religion, and all matters of justice, according to the rule of God's holy word; if you decline not one hair's breadth from that rule, but study to advance the kingdom of Christ, and go on (as you have happily begun up to now) to subvert and tread underfoot the usurped power of that tyrannical antichrist. It is not that your Majesty needs my admonitions or instructions any whit at all: for you undoubtedly have that heavenly teacher in your mind (I mean, the Holy Ghost [65]), who inspires you with the very true doctrine of sincere and true religion. Your Majesty has the sacred Bible, the holiest book of all books, in which, as in a perfect rule, the whole matter of piety and our true salvation is absolutely contained and plainly set down.[66] Your Majesty has noble men, and many counsellors, belonging to your kingdom — faithful, valiant, and skilful heads both in the law of God and men — who for their wisdom and love that they bear for the sincere truth, are greatly commended among foreign nations. And for that cause, all the faithful think and call your Majesty most happy.

iii.15

And that happy king Hezekiah, although he especially used the help of those excellent men, Isaiah and Micah, he did not despise faithful admonishers, even among the meanest sort of Levites. Neither did they think that in admonishing the king, they lost and spent their labour in vain. Therefore, having good affiance in your Majesty's good and godly disposition, I truly hope that this short discourse of mine, touching the true causes of the felicity and calamities of kings and kingdoms, will have a profiting place with you. Twelve years ago, I dedicated to your father of famous memory, Henry the Eighth, a book touching the authority of the holy scripture, and the institution and function of bishops,[67] against the pontifical chuffs [68] of the Romish superstition and tyranny. And now by experience, I know that that labour of mine brought forth no small fruit within the realm of England. I am now so bold again as to dedicate these, my sermons, to your royal Majesty.

In these sermons I handle not the least and lowest points or places of Christian religion, the law, sin, grace, the Gospel, and repentance. Nor do I handle them irreligiously, I think. For I confer one scripture with another — there is no better and safer way to follow than this, in the handling of matters touching our religion. And because you are the true defender of the Christian faith, it cannot be but well, undoubtedly, to have Christian sermons come abroad under the defence of your Majesty's name. My mind was, according to my ability and the measure of faith which is in me, to further the cause of true religion, which now begins to bud in England, to the great rejoicing of all good people. I have therefore written these sermons at large, and handled the matter in such a way, that from one, many more may be gotten— in which the pastor's discretion will easily discern what is most available and profitable for every particular church.

v.16

And the pastor's duty, truly, is to rightly divide the word of truth, [69] and to aptly give the fodder of life to the Lord's flock. They will not think less, I hope, because in these sermons I use the same matter, the same arguments, and the very same words, that others before me, both ancient and recent writers, (whom I have judged to follow the scriptures), have used before now, [70] or which I myself have elsewhere alleged in other books of my own, previously published. For as this doctrine, at all times, and in all points agreeable to itself, is safest to be followed, so has it always been worthily praised by all good and godly people. If the Lord grants me life, leisure, and strength, I will shortly add the other eight sermons of the fourth decade, which remain.[71] And all that I say here, I speak it still without any prejudice to the judgment of the right and true Church.

Our Lord Jesus, the King of kings, and Lord of lords,

lead you with the Spirit, and defend you to

the glory of his name, and safety of all

your realm. At Tigure,[72] in the

month of March, the year

of our Lord,

1550.

Your Majesty's dutifully bound

and daily Orator,[73]

HENRY BULLINGER,

Minister of the Church at Tigure in Swicerland.

DEDICATION TO KING EDWARD VI.

TO THE MOST RENOWNED PRINCE

EDWARD VI, [74]

KING OF ENGLAND AND FRANCE, LORD OF IRELAND,

PRINCE OF WALES AND CORNWALL, DEFENDER OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH,

GRACE AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER, THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Dedication from the Fourth Decade, Third Sermon

THE promise, that I made to your most royal majesty not long ago,[75] I now perform, offering here the other eight sermons of the fourth Decade, which I dedicate to your royal majesty, that you may have from me two decades of sermons full and wholly finished. In March I sent twelve sermons to you, which were favourably accepted by your royal majesty, as I understand by the letters of that godly and worthy learned man, Master J. Hooper,[76] the most vigilant bishop of Glocester, my brother and reverend fellow-father in Jesus Christ: who also by the commendation of your royal majesty's good will toward me has heartened me on, so that now, with far more confidence and liberty than before, I send to your majesty this other part of my work, treating most weighty and holy matters. In this, my dedication, I regard nothing else but that which I declared in my former epistle: namely, that according to the gift that the Lord has endued me with, I may help forward and advance the state of Christian religion, now again happily springing up in the famous realm of England by your royal majesty's good beginnings and counsels of your worthy nobles. All those of every nation in Christendom, who truly believe in Christ Jesus, heartily rejoice on your majesty's behalf and the behalf of your most flourishing kingdom, for this renovation of true religion; and we earnestly pray to Christ the Lord, that he will happily bring to a good end the thing that you have happily begun in the fear of him.

iv.116

Your royal majesty truly has ventured upon a work both very great and full of troubles: but he will never fail your godly endeavours, who said, "Behold, I am with you forever, to the end of the world." And now also, even as it has always been from the first beginning of the church, there are many obstructions and great impediments, that are objects against most holy and wholesome intents, doing what they can to hinder and trouble the reformation of religion. And among others, this is one of the greatest: that no small number, even of the wisest sort, say that no such haste should be made on private authority. Rather, the determination of the general council in controversies of religion must be awaited and altogether looked to. Without the judgment of this, they say, it is not lawful for a kingdom, much less for any other commonweal,[77] to alter any one point in religion once received and previously used. But the prophets and apostles do not send us to the councils of priests or elders, but to the word of God. Indeed, in Jeremiah we read, "How can you say, We are wise, we have the law of the Lord among us? Truly, the lying pen of the scribes have written a lie.[78] The wise have been ashamed; they were afraid and were taken: for look, they have cast out the word of the Lord; what wisdom then can there be among them?"

Again, in the Gospel we read, "No man who lays his hand to the plough and looks back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Luk 9.62 Therefore, the authority of the prophets and evangelists gives counsel, to fully absolve and perfectly end the reformation of religion once begun with the fear of God, out of or by the word of God; and not to look for or wait upon councils, which are directed, not by the word of God, but by the affections and motions of men.

For the past examples of some ages, in these last 400 years or thereabout, sufficiently teach us what we may look for by the determination of general councils. The causes of councils of old were the corruption either of doctrine or else of the teachers, or else the ruin of ecclesiastical discipline.

iv.117

And good and zealous men have strongly cried now, for the span of 500 years and more, that superstitions, errors, and abuses have crept into the church; that the salt of the earth is unsavoury — that is, that the ministers of the churches have become unseasonable by sloth, ignorance, and wickedness; and that all discipline in the church has fallen into ruin. Bernard Clarevallensis,[79] being one among many, is a notable witness of this thing and condition. And for that cause, there have been many councils of priests celebrated, at the calling together of the bishop of Rome, together with the mutual aid of many kings and princes. But what became of them, what was done in them, and what small amendment or correction of doctrine, teachers, and discipline was obtained by them, the thing itself plainly declares (the more it is to be lamented). For the more that councils were assembled, the more superstition and error prevailed in doctrine, abuse in ceremonial rites, pride, riot,[80] covetousness, and all kinds of corruption in the teachers or priests, and a foul blotting out of all honest discipline. For such men were made presidents of the councils, as had a need first of all, either to be brought into a better order themselves, or else to be utterly excommunicated out of the congregation of the saints. And being presidents in the councils, they handled causes neither lawful nor lawfully. For the word of God had neither due authority nor dignity among them; nor did they allow the examination and discussing of causes by those men whom it was decent to have chiefly admitted, but by those of whom they thought it good to like. And in them, they did not seek the glory of God and the safeguard of the church, but they sought themselves — that is, the glory and pleasures of this transitory world. Therefore, in holding so many general councils, we see no amendment or reformation in the church obtained, but rather errors, abuses, and the kingdom and tyranny of the priests confirmed and augmented. [81]

And even today, although we would wink at and not see it, we cannot help but with our hands, to feel what we may look and hope for in a general council. At this day, no council would have any authority unless it is lawfully called together (as they expound "lawfully").

iv.118

None seems to be lawfully called together except that which the bishop of Rome calls together, and that which is held to the ancient custom and laws received; namely, that in which they alone sit, and have "deciding voices," as they call it — to whom power is permitted to determine and give sentence in the council. And they think it a heinous crime, and directly contrary to the oath given to them, to so much as think, much less speak, anything against the bishop and see of Rome, against the decrees of the fathers, and constitutions of the councils.

What therefore may you look for in such a council? That truth which I told you, that now for the span of 400 years and more, the afflicted church of God, to the detriment of godliness, has seen and felt this: namely, that the sincere doctrine of Christ is being trodden underfoot, and holy discipline is utterly oppressed. We see that every day, more and more, with the great and intolerable tyranny of the see and church of Rome, there increase and are confirmed, unsound and faulty doctrine, most filthy abuses, and too great licentiousness and wicked living of the priests. They in truth cry that it is heresy to accuse the pope of error, in the chest of whose breast (they claim) all heavenly doctrine is laid up and contained. They cry that all the decrees of the apostolic see must be received as if they were confirmed by the very voice of Peter himself. They cry that it is a wicked thing to start any controversy, or call into doubt the doctrine and ceremonies received and used in the church of Rome; especially touching their sacraments, from which to their advantage they make filthy merchandise. They cry that the church of Rome has power to judge all men, but that no man has any authority to judge her judgment. There are in the decretals,[82] most evident canons that set out and urge these things, as I have told them.[83]

Now what manner of reformation would we think they are likely to admit, who stand so stiffly to the defence of these things? Truly, they would rather that Christ with his gospel, and the true church his spouse, should wholly perish, than to have them depart one inch from their decrees, rites, authorities, dignities, wealth, and pleasures.

iv.119

They truly come into the council, not to be judged by others, that they may amend those things which even their own consciences and the whole world say should be amended; but they come to judge and yoke all other men, to still keep their power and authority, and to overthrow and take away whatever withstands their lust and tyranny. For before, horrible thunders were sent out against the accusers or adversaries of the apostolic see — that is, of papistic corruption. Afterward followed the hot bolts of that thunder, even definitive sentences of excommunication. The secular power, for the span of thirty years and more, has been called on, and persecution has been raised up everywhere, against guiltless Christians [84] — not for committing heinous crimes and defending naughtiness, [85] but for inveighing against mischiefs and mischievous men, and for requiring the reformation of the church. And yet, even today, most cruel edicts are out, and cruelty is exercised every day more and more, against those who confess the name of Christ. Yes, such is their impudence and brazen-faced boldness, that they do not dissemble that the council (if any must be celebrated) shall be called for rooting out heresies. Indeed, they openly profess that the council, once held at Trent, was assembled to this end. Now, since these things, more clearly than the sun, are perceived to be most true, you would do wisely and religiously, most holy king, if — without looking for the determination of a general council — you proceed to reform the churches in your kingdom according to the rule of the books of both Testaments, which we rightly believe to be the very word of God, being written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.

But now, it is thereby manifest that it is lawful for every Christian church, much more for every notable Christian kingdom, without the advice of the church of Rome and its members, in matters of religion depraved by them, to make a reformation wholly according to the rule of God's most holy word. This is because Christians are the congregation, the church, or subjects of their king, Christ, to whom they owe by all means, most absolute and perfect obedience.

iv.120

Now the Lord gave his church a charge of reformation: he commended to it the sound doctrine of the gospel, together with the lawful use of his holy sacraments. He also condemned all false doctrine, I mean, that which is contrary to the gospel. He damned the abuse and profanation of the sacraments; and delivered to us the true worship of God, and proscribed the false. Therefore, Christians — obeying the laws and commandments of their prince — should utterly remove or take away all superstition, and restore, establish, and preserve the true religion, according to the manner that Christ their prince appointed them. He truly is a fool or a madman, who says that the church of Christ has no authority to correct such errors, vices, and abuses as daily creep into it. And yet the Romish tyranny has so bewitched the eyes of many men, that they think they cannot lawfully do anyhing except what it pleases Rome to give them leave to do. The ecclesiastical histories mention provincial synods, held in sundry provinces, in which there were handled matters of faith and the reformation of the churches; and yet no mention is made even once of the bishop of Rome. What may be thought of this, moreover: that in certain synods — not heretical, but orthodox and catholic — you may find some who were excommunicated for appealing from their own churches to the church of Rome? [86]

St. Cyprian, writing to Cornelius, the bishop of Rome, says:

"Since it is ordained by us all, and it is just and right that every man's cause should be heard where the crime is committed; and to every individual pastor a portion of the flock is appointed which each one must govern and give an account of his doings before the Lord — it is expedient, truly, that those over whom we have charge, should not wander about, [87] and by that means, with their subtle and deceitful petulance, make ajar the concord of bishops; but plead their causes there, where they may have their accusers present, and witnesses of their [alleged] crime that was committed." [88]

iv.121

But letting pass the testimonies of men, we now come to the testimonies in the book of God. The most holy king Josiah, most godly prince, may alone in this case teach you what to do and how to do it, with the warrant and authority of God himself. By the diligent reading of the holy book of God, and by the contemplation of present things, and the manner of worshipping God that was then used, he undertood that his ancestors greatly and very far erred from the plain and simple truth. For this cause, he calls together the princes and other estates of his kingdom, together with all the priests, to hold and celebrate a council with them. In that council, he does not stand disputing at length whether the examples of the elders should be followed, rather than God's commandment simply received; whether he should believe the church rather than the scripture; and whether all the judgment of religion should be referred to the high priest. For laying abroad the book of the law, he submits both himself and all his, to the sacred scripture. Out of the book of the law, he himself learns, and he bids all his to learn, what it is that pleases God — namely, that which was commanded and learned in reading the law of God. And presently he charged that all men should do and execute it — not having any regard to the ancient custom, or to the church that existed at that time: he made all subject to the word of God. This deed of his is so commended, that next to David, he is preferred above all the kings of Judah and Israel.

Now, your royal majesty cannot follow any better or safer counsel than this, considering that it proceeds from God, and that it is most fit for the cause which even now is in hand. The disputation is about the reformation of religion, and the true faith of Christ. You know that it springs from heaven — namely, that it is taught by the word of God, and poured into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. For Paul says: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Rom 10.17 Therefore, just as true faith is not grounded on the word of man, so is it not taught or planted by them. For in another place the same apostle says:

iv.122

"My preaching was not in the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in the showing of the Spirit and of power; that your faith might not be in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God." 1Cor 2.4 It is not without good cause, therefore, that we refuse the traditions of men, and turn only to the doctrine of the word of the Lord, without which it is assuredly certain that there is no doctrine nor any foundation of true faith.

Nor are they worthy to be heard, who think that the canonical scriptures are not plain enough, full enough, or sufficient enough, to minister a perfect platform of reformation. They blaspheme the Spirit of God, imputing to it obscureness and imperfection — faults which no profane writer can well abide to hear. St. Paul, in defence of the truth, says, "All scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, instructed unto all good works." 2Tim 3.16,17 What now, I ask you, is omitted in these words, that may seem to pertain to a most absolute reformation? What, I beseech you, have those impudent fellows to say against this? Proceed, therefore, proceed most holy king, to imitate the most godly princes, and the infallible rule of the holy scripture: proceed, I say, without waiting for man's authority, by the most true and absolute instrument of truth — the book of God's most holy word — to reform the church of Christ in your most happy England.[89]

The Lord Jesus, the head and mighty prince of this

church,[90] preserve and lead you his most faithful

worshipper in the way of his truth until

the end, to the glory of his name, and

the good estate and welfare of

the whole Christian church.

At Tigure, in the month

of August, the year

of our Lord,

1550.

Your royal majesty's most dutifully bound,

HENRY BULLINGER,

Minister of the church at Tigure in Switzerland.

ADVERTISEMENT.

ONE of the Parker Society's objects, as stated in the first of its Laws, is "the printing, as may appear desirable, of some of the Early English translations of the Foreign Reformers." Accordingly, the re-publishing of the English Version of the Decades of Bullinger was announced, as in the contemplation of the Council of the Society, in a List which was appended to the Second Annual Report; and the first volume is now, at length, presented to the subscribers. The edition, which is reprinted here, is that of 1587, which scarcely differs at all, in any material respects, from the former edition of 1584, and very little from that of 1577; but any important variations between the translation and the original Latin are carefully specified in the notes. The Version was made, as stated in the title page, "by H. I. Student in Divinitie," – "a person," according to Strype's testimony, "of eminency in the Church." [91]

These Decades, it is conceived, possess a peculiar claim on the regard of the members of the Church of England. For not only was Bullinger "well-deserving by this nation for his kind entertainment and harbour of our divines and scholars who fled abroad in Queen Mary's reign, and of note for that friendship and correspondence ever after maintained between him and them;" [92] but several of his writings, as they became known here, were eminently appreciated by our theologians and religious persons of the era of the Reformation.[93]

And above all, in the Convocation of the province of Canterbury, held in 1586, among the "Orders for the better increase of learning in the inferior Ministers," introduced by Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, the following direction stands foremost: "Every minister having cure, and being under the degrees of master of arts, and bachelors of law, and not licensed to be a public preacher, shall before the second day of February next provide a Bible, and Bullinger's Decades in Latin or English, and a paper book, and shall every day read over one chapter of the Holy Scriptures, and note the principal contents of it briefly in his paper book, and shall every week read over one Sermon in the said Decades, and note likewise in the said paper, the chief matters contained in it; and shall once in every quarter (viz. within a fortnight before or after the end of the quarter) show his said note to some preacher near adjoining to be assigned for that purpose."[94] And, agreeably with this order, it is recorded by Strype, Dr. Theophilus Aylmer, Archdeacon of London, acted in his visitation in the early part of the year 1587, "the Bishop's pious and painful son." [95]

Although a Memoir of Bullinger (together with indexes to the whole work) will be given in the last volume, it may be useful here to state briefly, that he was born at Bremgarten, near Zurich, on July 18, 1504; commenced his studies at the University of Cologne in 1519; began to unite himself to the divines of the Reformation in the course of 1524; was chosen pastor of Zurich, on the decease of Oecolampadius, at the close of 1531; dedicated to Rodolph Gualter and others his first volume of the Decades, March 1, 1549; and died September 17, 1575, in the 71st year of his age.[96]

N.B. The editing of these Decades having been commenced by the Rev. STEUART A. PEARS; the notes which have the initial (P.) affixed to them, are due to his research.

FIFTY

GODLY AND LEARNED SERMONS,

DIVIDED INTO FIVE DECADES

CONTAINING THE

chief and principal points of Christian Religion,

written in three several Tomes or Sections,

by HENRY BULLINGER Minister

of the Church of TYGURE in

Swicerland.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED CERTAIN

EPISTLES OF THE SAME

Author concerning the Apparel of

Ministers and other indifferent things.

Translated out of Latin into English, by

H. I., Student in Divinity.

MATTHEW 17.

This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased: Hear him.

Imprinted at London by Ralph Newberry,

dwelling in Fleet Street a little above the Conduit,

Cum gratia & privilegio Regiae Maiestatis.

1587.

A PREFACE

by REV. THOMAS HARDING, ed.

TO THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AND

TO OTHER WELL-DISPOSED READERS OF

GOD'S WORD.

It may easily appear to someone who ponders this matter only a little, that there is just cause for all spiritual shepherds, and specially these of our time, to see carefully to the feeding of the flocks committed to their charge. For first, the commandments of the Almighty touching this thing are very earnest, the authority of which should greatly enforce it. Secondly, the rewards which He proposes for vigilant and careful pastors are large and bountiful, the sweetness of which should greatly allure them. Thirdly, the plagues and heavy judgments which he denounces against slothful and careless shepherds are grievous and portentous, the terror of which should make them afraid. Then the nature and condition of the sheep over whom they watch, the vigilance of the wolf against whom they watch, the conscience in taking the fleece for which they watch, and this time and age in which they watch being rightly considered, will enable them to sufficiently understand that they have good cause to watch.

How earnestly God commands, as it appears in Isaiah 58, where he says, "Cry aloud, and do not spare; lift up your voice like a trumpet, show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. And Isaiah 62, "I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, who all day and all night do not cease: you who are mindful of the Lord, do not stay silent." And John 21, "Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, and if you love me, feed." And 2Tim 4, "Preach the word: be instant in season and out; reprove, rebuke, exhort," etc. How sweetly with rewards he allures, as it appears in Daniel 12, "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever."

i.4

And 1Tim 4, "Take heed to yourself and to doctrine; occupy yourself in them continually. For in so doing, you will save yourself and those who hear you." Also, how fiercely he urges and drives on the sluggish and careless shepherds by threatening them with terrible plagues and whips as it appears in Ezekiel 3, where he says, "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel: therefore hear the word of my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, 'you will surely die,' and you do not give him warning, nor speak to admonish the wicked of his wicked way, that he may live, the same wicked man will die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at your hand." And Jer 1:17, "You, therefore, gird up your loins and arise and speak to all those that I command you; do not be afraid of their faces lest I destroy you in front of them." And 1Cor 9:16-17, "Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to rejoice about,[97] for necessity is laid upon me. And woe to me if I do not preach the gospel: for if I do it willingly, I have a reward. But if I do it against my will, nonetheless, the dispensation is committed to me."

Now the sheep, which spiritual shepherds have undertaken as their charge, are not beasts but men. They are the very images of God himself, endued with ever-living souls, citizens with the saints and blessed angels, clothed with God's uniform, beautified with his cognizance and all the badges of salvation, admitted to his table, and to no lesser dishes than the body and blood of the undefiled Lamb, Christ Jesus. They were also bought and redeemed out of the wolf's jaws with no less price than of that same blood, more precious than any gold or silver. They are sheep of that nature which, if carefully fed and discreetly ordered, will prove gentle and loving towards their shepherds, and serviceable towards the chief Shepherd Jesus Christ. But if they are neglected and left to themselves, they degenerate into bloody wolves, ever-watching for an opportunity to rend their shepherds into pieces, and any other sheep that have not degenerated into their wolfish nature.

i.5

As for the spiritual wolf, against whom they watch, which is Satan, "He," as the apostle Peter witnesses in 1Pet 5:8, "never rests, but like a roaring lion, he walks around ever-seeking whom he may devour." And for that reason he is also called "a dragon," (Rev 20:2), which is a beast that is naturally very malicious and crafty, and watchful. So then, if the spiritual shepherd must watch while the spiritual wolf is awake, he cannot promise himself even one secure moment in which he may be careless.

God, by his prophet Ezekiel, chapter 34 says, "Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves; should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fattest portions, and you clothe yourselves with the wool; you kill those that are well-fed, but you do not feed the sheep." This statement should awake the sleepy and careless consciences of many shepherds. For as the priest that serves the altar is worthy to live upon the offerings, and the soldier that ventures is worthy of his wages, and the husbandman that toils is worthy of the harvest, and the shepherd that feeds the flock is worthy to be fed with the milk, and clothed with the wool; so without question, the priest who does not serve is worthy of no offerings; the soldier who does not fight is worthy of no wages; the husbandman who loiters is worthy of weeds; and the shepherd who does not feed cannot with good conscience ask for either the milk or the fleece. Instead, his due reward and just recompense is punishment, for through his fault, the sheep are starved and destroyed by the wolf.

But let the ministers of our time weigh well the condition and manner of the time; and then, no doubt, they will see that it is high time to stir them to do their duties. This time succeeds a time in which there was extreme famine of all spiritual food, so that the sheep of this time can never recover themselves from the feebleness into which they were brought, except by some great and extraordinary diligence. This time succeeds a time in which the multitude of wolves and ravenous beasts was so great, and their rage and fury so fell upon every sheepfold, that the good shepherds were either put to flight, or pitifully murdered; so that the sheep, being committed to wolves, either perished or degenerated into wolves themselves: so that to regenerate them again into sheep requires no small labour. The church in this time is like land that has lain, time out of mind, unmanured, uncompassed, and untilled.

i.6

For this reason, it is so out of heart that it requires arms of iron and legs of brass to recover it again: or like a ship so worn with winds and tempests, so rent with rocks, so cracked and utterly decayed, that it takes a rare piece of craftsmanship to enable her to take the seas again.

There is no remedy, then, but the ministry of this time. If there is any love or fear of God in them, if they would not have all things run to ruin, if they regard either God, themselves, or their brethren, then they must at once, without further delay, set themselves to feed their flocks, to teach, to exhort, to strengthen, to bind up, to build, to plant, to water, to set, to oversee, to leave nothing undone that pertains to feeding and fattening the Lord's flocks, to planting the Lord's paradise, tilling the Lord's fields, dressing the Lord's vineyard, raising and rearing up the Lord's temple. The great deficiency in many to discharge their duties in this behalf is very lamentable, and by some means (as much as possible) it is to be supplied and remedied, rather than made a common theme and argument of railing, which many do today. In this, they show themselves to be like those who find fault in other men's garments – it is not that they love them, or have in mind to give them better, but that they are proud of their own, and would scornfully shame and grieve others. The cause of this great deficiency does not need to be disputed here; but indeed, any man may judge how impossible it was with so populous a kingdom, abounding with so many separate congregations, to furnish them all with fit and able pastors; and to do so immediately after such a general corruption and apostasy from the truth. For unless they had suddenly come from heaven, or been raised up miraculously, they could not have been. This is because, of the ancient preachers of king Edward's time,[98] some of them died in prison, many perished by fire, many perished otherwise; many also fled into other countries where some died; a few returned, but they were a handful to furnish this whole realm. The universities were also infected this way at first, so that many wolves and foxes crept out from them who detested the ministry, and wrought the contempt of it everywhere; only a very few good shepherds came abroad.[99]

i.7

And although since that time (now eighteen years), the universities being well-purged, there was good hope that all the land would have been overspread and replenished with able and learned pastors, the devil and corrupt patrons have taken hold to such an extent, that much of that hope is cut off. For patrons [100] now-a-days do not search the universities for a good pastor; instead, they look up and down the country for the peddler who will gain them the most. The one with the biggest purse to pay is presented, not the one with the best gifts to preach learnedly. The bishops bear great blame for this matter, and they admit (they say) unworthy men. See the craft of Satan: he falsely charges the worthiest pillars of the church with the ruin of the church, to the end that all the church-robbers and caterpillars of the Lord's vineyard may lie unseen. There is nothing that brings the bishops of our time more trouble and displeasure, than that they zealously withstand the covetousness of patrons in rejecting their insufficient clerics. For it stands them above all others that the church of God prospers; in the decay and fall of the church they cannot stand, but instead perish. But however it comes to pass, it is certain that many are far behind in those gifts which are necessary for their function; and there is yet small likelihood that the church shall be served with better, but rather with worse: for it does not seem that patrons in the future will lessen the market one penny, but rather raise it more and more.

This being the case, the labour of the ministry which is now in place, surely could not be worse bestowed. They neither promote the glory of God nor profit the church in the least, when the end to which they apply their endeavours is that the current ministry may come forward and be better able to do their duties. I mean such things as presenting godly and learned treatises, or expositions of the holy scriptures, compiled by themselves in our mother tongue; or else such things as translating the worthy works of the famous divines of our time. Both these sorts of men, no doubt, greatly edify the godly, and greatly help to improve all those ministers who understand the Latin tongue either poorly or not at all: so that among them are found many who by painful industry and diligent reading of such books, serve God well in the church; and so might all the rest of them serve, if sloth and worldly affairs did not hinder them.

i.8

Some of that sort complain that Calvin's manner of writing in his Institutions [101] is too deep and profound for them: Musculus also, in his Common Places, is very scholastical; the Commentaries of Marlorat [102] upon John, of Peter Martyr upon the Judges, of Gualter upon the small Prophets, and many others are translated and extant;[103] together, they handle most points of Christian doctrine excellently well. But these sorts of ministers, for the most part, are so bare-bitten by their patrons,[104] that to buy them all would be exorbitant. Therefore, without question, no writer yet in the hands of men can fit them better than master Bullinger in his Decades. In them he greatly amends Calvin's obscurity with singular perspicuity, and Musculus' scholastical subtlety with great plainness and even popular facility. And all those points of Christian doctrine, which are not to be found in one volume, are packed together and handled by Bullinger in good order in this one short book. There are various persons of the ministry who lack knowledge, and some who have knowledge but still lack order, discretion, memory, or audacity. They cannot, by reason of their deficiency, either expound, or exhort, or otherwise preach, but can only read the order of service. The Decades of master Bullinger may do more good in this respect than may be conceived at first. For indeed this book is a book of sermons; they are sermons in name and in nature, fit to be read out of the pulpit to the simplest and uneducated people of this land. Their doctrine is very plain, without ostentation, oddness, perplexity, vanity, or superfluity.

i.9

They are very sound also, without popery, Anabaptism, Servetianism,[105] or any other heresy. They are fifty in number, the five Decades containing (as the word imports) ten sermons, so that they may be easily divided so as to have one for every Sunday in the year. Nor is it material what those fanatical fellows say, who would do away with reading homilies or sermons in churches, no matter how sound, pithy, and effectual they may be. They are like physicians who forbid their patients all those meats which they may have and which would do them good, and prescribe them only those which they cannot obtain; for it will be some time before every parish has a learned and able preacher resident and abiding in it. And in the meantime, it cannot be denied that a homily or sermon, penned by some excellent cleric, being read plainly, orderly, and distinctly, will greatly move the hearers, that it will teach, confirm, confute, comfort, and persuade even as the same sermon pronounced without the book would do.

Perhaps some hearers, who delight more to have their eyes fed with the preacher's action, than to have their hearts edified with his sermon, are more moved with a sermon that is not read: but to a good Christian hearer, whose mind is most occupied on the matter, the odds are small. Better is a good sermon read than none at all. But nothing (they say) must be read in the open congregation except the canonical scriptures.[106] That rule is somewhat strict and precise. Then may not the Apostles' Creed, Nicene creed, or Athanasian creed, nor any prayers which are not word for word contained in the canon of the scriptures, nor any contents of chapters, be read in the congregation? The church and congregation of the Colossians were enjoined by St. Paul (Col 4.16) to read among them the epistle written from Laodicea, an epistle (as Calvin thinks [107]) which was not written by Paul, but by the church of Laodicea, and sent to Paul, and is not contained in the canon of the scriptures.

i.10

The church of Corinth and other churches of the godly, did likewise soon after the apostles' times (as it appears from Eusebius, Lib. iv. cap. 23,[108] and the writers of the Centuries,[109] Cent. II. cap. 10). They used to read openly, for admonition sake, certain epistles of Clement, and of Dionysius, bishop of Corinth. Master Bucer, in his Notes upon the Communion Book in King Edward's time, writes this: "It is better, where there are no scriptures to expound to the people, that godly and learned homilies should be read to them, rather than have no exhortation at all in the administration of the supper." [110] And a little after he says: "There are too few homilies, and too few points of religion taught in them; when, therefore, the Lord shall bless this kingdom with some excellent preachers, let them be commanded to make more homilies of the principal points of religion, which may be read to the people by those pastors who cannot make better ones themselves." [111] And that worthy martyr, Doctor Ridley, bishop of London, speaking of the Church of England during the reign of King Edward (as reported by master Foxe, in his Book of Acts and Mon., Tom. ii. page 1940) [112] says this:

"[The Church] also had holy and wholesome homilies in commendation of the principal virtues which are commended in scripture, and likewise it had other homilies against the most pernicious and capital vices that, alas! used to reign in this church [113] of England."

i.11

Therefore, as long as none are read in the church except those which are sound, godly, and learned, and fit for the capacity of the people; and as long as they are not thrust into the church to replace the canonical scriptures, but are read as godly expositions and interpretations of them; and since they occupy no more time in the church than what is usually left after reading the canonical scriptures, preaching, and exhortation; and because they are used, not to the contempt, derogation, or abandoning of preaching, but only to supply the lack of it; then no good man can dislike their use except those contentious persons who defy all things which they do not devise themselves.

And if it is said that there are already good homilies, and those are also authorised, and are likewise wholesome expositions of assorted parts of scripture, and for the same purpose, then I grant they be used as well. But store is no sore.[114] Meats may be most tasty; but if they come to the table too often, we do not care for them; so it is with sermons which are most excellent: if they come to the pulpit too often, they oftentimes do not please; instead, others are desired.

But, to end, these sermons of master Bullinger's are such that, whether they are used privately or read publicly, whether by ministers of the word or others of God's children, there will certainly be found in them such light and instruction for the ignorant, such sweetness and spiritual comfort for the consciences, and such heavenly delights for the souls, that like perfumes, the more they are chafed, the better they smell. And like gold mines, the deeper you dig them, the more riches they show; so it is with these:

the more diligently you peruse them, the more delightfully they

will please; and the deeper you dig with daily study

in their mines, the more golden matter they

will deliver forth to the glory of

God: to whom only be praise,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

i.12

OF THE

FOUR GENERAL SYNODS OR COUNCILS [115]

SINCE the time of the apostles, many councils have been celebrated in sundry provinces. Those (councils) then were synods or assemblies of bishops and holy men, meeting together to consult for keeping the soundness of faith, the unity of doctrine, and the discipline and peace of the churches. The epistles of the blessed martyr Cyprian have made us acquainted with some of this sort. [116]

The Nicene Council

The first general or universal synod, therefore, is reported to have been called by that most holy emperor Constantine in the city of Nicaea, the year of our Lord 324, [117] against Arius and his partners, who denied the natural deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And to that place came, out of all nations under heaven, two hundred and eighteen [118] bishops and excellent learned men, who wrote the Creed commonly called the Nicene Creed. Up to this point, the creed of the Apostles sufficed and it had been sufficient for the church of Christ, even in the time of Constantine. For all men confess that all the churches used no other creed than that of the Apostles (which we mention and expound in the first Decade), with which they were content throughout the whole world.

i.13

But in the days of Constantine the Great, that wicked blasphemer Arius sprang up, corrupting the pureness of Christian faith, and perverting the simple truth of doctrine taught by the apostles; the ministers of the churches were compelled of necessity to set themselves against that deceiver. In publishing a creed to present and declare out of the canonical scriptures, the true and ancient confession of faith, they condemned those novelties brought in by Arius. For in the creeds set forth by the other three general councils following shortly after, nothing was changed in the doctrine of the apostles, nor was there any new thing added which the churches of Christ had not before taken and believed out of the holy scripture. Instead, the ancient truth, being wisely made manifest by confessions made of faith, was profitably and godly set against the new corruptions of heretics. Yet the writings of the prophets and apostles were the spring, the guide, the rule, and judge in all these councils; nor did the fathers allow anything to be done there according to their own minds.[119] And yet I do not speak of every constitution and canon, but namely [120] of those ancient confessions alone, to which we attribute so much as is permitted by the canonical scripture, which we confess to be the only rule how to judge, speak, and do.

The Council of Constantinople

The second general council was held in the royal city of Constantinople, under Gratian the emperor, in the year of our Lord 384. There were assembled in that synod (as Prosperus Aquitanicus [121] witnesses) one hundred and eighty fathers or bishops who condemned Macedonius and Eudoxius for denying that the Holy Ghost is God.[122]

i.14

The Council of Ephesus

And about the year of our Lord 434, in the very same year that the blessed father Augustine died, when that godly prince Theodosius the Great was emperor, there came together at Ephesus the third synod, of two hundred priests or thereabouts, against Nestorius,[123] who tore the mystery of the incarnation and taught that there were two Sons, the one of God, the other of man. This council condemned him, together with the Pelagians, helpers of this doctrine as a cousin to their own.

The Council of Chalcedon

The fourth general council was assembled at Chalcedon, in, the year of our Lord 454, under the emperor Martian. There, six hundred and thirty fathers were gathered together who, according to the scriptures, condemned Eutyches, who mistook the two natures in Christ for the unity of the person.[124]

Beda de ratione temporum,[125] and many other writers, add to these four universal councils two more general synods: the fifth and the sixth, which were celebrated at Constantinople. For the fifth was gathered together when Justinian was emperor, against Theodorus and all heretics, about the year of our Lord 552.[126]

The sixth came together under Constantine the son of Constantius, in the year of our Lord 682. And there were assembled two hundred and eighty-nine bishops [127] against the Monothelites. But there was nothing determined in these synods, except what is to be found in the four first councils. That is why I have noted nothing out of them.

THE NICENE CREED

TAKEN OUT OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL

AND TRIPARTITE HISTORY.

WE believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten Son of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father; God of God, light of light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of the same essence and substance with the Father; by whom all things were made, which are in heaven, and which are on earth: who for us and for our salvation came down, was incarnate and manned (was made man). He suffered, and rose again the third day, he ascended into heaven, and shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And (we believe) in the Holy Ghost. As for those who say, [there] was sometime when he was not, and before he was born he was not; and who say, because he was made of things not being (out of nothing) or of another substance, that therefore the Son of God is either created, or turned, or changed, the holy catholic and apostolic church curses or excommunicates them.[128]

i.16

THE CREED OF THE COUNCIL HELD AT CONSTANTINOPLE,

TAKEN OUT OF A CERTAIN COPY WRITTEN IN GREEK AND LATIN [129]

I BELIEVE [130] in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of his Father before all worlds, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made;

i.17

being of the same substance with the Father, by whom all things were made: who for us, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and the virgin Mary, and was made man. He was also crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried: and he rose the third day, according to the scriptures. And he ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father: and he shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And (I believe) in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who, proceeding from the Father, is to be worshipped and glorified together with the Father and the Son; who spoke by the prophets: in one catholic and apostolic church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead; and the life of the world to come.

THE CONFESSION OF FAITH MADE BY THE SYNOD AT EPHESUS.

Because I note all things briefly here, in writing, I could not include with them that large synodal epistle written by St. Cyril [131] to Nestorius, in which is contained the full consent of the general council held at Ephesus. I have therefore rather chosen out of Cyril's 28th epistle, a short confession sent to the synod, and allowed by the whole council. Before the confession are set these words:

"Even as in the beginning we have heard out of the divine scriptures, and the tradition of the holy fathers, so will we briefly speak, not adding anything at all to the faith set forth by the holy fathers in Nicaea. For that suffices to all knowledge of godliness, as well as to the utter forsaking of any heretical contrariness."

And a little after this, the confession is set down in these words:

"We acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, to be perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and body; born of the Father according to his Godhead before the worlds, and the very same according to his humanity born in the latter times of the virgin Mary for us, and for our salvation: for there was made a uniting of the two natures.

i.18

Wherefore we confess both one Christ, one Son, and one Lord. And according to this understanding of the unconfounded unity, we acknowledge the holy virgin to be the mother of God, because God the Word was incarnate and made man, and by the very conception gathered to himself a body taken of her. But for the statements uttered by the evangelists and apostles touching the Lord, we know that the divines divide them because of the two natures, yet so as they belong to one person; and some refer them to the Godhead of Christ because they are more agreeable to the Divinity, and others (because they are) base, refer them to his humanity."

To this confession Cyril adds these words:

"When we had read these holy words of yours (even in the synod to which the confession was sent), and perceived that we ourselves were of the same opinion (for there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism), we glorified God the Saviour of all (men), rejoicing together in ourselves, because both your churches and ours believe agreeably to the scriptures of God and tradition of the holy fathers." [132]

A CONFESSION OF FAITH MADE BY THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON,

TAKEN OUT OF THE BOOK OF ISIDORE.[133]

AFTER the rehearsal of the creeds set forth by the synods of Nicaea and Constantinople, with a few words put between, the holy council of Chalcedon immediately prescribes (their confession) in these words,[134]

"We therefore, agreeing with the holy fathers, with one accord teach to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; and him (to be) perfect God in the Deity, and the same also truly man, of a reasonable soul and body: touching his Godhead, (being) of one nature with his Father; and the same, as touching his manhood, of one nature with us, like us in all things, sin excepted: touching his Godhead, born of his Father before the worlds; and the same in the latter days, made man for us and for our salvation. (We teach) to consider that he is one and the same Christ, the Son, (our) Lord, the only-begotten Son, in two natures, neither confounded, nor changed, nor divided, nor separated;

i.20

and that the difference of the natures is not to be taken away because of the unity; but rather, the property of both (his) natures remaining whole and meeting together in one person and one substance, that he is not parted or divided into two persons, but is one and the same Son, the only-begotten Son, God, the Word, (our) Lord Jesus Christ: even as the prophets from the beginning (have witnessed) of him, and as he himself has instructed us, and the confession of the fathers has taught us. These things therefore being ordered by us with all care and diligence, the holy and universal synod determines that it should not be lawful for any man to profess any other faith, or to write, to teach, or speak to the contrary."

THE DECREE OF THE SYNOD OF CHALCEDON IS NOT CONTRARY

TO THE DOCTRINE OF THE BLESSED BISHOP CYRIL,

TAKEN OUT OF THE FIFTH BOOK OF THE HOLY MARTYR VIGILIUS

AGAINST EUTYCHES [135]

i.21

BUT now let us consider the last article in the decree of the synod of Chalcedon:

"We confess that Christ our Lord, the only-begotten Son, is to be understood to be one and the self-same in (his) two natures, neither confounded, nor changed, nor divided, nor separated, not making void the difference of the two natures because of the unity, but keeping sound the property of both natures coming together into one person and substance, not as being divided or separated, but (as being) one and the same only-begotten Son, God, the Word, (our) Lord Jesus."

In this article, this displeases them, because they said, "The property of both natures remaining sound;" or, "The difference of the natures not being made void." And that they may persuade us that those things (which they disapprove) are assuredly so, using their usual large words and vain assertions, they bring in many testimonies out of the articles of Cyril, in which he does not deny the two natures in Christ, but teaches that there is but one person. With the intent, therefore, that we may not confute them with our disputation alone, let us set down also the words of Cyril, that even as they lean to the testimony of Cyril, so by the testimony of Cyril they may be overcome. In the synodal epistles of Cyril to Nestorius it is thus (written):

i.22

"For we do not affirm that the divine nature is turned or changed into flesh, nor yet that it is transformed into the whole man, which consists of the body and soul. But we say rather, that the reasonable soul has coupled to itself the substance of living flesh, that it is unspeakably and inconceivably made man, and is also called the Son of man, not of bare will alone, nor by only taking on the person, but because the two natures, in a certain manner, come together in one: so that there is one Christ, and one Son, of both (the natures) by joining them in one; not in making void or taking away the difference of the natures, but because they, that is, the Godhead and the manhood together, by that hidden and unspeakable knitting to the unity, have made for us one Lord, and (one) Christ, and (one) Son."

What could be spoken more plainly than this? What could be shown more clearly out of the epistles of Cyril to agree with the determination of the council of Chalcedon? For see, there is nothing contrary, whether words to words, or sentence to sentence: but even as they had one meaning of faith, so they use in a manner, the self-same words.

The holy synod said, "The difference of the two natures being nowhere made void;" St. Cyril said, "The difference of the natures not being made void, or taken away, by joining them together." The holy synod said, "Both the natures meeting together in one person;" St. Cyril says, "Not of a bare will only, nor yet by only taking on a person, but because the two natures in a way meet together in one." The holy synod said, "Not being divided into two persons, but being one and the same Christ;" St. Cyril said, "So that of two, that is to say (of two) natures in one Christ the Son;" and again, "Because they, that is, the Godhead and the manhood together, have made to us one Lord, (one) Christ, and (one) Son," etc.

THE CREED OF THE FIRST COUNCIL HELD AT TOLEDO

WHEN HONORIUS AND ARCADIUS WERE EMPERORS,

TAKEN OUT OF THE BOOK OF ISIDORE [136]

i.23

We believe in one true God, the Father Almighty, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, maker of things visible and invisible, by whom all things were made in heaven and on earth. We believe, that there is one God and one Trinity of the divine substance. And that the Father himself is not the Son, but that he has a Son, which is not the Father. That the Son is not the Father, but that the Son of God is of the nature of the Father. And also that the Holy Ghost is the Comforter, which neither is the Father himself, nor the Son, but proceeding from the Father and the Son. The Father, therefore, is unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Comforter not begotten but proceeding from the Father and the Son. The Father is he from whom this voice was heard out of heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased: hear him." The Son is he who said, "I went out from the Father, and came from God into the world." The Comforter is the Holy Ghost, of whom the Son said, "Unless I go away to the Father, the Comforter shall not come."

i.24

We believe in this Trinity differing in persons (but) all one in substance, not divided nor differing in strength, power and majesty; (and) we believe that beside this there is no divine nature, either of angel, or of spirit, or any power, which may be believed to be God.

We therefore believe that this Son of God, being God begotten of his Father altogether before all beginning, sanctified the womb of the virgin Mary, and that from her he took upon himself true man, begotten without the seed of man, the two natures only, that is, of the Godhead and manhood, coming together into one person only, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ. Neither (do we believe) that there was in him an imagined or any fanciful body, but a sound and true (body), and that he both hungered, and thirsted, and taught,[137] and wept, and suffered all the damages of the body. Last of all, that he was crucified by the Jews, and was buried, and rose again the third day, and afterward was familiar with his disciples, and the fortieth day after his resurrection ascended into heaven. This Son of man, and also the Son of God, we call both the Son of God and the Son of man.

We believe truly, that there shall be a resurrection of the flesh of mankind; and that the soul of man is not of the divine substance, or of God the Father, but is a creature created by the will of God.

THE CREED OF THE FOURTH COUNCIL HELD AT TOLEDO

TAKEN OUT OF THE BOOK OF ISIDORE [138]

i.25

As we have learned from the holy fathers that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are of one Godhead and substance, (so) is our confession, believing the Trinity in the difference of persons, and openly professing the unity in the Godhead; neither do we confound the persons, nor divide the substance. We say that the Father is made or begotten of none: we affirm that the Son is not made, but begotten of the Father: and we profess that the Holy Ghost is neither created nor begotten, but proceeding from the Father and the Son. And (we confess) that the Lord himself Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the maker of all things, begotten of the substance of his Father before all the worlds, came down from his Father in the latter times for the redemption of the world, who (nevertheless) never ceased to be with the Father. For he was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and the glorious virgin Mary the holy mother of God, and of her was born alone the same Lord Jesus Christ, one in the Trinity, being perfect (man) in soul and body, taking on man without sin, still being what he was, taking to himself what he was not. Touching his Godhead, he was equal with the Father; (and) inferior to his Father touching his manhood, having in one person the property of two natures. For (there are) in him two natures, God and man: and yet not two Sons or two Gods, but the same (God and man) one person in both natures, who suffered grief and death for our salvation, not in the power of his Godhead, but in the infirmity of his manhood.

i.26

He descended to them below to draw out by force the saints which were held there. And he rose again, the power of death being overcome. He was taken up into the heavens, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. By whose death and blood we, being made clean, have obtained forgiveness of (our) sins, and we shall be raised up again by him in the last day in the same flesh in which we now live, (and) in that manner in which the same (our) Lord rose again; (and) some shall receive from him, in reward for their well doing, life everlasting; and some shall receive for their sins, the judgment of everlasting punishment. This is the faith of the catholic church, this confession we keep and hold, which whoever keeps steadfastly, he shall have everlasting salvation.

A DECLARATION OF THE FAITH OR PREACHING OF THE EVANGELICAL AND APOSTOLIC TRUTH, BY THE BLESSED MARTYR IRENAEUS

TAKEN OUT OF THE THIRD CHAPTER OF HIS FIRST BOOK "CONTRA VALENT." [139]

The church, dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples, the belief in one God, the Father Almighty, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. And in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, [who was] incarnate for our salvation. And in the Holy Ghost, who by the prophets preached the mystery of the dispensation, and the coming of the beloved Jesus Christ our Lord, with his nativity of the virgin, and his passion, and resurrection from the dead, and his ascension in the flesh into the heavens, and his coming again out of the heavens in the glory of the Father to restore all things, and to raise up again all flesh of mankind: so that to Christ Jesus our Lord, both God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, every knee may bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue may praise him, and that he may judge rightly in all things, and that he may cast into eternal fire the spirits of evil, with the angels which transgressed and became rebels, and wicked, unjust, mischievous, and blasphemous men.

i.27

And that to the just and holy ones, and those who have kept his commandments and remained in his love, partly from the beginning and partly by repentance, he may grant life, bestow immortality, and give glory everlasting. The church, although it is dispersed throughout the whole world, having obtained, as I said, this confession and this faith, dwelling together as it were in one house, diligently keeps them, and likewise believes them, as if it had one soul and the same heart; and it preaches, teaches, and agreeably delivers these things, as if it had all one mouth. For in the world the tongues are unlike, but the force of teaching is one and the same. Nor do the churches, whose foundation is laid in Germany, believe otherwise, or teach to the contrary: nor those in Spain, nor those in France, nor those in the east, nor those in Egypt, nor those in Libya, nor those which are in the rest of the world: but even as the sun, (which is) the creature of God, is one and the same in the whole world; so also the preaching of the truth shines everywhere, and gives light to all men who are willing to come to the knowledge of the truth. And neither shall he who is among the chief overseers of the church, who is able to say much, speak contrary to this; for no man is above his master: neither shall he, who is able to say little, diminish this doctrine any whit at all. For seeing that faith is all one and the same, neither does he, who is able to say much of it, say more than should be said: neither does he, who says little, ever make it a whit the less.[140]

i.28

Read further in the fourth chapter of his third book Contra Valent, and you will perceive that by the term apostolic tradition, he means the Creed of the Apostles.

A RULE OF FAITH, AFTER TERTULLIAN

TAKEN OUT OF HIS BOOK "DE PRESCRIPTIONIBUS HERETICORUM." [141]

i.29

The rule of faith is that, out of hand, we openly profess what our belief is; which is that by which indeed, we believe that there is one God only, and not any other beside the maker of the world, who by his Word, sent out first of all, brought forth all things out of nothing. That Word, being called his Son, being seen after sundry sorts of the patriarchs, being always heard in the prophets, and lastly by the Spirit and power of God the Father being brought into the virgin Mary, being made flesh in that womb and born of her, became Jesus Christ, (who) afterward preached the new law and the new promise of the kingdom of heaven, wrought miracles, sat at the right hand of the Father, was nailed to the cross, rose again the third day, was taken into the heavens, sits at the right hand of the Father, sent the power of the Holy Ghost to govern the believers in his own stead, shall come with glory to take the saints into the joy of eternal life and heavenly promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting fire, when both the parties are raised up and have their flesh restored again.

This rule, as it will be proved, being ordained by Christ, has no doubts among us at all, except those which heresies bring in, and which make men become heretics.

THE CREED OF THE BLESSED ATHANASIUS, BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA

TAKEN OUT OF HIS BOOKS.[142]

i.30

WHOEVER would be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith.

Unless every one keeps this faith holy [143] and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.

Neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance.

For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.

But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one: the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son: and such is the Holy Ghost.

The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated: and the Holy Ghost uncreated.

The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible: and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.

The Father eternal, the Son eternal: and the Holy Ghost eternal.

And yet there are not three eternals, but one eternal.

As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated: but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.

So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty: and the Holy Ghost almighty.

And yet they are not three almighties: but one almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God: and the Holy Ghost is God.

And yet they are not three Gods: but one God.

So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord: and the Holy Ghost Lord.

And yet not three Lords: but one Lord.

For just as we are compelled by Christian verity to acknowledge every person [of the Godhead] by himself to be God and Lord; so we are forbidden by the catholic religion, to say there are three Gods or three Lords.

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The Father is made of none: neither created, nor begotten.

The Son is of the Father alone: not made, nor created, but begotten.

The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers: one Son, not three Sons: one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.

And in this Trinity none is before or after the other: none is greater or less than the other.

But the whole three persons are coeternal together: and coequal.

So that in all things — as said before — the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshipped.

He therefore that would be saved, must think of the Trinity thus.

Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation, that he also believe rightly [144] in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.

God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of the substance of his mother born in the world.

Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul, and human flesh subsisting.

Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father touching his manhood.

Who although he is God and man, yet he is not two, but one Christ.

One, not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the manhood into God.

One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.

For just as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ.

Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.

i.32

He ascended into heaven, he sits on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty: from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works.

And those that have done good, shall go into life everlasting; and those that have done evil, into everlasting fire.

This is the catholic faith which, unless a man believes it faithfully,[145] he cannot be saved.

THE CREED OF THE BLESSED DAMASUS, BISHOP OF ROME

TAKEN OUT OF THE SECOND TOME OF JEROME'S WORKS.[146]

i.33

WE believe in one God the Father Almighty, and in one Jesus Christ our Lord the Son of God, and in the Holy Ghost. We worship and confess God, not three Gods, but the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, one God: one God, not so as though he were alone, nor as one which is himself Father to himself, and Son himself also; but him to be the Father which begot, and (him) to be the Son which was begotten; but the Holy Ghost to be neither begotten, nor created, nor made, but proceeding from the Father and the Son, co-eternal, co-equal, and working together with the Father and the Son: because it is written, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established," that is, by the Son of God, "and by the breath of his mouth all the powers thereof;" and in another place, "Send forth Your breath, and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth." And therefore under the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, we confess one God, which is the name of the power, and not of the property. The proper name of the Father is the Father: and the proper name of the Son is the Son: and the proper name of the Holy Ghost is the Holy Ghost. In this Trinity of persons, we worship one God (in substance), because that which is of one father is of one nature with the father, of one substance, and one power. The Father begat the Son, not by will or necessity, but by nature.

The Son in the last time came down from the Father to save us and to fulfil the scriptures, who (nevertheless) never ceased to be with the Father. And he was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin: he took upon himself flesh, and soul, and sense; that is, he took on himself true man, neither losing what he was, but began to be what he was not; so that, in respect to his own properties, he is perfect God; and in respect to ours, he is true man. For he which was God is born man; and he which is born man, works miracles as God; and he that works miracles as God, dies as a man; and he that dies as man, rises again as God: who in the same flesh, in which he was born and suffered and died and rose again, ascended to the Father, and sits at his right hand in the glory which he always had, and yet still has.

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By his death and blood we believe that we are cleansed; and that at the latter day we shall be raised up again by him in this flesh in which we now live. And we hope that we shall obtain a reward for our good deeds; or else the pain of everlasting punishment for our sins. Read this, believe this, hold this, submit your soul to this faith, and you shall obtain life and a reward at Christ's hand.

St. Peter, bishop of Alexandria, taught and believed the very same with the blessed Athanasius and Damasus, as it may be gathered out of the thirty-seventh chapter of the seventh book, and the fourteenth chapter of the eighth book, of the Tripartite history.[147]

THE IMPERIAL DECREE FOR THE CATHOLIC FAITH [148]

TAKEN OUT OF THE TRIPARTITE HISTORY. Lib. ix. cap. 7.

THE noble emperors, Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, to the people of the city of Constantinople. We would have all people, whom the royal authority of our clemency rules, to be of that religion, which the religion brought in by (Peter) himself does at this time declare that St. Peter the apostle taught to the Romans, and which it is evident that bishop Damasus, and Peter the bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness, follow: that is, that according to the discipline of the apostles and doctrine of the evangelists, in the equality of the majesty and in the holy Trinity, we believe that there is (but) one Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Those who keep this law, we command to have the name of catholic Christians: but for the others, whom we judge to be mad and out of their wits, (we would) have them, sustaining the infamy of heretical doctrine, be punished first by God's vengeance, and after that by punishment according to the motion of our minds, which we, by the will of God, think best.

Given the third of the Calends of March,

at Thessalonica; Gratian the Fifth,

Valentinian, and Theodosius,

Aug. Coss [149]

FINIS.

THE

FIRST DECADE OF SERMONS

WRITTEN BY

HENRY BULLINGER.

1-1. THE FIRST SERMON: OF THE WORD OF GOD

THE CAUSE OF IT; AND HOW, AND BY WHOM,

IT WAS REVEALED TO THE WORLD.

ALL the decrees of Christian faith, with every way how to live rightly, well, and holily, and finally, all true and heavenly wisdom, have always been fetched out of the testimonies, or determinate judgments, of the word of God. Neither can they be drawn, taught, or, last of all, soundly confirmed from elsewhere, than from the word of God, whether by those who are wise men indeed, or by the faithful and those who are called by God to the ministry of the churches. Therefore, whoever is ignorant of what the word of God is, and the meaning of the word of God, seems like one who is blind, deaf, and without wit, in the temple of the Lord, in the school of Christ, and lastly, in the reading of the very sacred scriptures. But though some are not at all zealous, and hardly drawn to hearing sermons in the church, that springs out of no other fountain than this: it is because they neither understand rightly, nor weigh diligently enough, the virtue and true force of the word of God. Therefore, so that nothing may cause the zealous desirers of the truth and of the word of God to stick on this point — but rather that the estimation of God's word which is due may be laid up in all men's hearts — I will (by God's help) lay out for you, dearly beloved, those things which a godly man ought to think and hold concerning the word of God.

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And pray earnestly and continually to our bountiful God, that it may please Him to give to me his holy and effectual power to speak, and give to you the opening of your ears and minds, so that in all that I will say, the Lord's name may be praised, and your souls be profited abundantly.

First, I have to declare what the word of God is. Verbum in the scriptures, and according to the property of the Hebrew tongue, is diversely taken. For it signifies whatever thing a man wills; even as the word ding is largely used among the Germans. In St. Luke, the angel of God says to the blessed virgin: "With God no word [150] shall be impossible:" which is the same as if he had said, all things are possible for God, or to God nothing is impossible. Verbum also signifies a word uttered by the mouth of man. Sometimes it is used for a charge, sometimes for a whole sentence, or speech, or prophecy. There are many examples of this in the scriptures. But when verbum is joined with anything else, as in this place we call it verbum Dei, then is it not used in the same sense. For verbum Dei, "the word of God," signifies the virtue and power of God: it is also put for the Son of God, which is the second person in the most reverend Trinity. For that saying of the holy evangelist is evident to all men, "The word was made flesh." Joh 1.14 But in this treatise of ours, the word of God properly signifies the speech of God, and the revealing of God's will — first of all uttered in a lively-expressed voice by the mouth of Christ, the prophets and apostles; and after that, it was again registered in writings which are rightly called "holy and divine scriptures." The word shows the mind of the one out of whom it comes. Therefore the word of God makes a declaration about God. But God naturally speaks truth about himself: he is just, good, pure, immortal, and eternal. Therefore it follows that the word of God also, which comes out of the mouth of God, is true, just, without deceit and guile, without error or evil affection, holy, pure, good, immortal, and everlasting. For in the gospel the Lord says, "Your word is truth." Joh 17.17 And the apostle Paul says, "The word of God is not tied." 2Tim 2.9 Again, the scripture everywhere cries: "The word of the Lord endures forever." [151]

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And Solomon says: "Every word of God is purely cleansed. Add nothing to his words, lest perhaps he reprove you, and you be found a liar." Pro 30.5-6 David also says: "The sayings of the Lord are pure sayings, like silver cleansed in the fire, and seven times refined from the earth." Psa 12.6

This you will more fully perceive, dearly beloved, if I say speak more largely about the cause or beginning, and certainty, of the word of God. The word of God is truth; but God is the only well-spring of truth. Therefore, God is the beginning and cause of the word of God. And here indeed, since God does not have members like mortal men, he also lacks a bodily mouth. Yet, because the mouth is the instrument of the voice, a mouth is attributed to God. For he spoke to men in the voice of a man, that is, in a voice easily understood by men, and fashioned according to the speech usually spoken among men. This is evidently seen in the things in which he dealt with the holy fathers, with whom we read that He talked many times and often, as with our parents Adam and Eve, Noah, and the rest of the fathers. In Mount Sinai, the Lord himself preached to the great congregation of Israel, repeating so plainly, that they might understand those Ten Commandments, in which is contained every point of godliness. For in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy we read, "These words," meaning the Ten Commandments, "the Lord spoke with a loud voice, from out of the midst of the fire, to the whole congregation." Deu 5.22

And in the fourth chapter: "A voice of words you heard, but you saw no similitude besides the voice." Deu 4.12 Truly, God oftentimes used the means of angels, by whose ministry he talked with mortal men. And it is very well known to all men, that the Son of God the Father, being incarnate, walked about on the earth; and being very God and man, he taught the people of Israel for the span of almost three years.[152] But in times past, and before the Son of God was born into the world, God, little by little, made himself acquainted with the hearts of the holy fathers, and after that with the minds of the holy prophets; and last of all, by their preaching and writings, He taught the whole world.

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So also, Christ our Lord sent the Holy Ghost, who is from the Father and the Son, into the apostles, by whose mouths, words, and writings he was known throughout the world. And all these servants of God, were the elect vessels of God, having received with sincere hearts the revelation of God from God himself. First of all, in a living expressed voice, they delivered to the world the oracles and word of God which they had learned before; and afterward, when the world drew more to an end, some of them put them in writing for a memorial to posterity. And it is good to know how, and by whom, all this was done. For by this narration the true cause, certainty, and dignity of the word of God plainly appears.

The writings of any man from the beginning of the world are not extant to be seen, until the time of Moses, and these have come to our knowledge — although it is likely that this same ancient and first world was not altogether without any writings. For the written prophecy of our holy father Enoch (who was seventh from our father Adam) is cited by St. Jude, the apostle, and brother of St. James. Jude 14-15 Furthermore, the writing or history of Job seems to have been set forth a great while before. But however it is, all the saints in the church of God give to Moses, the faithful servant of God, the first place among the holy writers.

From the beginning of the world, therefore, God by his Spirit and the ministry of angels, spoke to the holy fathers; and by word of mouth they taught their children, and children's children, and all their posterity, what they had learned from the mouth of God. When they had truly heard it, it was not with the intent to keep it close to themselves, but also to make their posterity partakers of it. For God oftentimes witnesses that "he will be the God of the fathers and of their seed forevermore." Gen 17.7 This is most plainly seen in the history of Adam, Noah, and Abraham, the first and great grandfathers.

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In the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, truly, we read that the angel of God, and what is more indeed, that even the Lord himself, said to Abraham:

"And shall I hide from Abraham what I mind to do? since from Abraham shall come a great and mighty people, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? And this I know, that he will command his children and his posterity after him, to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice, judgment," Gen 18.17-19 and the rest.

Abraham therefore, a faithful and zealous worshipper of God, did not (even as those old fathers of the first world also did not) grow negligent at all in this, but diligently taught men the will and judgments of God. Thus he is called a prophet by Moses, yes, and by God himself. Gen 20.7 That devout and living tradition of the fathers, from hand to hand, was in use continually, even from the beginning of the world until the time of Moses.

Moreover, God of his goodness provided that no age should at any time be without most excellent lights, to be witnesses of the undoubted faith, and fathers of great authority. For the world before the deluge had in it nine most excellent, most holy, and wise men: Adam, Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech. The chief of these, Adam and Methuselah, begin and make an end of all the sixteen hundred and fifty-six years [153] of the world before the deluge. For Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years; Gen 5.5 he therefore dies in the seven hundred and twenty-sixth year before the flood. And Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years; Gen 5.27 he dies in the very same year that the flood overflowed; and he lived together with Adam two hundred and forty-three years — so that he might be instructed by Adam abundantly enough concerning the beginning of things, concerning God, the falling and restoring again of mankind, and all other things belonging to religion, even as he was taught by God himself. These two fathers, with the rest named above, were able to instruct the whole age sufficiently enough in the true salvation and right ways of the Lord.

After the deluge, God gave excellent men to the world again, and very great lights. Their names are Noah, Shem, Arphaxad, Salah, Eber, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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Here have we thirteen most excellent patriarchs, among whom the first two, Noah and Shem, are the chief; next to whom Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were more notable than the rest. Noah lived nine hundred and fifty years in all. He was six hundred years old when the flood drowned the world. Gen 7.6 He therefore saw and heard all the holy fathers of the first world before the deluge, only three excepted: Adam, Seth, and Enosh. And he also lived many years together with the others, who had both seen and heard them; so that he could be ignorant in no point of those things which Adam had taught. Noah dies (which is a marvel to be told, and yet very true) in the forty-ninth year of Abraham's age.[154] Shem, the son of Noah, lived many years with his father; for he lived six hundred years in all. He was born to Noah about ninety-six years before the deluge. He saw and heard, therefore, not only his father Noah and his grandfather Lamech, but also his great grandsire Methuselah, with whom he lived ninety-six years before the deluge. From him he might be informed of all those things which Methuselah had heard and learned from Adam and the other patriarchs. Shem dies after the death of Abraham, in the fifty-second year of Jacob, which was thirty-seven years after the death of Abraham, in the year one hundred and twelve of Isaac's age. So that Jacob, the patriarch, might very well learn all the true divinity from Shem himself, even as he had heard it from Methuselah, who was the third witness and teacher from Adam.

Furthermore, Jacob the patriarch delivered to his children that which he received from God, to teach to his posterity. In Mesopotamia, there is born to Jacob his son Levi, and to him again is born Kohath,[155] who both saw and heard Jacob. For Kohath lived no small number of years with his grandfather Jacob; for he is recounted in the roll of those who went with Jacob down into Egypt. Gen 46.11 But Jacob lived seventeen years with his children in Egypt.

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Kohath is the grandfather of Moses, the father of Amram, from whom Moses perfectly drew that full and certain tradition by hand, as concerning the will, commandments, and judgments of God, even as Amram his father had learned them from his father Kohath, Kohath from Jacob, Jacob from Shem, Shem from Methuselah and from Adam the first father of us all — so that now, Moses is the seventh witness from Adam in the world. And from the beginning of the world to the birth of Moses are fully complete two thousand three hundred and sixty-eight years of the world. And whoever diligently reckons the years, that were not in vain set down by Moses in Genesis and Exodus, he will find this account to be true and right.[156]

Now, it also benefits us to know those chief principles of that living tradition, delivered by the holy fathers at the appointment of God, from hand to hand as it were, to all the posterity. The fathers taught their children that God, of his natural goodness, wishing well to mankind, would have all men come to the knowledge of the truth, and to be in nature like God himself: holy, happy, and absolutely blessed. And therefore God, in the beginning, created man in his own similitude and likeness, with the intent that he should be good, holy, immortal, blessed, and partaker of all the good gifts of God. But man did not continue in that dignity and happy state; by means of the devil, and his own proper fault, he fell into sin, misery, and death, changing his likeness to God into the similitude of the devil. Moreover, God here again began the work of salvation afresh, whereby mankind, being restored and set free from all evil, might once again be made like God. And He meant to bring this mighty and divine work to pass by a certain middle mean: that is, by the Word incarnate. For just as he joined man to God by taking on flesh, so by dying in the flesh, he cleansed, sanctified, and delivered mankind with his sacrifice.

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And by giving man His Holy Spirit, he made him again in nature like God: that is, immortal, and absolutely blessed. And last of all, He works in us a willing endeavour to aptly resemble the property and conditions of Him to whose likeness we are created, so that we may be holy, both body and soul. They added moreover, that the Word should be incarnate in his due time and appointed age — and also, that there remained a great day for judgment, in which, though all men were gathered together, yet only the righteous would receive that reward of heavenly immortality.

So then, this is the brief sum of the holy fathers' tradition, which it is best to untwist more largely, and to speak of it more diligently, by parts.

First, therefore, the fathers taught that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one God, in the most reverend Trinity, the maker and governor of heaven and earth and all things which are in it; by whom man was made, and who made all things for man, and put all things under mankind, to administer necessary things to him, as a loving Father and most bountiful Lord. Then they taught that man consisted of soul and body, and that he indeed was made good according to the image and likeness of God; but that by his own fault, and by the egging on of the devil, falling into sin, man brought death and damnation into the world, together with a web of miseries, out of which it cannot rid itself. So that now, all the children of Adam, even from Adam, are born the sons of wrath and wretchedness; but that God, whose mercy abounds, according to his incomprehensible goodness, taking pity on the misery of mankind, even of his mere grace, granted pardon for the offence, and laid the weight of the punishment upon his only Son, with the intent that, when his heel was crushed by the serpent, he might himself break the serpent's head. Gen 3.15 That is to say, God makes a promise of a seed — that is, of a Son — who, taking on the flesh of a peerless woman (I mean, that virgin who is most worthy of commendations), would by his death vanquish death and Satan, the author of death; and he would bring the faithful sons of Adam out of bondage; and indeed, what is more, he would make them the sons of God by adoption, and heirs of life everlasting.

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The holy fathers, therefore, taught to believe in God, and in his Son, the redeemer of the whole world — when in their very sacrifices they showed his death, an unspotted sacrifice, with which he intended to wipe away and cleanse the sins of the whole world.

And therefore, they had a most diligent eye to the stock and lineal descent of the Messiah. For it is brought down in a line as it were, from Adam to Noah, and from Noah by Shem, even to Abraham himself. And to him again it was said, "In your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Gen 22.18 In these words the promise once made to Adam, touching Christ the redeemer and changer of God's curse into blessing, is renewed and repeated again. The same line is brought down from Abraham by Isaac to Jacob. And Jacob, being full of the Spirit of God, pointed out his son Judah as the root of the blessed Seed, as seen in the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis. Lastly, in the tribe of Judah the house of David was noted, out of which that seed and branch of life would come.

Moreover, the holy fathers taught that God, by a certain league, has joined himself to mankind, and that he has most strictly bound himself to the faithful, and the faithful likewise to himself again. Upon which, they taught us to be faithful to God, to honour God, to hate false gods, to call upon the only God, and to worship him devoutly. Furthermore, they taught that the worship of God consisted in spiritual things, such as faith, hope, charity, obedience, upright dealing, holiness, innocence, patience, truth, judgment, and godliness. And therefore they reprehended naughtiness and sin,[157] falsehood, lack of belief, desperation, disobedience, impatience, lying, hypocrisy, hatred, malicious taunts, violence, wrong, unrighteous dealing, uncleanness, riotousness, surfeiting,[158] whoredom, unrighteousness, and ungodliness. They taught that God was a rewarder of good, but a punisher and revenger of evil. They taught that the souls of men were immortal, and that their bodies would rise again in the day of judgment. Therefore, they exhorted us all to so live in this temporal life, that we do not lose the eternal life.

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This is the sum of the word of God revealed to the fathers, and delivered by them to their posterity. This is the tradition of the holy fathers, which comprehends all religion. Finally, this is the true, ancient, undoubted, authentic, and catholic [159] faith of the fathers.

Besides this, the holy fathers taught their children, and children's children, the account of the years from the beginning of the world, and also the true historical course (profitable as well as necessary) of things from the creation of the world even to their own times — lest perhaps their children be ignorant of the beginning and succession of worldly things, and also of the judgments of God, and the examples of those who lived, godly as well as ungodly.

I could declare all this to you evidently, and in very good order, out of the first book of Moses, called Genesis, if it were not that thereby the sermon would be drawn out somewhat longer than useful. But I suppose that there are few present here, or rather none at all, who do not perceive that I have repeated what I have said, touching the tradition of the ancient fathers, word for word as it were, out of the book of Genesis; so that now I may very well go forward in the narration which I have begun.

So then, whatever was previously delivered by the fathers to the world by word of mouth, and from hand to hand as it were, that was put into writing first of all by the holy man Moses, together with those things which were done during the time of Moses' life, for the span of one hundred and twenty years. And that his estimation might be greater throughout the whole world, among all men, and in all ages — and that none should fail to know that the writings of Moses were the very word of God itself — Moses was furnished and consecrated by God, with signs and wonders to be marvelled at indeed, which the Almighty brought to pass by the hand (that is, by the ministry) of Moses. And truly, he wrought them not just in any corner of the world, or in an unknown place, but in Egypt, the most flourishing and renowned kingdom of that age.

Those miracles were greater and far more by many, than can be repeated here in a few words. Nor is it needful to repeat them, because you, dearly beloved, are not unskilful or ignorant of them at all. After that, God also procured authority for Moses by other means.

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For many and oftentimes God had communication with Moses; and among the rest of his talk he said, "Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear me talking with you, and may believe you forevermore." Exo 19.9

Nor was the Lord content with that, but he commanded Moses to call together all the people, six hundred thousand men, I say, with their wives and children. They are called out to mount Sinai, where God appears in a wonderful and terrible fashion; and He himself, preaching to the congregation, repeated to them the Ten Commandments. But the people, being terrified by the majesty of God, prayed and beseeched that God himself would no more afterward preach to the congregation with his own mouth, saying that it would be enough if he used Moses as an interpreter for them, and spoke to the church by him. Exo 20.19 The most high God liked the offer; and after that, he spoke to the people by Moses whatever He would have done. And because the people were stiff-necked, and not a little corrupted by keeping company with idolaters in Egypt, Moses now began to set down in writing those things which the holy fathers had taught by tradition, and also the things which the Lord had revealed to him. The reason why he wrote them down was that, lest perhaps by oblivion, by continuance of time, and by the obstinacy of a people so slow to believe, they might either perish, or else be corrupted. The Lord also set Moses an example to follow. For whatever God had spoken to the church in mount Sinai, he immediately wrote it with His own finger on two tablets of stone, as he had written it with his finger in the hearts of the fathers from the beginning of the world.[160]

Afterward also, in plain words, he commanded Moses to write whatever the Lord had revealed. Moses obeyed the Lord's commandment, and wrote them. The Holy Ghost, who was wholly in the mind of Moses, directed his hand as he wrote. There was no ability lacking in Moses, that was necessary for a most absolute writer. He was abundantly instructed by his ancestors.

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For he was born of the holiest progeny of those fathers whom God appointed to be witnesses of His will, commandments, and judgments — such as Amram, Kohath, Jacob, Shem, Methuselah and Adam. He was therefore able to write a true and certain history, from the beginning of the world even until his own time. To this he added those things which were done among the people of God in his own lifetime, of which he was a very true witness, as one who saw and heard them. Yes, and what is more, whatever he set forth in his books, he read to his people, and among so many thousands, there was not one found who questioned what he repeated. So that the whole consent and witness-bearing of the great congregation brought no small authority to the writings of Moses.

Moses therefore contained in the five books, called the five books of Moses, a history from the beginning of the great world, even to his own death, for the span of two thousand four hundred and eighty-eight years. He declared most largely in these, the revelation of the word of God made to men, and whatever the word of God contained and taught. In these, just as we have the manifold oracles of God himself, so we have most enlightening testimonies, statements, examples, and decrees of the most excellent, ancient, holy, wise, and greatest men of the world, touching all things which seem to pertain to true godliness, and the way to live well and holily. These books therefore found a ready-prepared entrance of belief among all the posterity, as books which are authentic, and which have authority sufficient of themselves, and which, without questioning, ought to be believed by the whole world.

Yes, and what is more, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, refers the faithful to reading Moses — yes, and indeed, that is in the chief points of our salvation. The places are to be seen in John 5, and Luke 16. In the fifth chapter of Matthew he says, "Do not think that I have come to destroy the law and the prophets; for I have not come to destroy them, but to fulfil them. For, truly, I say to you, though heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle of the law shall not pass away till all is fulfilled. Whoever, therefore, undoes one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." Mat 5.17-19

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Truly, some have been found who have spoken against Moses, the servant of God. But God has imputed that questioning as done against his divine majesty, and punished it most sharply. The proofs of this are to be seen in Exodus 16 and Numbers 12: first, the people murmuring against Moses; then Miriam, Moses' sister, speaking against her brother. But to the people it was said, "Your complaints ar not against the ministers, but against the Lord." Exo 16.8 As for Mary, she was horribly stricken with a leprosy.[161] Theotectus was stricken blind, and Theopompus fell to be mad, because he had irreverently touched the word of God.[162] For, although the word of God is revealed, spoken, and written by men, yet it does not therefore cease to be that which indeed it is; nor does it therefore begin to be the word of men, because it is preached and heard by men — no more than the king's commandment, which is proclaimed by the crier, is said to be the commandment of the crier. Whoever contemns Moses, by whom God speaks to us — and at whose hand we have received those things which the patriarchs from the beginning of the world by tradition delivered to their posterity — despises God, and with God all the holy patriarchs. There is no difference between the word of God, which is taught by the living expressed voice of man, and that which is written by the pen of man. But so far as the living voice and writing differ between themselves, the matter undoubtedly — the sense and meaning in the one and in the other — is all one. By this, dearly beloved, you have perceived the certain history of the beginning of the word of God.

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Now let us go forward to the rest; that is, to add the history of the proceeding of the word of God, and by what means it shined ever and awhile very clear and brightly to the world. Later, after the departure of the holy man Moses out of this world into heaven, the Lord, of his bountifulness, gave most excellent prophets to his church, whom he had chosen with the intent that by them he might reveal his word to the whole world. And the prophets were to those of olden times, as prophets, priests, wise men, preachers, pastors, bishops, doctors [163] or divines are among us today: most skilful in heavenly things, and given by God to guide the people in the faith. And whoever reads the holy history, will confess that there flourished no small number of this sort; and those were not obscure, even till the captivity of Babylon. Among them are reckoned these singular and excellent men: Phineas, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. David and Solomon were both kings and prophets. In the time of the captivity at Babylon, Daniel and Ezekiel were notably known. After the captivity, among the rest, flourished Zechariah the son of Berechiah.

Here have I reckoned up a few among many. Although they flourished at various times, and the one a great while after the other, yet with one consent, they all acknowledge that God spoke to the world by Moses who (God so appointed it) left to the church in the world, a breviary [164] of true divinity, and a most absolute sum of the word of God contained in writing. All these priests, divines, and prophets, in all that they did, had an eye especially to the doctrine of Moses. They also referred all men, in cases of faith and religion, to the book of Moses. They diligently beat the law of Moses into the minds of all men. It is indeed the law of God, and it is most properly called Torah,[165] the guide and rule of faith and life as it were. According to the times, persons, and places, they expounded this to all men.

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For all the priests and prophets, before the incarnation of Christ, taught the men of their time godliness and true religion, by word of mouth. Nor did they teach any other thing than what the fathers had received from God, and which Moses had received from God and the fathers. And immediately after committing it to writing, they set it out to all of us who follow, even to the end of the world. So that now in the prophets, we have the doctrine of Moses and the tradition of the fathers, and in all and every point, they are more fully and plainly expounded and polished, being moreover very fitly applied to the places, times, and persons.

Furthermore, the doctrine and writings of the prophets have always been 0f great authority among all wise men throughout the whole world. For it is well perceived by many arguments, that they did not have their beginning from the prophets themselves, as their chief authors; but they were inspired from God out of heaven by the Holy Spirit of God. For it is God who, dwelling by his Spirit in the minds of the prophets, speaks to us by their mouths. And for that reason, they have a most large testimony at the hands of Christ and his elect apostles. What do you say to this, moreover: that by their ministry God has wrought miracles and wonders to be marvelled at, and those are not a few; that by mighty signs we might at least learn that it is God by whose inspiration the prophets teach and write whatever they left for us to remember?

Furthermore, so many commonweals [166] and congregations, gathered together and governed by the prophets according to the word of God, show most evident testimonies of God's truth in the prophets. Plato, Zeno, Aristotle, and other philosophers of the gentiles, are praised as excellent men. But which of them could gather a church to live according to their ordinances? And yet our prophets have had the most excellent and renowned commonweals or congregations — yes, and what is more, the most flourishing kingdoms in the whole world under their authority. All the wise men in the whole world (I mean those who lived in his time) reverenced [167] Solomon, a king and so great a prophet, and came to him from the very outmost ends of the world.

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Daniel also had preeminence among the wise men at Babylon, being then the most renowned monarchy in the whole world. He was, moreover, held in great estimation by Darius the Mede, the son of Astyages [168] or Ahasuerus, and also with Cyrus that most excellent king. And here it suits me well to say something of that divine foreknowledge in our prophets, and most assured foreshowing of things which were to come after many years passed. And now, to say nothing of others, did not Isaiah most truly foretell those things which were afterward fulfilled by the Jews in our Lord Christ? He did not in vain seem to those of olden times to be a prophet rather than a evangelist, foretelling things to come.[169] He openly told the name of king Cyrus one hundred and sixty years, at least, before Cyrus was born. Daniel also was called by those in olden times by the name of one who knew much. For he foretold those things which are and have been done in all the kingdoms of the world almost, and among the people of God, from his own time until the time of Christ — and further, until the last day of judgment — so plainly that he may seem to have compiled a history of those things as if they were then already gone and past. All these things, I say, very evidently prove that the doctrine and writings of the prophets are the very word of God, by which name and title they are set forth in various places of the scriptures. Truly, Peter the apostle says, "The prophecy did not come in olden times by the will of man. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2Pet 1.21.

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And although God largely, clearly, plainly, and simply revealed his word to the world by the patriarchs, by Moses, by the priests and prophets; yet in the last of all times, He set it forth most clearly, simply, and abundantly to the whole world, by his Son. For the true and only begotten Son of God the Father, as the prophets had foretold, descending from heaven, fulfils all of whatever they foretold, and for the span of almost three years, teaches all points of godliness. For John says, "No man at any time has seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him." Joh 1.18 The Lord himself, moreover, says to his disciples, "All things which I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." Joh 15.15 And again he says, "I am the light of the world: whoever follows me does not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Joh 8.12 Our Lord also taught that whoever would enter into heaven and be saved, heavenly regeneration was needful, Joh 3.5 because in the first birth, man is born to death; in the second to life; but regeneration is made perfect in us by the Spirit of God, who instructs our hearts in faith — I say, faith in Christ, who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. Rom 4.25 He taught that by that faith, those who believe are justified; and that out of the same faith grow various fruits of charity and innocence, which he most earnestly exhorted them to bring forth.

He taught, furthermore, that he was the fulfilling, or fulness, of the law and the prophets; and he also approved and expounded the doctrine of Moses and the prophets. He joined diverse miracles and benefits to doctrine, whereby he declared that he himself was that light of the world, and the mighty and bountiful Redeemer of the world. And with the intent that his doctrine and benefits might be known to the whole world, he chose for himself witnesses, whom he called apostles, because he purposed to send them to preach throughout the whole world. Those witnesses were simple men, innocents, just, tellers of truth, without deceit or subtleties, and holy and good in all points — whose names it is very profitable to often repeat in the congregation.

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The names of the apostles are these: Peter and Andrew, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Judas his brother, whose surname was Thaddaeus, Simon and Judas Iscariot, into whose place (because he had betrayed the Lord) came St. Matthias.[170] These he had for the span of almost three years, as hearers of his heavenly doctrine, and beholders of his divine works. After his ascension into the heavens, by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, he instructed them with all kinds of faculties. For just as they were surpassing skilful in the scriptures, so they were not unskilful, or lacking eloquence, in any tongue. And once being instructed in this manner, they depart out of the city of Jerusalem, and pass through the compass of the earth, preaching to all people and nations, what they had received to preach from the Saviour of the world and the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when for certain years they had preached by word of mouth, then they also set down in writing what they had preached. For some, truly, wrote a history of the words and deeds of Christ, and some of the words and deeds of the apostles. Some others sent various epistles to diverse nations. In all these, to confirm the truth, they used the scripture of the law and the prophets, even as we read that the Lord oftentimes did. Moreover, to the twelve apostles are joined two great lights of the world: John the Baptist, whom there was never anyone more holy born of women than him; Mat 11.11 and the chosen vessel Paul, Act 9.15 the great teacher of the Gentiles. [171]

Nor is it to be marvelled at, that the forerunner and apostles of Christ always had very great dignity and authority in the church. For even as they were the embassadors of the eternal King of all ages and of the whole world, so being endued with the Spirit of God, they did nothing according to the judgment of their own minds. And the Lord wrought great miracles by their ministry, to thereby garnish their ministry, and to commend their doctrine to us. And moreover, what may be thought of this: that by the word of God, they converted the whole world, gathering together and laying the foundations of notable churches throughout the compass of the world? Truly, by man's counsel and words, they would never have been able to bring this to pass.

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To this is further added, that once they inclined to this doctrine, as a doctrine giving life, they did not refuse to die. Besides that, however many had their belief in the doctrine of the gospel, they were not afraid, through water, fire, and swords, to cut off this life, and to lay their hand on the life to come. The faithful saints could in no way have done these things, unless the doctrine which they believed had been of God.

Therefore, although the apostles were men, yet their doctrine, first taught by a living expressed voice, and after that set down in writing with pen and ink, is the doctrine of God and the very true word of God. For therefore the apostle left this saying in writing: "When you received the word of God which you heard from us, you did not receive it as the word of men, but, as it is indeed, the word of God, which effectually works in you who believe." 1The 2.13

But now the matter itself, and the place, require that I also gather and plainly reckon up those books in which is contained the very word of God, first of all declared by the fathers, by Christ himself, and the apostles by word of mouth; and after that, was also written into books by the prophets and apostles. In the first place, truly, are set the five books of Moses. Then follow the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, two books of Samuel, two of Kings, two of Chronicles; Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, one apiece. After these come Job, David or the book of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles. With them are numbered the four greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; then the twelve lesser prophets, whose names are very well known; the old Testament ended with these books. The new Testament has in the beginning the evangelical history of Christ the Lord, written by four authors, that is, by two apostles, Matthew and John; and by two disciples, Mark, and also Luke, who compiled a wonderful, goodly, and profitable book of the Acts of the Apostles. Paul published fourteen epistles to various churches and persons. The other apostles wrote seven which are called both canonical and catholic.

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And the books of the new Testament are ended with the Revelation of Jesus Christ, which he opened to the disciple whom he loved, John the evangelist and apostle — showing to him, and so to the whole church, the ordinance of God touching the church, even until the day of judgment. Therefore, in these few and mean (not unmeasurable), in these plain and simple (not dark and unkempt) books, is comprehended the full doctrine of godliness, which is the very word of the true, living, and eternal God [172]

Also the books of Moses and the prophets came through so many ages, perils, and captivities, sound and uncorrupted, even until the time of Christ and his apostles. For the Lord Jesus and the apostles used those books as true and authentic copies; which undoubtedly they neither would nor could have done, if it were so that either they had been corrupted, or had altogether perished. The books also, which the apostles of Christ have added, were kept in the church safe and uncorrupted throughout all persecutions, and have come sound and uncorrupted into our hands, upon whom the ends of the world have fallen. For by the vigilant care and unspeakable goodness of God our Father, it is brought to pass that no age at any time either has or shall lack so great a treasure.

Up to here I have declared this much to you, dearly beloved: what the word of God is, what the beginning of it in the church was, and what proceeding, dignity, and certainty it had. The word of God is the speech of God, that is to say, the revealing of His good will to mankind, which from the beginning, one by his own mouth, and another by the speech of angels, He opened to those first, ancient, and most holy fathers — those who again by tradition faithfully delivered it to their posterity.

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Here are to be remembered those great lights of the world, Adam, Seth, Methuselah, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Amram, and his son Moses, who at God's commandment, comprehended in writing the history and traditions of the holy fathers, to which he joined the written law, and exposition of the law, together with a large and enlightening history of his own lifetime. After Moses, God gave to his church most excellent men, prophets and priests, who also by word of mouth and writings, delivered to their posterity that which they had learned from the Lord. After them came the only-begotten Son of God himself, down from heaven into the world, and fulfilled all that was written of himself in the law and the prophets. He also taught a most absolute means of living well and holily. He made the apostles his witnesses. Afterwards, first of all with a living expressed voice, they preached all things which the Lord had taught them; and then, with the intent that they should not be corrupted, or taken clean out of man's remembrance, they committed it to writing. So that now we have from the fathers, the prophets, and apostles, the word of God as it was preached and written.

These things had their beginning of one and the same Spirit of God, and tend to one end: that is, to teach us how to live well and holily. He that does not believe these men, and namely, the only-begotten Son of God, whom then, I pray you, will he believe? We have here the most holy, innocent, upright-living, most praiseworthy, most just, most ancient, most wise, and most divine men in the whole world and compass of the earth, and briefly, such men as are by all means without comparison. The whole world cannot show us their like again, even if it were to be assembled in councils fully a thousand times. The holy emperor Constantine gathered a general council out of all the compass of the earth. Out of the whole world, three hundred and eighteen most excellent fathers [173] came there together. But those who are of the wisest sort would say that these are not so much as shadows, compared to those from whom we have received the word of God. Let us therefore in all things believe the word of God delivered to us by the scriptures.

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Let us think that the Lord himself, who is the very living and eternal God, speaks to us by the scriptures. Let us forevermore praise the name and goodness of him, who has so faithfully, fully, and plainly granted to open to us miserable mortal men, all the means of how to live well and holily.

To him be praise, honour, and glory forevermore. Amen.

1-2. THE SECOND SERMON: OF THE WORD OF GOD (cont'd)

TO WHOM, AND TO WHAT END, IT WAS REVEALED;

ALSO IN WHAT MANNER IT IS TO BE HEARD; AND THAT

IT FULLY TEACHES THE WHOLE DOCTRINE OF GODLINESS.

DEARLY beloved, in the last sermon you learned what the word of God is; where it came from; by whom it was chiefly revealed; what proceedings it had; and of what dignity and certainty it is.

Now I have come again, and by God's favour and the help of your prayers, I will declare to you, beloved, to whom, and to what end, the word of God is revealed; in what manner it is to be heard; and what the force of it is, or the effect.

Our God is the God of all men and nations, who, according to the saying of the apostle, "would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 2Tim 2.4 And therefore, for the benefit, life, and salvation of all men, he has revealed his word, so that indeed there might be a rule and certain way to lead men by the path of justice into life everlasting. God truly, in olden times, showed himself to the Israelites, his holy and peculiar people, more familiarly than to other nations. As the prophet says: "To Jacob he has declared his statutes, and his judgments to Israel. He has not dealt so with any nation, nor has he shown them his judgments." Psa 147.19-20 And yet he has not altogether been careless of the Gentiles.

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For just as he sent Jonah to the Ninivites, so Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and the other prophets bestowed much labour in teaching and admonishing the Gentiles. And those most ancient fathers, Noah, Abraham, and the rest, not only instructed the Jewish people who descended from them, but also taught their other sons the judgments of God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ truly, laying open the whole world before his disciples, said, "Teach all nations; preach the gospel to all creatures." Mar 16.15 And when St. Peter did not yet fully understand that the Gentiles also pertained to the fellowship of the church of Christ, and that the preaching of the glad tidings of salvation, purchased by Christ for the faithful, also belonged to the Gentiles, the Lord instructs him by a heavenly vision — by speaking to him out of heaven, and by the message which came from Cornelius, as you know, dearly beloved, by the history of the Acts of the Apostles.[174]

Let us therefore think, my brethren, that the word of God and the holy scriptures are revealed to all men, to all ages, kinds, degrees, and states, throughout the whole world. For the apostle Paul, also confirming it, says, "Whatever things are written, are written for our learning, that through patience, and the comfort of the scriptures, we may have hope." Rom 15.4

Therefore, let none of us say hereafter, "Why do I need to care what is written to the Jews in the old Testament, or what the apostles have written to the Romans, to the Corinthians, and to other nations? I am a Christian. The prophets both preached and wrote to the men of their time, and the apostles to those who lived in the same age with them." For if we think uprightly of the matter, we will see that the scriptures of the old and new Testaments should therefore be received by us, even because we are Christians. For Christ, our Saviour and Master, referred us to the written books of Moses and the prophets. Saint Paul, the very elect instrument of Christ, applies to us the sacraments and examples of the old fathers, that is to say, circumcision in baptism, Col 2; and the paschal lamb in the supper or sacrament, 1Cor 5. In the tenth chapter of that same epistle, he applies assorted examples of the fathers to us.

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And in the fourth chap. to the Romans, where he reasons about faith which justifies without the help of works and the law, he brings in the example of Abraham. And with that he adds, "Nevertheless, it is not written for Abraham alone, that faith was reckoned to him for righteousness, but also for us, to whom it shall be reckoned if we believe," etc. Rom 4.23-24

"By that means," say some, "we will again be wrapped in the law; we shall be forced to be circumcised, to sacrifice the flesh and blood of beasts, to admit again the priesthood of Aaron, together with the temple and the other ceremonies. There will again be allowed the bill of divorce, or putting away a man's wife, together with sufferance to marry many wives." To these I answer, that in the old Testament we must consider that there are some things which are forever to be observed, and some things which are ceremonial and allowed only till the time of amendment. Heb 9.10 That time of amendment is the time of Christ, who fulfilled the law, and took away the curse of the law. The same Christ changed circumcision into baptism. With his own sacrifice he made an end to all sacrifices; so that now, instead of all sacrifices, there is left to us that solitary sacrifice of Christ, in which we also learn to offer our very own bodies and prayers, together with good deeds, as spiritual sacrifices to God.Rom 12.1 Christ exchanged the priesthood of Aaron for his own, and for the priesthood of all Christians. We are the temple of God, in whom God dwells by his Spirit. Christ made all ceremonies void. Also, in the nineteenth chap. of Matthew, he abrogated the bill of divorce, together with the marriage of many wives. But although these ceremonies and some external actions were abrogated and clean taken away by Christ, so that we should not be bound to them — yet notwithstanding, the scripture, which was published touching them, was not taken away, or else it was made void by Christ. For there must forever be in the church of Christ a certain (i.e., sure) testimonial, whereby we may learn what manner of worshippings and figures of Christ those of olden times had. We must interpret for the church today, those worshippings and figures of Christ specially. [175]

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And out of them we must, no less than out of the writings of the new Testament, preach Christ, forgiveness of sins, and repentance. So then, the writings of the old Testament are given by God to all Christians, in the same way that the apostle [176] wrote to all churches, those things which bore the name or title of some particular congregations.

And to this end, the word of God is revealed to men: that it may teach them what, and what manner, one God is towards men — that he would have them saved, and that is by faith in Christ; what Christ is, and by what means salvation comes; what becomes the true worshippers of God, what they ought to flee, and what to follow.[177] Nor is it sufficient to know the will of God, unless we do it, and are saved. And for that cause Moses said, "Hear, Israel, the statutes and judgments which I teach you, that you may do them and live." Deu 5.1 And the Lord in the gospel, confirming this, cries, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." Luk 11.28

And here is to be praised the exceeding great goodness of God, which would have nothing hidden from us which makes any whit to live rightly, well, and holily. The wise and learned of this world for the most part envy or grudge that others should attain true wisdom. But our Lord gently, and of his own accord, offers to us the whole knowledge of heavenly things, and is desirous that we go forward in this. Yes, and what is more, he furthers our labour and brings it to an end. For "whoever has," says the Lord himself in the gospel, "to him shall be given, that he may have more abundance." Mat 13.12 "And every one that asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened." Luk 11.10 Whereupon St. James the apostle says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally," that is, willingly, not with grudging, "neither throwing it in any man's face, and it shall be given him." [178]

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Here, by the way, we see our duty: which is in reading and hearing the word of God, to pray earnestly and zealously that we may come to that end for which the word of God was given and revealed to us. But we will say something more as touching that matter, when we come to declare in what manner the word of God ought to be heard.

Now, because I have said that the word of God is revealed, with the intent that it may fully instruct us in the ways of God and our salvation, I will declare to you in a few words, dearly beloved, that in the word of God, delivered to us by the prophets and apostles, is abundantly contained the whole effect of godliness, and whatever things are available for leading our lives rightly, well, and holily. For, truly, it must be that that doctrine is full, and in all points perfect, to which nothing should either be added, or else be taken away. But such a doctrine is the doctrine taught in the word of God, as Moses witnesses, Deu 4 and 12; and Solomon, Pro 30.[179] What is he, therefore, who does not confess that all points of true piety are taught to us in the sacred scriptures? Furthermore, no man can deny that it is a most absolute doctrine, by which a man is made so fully perfect, that in this world he may be taken for a just man, and in the world to come be called forever into the company of God. But he that believes the word of God uttered to the world by the prophets and apostles, and lives according to it, is indeed called a just man, and heir of life everlasting. That doctrine therefore is an absolute doctrine. For Paul also, declaring more largely and fully the same matter, says "All scripture, given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction which is in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, instructed to all good works." 2Tim 3.16-17

You have, brethren, an evident testimony of the fulness of the word of God. You have a doctrine absolutely perfect in all points. You have a most perfect effect of the word of God; because by this doctrine the man of God, that is, the godly and devout worshipper of God, is perfect, being instructed, not to a certain few good works, but to all and every good work.

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In what, therefore, can you find anything lacking? I do not think that anyone is such a sot, as to interpret these words of Paul to be spoken only touching the old Testament; seeing that it is more manifest than daylight, that Paul applied them to his scholar Timothy, who preached the gospel, and was a minister of the new Testament. If it is so, then, that the doctrine of the old Testament is of itself full, by how much more will it be the fuller, if the volume of the new Testament is added to it! I am not so ignorant, that I do not know that the Lord Jesus both did and spoke many things which were not written by the apostles. But it does not follow, therefore, that the doctrine of the word of God, taught by the apostles, is not absolutely perfect. For John, the apostle and evangelist, freely confesses that the Lord did many other things also, "which were not written in his book;" but immediately he adds this, and says, "But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is Christ the Son of God, and that in believing, you might have life through his name." Joh 20.30-31 He affirms by this doctrine, which he contained in writing, that faith is fully taught; and that through faith everlasting life is granted by God. But the end of absolute doctrine is to be happy and perfectly blessed. Since, then, that comes to man by the written doctrine of the gospel, undoubtedly that doctrine of the gospel is most absolutely perfect.

I know that the Lord in the gospel said, "I have many things to tell you; but at this time you cannot bear them." But with this, I know too that he immediately added this saying: "But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will lead you into all truth." [180] I know, furthermore, that the Spirit of truth came upon his disciples; and therefore I believe that, according to the true promise of Christ, they were led into all truth, so that it is most assuredly certain that nothing was lacking in them.

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But there are some who, while they cannot deny this, turn themselves and say that "the apostles indeed knew all things, yet they did not teach them except by word of mouth, not setting down in writing all those things which pertain to true godliness" [181] — as though it were likely that Christ's most faithful apostles would, for spite, have kept back anything from their posterity — as though, indeed, he had lied who said, "These things are written, that in believing, you might have life everlasting." John therefore let nothing pass which belongs to our full instructing in the faith. Luke omitted nothing. Nor did the rest of the apostles and disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ allow anything to slip by them. Paul also wrote fourteen various epistles. Yet most of them contained one and the self-same matter. By this we may very well conjecture that the absolute doctrine of godliness is wholly comprehended in them. For he would not have repeated one and the self-same thing so often, to so many various men, if there had yet been anything else necessary to be more fully taught for obtaining salvation. He would undoubtedly have taught those things, and not have repeated one and the same thing so many times.

Truly, in the third chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians he affirms that in the two first chapters of the same epistle, he declared his knowledge in the gospel of Christ. "God," he says, "by revelation showed the mystery to me, as I wrote before in a few words by which, when you read them, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." Eph 3.3-4 And he spoke this touching that one and only epistle; yes, and that too touching the two first chapters of that one epistle. When the largest and most enlightening letters or epistles of St. Paul himself, and also of the other apostles, are added together, I ask you who — unless he is altogether without sense — would once think that the apostles have left in writing to us, their posterity, a doctrine that is not absolutely perfect?

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As for those who earnestly affirm that all points of godliness were taught by the apostles to the posterity by word of mouth, and not by writing, their purpose is to put their own up for sale, that is, men's ordinances, instead of the word of God.

But against this poison, my brethren, take this for a medicine to expel it. Confer the things, which these fellows put up for sale under the colour of the apostles' traditions, taught by word of mouth and not by writing, with the manifest writings of the apostles. And if in any place you perceive those traditions to disagree with the scriptures, then gather that it is the forged invention of men, and not the apostles' tradition. For they, who had one and the same Spirit of truth, did not leave to us one thing in writing, and teach us another thing by word of mouth. Furthermore, we must diligently search whether those traditions set forward the glory of God rather than of men; or the safety of the faithful rather than the private advantage of the priests. And we must take heed of men's traditions, especially since the Lord says, "In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." Mat 15.9 So that now, the surest way is to cling to the word of the Lord left to us in the scriptures, which teaches abundantly all things that belong to true godliness.

It remains now for me to tell in what manner this perfect doctrine of godliness and salvation — I mean, the very word of God —ought to be heard by the faithful, with the intent that it may be heard with some fruit to profit them abundantly. I will contain [182] it in a few words. Let the word of God be heard with great reverence, which of right is due to God himself and godly things. Let it be heard very attentively; with continual prayers between, and earnest requests. Let it be heard soberly to our profit, that we may become better by it, that God may be glorified by us, and not that we go about curiously searching out the hidden counsels of God, or desire to be considered skilful and expert in many matters. Let true faith, the glory of God, and our salvation, be appointed as the measure and certain end of our hearing and reading. For in Exodus, Moses — the holy servant of God — is commanded to sanctify the people, and to make them ready to hear the sacred sermon which God himself minded to make the next day.

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Moses therefore comes and demands of the whole people, that due obedience to be shown to God, as well as to his ministers. Then he commands them to wash their garments, and to abstain from their wives. After that, he appoints certain limits, beyond which it was not lawful for them to pass upon pain of death. Exo 19.10-15

By this we plainly learn that the Lord requires of those who would be his disciples, that they hear him, and specially show obedience and reverence to him in all things. For he, being God, speaks to us. And all of us owe honour and fear to God. A man, unless he becomes lowly, humble, and obedient to God, is altogether godless. Then, it is required at the hands of those who are fit hearers of the word of God, that they lay apart worldly affairs, which are signified by the garments; to tread underfoot all filthiness and uncleanness of soul and body; to refrain for a season even from those pleasures which are lawful for us. The Holy Ghost loves minds that are purely cleansed — which notwithstanding, are not cleansed except by the Spirit of God. It is needful to have a sincere belief in God, and a ready good-will and desire to live according to what is commanded in the word of God. Moreover, we must be wise to sobriety. [183]

Overly curious [184] questions must be set aside. Let only things that are profitable to salvation be learned. Last of all, let special heed be taken in hearing and learning. For Solomon says, "If you would seek wisdom as for gold, you shall obtain it." Pro 2.4-5 Again he says, "The one who searches out God's majesty will be overwhelmed by his wonderful glory." [185] And again he says, "Do not seek things too high for you, nor go about searching out things above your strength; but what God has commanded you, always think on that. And do not be over-curious to know His infinite works; for it is not expedient for you to see his hidden secrets with your eyes." [186]

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Upon which the apostle Paul says, "Let no man think arrogantly of himself, but so think that he may be modest and sober, as God has given to everyone the measure of faith." Rom 12.3 And to this belongs what the same apostle says, "Knowledge puffs up, and charity edifies." 1Cor 8.1

But chiefly we must beware of those plagues which choke the seed of the word of God, and quench it without any fruit at all in the hearts of the hearers. Those plagues and diseases the Lord has recounted, or reckoned up, in the parable of the sower. Mat 13.1-23 For first of all, wanton and vain cogitations, which always lie wide open to the inspirations of Satan and the talk of naughty [187] men, are plagues to the word of God. Also voluptuous and dainty lovers of this world, who cannot abide to suffer any affliction for Christ and his gospel, hear God's word without any fruit at all, although they seem to give ear to it very joyfully. Furthermore, "the care of this world, and the deceit of riches," (Mat 13.22) are most pestilent diseases in the hearers of the word of God. For they not only hinder the seed, so that it cannot bring forth fruit in their hearts; but they also stir up and egg men on to question the word of God, and to afflict the earnest desirers of God's word. Here, therefore, we must take heed diligently, lest being infected with these diseases, we become vain and unthankful hearers of the word of God.

We must pray continually, that the bountiful and liberal Lord will grant to bestow on us his Spirit, that by it the seed of God's word may be quickened in our hearts, and that we, as holy and right hearers of his word, may bear fruit abundantly to the glory of God, and the everlasting salvation of our own souls. For what will it avail to hear the word of God without faith, and without the Holy Spirit of God to work or stir inwardly in our hearts? The apostle Paul says, "He that waters is nothing, nor he that plants; but it is God who gives increase." 1Cor 3.7

We therefore need God's watering, that the word of God may grow to a mature age, may receive increase, yes, and may also come to produce ripe fruit within our minds.

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The same apostle Paul says, "The word of God is declared to us also, even as to our fathers. But it availed them nothing to hear the word, because it was not joined with faith in those who heard it. For they died in the desert." And immediately after he says, "Let us therefore do our best to enter into that rest, so that no man dies in the same example of unbelief." [188]

Therefore, if the word of God sounds in our ears; and with that, the Spirit of God shows his power in our hearts; and in faith we truly receive the word of God; then the word of God has a mighty force and a wonderful effect in us. For it drives away the misty darkness of errors, it opens our eyes, it converts and enlightens our minds, and instructs us most fully and absolutely in truth and godliness. For the prophet David in his Psalms bears witness, and says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of God is true, and gives wisdom to the simple; the commandment of the Lord is pure, and gives light to the eyes." Psa 19.7-8 Furthermore, the word of God feeds, strengthens, confirms, and comforts our souls; it regenerates, cleanses, makes joyful, and joins us to God; yes, and it obtains all things for us at God's hands, setting us in a most happy state — insomuch that no goods or treasure of the whole world compare with the word of God.

This much we attribute to the word of God, and not without the testimony of God's word. For the Lord by the prophet Amos threatens hunger and thirst — "not to eat bread and to drink water, but to hear the word of God." Amo 8.11 For in the old and new Testaments, it is said that "man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." [189] And the apostle Paul says that, "all things in the scriptures are written for our learning, that by patience and the comfort of the scriptures we might have hope." Rom 15.4 Also Peter says, "You are born anew, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which lives and lasts forever. And this is the word which was preached to you by the gospel." 1Pet 1.23, 25

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The Lord also in the gospel bears witness to this, and says, "Now you are clean by the word which I have spoken to you." Joh 15.3 Again in the gospel he cries out saying, "If any man loves me, he will keep my saying, and my Father will love him, and we will come into him, and make our dwelling-place in him." Joh 14.23 Jeremiah says also, "Your word became my comfort." Jer 15.16 And the prophet David says, "The statutes of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart." Psa 19.8 To this add that saying of the Lord's in the gospel, "If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask what you will, and it shall be done for you." Joh 15.7 In another place also, the prophet cries out saying, "If you are willing and will hearken, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you will not hear my word, the sword shall devour you." Isa 1.19-20 Moreover, Moses very often and largely reckons up the good things that will happen to those who obey the word of God: Leviticus 26, Deut. 28. Therefore, David boldly dares to prefer the word of God above all the pleasures and treasures of this world.

"The fear of the Lord is clean, and endures forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, and altogether righteous— they are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and the dripping honeycombs. For your servant is plainly taught by them, and there is a great advantage in keeping them. Therefore, the law of Your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of silver and gold. Unless my delight had been in your law, I would have perished in my misery." [190]

To this now pertains that parable in the gospel, of the one who bought the precious pearl; and also of the one who sold all that he had, and bought the ground in which he knew that treasure was hidden. Mat 13.44-46 For that precious pearl, and that treasure, are the gospel, or the word of God. For the excellence of it, in the scriptures it is called a light, a fire, a sword, a maul [191] which breaks stones, a buckler,[192] and by many other names like these.

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Dearly beloved, this hour you have heard our bountiful Lord and God, "who would have all men saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth;" how he has revealed his word to all men throughout the whole world, with the intent that all men in all places, of whatever kind, age, or degree they are, may know the truth, and be instructed in the true salvation; and may learn a perfect way how to live rightly, well, and holily, so that the man of God may be perfect, instructed to all good works. For in the word of truth, the Lord has delivered to his church all that is requisite to true godliness and salvation. Whatever things are necessary to be known touching God, the works, judgments, will, and commandments of God, touching Christ, our faith in Christ, and the duties of a holy life — all those things, I say, are fully taught in the word of God. Neither does the church need to crave any other, nor otherwise patch up with men's supplies, that which seems to be lacking in the word of the Lord. For the Lord not only taught our fathers the whole sum of godliness and salvation by the lively expressed voice of the apostles; but he also provided that, by means of those same apostles, it would be set down in writing. And it manifestly appears that it was done for posterity's sake — that is, for us and our successors — with the intent that none of us or ours should be seduced, nor that false traditions be popped into any of our mouths instead of the truth. We must all therefore beware; we must all watch, and stick fast to the word of God, which is left to us in the scriptures by the prophets and apostles.

Finally, let our care be wholly bent, with faith and profit, to hear whatever the Lord declares to us. Let us cast out and tread underfoot, whatever by our flesh, the world, or the devil, is objected as a hindrance to godliness. We know what the diseases and plagues of the seed of God's word are, sown in the hearts of the faithful. We know how great the power of God's word is in those who hear it devoutly.

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Let us therefore beseech our Lord God to pour into our minds his holy Spirit, by whose virtue the seed of God's word may be quickened in our hearts, to bring forth much fruit to the salvation of our souls, and the glory of God our Father. To whom be glory forever.

1-3. THE THIRD SERMON: THE SENSE OF THE WORD OF GOD

OF THE SENSE AND RIGHT EXPOSITION OF THE WORD OF GOD,

AND BY WHAT MANNER OF MEANS IT MAY BE EXPOUNDED.

DEARLY beloved brethren, I understand that by means of my doctrine of the word of God, there have risen sundry thoughts in the hearts of many men; yes, and very ungodly statements are sown abroad by some. For there are some who suppose that the scriptures, that is, the very word of God, is so dark, that it cannot be read with any profit at all. [193] And again, some others affirm that the word plainly delivered by God to mankind, stands in need of no exposition. And therefore they say that the scriptures should indeed be read by all men, but that each man may lawfully invent and choose such a sense that he is persuaded would be most convenient for himself.[194] These fellows altogether condemn the order received by the churches, by which the minister of the church expounds the scriptures to the congregation. But dearly beloved, as you have begun to pray to the Lord, so you will go on I trust, by the hope that I have in God's goodness, that I am able to plainly declare to the godly, that the scripture is not dark at all, and that the Lord's will is altogether to have us understand it; and then, that the scriptures should always be expounded.

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I will also teach you the manner of this, and some ready ways to interpret the scriptures. Handling these points will take away the impediments which drive men from reading the word of God, and will cause the reading and hearing of the word of God to be both wholesome and fruitful.

1. It may be understood by the least among us.

And first of all, we may thereby gather that God's will is to have his word understood by mankind, especially because in speaking to his servants, he used a most common kind of speech with which even veritable idiots [195] were acquainted. Nor do we read that the prophets and apostles, the servants of God and interpreters of his high and everlasting wisdom, used any strange kind of speech. So that in the whole pack of writers, none can be found to excel them in a plainer and easier phrase of writing. Their writings are full of common proverbs, similitudes, parables, comparisons, devised narrations, examples, and other like speech. There is nothing that more moves and plainly teaches the common sorts of wits among mortal men than these.

There arises, I confess, some darkness in the scriptures, because of the idiomatic nature, figurative ornaments, and unfamiliar use of the tongues. But that difficulty may easily be helped by study, diligence, faith, and the means of skilful interpreters. I know that the apostle Peter says that in the epistles of Paul "many things are hard to understand." 2Pet 3.16 But he immediately adds, "which the unlearned, and those who are imperfect or unstable, pervert, as they do the other scriptures also, to their own destruction." By this we gather that the scripture is difficult or obscure to the unlearned, unskilful, unexercised, and malicious or corrupted wills, and not to the zealous and godly readers or hearers of it. Therefore, when St. Paul says, "If as yet our gospel is hidden, it is hidden from those who perish, in whom the prince of this world has blinded the understanding of unbelievers, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine for them." [196]

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2. What is less clear is interpreted by what is more clear

He does not lay the blame for this difficulty on the word of God, but on the unprofitable hearers. Whoever we are, therefore, who desire to rightly understand the word of God, our care must be that Satan does not possess our minds, and close our eyes. For our Saviour also said in the gospel, "This is damnation, because the light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light." Joh 3.19 Besides, the holy prophets of God and the apostles did not call the word of God, or the scriptures, darkness, obscureness, or mistiness, but a certain brightness and enlightenment. David says, "Your word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths." Psa 119.105 And what, I ask you, is more evident than this: that in making doubtful and obscure things manifest, no man refers to darkness and uncertainties? Things that are uncertain, doubtful, and obscure, are made manifest by those things that are more certain, sure, and evident. But, as often as any question or controversy happens in matters of faith, do not all men agree that it ought to be ended and determined by the scriptures? It must therefore be, that the scriptures are evident, plain, and most assuredly certain.

3. Let it be expounded by gifted teachers

But though the scripture is manifest and the word of God is evident, yet, notwithstanding, it does not refuse a godly or holy exposition. Rather, a holy exposition sets out the word of God, and produces much fruit in the godly hearer. And because many deny that the scriptures ought to have any exposition, I will show by examples (which cannot be challenged) that they ought to be altogether expounded. For God himself, often having communication with Moses during the space of forty days, and during as many years, expounded the words of the law to the church by Moses, which he spoke to the whole congregation of Israel at Mount Sinai, writing them in two tablets. Moses left these to us in Deuteronomy and certain other books, as commentaries on God's commandments. After that immediately followed the prophets who, interpreting the law of Moses, applied it to the times, places, and men of their age; and they left their sermons to us who follow, as plain expositions of God's law. In the eighth chapter of Nehemiah, we read these words:

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"Ezra the priest brought in the law, the book of Moses, and stood upon a turret made of wood, (that is, in the holy pulpit). And Ezra opened the book before the congregation of men and women, and whoever else had any understanding. And the Levites stood with him, so that he read out of the book, and the Levites instructed the people in the law, and the people stood in their place, and they read in the book of the law distinctly, expounding the sense, and causing them to understand the reading." Neh 8.2-8

This much is in the book of Nehemiah. By the way, mark here my brethren, that the lawful and holy ministers of the church of God not only read the word of God, but also expounded it.

This manner of reading and expounding the scriptures, or word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ neither abrogated nor contemned when, coming in the flesh as a true prophet and heavenly master,[197] he instructed the people of his church in the doctrine of the new Testament. For entering into the synagogue at Nazareth, he stood up to read, and the book of the prophet Isaiah was delivered to him. So he opened the book, and read a certain notable place out of the sixty-first chapter. Then, shutting the book, he gave it to the minister again, and expounded what he had read, declaring how that prophecy was now fulfilled in himself. Luk 4.16-21 Moreover, after he had risen from death, he joined himself in company with the two disciples who went to Emaus, and talked of sundry matters with them. But at length, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them whatever was written of himself throughout all the scriptures." Luk 24.15-27

The apostles, following this example of the Lord, also expounded the word of God themselves. For Peter, in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, expounds the sixteenth Psalm of Christ's resurrection from the dead. Act 2.25-31 And Philip also plainly expounds to the nobleman of Ethiopia the prophecy of Isaiah, whereby he brings him to the faith of Christ and fellowship of the church. Act 8.30-38 Whoever says that Paul does not everywhere interpret the holy scripture, has neither read nor seen the deeds or writings of Paul. Thus I have, I hope, both plainly and substantially shown that the word of God ought to be expounded.

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4. Expound it according to the author's intent and circumstances

And for those who cry out against the exposition of the scriptures, and would not have the ministers of the word and churches declare the scriptures in open and solemn audience, nor apply them to the places, times, states, and persons — their strategy is to seek something other than the honour due to God. They lead their lives far otherwise than is fitting [198] for godly men. Their talk is wicked, unseemly, and dishonest. Their deeds are mischievous and heinous offences. And they would do this without punishment; therefore they desire to have the exposition of the scriptures taken clean away. For if a man reads the words of the scripture only, not applying it to the states, places, times, and persons, it seems that he has not greatly touched their ungodly and wicked life. Therefore, when they cry that sermons and expositions of the scriptures ought to be taken away from among men, and that the scriptures ought to be read simply without any addition, they mind nothing else but to cast behind them the law of God, to tread underfoot all discipline and rebuking of sin, and so to offend freely without punishment. The righteous Lord will, in his appointed time, punish this sort of men that much more grievously, as they more boldly rebel against their God.

In the meantime, all the ministers of the church must beware not to follow their own affections in this, any whit at all, or else they will corrupt the scriptures by their wrong interpretations. And so, by that means, they will present to the church their own inventions, and not the word of God. It seems that the teachers of the ancient people in olden times committed a similar offence, because the Lord in Ezekiel accuses them, saying, "It seems a small thing to you to have eaten up the good pasture, but must you also tread the residue of your pasture under your feet, and drink the clearer water? Must you trouble the rest with your feet? Thus my sheep must be willing to eat the thing that is trodden down with your feet, and drink what you have defiled with your feet." Eze 34.18-19 There is a sore offence in this, which the Lord punishes most sharply, according to his justice.

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We therefore, the interpreters of God's holy word, and faithful ministers of the church of Christ, must have a diligent regard to keep the scriptures sound and perfect, and to teach the people of Christ the word of God sincerely — made plain, I mean, and not corrupted or darkened by foolish and wrong expositions of our own invention.

5. Don't go beyond what is written

And now, dearly beloved, the place and time require us to say something to you touching the interpretation of the holy scriptures, or the exposition of the word of God. In this I will not say anything particularly of the skilful knowledge of tongues, or the liberal sciences, which are things requisite in a good interpreter; but I will briefly touch the generalities alone. First of all, you must understand that some things in the scriptures, or word of God, are so plainly set forth, that they have no need of interpretation, nor will they allow for any exposition. If any man goes about with his own expositions to make these more manifest, he may seem to do as wittily as someone who, with fagot-light [199] and torches, would help the sun at its rising give more light to the world. As for those things which are so set down that they seem to require our help to expound them, they must not be interpreted after our own fantasies, but according to the mind and meaning of Him by whom the scriptures were revealed. For St. Peter says, "The prophecy did not come in olden times by the will of man; but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." [200] Therefore, the true and proper sense of God's word must be taken out of the scriptures themselves, and not be forcibly thrust upon the scriptures, as we ourselves lust. And with this, you must mark a few certain rules, which I mean to touch briefly and show to you, in those few words which I have yet to speak.

6. Expound it consistent with the received doctrines of the Faith

First, since the apostle Paul would have the exposition of the scriptures agree fitly, and in every point proportionally with our faith, as seen in the twelfth chapter to the Romans; Rom 12.6 and because again in the second epistle to the Corinthians, he says, "Seeing then that we have the same spirit of faith (as it is written, 'I believed, and therefore I have spoken'), we also believe, and therefore we speak." 2Cor 4.13

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Let it therefore be taken for a point of catholic religion, not to bring in or admit anything in our expositions which others have alleged against the received articles of our faith contained in the Apostles' Creed and other confessions of the ancient fathers. For the apostle says, "In defence of the truth we can say something, but against the truth we are able to say nothing." 2Cor 13.8 When we therefore read in the gospel of St. John, this saying of the Lord, "The Father is greater than I," Joh 14.28 we must think that it is against the articles of our faith to make or admit any inequality in the Godhead between the Father and the Son; and therefore, the Lord's meaning was otherwise than the very words seem to import at first blush.

Again, when we read this saying of the apostle, "It cannot be that those who were once illuminated, if they fall away, should be renewed again into repentance," Heb 6.4-6 let us not believe that repentance is to be denied to those who fall. For the catholic faith is this: that at every place, in every season, so long as we live on this earth, a full pardon of all sins is promised to all men who turn to the Lord. In like manner, when we read that the Lord took bread and said of the bread, "This is my body," Mat 26.26 let us quickly remember that the articles of our faith attribute to our Lord the very body of a man, which ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, from where it shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And let us think that the Lord, speaking of the sacrament, would have us expound the words of the sacrament sacramentally, and not transubstantially. Also in reading that saying of the apostle, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," 1Cor 15.50 let us not then take these words as they simply seem to signify, but sticking to the article of our faith, "I believe the resurrection of the body," [201] let us understand that "flesh and blood" mean the affections and infirmities, not the nature and substance, of our bodies.

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7. Expound it according to Law of Love

Furthermore, we read in the gospel that the Lord sums up the law and the prophets, saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the chief and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. In these two commandments hang the whole law and the prophets," Mat 22.37-40. Upon these words of the Lord, that holy man Aurelius Augustinus, in the thirty-sixth chapter of his first book De Doctrina Christi, says,

"Whoever seems to himself to understand the holy scriptures, or any part of it, so that with that understanding he does not work these two points of charity towards God and his neighbour, he does not yet understand the scriptures perfectly. But whoever takes out of them such an opinion that is profitable to working this charity, and yet he does not say the self-same thing which it will be proved that the writer meant in that place — that man does not err to his own destruction, nor does he altogether deceive other men by lying." [202]

This much wrote Augustine. We must therefore, by all means possible, take heed that our interpretations do not tend to overthrow charity, but tend to its furtherance and commendation to all men. The Lord says, "Do not strive with the wicked." Mat 5.39 But if we affirm that he spoke this to the magistrates also, then charity towards our neighbours, the safety of those who are in jeopardy, and the defence of the oppressed, would be broken and clean taken away.[203] For thieves and unruly persons, robbers, and naughty fellows, would oppress the widows, the fatherless, and the poor, so that all iniquity would reign and have the upper hand. But in a matter so manifestly known, I suppose it is not needful to use many examples.

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8. Expound each passage according to its context

Moreover, it is requisite in expounding the scriptures, and searching out the true sense of God's word, that we mark upon what occasion everything is spoken, what goes before, what follows after, at what season, in what order, and of what person anything is spoken. By the occasion, and the sentences going before and coming after, examples and parables are for the most part expounded. Also, unless a man always marks the manner of speaking throughout the whole scripture, and does that very diligently too, he cannot help in his expositions but to err very much out of the right way. St. Paul, observing the circumstance of the time, thereby concluded that Abraham was justified, neither by circumcision, nor yet by the law. The places are to be seen in the fourth chap. to the Romans and the third chap. to the Galatians. Again, when it is said to Peter, "Put away your sword into your sheath; he that takes up the sword shall perish with the sword" Mat 26.52 — we must consider that Peter bore the personage of an apostle, and not of a magistrate. For we read that the sword is given to the magistrate for revenge. Rom 13.4 But it would be overly tedious and too troublesome to repeat more examples from every particular place.

9. Compare like scriptures together

Beside these, there is also another manner of interpreting the word of God: that is, by conferring together the places which are like or unlike, and by expounding the darker by the more evident, and the fewer by the more in number. Therefore, though the Lord says, "The Father is greater than I," we must consider that the same Lord, in another place, says, "My Father and I are one." [204] And though James the apostle says that Abraham and we are justified by works, Jas 2.21, 24 there are many places in St. Paul to be set against that one. And Peter the apostle allows this manner of interpreting where he says, "We have a right sure word of prophecy, to which if you attend, as to a light that shines in a dark place, you do well, until the day dawns, and the day-star arises in your hearts." 1Pet 1.19

That ancient writer Tertullian affirms that "they are heretics, and not men of the right faith, who draw some odd things out of the scriptures for their own purpose, not having any respect to the rest. But by that means, they pick out for themselves a certain few testimonies which they would have altogether believed, the whole scripture in the meantime questioning it, because indeed the fewer places must be understood according to the meaning of those that are more numerous." [205]

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10, Expound it humbly before God

And finally, the most effectual rule of all, by which to expound the word of God, is a heart that loves God and his glory — not puffed up with pride, not desirous of vainglory, not corrupted with heresies and evil affections; but which continually prays to God for his holy Spirit, that as the scripture was revealed and inspired by it, so also it may be expounded by the same Spirit to the glory of God and the safeguard of the faithful. Let the mind of the interpreter be set on fire with zeal to advance virtue, and with hatred of wickedness, even to suppressing it. Let not the heart of such an expositor call to counsel that subtle sophister the devil, lest perhaps he also corrupts the sense of God's word now, as he previously did in paradise. Let him not abide to hear man's wisdom argue directly against the word of God. If the good and faithful expositor of God's word does this, then although in some points he does not (as the proverb says) hit the very head of the nail in the darker sense of the scripture, yet notwithstanding, that error should not be condemned as a heresy in the author, nor judged hurtful to the hearer. And whoever brings the darker and more proper meaning of the scripture to light, should not later condemn the imperfect exposition of that other — no more than the author of an imperfect exposition should reject the more proper sense of the better expositor; but by acknowledging it, he will receive it with thanksgiving.

I have said this much up to here touching the sense and exposition of God's word — which, as God revealed it to men, so also he would have them in any case understand it. Therefore, there is no cause for any man, by reason of a few difficulties, to despair of attaining the true understanding of the scriptures. The scripture allows for a godly and religious interpretation. The word of God is a rule for all men and ages to lead their lives by. Therefore, by interpretation, it should be applied to all ages and men of all sorts.

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For even our God himself, by Moses, in many words expounded and applied to his people the law which he gave and published in Mount Sinai. Furthermore, it was a solemn use among the ancient prophets first to read, and then to apply by expositions, God's law to the people. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself expounded the scriptures. The apostles did the same also. The word of God therefore ought to be expounded. As for those who would not have it expounded, their intent is to sin freely, without control or punishment. But though the scripture allows for an exposition, it does not yet allow for any exposition whatsoever. For it utterly rejects that which savours of man's imagination. For just as the scripture was revealed by the Spirit of God, so it is requisite to expound it by the same Spirit. There are therefore certain rules to expound the word of God religiously, by the very word of God itself — that is, to so expound it, that the exposition does not disagree with the articles of our faith,[206] nor is it contrary to charity towards God and our neighbour. But rather, that it be thoroughly surveyed, and grounded upon that which went before and follows after, by diligent weighing of all the circumstances, and laying together the places. And chiefly, it is requisite that the heart of the interpreter be of a godly bent, willing to plant virtue and pluck up vice by the roots — and finally, that it is always ready evermore to pray to the Lord, that he will grant to illuminate our minds, that God's name may be glorified in all things. For His is the glory, honour, and dominion, forever and ever. Amen.

1-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: OF TRUE FAITH

WHERE IT COMES FROM; THAT IT IS AN ASSURED BELIEF OF THE MIND,

WHOSE ONLY STAY IS UPON GOD AND HIS WORD.

IN my last sermon I declared to you how the perfect exposition of God's word does not differ at all from the rule of true faith, and the love of God and our neighbour. For undoubtedly that sense of scripture is corrupted, which departs [207] from faith and the two points of charity. Therefore, next I have to treat true faith and charity towards God and our neighbour, with the intent that no man may lack anything in this. And therefore first, by God's help, and the good means of your prayers, I will speak of true faith.

This word "faith," or "belief," is diversely used in the common talk of men. For it is taken for any kind of religion or honour done to God, as when we say, the Christian faith, the Jewish faith, and the Turkish faith. Faith, or belief, is also taken for a conceived opinion of anything that is told to us, such as when we hear anything repeated to us out of Indian or Ethiopian history; then we say that we believe it; and yet notwithstanding, we put no confidence in it, nor do we hope to have any commodity by it at all. This is that faith with which St. James says the devil believes and trembles. Jas 2.19 Last of all, faith is commonly put for an assured and undoubted confidence in God and his word. Among the Hebrews, faith takes its name from truth, [208] certainty, and assured constancy. The Latins call it faith when what is said, is done. Thus one says, "I demand whether you believe or not?" You answer, "I believe." "Then do what you say, and it is faith." [209] Therefore, in this treatise of ours, Faith is an undoubted belief, most firmly grounded in the mind.

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This faith, which is a settled and undoubted persuasion or belief leaning upon God and his word, is diversely defined by the more perfect divines. St. Paul says, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Heb 11.1 The substance or hypostasis,[210] is the foundation or unmovable prop which upholds us, and on which we lean and lie without peril or danger. The things hoped for are celestial, eternal, and invisible. Therefore, Paul says Faith is an unmovable foundation, and a most assured confidence of God's promises — that is, of life everlasting and of all His good benefits. Moreover, Paul himself, making an exposition of what he said, immediately says, "Faith is the argument (evidence) for things not seen." An argument or proof is an evident demonstration, whereby we manifestly prove what otherwise would be doubtful, so that in the one whom we undertook to instruct, there may remain no doubt at all.

But now, touching the mysteries of God revealed in God's word, in themselves, or in their own nature, they cannot be seen with bodily eyes; and therefore they are called things not seen. But this faith, by giving light to the mind, perceives them in the heart, even as they are set forth in the word of God. Faith, therefore, according to the definition of Paul, is a most evident seeing [211] in the mind, and a most certain perceiving [212] in the heart, of invisible things, that is, of eternal things — of God, I say, and all those things he sets forth in His word, concerning spiritual things.

They had an eye to this definition of Paul's, who defined faith in this way:

"Faith is a grounded persuasion of heavenly things, in the meditation of which we ought to so occupy ourselves for the assured truth's sake of God's word, that we may believe — that we see those things in our mind, as well as we behold with our eyes things that are sensibly perceived, and easy to be seen." [213]

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This description does not greatly differ from this definition of another godly and learned man who says, "Faith is a steadfast persuasion of the mind, by which we fully decree to ourselves that God's truth is so sure, that he can neither will nor choose but to perform that which, in his word, He has promised to fulfil." [214] Again, "Faith is a steadfast assuredness of conscience, which embraces Christ in the same way in which he is offered to us by the gospel." [215] There is another who, almost in the same manner, defines faith this way: "Faith is a gift inspired by God into the mind of man, whereby, without any doubting at all, he believes that whatever God has either taught or promised in the books of both testaments, is most true." [216]

The very same author of this definition, therefore, extends faith to three terms of time: to the time past, the time present, and the time to come. For he teaches us to believe that the world was made by God, and to believe whatever the holy scriptures declare to have been done in the old world; also that Christ dying for us is the only salvation of those who believe; and that today also, the world and church are governed or preserved by the same God; and that in Christ the faithful are saved; last of all, that whatever the holy scriptures either threaten or promise, shall most assuredly light upon the ungodly and the godly.

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Out of all these definitions, therefore, being diligently considered, we may, according to the scriptures, make this description of faith:

FAITH is a gift of God, poured into man from heaven, whereby he is taught with an undoubted persuasion, to wholly lean on God and his word; in this word, God freely promises life and all good things in Christ, and in this word, all truth necessary to be believed is plainly declared.

In what follows, I will unfold this description of faith into parts, by God's help. And by asserting passages out of the scriptures, I will both confirm and make it manifest to you. Just as you have done up to now, so you should still give a diligent ear, and pray earnestly to God in your hearts.

First of all, the cause or beginning of faith does not come from any man, or any strength of man, but from God himself, who by his Holy Spirit inspires faith into our hearts. For in the gospel the Lord says, "No man comes to me unless my Father draws him." Joh 6.44 And again, the Lord says to Peter, confessing Christ in true faith, "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Mat 16.17 The apostle Paul alludes to this when he says, "We are not able of ourselves to think anything as from ourselves, but all our ability is from God." 2Cor 3.5 And in another place, "To you it is given for Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake." Phi 1.29 Faith therefore is poured into our hearts by God, who is the well-spring and cause of all goodness.

And yet we have to consider here, that God, in giving and inspiring faith, does not use His absolute power or miracles in working, but a certain ordinary means that is agreeable to man's capacity — although God can indeed give faith to whom, when, and how it pleases him, without those means. But we read that the Lord has used this ordinary means even from the first creation of all things. To those on whom he means to bestow knowledge and faith, he sends teachers to preach true faith to them by the word of God.

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It is not because it lies in man's power, will, or ministry, to give faith; nor because the outward word spoken by man's mouth is able of itself to bring faith. But the voice of man, and the preaching of God's word, do teach us what true faith is, or what God wills and commands us to believe. For God himself alone, by sending his Holy Spirit into the hearts and minds of men, opens our hearts, persuades our minds, and causes us to believe with all our heart what we have learned to believe by his word and teaching. By a miracle from heaven, without any preaching at all, the Lord could have bestowed faith in Christ upon Cornelius the Centurion at Caesarea. [217] Yet, by an angel, he sends him to the preaching of Peter; and while Peter preaches, God by his Holy Spirit works in the heart of Cornelius, causing him to believe his preaching. St. Paul truly says, "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach if they are not sent? So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom 10.14-17 In another place also, "Who is Paul," he says, "or what is Apollos, but ministers, by whom you have believed, according as God has given to every one? I have planted, Apollos has watered, but God has given increase. So then, he that plants is nothing, nor he that waters, but God gives the increase." 1Cor 3.5-7

What Augustine writes in the preface of his book of Christian Doctrine, agrees with this doctrine of St. Peter and St. Paul, where he says,

"That which we have to learn at man's hand, let everyone learn at man's hand without disdain. And let us not go about tempting Him in whom we believe; nor, being deceived, let us scorn to go to church, to hear or learn out of books, still looking for when we will be rapt up into the third heaven. Let us take heed of such temptations of pride; and let us rather have this in our minds: that even the apostle Paul himself, although he was cast prostrated, and instructed by the calling of God from heaven, was nevertheless sent to a man to be taught the will of God;

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and although God had heard his prayers, Cornelius was committed to Peter to be instructed, by whom he would not only receive the sacraments, but also hear what he ought to believe, what to hope for, and what to love. All these things, notwithstanding, might have been done by the angel," etc. [218]

The same Augustine, in his Epistle to the Circenses, also says, "Even He works conversion and brings it to pass, who warns us outwardly by his ministers with the signs of things — but inwardly by himself, teaching us with the very things themselves." [219] Also in his 26th treatise on John, he says, "What are men doing when they preach outwardly? What am I now doing while I speak? I drive into your ears a noise of words. But unless He who is within reveals it, what do I say, or what do I speak? He that is without, husbands the tree — but he that is within, is the creator of it," etc. [220] This is what Augustine said.

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But, even as the Lord's desire is to have us believe his word, (for the prophet cries out and says, "Today if you would hear his voice, do not harden your hearts," Psa 95.7-8 so in like manner he requires of all who hear his word, that we not be slack in praying. For in hearing the word of God, we must pray for the gift of faith, that the Lord may open our hearts, convert our souls, break and beat down the hardness of our minds, and increase the measure of faith bestowed on us. There are many examples in the holy scriptures of this order of prayer. When the Lord in the gospel said to one, "Can you believe? To him that believes, all things are possible," the man answered saying, "I believe, Lord; help my unbelief." Mar 9.23-24

The apostles also cry to the Lord and say, "O Lord, increase our faith." Luk 17.5 Moreover, this prayer in which we desire to have faith poured into us, is of the grace and gift of God, and not of our own righteousness, which is nothing at all before God. Therefore, this is left to us as a thing most certain and undoubtedly true: that true faith is the mere gift of God, bestowed on our minds by the Holy Ghost from heaven, declared to us in the word of truth by teachers sent by God, and obtained by earnest prayers which cannot be tired. By this we learn that we ought to hear the word of God often and attentively, and never cease to pray to God for obtaining true faith.

But this faith, inspired from heaven, and learned out of the word of truth, puts into man's mind an undoubted persuasion which is that, whatever we believe in the word of God, we may believe it most assuredly, without wavering or doubting, being altogether as sure to have that thing, as faith believes to have it. Mar 11:24 For I use this word persuasion, not as it is commonly used, but for a firm assent of mind, inspired and persuaded by the Holy Ghost. That this faith, I say, puts into man's mind this undoubted persuasion, I mean to declare by the example of Abraham's faith, which Paul describes in the fourth chapter to the Romans in these words:

"Abraham, contrary to hope, believed in hope; and he did not faint in faith, nor did he consider his own body now dead, when he was almost a hundred years old, nor the deadness of Sara's womb; he did not stagger [221] at the promise of God through unbelief, but became strong in faith, and gave the glory to God, having a sure persuasion that He who had promised, was also able to perform." Rom 4.18-21

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In these words of the apostle, there are certain points to be observed, which prove to us that faith brings an assured persuasion into the mind and heart of man; and so, that faith is an undoubted confidence of things believed, to which the heart is made privy; that is, true faith does not fly to and fro from place to place in the heart of man, but being deeply rooted in Christ, it sticks in the heart which is enlightened. First, says the apostle, "Abraham, contrary to hope, believed in hope." That is to say, there he had a constant hope, where notwithstanding he had nothing to hope for, if all things had been weighed according to the manner of this world. But hope is a most firm and undoubted looking for those things which we believe. So we see that the apostle made faith manifest by hope; and by the certainty of hope, he declared the assured constancy of faith. After that, he says, "Abraham did not faint in faith, nor stagger at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith." There are two kinds of staggering in mankind:[222] the one is that which, being overcome by evil temptations, bends to desperation, and despises God's promises. Such was the staggering of those ten spies of the holy land, of whom mention is made in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Numbers. The other staggering is rather to be called a weak infirmity of faith, which is also tempted itself. I may not repeat to you now, how in all of us, by the spot of original sin, a certain kind of unbelief is naturally grafted in; and man's mind is at no time so enlightened or confirmed, that cloudy mists of ignorance and doubt do not sometimes arise.

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Yet notwithstanding, faith does not yield to temptation, nor is it drowned, nor does it stick in the mire of staggering. But laying hold upon the promised word of truth, it gets up again by struggling, and is confirmed. So we read that, at the promise of God, this came into Abraham's mind: "What, shall a son be born to you who are a hundred years old?" Gen 17.17 This was that infirmity and staggering, or weakness of faith. But here the apostle commends Abraham's faith, which overcame and did not yield, teaching us also of what sort true faith ought to be: that is, a firm and most assured persuasion. He says, "Abraham did not faint in faith, nor consider his own body dead,[223] when he was almost a hundred years old, nor the deadness of Sara's womb." Look, this thought came into Abraham's mind: "Shall a son be born to me who is a hundred years old?" But he did not faint in faith. The faith of Abraham did not begin to droop because of this temptation. For he did not consider the weakness that was in himself, nothing compared to the promise of God. What then? He did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief — that is, he gave no place to unbelief, to be tempted by it. He did not fall to his own reasons and doubtful inquisitions, as unbelievers are prone to do. For God's promise, once set before the eyes of his mind, to that, I say, he stuck unmovably, casting off all doubts and reasons of his own. For faith has no regard at all for the weakness, misery, or lack, which is properly in mankind; but it sets its whole stay in the power of God. So then, I say, Abraham was strong in faith — that is, he prevailed and got the upper hand in his temptation. For this is an argument to show that he had the upper hand: "He did not faint, nor grow weak in faith." [224]

It follows in the apostle, "Abraham gave God the glory;" namely, in believing that God wishes well to mankind, and that he is a true God and almighty. For he gives God his glory, which attributes to God the properties of God, and does not question the word and promise of God.

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For John the apostle says, "He that does not believe in God, makes God a liar." 1Joh 5.10 Abraham therefore believed in God, and in believing, he gave God the glory. The apostle Paul goes on to say, "He was thoroughly persuaded, or certified, that He who had promised, was also able to perform." Paul used the Greek word pληροφορηθεὶς (plerophoretheis), which is the same as if you were to say, being certified. For pληροφορew (plerophoreo) signifies to fully certify — thus pληροφορia (plerophoria) is an assured faith given to us, which is made by way of argument, or by the thing itself. And they call that pληροφορhma (plerophorema), which we call a certification — as when a thing is so beaten into our minds by persuasions, that after that, we never doubt any more. Therefore faith certified Abraham; and with undoubted persuasions, it brought him to the point never to doubt, but that God was able to perform what he had promised. In faith, therefore, he stuck unmovably to the promise of God, being assuredly certified that he would obtain whatever God had promised.

It is certain therefore, and plainly declared by the words of the apostle, that true faith is an undoubted persuasion in the mind of the believer — even to so have the thing as his belief is, and as he is said to have it, in the express word of God. By this we also learn that faith is not the unstable and unadvised confidence of the one who believes every great and impossible thing. For faith is ruled and bound to the word of God — to the word of God, I say, rightly and truly understood. The godly and faithful, therefore, do not then, out of the omnipotence of God, gather what they wish — as though God therefore would do everything because He can do all things. Otherwise that faith would therefore believe everything, because it is written, "All things are possible to him that believes." Mar 9.23 For his faith is therefore a great deal more, [225] because what he believes is so set down and declared in the word of God, as he believes.

Furthermore, where the Lord in the gospel says, "All things are possible for him that believes," we must not take that saying to be absolutely spoken, but to be joined to the word, will, and glory of God, and the safety of our souls.

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For all things which God has promised in his word, all things which God will have, and lastly, all things which make for the glory of God and the safeguard of our souls, "are possible to him that believes." And for that reason, the apostle both openly and plainly said, "Whatever God has promised, he is also able to perform." For whatever He has not promised, and whatever does not please His divine majesty, or is contrary to the will and express word of God, that God cannot do — not because He cannot, but because He will not. God could make bread out of stones; Mat 4.3 but we must not therefore believe that stones are bread, nor are they bread therefore, just because God can do all things. You will understand this better and more fully, where a little later I will show you that true faith does not stray or waver, wandering to and fro, but clings close and sticks fast to God and to His word.

In the meantime, because we have shown out of Paul's words, by the example of Abraham, that faith is a substance and undoubted persuasion in the heart; and because many stiffly stand in [saying] that man is not surely certain of his salvation; [226] I will add a few examples out of the gospel, by which they may plainly perceive that faith is a most sure ground and settled opinion touching God and our salvation. And first, truly, the centurion, of whom mention is made in the gospel, had conceived a steadfast hope that his servant would be healed by the Lord. For he understood what great and mighty things he promised to those who believe. He gathered also by the works of Christ, that it was an easy matter for him to restore his servant to health again. Therefore he comes to the Lord, and among other things, he says: "There is no reason for you to come under my roof — indeed, but say the word, and my servant shall be made whole." These words testify that in the heart and mind of the centurion, there was a sure persuasion of most assured health, which by a certain comparison, he makes manifest and more fully express.

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"For I myself am a man under the authority of another; and under me I have soldiers; and I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it." When the Lord perceived this certification of his mind by his words that were most full of faith, he cries out that "In all Israel he has not found so great a faith." Mat 8.5-10 Again, in the gospel it speaks notably about the woman's faith, who was sorely plagued with the bloody flux. And that faith was an undoubted persuasion in her heart, once illuminated. We may understand this because, being first indeed stirred up by the works and words of the Lord, she thought this within herself: "If I can but touch his garment, I will be whole." And therefore, pressing through the thickest of the throng, she comes to the Lord. Mat 9.20-22

But why should I heap together many examples? Does not the singular faith of the Canaanite or Syrophoenician woman declare more plainly than can be denied, how faith is a most assured persuasion of things believed? For being passed over and as it were, contemned by the Lord, she does not waver in faith; but following him, and hearing also that the Lord was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, she goes on to worship him. Moreover, being pushed away and tainted with the foul reproach of a dog, as it were, she yet goes humbly forward to throw herself prostrate before the Lord, requesting to obtain the thing she desired. She would not have persevered so stiffly if faith had not been a certification in her believing mind and heart. Therefore, moved with that faith of hers, the Lord cried "Woman, great is your faith; let it be done to you as you will." [227]

It is therefore manifest by all these testimonies of the holy scripture, that faith is a steadfast and undoubted persuasion in the mind and heart of the believer.

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This now being brought to an end, let us see what man's faith leans upon; and also, how we may clearly perceive that faith is not a vain and unstable opinion of anything whatsoever (as we were about to say a little earlier), conceived in the mind of man; but it is tied up and contained within bounds and certain conditions as it were. In the definition of faith, we therefore said that faith bends toward God, and leans on his word. God therefore (and the word of God), is the object or foundation of true faith. The thing on which a man may lean safely, surely, and without any manner of doubting, must be steadfast and altogether unmovable — that which gives health; which preserves; and which fills up or ministers all fulness to us. It is for this that faith seeks and requests. But this is nowhere else than in God. On God alone, therefore, true faith bends and leans. God is everlasting, chiefly good, wise, just, mighty, and true of word. And He testifies of that by His works and word. This is why in the prophets, He is called a strong and unmovable rock, a castle, a wall, a tower, an invincible fortress, a treasure, and a well that will never be drawn dry. [228]

This everlasting God can do all things, know all things, is present in all places, loves mankind exceedingly, provides for all men, and also governs or disposes all things. Faith, therefore, which is confident of God's good-will and of His aid in all necessities, and of the true salvation of mankind, bends on God alone, and cannot lean on any other creature, in whom the things that faith requires, are not found.

And even as God is true of word, and cannot lie, so His word is true and deceives no man. In the word of God is expressed the will and mind of God. Therefore faith has an eye to the word of God, and lays her ground upon God's word. Touching this word, the Lord in the gospel said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away." Mar 13.31 The word of God here is compared with the most excellent elements. Air and water are feeble and unstable elements. But heaven,[229] even though it turns and moves, it keeps a wonderful and most steadfast course in moving, and all things in it are steadfast. The earth is most stable and unmovable. Therefore, if it is easier for these things to be loosed (which cannot be undone), than for the word of God to pass away, it follows that God's word in all points is most stable, unmovable, and impossible to loose.

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"If", says the Lord in Jeremiah, "You can undo the league that I have taken with the day, or the covenant that I have made with the night, so that it is neither day nor night at the appointed time, then may my covenant which I have made with David be of no effect." Jer 33.20-21 But the whole world, putting together all its strength, is not able to make it day once it is night, nor cause the day to break one hour sooner than the course of heaven commands. Therefore, all this world, with all its power and pomp, will not once be able to weaken or break, to change or abolish, so much as one tittle in the word of God, and the truth of God's word. Faith therefore, which rests upon a thing that is most firm or sure, cannot help but choose to be an undoubted certification. And since God's word is the foundation of faith, faith cannot wander to and fro, and lean on every word whatsoever. For every opinion conceived outside the word of God, or against God's word, cannot be called true faith. And for that cause, St. Paul, the apostle of Christ, would not ground the true or Christian faith upon any carnal props or opinions of men, but only upon the truth and power of God. I will conclude here with his words: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom 10.17 "By the word of God," he says, and not by the word of man. Again, to the Corinthians: "My preaching was not in enticing words of man's wisdom, but in a display of the Spirit, and of power — that your faith should not be in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God." 1Cor 2.4-5 By this we also learn that there are some who, against all reason, require faith at our hands; that is, they would have us believe what they are not able to show out of God's word, or what is clean contrary to the word of God.

To better declare what I have said, that short abridgement of God's word and of faith is useful, which we closely knit together in the definition of faith. There are two chief points of faith and of the word repeated there: first of all, that God in Christ freely promises life and every good thing.

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For God, who is the object or mark and foundation of faith — being of His own proper nature ever-living, ever-lasting, and good — of Himself, from before all beginning, begat the Son, who is like himself in all points. Because the Son is of the same substance with the Father, he is himself also by nature, life and all goodness. And he became man to the end that he might communicate to us, his sons and brethren, both life and all goodness; and being familiar — truly God and man, among men — he testified that God the Father, through the Son, pours himself wholly with all good things into the faithful, whom he quickens [230] and fills with all goodness; and last of all, he takes them up to himself, into the blessed place of everlasting life; and he frankly and freely bestows this benefit, to the end that the glory of his grace may be praised in all things.

True faith believes this; and to this belongs no small part of the scriptures, which testify that God in Christ communicates life and godliness to the faithful.2Pet 1.3 John the apostle cries out and says,

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. And we saw the glory of God, as the glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. And of his fulness we have all received," etc. Joh 1.1,14,16

For the Lord himself said in the Gospel of St. John,

"Truly I say to you, whatever things the Father does, the Son also does the same. For even as the Father raises the dead to life and quickens them, so also the Son quickens whom he will. For the Father does not judge any man, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all men may honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He that does not honour the Son, does not honour the Father who has sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has life everlasting, and shall not come into judgment, but has escaped from death unto life." Joh 5.19, 21-24

With these words of the gospel, agrees that saying of St. Paul: "In Christ are laid up all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Because in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in him you are fulfilled." Col 2.3,9-10

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But Paul, that vessel of election, declares in these words that these great benefits of God are freely bestowed upon the faithful:

"Blessed be God, who has chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid, and has predestined us into the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has made us accepted in the beloved through whom we have redemption in his blood," etc. [231]

And again: "All have sinned, and have need of God's glory, but are justified freely through his grace, by the redemption which is in Christ," Rom 3.23-24 and so on. True faith therefore believes that life and every good thing freely comes to it from God through Christ. This is the chief article of our faith, as more largely laid out in the articles of belief.

The second principal point of God's word and faith is that there is set down in the word of God, all truth necessary to be believed; and that true faith believes all that is declared in the scriptures. For it tells us that God exists; what manner of God he is; what God's works are; what his judgments, will, commandments, promises, and threatenings are. Finally, whatever is profitable or necessary to be believed, God's word wholly sets these down for us, and true faith receives them, believing all things that are written in the law and the prophets, and in the gospel and writings of the apostles. But whatever cannot be fetched or proved out of those writings, or whatever is contrary to them, the faithful do not believe that at all — for the very nature of true faith is not to believe that which departs[232] from the word of God. Whoever therefore does not believe the fables and opinions of men, he alone believes as he should: for he depends only upon the word of God, and so upon God himself, the only fountain of all truth.

The matter, the argument, and the whole sum of faith is briefly set out for us in the articles of the Christian faith, of which I will speak at another time. I have this hour declared to you, dearly beloved and reverend [233] brethren in the Lord, the definition of faith.

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To the end that I may surely fasten in everyone's mind, and that all may understand what faith is, I repeat it here again; and with this, I conclude this sermon.

Faith is a gift of God, poured into man from heaven, by which he is taught with an undoubted persuasion, to wholly lean on God and his word. In this word, God in Christ freely promises life and every good thing, and all truth necessary to be believed is plainly declared in it.

Let us all pray to God our Father through his only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, that he will grant from heaven to bestow true faith upon us all, that by knowing him aright, we may at the last obtain life everlasting. Amen.

1-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: ONLY ONE TRUE FAITH.

THAT THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUE FAITH, AND WHAT THE VIRTUE OF IT IS.

BEING cut off with the shortness of time, and detained by the excellence of the matter, I could not in my last sermon make an end of all that I had determined to speak touching faith. Now therefore, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, I will add the rest of the argument which seems yet left behind. Pray to the Lord that what is brought to your ears by man's voice, may be written in your hearts by the finger of God.

True faith is ignorant of all division; for "there is," says the apostle, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." Eph 4.5-6 For there remains, from the beginning of the world even to the end of it, one and the same faith in all the elect of God. God is one and the same forever, the only Well of all goodness, that can never be drawn dry. The truth of God, from the beginning of the world, is one and the same, set forth to men in the word of God. Therefore, the object and foundation of faith — that is, God and the word of God — remain forever one and the self-same.

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In one and the self-same faith with us, all the elect ever since the first creation of the world have believed that all good things are freely given to us through Christ, and that all truth necessary to be believed, is declared in the word of the Lord. Therefore, the faithful of the old world have always settled their faith on God and his word; so that now, without any doubt, there cannot be any more than one true faith.

I know very well that many sundry faiths are sown in the world, that is to say, religions. For there is the Indian faith, the Jewish faith, the faith of the Mahomedans, and the faith of the Georgians. [234] And yet, notwithstanding, there is but one true Christian faith, the abridgement of which is contained in the articles of our belief, and taught in full in the sacred scriptures of both testaments. I also know that there are sundry beliefs of men, resting upon sundry things, and believing what is contrary to true faith. Yet nevertheless, there remains but one true belief in God and his word, which is an undoubted persuasion and confidence about things most true and assuredly certain.

This confidence grows with increase in the minds of the faithful, and contrarily, it decreases again and utterly fails. For that reason, the apostles entreated the Lord, saying "Lord, increase our faith." Luk 17.5 Everywhere in his writings, Paul the apostle wishes to the faithful the increase of the spirit and of faith.[235] Before him, David also prayed, saying "God, create a clean heart within me, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me." Psa 51.10-11 For he had seen how the good Spirit of God had departed from Saul, whom David succeeded in the kingdom. And instead, the wicked spirit had entered into his mind, which tormented him very pitifully. To this belongs that saying in the gospel, "To everyone that has, shall be given, and from him that does not have, shall be taken away that which he does not have," or that he takes no account of, "and shall be given to him that has." [236]

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Nor was it in vain that the Lord said to Peter, "I have prayed for you Peter, that your faith does not fail." Luk 22.32 For Paul speaks of some in his time, who "made shipwreck of their own faith, and overthrew the faith of others." [237] And to what end, I pray you, do we daily hear the word of God, and make our humble petitions to the Lord, if not because we look for an increase of godliness, and His aid to keep us, so that we do not fall from true faith? Paul says truly to the Thessalonians: "We pray earnestly day and night to see you personally, and to supply what is lacking in your faith." 1Thes 3.10 And a little before he said, "For this reason I sent Timothy, that I might be certified of your faith, lest by any means the tempter had tempted you, and so our labour had been of no effect." 1Thes 3.5 The same apostle, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, also says "Christ gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers, for the restoring of the saints, for the building of the body of Christ, until we all meet together in the unity of faith, and the acknowledging of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of age of the fulness of Christ, so that now we are no longer children." Eph 4.11-14

Therefore, so long as we live, we learn, so that our faith may be perfect; [238] and if at any time it is weakened by temptations, then it may be repaired and again confirmed. And in this diversity, I mean in this increase and weakness of faith, there is no partition or division; for the self-same root and substance of faith always remains, although it is sometimes more, and sometimes less. In like manner, faith is not therefore changed or cut asunder, because one is called general faith, and another is called particular faith.

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For general faith is none other than that faith which believes that all the words of God are true, and that God has good-will toward mankind. Particular faith believes nothing contrary to this; it is only that what is common to all, the faithful applies particularly to himself, believing that God is not well-minded toward others alone, but even to him also. So then, it brings the whole into parts, and that which is general, into particularities. For though by general faith he believes that all the words of God are true, in the same way, he believes by particular faith that the soul is immortal, that our bodies rise again, that the faithful shall be saved, the unbelievers destroyed, and whatever else of this sort is taught to be believed in the word of God.

Moreover, the disputation touching faith that is poured into us, and faith that we ourselves get — touching formal faith, and faith without fashion [239] — I leave to be beaten out by those who, on their own, bring these new disputations into the church. True faith is obtained by no strength or merit of man, but is poured into him by God, as I declared in my last sermon. And though man obtains it by hearkening to the word of God, it is nevertheless wholly imputed to the grace of God. For unless this grace works inwardly in the heart of the hearer, the preacher who labours outwardly brings no profit at all. We read in the third chapter of St. Augustin's book De Praedestinatione Sanctorum, that he was once in error, because he thought that the faith with which we believe in God, is not the gift of God, but that it was in us as of ourselves, and by it we obtain the gifts of God, by which we may live rightly and holily in this world. [240] But he confutes this at large in that book, and does it substantially. So then, true faith, which bends on God alone and is directed by the word of God, is formal enough, or sufficiently in fashion.

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Truly, the form of faith is engraved in the heart of the faithful by the Holy Ghost. And although it is small, and does not grow up to the highest degree, yet notwithstanding, it is true faith, having in it the force of a grain of mustard-seed as it were. The thief who was crucified with our Lord, believed in the Lord Jesus, and was saved, even though the force of faith was strong in him only a very short season, and it did not produce any great store of fruit of good works. Finally, that faith of the thief was not one whit different or contrary to the faith of St. Peter and St. Paul, but was altogether the very same as theirs, even though their faith brought forth somewhat more abundantly the fruit of good works. Peter and Paul were frankly and freely justified, even though they had many good works; the thief was freely justified, even though his good works were very few or none at all. Let us hold, therefore, that true faith is solitary, [241] which notwithstanding, it increases and is augmented, and again, it may decrease and be extinguished.[242]

There now remains for me to declare the virtue and effect of true faith. The holy apostle Paul has done this very well and excellently, yes, and most absolutely too. But although in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews he said very much,[243] he is compelled, notwithstanding, to confess that he cannot reckon it all up. Therefore, at this time I mean to repeat a few virtues of faith, leaving the rest, dearly beloved, to be sought out and considered by yourselves.

True faith, before all things, brings with it true knowledge and it makes us wise indeed. For by faith we know God, and judge rightly about the judgments and works of God, of virtues and vices. The wisdom that it brings with it is without doubt the true wisdom. Many men hope that they can attain to true wisdom by the study of philosophy; but they are deceived, as far as heaven is broad. For philosophy falsely judges and faultily teaches many things touching God, the works of God, the chief goodness, the end of good and evil, and touching things that are to be desired and eschewed. But those same things are rightly and truly taught in the word of God, and understood and perceived by faith. Faith is therefore the true wisdom, and it makes us wise indeed.

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For Jeremiah also says, "Behold, they have thrown away the word of the Lord; what wisdom therefore can be left in them?" Jer 8.9 The wisdom of Solomon is worshipfully thought of throughout the whole compass of the world; and yet we read that the Lord, in the gospel of St. Matthew, uttered this sentence against the Jews: "The queen of the south shall rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it; because she came from the ends of the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon: and behold, there is one here greater than Solomon." Mat 12.42 Christ is preferred before Solomon, and the wisdom of Christ before the wisdom of Solomon. But it is well known that the wisdom of Christ, the Son of God, cannot be attained without faith. Faith therefore brings with it the most excellent wisdom. But this wisdom of ours deserves a singular praise here, because those who desire it are not sent to foreign nations to learn it at great cost and labour, as if sent to the priests of Egypt, the gymnosophists of India, [244] the philosophers of Greece, or to the rabbins of the Jews. God has dispersed His word throughout the world, so that now the word of faith is in the hearts of all the faithful. For Paul the apostle says,

"Thus says the justice that is of faith, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven? that is, to fetch Christ down from above. Or, Who will descend into the deep? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead. But what does he say? The word is near you, even in your heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach. For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe with your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." Rom 10.6-9

Faith therefore not only makes us wise, but happy also; the Lord himself bearing witness to it, and saying to his disciples, "Happy are the eyes that see the things that you see. For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see, and to hear the things that you hear, and did not hear them." Luk 10.23-24

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We shall therefore find in faith a most certain determination of the most notable question stirred since the beginning of the world, by learned and most excellent wits. It is this: by what means may a man live, be happy, attain to the chief goodness, be joined to the chief goodness, and so be justified? There have been, indeed there still are, diverse opinions touching this matter, contrary to one another. But we briefly and truly affirm that by true faith, a man lives, is happy, attains to the chief goodness, is conjoined to the chief goodness, and is also justified: so that God dwells in us, and we in him; and by faith we are both happy and blessed. What, I ask you, could have been spoken more excellently, worthily, or divinely, touching true faith? For see that faith quickens us, makes us happy, and joins us to the chief goodness, so that He [245] in us, and we in him, may live; and faith also fully justifies us.

But now it is best to hear the testimonies out of the scriptures. Faith makes us happy. For it is said to St. Peter, upon confessing the Lord Jesus by true faith, "Happy are you, Simon, the son of Jonah. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Mat 16.17 St. Paul, for the proof of faith, brings in that statement of David: "Happy are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes no sin." [246] Faith quickens or makes alive. For "the just lives by faith." [247] Paul very often in his writings alleges [248] this out of the prophets. The same Paul also says, "The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Gal 2.20 Faith joins us to the eternal and chief goodness, and so it makes us enjoy the chief goodness, so that God may dwell in us and we in God. For the Lord Jesus himself says in the gospel, "He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, so also I live by the Father, and he that eats me shall live by me." Joh 6.56-57

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But to eat and drink the Lord is to believe in the Lord: that he has given himself to death for us. Upon which John the apostle says, "We have seen and witness, that the Father has sent the Son, the Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him and he in God." 1Joh 4.14-15 This is also why Paul said, "I live now — not I, but Christ lives in me." Gal 2.20 Moreover, faith justifies. But because a treatise about it cannot fitly and fully be made an end of in this hour, I mean to defer it till the next sermon.

At present, dearly beloved, you must remember that there is but one true faith — that is, the Christian faith. For although there are said to be many faiths (that is, religions), notwithstanding, there is only one true and undoubted faith. And that faith increases, and again decreases, in some men. As for those in whom faith is rightly and godly observed, in them it shows many varied virtues. For it brings with it true wisdom. Finally, it quickens, and makes us blessed and happy indeed. To God, the Father, the author of all goodness and of our felicity, be all praise and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord, forever and ever. Amen.

1-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.

THAT THE FAITHFUL ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH,

WITHOUT THE LAW AND WORKS.

BEING ready here, dearly beloved, to speak to you of faith, which without works justifies those who believe, I call upon the Father, who is in heaven, through his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord, beseeching him to open my mouth and lips to set forth his praise, and to illuminate your hearts, that you, acknowledging the great benefit of God, may become thankful for it, and holy indeed.

First of all, I will say certain things that are chiefly necessary to this argument or treatise, touching this term justification. The term justifying, very usual and common among the Hebrews, and having a large signification, is not so well understood by all men today, as it ought to be.

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To justify is the same as saying, to acquit from judgment and from the pronounced and uttered sentence of condemnation. It signifies to remit offences, to cleanse, to sanctify, and to give an inheritance of life everlasting. For it is a term of law belonging to courts, where judgment is exercised. Imagine therefore, that man is set before the judgment-seat of God, and that man is plead guilty there. Namely, he is accused and convicted of heinous offences, and therefore he is sued to punishment or to the sentence of condemnation. Imagine also, that the Son of God makes intercession, and comes in as a mediator, desiring that the whole fault and punishment due to us, may be laid upon him — that by his death, he may cleanse them and take these away, setting us free from death, and giving us life everlasting. Imagine too, that God, the most high and just judge, receives the offer, and translates the punishment, together with the fault, from us to the neck of his Son. Along with this, he makes a statute, that whoever believes that the Son of God suffered for the sins of the world, broke the power of death, and delivered us from damnation, should be cleansed from his sins and made an heir of life everlasting. Who, therefore, can be so dull of understanding, that he may not perceive that mankind is justified by faith?

But that there may be no cause for doubt or darkness left in the mind of any man, what I have already said generally, by the parable and similitude fetched from our common law, I will here particularly bring into certain parts, confirming and manifestly proving every one of them severally out of the holy scriptures; so that even to the slowest wits, the power of faith and the work of justification may be most evident.

And first, I will show you that this term justification is taken in this present treatise for the absolution and remission of sins, for sanctification, and adoption into the number of the sons of God. In the thirteenth chapter of the Acts, the apostle Paul says, "Be it known to you, men and brethren, that through this Lord Jesus Christ, is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by him, all who believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." Act 13.38-39

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See, in Christ the forgiveness of sins is preached to us; and he that believes that Christ preached forgives sins,[249] is also justified. It follows therefore, that justification is the remission of sins. In the fifth chapter to the Romans, the same apostle says, "Being justified by the blood of Christ, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Rom 5.9 But the blood of Christ washes away sins. Justification, therefore, is the washing away or forgiveness of sins. And again, in the same chapter he says more plainly, "Judgment entered by one offence unto condemnation, but the gift of many sins unto justification." Rom 5.16 He makes justification the contrary to condemnation: therefore, justification is the absolution and delivery from condemnation. What do you say to this, moreover, that he plainly calls justification a gift, that is, the forgiveness of sins? To this also belong these words of his: "Even as by the sin of one, condemnation came upon all men; so by the righteousness of one, good came upon all men to the justification of life." Rom 5.18

Here again, the justification of life is made the contrary of condemnation unto death, set as a pain upon our heads because of the transgression. Justification of life is therefore an absolution from sins, a delivery from death, a quickening or translating from death to life. For in the fourth chapter to the Romans, the apostle expounds justification by sanctification,[250] and sanctification by the remission of sins. For in treating faith, by which we are justified, or which God imputes to us for righteousness without works, he says, "Even as David also expounds the blessedness of that man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works, saying: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." Rom 4.7 What could be more plainly spoken than this?

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For he evidently expounds justification by sanctification, and sanctification by remission of sins. Furthermore, what else is sanctification but the adoption by which we are received into the grace and number of the sons of God? What is he, therefore, who does not see that in this treatise of St. Paul, justification is taken for adoption? Especially since in the very same fourth chapter to the Romans, he goes about proving that an inheritance is due to faith, to which he also attributes justification. By all this, it is made manifest that the question of justification contains nothing else but the manner and reason of sanctification; that is to say, by which and how men have their sins forgiven, and are received into the grace and number of the sons of God — and being justified, are made heirs of the kingdom of God.

And now, let us test whether what we have said is taught in the scriptures: that Christ before the judgment-seat of God, when sentence of condemnation was to be pronounced against us for our offences, took our sins upon his own neck, and purged them by the sacrifice of his death upon the cross; and that God also laid upon Christ our fault and punishment, so that Christ alone is the only satisfaction and purging of the faithful. The apostle Paul teaches this most expressly, where he says, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who shall condemn? It is Christ who died; indeed, rather it is he who is raised up, and is at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us." Rom 8.33-34

And again he says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, while he was made the curse for us (for it is written, Cursed be every one who hangs on the tree); that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the gentiles through Jesus Christ," etc. Gal 3.13-14 The apostle taught this out of the writings of Moses. And Moses in his books often mentions that the sins are laid upon the heads of the beasts which were sacrificed. But those sacrifices bore the type or figure of the death and sacrifice of Christ. Isaiah also expressly says in his fifty-third chapter, "He truly has taken on himself our infirmities, and borne our pains. He was wounded for our iniquities, and struck for our sins. For the pain of our punishment was laid upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.

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We all went astray like sheep, every one turned his own way; but the Lord has thrown upon him all our sins." And immediately after, "He has taken away the sins of the multitude, and made intercession for the transgressors." Isa 53.4-6, 12 I think nothing more can be brought to the matter, or is more fit for our present purpose, than these words. St. Peter alludes to this when he says, "The Lord himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, that we, being dead to sin, may live to righteousness; by the sign of whose stripes, we are made whole." 1Pet 2.24

St. John the Baptist, forerunner of the Lord, alluded to this when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." Joh 1.29 Moreover, the apostle Paul bears witness to this, saying, "Him that did not know sin, He made sin for us, that through him we might be made the righteousness of God." 2Cor 5.21 Also in his epistle to the Colossians he says, "It pleased the Father, that in Christ all fulness should dwell; and by him to reconcile all things to himself, having set peace by him through the blood of his cross, both things on earth and things in heaven." Col 1.19-20

These testimonies, I suppose, are sufficiently evident to prove that our sins are laid upon Christ, with the curse or condemnation due to our offences; and that by his blood Christ has cleansed our sins; and by his death he has vanquished death and the devil, the author of death, and taken away the punishment due to us.

Yet, because there are some (and those are not a few) who deny that by his death, Christ has taken both fault and punishment from us sinners, [251] and that he became the only satisfaction of the whole world, I will therefore now allege certain other testimonies, and repeat something of what I recited before, to thereby make it manifest that Christ, the only satisfaction of the world, has made satisfaction both for our fault and for our punishment.

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Isaiah witnessed truly, that both the fault of our offence and the punishment were taken away, when he says, "He bore our infirmities, and was wounded for our iniquities." Finally, "the discipline of peace was laid on him" (that is, the discipline, or chastising, or punishment, bringing peace; or the penalty of our correction, that is, the punishment due to us for our offences). Also mark what follows: "and with the blueness of his stripes [252] we are healed." Isa 53.4-5 This evidently teaches that our punishment is taken away by the pain of Christ. For look what pain, penalty, punishment, or correction was due to us, and that was laid on the Lord himself. And for that reason, the Lord was wounded and received stripes; and with them he healed us. But he would not have healed us at all if we were yet to look for wounds, stripes, and strokes — that is to say, punishment for our sins. The death of Christ, therefore, is a full satisfaction for our sins. But I ask you, what would Christ avail us, if we were still to be punished for our offences? Therefore, when we say that he bore all our sins in his body upon the cross, what else do we mean, I ask you, if not that the Lord, by a death that was not due him, took God's vengeance from us, that it might not light on us to our punishment? Paul, as often as he mentions our redemption made by Christ, calls it ἀντίλυτρον (antilutron) for us; [253] He does not understand this word as the common sort do, as barely and simply redemption — but as the very price and satisfaction of redemption. This is why he also writes that Christ himself gave himself to be the antilutron [254] for us — that is to say, the price with which captives are redeemed from their enemies in the war. For what we commonly call ransoms, the Greeks call lutra. So then, anti-lutron is when a man is redeemed for a man, and a life is redeemed for a life.

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But no punishment is afterward laid upon those who are thus ransomed and set at liberty, because of the translation of it from one to another. Furthermore, this is the new covenant that God in his Christ has made with us: "that he will not remember our iniquities." Heb 8.12 But how could He choose not to remember our iniquities, if he did not also cease to punish them? So then, this is not to be doubted: that Christ our Lord is the full propitiation, satisfaction, oblation, and sacrifice for the sins — I say, for the punishment and the fault — of the whole world: yes, and by himself alone; for there is salvation in no other: "nor is there any other name given to men by which they must be saved." Act 4.12

I do not deny that because of discipline, chastisement, and exercise, diverse sorts of punishments are laid on men's necks, and that they are diversely afflicted and vexed because of their offences. But those afflictions, however they may be patiently suffered by the faithful, do not yet wash sins away, nor make satisfaction for misdeeds. St. Peter says, "Do not marvel that you are tried by fire, which is done for your trial, [255] as if anything new were happening to you; yes, rather rejoice in this: that you are partakers of the afflictions of Christ, so that in the revelation of his glory, you also may rejoice and be glad." 1Pet 4.12-13 This, I say, is the end and use of afflictions. And by this means, the glory of Christ endures pure and uncorrupted.

It now remains for me to prove out of the holy scriptures, that God the Father has ordained that whoever believes in the only-begotten Son of God, will be made partaker of Christ's righteousness; that is, he will be justified by him, be absolved from his sins, and be made heir of life everlasting. Isaiah therefore says, "In acknowledging him, or in his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify the multitude, whose sins he himself shall bear." [256]

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But what else is the acknowledging or knowledge of Christ, if not true faith? Moreover, the Lord Jesus himself says in the gospel of St. John, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Joh 3.14-15 There was no other remedy in the desert, against the envenomed bitings of the serpents, except the contemplation or beholding of the serpent lifted up and hung aloft. No plaster cured those who were poisoned Wis 16.12 — no oblation made to God, not prayer itself offered to God, not any work, nor any other way. Only beholding the serpent made the poison harmless that had then crept into all their limbs. In like manner, nothing at all saves us from death except faith in Christ. For by faith we behold and see Christ lifted up upon the stake of the cross, as seen in the sixth chapter of John.[257] It follows in the words of our Saviour,

"God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes should not perish, but have life everlasting. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through him the world might be saved. He that believes on him is not condemned, but he that does not believe is condemned already, because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." Joh 3.16-18

By these words, now the third time, faith is beaten into our heads, by which we are made partakers of the Son of God, of his life, salvation, redemption, and all good things beside. In the sixth chapter of the Gospel according to John, our Lord again says, "This is the will of the Father who sent me, that every one who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have life everlasting, and I will raise him up at the last day." Joh 6.40 Nothing can be alleged to make more for our present argument than these words of his. For he says plainly that the will of God the Father is that we should believe in the Son, and by this belief we have our salvation. Upon this, John the evangelist and apostle, in his canonical epistle, dares to burst forth in these words:

"He that does not believe God makes him a liar, because he did not believe the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that does not have the Son of God does not have life." 1Joh 5.10-12

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Dearly beloved, note this: the eternal and unchangeable will of God is that He will give eternal life to the world. But he will give that life through Christ, who is naturally life itself, and can give life. The very same God also wills that we obtain and have life in us, and that we have it no other way than by faith. For the apostle Paul taught that Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. Eph 3.17 Moreover, the Lord himself also witnesses, and says, "He that eats me shall live by me." Joh 6.57 But you know, dearly beloved, that to eat Christ is to believe in him. And therefore, we knit up this place with these words of St. Peter: "All the prophets bear witness to this Christ, that whoever believes in him shall receive forgiveness of sins through his name." Act 10.43

We have in these a most ample testimony of the whole sacred scriptures. By these I have evidently enough declared what God has appointed, that whoever believes in Christ, being cleansed from his sins, shall be made heir of life everlasting.

I will make this more evident yet, by declaring how faith alone — that is, faith for itself, and not for any works of ours — justifies the faithful. For itself I say, not that it respects a quality of the mind in us, or our own work in ourselves; but in respect to that faith which is the gift of God's grace, having in it a promise of righteousness and life; and in respect that faith, naturally, of itself, it is a certain and undoubted persuasion resting upon God, and believing that God, being pacified by Christ, has bestowed life and all good things on us through Christ. Therefore, faith in Christ justifies, by the grace and promise of God. And so faith justifies — that is, that which we believe, and in which our confidence is settled (God himself, I say, by the grace of God), ,justifies us through our redemption in Christ; so that now, our own works or merits have no place left to them at all — I mean, in justification.

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Otherwise, good works do have their place in the faithful, as we mean to show in a convenient place. For Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, by way of opposition, compares Christ with Adam, and shows that of Adam, and so of our own nature and strength, we have nothing but sin, the wrath of God, and death. And he shows this under the name of Adam, with the intent that no man should seek righteousness and life in the flesh. And again, on the other side, he declares that by Christ we have righteousness, the grace of God, life, and the forgiveness of all our sins. In this opposition, he earnestly urges and often repeats this word, "of one," Rom 5.12f truly, this is to no other end, but that we should understand that faith alone justifies.

To the Galatians he very evidently uses this kind of argument. "Nobody adds to or takes anything away from the last will and testament of a man, once it is proved." Gal 3.15 Reason therefore rightly requires that no man add anything to, or take anything away from, the testament of God. But this is the testament which God confirmed: that His will is to bestow the blessing upon Abraham's seed, not in many, or by many, but through one. "For he does not say, And to the seeds, as though he spoke of many; but as speaking of one he says, And to your seed, that is, Christ." Gal 3.16 Therefore, it is a detestable thing to augment or diminish anything in this testament of God. Christ alone is the only Saviour still. Men can neither save themselves nor others.

Again, in the same epistle to the Galatians he says, "We know that man is not justified by the works or the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ; insomuch as no flesh shall be justified by the works of the law." Gal 2.16 This is now the third time that Paul says that men are not justified by the works of the law, in which clause he comprehends all manner of works of whatever sort. So then, no kind of works justify. But what is it then that justifies? Faith in Christ, and truly that alone. For what else can those words import, "We know that man is not justified but by faith in Christ?"

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For the force of these two statements is the same: "Faith alone justifies;" and "It is certain that we are not justified but by faith in Jesus Christ." He adds the example of the apostles: "And we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Jesus Christ, and not by the works of the law." In like manner also, Peter argues by an example in the Acts of the Apostles, and says, "We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they were." Acts 15.11.

Moreover, in the very same chapter to the Galatians he says, "I do not despise the grace of God; for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Gal 2.21 For, if we in ourselves had anything by which we might be saved, why did the Son of God need to take on our flesh, to suffer, and to die? But because the Son of God, being incarnate, suffered and died, and did not die in vain, there was therefore nothing in our flesh that could obtain salvation for mankind. This is why the only Son of God is our Saviour forever, and by true faith he makes us partakers of his salvation.

Paul, in the very beginning of his epistle to the Romans, proves that all men are sinners; that in men there remains no strength for them to be saved by; and that the law of God itself digs up the knowledge of offences — that is, it applies them, brings them to light, and makes them manifest, but it does not take them away, blot them out, or utterly extinguish them. And therefore God, for his own goodness' sake, to the end that the work that he has made would not altogether perish, justifies the faithful freely by faith in Jesus Christ. I will repeat a few of the apostle's own words.

"The righteousness of God is declared without the law, being witnessed by the law and the prophets notwithstanding. The righteousness of God, I say, comes by faith in Jesus Christ to all and upon all those who believe. For there is no difference: for all have sinned, and need the glory of God, but are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood." Rom 3.21-25

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These words of the apostle, I suppose, are most manifest to those who believe. He plucks justification from our own merits and strength, and attributes it to grace, by which the Son of God is given to the world for the punishment of the cross — that all those who believe that they are redeemed by the blood of the Son of God may be justified. Again the apostle immediately after adds, "Therefore we hold that man is justified by faith without the works of the law." On the heel of this, he again argues thus: "Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, even of the Gentiles also. For it is one God who justifies circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith." Rom 5.28-30 To be God, is nothing else than to be life and salvation. But God is the God of the Gentiles also, and not of the Jews alone. Therefore God is the life and salvation of the Gentiles. He communicates this life and salvation to us, not by the law or through circumcision, but by faith in Christ; therefore faith alone justifies. This may be proved by the example of Cornelius the centurion who, as soon as St. Peter had preached to him, and once he believed, he was later justified, when as yet he had not received circumcision or the law; when as yet he had not sacrificed, nor merited righteousness by any work that he did. For he was freely justified in faith through Jesus Christ. For Peter concluded his sermon to him in these words: "All the prophets give witness to this Christ, that through his name whoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins." Act 10.43

After all this, the apostle Paul brings forth that notable and singular example of our father Abraham, teaching by what means our father Abraham was justified. For once this was truly declared, it cannot help but be plain and manifest to everyone, by what means God's will is to justify all men. For the sons cannot be justified any other way than the father before them was justified. Abraham, therefore, was not justified by circumcision, or by receiving the sacrament; for it is said that he was justified before he was circumcised.

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Afterward, the sign of circumcision was added as "the seal of the righteousness of faith" — that is, the sign or sealing that all the seed of Abraham is justified by faith. Rom 4.10-12 The same Abraham, our father, was not justified by the law. For the law was four hundred and thirty years after the promise Gal 3.17 — not to take away sin or to work justification, but to make sin apparent, and to make us altogether empty — and once we are made empty, to send and as it were, compel us to fly to Christ. Again, Abraham was not justified by his works. And yet, good works are to be found in that most excellent patriarch; yes, and those are good works of true faith too, which are both notable and many in number, such and so many as you will scarcely find in any other. Nevertheless, the apostle says, "What then shall we say Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh (who, I say, is our father according to the flesh), has merited or found?" For the Greek word heurekenai has both those significations.[258] For "if Abraham were justified by works, then he has something to boast about; but not before God." Rom 4:1-2

For God alone is just, and He alone justifies. All men are corrupt; indeed, even Abraham is a sinner, and every man stands in need of the glory of God. For this cause also, the prophet was plainly forbidden to boast in anything, but in the mercy of God. This is why Abraham did not boast against God. He acknowledged that he was a sinner, and was to be justified freely, and not for his own merits' sake. The apostle goes on to say, "For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed in God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." Rom 4.3 Two things are affirmed here: first, that Abraham believed in God; and secondly, that this was imputed to him for righteousness. By this it follows that Abraham was justified by faith, and not by works. And the apostle proves that in this manner: "Righteousness is not imputed to him who merits righteousness by works. But righteousness is imputed to Abraham. Therefore he did not merit righteousness by works." Again, "Truly, to him who does not work but believes, his faith is counted for righteousness. Abraham believed in God, therefore his faith was reckoned for righteousness." Rom 4.1-5

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In the same chapter, the same apostle brings forth other arguments, altogether as strong as these, to prove that faith justifies without works. "If those," he says, "who are of the law are heirs, then faith is but vain, and the promise is made of no effect." Rom 4.14 Those are of the law, who seek to be justified by the works of the law. But faith rests upon the mercy of God. What place then shall grace and the mercy of God have left to them, if we merit justification by works? Why should I need to believe that I will be justified by the blood of Christ, if God is one with me again by my works — the one who was angry with me for my sins? Finally, salvation and righteousness are promised by God. But then the promise ends when our own merits begin to take its place. For the apostle says to the Galatians: "If inheritance is of the law, then it is not now of the promise. But God gave the inheritance to Abraham by promise." Gal 3.18, 22 Therefore, that the promise might remain stable, faith justifies, and not merits.

Again, in the fourth chapter to the Romans he says, "Therefore the inheritance is given by faith, that it might be by grace, that the promise might be sure to all the seed; not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham." Rom 4.16 He repeats here two causes for which he attributes justification to faith, and not to works. The first is that justification may be a free gift, and that the grace of God may be praised. The second is that the promise and salvation may remain steadfast, and that it may come upon the Gentiles also. But it would not be given to the Gentiles if it were due only to the law and circumcision, because the Gentiles lack them both. Finally, the hope of our salvation ought to be steadfastly established. But it would never be surely grounded, or safely preserved, if it were attributed to our own works or merits; for something is always lacking in them. But nothing can be lacking in God and in the merit of the Son of God. Therefore, our salvation is surely confirmed, it is not to be doubted, and it is assuredly certain, if we seek it by faith in the Son of God, who is our righteousness and salvation.

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To all these I will add yet another testimony out of St. Paul, which indeed is both very evident and easily perceived. In his epistle to the Ephesians he says, "By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast in himself. For we are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has ordained before, that we should walk in them." Eph 2.8-10 I will not say more than this, nor will I expound the words of Paul at large. For these testimonies are clearer than the noon-day, and most evidently testify that we are justified by faith, and not by any works.

But, reverend [259] brethren in the Lord, good works come into no jeopardy here, so as to set little by them because this doctrine teaches that faith alone justifies. This is what the apostles of Christ taught; why then should we not teach it too? As for those who think this doctrine by which we constantly affirm that faith alone without works justifies, is contrary to religion, let them blame the apostles of Christ, and not find fault with us. Moreover, although we say that the faithful are justified by faith alone, or by faith without works, we do not say, as many think we do, that faith is posted alone, or is utterly destitute of good works. For wherever there is faith, there it also shows itself by good works; because the righteous cannot help but work righteousness. But before he works righteousness — that is to say, good works — he must of necessity be righteous. Therefore the righteous man does not attain righteousness, which goes before, by works that follow after. This is why righteousness is attributed to grace. For by grace, the faithful are freely justified in faith, according to that saying, "The just shall live by his faith;" Hab 2.4 and after they are justified, they begin to bring forth the works of righteousness.

Therefore, in this discourse I do not mean to overthrow good works, which have their due place and dignity in the church among the faithful before the face of God. But my mind is that I may by all means prove that the grace of God, and the merit [260] of the Son of God, is overthrown and trodden underfoot, when we join our merits and works to the merit of Christ, and to faith, by which we take hold on Christ.

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For what can be more manifest than this saying of the blessed apostle: "If we are saved by grace, then it is not now works; for then grace is no longer grace. But if we are saved by works, then it is not now grace; for the work is no longer work." Rom 11.6. This is why these two, grace and merit (or work), cannot stand together. Therefore, lest we overthrow the grace of God, and wickedly deny the fruit of Christ's passion, we attribute justification to faith alone, because faith attributes it to the mere grace of God in the death of the Son of God.

And yet for all this, we acknowledge that we are created, according to the doctrine of Paul, for good works — for those good works, I say, which God ordained beforehand, Eph 2.10 which He has appointed in his word, and requires us to walk in. Even though we walk in and have become rich in good works, notwithstanding that, we do not attribute our justification to them. But according to the doctrine of the gospel, we humble ourselves under the hand of Him who says, "So you also, when you have done all the things that have been commanded of you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done no more than we ought to do." Luk 17.10

So then, as often as the godly read that our own works justify us, that our own works are called righteousness, that a reward and life everlasting are given for our own works — he does not by and by swell with pride, nor forget the merit of Christ. But setting a godly and apt interpretation on such places, he considers that all things are by the grace of God, and that such great things are attributed to the works of men, because they are received into grace, and have now become the sons of God for Christ's sake. So that, in the end, all things may be turned upon Christ himself, for whose sake the godly know that they and all theirs are in favour and accepted by God the Father.

In what I have said, I have declared to you, dearly beloved, the great effect of faith — that is to say, that it justifies the faithful (this is little indeed in respect to the largeness of the matter, but it is sufficiently long in respect to the one hour's space appointed me to speak in).

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Here, by the way, I have briefly touched, rather than at large discoursed upon, the whole work of justification, both profitable and necessary for all men to know. Now, therefore, I pass over this, and come to the rest.

True faith is the well-spring and root of all virtues and good works. First of all, it satisfies the mind and desire of man, and it makes him quiet and joyful. For the Lord in the gospel says, "I am the bread of life. He that comes to me shall not hunger; and he that believes in me shall not thirst at any time." Joh 6.35 For what more can he desire, who already feels that by true faith he possesses the very Son of God, in whom are found all the heavenly treasures, and in whom is all fulness and grace? Our consciences are made clear and quiet as soon as we perceive that by true faith, Christ the Son of God is altogether ours; that he has appeased the Father in our behalf; that he now stands in the presence of the Father, and makes intercession to Him for us. And for that cause Paul says, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom 5.1 Through this Christ, by faith, we also have free passage to the Father. Eph 2.18

This is why we pray to the Father in His Son's name, and from his hand we obtain all things that are available to our benefit. Therefore, the apostle John said very well, "And this is the confidence that we have in him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we also know that we have the petitions that we requested from his hands." 1Joh 5.14-15 Those who lack faith neither pray to God, nor receive from him the things that are for their welfare. Moreover, faith makes us acceptable to God, and it commands us to have an eye to using God's good gifts well. Faith causes us not to faint in tribulations. Indeed also, by faith we overcome the world, the flesh, the devil, and all adversities. As the apostle John says, "For all who are born of God overcome the world: and this is the victory that vanquishes the world, even your faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" 1Joh 5.4-5

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Paul says, "Some were racked, not caring (by faith) to be set at liberty, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others were tried with mocks and stripes, with fetters and imprisonments; some were stoned, hewn in pieces, slain with the edge of the sword. They wandered in sheep-skins and goat-skins, comfortless, oppressed, afflicted (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains, and in the dens and caves of the earth." Heb 11.35-38 For the Lord himself said in the gospel, "This I spoke to you, that you might have peace in me. In the world you have affliction; but be of good confidence, I have overcome the world." Joh 16.33

Faith therefore shall be, and is, both the force and strength of patience. Patience is the prop,[261] uplifting, and preservation of hope. From faith springs charity. Charity "is the fulfilling of the law," Rom 13.10 which contains in it the sum of all good works. But unless we have a true faith in God, there is no charity in us. "Everyone who loves Him that begot," says John the apostle, "also loves him who is born of him." 1Joh 5.1

The hour has past a good while since; and no man is able in many hours, so substantially as it requires, to declare the whole effect of faith.

You have heard, dearly beloved, that true faith is the justification of the church, or of the faithful of God. It is, I say, the forgiveness of all sins, being received into the grace of God, being taken by adoption into the number of the sons of God, an assured and blessed sanctification, [262] and finally, the well-spring of all good works. Let us, therefore, pray to God the Father in true faith, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He will grant to fill our hearts with this true faith; that in this present world, being joined to him in faith, we may serve him as we should; and that after our departure out of this life, we may forever live with him in whom we believe. To Him be praise and glory forever. Amen.

1-7. THE SEVENTH SERMON: THE APOSTLES' CREED, Art. 1-4.

OF THE FIRST ARTICLES OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

CONTAINED IN THE APOSTLES' CREED.

IN my two last sermons I treated true faith and its effects; and among the rest, in one place I said that the articles of the Christian faith are a brief summary of true faith, as it were. Therefore, I think it is not beside the purpose now, and it is part of my duty, to lay before you those TWELVE ARTICLES of our belief. For they are the substance and matter of true faith, in which faith is exercised. Because it is the ground of things hoped for, it is plainly and briefly declared in these articles, what things are to be hoped for. But let no man at present look for the busy and full discourse of the articles of our faith from my hand. I will go through them only briefly, touching only the most necessary points. They are handled more at large in another place, by its several parts. Pray with me to the Lord, that he will grant to show to us his ways, to guide and preserve us in them, to the glory of his own name, and to the everlasting salvation of our souls.

First, I have to say something touching the common name by which the articles of our faith are usually called the Symbol or Creed of the Apostles. A symbol is the same as a conferring together, or a badge. [263] The articles are called a conferring together because, by laying together the apostles' doctrine, they were made and written to be a rule and an abridgement of the faith preached by the apostles, and received by the catholic or universal church. But what he was, who first disposed and wrote these articles, is not known, nor is it left in writing by the holy scriptures. There are some who attribute it to the apostles themselves and therefore they call it by the name of the Apostles' Creed. St. Cyprian, the martyr, in his exposition of the Apostles' Creed, says,

"Our ancestors have a saying that, after the Lord's ascension, when by the coming of the Holy Ghost the fiery tongues sat upon every one of the apostles — so that they spoke both diverse and sundry languages, whereby there was no foreign nation nor barbarous tongue to which they did not seem sufficiently prepared to pass by the way — they had a commandment from the Lord to go to all nations to preach the word of God.

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When they were therefore ready to depart, they laid down among themselves a platform of preaching for them all to follow, lest perhaps, being severed from one another, they preached different things to those who were converted to the faith of Christ. Therefore, being there all together, and replenished with the Holy Ghost, they gathered everyone's several statements in one, and made that breviary (as I said) to be a pattern by which to frame all their preachings, appointing it as a rule to be given to those who would believe." [264]

This is what Cyprian says. But whether they were of the apostles' own making or not, or others made them (the apostles' disciples), it is yet very well known that the very doctrine of the apostles is purely contained and taught in them. These twelve articles are also called a badge, because by that sign, as if it were a badge, true Christians are discerned from false.

Now I will declare what order I will use in expounding them to you. This whole breviary, or abridgement of faith, may be divided into four parts; so that the three first parts make manifest the mysteries of the three Persons in one Godhead; and the fourth part lays out the fruits of faith, that is to say, what good things we look for by faith, and what good things God bestows on those who put their trust in Him.

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And yet, notwithstanding, I will proceed orderly in this, so that the twelve articles are placed or set down.

THE FIRST ARTICLE of Christian faith is this: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth." And this first article of the Creed contains two especial points. For first we say generally, I believe in God; and then we descend particularly to the distinction of the Persons, and add, the Father Almighty. For God is one in substance, and three in Persons. Therefore, understanding the unity of the substance, we say plainly, I believe in God. And again, keeping and not confounding the Persons, we add, In the Father Almighty, In Jesus Christ his only Son, and in the Holy Ghost. Let us therefore believe that God is one, not many, and pure in substance; but he is three in Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. For in the law it is written, "Hearken, Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." Deu 6.4 And again, in the gospel we read that the Lord says, "Baptize them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Mat 28.19

By the way, this is singularly to be marked by us: that when we pray, we say, "Our Father which is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread;" but when we confess our belief, we do not say, We believe, but "I believe." For faith is required of every one of us, for every particular man to have without dissimulation in his heart, and to profess it with his mouth without double-meaning. It was not enough for Abraham to have faith for all his seed; nor will it avail you anything for another to believe, if you yourself are without faith. For the Lord requires faith of every particular man for himself. This is why, as often as we confess our faith, every one of us by himself says, "I believe." But I have declared already in my fourth sermon, what it means to believe.

It follows in the confession, "I believe in God." God is the object and foundation of our faith, as He that is the everlasting and chief goodness, never weary, but always ready at our need. We therefore believe in God — that is to say, we put our whole hope, all our safety, and ourselves, wholly into his hands, as the One who is able to preserve and bestow on us all things that are requisite for our benefit.

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Now it follows that this God, in whom we rest, and to whose tuition [265] we all commit ourselves, is "the Father Almighty." Our God is therefore called Father, because from before all beginning he begat the Son like himself. For the scripture calls God, "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." The apostle says, "He is the brightness of the glory of God, and the living image of the substance of the Father: to whom he said, You are my Son, this day I have begotten you." And again, "I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son." Heb 1.3, 5

Also, God is called Father in respect to the likeness that he has with our earthly father — namely, because of our creation, the favour, love, good-will, and carefulness with which He is affected towards us. For God has created us, God loves us, God regards our affairs, and is careful for us — yes, and more exceedingly than any earthly father. For David says, "Even as the father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him: for he knows our estate, remembering that we are but dust." Psa 103.13-14

Isaiah also, in his 49th chapter, says, "Can a woman forget her own infant, and not pity and be glad over the son of her own womb? But admit it, she forgets; yet I will not forget you." In this, God's good-will is declared toward us. And we, confessing that God is our Father, also profess that God is both gentle, liberal, and merciful to us; He wishes us all things that are available for our health; and He purposes nothing toward us but that which is good and wholesome; and last of all, that from His hand we receive whatever good we have, either bodily or spiritually.

God is called Almighty, because by his might he can do all things; because he is Lord of all things, and has all things subject to his commandment. For the same cause also, He is called the Lord of hosts. Heaven, earth, and whatever is in them — stars, all elements, men, angels, devils, all living creatures, all things created — are in the power of the most high and everlasting God. Whatever he commands, they do: nothing is able to withstand his will.

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What he wills, must of necessity be done; and he also uses these things even as his own will and pleasure is, and as his justice and man's salvation require. First we confessed that God wills us well; and now we acknowledge that whatever he wills, he is able to bring that to pass. For we say that God is Almighty. That is, there is nothing he cannot do, which is profitable and necessary for us, as he is Lord of all and our strong helper.

But that God is our good Father — liberal, gentle, merciful, strong, almighty, Lord of all, and our defender and deliverer — is to be seen by his wonderful works. For he is the "maker of heaven and earth." And in the making of heaven and earth, he has declared the great love that he bears toward mankind. For when as yet they were not, nor were able, with deservings and good turns, to provoke God to do them any good, then God — first, and of his own mere and natural goodness — made heaven and earth a most excellent and beautiful palace, and gave it to them to dwell in, putting under man's dominion all the creatures of this whole world. But how great the power was that he showed in making all these things, is evident by this: "He spoke the word, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created." [266] If you were to break into parts, and severally examine what he made in those six days — in what order, with what beauty, to how great a commodity of mankind, and finally, how almost with no labour at all, he brought them all forth, as it is written at large by Moses in the first chapter of Genesis — you would be compelled to be amazed at the good will and power of God. And yet, by the way, we must think the Creator of all things, to be such a one that by his Son — that is, by his eternal Wisdom — he has created all things both visible and invisible; Col 1.16 yes, and that was from nothing too. And moreover, at this very time he sustains, nourishes, rules, and preserves all things by his everlasting Spirit, without which everything would presently fall to ruin, and come to nothing. Therefore, in this we also confess the providence of our eternal God, and his exceedingly wise government.

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And thus in this first part, I have declared to you that which is proper to the Father. For he is a Father; indeed, he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our Father also, being Lord of all things, maker of heaven and earth, governor and preserver of all things, by whom all things are, and in whom all things consist; who from before all beginning begot the eternal Son, equal with the Father, being of one substance, power, and glory with the Father, by whom also he made the world. From both of them proceeds the Holy Ghost, as David witnesses, and says, "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all the host of it." Psa 33.6

Now follows the second part, in which are contained all the mysteries of Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son of God.

For THE SECOND ARTICLE of the Christian faith is thus word for word: "And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord." This article also comprehends two things: the first is that we believe in the Son of God; the second, what the Son of God is. For we confess that we believe; that is, we put our whole hope and confidence of life and salvation in the Son as well as in the Father. And therefore we say plainly, "I believe in Jesus Christ," even as before we said, "I believe in God," etc. For the Lord Jesus himself, in the fourteenth chapter of John, says, "Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me." Again, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent." Joh 6.29 And again, "This is eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and him whom you have sent, Christ Jesus." Joh 17.3

Moreover, in the gospel of St, John, we read that the Lord said, speaking to the blind man whose eyes he opened, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" And the blind man, having received his sight, replied, "Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him?" To this the Lord replied, "You have seen him, and it is he that talks with you." And then, again, the blind man said, "I believe, Lord;" and with that, he worshipped him. Joh 9.35-38

Therefore let us also believe and worship; let us believe that Jesus is the very Son of God the Father, being of one power with the Father, although in Person he differs from the Father. Testifying of this, David says, "The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand," etc. Psa 110.1

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But if we declare at large, who that Son of God is, in whom we believe, then we must note three things especially. The first is that he is called the only Son. If he is the Son indeed, and the Son of God too, then his nature and substance are a divine nature and substance. For in this signification the apostle calls him, "the brightness of the glory of the Father, and the living image of His substance." The holy fathers say very well, therefore, that the Son is of the same substance and being with the Father. To which this belongs: that he is called the only Son: and in another place, the only-begotten and first-begotten Son. For we also are called sons, not by participation of nature, or likeness of substance, or naturally, but by adoption. And therefore the Jews were not offended because he called himself the Son of God, in the sense that all the faithful are called (and are) the sons of God — but because they perceived that he more extolled himself in saying that he is the natural Son of God, equal to God, and God himself. For thus we read in the fifth chapter of John, "Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Jesus; not only because he had broken the sabbath, but he also said that God was his Father, and made himself equal with God." Joh 5.18 Again, where the Lord said in the tenth chapter, "I and my Father are one; then the Jews took up stones to stone him with. But Jesus answered, Many good works I have done for you; for which of them do you stone me?" To which the Jews replied, "For your good works' sake we do not stone you, but for your blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God." Joh 10.32-33 These are most evident testimonies of the natural Godhead of Christ, which whoever does not believe, he does not have the Father. 1Joh 2.23 For he that honours the Son, honours the Father; Joh 5.23 and he that is without the Son does not have the Father: and unless the Son were God by nature, he could not be the Saviour of the world.

Now the second thing to be marked is that the name of the only-begotten Son of God is revealed, and he is called "Jesus Christ." The name is expressly set down, that we may know who it is in whom we believe, lest perhaps we might be deceived in the person. It is Jesus. This name was given to him by God's appointment from heaven, even as it was prefigured in duke Joshua and in Jesus the high priest.[267]

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The angel says in the gospel of St. Matthew, instructing Joseph, "Mary shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins." Mat 1.21 So then, this Son of God, Jesus, is the Saviour of the world, who forgives sins, and sets us free from all the power of our adversary the devil — which truly he could not do unless he were very God. He is also called Christ, which is the same as saying, Anointed. The Jews call him Messiah; this word is a title proper to a kingdom or priesthood. For those of old usually anointed their kings and priests. They were anointed with external or figurative ointment or oil. But very Christ was anointed with the very true ointment, that is, with the fulness of the Holy Ghost, as seen in the first and third chapters of St. John. Most properly, therefore, this name Christ is attributed to our Lord. For, first, he is both King and Priest of the people of God. Then the Holy Ghost is poured fully, by all means and abundantly, into Jesus from whom, as if he were a living fountain, it flows into all the members of Christ. For this is like Aaron, upon whose head the oil was poured, "which ran down to his beard, and the furthermost skirts of his garment;" Psa 133.2 for "of his fulness we have all received." Joh 1.16

The last thing that is to be noted now in this second article, is that we call the Son of God "our Lord." The Son of God truly is properly called our Lord for two causes: first, in respect to the mystery of our redemption. For Christ is the Lord of all the elect, whom he has delivered from the power and dominion of Satan, sin, and death, and has made them a people of his own getting, for himself. 1Pet 2.9 This similitude is taken from lords, who with their money buy slaves for their use; or who in wars reserve captives whom they might have slain; or who deliver condemned men from present death. So by this, then, lords are deliverers, redeemers, or saviours as it were. [268]

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Truly, Paul alludes to this where he says, "You are bought with a price: do not become (therefore) the servants of men." 1Cor 7.23 And St. Peter says, "You are redeemed, not with gold and silver, but with the precious blood of the unspotted Lamb." 1Pet 1.18-19 Moreover, Christ is called Lord in respect to his divine power and nature, by which all things are in subjection to the Son of God. And because this word "Lord" is of a very ample signification, as that which contains both the divine nature and majesty, we see that the apostles use it very willingly in their writings. Paul says to the Corinthians, "Although there are many lords, we have but one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom all things are, and we by him." 1Cor 8.5-6

THE THIRD ARTICLE of Christian faith is this: "Which was conceived by the Holy Ghost; born of the virgin Mary." In the second article we have confessed that we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord. In this we have confessed in a shadow as it were, that we believe assuredly that God the Father has given his Son to the world for us and our salvation, to be a Saviour and Redeemer; for those names Jesus and Lord belong to this. Now, therefore, in this third article I have to declare the manner and order of how he came into the world: namely, by INCARNATION. This article contains two things: the conception of Christ, and his nativity. I will speak of both these in order, after I have briefly declared to you the causes of the Lord's incarnation.

Men were in a miserable taking, and all mankind should utterly have perished for sin, which we have all drawn from the first man Adam: for the reward of sin is death. And for that cause, we who were to be cast into hell, could not enter into heaven, unless the Son of God had descended to us, and becoming "God with us," [269] had drawn us into heaven with himself. Therefore, the chief cause of his incarnation is to be a Mediator between God and men, and by intercession, to join or bring into one, those who were severed. For where there is a mediator, there must also be discord and parties. The parties are God and men; the cause of discord is sin. Now the office of the mediator is to bring the disagreeing parties to agreement.

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Truly, this cannot be done unless that sin, the cause of this variance, is taken clean away. But sin is neither cleansed nor taken away, unless blood is shed and death follows. Paul testifies to this in his ninth chapter to the Hebrews. The mediator should therefore take on himself our flesh and blood, that he might both die and shed his blood. Furthermore, it is needful that this advocate or mediator, be indifferently common to both the parties whom he has to reconcile. This is why our Lord Christ ought to be very God and very man. If he had been God alone, then he would have been terrible to men, and would have stood them in little stead; if he had been mere man, then he could not have had access to God, who is a consuming fire. Thus our Lord Jesus Christ, being both God and man, was a fit Mediator for both the parties. Witnessing to this, tyhe apostle says, "One God, and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself, the price of redemption for all." 1Tim 2.5-6

The same apostle, in the second and ninth chapters to the Hebrews, says many things belonging to this place. And in the second chapter, repeating another cause of Christ's incarnation, he says, "It became him in all things to be made like his brethren, that he might be merciful and a faithful High Priest in things concerning God, to purge the people's sins. For in that he himself was tempted, he is able to succour those who are tempted." Heb 2.17-18 Another cause for which our Lord was incarnated, was that he might instruct us in all godliness and righteousness; and finally, that he might be the light of the world, and an example of holy life. For Paul says, "The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to us, teaching us to renounce ungodliness, and to live holily." Tit 2.11-12

To conclude: he therefore became one with us by the participation of nature — that is to say, it pleased him to be incarnate for this cause: that he might join us again to God — we who were separated from God for sin — and receive us into the fellowship of himself, and all his other goodness beside.

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The next thing for us to declare is the manner of his incarnation. This article of faith stands on two members. The first is, "He was conceived by the Holy Ghost." All we men, Christ excepted, are conceived by the seed of man, which of itself is unclean; and therefore we are born sinners; and Paul says, "We are born the sons of wrath." Eph 2.3 But the body of Christ our Lord, I say, was not conceived in the virgin Mary by Joseph, nor by any seed of man, but by the Holy Ghost. It is not that the Holy Ghost was in place of the seed; for nothing is begotten of the Spirit except what is spiritual. Nor does our Lord have a phantastical body,[270] but a very true body, and of the same substance with us. So then, our Lord was conceived in the womb of the virgin by the Holy Ghost. For the Holy Ghost by his eternal power, brought to pass that the virginity of the mother being uncorrupted, she was made with child, I say, conceived of her blood; and she gave a pure and very human body to the Son of God, as declared at large by the angel Gabriel in the first chapter of St. Luke. I mean to speak of this place more largely elsewhere; for now, I pass it over untouched.

God himself, immediately after the beginning of the world, foretold that such would be the manner of that conception. For he did not say, The seed of the man will tread down the serpent's head, but "the seed of the woman." Gen 3.15 Moreover, the Lord says by the prophets, "I will raise up seed to David." [271] Moses' law for raising up seed for the departed brother is well known. For if the brother died without issue of children, his brother, remaining alive, was compelled to marry the deceased brother's wife, and to beget children by her. These were called and accounted, not by the name of the brother who was living, but by the dead brother. Deu 25.5-6

This is why, when there was not to be found a man of David's line who was sufficiently fit to beget from the virgin the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, God himself raises up seed to David, and by his Holy Spirit, He makes the virgin with child.

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Even though she was not with child by a man of David's line, yet because she was a daughter of David's stock, and because God was working it so, she gave substance to the Son of God from her own substance. Thus her child Christ both is, and is called, the Son of David. That argues, moreover, for what David says in Psalm 110.3, "In the mighty power of holiness, the dew of your birth is to you of the womb of the morning;" or "The dew of your birth is to you of the womb of the morning in the mighty power of holiness." That is to say, you shall be born by a certain mighty power of holiness, and marvellous means. For your birth shall be like the engendering of the dew, which comes of the pure morning, as it were, a child born of the womb. For as in the daytime the sun draws a vapour out of the earth, which because of the smallness of the heat which draws it upward, is drawn down again by the coldness of the temperate night-evenings, and resolved into water; so God — that is the Sun of righteousness — took blood from the earth, that is, from the body of the untouched virgin Mary, and by a wonderful means, holily and purely brought to pass, that from her unspotted womb should be born and conceived the most holy Son of God.

The reasons why this conception of the Son of God in the womb of the holy virgin is most pure, are these: He that is conceived in the womb of a virgin, is God; but God is a consuming fire, which cannot take or permit any uncleanness in itself. Another cause is this: God came to cleanse our uncleanness, that is, the uncleanness of men. He truly ought to be exempt from all original spots, and be most holy in all points to the end that, being the only unspotted sacrifice offered up for the sins of the whole world, he might take all the sins of the world clean away. For that which is itself defiled cannot cleanse the defiled thing; rather, the spot or filthiness doubles its uncleanness by coming to that other unclean thing.

The second member of this third article is: He was "born of the virgin Mary." The Lord was born of Mary his mother, yet she was a virgin still. He is therefore very man, who is born of woman. Moreover his birth is pure: for he was born of the virgin, so that together, she was a mother and yet a virgin too. [272]

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For Isaiah says, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a son." Isa 7.14 A virgin, he says, shall both conceive and bring forth; so that she may nevertheless remain a virgin still. The birth of the Son of God, therefore, is most pure. Also his birth is a true birth, truly and indeed. For he takes flesh from the substance and womb of the virgin. In this signification also, our Lord Jesus Christ is called the Son of David. He could not be called David's son, unless he had taken true human substance from Mary, a maid or daughter of the stock of David. That the apostle John might most properly signify and express this, he says, "The Word was made flesh." Joh 1.14 And the apostle Paul says, "Nowhere does he take on himself the angels, but the seed of Abraham." [273] And in the same place again, he affirms that the Lord "was made like his brethren in all things, sin excepted." To the Philippians he says, "While he was equal with God, he made himself of no reputation, taking on himself the form of a servant, and made in the likeness of men, and found in figure as a man." Phi 2.6-8 Again the apostle John bears witness and says, "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is not of God." 1Joh 4.2-3 Luke, in his second chapter, has set forth at large the manner of his nativity; and I mean to speak of it elsewhere in full. Let us therefore confess that Jesus Christ was "conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin Mary."

THE FOURTH ARTICLE of Christian faith is this: "He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: he descended into hell." In this fourth article is declared the end, use, and chief commodity of the Lord's incarnation. For he became man, that he might suffer and die; and by dying and suffering, he might redeem us from eternal death and the torments of hell, and make us (once cleansed) heirs of life everlasting. For this is the end of the Lord's death, as I will later show you, and as Paul at large declares in the ninth chapter to the Hebrews. This article also is divided into parts.

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First, we confess that our Lord suffered indeed, and not phantastically in appearance only; [274] and that he truly suffered the calamities and miseries of this world; and after that, again the torments of the slaughter-men, and of death itself in most bitter pangs. He suffered therefore both in soul and body; yes, and that too in many fashions. For Isaiah says, "He is a man of sorrows, and has felt calamities. He bears our infirmities, and has carried our sorrows." Isa 53.3-4 For the Lord himself also said in the gospel, "My soul is heavy, even unto death." Mar 14.34 But truly he suffered all this for us; for in him there was neither sin, nor any other cause why he should suffer.

Secondly, the time is noted in this article, with Pontius Pilate as the judge under whom the Lord died and redeemed the world from sin, death, the devil, and hell. He therefore suffered during the monarchy of the Romans, under the emperor Tiberius, when (as now) according to the prophecy of Jacob, father of Israel, the Jewish people obeyed foreign kings, because there were no more kings or captains of the stock of Judah to rule over them. For he foretold that the Messiah would come then. Gen 49.10-11 Moreover, what may be thought of this: that the Lord himself, more often than once in the gospel, foreshowed that he would be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, and be put to death by them?

In the third point of this article, we expressly declare the manner of his death. For we add, "He was crucified," and died on the cross. But the death of the cross, just as it was most reproachful, so it was also most bitter or sharp to be suffered. And yet he took that kind of death upon himself, that he might make satisfaction for the world, and fulfil that which was prefigured from the beginning — that he should be hanged on the tree. Isaac was laid on the pile of wood to be offered up in sacrifice. Moses also stuck the serpent on a stake of wood, and lifted it up to be beheld. And the Lord himself said, "When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to me." Joh 12.32 Finally, he died on the cross, giving up his ghost to God. For he died truly and indeed, as you will immediately perceive where I briefly declare to you what the fruit of Christ's death is.

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First, we were accursed because of sin. He therefore took our curse upon himself, being lifted up on the cross, to the end that he might take our curse away, and that we might be blessed in him. Then also, the heritage bequeathed to us by will, could not come to us unless the one who bequeathed it died. Heb 9.16 But God bequeathed it: who became man that he might die, and died according to his human nature, to the end that we might receive the heritage of life. In another place, Paul again says, "Him that knew no sin, God made sin for us, that by him we might be made the righteousness of God." 2Cor 5.21 Our Lord therefore became man, by the sacrifice of himself to make satisfaction for us, when all the sins of the whole world were gathered together and laid on him, as upon a goat for a sin-offering; and by his death he took away and purged them all. So that now, the sole sacrifice of Christ has satisfied for the sins of the whole world. And this truly is the greatest commodity of Christ's death taught everywhere by the apostles of Christ. Next after that, also, the death of Christ teaches us patience and the mortification of our flesh. Yes, Christ works in us by his Spirit, by the participation of himself, so that sin may not reign in us. Touching this, the apostle Paul teaches many things in the sixth chapter to the Romans. The Lord in the gospel says, "If any man would follow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Mat 16.24 These, and a few more, are the fruits of the Lord's passion, or the death of Christ, our Lord.

Fourthly in this article is added, "He was buried." For our Lord died truly and indeed upon the cross. The very truth of his death was proved by the soldier, who thrust him through the side. After that, he was taken down from the cross and laid in a sepulchre. In the gospel are expressed the names of those who buried him, Joseph and Nicodemus. There is also shown the manner of how they buried him. The Saviour himself has taught the fruit of this burial in these words: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless the seed of corn cast into the earth dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." Joh 12.24

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Whereupon the apostle exhorts us to be buried with Christ in his death, that we may rise again in the newness of life; Rom 6.4 yes, that we may live and reign with him forevermore. If, therefore, our bodies are also buried at any time, let us not therefore be troubled in mind; for the faithful are buried, that they may rise with Christ again.

The fifth part of this fourth article some put severally by itself, for the fifth article of our faith. For my part, I see no cause why it should be plucked from that which goes before; nor why it should be made a particular article of our faith by itself. The words are these: "He descended into hell." Touching this, there are sundry opinions among the expositors of the holy scriptures. Augustine, in his book De Fide et Symbolo, [275] neither places these words in the rule of belief, nor yet expounds them. Cyprian says thus: "It is to be known truly, that in the creed of the Latin church, this is not added, He descended into hell; nor yet is this clause received in the churches of the east. Yet the sense of that clause seems to be the same as where it is said, He was buried." [276] This is what he says. So then, Cyprian's opinion seems to be that to descend into hell is nothing other than to be laid in the grave, according to that saying of Jacob: "You will bring my grey hairs with sorrow to hell, or the grave." [277]

But there are some who think this assertion is without lawful proof. For it is not likely that they would wrap a thing that is already plainly spoken once, immediately after in a darker kind of speech. Rather, as often as two sentences are joined together that both signify one thing, the latter is always an exposition of the first. [278]

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But in these two statements, "He was buried," and "He descended into hell," the first is plainer, and the latter more intricate. In his ninety-ninth epistle to Evodius, Augustine toils pitifully in this matter. [279] He writes to Dardanus, de Dei Praesentia, that the Lord went into hell, but that he felt no torment. [280] We would seem to understand this article more agreeably to the truth, if we think the virtue of Christ's death flowed even to those who were dead, and profited them too. That is to say, that all the patriarchs and holy men who died before the coming of Christ, were preserved from everlasting death by the death of Christ; as St. Peter also mentions that "the Lord went in the Spirit, and preached to the spirits who were in prison." 1Pet 3.19

For truly, by the death of Christ they were made to know the sentence of condemnation justly pronounced against them, because when they lived, they did not believe with Noah and those who were with him, in the Saviour who was to come. Or otherwise, by the lower parts, or by hell, we do not understand it to mean the place of punishment appointed for the wicked, but for the faithful who are departed; just as by the higher parts, we understand those who yet remain alive. This is why the soul of Christ descended into hell; that is to say, it was carried into Abraham's bosom, in which all the faithful already departed were gathered together.

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Therefore, when he said to the thief who was crucified with him, "This day you shall be with me in paradise," Luk 23.43 he promised him the fellowship of life and of the blessed souls. Touching Abraham's bosom, our Lord spoke at large in the sixteenth chapter of the gospel of St. Luke. For although the Lord is said to have descended, that is just a way of speaking. For otherwise it is evident by Luke, that Abraham's bosom is a place separated a great way from hell, and placed aloft. But to inquire or reason over-curiously about these things, is the point of a curious fool rather than a godly-minded man. We confess in this article, that the souls are immortal, and that immediately after bodily death, they pass to life, and that all the saints from the beginning of the world, being sanctified by faith through Christ, in Christ, and by Christ, they receive the inheritance of life everlasting.

I would add the fifth article to these, but the hour is now already spent. We will therefore defer it to the next sermon. And now let us all together pray to God, our Father who is in heaven, that he will grant us his Spirit to inspire us with that true and quickening faith which is in the Father and Son — in the Father, as the maker of all things; in the Son, as the Saviour of the whole world, who therefore came down from heaven, and was incarnate in the womb of the most holy virgin Mary, to the end he might be the Mediator between God and men, and reconcile or make them one again between themselves; and that he might therewith make an oblation to appease God's justice, and to purge our sins which he bore on his body, indeed, which he took away, and made all the faithful, heirs of life everlasting.

Let us now give praise to the grace of God, and thanks to the Son of God, to whom alone all honour and glory is due for ever and ever. Amen.

1-8. THE EIGHTH SERMON: THE APOSTLES' CREED, Art. 5-8.

OF THE LATTER ARTICLES OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

CONTAINED IN THE APOSTLES' CREED.

LET us first of all pray to our God, that he will grant us a happy, speedy, and very fruitful proceeding in the declaration of the other articles of Christian belief.

THE FIFTH ARTICLE of our belief is: "The third day he rose again from the dead." And this article of our belief, truly, is in a way the chief of all the rest. Neither are the apostles so busily occupied in declaring and confirming the others, as they are in this one. For it would not have been enough if our Lord had only died, unless he had also risen from the dead again. For if he had not risen from the dead, but had remained still in death, who would have persuaded us that sin was purged by the death of Christ, that death was vanquished, that Satan was overcome, and hell broken up for the faithful by the death of Christ? Yes, truly, we have foolish fellows who would never cease to blaspheme the true God, to mock our hope, and say, "Tosh,[281] who ever returned from the dead to tell us whether there is life in another world after this or not, and what kind of life it is? Therefore, because we cannot find any man who ever returned from the dead, it is to be doubted what these babblers tattle, touching the life of the world to come." That the Lord might therefore declare to the whole world, that after this life there is another, and that the soul does not die with the body, but remains alive, he returned the third day to his disciples, alive again. And at that instant, he showed them that sin was purged, death disarmed, the devil vanquished, and hell destroyed. For the sting of death is sin, or the reward of sin is death — the devil has the power of death, [282] and he shuts men in hell for sins.

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Now therefore, in Christ rising alive again from the dead, death could have no dominion over him. And because death is broken by allowing the Lord to pass, it must follow that the devil and hell are vanquished by Christ; and lastly, that sin, the strength and power of them all, is purely purged. It is evident, therefore, that the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, certifies and by seal assures us of our salvation and redemption, so that now we cannot doubt it any longer.

We therefore confess in this article, that our Lord Jesus Christ is risen again, and that he is risen again for our benefit; that is to say, that he has wiped away our sins, and for us he has conquered death, the devil, and hell, according to the saying of the apostle:

"God has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and favour, which was given to us through Jesus Christ before all beginning, but is declared openly now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has truly put out death, and brought forth life, light, and immortality by the gospel." 2Tim 1.9-10

There are many more like this in the fourth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, and in the fifteenth chapter of first Corinthians. For the Lord also says in the gospel of St. John, "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believes in me, although he is dead, shall live; and everyone that lives and believes in me shall not die forever." Joh 11.25-26

Now also let us thoroughly consider every word of this article severally by itself. We confess the Lord's resurrection. But a resurrection means to rise again. That rises, which falls. The body of Christ fell; therefore the body of Christ rises; yes, it rises again — that is to say, the very same body of Christ which both lived and stirred before it fell, now rises again; I say, it both lives and stirs again. For Tertullian said truly about the resurrection of the flesh, that "this word resurrection is not properly spoken of anything, except what first fell. For nothing can rise again except what fell. For we say the resurrection is made by rising again, because it fell; this syllable 're' is never added except when a thing is done again."

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This is why the women in the gospel, when they went to anoint the body of the Lord which hung upon the cross, heard the angel of the Lord say, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen," etc. Luk 24.5-6 This history of the Lord's resurrection is set forth in the twenty-fourth chapter of Luke, and the sixteenth chapter of Mark. Peter the apostle, in the second chapter of the Acts, Act 2.25f also affirming the Lord's resurrection by the testimony of David,[283] expressly shows that the Lord is truly risen again.

According to this, we again say that he is risen out of or from the dead; this expresses the truth both of his death and resurrection. For the body or flesh dies, or is destroyed; but being dead, it is raised up again: this body, or flesh, is therefore raised up again. It is as though someone confessing his belief were to say, Our Lord died in the very same condition of nature that other mortal men die; but he did not tarry, nor stick fast among the dead. For the very same mortal flesh which he had taken to himself, and had laid aside by dying, he now takes up again, immortal — as David foretold saying: "You will not leave my soul in hell, nor permit your Holy One to see corruption." Psa 16.10 For Christ is the first-begotten of those who rise again; that in him, as the head, there should be declared what sort of resurrection all Christ's members will have in the day of judgment.

And we confess that this resurrection was made the third day; I mean the third day after his death. For upon the day of preparation Mar 15.42 he is taken down from the cross and carried into a sepulchre, where his body rests the whole sabbath-day. About the beginning of the first day of sabbaths, Joh 20.1 which, I say, is the first day of the week (called Sunday among us today), in the morning, he arose again from the dead.

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In the twelfth chapter of the gospel of St. Matthew, we read that the Lord said, "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the Son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." Yet notwithstanding, in the sixteenth and twentieth chapters, expounding himself as having spoken that by synecdoche,[284] he says, "I must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the scribes and elders, and be killed, and be raised up again the third day." [285]

THE SIXTH ARTICLE of our faith is: "He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty." That body, which is of the same substance as our bodies, taken out of the virgin Mary, and taken truly from the substance of the virgin, and which hung upon the cross, and died, and was buried, and rose again — the very same body, I say, ascended into the heavens, and sits at the right hand of God the Father. For after the span of forty days, our Lord had abundantly enough instructed his disciples touching the truth of his resurrection and the kingdom of God, and was taken up into heaven.

By that ascension of his, he declares to the whole compass of the earth, that He is Lord of all things, and that all things that are in heaven and on earth are subject to him; that he is our strength, the power of the faithful, and the one of whom they have to boast against the gates of hell. For, ascending into heaven, he has led captivity captive; Eph 4.8 and by destroying his enemies, he has enriched his people on whom he daily heaps his spiritual gifts. For he sits above, so that by pouring his virtue from there into us, he may quicken us with spiritual life, and deck us with sundry gifts and graces, and lastly, defend the church against all evils. For God is our Saviour, King, and Bishop. Upon this, as once the Capernaites were offended because the Lord had called himself the bread of life that came down from heaven to give life to the world, he says, "Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascend there, where he was before?" John 6.61-62

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It is as though he said, Then truly you will gather by my quickening, resurrection, and glorious ascension into the heavens, that I am the bread of life, brought down from heaven, and now taken up again into the heavens, there to remain the Saviour, Life, and Lord of heaven and earth. Moreover, St. Peter the apostle in the Acts says, "Let all the house of Israel know for a surety, that God has made the same Jesus, whom you have crucified, Lord and Christ." Act 2.36

Furthermore, he not only rose again from death, and came to his disciples, but he also ascended into heaven as they beheld and looked at him, to the end that we might thereby be assuredly certified of eternal salvation. For by ascending, he prepared a place for us, he made ready the way — that is, he opened the very heavens to the faithful. God has placed in heaven the very humanity that he took of us. This is indeed a living and unreproveable testimony that all mankind [286] shall at the last be translated into heaven also. For the members must be made conformable to the head. Christ, our Head, is risen again from the dead; therefore we, his members, shall also rise again. And even as a cloud took the Lord away from the sight of his disciples, so we who believe, shall be carried in the clouds to meet the Lord, and be whole in soul and body, and forever dwell in heaven with our Head and Lord, Christ Jesus. And John evidently teaches this in his fourteenth chapter, where the Lord says, "I go to prepare a place for you, and will come again to you, and take you to myself, that wherever I am, you may also be." Paul the apostle also witnesses and says, "We who live, and are remaining at the coming of the Lord, shall be carried in the clouds together with those who are raised up from the dead, to meet the Lord in the air." 1The 4.17

We confess in this article, therefore, that Jesus Christ, being taken up into heaven, is Lord of all things, the King and Bishop, the deliverer and Saviour of all the faithful in the whole world.

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We confess that in Christ, and for Christ, we believe the everlasting life which we will have in this body at the end of the world, and in soul as soon as we have departed out of this world.

But, by the way, we must now weigh the specific words of this article. We say, "He ascended." I ask, "Who ascended?" He that was born of the virgin Mary, who was crucified, dead, and buried, who rose again from the dead: he (I say) ascended truly, both body and soul. But where did he ascend? Into heaven. Heaven in the scriptures is not always taken in one signification. First, it is put for the firmament, and that large compass that is over our heads, in which the birds fly to and fro, and in which the stars are placed; they are called the furniture and host of heaven. For David says, "God is clothed with light as with a garment: he spreads out the heaven as if it were a curtain." He also says, "I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, and the moon and stars which You have laid." And again, "Who covers the heaven with clouds, and prepares rain for the earth." And again, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth the works of his hands." [287] Then also, heaven is taken for the throne and habitation of God. And lastly, it is taken for the place, seat, and receptacle of those who are saved, where God gives himself to be seen and enjoyed by those who are his. For David says, witnessing again, "The Lord has prepared his seat in heaven." Psa 103.19 Upon this the Lord says in the gospel, "Do not swear by heaven; for it is God's seat." Mat 5.34 And the apostle Paul says, "We know that if our earthly mansion of this tabernacle is destroyed, that we have a dwelling-place forever in heaven, built by God, not made by hands." 2Cor 5.1 And therefore, in this signification, heaven is called the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the Father, joy, happiness, and felicity, eternal life, peace and quietness. And although God is not indeed shut up in any place (for he says, "Heaven is my seat, and the earth is the footstool of my feet" Isa 66.1), yet because the glory of God shines in the heavens most of all, and because he lets himself be seen in heaven and enjoyed by those who are his (according to that saying, "We shall see him even as he is;" 1Joh 3.2 and again, "No man shall see me and live," says the Lord Exo 33.20), God is therefore said to dwell in heaven.

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Moreover, Christ our Lord, touching his divinity, is not shut up in any place; but according to his humanity, once taken on, which he drew up into heaven, he is in the very local place of heaven; nor meantime is he here on earth and everywhere bodily. But being severed from us in body, he remains in heaven. For he ascends — which means, leaving what is below, he goes to what is above. Christ therefore, leaving the earth, has placed a seat for his body above all heavens. Not that he is carried up beyond all heavens; but because, ascending above all the circles into the utmost and highest heaven, he is taken, I say, into the place appointed for those who are saved. For Paul the apostle, speaking plainly enough to be understood, says, "Our conversation [288] is in heaven, from where we look for the Saviour to come," etc. Phi 3.20 In the same manner also, Luke the evangelist says, "And blessing them, he departed from them, and was carried into heaven." Luk 24.51

But why do I make so much ado about expounding what is most evidently declared in the very Creed, by that which follows? For the next statement is, "He sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty." By this we understand what kind of place heaven is, and what our Lord does in heaven. Surely it is not for our frailty, to over-narrowly seek out or discuss the secrets of heaven; and yet it is not against religion to inquire about what is taught to us in the scriptures, and to perfectly remember it as it is taught to us. Our Lord is simply said to sit; and that too, is to sit at the right hand of the Father Almighty. Let us therefore see what the right hand of the Father is, and what it means to sit at the right hand of the Father.

The right hand of the Father in the scripture has two significations. First, the right hand of God is the place appointed for those who are saved, and their everlasting felicity in heaven.

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St. Augustine set this down to be marked long before us. In the twenty-sixth chapter of his book de Agone Christiano, he writes that "the right hand of the Father is the everlasting felicity given to the saints; even as the left hand is most rightly called the continual misery allotted to the ungodly — not that by this means (as to what I said) the right or left hand is to be understood in respect to God himself, but in respect to his creatures' capacity." [289] And St. Augustine spoke this according to the scriptures. For David says, "The path of life You shall make known to me: the fulness of joys is in Your sight; and at Your right hand is gladness forever." Psa 16.11 What else is this, if not to say, You will bring me into life, I say, into the very heavens, where I will be filled with joys, both by seeing and beholding You, and also by enjoying You — for at your right hand in eternal blessedness, are joys everlasting.

In the gospel also, we read that the sheep are placed by the Judge at the right hand, and the goats at the left. Mat 25.33 And when the right hand is taken in this sense, then "to sit" signifies to rest from all labours, and to live quietly and in a happy state. For that saying in the prophet is very well known, "A man shall sit under his vine;" Mic 4.4 as if he had said, All things will be at peace, in safety, and at quiet. So then, what I have said is meant by the right hand of the Father. And where we confess that the Son sits at the right hand of the Father Almighty, we acknowledge that our Lord, being delivered from all trouble and mortal infirmities, now in his humanity, both rests and rejoices in the specific local place of heaven, where we believe that both our souls and bodies shall be and live forever. For in the gospel, the Lord himself witnesses that there are many mansions in his Father's house, which he goes to prepare, so that they may have a place. And although he departed, yet he would return to them again, and take them to himself, that where he is, they also might be in the same place with him. Joh 14.2-3

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This is why we believe that Christ is at rest in heaven, where he has prepared a place of rest for us also, to remain in joys everlasting. And because our bodies will not be in felicity everywhere, but only in the appointed place, St. Augustine therefore truly says that, "Christ our Lord, according to the measure of his body, is in some one place of heaven." [290] St. Cyprian says, "To sit at the right hand of the Father, is the mystery of his flesh taken up into heaven." [291]

Secondly, the right hand of God is used for the virtue, kingdom, protection, deliverance, and power of God. For David says, "The Lord's right hand is high: the Lord's right hand does mighty things." Psa 118.16 And Moses said: "Your right hand, Lord, is magnified in power: your right hand, O Lord, has broken the enemy." Exo 15.6 And when the right hand is used in this sense, then "to sit" signifies to reign, to deliver, to use power, and to do the office of a prince. For David says, "The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool." Psa 110.1 And the prophet Zechariah says, "Behold the man who is called the Branch: he will bud out of his place, and build the temple of the Lord, and sit and rule upon his throne and be a priest upon his seat." Zec 6.12-13 In this sense, the right hand of God is infinite, and not contained in any measure of place. Although we confess that our Lord "sits" at the right hand of the Father, we profess that the Son is exalted above all things, having all things subject under himself, as Paul says in his first chapter to the Ephesians. And finally, the Son, being so exalted, can do all things: he reigns in the universal church, delivers those who are his, makes intercession to the Father in heaven, and in the power of his Godhead, he is present in all places. Therefore, the Creed adds almightiness to this sitting of his, where it is said, "He sits at the right hand of the Father Almighty."

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And in St. Matthew the Lord says, "To me is given all might in heaven and on earth: go therefore, and bring all nations to me." Mat 28.18-19

So then, I suppose that I have thus briefly well-declared what manner of place heaven is: namely, a place of quietness, joy, and everlasting felicity, in which the Son of God sits, dwells, and is in his humanity. And we who are the members of Christ, shall also be in the very same place without any dolour and grief, in joy forevermore. And although our Lord is delivered from all grievous business, yet we do not mean that he sits idly leaning on his elbows. For he is a King, a Priest, and very God in the very temple of God: he cannot help but choose therefore, of his natural property and office, to work salvation in the elect, and do all things that lie in his hand to do as God, king, and priest. So then, now we all know what our Lord does as he sits in heaven. Nor is it any trouble at all for him to do and to work what he does; for he does not work out of compulsion, but naturally, and of his own accord.

Thus, and not otherwise, the ancient interpreters of the holy scriptures handled this article of our belief. I will allege [292] some of their testimonies here. St. Jerome,[293] in his exposition of Paul's first chapter to the Ephesians, says:

"He has declared the power of God by the similitude of a man: not because a seat is placed, and God the Father sits on it, having his Son sitting there with him; but because we cannot otherwise conceive how the Son judges and reigns, except by such words applied to our capacity. And therefore, to be next to God or to depart far from him, is not to be understood according to the distance of places, but according to men's merits, because the saints are heard by him, but the sinners (of whom the prophet says, Behold, those who go against You shall perish) Isa 41.11 are removed so far as not to come near Him at all; so likewise, to be either at the right or left hand of God is to be taken in such a way, that the saints are at his right hand, and sinners at his left. As our Saviour himself also says in the gospel, affirming this, that at the right hand are the sheep, and the goats at the left.

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Moreover, this very word 'to sit' argues for the power of a kingdom, by which God is beneficial to those on whom he grants to sit; insomuch as truly he rules them, and always has them in his guidance, and turns to his own beck or government, the necks of those who previously ran out of the way at random and at liberty." [294]

St. Augustine, in his book de Fide et Symbolo, says,

"We believe that he sits at the right hand of God the Father. Yet not as though we thought that God the Father is comprehended within the limits of a man's body; so that those who think of him should imagine that he has both a right and a left side. And even though it is said that the Father sits, we must not suppose that he sits with bent hams; lest perhaps we fall into the same sacrilege for which the apostle curses those who have changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man.[295] For it is a detestable thing to place God in such a likeness in a Christian church. And it is much more wicked to place it in the heart, where the temple of God is truly and indeed, if it is cleansed from earthly desires and error. We must therefore understand that at the right hand is the same as saying in greatest happiness, where righteousness and peace and gladness are; even as the goats are placed at the left hand; that is, where they are in misery for their iniquities, to their pain and torment. Although God is therefore said to sit, this does not mean placing his limbs, but his judicial power, which his majesty never lacks in bestowing worthy rewards on those who are worthy of them;" etc. [296]

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The blessed bishop Fulgentius,[297] in his second book to king Trasimundus, says, "The Lord, to show that his humanity is local, says to his disciples, 'I ascend to my Father and to your Father, my God and your God.'" Joh 20.17 And a little after, "Declaring the incomprehensibility of his Godhead, he says to his disciples, 'Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.'" [298]

The blessed martyr and bishop of Trent, Vigilius,[299] in his first book against heresies, says,

"This was to go to the Father, and to depart from us; to take out of this world the nature which he took of us. You see therefore, that it was proper for the same nature to be taken away, and to depart from us, according to the words of the angels who said, 'This Jesus, who is taken up from you, shall come again, even as you see him go into heaven.' Act 1.11 For, see the miracle; see the mystery of both his properties: the Son of God in his humanity is departed from us; but according to his divinity, he says to us, Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. If he is with us, then how can he say,

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'The time will come, when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you will not see it'? He is both with us, and not with us; because those whom he has left and departed from in his manhood,[300] he has not left or forsaken in his Godhead." [301] This is what he says.

THE SEVENTH ARTICLE of our faith is this: "From there he shall come to judge the quick and the dead." In the former articles is set forth and confessed the divine goodness, bountifulness, and grace in Christ. Now the divine justice, severity, and vengeance that is in him is also declared. For there are two comings of our Lord Jesus Christ. First, he came basely in the flesh, to be the Redeemer and Saviour of the world. The second time, he will come gloriously in judgment, to be a judge and revenger who will not be entreated against all unrepentant sinners and wicked-doers. And he will come out of heaven, from the right hand of the Father, in his visible and very human body, to be seen by all flesh, with the incomprehensible power of his Godhead, and attended to by all the angels. For the Lord himself says in the gospel, "They shall see the Son man coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and glory, and he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trump," etc. Mat 24.30-31

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But now, to "judge" is to sit in the tribunal-seat, to hear and discuss matters, to address strifes, to determine and give sentence, and lastly, to defend and deliver — and again, to chastise and punish, and by that means, to keep under and suppress injury and malice. We therefore believe that our Lord Jesus Christ in that day, will deliver all the godly, and destroy all the wicked, according to the words of the apostle, who says, "Our Lord shall be revealed from heaven with the angels of his power, with a burning flame, and shall lay vengeance on those who have not known God." 2The 1.7-8 Again, "The same just Judge shall give a crown of righteousness to all those who love his coming." 2Tim 4.8

The writings of the evangelists and apostles tell us that the manner of this judgment will be in this way: Once the wickedness of this world comes to the full, and antichrist has deceived the world, so that there is but little faith remaining, and the wicked say, "Peace and quietness;" then a sudden destruction will come. For our Lord, the Judge, will send his archangel to blow the trump, and to gather together from the four winds, all flesh to judgment. Shortly after, the Judge himself will follow, our Lord Jesus Christ, with all the host of heaven. And he will descend out of heaven into the clouds. And sitting aloft in the clouds as in a judgment-seat, he will easily be seen by all flesh. Those who are then living at the Day of Judgment, will be changed in a very prick of time,[302] and stand before the Judge; and all the dead will rise up again in a moment. Then the Judge will divide the sheep from the goats, and according to justice, he will give judgment with the sheep and against the goats, saying, "Come, you blessed," etc., and "Go, you cursed," etc. Execution will follow shortly after. For the sheep will later be caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and will joyfully ascend with him into heaven, to the right hand of God the Father, there to live forever in glory and gladness. The bottom of the earth will gape for the wicked, and will suck them all up horribly, and send them down to hell, there to be tormented forever with Satan and his angels.

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All this will be done, not by any long, troublesome, or changeable process, as is used in our courts of law, but in the twinkling of an eye. For then all men's hearts will be laid open, and every man's own conscience will accuse himself. This is set out more largely in Mat 24 and 25, Wisd. 3 and 5, 1Cor 15, 2Cor 5, 1The 4 and 5, Rom 2, 2Pet 3, etc.

Now we simply confess that the quick and the dead will be judged. Some expound this from the godly and ungodly. But the Symbol or Creed was ordained for the simplest of understanding; and simple things are most fit to teach simple men. Therefore we simply say that the dead are all those who from the beginning of the world, even until the last day, have departed out of this mortal life. And the living are those who at that day will still be alive in this world. For the apostle says, "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed by the last trump, in a moment of time, and in the twinkling of an eye. For the trump will sound, and the dead will rise again incorruptible, and we will be changed." 1Cor 15.51-52 And again, the same apostle says in another place, "This I say to you in the word of the Lord, that we who will live and be remaining at the coming of the Lord, will not precede [303] those who are asleep. Because the Lord himself will come down out of heaven with a great noise, and the voice of an archangel, and the trump of God. And first the dead in Christ will rise up again; then we, who are alive and remaining, will be caught up together with them in the clouds into the air to meet the Lord. And so we will be with the Lord forevermore." 1The 4.15-17

We therefore confess in this seventh article, that we believe there will be an end of all things in this world, and that the felicity of the wicked will not endure forever. For we believe that God is a just God, who has given all judgment to his Son, to repay to everyone in that day according to his works, pains to the wicked, that will never be ended; and to the godly, joys everlasting. And so, in this article we profess that we look for a deliverance, a ceasing from troubles, and the reward of life everlasting.

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For how could he destroy those who believe in him, his people and his servants? — him who in the most true gospel says, "Truly, I say to you, that you who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man sits on the seat of his majesty, you also will sit upon twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Mat 19.28 There are most certain rewards and penalties appointed for the godly and the ungodly in the word of truth. He cannot lie who said to Isaiah:[304] "Say to the righteous, that it will go well with him; for he shall enjoy the fruit of his study. But woe to the wicked: it will be evil with him; for he shall be rewarded according to the works of his own hands." Isa 3.10-11 And this much touching the second part of the Creed.

Now we have come to the third part.

THE EIGHTH ARTICLE of our belief is this: "I believe in the Holy Ghost." This third part of the Creed contains the property of the third Person in the reverend Trinity. And we rightly believe in the Holy Ghost, as well as in the Father and the Son. For the Holy Ghost is one God with the Father and the Son. And faith in the Holy Ghost is rightly joined to faith in the Father and the Son. For by him the fruit of God's salvation, fulfilled in the Son, is sealed to us, and our sanctification and cleansing is bestowed on us, and derived to us from him, by the Holy Ghost. For the apostle says, "God, who anointed us, is the one who also sealed us, and has given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 2Cor 1.21-22 And again, "You were indeed defiled with naughtiness; but now you are cleansed, and sanctified, and lastly, justified through the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 1Cor 6.11 The Father indeed sanctifies too, but by the blood of Jesus Christ; and He pours the same sanctification out of him into us, by the Holy Ghost. So that as it were, it is the property of the Holy Ghost to sanctify; this is why he is called Holy or the Sanctifier. Therefore, so often as we hear the Holy Ghost named, we must then think of the power in working, which the scripture attributes to him; and we must look for the benefits that flow to us from him.

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For the power, operation, or action of the Spirit, is whatever the grace of God works in us through the Son; and so, of necessity, we must believe in the Holy Ghost. And in this eighth article we profess that we truly believe that all the faithful are cleansed, washed, regenerated, sanctified, enlightened, and enriched by God with diverse gifts of grace for Christ's sake; yet it is through the Holy Ghost. For without him there is no true sanctification. This is why we should not attribute these gifts of grace to any other means; this glory belongs to the Holy Ghost only, of whom I will more largely and fully discourse in my other sermons.

The hour is spent, which warns me to wrap up briefly and make an end. Therefore I exhort you all to have your faith religiously bent upon the Lord Jesus. For the heavenly Father has sent him to us, and in him He has wholly expressed and shown himself to us; and the Holy Ghost imprints him in our hearts and keeps him in our minds. And in Christ, all man's salvation and every part of it is contained; thus we must beware that we do not derive it from anything else. "It pleased the Father," says the apostle, "that all fulness should dwell in the Son," and in him to recapitulate, and as it were, to summarize all points of salvation, so that in him all the faithful may be fulfilled.[305] For if salvation is sought, then even by his very name we are taught that salvation is in his power: for he is called Jesus, that is, a Saviour. If we desire the Holy Spirit of God and his sundry gifts, we shall find them also in the anointing of Christ. For he is called Christ, the Anointed, I say, the Holy of holies, and the sanctifier, or the anointer of us with his Spirit. If any man needs strength and might, power and deliverance, well, he has to look for it in Christ's dominion; for Christ is Lord of all.

In this same Christ we find redemption: for he has redeemed us, we who were sold under Satan's yoke. In his conception we have purity; in his nativity we have sufferance;[306] for he became like us that he might suffer grief as we do.

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For in his passion we have forgiveness of sins; in his condemnation we have absolution; in his offering or cleansing sacrifice we have satisfaction; [307] we have cleansing in his blood; and a universal reconciliation in his descending into hell. In his burial we have the mortification of our flesh, the newness of life, or rather the immortality of the soul; and in his glorious resurrection, we have the resurrection of our bodies. We also have the inheritance of the heavenly kingdom, with the assured sealing of it, in his ascension and in his sitting at the right hand of the Father. And there he is our Mediator, Priest, and King, our safeguard and our head, our defender and most sure rest.[308]

From there he pours into us his Holy Spirit, the fulness of all good things; and he communicates himself wholly to us, joining us to himself with an indissoluble knot. From there, with confidence and joy, we look for him to be our Judge — to be our patron and deliverer, I say — who will condemn and send headlong down into hell, all our enemies with Satan. But he shall take us and all the faithful of every age, up into heaven with himself, there to sing a new song, and to rejoice in him forever. To him be glory forever. Amen.

1-9. THE NINTH SERMON: THE APOSTLES' CREED, Art. 9-12.

OF THE LATTER ARTICLES OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

CONTAINED IN THE APOSTLES' CREED.

LET us call to our Father in heaven, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that he will grant to pour his grace into us, that we may, to no small profit, dispatch and expound the last part of the articles of Christian belief.

THE NINTH ARTICLE of faith is this: "The holy catholic church, the communion of saints." After the confession of our belief in the holy Trinity, and in the mystery of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and lastly in the Holy Ghost, the sanctifier and restorer of all — now, in the fourth part, is reckoned up the fruit and power, the effect and end of faith; and what comes to the faithful, and is bestowed on them. What comes to them is the communion of God and all saints, sanctification, remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and life everlasting. I will speak of these in the order in which they lie, so far as the bountiful Lord gives me ability.

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Now then, we have to repeat here out of the eighth article, this phrase "I believe." We must say, "I believe the holy catholic church." There are some unlearned, who hold the opinion that in this point of our confession we should say, "I believe in the holy church." The reason that leads them to think so, is this: because they find written this in the Constantinopolitan Creed: "And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord that gives life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who together with the Father and the Son is to be worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets in one catholic and apostolic church." They so distinguish these words that, they repeat "I believe" from the premise, making this the sense of them: "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord." Even so, they again repeat these words, "I believe," making this to be the sense, "I believe in one catholic and apostolic church." [309]

But this is more than is needed; indeed, they twist [310] these words of the Creed against all godliness. For this phrase, "In one catholic and apostolic church," does not refer to the verb, "I believe," but to the Holy Ghost, because he spoke by the prophets in one catholic and apostolic church. For our meaning is, and we confess, that one and the same Spirit did all things in both Testaments, contrary to the opinion of those who imagined that there were two spirits contrary to one another.

Moreover St. Cyprian says in his exposition of the Apostles' Creed:

"He did not say, In the holy church, nor In the remission of sins, nor In the resurrection of the body. For if he had added the preposition, the force of those clauses would have been the same as the force of what went before.

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For in those words in which our belief touching the Godhead is set down, we say, 'In God the Father, in Jesus Christ his Son, and in the Holy Ghost.' But in the rest, where the text is not about the Godhead, but touching the creatures or mysteries, the preposition 'in' is not added such that we would say, 'In the holy church.' Rather the holy church is to be believed, not as we believe in God, but as a congregation gathered together to God; and that the forgiveness of sins is to be believed, not that we ought to believe in the forgiveness of sins; and that the resurrection of the flesh is to be believed, not that we ought to believe in the resurrection of the flesh. So then, by this preposition 'in,' the Creator is discerned from the creatures, and that which is God's is discerned from that which is man's." [311] This is what Cyprian says.

St. Augustine, in his book de Fide et Symbolo, has, "I Augustine, believe the holy church," not I believe in the holy church." [312] Also alleged are his words in his epistle ad Neophytos, touching consecration, Distinct. 4, cap. 1: "We did not say that you had to believe in the church, as in God, but understand how we said that, being conversant in the holy catholic church, you should believe in God." [313]

Much more evidently, Paschasius,[314] in the first chapter of his first book de Spiritu Sancto, says,

"We believe the church, as the mother of regeneration; we do not believe in the church, as the author of salvation.

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He that believes in the church, believes in man, for man does not have his being from the church, but the church began by man. Therefore, leave this blasphemous persuasion, to think that you have to believe in any worldly creature, since you may not believe either in angel or archangel. The unskilfulness of some has drawn and taken the preposition 'in' from the sentence that goes just before, and put it into the sentence that follows, adding to it also, too shamelessly, something more than is needed." [315]

This is what Paschasius has in that book of his, which St. Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, liked very well. [316]

What do you say, moreover, to what Thomas of Aquinas [317] says, reasoning about faith, in the second book, Part. ii. Artic, ix. Quest. 1?

"If we say, I believe in the holy church, we must understand, that our faith is referred to the Holy Ghost, which sanctifies the church; and so we make the sense to be thus: I believe in the Holy Spirit, that sanctifies the church. But it is better, and according to common use, not to add at all the syllable 'in,' but to simply say, the holy catholic church, even as pope Leo says." [318]

This is what Thomas has.

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So now you have heard the opinions of the ancient doctors of the church, Cyprian, Augustine, Gregory, Paschasius, pope Leo; and also of Thomas of Aquinas, who taught in the latter times. Dearly beloved, you understand by proofs taken out of the canonical scripture, that we must acknowledge and confess the holy catholic church, but not believe in the holy catholic church.

And now we have to see what that is, that is called the church, and what is called the catholic church. Ecclesia, a word which we use for the church, is properly an assembly. It is, I say, where the people are called out, or gathered together, to hear something touching the affairs of the commonweal. In this present treatise, it is the company, communion, congregation, multitude, or fellowship of all who profess the name of Christ. Catholic is the same as saying this fellowship is universal, that it is extended through all places and ages.[319] For the church of Christ is not restrained to any corner among the Donatists in Africa.[320] It stretches itself out through the compass of the world, and to all ages, and it contains all the faithful from the first Adam even to the very last saint that remains before the end of the world. This universal church has her particular churches — I mean, the church of Adam and of the patriarchs, the church of Moses and of the prophets before the birth of Christ, the Christian church, which is so named by Christ himself, and the apostolic church gathered together by the apostles' doctrine in the name of Christ. And finally, it contains particular churches, such as the church of Jerusalem, of Antioch, of Alexandria, of Rome, of Asia, of Africa, of Europe, of the east, of the west, etc.

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And yet all these churches — members of one body under their only head Christ (for Christ alone is the head of his church, not only triumphant, but also militant) — make only one catholic church, in which there are not to be found either heresies or schisms. And for that reason, it is called the true church,[321] namely, of the right and true opinion, judgment, faith, and doctrine. For only in the church is true faith [to be found]; and outside the church of God, there is neither any truth, nor yet salvation.

So then, in this article we confess that all the faithful dispersed throughout the whole compass of the earth, and also those who at this time live in heaven (as many, I say, as are already saved, or are born to be saved, even until the end of the world), are one body, having obtained fellowship and participation with God, and a mutual communion among themselves. And because no man can be made one with God unless he is also holy and pure, and as we believe God is holy and pure, we therefore believe the church is holy; that is, that it is sanctified by God the Father in the blood of the Son, and it is the gift of the Holy Ghost. We have heard testimonies enough in the former sermons. Therefore, this one from Paul will be sufficient, which he writes to the Ephesians: "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, to sanctify and cleanse it in the fountain of water through the word, to make it a glorious church for himself, not having spot or wrinkle," etc. Eph 5.25-27

By these words we understand that the church is called undefiled and altogether clean, not in respect to itself, but because of Christ. For the church of Christ is so far holy, that every day it goes forward in profiting, and is never perfect so long as it lives on the earth. And yet, notwithstanding, its holiness is most absolutely perfect in Christ. To this truly belongs that notable saying of the Lord, "He that is washed has no need but to wash his feet only, for he is wholly clean." Joh 13.10 For the faithful are purely cleansed by Christ, who washes them with his blood. Yet, because the flesh strives with the spirit so long as life remains on the earth, the godly need to wash and wipe their feet with faith, and the Holy Ghost — that is, they need to wash the relics and spots with which they are stained by their daily conversation [322] in this world.

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But now, to what does this addition belong: "The communion of saints"? These words are not to be read either in Cyprian or Augustine, nor yet expounded by them.[323]

Therefore, it is likely that they were added for the better understanding of what went before. That it might appear that the catholic church is the fellowship or company of the faithful, he added, "The communion of saints," as if he had said, "which church is a communion of saints." Paul called saints, those who for their faith are sanctified by the blood and Spirit of God. Also, this word "communion" is very evident and comfortable. For first, its meaning is that there is a communion between God and us; that is, a fellowship and participation; and consequently, there is a sharing [324] between us of all good and heavenly things. And then we also understand that we are fellows and partakers with all the saints who are living either in heaven or on earth: for we are members of them under one head, Christ. For the apostle John says, "That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and that your fellowship may be with the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ." [325] To this pertains that trim similitude of the body and members under one head, which the apostle Paul handles at large indeed. But who can worthily enough set forth the great goodness of God's gift and benefit, in that we are made fellow-partners of God, with whom we are most nearly conjoined, and have a part in all his good and heavenly things? What can be more delightful to our ears than to hear that all the saints, in heaven as well as on earth, are our brethren, and that we again are members, partners, and fellows with them? Blessed be God, who has so liberally bestowed his blessing on us in Christ his Son.

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Here belongs the discourse on the sacraments, which (with the church) I mean to treat more fully at another time. For the present time, this is sufficient. For what I have said abundantly enough expresses and sets out the fruit of faith in the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost: namely, that we have participation with God and all the saints; and that in this fellowship, we are sanctified from all filth or uncleanness, being cleansed and holy in Christ our Lord. Now follows,

THE TENTH ARTICLE of our belief is, "The forgiveness of sins." The second fruit or commodity of our belief in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is set forth here — and that is, the remission of sins. Although it is contained in sanctification, which was spoken of in the last article, it is, notwithstanding, more lively expressed in this place. There is no salvation without the church, just as there would have been none without the ark of Noah; but in the church, I mean, in the fellowship of Christ and the saints, there is full forgiveness of all offences. That this may be better understood, I will divide it into some parts.

First of all, it is needful to acknowledge and confess that we are sinners, and that by nature and our own proper merits, we are the children of wrath and damnation. For it is not in vain, nor without a cause, that St. John calls every one a liar, who says he has no sin. 1Joh 1.8 And God, who knows the hearts of men, has commanded us even till the last gasp, to pray saying, "Forgive us our debts." Moreover, in the gospel we have two excellent examples of men openly confessing their sins to God: the prodigal son, I say, and the publican in St. Luke. [326]

Let us therefore think that we are all sinners, as Paul also taught; yes, as he has evidently proved in the first chapter to the Romans. And with David in the 32nd and 51st Psalms, let us freely confess our sins to God, saying, "I have made my sin known to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I have said, I will confess my unrighteousness against myself; and You have forgiven the iniquity of my offence." "Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy," etc. The Psalm is well-known.

Secondly, let us believe that all these sins of ours are pardoned and forgiven by God, not for acknowledging and confessing our sins, but for the merit and blood of the Son of God; not for our own works or merits, but for the truth and mercy, or grace, of God.

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For we plainly profess, saying: "I believe the forgiveness of sins." We do not say I buy, nor I get by gifts, nor I obtain by works, the forgiveness of sins — but, "I believe the forgiveness of sins." And the word "remission" or "forgiveness" signifies a free pardoning, by a metaphor taken from creditors and debtors. For the creditor forgives the debtor when he is not able to pay. Therefore, remission is a forgiving according to this saying of our Saviour in the Gospel: "A certain lender had two debtors; and when they were not able to pay, he forgave them both." Luk 7.41-42

To this also belongs that saying in the Lord's prayer: "And forgive us our debts;" for our debts are our sins. We request them to be remitted, that is, to be forgiven us. In this sense also, St. Paul says, "To him that works, the reward reckoned is not of grace, but due as of a debt; but to him that does not work but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness: — even as David describes the blessedness of that man to whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, 'Blessed are those whose unrighteousnesses are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is that man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.'" Rom 4.4-8 Therefore, in respect to us who do not have the means to repay, our sins are freely forgiven; but in respect to God's justice, they are forgiven for the merit and satisfaction of Christ.

Moreover, it is not only the sins of a few men, of one or two ages, or only a few and certain number of sins, that are forgiven; but the sins of all men, of all ages, the whole multitude of sins, whatever is and is called sin, whether it is original or actual, or any others beside. In short, all sins are forgiven us. We hereby learn this, because the solitary sacrifice of Christ is effectual enough [327] to wash away all the offences of all sinners who by faith come to the mercy-seat of God's grace. Heb 4.16 And yet we do not teach men to sin because the Lord has long since made satisfaction for all sins. But if any man does sin, we teach him to hope well, and not to despair, but to flee to the throne of grace; for there we say that Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father, is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Joh 1.29

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And truly, it is expressly said in the Creed, "I believe the forgiveness of sins," and not of sin. For when we say "of sins," we acknowledge that God forgives all sins. It will be sufficient to let pass the proofs of this out of the 3rd and 5th chapters of Paul to the Romans, and those out of St. John the apostle and evangelist. In his epistle, he testifies saying, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from every sin." 1Joh 1.7 Look, he says from every sin. The one who says from every one, makes no exceptions, unless it is that which the Lord himself excepted — I mean, the sin against the Holy Ghost, for which the very same St. John forbids us to pray. [328]

Again, he also says, "If we acknowledge our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness." 1Joh 1.9 The apostle did not think it was enough to say barely, "To forgive us our sins;" but that he might declare the thing as it is. Indeed, to declare it so plainly that it might be easily understood, he moreover adds this saying: "And to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness." Look, here he again says, "from all unrighteousness." Some caviller [329] might perhaps make an objection, saying, "This kind of doctrine makes men sluggish and slow to amend; for men under the pretence of God's grace will not cease to sin." Therefore, in his 2nd chapter, John answers their objection and says, "Babes, I write these things to you, that you do not sin: and if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the atonement for our sins: and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1Joh 2.1-2 Therefore it is assuredly true that by the death of Christ, all sins are forgiven those who believe.

Moreover, the Lord alone forgives sins. For it is the glory of God alone to forgive sins, and from unrighteous men, to make them righteous. Therefore, although men are said to forgive sins, which is to be understood of their ministry, and not of their power, the minister pronounces to the people that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake. And in so saying, he does not deceive them: for God indeed forgives the sins of those who believe, according to that saying, "Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them." Joh 20.23 And this is done as often as the word of the gospel is preached — so there is no need to pretend that auricular confession [330] and private absolution at the priest's hand, are necessary for the remission of sins.

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For just as auricular confession was not in use among the saints before the coming of Christ, so we do not read that the apostles heard private confession, or used private absolution in the church of Christ. It is enough for us to confess our sins to God who, because he sees our hearts, should therefore most rightly hear our confessions. It is enough if we, as St. James teaches us, confess our faults and offences to one another between ourselves; Jas 5.16 and so, after pardon is asked, we return into mutual favour again. It is enough for us to hear the gospel, promising the forgiveness of our sins through Christ, if we believe. Let us therefore believe the forgiveness of sins, and pray to the Lord that he will grant to give and increase in us this same belief. Of old, and in the primitive church, these things were effectual enough to obtain pardon and full remission of sins. And as they were sufficient then, so they are undoubtedly sufficient today too.

Furthermore, the Lord so pardons our sins, not they should not be in us anymore, nor leave their relics behind, like a sting in our flesh, but that they should not be imputed to us to our damnation. Concupiscence [331] sticks fast and shows itself in our flesh, striving still with the good Spirit of God, even in the holy ones, so long as life lasts on this earth. Here, therefore, we need long watching and much fasting, to draw from the flesh the nourishment of evil, and frequent prayers calling to God for aid, so that we will not be overcome by the evil. And if any man happens to fail out of feebleness, and is subdued by temptation, let him not yield himself by lying still, to be caught in the devil's net. Let him rise up again by repentance, and run to Christ, believing that by the death of Christ, this fall of his shall be forgiven him. And he will have recourse to Christ as often as he is vanquished by concupiscence and sin. All the exhortations of the prophets and apostles shoot for this end, calling on us still to return to the Lord.

Finally, the Lord so forgives our sins, that he will never once remember them again. For so he foretold us by Jeremiah, in his 31st chapter. Jer 31.34 The Lord therefore does not punish us. For he has not only forgiven the fault, but also the punishment due for the sin.

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Now then, although the Lord sometimes whips us with his scourges, and whips us for our sins indeed (as the holy scripture plainly declares), he does not do it with the intent that with our affliction we should make satisfaction for the sins we have committed; for then the death of Christ would be of no effect. But the Lord chastises us with whipping; and by whipping us, he lets us understand that he does not like the sins which we have committed, and which he freely forgives. By whipping us, he also makes us examples to others, lest they sin too; and he cuts us off from all occasion for sinning; and by the cross he keeps our patience exercised. [332] I have thus far been touching the forgiveness of sins. I have said something about this in my sermon about faith that justifies, [333] and elsewhere.

THE ELEVENTH ARTICLE is this: "The resurrection of the flesh." These two articles, this and the twelfth, enclose as briefly as possible, the most excellent fruit of faith, and sum of all perfection. They wrap up, I say, the end of faith, in confessing life everlasting, and the full and perfect salvation of the whole man. For the whole man [334] shall be saved, in soul as well as body. For as by sin, man perished both in body and soul, so he ought to be restored again both bodily and spiritually. And as he ought to be, so he was restored again by Christ. The soul of man truly is a spirit, and it does not die at all; the body is earthly, and therefore it dies and rots. For this reason, many hold the opinion that the bodies die, never to be made partakers of joy or pain in the world to come. But in this article, we profess the contrary, acknowledging that those bodies of ours, and so too that flesh of ours, shall rise again and enter into life everlasting.

I have spoken of this word "resurrection," or rising again, in the exposition of this article, "The third day he rose again from the dead." But now, this word "flesh" expresses a great deal more significantly the resurrection of this flesh, than if we were to say the resurrection of the body. Cyprian says truly, that in some churches of the east, this article was thus pronounced: "I believe the resurrection of this flesh." [335]

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And Augustine also, in the tenth chapter of his book de Fide et Symbolo, says,

"We must without doubting believe that this visible thing which is properly called flesh, shall rise again. The apostle Paul seems to point at this flesh with his finger as it were, when he says, 'This corruptible must put on incorruption. When he says 'this', he puts his finger to this flesh, as it were." [336] This is what Augustine has said.

Moreover, St. Jerome compels John, bishop of Jerusalem, to openly confess the resurrection of the flesh, not of the body only.

"Flesh has one definition, and the body another. All flesh is a body; but every body is not flesh. That which is composed of blood, veins, bones, and sinews is properly flesh. A body, although it is called flesh, is yet sometimes said to be of like substance to the firmament, or to the air, which is not subject to touching or seeing; and oftentimes, it too may be both touched and seen. A wall is a body, but it is not flesh." [337] This much is taken from Jerome.

Let us therefore believe that men's bodies — which are taken from the earth, and which living men bear about, in which they live and exist, which also die and turn into dust and ashes — that those bodies, I say, are quickened and will live again.

But you ask how this flesh, once resolved into dust and ashes, and so into nothing, can rise again in the former shape and substance: as when it is torn with the teeth of beasts, or consumed to nothing with the flame of fire, and when only a tiny little quantity of dusty powder is to be found in the grave?

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I refer you to the omnipotence of God, which the apostle spoke of where he says, "Christ has transformed this vile body of ours, to make it conformable to his glorious body, by the power in which he can make all things subject to himself." Phi 3.21 This is why he that was in the beginning, when there was not yet a man in the world, could bring forth man out of the dust of the earth, although the same man is again resolved into that out of which he was taken — I mean, into earth, as in the saying, "Dust you are, and into dust you shall return again." Gen 3.19 Yet notwithstanding, the same God again, at the end of the world, is able to raise man out of the earth. For the Lord in the gospel says plainly, "The hour shall come in which all those who are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth; those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment." Joh 5.28-29 And now by faith we are thoroughly persuaded, as the apostle says, that "he who has promised, is also able to perform." Rom 4.21

There are, moreover, lively examples of this matter, and most evident testimonies from the holy scripture. Jonah is swallowed up by the whale in the Syrian sea,[338] but the third day after, he is cast upon the shore again, alive, out of the beast's entrails. This is a token that the flesh will truly rise again. This is why it is not hard to believe that in the Apocalypse [339] it is said that "the sea casts up her dead." Rev 20.13

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The force of fire had no force to hurt the three companions of Daniel. Indeed, the rage of wild beasts (contrary to nature) abstained from biting Daniel himself. What marvel is it, then, if today neither the force of fire, nor the rage of wild beasts, is able to resist the power of God, being disposed to raise his creatures up again? [340] Did our Lord Christ not raise up Lazarus to life again, when he had lain three days in the grave — yes, and stank too? Did he not himself, having once broken the tyranny of death, rise up again the third day from the dead? Did he not rise again in the same substance of flesh and form of body in which he hung on the cross, and being taken down from the cross, was buried? It is not without good cause that we look back to Christ, who is called the first-begotten among the dead, [341] as often as we think in what manner the resurrection of our flesh shall be. For the members shall rise again in the same order that the Head is risen up before them. Truly, we will not rise again the third day after our death; but in our manner and order, we will rise at the last day — yes, and that too will be in the very same body in which we now live.

I will add a few testimonies to prove the resurrection of our flesh. Job, confessing his faith touching the resurrection of the dead, in his great weakness, affliction, and sickness, says, "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and shall be clad again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see God: whom even I myself will see, and my eyes will behold, and no other. This hope is laid up in my bosom." [342] This testimony is so evident, that it needs no larger exposition.

No less evident are those testimonies out of Isaiah, chap. 26; Ezek. 37; Psalm 16; Mat 22; John 5, 6, 11. Throughout the Acts, the resurrection of the dead is often repeated. St. Paul, in the fifteenth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians, gives a full discourse about this resurrection. In the fourth chapter of his second epistle, he says, "We who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also might appear in our mortal flesh." 2Cor 4.11

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See now, what could be spoken more plainly, than that the life of Christ shall be made to appear in this mortal flesh of ours? For a little after, he says, "We know that he who raised up the Lord Jesus, will raise us up also by the means of Jesus." 2Cor 5.14 And in the fifth chapter again: "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ," he says, "that every man may receive the works of his body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or evil." 2Cor 5.10 Therefore, these very bodies of ours will rise again in the day of judgment.

And now, dearly beloved, I have to declare to you in what manner our bodies will rise again, and of what sort they will be in the resurrection. In the closing and end of all ages, or of this world, our Lord Jesus Christ will come to judgment with great majesty; and then, whomever is found alive that day, will be changed in a moment of time. First (I say) all those who died, from the first Adam to the last who die, shall rise up again, and stand before the tribunal-seat of Christ in their own flesh, among the living who are changed, looking for that final pronounced sentence in judgment. Paul sets this down in these words: "Look, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all truly sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment of time, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trump: for it will sound, and the dead will rise again incorruptibly, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." 1Cor 15.51-53

By this evident testimony of the apostle, we may gather in what fashion our bodies will be in that resurrection. Truly, our bodies shall be none other in the resurrection than they are now; with only this exception: that they will be completely without corruption and corruptible affection. For the apostle says, "The dead will rise again;" and, "We will be changed." And again, pointing expressly and precisely to these very bodies which we bear about here, he says, "This corruptible," this mortal, yes, this body, I say, and no other, as Job also witnessed, "will rise again;" and that will rise again incorruptible, which was corruptible; that will rise again immortal, which before the resurrection was mortal.

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So then, this body of ours in the resurrection will be set free from all evil affections and passions, from all corruption; but the substance of it will not be brought to nothing; it will not be changed into a spirit; it will not lose its own proper shape. And this body truly, because of that purification and cleansing from those dregs, yes, and rather because of these heavenly and divine gifts, is called both a spiritual body, and also a glorious and purified body.

For Paul, in the third chapter to the Philippians, says, "Our conversation [343] is in heaven, from where we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our vile body, that it may be made like his glorious body." Phi 3.20 See here, the apostle does not call our resurrection from the dead a transubstantiation, or a loss of the substance of our body, but a changing. Then also, showing what kind of body that changed body is, he calls it a glorious body, not without any shape and void of fashion, but augmented in glory. Indeed, he sets before us the very body of our Lord Jesus Christ, in which he shows us what fashion our bodies will have, being in glory. For in plain words he says, "He will make our vile body like his glorious body."

Let us therefore see what kind of body our Lord had after his resurrection. It was not turned into a ghost, nor brought to nothing, nor was it unable to be known by its shape and figure; for showing them his hands and feet which were easily known by the imprint of the nails with which he was crucified, he said, "See, for I am even he," Luk 24.39 — namely, clad again with the same body in which I hung upon the cross. For speaking yet more plainly, and proving that this body of his was not a spiritual substance, he said, "A spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have." He therefore has a purified body, flesh and bones, and the very same members which he had when his body was not as yet purified. And for this reason, the same Lord offered his side to Thomas, Joh 20.27 and the scars of his five wounds, to be felt and handled — to the end that we should not doubt that his very body was raised up again. He both ate and drank with his disciples, as Peter in the Acts witnesses before Cornelius, Act 10.41 so that all men might know that the very self-same body that died, rose from death again.

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Now, although this body is comprehended within a certain limited place, and not dispersed all over and everywhere — even though it has a just quantity, figure, or shape, and a just weight, with its own kind and nature — yet notwithstanding, it is free from every passion, corruption, and infirmity. For the body of the Lord, once raised up, was in the garden and not in the sepulchre when the women came to anoint it; it meets them by the way as they return from the sepulchre, and offers itself to be seen by Magdalene in the garden; it goes in company to Emmaus with the two disciples who journeyed to Emmaus. In the meantime, while he was with them in body, he was not among the other disciples. When the two returned to the eleven, the Lord himself is present with them at evening. He goes before his disciples into Galilee; shortly after, he comes back to Jerusalem, where his body was taken up from mount Olivet into heaven. All this proves the certain verity of Christ's body. But because this body (although it is a true and real body, of its own proper kind, place, and disposition, and of its own proper shape and nature) is called a glorified and glorious body, I will say something about that glory, which truly is incident to the true shape and substance of the body once raised up again.

First, glory in this sense is used for lightsomeness and shining brightness. For Paul says that the children of Israel, for the glory of Moses' countenance, could not behold with their eyes the face of Moses. 2Cor 3.7 So then, a glorious body is a bright and shining body. Our Lord showed a very good proof of this a little before his resurrection, when it pleased him to give his disciples a small taste of the glory to come. And for that reason, he took aside certain ones whom he had chosen, into the top of a certain hill, where he was transfigured before them, so that the fashion of his countenance shone like the sun, and his clothes were white and glistered as the light. Mat 17.2 The Lord still truly had the same bodily substance, and the same members of the body, but they were transfigured. Yet, it is manifest that this transfiguration was in the externals.[344] For light and brightness were added, so that, the shape and substance of the countenance and body remaining as it was, the countenance and body glistered like the sun and the light.

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We do not read that the body of the Lord, during those forty days in which he showed himself alive again to his disciples, made manifest and spread abroad the brightness which it had. That was because of the dispensation by which he also ate with his disciples — notwithstanding that glorified bodies do not need food or nourishment at all. Yet nevertheless, his body now shines in heaven, as John witnesses in the first chapter of the Apocalypse. And the sacred scriptures lay an assured hope before us, that even our bodies also, shall likewise be glorified in the resurrection. For the Lord himself in the gospel, alleging the words of Daniel, says, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in his Father's kingdom." [345] For this reason, the glorious bodies are also called clarified, from the clearness of that heavenly brightness with which they glister and are adorned.

Secondly, glory and vileness are made contraries. For Paul says, "He will change our vile body, to make it like his glorious body in fashion." Phi 3.21 In these words, vileness and glory are set one against the other. Vileness comprehends the whole pack of miseries and infirmities, passions and affections, which were laid upon the body for sin. Our bodies are purged from all of this in the resurrection of life; so that the glorious bodies are drained of the dregs of corruption, passions, and infirmities, and clad with eternity, heavenly feeling, and glory. For the apostle says, "It is sown in corruption; it rises in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour; it rises in glory: it is sown in infirmity; it rises in power: it is sown a natural body; it rises a spiritual body." 1Cor 15.42-44

Therefore, the gifts of the glorious and clarified bodies are very great and many, such as incorruption, glory, power, and the quickening Spirit. For the apostle himself, showing what he meant by the natural and spiritual body, immediately adds this: "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body; as it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; and the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." And again, he says more plainly,

"Nevertheless, that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are those who are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are those also who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly." 1Cor 15.45-49

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So then, Paul calls that natural body an earthy body which we have from our first father Adam, whose quickening is of the soul, and by that it lives. And he calls the spiritual body a heavenly body, which we have from Christ, and it is made in the likeness of the body of Christ — which although it is a real body indeed, and its flesh is real flesh indeed, yet notwithstanding, it is quickened and preserved by the Spirit of Christ, and does not need any vegetative power.

Therefore, these real bodies and members which we now bear, shall be in heaven after the resurrection. Yet nevertheless, because they are clarified and cleansed from all corruption and feeling of the natural body, there will not truly be any natural or corruptible sense or affection, nor use of the carnal body and its members. And the Lord affirms this against the Sadducees (who dreamt of marriages in heaven, or rather, mocked the resurrection by that absurdity), where he says, "The sons of this world marry wives, and give in marriage; but those who are thought worthy of that world and of the resurrection from the dead, neither marry wives, nor give in marriage; nor can they die any more. For they are equal to the angels, and are the sons of God, as soon as they are the sons of resurrection." Luk 20.34-36 To which effect Paul also says, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." And lest anyone mistake his words, and think that he spoke of the substance of the flesh, he immediately adds this for interpreting it, saying, "Nor will corruption inherit incorruption." 1Cor 15.50

This is why flesh and blood, that is, the affections and lusts of the flesh, will not be in the elect who live in heaven. For the joys of heaven differ a great deal from the joys of the earth. And they are so far beyond another condition, that they cannot allow such corrupt creatures to be inheritors of them. For that cause, the corruptible bodies must first be purged from all corruption, and purely clarified by that means,. The Turks are therefore deceived, who look for earthly joys. [346]

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Moreover, the bodies of the wicked will also rise again. For Paul says in the Acts: "I believe all that is written in the law and the prophets, hoping in God that the resurrection of the dead, which they themselves also look for, will be of both the just and unjust." Act 24.15 See here, the apostle says of the unjust also. But in this resurrection, the infirmity, corruption, dishonour, and misery will not be taken out of their bodies. For even then, that very body, rising again in dishonour, will be surely shut in dishonour and corruption, and so be condemned by the judgment and power of God, forever to bear endless torments; and in death and corruption, it will neither die nor corrupt. So that, even as on earth certain bodies are found that endure even in the fire, so the cursed bodies of the wicked will not be worn out, nor be broken with any torments whatsoever. For every minute they will receive new strength to suffer, and so by continual suffering, they will abide their deserved punishments for ever and ever and without any end. For the Lord says in the gospel, "Those who have done evil shall rise again to the resurrection of damnation." Joh 5.29 — that is, to an enduring and everlasting damnation. And Daniel before him said, "And the multitude of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and perpetual contempt." Dan 12.2

And in the gospel, the Lord again says, "Their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched." Isaiah used the very same words before him in his 66th chapter. [347] Therefore, we must always have that saying of the Lord in our hearts: "Fear him who can destroy both the body and the soul in hell." Mat 10.28 So much up to here, touching the resurrection of the flesh.

THE LAST AND TWELFTH ARTICLE of our belief, which with good luck closes the rest, is this: "And life everlasting." We have heard and understood that the souls of men are immortal, and that our bodies rise again at the end of the world.

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We have confessed that this is our belief. It now follows, at the end of the Creed, where it is that the immortal soul and body, raised up again, will come. Therefore we say in our confession, "And life everlasting;" that is, I believe that I will have life, and live forever, both in body and soul. And that everlastingness is truly perpetual and it has no end, as a little before it was proved out of the holy scriptures.

Moreover, the souls are made partakers of this eternal life immediately after they have departed out of the bodies, as the Lord himself witnesses, saying, "He that believes in the Son of God shall not come into judgment, but has escaped from death to life." Joh 5.24 As for the bodies, they are buried and putrefy. And yet, notwithstanding that, they will not be without life forever. But they will then be received at length into eternal life when, being raised up, they will after the time of judgment be caught into the air, there to meet Christ, so that they may forever be with the Lord. For then the souls return out of heaven, everyone to his own body, so that the whole, perfect, and full man may live forever both in soul and body. For the soul of Christ dying on the cross, out of hand departed into paradise; and on the third day, it returned to the body, which rose again and ascended into heaven. Therefore, even as eternal life came to the Head Christ, so it shall also come to each and every member of Christ.

Now, citing Isaiah, Paul says, "What the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor at any time has come into the heart of man, that the Lord has prepared for those who love him;" [348] I suppose truly, that if all were said touching eternal life, that might be spoken by all the men of all the ages who ever were or shall be, scarcely the least part of it has or would be thoroughly touched. For however the scripture most plainly shows the shadow of that life and those joys, with eloquent and figurative speech, with allusions and hard sentences,[349]— yet, notwithstanding, all of that is comparatively little or nothing to speak of, until that day comes in which, with unspeakable joy, we will behold God himself, the Creator of all things, in his glory; Christ our Saviour in his majesty; — and finally, all the blessed souls, angels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, our fathers — all nations, [350] all the host of heaven — and lastly, the whole divine and heavenly glory.

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Most truly therefore, Aurelius Augustine said in Lib. de Civitat. Dei, xxii. cap. 29, "When it is demanded of me, what the saints will do in that spiritual body, I do not answer with what I now see, but with what I believe. I say therefore, that they will see God in that spiritual body." And again, "If I were to say the truth, I do not know of what sort that action, quietness, and rest will be. For the peace of God surpasses all understanding." [351]

To be short, we will see God face to face, we will be filled with the company of God, and yet we will never be weary of him. And the face of God is not that countenance which appears in us; but it is a most delectable revealing and enjoying of God, which no mortal tongue can worthily declare. Go to, then, dearly beloved brethren. Let us believe and live, so that when we depart from here, we may indeed experience those unspeakable joys of the eternal life to come, which we now believe.

Up to here I have declared to you, throughout the last four articles, the fruit and end of Christian faith. Faith leans upon one God — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost — who sanctifies the faithful, and purges and hallows a church for himself. This church has communion with God and all the saints; God pardons and forgives all the offences of this church; and He preserves it both soul and body. For just as the saints' souls cannot die, so God raises up their bodies again, and makes them glorious and everlasting, to the end that the whole man may forever live in heaven with the Lord — to whom be praise and glory, world without end. Amen.

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1-10. THE TENTH SERMON: LOVE OF GOD AND NEIGHBOUR.

OF THE LOVE OF GOD AND OUR NEIGHBOUR.

It remains, since I have discoursed about true faith in some sermons, that I now also add one sermon touching love towards God and our neighbour. For in my fourth sermon, I promised that as soon as I was done with the exposition of faith, I would then speak of love toward God and our neighbour. This is because the exposition of the scriptures should not depart from faith and charity, which are as it were, the right and holy marks for it to draw to. Just as you have done up to now, do not yet cease to pray, that this wholesome doctrine may be taught by me as it should be, and received by you with much increase and profit.

First of all, I will not curiously [352] differentiate between charity and love. I will use them both in one and the same sense. St. Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, says, "I call charity a motion of the mind to delight in God for His own sake, and to delight in himself and his neighbour for God's sake." [353] And therefore I call love a gift given to man from heaven, whereby with his heart he loves God before and above all things, and his neighbour as himself. Love therefore springs from heaven, from which it is poured into our hearts. But it is enlarged and augmented, partly by the remembrance and consideration of God's benefits, partly by frequent prayer, and also by the hearing and frequenting of the word of Christ. These things are themselves the gifts of the Spirit. For the apostle Paul says, "The love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us." Rom 5.5 For truly, the love of God with which he loves us, is the foundation and cause of our love with which we love him; and the love of our neighbour jointly consists of both these. For the apostle says, "We love him because He first loved us." 1Joh 4.19 And again, "Everyone who loves Him that begot, also loves him who is born of him." 1Joh 5.1

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Hereby we gather again, that this gift of love cannot be divided or severed, even though it is double. For he that loves God truly, does not hate his neighbour. And yet, nevertheless, because of the double respect that it has to God and our neighbour, this love has two parts. And because of this double charity, the tablets of God's law are divided in two: the first of which contains four commandments touching the love of God; the second comprehends six precepts touching the love of our neighbour. I will speak of these in their own place. But at this time, because the love of God and love of our neighbour are two, I will first speak about the love of God, and then about the love of our neighbour. "In these two commandments," says the Lord, "hang the law and the prophets." Mat 22.40

With what we call the love of God, we love God entirely well; we cling to God as the only, chief, and eternal goodness; we delight ourselves in Him and are well pleased; and we frame ourselves to His will and pleasure, evermore having a regard and desire for Him that we love.[354] With love, we love God most heartily. But we heartily love the things that are dear to us, and the things that to us seem worthy to be desired. And we love them entirely indeed, not so much for our commodity,[355] as because we desire to join and to forever give and dedicate ourselves wholly to the thing that we so dearly love. So truly, we desire to be joined with God forever, and are fast-linked to Him in charity. As the apostle says, "God is charity; and he that dwells in charity dwells in God, and God in him." 1Joh 4.16

And that is the way by which we cling to God: as to the only chief and eternal goodness, in whom we are also delighted, and that is not a little. We rest on Him, thinking assuredly that without Him there is no good at all; and again, that in Him there is to be found all manner of goodness. This is why our hearty love is set on no good thing but God. And in comparison to Him whom we love, we readily loathe and tread underfoot, all other things that seem to be good in the whole world.

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Yes, truly, the love of God in us overcomes all the evils which otherwise seem invincible. Let us hear Paul proclaiming this with vehement emotion, saying,

"Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (As it is written, For Your sake we are killed all the day long, and are counted as sheep for the slaughter.) Nevertheless in all these things we overcome through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rule, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom 8.35-39

The love of God works in us a will to frame ourselves wholly to the will and ordinances of Him whom we heartily love. Yes, it is pleasant and sweet to him who loves God, to do the thing that he perceives is acceptable to God, if it is done. He that loves, reverences in his mind the one whom he loves. His eye is never off the one whom he loves. He always, and in all things, wishes for his dearling whom he loves. His only joy, as often as possible, is to talk with God, and to hear again the words of God speaking in the scripture. For the Lord in the gospel says, "If any man loves me, he will keep my word. He that does not love me, does not keep my words." Again, "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, even as I also have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." And again: "If any man loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our dwelling in him." [356]

But now let us hear Moses, the servant of God, declaring and teaching us the way and manner to love God — namely, how great a love ought to be in the elect. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." Deu 6.5 Our Lord repeated the very same words in the gospel, in a way, saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind." Mat 22.37

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By this we understand that the greatest love that may be, is required at our hands toward God — as that which claims man wholly, however big he is, and all the parts of man — as peculiar to itself. In the mind is man's understanding. In the heart is the seat of his affections and will. The strength of man contains all man's ability, such as his very words, deeds, counsel, riches, and his whole substance. Finally, the soul is the life of man. And we truly are commanded to employ all these in the love of God, when we are bid to love God with all our soul, with all our strength, with our whole mind, and our whole heart. Nothing is overlooked, but all is contained in this. We are God's wholly and altogether; let us therefore altogether and wholly love God. Let nothing in the whole world be dearer to us than God. Let us not spare, for God's sake, anything of all that we possess, however dear to us or good it may be. But let us forsake, spend, and give it for God's sake, as the Lord appoints by his word. For in so doing, we love God before and above all things.

We are also commanded to stick to God only, and to embrace him alone. For to whom we wholly owe all that we have, all of the whole is to be given to him, sincerely, simply, and fully. Here those who would at the same time love God and the world together, are condemned. The Lord requires the whole heart, the whole mind, the whole soul, and all the strength. Finally, he requires all that we are, or have in our possession. He therefore leaves nothing for you to bestow on others. By what right, then, would you give to the flesh, the devil, to other gods, or to the world, the things that properly are God's own? And truly, God alone is the chief, eternal, greatest, mightiest creator, deliverer, preserver, most gentle, most just, and best of all. He alone gives, has given, and is able to give to man all that is expedient for the safeguard of his body and soul. God alone ministers to man the ability to live well and blessedly. And therefore, God deserves to be loved alone, and that too is before and above all other things. This love of God blesses all the happenings and chances of men, and turns them to their profit, according to that saying: "To those who love God, all things work for the best." Rom 8.28

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This love of God also contains this: that it does not suffer us to honour, worship, reverence, fear, or call upon any other, nor to trust in, obey, or stick to any other, but to the one and only God, to whom all glory is due.

But now, before we speak of the love of our neighbour, it is requisite that we first show who is our neighbour; touching which I see some men doubt and stick uncertainly. For there are some who take their kinsfolks to be their neighbours; there are others who think that their benefactors are their neighbours, and judge those to be strangers who do them any harm. But our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that everyone, indeed, even if he is our enemy, is nevertheless our neighbour, if he stands in need of our aid or counsel. For he imagines that a Jew, lighting among thieves, and lying on the highway half dead, and covered with wounds and swelling dry blows, was not regarded by his own countrymen — a Levite and a priest who passed him by; but at last he was taken up and healed by a Samaritan. Now there was a deadly enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans. Yet notwithstanding, this Samaritan does good to the Jew, because he saw that the case and necessity of the afflicted man required it. Now the Lord, applying this to his own purpose, demanded of the one who desired to learn who was his neighbour, "Which of these three seems to you to have been this man's neighbour?" The man answered, "He that showed mercy." Then the Lord said, "Go and do likewise." Luk 10.29-37 It is as if he had said, Just as the Samaritan judged even his enemy to be his neighbour, and dealt friendly with him when he stood in need of his friendship, so see that you take everyone who needs your help to be your neighbour, and do him good.

Aurelius Augustine therefore, according to the right sense of the scripture, said, "We take him to be our neighbour, to whom we show mercy when need requires it; or to whom we should show mercy if he should need it at any time." [357] We Switzers most properly express it, when we call our neighbour Den nachsten menschen — that is, any man, without difference, whoever happens to light into our company.

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Moreover, in our country speech we call our neighbour, Der abenmensch, namlich ein yeder der so wol ein mensch ist als wir — meaning any man whatever, whether he is our friend or enemy. That saying of Lactantius belongs to this, in the eleventh chapter of his sixth book: "Why do you choose between persons? Why do you look so narrowly at the limbs? Whoever beseeches you therefore, you must take him to be a man, so that he may think you are a man. Give to the blind, to the impotent, to the lame, to the comfortless — unless you are liberal to them, you will undoubtedly die." [358] Again he says, "If we would rightly be called by the name of men, then we must in any case keep the law of civil humanity. And what else, I pray you, does it mean to keep humanity, but to therefore love a man because he is a man, and the very same that we ourselves are?" [359]

The Lord in the gospel, truly speaking of the love of our neighbour, says, "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who hurt you." Mat 5.44 And again: "Give to everyone that asks of you. And if you love those who love you, what thanks is that to you? For sinners also love those by whom they are loved." Luk 6.30,32 So then, whatever man stands in need of our aid, he both is and is to be counted as our neighbour.

And yet, all this notwithstanding, there is no reason that there should not be an order, a measure, and a decent regard, in love and well-doing. For St. Augustine rightly said, in the twenty-seventh chapter of his book de Doctrina Christiana: "No sinner, in that he is a sinner, is to be loved." [360] And in the twenty-eighth chapter: "All men are to be loved alike. But since you cannot do good to all men, you must therefore especially do good to those to whom you are more nearly joined by lot as it were — by opportunity either of time, place, or any other thing whatsoever." [361]

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And Paul taught this before Augustine, where he says, "Whoever does not work, let him not eat." 2The 3.10 And again, "While we have time, let us work good to all men; but specially to those of the household of faith." Gal 6.10 And in another place he commands us not to bestow on others, and yet lack ourselves at home; rather he charges everyone to have a godly care of his own house. The place is known in the fifth chapter of the first epistle to Timothy. 1Tim 5.8

Now, since I have declared who our neighbour is, let us also see in what way this neighbour of ours ought to be loved. Our neighbour must be loved simply, without any coloured deceit, with the very self-same love with which we love ourselves, or that love with which Christ has loved us. For in all things we must stand our neighbour in stead, and do him pleasure, so far as the law of humanity is found to require. In this declaration, there are four things to be noted more fully.

FIRST, that love of our neighbour which is looked for at our hands, ought to be so sincere that it is without any guile, deceit, and coloured craft. For there are many to be found, who have the skill to talk to their neighbours with sugared tongues, and to make a face as though they loved them, when indeed they utterly hate them, meaning nothing else than to beguile them with fawning words, so that thereby they may work the things that they desire. Paul and John, therefore, the apostles of Christ, go about earnestly severing hypocrisy from love. For Paul says, "Do not let your love be feigned." Again, "The end of the commandment is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith that is not feigned." [362] On the other side, John cries out, saying, "My babes, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed and in verity." 1Joh 3.18

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Moreover, in this sincerity we contain a free, willing, and merry cheerfulness, so that nothing may seem to be done unwillingly or by compulsion. For Paul says, "Let every man do with a good purpose of mind, not out of trouble or necessity; for God requires a cheerful giver." 2Cor 9.7

SECONDLY, it is to be looked for from us, that we should love our neighbour as ourselves. For the Lord has said, "Love your neighbour as yourself;" Mat 22.39 that is, most entirely, and as dearly as you may, by any means. For there is no affection that is of more force or vehemence than self-love. Nor was it the Lord's mind, that the love of our neighbour should be any whit less than the love we bear for ourselves. Rather, by this he gave us to understand that we ought to bestow on others as ardent a love as possible — namely, the very same affection that we bear for ourselves and our own estate — and that we ought to be ready to do good to others, or to keep them from harm, with the same care, faith, and diligence, with the same zeal and good will, with which we provide for ourselves or our own safety. Upon this, the Lord says in another place: "Whatever you would have done for yourself, do for another. And whatever you would not have done to yourself, do not do that to another." Mat 7.12 And in this, the Lord requires two things at our hands: not to hurt, and to do good. For it is not enough not to hurt a man, but we must also to do him good, so much as it lies in us to do so. For we ourselves desire not only to keep ourselves from hurt, but also to do ourselves good. But if, dearly beloved, you do not yet sufficiently understand the manner in which we ought to love our neighbour, then mark this, I beseech you:

The THIRD part of my description of this love, where I said that we ought to love our neighbour with that same love with which the Lord Christ loved us. For in the gospel of St. John, the Lord says, "This is my commandment, That you love one another, as I have loved you." Joh 15.12 So then, here you have the manner of our love: we must love our neighbours as Christ has loved us.

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But in what way has Christ loved us? Here again in the gospel he says, "No man has greater love than this, that a man bestows his life for his friends." Joh 15.13 So then, this must be the manner of our love toward our neighbour, that we should not hesitate [363] to give our life for him. And if we owe the loss of our life for our neighbour's sake, then truly there is nothing that we do not owe him, considering that nothing is more dear to a man than his life. For he would sooner lose all that he has, than to even once put his life in jeopardy. Thus the apostle John cries out, and says, "Hereby we perceive love: because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." 1Joh 3.16 This is easy to understand because of the most evident example. Let us pray earnestly and continually to the Lord, that we may indeed fulfil the thing we manifestly understand by the word of God, lest perhaps the same apostle condemns us, who says, "Whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother has a need, and shuts up his compassion from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?" 1Joh 3.17

And now let us also declare the FOURTH and last manner, how we should stand our neighbour in stead, and do him good in showing our dutiful love and civil humanity. The Lord has already very finely set that out in the very same parable in which he taught us who is our neighbour. For he has briefly, and yet very evidently, touched all the points of the love that we owe to our neighbour.

First, the Samaritan was moved with pity at the sight of the wounded man. Therefore, what is required of us is a merciful moving of pity, to so regard other men's calamities as though they were our own. It is looked for at our hands, that we should be as sorrowfully-minded for another man's trouble, as that man who is actually feeling such misery. This is according to that saying of the apostle, "Be mindful of those who are in bonds, as if bound with them; and of those who suffer adversity, as though you yourselves also, being in the body, suffered adversity." [364]

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Secondly, the Samaritan does not pass by, but comes to him. He does not with sorrowful words wish health to the wounded, and leaving him lie there, departs to dispatch his own affairs. For James the apostle [365] says, "If a brother or sister is naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled; and yet notwithstanding, does not give them those things that are needful for the body, what will it profit?" Jas 2.15-16

The Samaritan therefore comes to him, sets his hand to, and shows the skill that he has (which was not much, I am sure) [366] to heal the pitifully [367] mangled man. He does not loathe and turn his face from the ill-favoured colour, the bloody matter, corrupted filth and stench of his wounds; he binds them up himself, not leaving them for another to do. He does not make his excuse that he is no physician; but he does what he can in that necessity, using such medicine as for the present he had in a readiness, till he might more conveniently come by better. He had taken wine and oil with him when he began his journey, which he uses in that necessity; and that was consistent,[368] because wine purges wounds, and oil makes them supple. Moreover, whatever he has, he employs it to the poor man's benefit. And to ease him, he even diseases himself. For he alights from the back of the beast on which he rode, and makes himself serve the maimed man's necessity. Also, with his own hands he lifts the man up from the ground, who was too weak to stand, and sets him on the beast. And lastly, he himself becomes his guide to lead the way, not allowing any other to take charge over him. For when he could not readily bring him to his own house, he conveyed him into a common inn, where again he does not spare any cost or pains-taking. For he himself takes charge of the miserable man, because in common inns, sick folks, for the most part, are slenderly looked to. But when his earnest business calls to make haste in his journey, he takes out as much money as he thinks will be sufficient till his return, and gives it to the inn-keeper.

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Not being content with that, he gives his host special charge of the sick man; and also binds himself for the man, saying: Whatever more than this that you lay out, for things necessary to his recovery, you will not lose one mite. For at my return I will pay you back all of it, to the uttermost farthing. So then he promises the man to return; and with that, he declares that he will not be quiet until he sees him thoroughly healed of all his wounds.

You have here, dearly beloved, in this parable of the Lord, a most godly and absolute example of love. For the Samaritan liberally and willingly employs his whole service upon his needy neighbour's necessity. We therefore owe ourselves entirely, and all that we have, to our neighbour's benefit. If we bestow this on him, we fulfil the duties of love and civil humanity.

To this we will yet add some testimonies of the scripture, so that we may thereby more fully understand the very innermost pith of love; if perhaps anything still seems lacking in what I have alleged up to here. Paul therefore, writing to the Corinthians, says,

"Love suffers wrong, and is courteous; love does not envy; love does not act frowardly; [369] love does not swell, does not deal dishonestly, does not seek her own, is not provoked to anger, does not think evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, suffers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." 1Cor 13.4-7

And again, the same apostle says in his epistle to the Romans,

"Love strives to go before in giving honour to others; love distributes necessities to the saints; is given to hospitality, speaks well of her persecutors, and does not curse those who persecute her; love rejoices with those who rejoice, and weeps with those who weep, and applies itself to the weaker sort's infirmity." Rom 12.10, 13-16

And again:

"Owe nothing to any man, but to love one another. For he that loves another has fulfilled the law. For this — You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall kill; You not bear false witness, You shall not lust, and if there is any other commandment — is comprehended briefly in this saying: namely, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbour; therefore love or charity is the fulfilling of the law." Rom 13.8-10

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To this also pertains works of mercy which, as they flow out of love, so they are repeated by the Lord in the gospel of Matthew, and are especially these that follow: To feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to harbour the harbourless and strangers, to cover or clothe the naked, to visit the sick, and to see [i.e., visit] and comfort imprisoned captives. Mat 25.35-36

Lactantius has an eye to this, where he says,

"The greatest virtue is to keep hospitality, and to feed the poor; to redeem captives is also a great and excellent work of righteousness; and it is as great a work of justice to save and defend the fatherless and widows, the desolate and helpless, which the law of God commands everywhere. It is also a part of the greatest humanity and a great good deed, to take in hand to heal and cherish the sick, who have nobody to help them. Finally, that last and greatest duty of piety is the burial of strangers and of the poor." [370]

This much up to here, touches the duty of civil humanity, which true love shows to his neighbour in necessity.

But it is not enough, my brethren, to understand how we ought to love our neighbour (though we should often repeat it), but rather we must love him exceedingly, and above that which I am able to say. Let us hear the apostle, who with a wonderful, goodly grace of speech, with a most excellent, exquisite, and holy example of Christ, exhorts us all to show charity to our neighbour, and says:

"If therefore there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any compassion and mercy, fulfil my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord and mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory, but in meekness, let every man esteem one another better than himself. Let every man not look at his own things, but also at the things of others.

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For let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus; who being in the form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking on himself the form of a servant. And made in the likeness of men, and found in figure as a man, he humbled himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God has also highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the glory of God the father." Phi 2.1-11

To him alone be honour and power for ever and ever. Amen.

THE

SECOND DECADE OF SERMONS

WRITTEN BY

HENRY BULLINGER.

2-1. THE FIRST SERMON: THE LAWS OF NATURE & MEN.

OF LAWS, AND OF THE LAW OF NATURE, THEN OF THE LAWS OF MEN.

THE sum of all laws is the love of God and our neighbour. I have already spoken in my last sermon about this and every part of it. And so next, I also make a particular discourse about laws, and every part and kind of them. Let us therefore call to God, who is the cause and beginning of laws, that through our Lord Jesus Christ, He will grant with his Spirit to always direct us in the way of truth and righteousness.

A heathen writer, no base [371] author I am sure,[372] made this definition of law: that it is a special reason, placed in nature, commanding what is to be done, and forbidding the contrary.[373] And truly the law is nothing but a declaration of God's will, appointing what you have to do, and what you ought to leave undone. The beginning and cause of laws is God himself, who is the fountain of all goodness, equity, truth, and righteousness. Therefore all good and just laws come from God himself, although they are, for the most part, published and brought to light by men. Touching the laws of men, we must have a particular consideration of them by themselves.

For some laws are of God, some of nature, and some of men. As concerning God's law, I will speak of it in my second sermon: at present I will first touch the law of nature, and then the law of men.

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The law of nature is an instruction of the conscience, and as it were, a certain direction placed by God himself in the minds and hearts of men, to teach them what they have to do, and what to eschew.[374] And the conscience, truly, is the knowledge, judgment, and reason of a man, whereby every man in himself, and in his own mind, being made privy to everything that he either has committed or not committed, either condemns or else acquits himself.Rom 2.15 And this reason proceeds from God, who both prompts and writes his judgments in the hearts and minds of men. Moreover, that which we call nature is the proper disposition or inclination of every thing. But the disposition of mankind being flatly corrupted by sin, as it is blind, so also in all points it is evil and naughty. It does not know God, it does not worship God, nor does it love the neighbour; rather, it is affected with self-love, and still seeks its own advantage. For this cause the apostle said, "by nature we are the children of wrath." Eph 2.3 Thus the law of nature is not called the law of nature because there is in the nature and disposition of man, of or by itself, that reason of light exhorting it to the best things, and holy working; but it is because God has imprinted or engraved in our minds some knowledge, and certain general principles of religion, justice, and goodness, which — because they are grafted in us and born together with us — seem therefore to be naturally in us.

Let us hear the apostle Paul, who bears witness to this, and says: "When the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, then not having the law, they are a law unto themselves; this shows that the works of the law are written in their hearts, their conscience bearing them witness, and their thoughts accusing one another, or excusing, in that same day when the Lord shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Rom 2.14-16 By two arguments, the apostle very evidently proves here that the Gentiles are sinners. For first of all (lest they make this an excuse, and say they have no law) he shows that they do have a law; and that, because they transgress this law, they have become sinners.

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For, although they did not have the written law of Moses, yet notwithstanding, they did "by nature the things contained in the law." The office of the law is to disclose the will of God, and to teach you what you have to do and what to leave undone. This have they by nature; that is, this they know by the law of nature. For that which follows makes this plainer: "When they have no law, they are to themselves a law:" that is, they have in themselves that which is written in the law. But in what way do they have it in themselves? This again is made manifest by what follows: "For they show the work of the law written in their hearts." And who is he that writes in their hearts, but God alone, who is the searcher of all hearts? And what, I pray you, does he write there? The law of nature, in truth; the law, I say, itself commanding good and forbidding evil, so that without the written law, and by the instruction of nature, that is, by the knowledge imprinted by God in nature, they may understand what is good and what is evil, what is to be desired and what is to be shunned. By these words of the apostle we understand that the law of nature is set against the written law of God; and therefore it is called the law of nature, because it seems to be placed or grafted in our nature as it were. We understand that the law of nature — not the written law but that which is grafted in man — has the same office that the written law has: I mean, to direct men and to teach them, and also to discern between good and evil, and to be able to judge about sin. We understand that the beginning of this law is not from the corrupt disposition of mankind, but from God himself, who with his finger writes in our hearts, fastens in our nature, and plants a rule in us, to know justice, equity, and goodness.

Then the apostle makes his second argument, by which he proves the Gentiles are guilty of sin; and he fetches this argument from the witness-bearing of their conscience. For the conscience, being instructed by the law of nature, accuses and condemns the evil committed; because this conscience alone is in the stead of a thousand witnesses. And again, it excuses — that is, it absolves and acquits them — if nothing is committed contrary to the law. But although in this present life we treat lightly the judgment of our conscience, yet we may not despise or lightly pass over the conscience's accusations when the Lord comes with justice and equity to judge the world.

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So by all this, it then follows that all the nations are sinners; and unless the Son of God, the common and only Saviour and deliverer of the whole world, cleanses them from their offences, it cannot be but that all nations must perish in their sins.

But now we come again to the law of nature, of which there are two points especially for you to be put in mind of. The first is, Acknowledge God and worship him. The second is, Keep or maintain society and friendship among men. Touching the first, we have these words of Christ's apostle: "Whatever may be known of God is manifest among them" (namely, among the Gentiles); "for God has shown it to them. For his invisible things, being understood by his works, through the creation of the world, are seen; that is, both his eternal power and Godhead. So that they are with out excuse; because when they knew God, (notwithstanding) they did not glorify as God, nor were they thankful," etc. Rom 1.19-21

So then, the Gentiles knew God; yes, they knew whatever might be known of God. But what teacher did they have, or what master? They had God as their master. In what order did he teach them, or out of what book? Not out of the written books of Moses, nor the prophets; but out of that great and large book of nature. For the things that are not seen of God (in which sort are his everlasting eternity, his virtue, power, majesty, goodness, and Godhead), those he would have to be esteemed of according to the visible things, that is, the things which he has created. For God's eternal Godhead is known by man's creation, by the continual moving of heaven, and the perpetual course of rivers. For He must be most mighty who sustains all these things, who moves, strengthens, and keeps all things from decay, and who shakes the whole world with his beckoning. Finally, who does not see the goodness of the one who allows the sun to rise upon the good and the evil alike? But to what intent does he reveal these things to the Gentiles? With the intent, in truth, that they may acknowledge him to be God, that they may glorify and worship him as God, and be thankful to such a benefactor.

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Therefore, when they do not do this, they are inexcusable, and perish deservedly for their unbelief and unthankfulness. So then, it is manifest that the law of nature expressly teaches that there is a God which is to be acknowledged and reverently worshipped.

Touching the latter of these two special points (that is, for preserving friendship and society among men) the Lord says in the Gospel: "Whatever you would have men do to you, do the same to them." Mat 7.12 Alexander Severus the Emperor, turned this sentence and expressed it thus: "Whatever you would not have done to yourself, do not do that to another." He loved this saying so much, that he commanded it to be written up in his palace and common houses of office.[375] Moreover, to that general law belong these that follow: "Live honestly: do not hurt another: give every man his due: [376] provide things necessary for life, and keep it from distress."

But now, because the law of nature is made opposite to the written law of God, it is requisite that it also correspond to the law of God. Let us therefore see what the wise men and lawgivers of the Gentiles have left in writing to countervail the Ten Commandments,[377] and how far their writings correspond to the law of God.

1. Pythagoras, in St. Cyril's first book contra Julianum, writes thus of God: "God truly is one; and he too is not, as some imagine, outside the government of the world; but being wholly in every place of it, He views all the generations in the whole compass of it, and He is himself the moderation of all ages, the light of his own virtues, the beginning of all works, the light in heaven, the father of all things, the life and quickening of all things, and lastly, the moving of all the circles." [378]

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See, here Pythagoras confesses that there is but one God, who is the maker, preserver, and governor of all things, the father of all, and the light and life of all things. Zaleucus,[379] in the preface to his laws, writes as follows: "It is necessary that all men who inhabit any city or region whatsoever, be thoroughly persuaded that there are gods; which is evident to be seen by the contemplation of heaven and the whole world, and by the goodly disposition and order of what is in them: for it is not convenient to think that these are the works of fortune, or of man's ability. Then also the gods must be worshipped and honoured, as the ones that are the causes of all good things done to us by any manner of means. Everyone, therefore, must do his best to have his mind purely cleansed from all evil. For God is not honoured by a wicked man; he is not worshipped with sumptuous cost, nor is he delighted with the sight of solemn tragedies, as a wicked man is. But His delight is in virtue, and in a mind that purposes to do good works and righteousness. Therefore everyone must endeavour, as much as he may, both to do well and to will well, if he desires to have God as his friend," etc. [380] Cicero, in his second book de Natura Deorum, says: "The best worshipping of the gods, and the most holy and pure religion, is always to honour them with a pure, perfect, and uncorrupted mind and voice." [381]

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Seneca also, in his fifth book ad Lucil. says:

"Our usual custom is to teach men how the gods are to be worshipped. Let us give commandment, that on holy days no man set perchers [382] or taper light before the gods; for they are as much delighted with lights, as men half-smouldered have pleasure in smoke. Let us forbid these morning greetings, and solemn kneelings at the temple-doors. This, more than needing fiddle-faddle,[383] smacks somewhat of ambition. He worships God that knows God. Let us forbid bringing napkins and rubbers to Jupiter, and to hold a looking-glass to Juno. God seeks no such service. Why so? Because he himself, in truth, serves and supplies all men's necessities. He is present everywhere, and at hand with all men. Let every man hear therefore how he ought to worship God as he should. He shall never truly be sufficiently clear from troublesome superstitions, unless in his mind he thinks of God as he should; that is, that God has all things, that he gives all things, and that he bestows benefits freely, not looking for any recompense at all. What is the cause that the gods do good? Their nature, in truth. He is deceived, who thinks that they either will or possibly can do harm. They can neither take wrong nor yet do wrong. For to do harm and to suffer harm are coupled together. The chief and most excellent nature of all is the nature of them which are themselves exempt from peril, and are not by nature hurtful to others. The first point of worship due to the gods, is to believe that there are gods; and then to give them the majesty due them, and to ascribe to them their goodness, without which their majesty is none at all; to confess that they are the ones that govern the world, that they rule all things as their own, that they generally look to the safeguards of all mankind, and sometimes too, are careful for particular men. They neither do nor have any evil at all. But they chastise some, keep them under, and punish some time by whipping, in hopes of making them good. Would you please the gods, and make them your friends? Then be good yourself. Whoever has imitated them in goodness, has sufficiently worshipped them." [384]

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In these words of Seneca, although notable indeed, and agreeable to true religion, I find fault, notwithstanding, in two things. The first is because, not so seldom as once does he mention gods, when nevertheless in another place he frankly confesses that God is one in substance and no more.[385] Nor dare I undertake for him, that he spoke in the manner of the scripture, which calls God Elohim, as if you were to say "gods," because of the mystery of the most reverend Trinity. [386]

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2. And yet I know very well, that learned men of our religion have gone about to prove, even by the testimonies of the Gentiles, that the Gentiles also acknowledged the mystery of the Trinity. The second is that (so far as I can see) Seneca, with the other wise men of the Gentiles, does not expressly set down and teach the sound trust and confidence that should be had in God.

Moreover, there was not among the Romans any image of God in any temple that they had for the span of one hundred and seventy years after Rome was built. For Plutarch, in the life of Numa Pompilius, says:

"As for the decrees that Numa made touching images of the immortal gods, how like they are in almost every point to the doctrine of Pythagoras! Pythagoras thought that the first beginning (he means God) is not subject to sense or any troublesome affection, but is an invisible and uncreated Spirit. And on the other side, Numa forbade the Romans to think that the shape of God has the likeness of a man, nor the figure or similitude of any living thing. Neither was there among those of the olden times any painted or fashioned image of God. But in the first hundred and seventy years, they built temples, and set up houses for service to be done in them to the gods; but they did not make bodily similitudes — as if it were a detestable thing to liken the better to the worse, and as though God could not otherwise be perceived, than by reason and knowledge only." [387]

Marcus Varro testifies the very same touching the Romans, in the thirty-first chapter of Augustine's book de Civitate Dei. For he says that "the Romans worshipped the gods a hundred and seventy years without any images at all." And going further, he adds this: "Which if it had endured till now, the gods truly would have been more purely reverenced."

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Nor does he hesitate to conclude with these words: that "those who first brought in images among the people, diminished devout fear, and augmented foolish error, in the cities where they governed; wisely judging thereby that the gods may easily be despised under the fondness of imagined likenesses," etc. [388]

3. Now, concerning the name of God, how much the Gentiles regarded it, is evident by the great religion they had in taking or giving an oath. There is a notable discourse about this, extant in the eighteenth chapter of the seventh book of Gellius, where among the rest, this is found: "An oath among the Romans has been had and kept holy and uncorrupted: which is declared by many laws and customs." [389] And if among the Gentiles, any man were to speak opprobriously against God, he was reputed faulty, and punished most sharply. 1Cor 10.20

4. Furthermore, the Gentiles had their religion, their festival-days, ceremonies, and priests of their religion. Melchizedek and Jethro were notable priests of the Gentiles. And although Paul flatly says that "the things which the Gentiles offered were not offered to God, but to devils;" 1Cor 10.20 yet notwithstanding, because they revered religion and holy ceremonies, they thereby declared that God had imprinted in the minds of men a familiar knowledge of reverence and religion, which was afterward corrupted by false doctrine and wrong opinions touching God and his holy service.

5. For honouring parents and magistrates, for bringing up children, and touching the duty of children, there are excellent precepts and sentences of the wiser sort of Gentiles.

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Hierocles,[390] among his other writings, says:

"If any man calls his parents certain second or earthly gods, he will not do amiss; considering that, for the near affinity between us, they ought to be (if it be lawful to say so) more to be honoured by us than the gods themselves. And it is necessary to be persuaded that we must with a continual readiness of mind, endeavour to repay the benefits received from their hands with like benefits. And although we do very much for them, yet all will be too little in comparison to that we ought to do." [391]

And so forth as follows. For the time will sooner fail me, than I can conveniently repeat this and similar ones out of heathen writers. Nor did I purpose to reckon them all up.

6. and 7. Very severe laws against murder, wrong, and injury, have been made by the Gentiles. From them also came the law of adultery, called Lex Julia, against adultery and detestable lusts.[392] They ordained excellent laws for contracting and observing matrimony. And the word of truth expressly declares that the Canaanites were wiped out because of their incest in marriage and horrible lusts (Levit. 8). Lycurgus also, Solon, and the Romans, published laws for the restraint of outrageous expenses in riotous persons. [393] And here I purposely pass over what is naturally engrafted in all men, which is the begetting (I mean) and nourishing of their issue and offspring.

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8. The Gentiles have very commendable laws against theft, deceit, and usury, for lawfully getting and possessing goods, for distributing riches, and for bargaining. That saying of Ausonius [394] is notably known:

If greedy gaping after gain

To get another groat

Makes usury dispatch apace

To cut the poor man's throat.[395]

9. All the Gentiles in their writings worthily commend the truth; and by all the means they can, they cry out and condemn lying, slandering, and all such knavery. The law of the twelve tablets is, that a false witness should be cast headlong from the top of Tarpey.[396] Charondas Catanaeus, among other excellent sayings of his own, also has this: "Let every one," he says, "love honesty and truth, and hate dishonesty and lying; for they are the marks whereby virtue is known from vice. We must therefore begin with children, while they are yet little ones, and inure ourselves to chastise them if they delight to lie, and to make much of them for telling the truth; that thereby the best and most fruitful branch of virtue may be grafted in every individual mind, and so be turned as it were into their nature." [397]

10. The wiser sort of the Gentiles utterly condemn concupiscence and evil affections. The poet in his satires blames these as being the root of all mischief, where he says:

From there comes almost every cause

Of mischief; for no vice,

That reigns in man, so many times

Could frantic heads entice

To mingle poison privily

To stop another's breath,

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Or else in armour openly

To work his rival's death,

As beastly raging lust has done.[398]

So then, by all this we may easily gather that even in the Gentiles' minds, a certain knowledge of God was engraved, and some precepts whereby they knew what to desire, and what to eschew. Notwithstanding, they corrupted these, and made them somewhat misty with the evil affections and corrupt judgments of the flesh. For this cause, besides the law of nature, God also ordained other means to declare his will; I mean, the living tradition of the fathers, the answers of angels, the voices of prophets,[399] wonderful miracles, and written laws which He published by wise and very devout patriarchs. God ordained all these to be a help to the law of nature. Therefore, whatever is found among the Gentiles that is agreeable to truth and honesty, it is to be referred to God, the author of all goodness. And on the other side, whatever is contrary to the truth, must be attributed to the corrupt nature and evil affections of mankind.

In all that I have said, you have to note especially that here I speak of knowledge, and not of ability. The knowledge of the law, in a way, is manifest in the Gentiles; but the consent, the will, and the ability to fulfil the law is weak, and not easily found in them. This is why, just as we affirm that the understanding of the law must be inspired from heaven, so we also say that the ability to fulfil the law must of necessity be given by God above. Nature without grace is without force and effect in this. But though some of the Gentiles bear the name and praise of righteousness (such as Melchizedek, Job, Jethro, and others), they do not have that of their own ability, but of the grace of God — just as we may evidently gather by probable arguments from the history of Job. Therefore, if any of the Gentiles are saved, then they are saved not by the works of nature, or their own deservings, but by the mercy of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Moreover, the law of nature is not grafted by God in man with the intent that it should work man's salvation without grace and Christ. Rather, it is to teach us what is good and what is evil, to thereby convince us that we are sinners, and without excuse before the Lord. By proving that the Gentiles are guilty of sin by the law of nature, and that the Jews are guilty by Moses' law, Paul truly shows that in Christ alone, the Son of God, is justification, life, and all other good.

Thus far touching the law of nature.

The laws of men (for my promise was that I would speak of them in my second part) are those which are ordained and published by men for the preservation of the commonweal and church of God. Touching these they are of diverse kinds. For there are political laws, ecclesiastical laws, and men's traditions. Political laws are those which the magistrate, according to the state of times, places, and persons, ordains for preserving public peace and civility. Of this sort, there is a countless company of examples in the civil law and constitutions of the emperors, especially of Justinian. All of them should come as near as possible to the laws of God and nature, and not be contrary to them, or smack at all of impiety or cruel tyranny. St. Peter wills us to obey such laws, where he says: "Submit yourselves to every manner of ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; whether to the king, as having pre-eminence, or to rulers, as those who are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, but for the praise of those who do well." 1Pet 2.13-14 For although the apostle, by "ordinances," [400] or men's constitutions, inclusively means the kings and magistrates themselves — as he immediately declares in the second clause of the sentence — yet notwithstanding, he bids us to obey good and just laws, because the magistrates support and rule the commonweal by them.

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Moreover, just and honest political laws are a help to love and tranquility; to preserve human [401] society among men; to defend the good; bring inordinate persons into better order; and lastly, not only to promote religion a little, but also to abrogate evil customs, and utterly banish unlawful mischiefs. We have examples of this in the deeds of Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Darius, Artaxerxes, and other princes. But touching the magistrate's power, his laws and office, I will speak of them in another place.

Ecclesiastical laws are those which, being taken out of the Ecclesiastical word of God, and applied to the estate of men, times, and places, are received and have authority in the church among the people of God. I call these ecclesiastical laws, and not traditions of men, because, being taken out of the holy scriptures, and not invented or brought to light by the wit of man, they are used by that church which hears the voice of the Shepherd alone, and does not know a stranger's tongue. The congregation comes together to hear the word of God, and to common prayers, at morning, at evening, and at such appointed hours as are most convenient for every place and every people; and which the church holds as a law. The church has solemn prayer times,[402] holy days, and fasting days, which it keeps by certain laws. The church, at certain times, in a certain place and appointed order, celebrates the sacraments according to the laws and received custom of the church. The church baptizes infants; it does not forbid women to come to the Lord's Supper: and it holds this as a law. In causes of matrimony, the church judges by conveniently appointed judges; and it has certain laws to direct them in such cases. But it derives these, and all others like them, out of the scriptures; and for edification, it applies them to the estate of men, times, and places — so that in diverse churches, you may see some diversity indeed, but no discord or repugnancy at all.

Furthermore, ecclesiastical laws have their measure and certain marks, beyond which they may not pass; namely: that nothing should be done or received contrary or differing in any jot from the word of God, sounding against charity and beauty, either a little or much. And lastly, that this rule of the apostle may be effectually observed, "Let all things be done decently, according to order, and to the edification of the church." [403]

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Therefore, if any man goes about, under a pretence of ecclesiastical laws, to introduce and impose upon the godly,[404] any superstitious, laborious, and unseemly traditions of men, which differ from the scriptures — their part shall be, first to test that deceit of theirs by the rule of God's word, and then to reject it.

There remain now the traditions of men. These have their beginning (are made and invented) by men, by their own choice, out of some foolish intent, or some fond affection of mankind, and are contrary to or outside the holy scriptures. You will find an infinite number of examples of this sort — I mean, the sects, dominion, and single life of spiritual men, the rites and sundry fashioned customs used in their church. Touching all of these, the Lord in the gospel, citing the prophet Isaiah, says: "Why do you transgress the Lord's commandment for your own tradition? You hypocrites! Isaiah rightly prophesied of you, where he says, This people comes near to me with their mouth, and honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." [405] The blessed martyr Cyprian, alluding to these words of Christ, Epistolarum, Lib. i. Ep. 8, says:

"It is corrupt, wicked, and robbery to the glory of God, whatever is ordained by the giddy madness of men's heads, to the violating of God's disposition. Depart as far as possible from the infectious contagion of such fellows, and seek by flight to shun their talk, as warily as you would flee an eating canker or infectious pestilence; for the Lord forewarns and tells you that they are blind leaders of the blind." [406]

Paul also, in his epistle to Titus, says: "Rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; not taking heed to Jewish fables and the commandments of men who turn from the truth." Tit 1.14 I purposely here let pass the words of Paul in his second chapter to the Colossians, because the place is known by all men. Col 2.8

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I will not trouble you, dearly beloved, with too large and busy an exposition of this. For I suppose that this little that I have said, touching the laws of nature and of men (I mean the political and ecclesiastical laws, and mere traditions of men) are sufficient to the attentive and faithful hearers, who at their coming home to them, more diligently think of every point by themselves, and also read the places of scripture often cited by me and devoutly expounded.[407] The Lord for his mercy grant that we never despise the admonitions of nature's law grafted in our hearts, nor yet be entangled in men's traditions; but that in walking lawfully in upright political laws and holy ecclesiastical ordinances, we may serve the Lord — to whom be all glory, honour and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen.

2-2. THE SECOND SERMON: THE FIRST TWO COMMANDMENTS.

OF GOD'S LAW, AND OF THE TWO FIRST COMMANDMENTS OF THE FIRST TABLET.

THE law of God, openly published and proclaimed by the Lord our God himself, sets down ordinary rules for us to know what we have to do, and what to leave undone, requiring obedience, and threatening utter destruction to disobedient rebels. This law is divided into the MORAL, CEREMONIAL, and JUDICIAL laws: all the parts of which, and every point of which, Moses has very exquisitely written, and diligently expounded. The MORAL law is that which teaches men manners, and lays down before us the shape of virtue; declaring with it how great are the righteousness, godliness, obedience, and perfection that God looks for at the hands of us mortal men.

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CEREMONIAL laws are those which are given concerning the order of holy and ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies, and also touching the ministers and things assigned to the ministry, and other holy uses. Last of all, the JUDICIAL laws give rules concerning matters to be judged between man and man, for the preservation of public peace, equity, and civil honesty. Touching the latter two, I will speak of them in a convenient place. At this time, I mean to discourse upon the MORAL LAW.

First of all, therefore, let no man think that before Moses' time there was no law, and that the law was first published by Moses. For the same special points of the moral law, which Moses sets down in the Ten Commandments, were very well known to the patriarchs, even from the beginning of the world. For they worshipped the one true God alone for their God, whom they reverenced and called upon.[408] Jacob took away with him the Syrian idols of Laban out of his house,[409] and hid them in Bethel under an oak or terebinth tree, which was near Shechem. Gen 35.4 Abraham, in taking an oath, always used a reverent fear, and a spiced conscience; whereby it follows, that the name of the Lord was holy to him, and not taken lightly. All the holy fathers did both diligently and devoutly solemnize and observe holy rites and sacrifices. Ham has his father's curse, because he irreverently behaved himself toward his father. Cain is reproved for murdering his brother. Noah commands not to shed blood. Joseph is highly commended for refusing to lie with another man's wife; I mean, the wife of his master. Ruben is rebuked, because he defiled his father's bed with incest. Jacob was not angry without a cause with Laban his father-in-law, when he suspected him of theft. All the patriarchs have utterly condemned liars and false witnesses, as well as evil lusts and concupiscence. Therefore the patriarchs, from the beginning of the world even until Moses time, were never without the precepts of the Ten Commandments, although they did not have them graven in tablets or written in parchments. For the Lord wrote them with his finger in their hearts,[410] which the living tradition of the fathers exquisitely garnished and reverently taught.

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The law is the same everywhere, and the will of God is always one, because God is but one and is never changed. Nevertheless, the commandments were first set down in tablets by God, who was the beginner and writer of them; and after that, were again written into books by Moses.

Likewise also the old and holy patriarchs that were before Moses, did not lack the ceremonial and judicial laws. For they had their priests, I say, their fathers of every kindred or household; they had their ceremonies, their altars and sacrifices; they had their solemn assemblies, and purifications. They had their laws for succession in heritage, for the division and possession of goods, for bargaining and contracts, and for punishing evil doers. All of which Moses gathered together into a certain number of decreed laws; setting down many things more plainly than they were before, and ordaining many things which the patriarchs were either altogether without, or else had used in another order. Of this sort were the tabernacle, the holy vessels, the ark of the covenant, the table, the candlestick, the altar for burnt-offerings and for incense, the Levitical priesthood, the holy vestments, with the feasts and holy-days, and whatever else is like this — all of which truly are abrogated by Christ, as I mean to declare in a convenient place. But because manners cannot consist, if the Ten Commandments are broken, the moral law therefore, notwithstanding that it properly has the name of a law, is never to be abrogated or broken.[411] For the Ten Commandments are the very absolute and everlasting rule of true righteousness and all virtues, set down for all places, men, and ages, to frame themselves by. For the sum of the Ten Commandments is this: to show our love to God, and to love one another. And the Lord requires this at all times, and everywhere, of all kinds of men.[412]

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Moreover, this is to be noted touching the dignity of the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments: that all the ceremonial and judicial laws were revealed by God to Moses, by the angels; and then by Moses to the people; and again by Moses, they were inserted into written books, at God's commandment — and yet, notwithstanding all this, the moral law of the Ten Commandments was not revealed by man, nor by any means of man, but by God himself at Mount Sinai. There, among other mighty and marvellous wonders, God openly, in a public and innumerable assembly of men and angels, repeated them word for word, as they are now to be seen. Furthermore, they were not written by the hand of Moses, but with the finger of God, in tablets, not made of matter easily dissolved,[413] but made of stone to endure forever. Those tablets were also kept as most precious treasure, in that ark which was named the Ark of the Covenant because of the tablets, containing the chief articles of the eternal league.[414] This ark in turn was laid up in the holy of holiest. All of these circumstances tend toward nothing else, than to commend to us the excellence of the Ten Commandments, and to warn us to reverence that God who published this moral law, as the Lord of heaven and earth, and who at his own will and pleasure, orders the disposition of all the elements against disobedient rebels. These circumstances also admonish us, that even now, in our time also, we have to esteem the Ten Commandments as among the dearest jewels to be found in the whole world. For the holy relics that remain in the church of Christ, are the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's prayer, and lastly, the whole contents of the sacred bible.[415] Touching the proclamation or first edition of the Ten Commandments, we have a wonderfully large discourse of Moses in Exodus 19, and Deuteronomy 4th and 5th chapters.

Now the tablets into which the Ten Commandments of God's law are disposed, are two in number; of which the first contains four commandments, and the latter six. For the last commandment, which some divide in two, is indeed but one alone and undivided.[416]

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For first, the Lord generally commands and says, "You shall not covet:" and then he descends particularly, and by enumeration he reckons up the things that we must not covet; namely, our neighbour's wife, his house, his lands, his cattle, and his substance. Beside that, this argues that it is so, because according to the Hebrew disposition, this commandment is altogether one whole verse, not divided in two. Exo 20.17 With this division of ours agree Joseph. Antiq. Lib. iii. cap. 5;[417] Origen in Exod. Hom. 8,[418] Ambros. in vi. cap. Epist. ad Ephes.[419] But the Master of Sentences, having divided this last commandment in two, therefore places in the first tablet three commandments and no more.[420]

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He perhaps followed Augustine in this, who in Quaest. in Exo 71, and Epistola ad Januarium 119,[421] also reckons up but three commandments in the first tablet alone, which he did in respect to the mystical Trinity. And yet, notwithstanding this, he does not slip over the commandment for abandoning and not worshipping of images; for undoubtedly, he always had in his mind those words of the Lord in the gospel, where he says: "Truly I say to you, though heaven and earth pass, not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass away, till all is fulfilled. Whoever, therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." Augustine again, in Quaestionibus Veteris et Novi Testamenti, Lib. i. cap. 7, makes four commandments of the first tablet, and six of the second.[422] And again, he does not differ much from the same order in his third book ad Bonifacium, etc. [423]

Now touching these commandments, the Lord has divided them into two separate orders or tablets because of the several differences of the matters handled in either of them. For the first of the two tablets pertains to God, and the second to man.

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The FIRST TABLET teaches us what we are to think concerning God, and the worship due him; that is, it teaches us the perfect way to live uprightly and holily in the sight of God. The SECOND TABLET is the rule by which we learn our duty toward our neighbour; which also teaches us humanity, directing us in the way to live peaceably and civilly with one another. And in these two tablets are so nearly contained all and every duty looked for at men's hands, that not so much as one jot more may be added by all the wise men of the world, concerning a godly life and civil behaviour, which is not already contained in these Ten Commandments.

The FIRST COMMANDMENT of the ten, the Lord himself has expressly spoken in these very words that follow:

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: you shall have no other gods before me."

This commandment has two branches.

The first branch contains diverse matters. For first of all, God simply offers himself to us, and precisely sets down what he will be toward us, thereby declaring what he is to all men.[424] Whereupon, secondly, we gather what he, on the other side, looks for at our hands, and what our duty is to him. Thirdly and last of all, he adds an evident proof of that, where he said that he is our God.

In the beginning he cries out and says: "I am the Lord your God." In this he declares what he is, and what he will be to all men. These words are like the words of the covenant which God made with Abraham, and in Abraham with all faithful believers: "I am," says the Lord, "a strong God, and I am Shaddai;" as if he were to say, Saturnus a saturando,[425] which is, "to fill." For God is the abundant fulness [426] that satisfies all men and all things: he is the everlasting well of all good things, which is never drawn dry.

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And Jeremiah declares that at large in the second chapter of his prophecy. All of which truly God in effect comprehends in these few words: "I am the Lord your God." I say, I which speak to you from within the fire — I and none other. Here is expressly meant the unity of God. We are here taught to acknowledge one God, and no more; to stick to one, and not allow our hearts to fantastically dream of many. "I am your Lord, I am your God." He is a Lord, because he alone has the rule over all creatures; all things are subject to him as to their Lord; all things bend and obey him, if he but once beckons. As Lord alone, He governs and upholds all things that exist.[427] So then in this one word is contained the wisdom of God, his virtue, his power, and infinite majesty. Deus, which word we use for "God," is, perhaps, derived from the Hebrew word Daii, which signifies sufficiency or full ability.[428] For God alone, of himself, is unto himself most perfect blessedness and absolute felicity. He is also sufficiently able to minister all things most abundantly to all those who seek after him in truth sincerely, being of himself most liberally wealthy to all that call upon his name. Therefore, in this branch are to be noted the sufficient and full ability, the liberality, the goodness, and the mercy of God. But most especially this: "I am your God; your God, I say." For God is not good to himself alone, but even to us also.

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He desires to pour and bestow himself wholly, with all his goodness and gifts of grace, upon the faithful and sincere believers. He is no niggard, he is not envious, he rejoices and is glad to bestow and divide himself among us abundantly, and to our comfort; to fill us with the enjoying of himself at all times and seasons, but especially in time of our necessity. And God truly says expressly "thy God," [personal singular] and not your God [collective plural], so that thereby every one of us may understand, that the eternal, most mighty, and holy God both is and will be the God and Lord of every particular man; that is, that he is and will be the keeper, deliverer, redeemer, the unmeasurable mountain and bottomless sea of all good gifts of body and soul, to all those who either are or ever shall be.

By this now, in the second place, we have to gather what the good and gracious Lord requires again at our hands, and what our duty to him both is and ought to be. For this, where he says, "thy God," betokens an evident relation. For if He will be mine, then I again, of duty, must be His. He will be my Lord and my God; therefore I must again, of duty, take account of and worship him as my Lord and my God. Therefore, in this commandment there is required at our hands, that we not only acknowledge the true God to be the true God, and so stop there; but also, that we take and account him for our God, our Lord, our King, our Creator, our Preserver, and our Father; and that we attribute this property to Him: namely, that he is one alone, the only fountain and giver of all good things, that He lives, and is eternal, righteous, true, holy, happy, merciful, mighty, most excellent and chief of all. Let us therefore stick to him alone; let us obey him in all things; let us put our trust in him; let us call on him alone; let us repute him to be the giver of all good things, and crave all good gifts of him; let us thank him for all benefits whatsoever that we receive; let us reverence him; and lastly, honour him in fear sincerely, in love most ardently, and in hope as constantly as possible. For to this belong those sentences in the books of Moses and the holy gospel: "You shall honour the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve." [429]

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And again: "Follow the Lord your God, fear him, keep his commandments, hearken to his voice, serve him, and stick to him." Deu 13.4 The Lord himself also in the Psalm cries out and says: "Offer to the Lord the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Highest. And call upon me in the day of trouble," etc. Psa 50.14-15

And now, touching the demonstration, whereby he declares that he has been, is, and will be the God and Lord of us all, of our fathers, and of our children that come after us; the proof of it is most evident by our delivery out of Egypt. In that are contained all the virtues of God: his wisdom, his goodness, his righteousness, his truth, his power, and whatnot. He declares that he is the Lord in heaven and on earth, in all elements and all creatures. His people the Israelites, He graciously delivers, defends, adorns with sundry gifts, and mightily preserves, even in spite of all the heads of the whole Egyptian kingdom. And on the other side, by sundry means He very terribly, yet notwithstanding, justly, punishes the Egyptians. And last of all, together with their king, he overwhelms them in the Red Sea. By this one miracle of the Lord's, the Israelites might have gathered that, as God is almighty and the mightiest of all, so also he would be their God, as up till then he had been the God of their fathers. For by this wonder, He declared what he was then, and how great His power and goodness are even today among us, and also what He will be in all ages, even to the end. To us that live in these days, the deliverance which we have obtained by Jesus Christ our Lord, is far fresher in memory; who has not delivered us from the bondage of any Egyptian kingdom, nor from the tyrannous hands of any earthly Pharaoh, but has set us free from the power of darkness, of sin, death, and the devil. By this we gather that, just as the eternal, true, excellent, high, and holy God is most mighty, so also he is our God; that he wishes well to us, and that he cares for and loves us, according to that saying of the apostle: "Who did not spare his own Son, but gave him for us all, how can it be but that he will give us all things?" Rom 8.32

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Truly, the mystery of our redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ is manifestly contained in the first precept of the Ten Commandments. For it is evident, that the Israelites' free departure out of Egypt was a type or figure of the delivery of the whole compass of the earth, and of all the kingdoms of the world, which would be wrought by Christ our Lord, who has now already set the whole world free from the bondage of sin and hell. But if any man doubts this, let him diligently consider with himself the meaning of the ceremony and sacrament of that bodily deliverance, I mean, the Passover. For who does not know that the paschal lamb represented Christ our Redeemer in a figure? Are Paul's words unknown, who says, "Christ our Passover is offered up?" 1Cor 5.7 Have not all the apostles and John the Baptist called our Lord "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world?" [430] The words of the prophet Isaiah also, in his fifty-second chapter, are obviously known, where he compares the delivery of Israel out of Egypt with the redemption of the whole world wrought by Christ from the slavery of sin. Therefore, in this first precept of the Ten Commandments is contained the mystery of Christ our Lord, and our salvation. So that, as often as those words of God are recited in our ears, we should not so much set our eyes and minds upon the ancient delivery of Israel out of Egypt, as upon the new and latter redemption which we have by Christ Jesus — thereby quickening our hope, and not despairing that the most excellent and mighty God both is and will be our God, as up till then he had been theirs.

The second branch of this first commandment flatly forbids us, and every one of us, to have any strange gods; that is, it takes from us all extraordinary means to seek the safeguard of our lives, where the working finger of God is not present, and whatever else may be either devilishly devised or unadvisedly chosen beside the very word of God. And therefore the Lord uses a most vehement or earnest kind of speaking. For he says, "You shall not have any other gods before me." See, he says you shall not have, and you shall not have before me, or before my face, or with me, or by me.

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We Germans say, Zu mir; oder nabend mir; oder lass michs nit sahen vor meinen augen. For so fathers speak in their anger, when they earnestly forbid a wicked and heinous thing. "See," they say, "that you do not do it before my eyes for me to see it." But, now, God is present everywhere. God sees all things; indeed, he beholds our hearts, and the hidden secrets of our hearts. We must not in any case, therefore, either openly or privily, have any strange gods. That is, none of us must take account of any creature, either in heaven or earth, as of our God; none of us must attribute God's properties to his creatures, nor yet the things which we of duty owe to God himself. The properties of God are these: to be all over and every where, to see all, to know all, to be able to do all, to give life, to deliver and cleanse from sins, to save, preserve, to justify, to sanctify, and whatever else is like these. On the other side, our duty to him is to reverence God, to call on God, to fear God, to worship God, to hope in God, to stick to God, to hear God, to believe God, and to obey God.

The strange god, therefore, is that which is not God properly and by nature; yes, it is whatever we make to be our God beside the very living and eternal God, in whom we trust, in whom we hope, on whom we call, whom we love and fear, on whom we settle and fasten our minds, on whom we depend, of whom we take account as our treasure, our help, and our safeguard, both in prosperity and in our adversity. When Rachel asks children of Jacob, she has this answer from him: "Am I God, who has made you barren?" Gen 30.2 And again, when Joram king of Israel had received letters by Naaman from Benhadad, king of Syria, requesting to cleanse the leprosy, he rent his clothes for anger, and cried out, saying: "Am I God, that I can kill, and restore to life again?" 2Kng 5.7 Let God alone, therefore, be our God — that is, our life and safeguard, our help and refuge, our protection and deliverance, our hope and love, our fear, our dread, our trembling, and all. These if we attribute these to others, and not to God alone, then we make other gods for ourselves.

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Moreover, whatever is not ordained by God himself, is many times in the scriptures called strange, or other. In that sense, it is said that strange fire was carried into the tabernacle; Lev 10.1 namely, not that fire which God had commanded to kindle. In Proverbs she is called a strange woman,[431] one whose company the Lord does not allow you to keep. Those are strange gods, therefore, whom we have made for ourselves, to hang on and seek aid from, when God, notwithstanding, has not appointed them to have charge over us. Therefore the saints themselves, now triumphant in heaven with Christ our King, are reputed to be strange gods; the saints themselves, I say — not in respect to themselves — but strange gods in respect to those of us who judge very fondly of them, and bestow on them the honour due to God, in worshipping and calling upon them as we might worship and call upon our tutors and defenders.[432] The very devils and devilish men will be strange gods if, for fear, we stand more in awe of them than of God, to whom indeed our fear is due. The stars, the planets, and signs in the firmament will be strange gods if we, being deceived with the mathematical,[433] wholly hang on them, and in all our doings evermore regard the impressions of the sky, aligning every minute of our lives to the course of the stars. Likewise, if we honour and love money or men with the honour or love due to God, then this money and these men of ours, will be imputed to us as strange gods. King Asa is blamed (2Paral. 16.) for putting too much confidence in physic [434] and physicians. 2Chr 16.12 Physic and physicians may therefore be abused, and made strange gods. The Jews are rebuked by the Lord in Isaiah chap. 30, for trusting too much in the Egyptians, their confederates.

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Confederates may therefore be abused, and made strange gods. But most of all are condemned here the leagues and covenants made with the devil by witchcraft, to have him at our commandment. Those blessings also, which of right should rather be called cursings — I mean, superstitious exorcisms or conjurings — are to be utterly rejected. Also blameworthy in this, is that the name of the most high God is horribly abused and taken in vain. But who can exactly reckon up every particular thing in which this first commandment is transgressed, considering that in it is taught the perfect rule of godliness, which is the inward worship done to God — namely, to acknowledge God, to believe him, to think rightly about him, to call upon him, to cling to him, and to obey him in all things?

The SECOND PRECEPT of the Ten Commandments is:

"You shall not make for yourself any graven image, nor any likeness of those things which are in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them, nor worship them. I am the Lord your God, strong, and jealous, visiting the fathers' sins in the children to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me, and showing mercy to thousands of those that love me, and keep my commandments."

In the first commandment, the Lord taught and drew out before our eyes the pattern of his inward worship and religion. Now here, in the second, he amends what might be amiss in the outward rites and ceremonies. If we could have rightly judged about God, and kept (as devoutly as we should) the first commandment, then there would have been no need for the second. But because God knew our disposition and nature, he therefore expressly forbids the thing that otherwise we would have done. For there are many who think that God ought to be portrayed in some similitude or likeness, and be worshipped with some bodily or visible reverence, by offering gold, silver, pearls, ivory, and precious things of great price. Therefore, the general end of this commandment is to draw them away from those gross imaginations and carnal worshippings of God. For, having an incomprehensible power and an eternal spirit, He cannot be resembled to any corruptible similitude. He will be worshipped in spirit and in holiness.

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Under the name of the idol, or any imagined likeness, is contained all the outward reverence done to it. Therefore, when idols are forbidden, also forbidden are all outward honour irreligiously exhibited — honor that is due to the true and very God. For wherever there is an idol, there the idolaters must set up a pillar [435] for him, place him in a seat, erect him an altar, and build him a temple. And all these again require keepers and overseers, ministers or priests, sacrifices and offerings, ceremonies, furnishings, holy-days, cost and labour that will never be ended. In this sense the prophets said that idolatrous images were endless labours and infinite miseries: [436] for once images are received, there is no end or measure of expenses and toil. Experience teaches this to be true.

Now to proceed: this commandment is comprised of three separate parts.

For FIRST of all, God flatly forbids us to make a graven image or other kind of idol; that is, God utterly forbids us to set up or hallow to him any image, of whatever shape or substance it is. For as God will not, so indeed he cannot, be expressly represented in any manner of likeness. Now, in this commandment are reckoned up, in a way, all the similitudes of those things to which we usually liken our pictures, in portraying. You shall not fashion like God, he says, any shape or figure of those things which are in heaven — which are, I say, above us. Above us are the celestial bodies — the sun, moon, planets, stars — and diverse birds of sundry fashions. In all of these figures and shapes, no small number of Gentiles solemnly honoured and reverently worshipped the name of God. You shall not liken to God, he says, any shape or fashion of those things that are in the earth. In the earth are men, beasts, herbs, shrubs, trees, and other such things. Now it is manifest that the Gentiles worshipped God under the likeness of men and beasts.

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Cornelius Tacitus, writing of the Germans, says: "But by the greatness of the visible celestial bodies, they conjecture and truly think that the gods are neither enclosed in walls, nor yet in favour resembling men's visages; and therefore they hallow woods and groves, calling that hidden mystery by the name of the gods, which with outward eyes they do not see, but with inward reverence alone." [437] Look, here, our ancestors worshipped God in the likeness of trees and woods. Nevertheless, men are forbidden here to do this, even as also we are prohibited to worship our God in the likeness of anything that is in or under the water. The Philistines worshipped God in the image of a fish; for Dagon their God bore the shape of a fish.[438] Egypt honoured God in the similitude of serpents.[439] All of these, and many others, Paul knits up together in the first chap. to the Romans, where he argues against the Gentiles, and says: "Their foolish heart was blinded. When they counted themselves wise, they became fools, and turned the glory of the incorruptible God to the likeness, not only of a mortal man, but also of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping beasts." Rom 1.21-23 The first part of the law is directly given against this madness.

But now, the cause why God will not be represented in any visible or sensible image is this: God is a spirit; God is unmeasurable, incomprehensible, unspeakable, all over and everywhere, filling heaven and earth, eternal, living, giving life to and preserving all things; and lastly, he is of a glorious majesty exalted above the heavens. But what is the one that can portray a spirit in any image or substance? God is an incomprehensible power, quickening and preserving all and every thing.

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But describing images, David says: "The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the works of men's hands. They have ears, and do not hear; they have noses, and do not smell. They have hands, and do not handle; they have feet, and do not walk; nor is there any voice in their throat." Psa 115.4-7 Therefore, if these are compared to God, how, I beseech you, are they like him? To go about, therefore, expressing God in any visible likeness, is the nearest way to dishonour God, and to bring him into contempt. God's eye beholds all things; idols see nothing. God's ears hear all things; idols hear nothing. By God all things live, move, and are preserved; the idols themselves neither live, nor move, and, unless they are upheld by the men that make them, they fall and are dashed in pieces. An idol does not breathe; God gives a breathing spirit to others. How then, and in what, are these two alike? In substance, or in shape? If you say, in substance; I answer, Is God then of gold, of silver, or of wood? If in shape; my answer is, has the invisible power of God then put on visible and mortal members?

How greatly therefore did the Anthropomorphites [440] offend in this? If, then, there are no similitudes of God, how does it come to pass, I beseech you, that images and idols are called the likeness and pictures of God? Among us, someone who calls another an idol or an image, seems to have spoken it in great reproach of the other. For we know that idols are counterfeits of men, and not men indeed; and therefore we call him an image — that is, a sot, a fool, a dolt, an idiot, and someone that has no wit, nor knows any more than he hears from others. Why then should we any longer call images the likeness of God? God is living: images are monuments of dead men; as Solomon,[441] the author of the book of Wisdom, says: "God is glorious, and heaven and earth are full of the glory of his majesty; but idols are without any glory, and subject to the scoffs and mocks of men." Wis 14.15

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Images are tokens of absent friends: but God is present, always and everywhere. And the signs or tokens which God of old ordained and gave to his people, were not the signs and images of God, but tokens of God's presence, signifying that God — who by nature is a spirit, and invisible, incomprehensible, and unmeasurable — is still present among them. Such tokens were the cloud, the smoke, the fire, and finally, the very ark of the covenant, which also the cherubim covered with their wings. This signified that no mortal man could look God in the face; and that therefore the soul, and the mind, and the spirit, should be lifted up into heaven by contemplation, there to behold him. For to Moses, who notwithstanding is said to have seen God face to face, it was said, "No man shall see me and live." Exo 33.20 Once we are deceased, then we shall see him as he is, according to the sayings of the blessed evangelist John. 1John 3.2 So then, I say, these are the causes why the Lord will not have himself represented or portrayed in any matter or likeness.

To this now pertain the places of scripture, and testimonies of the men who are the chief pillars of true religion and godliness: of Moses, Isaiah, and Paul. Moses says in Deuteronomy:

"The Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire: and you heard a voice of words, but you saw no likeness, but heard only the voice. Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, as pertaining to your souls (for you saw no manner of image in that day), lest you mar yourselves by making a graven image, the likeness of any manner of figure, whether it be the picture of man or woman; the likeness of any manner of beast that is on the earth; or the likeness of any manner of feathered fowl that flies in the air; or the likeness of any manner of worm that creeps on the earth; or the likeness of any manner of fish that is in the waters beneath the earth. Yes, and lest you lift up your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun, the moon, and the stars, with all the host of heaven, you begin to worship them and reverence them, and worship and serve the things which the Lord your God has made to serve all nations under the whole heaven.

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Take heed, therefore, that you do not forget the appointment of the Lord your God, which he has made with you, and that you make no graven image, nor the likeness of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you." [442]

Isaiah also, in his fortieth chapter, says:

"Behold, all people, in comparison to him, are like a drop of a bucketful, and are counted as a little dust sticking on the balance, weighing nothing at all. Yes, the isles are to him as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to minister fire to his offering, and all the beasts of it are not enough for one sacrifice. All people in comparison to God are reckoned as nothing; in respect to him they are less than nothing, and as that which is not. To whom then will you liken God? Or what similitude will you set up to him? Shall the carver make him an image? And shall the goldsmith cover it with gold, or cast it into a form of silver plates? Moreover, shall [443] the poor man, that he may have something to set up, choose a tree that is not rotten, and seek out a skilled workman to carve an image out of it, that does not move? Do you not know this? Have you never heard of it?"

And again:

"It is he that sits upon the circle of the world, whose inhabitants in comparison to him are but as grasshoppers. It is he that spreads out the heavens like a curtain; he stretches them out as a tent to dwell in. It is he that brings princes to nothing, and makes the judges of the earth as though they were not. To whom now will you liken me, and to whom shall I be like? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and consider who has made those things, which come out by such great heaps, and he calls them all by their names." [444] And so forth.

This much out of Isaiah.

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Moreover, Paul, the apostle of Christ, disputing at Athens of true religion, says:

"God that made the world and all that is in it, seeing that he is the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is he worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything; since he himself gives life and breath to all and everywhere, and has made of one blood all nations of men, to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and also the limits of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might have felt, and found him; though he is not far from any one of us. For by him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Because, then, we are the offspring of God, we should not think that the Godhead is like gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art or man's device." Acts 17.24-29

These testimonies are so evident, and so plainly declare what I purposed, that I need not say any more for the further exposition of them. Great causes therefore moved St. Augustine to precisely pronounce it a horrible sacrilege for any man to place in the church the image of God the Father, sitting in a throne with bended hams;[445] because it is detestable for a man to so much as conceive such a likeness in his mind. I have repeated his very words in the eighth Sermon of my first Decade,[446] where I had occasion to speak of the right hand of the Father, and to teach you what it means to sit at the Father's right hand.

Now, touching other images, also, which men erect to creatures or to the heathen gods, they are no less forbidden than pictures of God himself. For if we may not hallow an image to the true and very God, then much less would it be lawful for us to erect or consecrate an idol to a strange or foreign god. Man in his mind chooses himself as a god, and of his own invention he devises a shape or figure for it, which lastly he frames with the workmanship of his hands — so that it may truly be said that the mind conceives an idol, and the hand brings it forth. But the Lord, in the first commandment, forbade us to have any strange gods. Now, he that neither has, nor chooses for himself, any strange or foreign gods, does not devise in his imagination any shape for them; and so consequently he erects no images. For he thinks it is a detestable thing to make an image to the true and very God.

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He is persuaded that it is a wicked thing to choose for himself a foreign god; and therefore he judges it to be most abominable to place the picture of a foreign god in the church or temple of the true and very God. And that is the reason that in the church before Christ's time, we do not read that any images were erected to any saints — though at that time there were a great number (we may suppose) of patriarchs, judges, kings, priests, prophets, and whole troops of martyrs, matrons, and modest widows. The primitive church of Christ's apostles also had no images, either of Christ himself, or of other saints, set up in their places of public prayer, nor in their churches. The deed of Epiphanius is very well known, which he committed at Anabantha in Syria. It is written in Greek in an epistle to John Bishop of Jerusalem, and translated into Latin by St. Jerome. He rent the vail that hung in the temple, bearing in it the image of Christ or some other saint; testifying with this, that it is against Christian religion for the picture of a man to hang in the church of God.[447] St. Augustine in Catalogo Haeresewn mentions one Marcella, a follower of Carpocrates' sect, which worshipped the images of Jesus, Paul, Homer, and Pythagoras, by falling down prostrate before them, and offering incense to them.[448] Very well and wisely, therefore, Erasmus of Rotterdam, being deeply seen in the works of ecclesiastical writers, when he had wittily spoken many things touching the use of images in churches, at last he also adds and says this:

"There is no decree, no not so much as of men, which commands that images should be in churches. For as it is easier, so it is less perilous, to take all the images clean out of the churches, than to be able to bring to pass that, in keeping them, the measure should not be exceeded, nor superstition covertly cloaked.

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For (as some say) admit that the mind is clean from all superstition, and yet notwithstanding it is not without a show of superstition for one who prays, to fall down prostrate before a wooden idol, to have his eyes steadfastly bent upon that alone, to speak to it, kiss it, and not to pray at all except before an idol. And I add this: that whoever imagines God to be any other than he is indeed, contrary to this precept, worships graven images." [449]

And again, in the same catechism, he says:

"Even until the time of Jerome there were men of sound religion who did not allow in the church any image to stand, whether painted, graven, or woven; no, not so much as of Christ, because (I suppose) of the Anthropomorphites. But afterward the use of images little by little crept up and came into the churches." [450] This is what Erasmus has.

Furthermore, though Christ — who is our Lord and very God — has taken on himself the nature of men, notwithstanding that, no image should be erected. For he did not become man with that intent; but he drew his humanity up into heaven; and by doing that, he gave us a charge that so often as we pray, we should lift up the eyes of our minds and bodies into heaven above. Moreover, once ascended, he sent his Spirit instead of himself to the church, in which he has a spiritual kingdom, and does not need any bodily or corruptible things. For he commanded that if we would bestow anything on him or for his sake, we should bestow it on the poor,Mat 19.21 and not on his picture or image. And now, without any controversy, since our Christ is the very true God, and the very true God forbids us to make holy any likeness of man to him — that is, to represent God in the shape of a man — it consequently follows that no image is to be dedicated to Christ, because he is the true and very God, and life everlasting.

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In the SECOND part of this commandment we are taught how far it is unlawful for us to make any image of God, or else of feigned gods. And if anyone makes or causes them to be made, how and in what way we should behave toward them. Images should not, in any case, be made for men to worship, nor to otherwise use as means or instruments to worship God. But if it happens that any man makes them, intending to have them worshipped, then the zealous, and those disposed to be godly, must despise and neglect them — not worship or honour them, nor by any means be brought to serve them.

For in this precept, two things especially to be noted are set down.

The first is, "You shall not bow down to them." To bow down is to cap and to knee: to duck with the head and bend the body, to fall down, honour, worship, and reverence. The saints of old used to bow down (that is, to bend the knee, uncover the head, and fall down) to the magistrates, the prophets, the princes, and teachers of the people, and to all sorts of reverend men. And they did that partly because God had so commanded, who uses their ministry for the benefit of common men; and partly again, because men are the living image of God himself. But deaf, dumb, and blind idols are wood and stone, to which we are forbidden to bend or bow down, however we are made to believe that they bear the likeness of God.

The second is, "You shall not worship them," or else, you shall not do any service to them. In this clause is forbidden all the outward and unlawful honour done to God, or to the gods, in the way of religion — no, rather in the way of superstition, and devilish hallowing of churches, relics, holy-days, and such-like trash and trumpery.[451] For to serve is to worship, to reverence, to attribute some majesty and divine authority to that which we worship, to have affiance in,[452] to burn incense, to offer gifts, and to show ourselves dutifully serviceable to that which we worship. There is no man who does not know what it means to serve, and what is meant by service, in matters of religion.

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We are forbidden, therefore, to run in pilgrimage to idols — yes, even though they are the images of God himself. We are forbidden to do them any service, in offering gifts, or attributing to them one jot of God's pre-eminence, thereby binding ourselves to maintain and uphold their unlawful honour, in mingling such superstitions with better points of true religion. This therefore considered (since we may not attribute to images any serviceable honour), I do not see how we can ascribe to them the office of teaching, admonishing, and exhorting, which are the offices and benefits of God's Holy Spirit and word. For Habakkuk the prophet of whose writings Paul made no small account, has left in writing words worth remembering.

"What profit does an image have," (he asks) "for its maker to make it an image and a teacher of lies, though he that made it trusts in it when he makes dumb idols? Woe to him that says to the wood, Awake! and to the senseless stone, Arise! Should that teach you? Behold, it is covered with gold and silver, and there is no breath in it. But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." Hab.2.18-20

What could be said more plainly and agreeable to the truth? Images (he says) are mere lies. But how can that which of itself is nothing but a lie, teach the truth? There is no moving, there is no life, there is no breath in a picture or image. But the Lord sits in his holy temple, where he reigns, and teaches, by inspiration and the preaching of his word, the sum of godliness, and where he lives forever in the hearts of all his saints and servants. Therefore, let all the tongues in the whole world be stopped, of those who go about maintaining and upholding superstitious idolatry against the true and living God.

Now, again, in the THIRD part of this commandment the Lord briefly knits up the pithy handling of sundry things. For first he shows that men have no just or lawful cause in turning from God, either to make strange gods for themselves, or else to worship God other than they ought to. "I am" (He says) "the Lord your God," a strong God. If I am the Lord, then of duty you should serve me, honour me, obey me, and worship me, in the way you understand that I desire to be worshipped and honoured.

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If I am God, then I am of sufficient ability to minister to all men whatever they lack. What can you lack, therefore, that you may not find in me? Why then should you turn to strange gods? You have no cause at all, undoubtedly, to turn from me. I am, moreover, a strong God, a mighty, indeed, an almighty God and Lord. You have no cause to seek a mightier or wealthier prince than me, to be delivered by him out of my hands, and to be further enriched by his liberality than you will be by my good gifts and blessings. For I am that true and eternal God, the invincible and almighty Prince of the world, the true and only helper and deliverer, the liberal and bountiful giver of all good gifts or benefits. I am also your Lord and your God. Those goods of mine are yours. For I am yours: indeed, I am your helper and deliverer out of all adversities and afflictions. You are mine: I have created you: I live in you, I preserve you. Why then should you turn away from me, and seek after any strange god whatsoever? What need do you have to hunt after senseless idols any more hereafter? You are the church and temple of God. Do you not feel and perceive within yourself, that I dwell in you, and possess your heart? And what, I pray you, does the temple of God have to do with godless images?

Then he also descends, and very severely (yet notwithstanding, justly) threatens extreme and terrible revenge. "I am" (he says) "a jealous God." This may very well be taken two ways, and not amiss. For, first, the sense may be thus: I will not have you seek any other gods but me, nor will I have you admit or receive any foreign or unlawful worshipping of me. The cause is that I am a jealous God, envious against my rivals, not suffering any equal, nor by any means abiding a mate. I alone will be loved, I alone will be worshipped; and that too, is not after any other fashion than I myself have appointed to be observed. For no man is so ignorant that he does not know how God in the scripture, by the parable of wedlock, figuratively sets down the assurance and bond in which we are bound to God by faith. God is our husband and bridegroom: we are his wife and chosen spouse.

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A chaste and faithful wife gives ear alone to her husband's voice; she loves him alone, she obeys him alone, and him excepted, she loves no man at all. Again, on the other side, a shameless, faithless adulteress and whorish strumpet, not worthy to be called a wife, seems outwardly to stick and cling to her husband; but privily she makes her body common to many men, and loves others more than her husband, and for the most part burns for them, being cold enough toward him. But God is a jealous God, and will be loved and worshipped alone, without any partner to rob him of it. That is spiritual adultery and whore-hunting: when men partly love and worship God, and yet, notwithstanding, they also reverence strange and other gods. Against this faithlessness and double-dealing, all the prophets cry out most vehemently, with words that represent a tyrannous and cruel revenge. For of all other sins, this one is most detestable. I would to God, that so many in our day were not persuaded that this kind of [faithless] honour is the worship that God takes most account of!

Or the sense of those words may also be taken thus: I will not have you seek any other gods but me; I will not have you worship me according to your own inventions. The cause is that I am a jealous God; that is, I am easily provoked, and will not suffer myself and my honour to be rejected without due punishment for the contempt. And he seems to draw to this sense, where he goes forward, and at large expounds how he is jealous: for "I visit," he says, "the fathers' iniquity in the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." God therefore is a sharp revenger and a just judge against those who follow after strange gods, or serve God unlawfully or irreligiously, and also against all those who swerve from the law of God. For he thunders out this bitter punishment, especially against idolaters; but inclusively with this, he threatens it to those who break the rest of his commandments. For that which the Lord utters here, is generally spoken, and it is of force and effect against all impiety and unrighteousness of all mankind.

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But because God's case is far more excellent than man's, those who break the first tablet more heinously offend, than those who sin against the second tablet — and thereby they deserve a far more grievous pain and heavy punishment.

Now, though we see that the Lord says that he will visit, and by inquisition punish, the sins of the fathers in the children to the third and fourth generation; we must not later think that God is unjust, and punishes another man's fault in afflicting the innocent, that is, in whipping the one that did not offend: as the Jews in Ezekiel wickedly taunted and caviled [453] with God, saying, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." But it is not so. "For every man shall bear his own offences; neither shall the son bear or abide the father's sin, nor the father the son's iniquity." [454] The most true God very often and earnestly beats this into our heads throughout Ezekiel, and the whole scripture beside. Therefore, if the children, or children's children, abide in the crooked steps of their fathers, and serve idols as their fathers did, and yet think they will be safe and remain unpunished because they learned it from their fathers, even as their fathers also were idolaters, and yet flourished in wealth and prosperity — then, God says, I will punish the sin of the fathers in the children. That is, I will sharply revenge the sin that the children have learned from the fathers, and in which they stiffly stand and abide, being encouraged to it by their fathers' example and good fortune — even though, for the very same sin, I did not once touch their fathers before them. And for that cause, this is expressly added: "of those who hate me." We have very many and very evident examples of this in the books of Kings. The house of Jeroboam is utterly destroyed, because Jeroboam erected idolatry and superstition in Israel. Immediately after, the whole stock of king Baasha is clean cut off: and Ahab's house is pulled up by the roots. At length, the Israelites are made slaves to serve the Assyrians. Solomon, the mightiest, wealthiest, wisest, and most happy king of Judah, because of his idolatry and strange superstition, is suddenly made most wretched of all.[455]

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There is none, unless he never read the holy scriptures, who does not know what happened to his son Rehoboam, to Joram the son of Jehoshaphat, to Ahaz, Manasseh, Jehoiachim and Zedekiah, because of idolatry and foreign worshipping of God.

Let us therefore firmly hold and believe, that the threatenings of God are true in effect, and that God is both a severe and just revenger and punisher of idolaters and wicked superstitious men, and finally, of all and every wicked act done by every man. Although God sundry times seems to wicked men to slumber, and not to see them, yet notwithstanding he awakes when he thinks it good, and pays back the wicked for all their offences, done and past. Although he is long-suffering, yet the righteous Lord does not always neglect the godly and oppressed, nor does he always wink at ungodliness, and let the wicked go unpunished forever: but he gives them time to repent, which whoever neglects to do so, at length will feel the greater pains and sharper punishment, according to the saying of the apostle: "What, do you despise the riches of God's goodness, tolerance, and gentleness, not knowing that God's goodness calls you to repentance? But, according to your hardness and heart that cannot repent, you heap up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath, in which the just judgment of God shall be made manifest, who shall repay to every one according to his deeds," etc. [456]

Again, the bountiful Lord promises great and large rewards to those who worship him, and steadfastly perseveres in true godliness and perfect religion. "I am God," he says, "showing mercy, or giving bountifully, to thousands." Here, note that his mercy is greater than his vengeance. For where he is angry, he punishes to the third and fourth generation; but where he is mercifully liberal, he is bountiful to many thousands. For there is no measure or end of his goodness and benefits; and the mercy of God is far above all his works. Yet here he again adds two more things: "To those," he says, "who love me, and keep my commandments." Here, I say, he requires two things at the hands of those who are his.

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The first is, that they love God, and take account of him, and take him to be their God. If they do this, then there will be no room left in the godly for strange or foreign gods. The second is, that they obey God, and walk in his commandments. If they do this, then all idols and strange worshippings are utterly at an end. Then the Lord reigns by his word in the heart of every godly man, whom the bountiful Lord liberally blesses with all kinds of blessings and good gifts. And this clause truly and especially belongs to this commandment. But it also inclusively refers to all the rest, as we may easily gather by the very words of God. Let us hold and truly think, therefore, that the infinite and unspeakable benefits of God are prepared for whose who walk in the law of the Lord.

I had this much to say about these two commandments of the first tablet, which I cannot recapitulate now, because an hour and a half is already spent. And for that, I hope that I have proceeded so orderly in every point, and taught everything so evidently and plainly, that there is nothing which you do not very well perceive and understand. Let us now praise the Lord, and thank him for his goodness, for showing us his ways; and let us pray that we, walking rightly in them, may come to his eternal joys at the last. Amen.

2-3. THE THIRD SERMON: THE THIRD COMMANDMENT.

OF THE THIRD PRECEPT OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, AND OF SWEARING.

THE third commandment of the first tablet is thus word for word: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; because the Lord will not let him go unpunished that takes the name of the Lord his God in vain." In the second commandment, the Lord set down the worship that he would not have, that he disapproved, and flatly forbid: namely, a worldly, earthly, and carnal kind of honour, a base and vile kind of worship, a service that is directly contrary to the spirit, nature, and majesty of God.

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That is, to think that in shape God will resemble a man, or any other creature made of earth or corruptible stuff or matter; and then again, to worship him under those shapes and figures with corruptible things that were first ordained and created for the use and benefit of men, and not of God. For God is an eternal Spirit, which goes all over [457] and preserves everything; whom all the most excellent creatures of the whole world, if they were joined together in one, are not able to resemble, nor yet represent the least jot of excellence in the living God. God is so far from lacking any corruptible things, that he himself supplies whatever lacks in all our necessities. It is a mere folly, therefore, to set up a percher,[458] a taper, or a smoky torch before the maker and giver of light. It is a veritable toy to offer the flesh of beasts to that eternal Spirit who in the Psalms says: "All the beasts of the wood are mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all birds upon the mountains, and in my power are all the beasts of the field. If I am hungry, I need not to tell you, since the world is mine, and all that is in it." Psa 1.10-12

Now, therefore, in this third commandment the Lord very exquisitely, although very briefly, declare the manner how he will be worshipped, that is, in the holy reverencing of his holy name. The names by which God is called are God, God's majesty, God's truth, God's power, and God's justice. Now the charge of this commandment is not to abuse the name of God, and not to use it in light and trifling matters; but to speak, think, and judge honourably, reverently, holily, and purely of God and godly things. But the pith and effect almost of the whole lies in this: that he says, "the name of the Lord your God" — namely, that which is your chief goodness and felicity, your Creator, your Redeemer, and your tender Father. Now, note that the Lord does not barely forbid us to use his name; but he charges us not to use it lightly or in vain, that is, beyond necessary use or our benefit, and beside the honour and glory of God. Let us therefore see first, how we should sanctify the Lord's name; secondly, how we may devoutly use the name of God; and last of all, worship him as he himself has appointed us to do.

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First of all, we have to think of God as the chief felicity and infinite treasure of all good things, who loves us exceedingly with a fatherly affection, always wishing and by all means desiring to have us saved, and to come to the perfect knowledge of the very truth; whose judgments are true and just, whose works for their excellence are wonderful, and whose words are most true, and truth itself. Then this holy name of God must continually be called upon in prayers, need, and requests. By that alone we must look to obtain whatever is needful for our bodies or souls. We must never cease to give thanks to that name for all the good benefits that we do or shall receive; for whatever good men have and enjoy, they do not have that from anywhere but from God, the fountain and giver of all. This glory must ever be given to God. If we are nipped with any adversity, let us not later murmur against God's good pleasure and his secret judgments. Rather, suffering and submitting ourselves under his mighty and fatherly hand, let us say with the prophet David: "It is good for me, Lord, that you have chastened me." [459] Let not us appoint what God shall do, but wholly and always submit ourselves to his good will and holy pleasure. Let us in all things give God the glory, in praising openly and plainly professing his name and doctrine before kings and princes — yes, and in the sight of the whole world, so often as occasion shall be given, and the glory of God shall seem to require. Let us not be ashamed of God our Father, of his truth and true religion. Let us not be ashamed of Christ our Redeemer, nor yet of his cross. But let us be ashamed of errors, idolatry, of the world and vanity, of lies and iniquity. Let us holily, reverently, and devoutly, both speak and think of God, his works, and his word. Let the law of God be holy to us, let his gospel be reverend in our eyes; and let the doctrine of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles be esteemed by us as that which came from God himself. Let us not take the name of the Lord our God into our mouths, unless it is in a matter of weight. Let us not blaspheme, curse, or lie in the name of the Lord. Let us not use, or rather abuse, the name or word of God in conjuring, juggling, or sorcery. For the name of God is most of all abused in these things.

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Let us precisely and holily keep the oath which we have made by the name of the living and eternal God. Let us tell the truth in all things, and not lie; that when this world, that will not see, is forced to see so great a reverence and devotion in us to the name of our God, it may be compelled thereby to glorify our Father which is in heaven. And this truly is the godly use of the Lord's name, and the religion in which our God is very well pleased.

Now note, by the way, that there are sundry ways by which we abuse the name of God; and first of all, we abuse it as often as our hearts are without any reverence toward God himself; when we irreverently, filthily, wickedly, and blasphemously speak of God, of his judgments, of his word, and of his laws; when with scoffing allusions, we apply God's words to light matters and trifles, and by that means turn and draw the scriptures into a profane and dishonest meaning. Moreover, we disgrace the name of the Lord our God, when we do not call upon his name, but rather turn ourselves to I know not what sort of gods, to man's skill and succour, to forbidden things, to idols, and conjurors.[460] We fall into doing these things especially when, being wrapped in misery and calamities — either for our sins, or because God would test us — we quickly begin to murmur against God, and accuse his judgments, hardly abstaining from open blasphemy in grudging to bear the things that we worthily suffer for our deserts.[461] To this belongs the abuse of those beastly knaves who do not hesitate to use the holy name of God in obtaining their filthy lusts, which they call "love;" and also the naughtiness of those who seek by God's name, to find and recover the things that are lost, or stolen from them. We unhallow the name of the Lord our God, when we do not give him all honour and glory. Perhaps we do some good deed; or perhaps there is something in us worthy to be praised. If we therefore claim the praise of it for ourselves, or at least pare out a piece of that glory for our own share, and give the rest to God — not referring it all and wholly to God, the author of all — then in doing this, we defile the name of God, which alone should be praised for ever and ever.

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Furthermore, if we deny the Lord, or blush at and are ashamed of his holy gospel, because of this wicked world and the naughty men in it; if also we spot ourselves with a filthy and unclean life, which is to the slander of God's name and the offence of our neighbour; then we take the Lord's name in vain; yes, we abuse it to his dishonour and reproach. We abuse the name of the Lord if we take a solemn oath in a trifle or matter of no effect, or if we do not keep and perform the oath that we have sworn. In our daily talk very often, about almost godless matters, we are prone to call and take the dreadful name of God to witness, having learned this from an ill habit and custom, or else being stirred up by some evil motion of our naughty mind. We have countless sorts of deep and terrible oaths, such as wounds, blood, cross, and passion of the Lord, heaven, earth, sacraments, every saint in heaven, and all the devils of hell.[462] Beside all this, we also abuse the name of God in sundry and diverse ways, in telling lies. The preacher or teacher of the church lies when he cries, "Thus says the Lord;" though the Lord indeed says no such thing. He makes the name of God a cloak and a colour to hide his deceit, and beguiles poor simple souls. The magistrate cries out, "All power is from God;" Rom 13.1 and so, under the pretence of God's name, he injures his subjects in playing the tyrant and not the magistrate. The common people deceive one another, under the name of the Lord, in contracts and bargaining. And the sturdy rogue, unworthy of alms, will not hesitate to stand and make God's name an idle occupation to get a penny. But who can reckon up all the things, in which God's name is foully abused? We must all therefore have an eye, that we not defile the name of God, but rather bless it, and holily worship it.

For it follows in the words of the Lord, what punishment abides for those who so disgrace his name: "Because," he says, "the Lord will not let him go unpunished, who takes his name in vain." Exo 20.7 And although this commination [463] of the Lord is very horrible indeed, and of itself effectual enough to make the godly sort afraid to pollute the name of God, yet I will add one or two examples of those whom the Lord has punished for defiling his name.

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David cries out, and says: "The unrighteous shall not stand in your sight, O Lord: you hate those who work iniquity: you shall destroy all those who speak lies." Psa 5.5-6 But how much more likely is it, that the Lord will destroy all those who speak blasphemy, and abuse his holy name! Saul, truly, because he did not call upon the Lord in his extreme necessity, but asked counsel of the pythonisse,[464] was compelled to kill himself with his own hand after he had seen his people downright slain by the Philistines, his enemies, and seen his sons lie dead in the midst of the people. Ananias lies to the Holy Ghost, and defiles the name of the Lord; and suddenly falls dead to the ground, he goes down with shame enough to the devil of hell.Act 5.4-5 Sennacherib blasphemes the name of the eternal God before the walls of Jerusalem; but shortly after, for his labour, he is bereft of his powerful [465] army; and in his own god's temple, he is shot through by his own sons.[466] Jehoiachim and Zedekiah, both kings of Judah and blasphemers of God's name, are taken captives and slain by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon.[467] Ahab, Jezebel, and the priests of Baal are utterly wiped out by king Jehu because, under the colour of God and godliness, they blasphemed the name of God, and persecuted the true religion.[468] In the twenty-fourth chapter of Leviticus, anyone that blasphemed the name of God was stoned to death.

And therefore the emperor Justinian says, In Novellis constitu, 77, writing to the citizens of Constantinople:

"Moreover, besides unspeakable lusts, some men lash out with cursings and oaths of God, thereby provoking Him to anger. Because of this, we therefore exhort them to abstain from cursings and oaths by his hair and head, and other words such as these.

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For if reproaches done to men are not left unrevenged, then much more is someone worthy to be punished, who stirs God to anger with his villainy. For such offences as these, so many droughts, earthquakes, and plagues come to men. We therefore admonish them to abstain from those crimes. For after this admonition of ours, those who are found faulty in this, will first show themselves unworthy to be beloved by men; and after that, too, they will suffer such punishment as the law appoints. For we have charged the right honourable lieutenant of our royal city, to apprehend the guilty, and to punish them extremely — lest at length, for such sinners' contempt, and such heinous offences, perhaps not only this city, but also the whole commonweal, is justly destroyed by God's just vengeance." [469]

This much [Justinian] writes. Now we may gather by this, that not the least part of our calamities these days happen to us because of our detestable cursings and horrible blasphemies, which very few magistrates (almost none at all) redress or punish as they should. The name of the living God is blasphemed with surpassing deep and horrible oaths, of all sorts, of all kinds, and by all ages; so that I think truly, that from the beginning of the world there was never such a blasphemous people as are found in this cursed age of ours. And therefore we are vexed with unspeakable and endless calamities.

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For God is true, and cannot lie, who says that they shall not scape scot free who take his name in vain. The men of our time not only take it in vain, but out of malice also blasphemously defile it. I would to God that the magistrates would more sincerely set forth the worship of God among the people: or else, if this may not be obtained from their hands, yet then at least they would be no worse nor godless than Caiaphas who, when he heard (as he thought) blasphemy against the name of God, rent his clothes, Mat 26.65-66 and cried that the blasphemer was worthy to die. For surely, unless our Christian magistrates become sharper and more severe against blaspheming villainies, I can see only that they must be a great deal worse than the wicked knave Caiaphas. Undoubtedly the Lord is true (as every one of you must think severally within yourselves): he truly will punish in all men the defiling of his name, but much more for maliciously blaspheming it.

This very matter and place now require that I also say something here about taking an oath, or swearing, which is done by calling and taking God's name to witness. Now, in handling this matter, many things are to be thought of and considered.

FIRST of all, I see that there are some who doubt whether it is lawful to take an oath or not, because in Matthew the Lord has said: "You have heard what was said of old, you shall not forswear yourself, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord; but I say to you, Swear not at all," etc. Mat 5.33-34 But the Lord's mind in Matthew was not to take clean away the true and ancient law, but to interpret it, and to bring it to a sounder sense, because before, it was corrupted and marred by diverse forged and counterfeit glosses of the Pharisees. For the people, being taught by them, evermore had an eye to keep their mouths from perjury; but touching superfluous, unprofitable, and needless oaths, they had no care at all, not thinking that it was amiss to swear by heaven and by earth. Therefore the Lord, expounding his Father's law, says that all oaths generally are forbidden: namely, those in which the name of the Lord is taken in vain, and by which we swear when there is no need at all. Meanwhile, he neither condemned, nor took clean away, the solemn and lawful oath.

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Now there is great difference between a solemn oath and our daily oaths, which are nothing but deep swearings — not only needless, but also hurtful. But a solemn oath is both profitable and needful. The law of God and words of Christ do not forbid profitable and needful things; and therefore they do not condemn a solemn and lawful oath. Indeed, in the law too, a solemn oath is permitted; what alone is forbidden is the unprofitable using of the Lord's name. And Chris, our Lord did not come to break the law, but to fulfil the law. And therefore, in St. Matthew, he did not condemn an oath — not unless a man were to go about proving that the Son taught a doctrine clean contrary to the doctrine of his heavenly Father. This is a blasphemy against the Father and the Son, and not to be suffered. Moreover, God himself also swears — which undoubtedly he would not do, if an oath could not be taken without any sin. For after a long exposition of the law, God says, "Be holy, for I am holy; be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect." [470] We also read that the holiest men of both Testaments, by calling and taking the name of God to witness in matters of weight, they swore — and they swore without any sin. An oath therefore in the law of Christ is not forbidden; and it is lawful for a Christian man both to exact and also to take an oath. I rather, truly, do not see how that man is worthy to be called a Christian, who being lawfully required to swear, seems to refuse it. But I have more fully disputed about this in another place, against the Anabaptists.[471]

SECONDLY, we have to consider for what causes we ought to swear. In many commonweals it is a usual and received custom to take an oath on every light occasion; and for that cause we see that an oath is lightly regarded and very little esteemed. For what is this but to take the name of God in vain? Let magistrates therefore learn and know, that an oath ought not to be required except in earnest affairs: as when it stands for the glory of God, for the safety of our neighbour, and for the public welfare.

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We must mark, therefore, when and why the people of God have sworn in the scriptures. Abraham swore when he made the league and confederacy with Abimelech. Gen 21.24 The people of God very often swear under their kings, in making a covenant with God for keeping true religion.[472] From olden times, they cleared themselves of heinous suspicions by taking an oath. In Exodus we read: "If any man gives his neighbour a beast to keep, and it dies or is stolen, with no man seeing it, an oath by the Lord shall then go between the two, that he has not laid his hand on his neighbour's thing. The owner shall accept this oath, and the other shall not restore it." Exo 22.10-11 For Paul, in the sixth chap. to the Hebrews, says: "Men truly swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is an end of all strife for them." To this end, therefore, let magistrates apply the use of an oath; and let them have a special regard, in giving an oath, to do it reverently. Let the peers [473] of the people keep inviolably that which they swear; and let them take heed that they do not rashly require an oath from light-headed [474] fellows: let them not compare anything to an oath, or think anything to be equal to it; but let them reverently, and last of all, have their recourse to that oath, as the utmost remedy to find out the truth; and with that, let them use sharp punishment against perjured persons.[475] But woe to the people's princes, if through their wicked negligence, an oath is not esteemed! For without doubt, God will punish the person sharply, saying: "I will not allow someone to go unpunished who takes the Lord's name in vain."

THIRDLY, I will tell you what an oath is, and what it means to swear. An oath is calling or taking God's name to witness, to confirm the truth of that we say. There is a difference between an oath, and that deep kind of swearing, by which God is blasphemed and torn in pieces.

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There is a difference, too, between an oath and those bitter statements we use to curse and ban our neighbours: doubtless, they are not worthy to be called oaths. But because this word juramentum is overly used for any kind of oath, in the worse as well as better part; therefore godly and lawful oaths are wisely called by the name of jusjurandum.[476] For by adding jus, which signifies the law, we are admonished that this kind of oath is lawful and righteous. Now, taking God's name to witness, has joined to it a calling on and avowing of ourselves to God's curse and vengeance. For this is the manner of an oath, and an order of swearing: "I will say or do it truly indeed, and without deceit, may God so help me." Therefore, we put ourselves in danger of God's wrath and vengeance, unless we truly and indeed both speak and do the thing that we promised to do or speak. This is a very deep and solemn promise-making — and truly, there is not a greater one to be found in the world. Here also must be considered the circumstances and ceremonies in swearing. For our ancestors of old usually lifted their hand to heaven, and swore by the name of the Lord. The Lord our God dwells in heaven. We therefore manifestly declare that, as in the judges' eyes we lift our hand to heaven, even so in our mind's eye we ascend and swear in the presence and sight of God. Indeed, we give our hand and we pledge our faith to God there, in taking an oath by the name of God. Abraham, the singular friend of God, and father of the faithful,[477] tended to use this ceremony when he swore.

I need not proceed any further, therefore, to declare whether we should swear by the name of God alone, or by the names of saints, or by laying our hand on the holy Gospel. For it is manifest that the faithful must swear by the only eternal and most high God. Touching this thing, we have most evident precepts commanding us to swear by the name of the Lord; and again, forbidding us to swear by the names of strange gods. Of the first sort are these: "You shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve him, and swear by his name." Deuteronomy sixth and tenth chapters.

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Also the Lord himself in Isaiah says: "Every knee shall bend to me, and every tongue shall swear by me." Isa 45.23 And again, in the sixty-fifth chapter, the same prophet says: "He that would bless himself shall bless in the Lord, and he that would swear shall swear by the true and very God." Of the latter sort, too, are these testimonies of the holy scriptures: Exo 23.13, "All that I have said keep, and do not so much as once think of the names of strange gods, nor let them be heard out of your mouth." And Joshua 23.7 says: "When you come in among these nations, see that you do not swear by the name of their gods, and see that you neither worship nor bow down to them." In Jeremiah 5.7 the Lord says: "your sons have forsaken me, and sworn by other gods, which are no gods indeed: I have filled them, and they have gone a-whoring," etc. Moreover, the prophet Zephaniah brings in the Lord speaking and saying: "I will cut off those that worship and swear by the Lord, and swear by Milcom," [478] that is, by their king and defender. And this is no marvel, though he threatens destruction to those who swear by the names of creatures. For an oath is the chief and especial honour done to God, which therefore cannot be shared with others. For we swear by the highest, the one whom we believe to be the chief goodness, the giver of all good things, and the punishing revenger of every evil deed. But if we swear by the names of other gods, then truly we make them equal to God himself, and attribute to them the honour due to him. And for this cause, the blessed martyr of Christ, Polycarp, chose the flames of fire rather than swear by the power and estate of Caesar. The story is to be seen in the fourth book and fifteenth chapter of Eusebius.[479]

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FOURTHLY, we have to consider how we ought to swear, and what are the conditions of a just, lawful, and honest oath. Jeremiah therefore says: "You shall swear, 'The Lord lives, in truth, in judgment, and righteousness: and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him they shall glory.'" Jer 4.2 There are therefore four conditions of a just and a lawful oath.

The first is, you shall swear, "The Lord lives." Here now again is repeated what has so many times been beaten into our heads, that we ought to swear by the name of the living God. The pattern of our ancestors' oath was this, "The Lord lives;" as it is evident by the writings of the prophets. Let us not swear therefore by any other but God.

The second condition is: "You shall swear in truth." So then, it is required that not only the tongue, but also the mind, should swear; lest we happen to say, The tongue indeed swore, but the mind did not swear at all.[480] Let us be true and faithful therefore, without deceit or guile; let us not lie, nor with subtlety try to shift off the oath once we have made it. We Germans express this well, when we say, On alle gfard, or On gfard; that is, I will not use any double dealing, but will simply and in good faith perform what I promise. There is an excellent pattern of a false and a deceitful oath in Auli Gellii Noct. Att. Lib. vii. cap. 18.[481]

The third condition is: "You shall swear in," or with, "judgment;" that is, advisedly and with great discretion, not rashly or lightly, but with consideration of every thing and circumstance, in great necessity, and in cases of public commodity.

The fourth condition is: "You shall swear in justice," or righteousness, so that our oath does not directly tend against the love of God and our neighbour — lest perhaps our oath be against right and equity; that is, lest we sin against righteousness or justice; which attributes what is theirs to both God and man.

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Here, dearly beloved, you have heard me express in few words (which God himself has also taught us), how we must swear — of what sort and fashion our lawful and allowable oaths ought to be, and under what conditions they are contained. But now, if we swear against these conditions appointed by God, then our oaths and swearings will be altogether unlawful. And furthermore, if we go about performing those unlawful and unallowable oaths, then we will purchase and incur with that, the heavy wrath of the revenging Lord.

Now, in these days it is customarily demanded whether we should keep or perform wicked or ungodly, unjust or evil, vows or oaths — for example, if your oath or vow tended directly against God, against true religion, against the word of God, or against the health of your neighbour.

I will here allege and repeat the customary answer which, notwithstanding, is very true and grounded upon examples of holy scriptures, such as that which does not depart from the truth the narrow breadth of one small hair. The answer therefore is this: If any man swears against the faith and charity, so that keeping his oath may tend to the worse, then it is better for him to change his oath than to fulfil it. Upon this, Saint Ambrose says: "It is sometimes contrary to a man's duty to perform the oath that he has promised, as Herod did." [482] Isidore also says: "In evil promises break your oath; in a naughty vow change your purpose. The thing you have unadvisedly vowed, do not perform. The promise is wicked that is finished with mischief." [483] And again, "That oath must not be kept, by which any evil is unwarily promised. As if, for example, one were to give his faith to an adulteress to abide in naughtiness with her forever. Undoubtedly, it is more tolerable not to keep that promise, than to remain in whoredom still." [484]

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Bede [485] moreover says:

"If it happens that, unawares, we promise anything with an oath, and keeping that oath would be the cause of further evil, then let us think it best upon better advice to change our oath without hurt to our conscience; and that it is better, upon such a necessity, for us to be forsworn than, to avoid perjury, to fall into another sin ten times worse than that. David swore by God, that he would kill the foolish fellow Nabal; but at the first intercession that his wife Abigail made, who was wiser than Nabal, David ceased to threaten him. He sheathed his sword again, and did not find himself any whit grieved for breaking his hasty oath." [486]

Augustine also says: "Though David did not perform his promise, bound with an oath, by shedding blood, his godliness was greater in this." [487] "David swore rashly, but upon better and godly advice, he did not perform the thing he had sworn." [488] By this and the like it is declared that many oaths are not to be observed. Now he that so swears sins: but in changing his oath, he does very well. He that does not change such an oath, commits a double sin; first, for swearing as he should not, and then for doing what he should not.

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Up to here I have repeated this much from other men's words, which all men acknowledge to be true indeed. Now by this you easily understand, dearly beloved, what you have to think of those monastic vows and priests' oaths, which promise chastity (no farther, I guess, by their leave, than man's frail weakness will allow them). "For it is better," says the apostle, "to marry than to burn." 1Cor 7.9 God knows it is more commendable not to perform those foolish, hurtful, and impure promises — that would forcibly drive them to filthy uncleanness — than to lie and live unchastely under the colour of truly keeping an oath.

FIFTHLY and lastly, I have briefly to put you in mind, that you endeavour yourselves, by all the means you may, to devoutly keep that which you swear; and to briefly let you understand with this, what reward is prepared for those who religiously and holily keep and observe the holy oath once it is solemnly taken. If we love God, if we desire to sanctify his name, if we take the true God for the very true God, and for our God; if we would have Him be gentle and merciful toward us, and to be our present deliverer and aider at all assays; then we will have a most diligent care to swear with fear devoutly, and to holily keep and perform the oath that we devoutly make. But unless we do this, then terrible threatenings and the sharp revenge of God's just judgment are thundered from heaven against us transgressors. The very heathens shall rise up and condemn us in the day of judgment. For the Saguntines, the Numantines, and those of Petilia, chose to die with fire and famine, rather than break or violate their promise once bound with an oath.[489] Moreover, the laws of all wise and civil princes and people, adjudge perjured persons to die the death. What great offences, great corruptions, great and many mischiefs, I pray you, rise through perjuries! They entangle, trouble, disgrace, mar, and overthrow the estates, both civil and ecclesiastical. Whoever, therefore, does love the commonweal and safeguard of his country; whoever loves the church and its good estate; he will, above all things, have an especial regard to keep religiously the promise of his oath.

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Now, the Lord promises a large reward to those who holily keep their oaths. For Jeremiah says: "And the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him they shall glory." Jer 4.2 It is as if he had said: If the people of Judah swear holily and keep their oaths, then the Lord will pour out on them such great felicity and abundant plenty of all good things that, just as hereafter one would bless or wish well to another, He will say, "The Lord show you his blessing, as he did of old to the Jews." And whoever praises another, he will say that "he is like the Israelites." It is therefore assuredly certain that whoever inviolably keeps their oaths and promises, shall be enriched with all good things, and worthy of all manner praise.

Let us endeavour ourselves, my brethren, I beseech you, to sanctify the Lord's name, and to add to this third commandment your earnest and continual prayers, saying, as our Lord Jesus has taught us, heavenly Father, hallowed be your name — or, let your name be holily worshipped. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

2-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.

OF THE FOURTH PRECEPT OF THE FIRST TABLET,

THAT IS, OF THE ORDER AND KEEPING OF THE SABBATH-DAY.

THE fourth commandment of the first tablet is word for word as follows: "Remember to keep the sabbath-day holy. Six days you shall labour, and do all your works; but on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God, in which you shall not do any manner of work, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger which is within your gates. Because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in it; and rested the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it."

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The order which the Lord uses in giving these commandments, is natural and very excellent. In the first precept, the Lord taught us faith and love toward God. In the second, he removed from us idols and all foreign kinds of worship. In the third he began to instruct us in the true and lawful worship of God. This worship stands in sanctifying his holy name, for us to call on it, and holily and freely praise it, and to think and speak of it as religiously as he gives us grace.[490] The fourth commandment teaches us also the worship due to God, and the hallowing of his holy name; yet it bends somewhat to the outward honour, although, nevertheless, it frames to the inward religion. For the sabbath belongs both to the inward and outward service of God. Let us see, therefore, what we have to think that the sabbath is, how far the use of it extends, and in what way we have to worship our God in observing the sabbath.

Sabbath signifies rest and ceasing from servile work.[491] And I think this is worthy to be noted here, that the Lord does not simply say, "Sanctify the sabbath;" but, "Remember to keep the sabbath-day holy;" meaning by this, that the sabbath was ordained of old, and given first of all to the ancient fathers, and then again renewed by the Lord, and beaten into the memory of the people of Israel. But the sum of the whole commandment is, Keep the sabbath-day holy. Later, the Lord more largely amplifies this sum by reckoning up the very days, and particularly recounting the whole household to whom keeping the sabbath is given in charge.[492]

The sabbath itself has sundry significations. For first of all, the scripture mentions a certain spiritual and continual sabbath. In this sabbath, we rest from servile work, in abstaining from sin, and doing our best not to have our own will found in ourselves, nor to work our own works. But ceasing from these, is to allow God to work in us, and to wholly submit our bodies to the government of his good Spirit.

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After this sabbath follows that eternal sabbath and everlasting rest, of which Isaiah, in his 58th and 66th chapters, says very much; and Paul also, in the fourth chap. to the Hebrews. But God is truly worshipped when, ceasing from evil and obeying God's holy Spirit, we exercise ourselves in the study of good works. At this time, I have no leisure, nor do I think that it is greatly profitable for me, to reason as largely or exquisitely as I could, about the allegorical sabbath, or spiritual rest.[493] Let us rather, my brethren, in our mortal bodies, endeavour with an unwearied good-will of holiness, to sanctify the sabbath, which pleases the Lord so well.

Secondly, the sabbath is the outward institution of our religion. For it pleased the Lord, in this commandment, to teach us an outward religion and kind of worship, in which he would have us all be exercised. Now, because worshipping God cannot be without a time, the Lord has therefore appointed a certain time in which we should abstain from outward or bodily works; and yet should have leisure to attend to our spiritual business. For that reason, outward rest is commanded, so that spiritual work will not be hindered by bodily business. Moreover, that spiritual labour among our fathers was chiefly spent about four things: namely, about public reading and expounding of the scriptures, and consequently about hearing it; about public prayers and common petitions; about sacrifices or the administration of the sacraments; and lastly, about gathering every man's benevolence. The outward religion of the sabbath consisted in these things. For the people kept holy day, and met together in holy assemblies where the prophets read to them the word of the Lord, expounding it, and instructing the hearers in the true religion. Then the faithful jointly made their common prayers and supplications for all things necessary for their benefit. They praised the name of the Lord, and gave him thanks for all his good benefits bestowed on them. Furthermore, they offered sacrifices as the Lord commanded them, celebrating the mysteries and sacraments of Christ their Redeemer, and keeping their faith exercised and in use. They were joined in one with these sacraments, and also warned of their duty, which is to offer themselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord their God.

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Lastly, in the congregation they liberally bestowed the gifts of their good-will for the use of the church. They gathered every man's benevolence, to supply the church's necessity with it, to maintain the ministers, and to relieve the poor and needy. These were the holy works of God, which they fulfilled. While having their hearts instructed in faith and love, they rightly sanctified the sabbath and the name of the Lord in this — that is, on the sabbath they did those kinds of works which sanctify the name of God, and befit his worshippers, and which are also the works that are indeed holy and pleasing in the sight of God. If any man requires a substantial and evident example of the sabbath or holy day thus holily celebrated, he will find it in the eighth chapter of the book of Nehemiah. For there the priests read and expound the word of God, they praise the name of the Lord, they pray with the people, they offer sacrifice, they show their liberality, and in all points they behave themselves holily and devoutly, as they should.

Now, lest anyone make this objection and say, "Ease breeds vice;" or, "I must labour with my hands to get my living, lest I die with hunger and my family perish;" He answers, The Lord allows you sufficient time for your labour, in which to get a living for yourself and your household. For six days you may work, but the Lord claims the seventh day, and requires it to be consecrated to him and his holy rest. Every week has seven days: and of those seven the Lord requires but one for himself. Who then can rightly complain, I beseech you, or say that injury has been done to him? More time is allowed to work in, than to keep the sabbath holy: and the one who requires to have this sabbath kept is God: the maker, the father, and the Lord of all mankind.

Furthermore, the Lord precisely commands and charges us to plant and bring this holy rest, this discipline and outward worship, into the whole family of every individual house.

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We gather from this, what the duty of a good house-holder is: namely, to have a care to see that all his family keep the sabbath-day holy; that is, to do on the sabbath-day those good works which I have previously recounted. The Lord knows that wherever man has the mastery, his natural disposition, for the most part, is to rule and reign there over-haughtily and too princelike. Therefore, lest the fathers or masters perhaps deal too hardly or rigorously with their households, or hinder them in observing the sabbath, he commands them in express words and exquisitely enumerated steps, to allow their family, and everyone in their family, a resting time to accomplish His holy service. He does not exempt or except so much as the stranger. He will not suffer nor allow among them the example of those dull-heads who say: "Let faith and religion be free to all; let no man be compelled to any religion." For he commands us to bind the stranger within the gates of God's people — that is, the stranger who dwells in their jurisdiction — to the holy observing of the sabbath-day.

Now, this ease or rest is not commanded in respect to itself (for fault has always been found with idleness); but it is ordained for the aforesaid especial causes. God's pleasure is that there should be a place and time reserved for religion. This time and place are not open to those who are busy about bodily and outward works. The one that takes a journey at his master's command, or sells his wares in the market, or thrashes or winnows his corn in the barn, or hedges or ditches in the field, or stands at home beating the anvil, or sits still sewing shoes or hose — is not familiar in the congregation; he does not hear the word of God; he does not pray with the church; nor is he a partaker of the sacraments. Faith and religion, therefore, bid you to give rest to your servants and family; yes, they command you to egg and compel them, if they are slow, to the holy and profitable work of the Lord. Moreover, the Lord's mind is that those who labour, should also refresh and recreate themselves:

For things that lack a resting time

Can never long endure.[494]

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This is why the bountiful Lord, whose mind is to preserve his creatures, teaches a way to keep them, and diligently provides that his creatures not be too afflicted by the hard handling or covetousness of their owners. Moses in Deuteronomy adds the pitiful affection of mercy, saying: "Remember, that once you yourself were a servant in the land of Egypt." [495] Charity, therefore, and civil humanity crave a measure be kept, so that we do not overload and weary our household servants with endless labours. Moreover, it is manifest that the good man of the house,[496] by planting godliness in his family, in no small way advances and sets forward his private profit and own commodity. For wicked servants are for the most part pickers [497] and deceitful; whereas the godly are faithful, whom he may trust to govern his house in his absence. In reckoning up the household, mention is also made of beasts and cattle. This is done, not so much because their owner is a man and therefore ought to use them remissly and moderately, but because beasts cannot be laboured without the working hand of man to guide them: so then, men are drawn from solemnizing the sabbath-day by helping their cattle. This is why, with the intent that they should not be drawn aside, we are here precisely commanded to allow our cattle that resting time.

Last of all, the Lord adds his own example, by which he teaches us to keep the sabbath-day holy. "Because," he says, "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." The Lord our God worked six days in creating heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; and the seventh day he rested, and ordained that day to be an appointed time for us to rest. On the seventh day we must think of the works that God did in six days: the children of God must call to remembrance what and how great are the benefits they have received the whole week — for which they must thank God, for which they must praise God, and by which they must learn God.

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We must then dedicate to Him our whole body and soul; we must consecrate to Him all our words and our deeds. As the Lord rested that day from creating, but did not cease to preserve, so we must rest on that day from handy [498] and bodily works; but we must not cease from works of well-doing and worshipping God. Furthermore, the heavenly rest was no prejudice at all to the things created: neither shall the holy day, or sabbath, spent in God's service, be any obstacle or hindrance to our affairs or business. For the Lord blessed the sabbath-day; and therefore he shall bless you and your house, all your affairs and business, if he sees you have a care to sanctify his sabbath; that is, to do those works which he has commanded to be done on the sabbath-day. Therefore, they err from the truth as far as heaven is wide, who despise the religion and the holy rest of the sabbath-day, calling it an idle ease; and who labour on the sabbath-day as they do on working days, under the pretence of caring for their family and of necessity's sake.

For we must apply all these things to ourselves and our churches. It is most sure that, to Christians, the spiritual sabbath is charged especially and above all things. Neither is it to be doubted that the good Lord's will is that even in our churches today, as well as the Jews of old, there should be kept an appointed order in all things, but especially in exercising outward religion. We know that the sabbath is ceremonial, so far as it is joined to sacrifices and other Jewish ceremonies, and so far as it is tied to a certain time. But considering that on the sabbath-day, religion and true godliness are exercised and published, and that a just and seemly order is kept in the church, and that the love of our neighbour is thereby preserved in it, I say that it is perpetual, and not ceremonial. Even today, truly, we must ease and bear with our family; and even today we must instruct our family in the true religion and fear of God. Christ our Lord nowhere scattered abroad the holy congregations, but as much as he could, he gathered them together. Now, as there ought to be an appointed place, so likewise must there be a prescribed time, for the outward exercise of religion, and consequently, for a holy rest.

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Those of the primitive church, therefore, changed the sabbath-day, lest they might seem to have imitated the Jews, and to have still retained their order and ceremonies.[499] They made their assemblies and holy restings on the first day of sabbaths,[500] which John calls Sunday, or the Lord's day, Rev. 1.10 because of the Lord's glorious resurrection on that day. And although we do not find in any part of the apostles' writings, any mention made that this Sunday was commanded to be kept holy, yet because in this fourth precept of the first tablet, we are commanded to have a care for religion, and for exercising outward godliness, it would be against all godliness and Christian charity if we were not to sanctify Sunday: especially since the outward worship of God cannot consist without an appointed time and space of holy rest.

I suppose also, that we should think the same of those few feasts and holy days which we keep holy to Christ our Lord, in memory of his nativity or incarnation, of his circumcision, of his passion, of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ our Lord into heaven, and of his sending of the Holy Ghost upon his disciples.[501] For Christian liberty is not a licentious power and a dissolving of godly ecclesiastical ordinances, which advance and promote the glory of God and the love of our neighbour. But because the Lord would have holy days be solemnized and kept to himself alone, I do not therefore liken the festival days that are held in honour of any creatures. This glory and worship is due to God alone. Paul says: "I would not that any man should judge you in part about a holy day, or the sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come." [502] And again: "You observe days, and months, and years, and times; I fear lest I have laboured in you in vain." Gal. 4.10-11

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And therefore, today, we in the church of Christ have nothing to do with the Jewish observation [of the sabbath]; we only wish and endeavour that its Christian observation, and the exercise of Christian religion, be freely kept and observed.

And yet, as with the hallowing of the Jewish sabbath, so also the sanctifying or exercise of our Sunday must be spent and occupied about four things. These ought to be found in the holy congregation of Christians if their Sunday is truly sanctified and kept holy as it should be.

First, let all the godly saints assemble themselves together in the congregation. Let the word of God be preached there in the assembly; let the Gospel be read there, that the hearers may learn thereby what they have to think of God, what the duty and office is of those who worship God, and how they ought to sanctify the name of the Lord.

Secondly, let there be prayers and supplications in that congregation for all the necessities of all people. Let the Lord be praised for his goodness, and thanked for his inestimable benefits which he daily bestows.

Thirdly, if time, occasion, and the custom of the church so require, let the sacraments of the church be religiously ministered. For nothing is more required in this fourth commandment than that we holily observe, and devoutly exercise, the sacraments, and the holy, lawful, profitable, and necessary rites and ceremonies of the church.

Last of all, let entire humanity and liberality have a place in the saints' assembly: let all learn to give alms privately, and to relieve the poor daily, and to do it frankly and openly, so often as the opportunity of time and the causes of need shall so require.

These are the duties in which the Lord's sabbath is kept holy even in the church of Christians. And it is kept holy so much the greater, if an earnest good will to do no evil all the day long is added to these.

This discipline now must be brought in and established by every householder in all our several houses, with as great a diligence as it was with the Jews. Touching this, I have nothing to say here, since I have so plainly handled this point before, that you may perceive it agrees even to the church of us that are Christians. I add this one thing more: that it is the duty of a Christian magistrate, or leastwise of a good householder, to compel the breakers and contemners of God's sabbath and worship, to amend themselves.

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The peers [503] of Israel, and all the people of God, stoned to death (as the Lord commanded them) the man that disobediently gathered sticks on the sabbath-day. Num 15. 32-36 Why then should it not be lawful for a Christian magistrate to punish by bodily imprisonment, by loss of goods, or by death, the despisers of religion, of the true and lawful worship done to God, and of the sabbath-day? [504] Truly, though the foolish and indiscreet magistrate in this corrupted age slackly looks to his office and duty, yet notwithstanding, let every householder endeavour to keep his individual family from that ungodly naughtiness; let him punish those of his household by such means as he lawfully may. For if any householder dwells among idolaters, who neither have, nor yet desire to have or frequent, the Christian or lawful congregations; then he may gather in his own house a particular assembly to praise the Lord, as it is manifest that Lot did among the Sodomites; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, did so in the land of Canaan and in Egypt. But it is a heinous sin and a detestable schism, if there is a congregation assembled in either cities or villages, for you to seek byways to hide yourself, and not to come there, but to contemn the church of God and the assembly of saints, as the Anabaptists have taken to doing.

Here, therefore, I have to reckon up the abuses of the sabbath-day, or the sins committed against this commandment. It is transgressed by those who do not cease from evil works, but abuse the sabbath's rest to provoke fleshly pleasures. For they keep the sabbath to God, but they work to the devil, in gambling,[505] drinking, dancing, and feeding their inclinations [506] with the vanities of this world, whereby we are not only drawn from the company of the holy congregation, but we also defile our bodies, which we should rather sanctify and keep holy. Those sin against this precept, who either exercise any handy occupation on the sabbath-day, or else lie wrapped in bed and fast asleep till the day is almost spent, not once thinking to make one of God's congregation.

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Those offend in this precept, who awe [507] their servants to work; and who draw them away from the worship of God by appointing them to other business, preferring other stinking things before the honour due to God. And above all others, those offend in this, who not only fail to keep the sabbath-day holy themselves, but also, with their ungodly scoffs and evil examples, cause others to despise and set light by religion — when they disdain and mock the holy rites and ceremonies, along with the ministry, ministers, sacred churches, and godly exercises. And in this, too, both the good-men and good-wives offend, if they are slack in their own houses, to call upon and see their families keep the sabbath-day holy. Whoever contemns the holiness of the sabbath-day, gives a flat and evident testimony of their ungodliness, and their light regard of God's mighty power.

Furthermore, keeping or despising the sabbath always carries with it either ample rewards or terrible threats. For the proof of this, I will recount to you, dearly beloved, the words of Jeremiah, in his seventeenth chapter.

"Thus has the Lord said to me," he says; "Go and stand under the gate of the sons of the people, through which the kings of Judah go in and out, and under all the gates of Jerusalem, and say to them: Take heed for your lives, that you carry no burden upon you on the sabbath-day, to bring it through the gates of Jerusalem, and that you bear no burden out of your houses on the sabbath-day: see that you do no labour on it; but keep the sabbath-day holy, as I commanded your fathers. Yet, they did not obey me, nor listen to me, but were obstinate and stubborn, and would not receive any correction. Nevertheless, if you will hear me, says the Lord, and bear no burden through this gate upon the sabbath, but hallow the sabbath, so that you do no work on it; then there shall go through the gates of this city, kings and princes that shall sit upon the throne of David; they shall be carried upon chariots, and ride upon horses, both they and their princes. Men from the cities of Judah and the land of Benjamin shall come, who will bring sacrifices, and offer incense and thanksgiving in the house of the Lord. But if you will not be obedient to me to hallow the sabbath, so that you bear your burdens through the gates on the sabbath-day; then I will set fire to the gates of Jerusalem, which shall burn up its great houses, and it shall not be quenched." Jer 17.19-27

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Very justly, therefore, the devout princes, Leo and Anthemius, writing to Arsemius, their lieutenant, charged him with these words:

"That the holy days ordained in honour of the high God's majesty, should not be spent in any voluptuous pleasures, nor be unhallowed with troublesome exactions. We therefore decree and ordain that the Lord's day, or Sunday, as it has always been accounted well, so it shall still be esteemed; so that upon that day no office of the law shall be executed, no man shall be summoned, no man arrested for suretyship, no man attached, no pleading shall be heard, nor any judgment pronounced," etc.

And again later:

"Neither do we, in giving this rest on the holy day, allow any man to wallow in any kind of wanton pleasures at all. For on that day, stage-plays are not allowed, nor fencers' prizes, nor bear-baitings; yes, and if it happens that the solemnizing of our birthday falls on Sunday, then it shall be deferred till the day after. And we have determined that whoever on the sabbath-day is present at any spectacle [508] or play, or whatever summoner of any judge whatever, under the pretence of any business, either public or private, does anything to infringe the statutes enacted in this law, shall sustain the loss of his dignity, and have his patrimony confiscated." [509]

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And yet, nevertheless, those who are Christians do not forget the words of Christ in the gospel, where he says: "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath; and that the Son of man too is Lord of the sabbath." Mark 2.27-28 The godly very well know that God ordained the sabbath for the preservation, and not for the destruction, of mankind; and that therefore he dispenses with us for the sabbath, as often as any urgent necessity or saving of a man seems to require it. Touching this matter, our Saviour Christ himself has fully satisfied the faithful in the 12th chapter of Matthew, and the 6th and 13th chapters of St. Luke. Truly, Christians may use their liberty to occupy themselves in such things on the sabbath-day. The priests and Levites in the temple are excused, who openly kill, slay, burn, and boil beasts, in making their sacrifices. They are not thought to break the sabbath-day, because they may without offence to God, even on the sabbaths, dress and make ready the things which serve the outward worship of the Lord. So likewise, on the sabbath we may dress and make ready, food and other necessaries which our bodies cannot lack. We may also minister medicine to the sick, visit the weak, and help the needy, so that we may preserve the creature of God. Our Saviour gives us an example to follow in this, who on the sabbath worked deeds of charity and mercy. We have more than one example of his to be seen in the gospel, but especially in Luke 6 and 13, and in John, the fifth chapter. If then, on the sabbath-day, it is lawful to draw out of a pit a sheep or an ox in danger of drowning, why should it not likewise be lawful on the sabbath to underset with props a ruinous house that is ready to fall? Why should it not be lawful on the sabbath-day to gather in, and keep from spoiling, the hay or corn, which by reason of unseasonable weather, has lain too long abroad, and is likely to be worse if it stays any longer? The holy emperor Constantino, writing to Elpidius, says: "Let all judges in courts of law, and citizens of all occupations, rest on Sunday, and keep it holy with reverence and devotion. But those who inhabit the country may freely and at liberty attend to their tillage on the sabbath-day. For it often falls out, that they cannot on another day so commodiously sow their seed, or plant their vines. And so, by letting pass the opportunity of a little time, they may happen to lose the profit given by God for our provision." [510]

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Thus says the emperor. Now we must consider, that he does not license husbandmen to continually defile the sabbath-day by all kinds of toil. For countrymen, as well as townsmen, are looked to for due honour done to God, and keeping the fourth commandment. This must be remembered: that liberty is granted only in causes of necessity. But a godly mind and charity shall be excellent dispensers and mistresses to lead us in such cases as these, lest, under the coloured pretence of liberty and necessity, we do deeds that are not to be borne with on the sabbath-day, and exercise the works of greedy covetousness, and not of sincere holiness. And I had this much to say touching the second use of the sabbath-day.

Thirdly, the sabbath has a very ample or large signification. For it is a perpetual sign that God alone is the one who sanctifies those that worship his name. For thus says the Lord to Moses: "You shall keep my sabbaths, because it is a sign between me and you to those who come after you, to know that I am the Lord which sanctifies you;" and so forth, as seen in the 31st chapter of Exodus, and is repeated again in the 20th chapter of Ezekiel.[511] And to this end, the Lord mutually applies himself, as said before in the declaration of the sabbath's second use and signification. For by his Holy Spirit, God sanctifies his faithful folk and constant believers. He declares this to the church by the preaching of the gospel, bearing witness to it and sealing it with his sacraments; so that he commands us with continual prayers, to incessantly crave from him that glorious sanctification. All these things, truly, are practised and put into use on the sabbath-days especially, with the intent that we may be sanctified by God, who is the only sanctifier of us all.

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Up to here I have declared to you, dearly beloved, as briefly as I could, the first tablet of God's commandments, in which we have very exquisitely laid down before us, the worship due to the name of God. But because it is not those who know his mind that are the children of God, but those who do it, let us beseech our heavenly Father to so illuminate our minds, that we may faithfully, and in deed, worship our Lord and God, who is to be praised world without end. Amen.

2-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT.

OF THE FIRST PRECEPT OF THE SECOND TABLET, WHICH IS THE FIFTH IN ORDER OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, TOUCHING THE HONOUR DUE TO PARENTS.

Now follows the second tablet of God's law, which (by the help of God's Holy Spirit) I will declare as briefly to you as I have already done through the first. And just as the first contained the love of God, so the second teaches us the charity due to our neighbour — instructing all men what they owe to their neighbour, and how we may live honestly, civilly, and in quiet peace among ourselves in this world. For our good God would have us live well and quietly. But we who would not know how to live well, nor yet obey his good commandments, never cease to heap upon our own pates [512] with our sins and iniquities, an infinite multitude of miserable calamities.

This tablet contains six commandments; the first of which is, "Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God shall give you." Very well and rightly, the Lord begins the second tablet with honouring our parents. For after our duty to God, the next is the reverent love that we owe to our parents, of whom, next after God, we have our life, and by whom from our infancy we are brought up with incredible care and exceeding great labour. Now the very order of nature requires that the most excellent and dearest things should always have the first and chief place.

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And that this commandment may be understood more easily, I mean to divide my treatise about it into three parts: In the FIRST, I will declare what degrees and kinds of men are comprehended under the name "parents;" SECOND, I will search out what kind of honour that is, and how far it extends, which the Lord commands to give to our parents: and THIRD, I will touch the promise made to godly children, conjecturing on it, and gathering from it the punishment appointed for the ungodly and disobedient offspring.

FIRST, there is none so ignorant as not to know what parents are. The Lord our God has given them to us to take from them our beginning of life, that they might nourish and bring us up, and that they might make us true men from rude and almost brutish things. Greater are the good turns that parents do for their children, greater is the cost and labour that they bestow on them, and greater is the care, grief, and trouble which they take for them, than any man is able to express, however eloquent he may be.

In the first place, not only the name of the father, but also the name of the mother is set down in express words in the law, lest she seem to be contemptible – not for any offence to God, but because of the weakness of her frail sex. Godly and virtuous mothers feel and abide more pain and grief in the bearing, bringing up, and nourishing of their children, than the fathers do. It is for no small cause, therefore, that we have the name of the mother precisely expressed in this commandment. We also comprehend in this, the grandfather and grandmother, the great grandsire and great granddame, and all others like these.

In the second place, we include every man's country in which he was born — which fed, fostered, adorned, and defended him.

Thirdly, we take princes and magistrates into the name and title: for senators and princes in the holy scriptures are called the fathers and pastors of the people.[513] Xenophon was persuaded that a good prince differed nothing from a good father.[514]

Fourthly, there are to be reckoned under the name of parents, those guardians who are usually called overseers of fatherless children or orphans. For they supply the place of departed parents, taking upon themselves the charge and defence of their children whom they must bring up, defend, and advance (for that sort of affection ought to be in them), even as they would for their own, and for those that they themselves once begat.

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Among them we must also take account of those masters and workmen who teach an art or occupation: for young men and striplings learn from them some honest science, for each one to get his living honestly. And they are taught good manners by them; in a way, out of rude unpolished stuff, they are thereby made into perfect seemly men.

Fifthly, the ministers, doctors, and pastors of the churches, are taken for parents. Paul himself called them by the name of fathers — not so much for the care and love with which they are affected toward the disciples and sheep of Christ's flock, as because we are begotten by them in Christ, through the gospel. 1Cor 4.15

In the sixth place, we must think of our cousins and kinsfolks, brother and sister, nephews and nieces, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, father-in-law and son-in-law, who are knit together by alliance, just as the members of the body are fastened with sinews.

Finally, in the seventh place, old folks and widows, fatherless children and impotent weak persons, must be reputed among our parents — those whose cause and tuition the Lord has commended to us in more places than one.

So then, my brethren, here you have heard who we have to take for our parents, in this first precept of the second tablet; and who and how many are comprehended and commended to us under that name. And now you will hear what honour we owe them, and what the honour is that we should attribute to them.

SECOND, honour is variously taken in the scriptures. But in this treatise it signifies to magnify, worship, esteem well, and to reverence as a thing ordained by God; and also to acknowledge, love, and give praise, as for a benefit received at God's hand, and as a thing given from heaven, that is both holy, profitable, and necessary. To honour is to be dutiful and to obey; and to obey as if it were to God himself, by whom we know that our obedience is commanded, and to whom we are sure that our service is acceptable. But otherwise, we have no reason to obey either our parents or magistrates, if they themselves do, or command us to do, things that are wicked and unjust.

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For the latter commandments still have a relation to those that went before. In the second commandment we learned that God would visit the sins of the fathers in the children; and therefore children ought not to obey their parents, if they command anything contrary to God, or prejudicial to his law. Jonathan did not obey his father Saul's commandment, who charged him to persecute David: and therefore he is worthily commended in the holy scriptures. The three companions of Daniel obeyed Nebuchadnezzar in all that he said. They loved him, and reverenced him as a mighty, powerful, and most bountiful king. But once he charged them to fall to idolatry, they did not set a button by his commandment.[515] And St. Peter, who taught us the honour and obedience that we owe to our parents and magistrates, when he was commanded by the princes and fathers of the people not to preach Christ crucified to the people any more, answered them that "we ought to obey God more than men." Acts 5.29 But what need do I have to thus reckon this up, when the Lord himself, in one short sentence, has knit this up, with all others like it? "If any man," he says, "comes to me, and does not hate his father and mother, his wife, his children, his brethren and sisters, yes, and his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Luk 14.26 Furthermore, you honour your parents when you do not contemptuously despise them, unthankfully neglect them, or shamefully think scornfully of them, if they happen to fall into adversity. You honour your parents when, with your help and counsel, you aid them in their old age and unwieldy crookedness; when you ease them in their time of need, or otherwise succour them in any case. For indeed, that is the true and proper honour due to our parents. The Lord himself bears witness to this in the 15th chapter of Matthew, and concludes that we ought to provide and care for our parents, to save and defend them, and to wholly give ourselves and risk our lives in their behalf.

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And now, so that what I have said may be more easily and evidently understood, I will confer and apply this honour to those seven kinds of men which we comprehend under the name of parents. Thereby everyone may see what honour, and how much of it, he ought to bestow on his parents, his country, the magistrates in it, and those sorts of people that were named before.

Though of duty we ought to honour our parents, that duty is paid if we so worshipfully esteem them, as to think that they are given to us by God to the end that we should reverence, love, and always have an eye toward them — although, this is for nothing else than the Lord's sake. He is and thinks that He is despised, so long as we go on to contemn our parents and to think vilely of them. Nor does it matter to us whether those whom the Lord commands us to honour, are worthy or unworthy. For however they may be, notwithstanding, they did not chance to be our parents, without the providence of God. In respect to this parentage, the lawgiver himself would have them honoured. Therefore, whatever occasion children have to speak to their parents, let it always savour of humble reverence and childly affection; and let them obey their parents with such affection and reverence. If they seem to us to be somewhat bitter and ungentle, yet let us wisely wink at, and not seem to notice it — little by little declining from the evil which they seem to compel us to by force. And let us so discreetly handle the matter, that we may give them as small occasion as possible to be offended at us.

We have Jonathan, the son of Saul, as an example to us of a godly and obedient child. With great grief and trouble of mind, he beheld his father's madness upon David and wrongful dealing against himself. Yet for the present, he discreetly sustained and wisely dissembled it, finding occasion at another time, and in a convenient place, to tell David of it. He never aided his father in any conceived mischief; he clung always to the just man and righteous causes. He bewailed his father's stubbornness, and sought not to over-boldly resist him and strive against him. When his father offered to deal with him by violent extremes, he saved himself by flying away. And yet, for all this, he never loved his father the worse, but still prayed to God for his father's health and welfare, showing himself in all things to be an obedient son to his crabbed [516] father. This truly is the duty of a godly son. Every one of us should most diligently follow this in doing our duty and humble obeisance to our parents, however froward or crooked they may be.

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Let none give them a rough answer, stubbornly; yes, let none so much as mumble an answer or mutter against his parents. Let none curse or speak evil of his father or mother, unless perforce [517] he seeks the way and means to make the curse of the high and mighty God hang over and alight upon his pate. If our parents happen to be poor, if they are misshapen in limb, or otherwise diseased with any infirmity, let none of us therefore in mockery flout at [518] or disdainfully despise them. Let us not show ourselves unthankful to those to whom we are duty-bound forever, for their good deeds toward us. Let us nourish, cherish, and aid them in all their necessities: yes, let us wholly bestow ourselves and all that we have, to do them good. For all that we possess undoubtedly is theirs; and all that we have, we enjoy by them — for if they were not, then we would not be.

Let us here call to remembrance the charge that the Lord gives us in Matthew, touching this commandment. Let us consider what is meant by the Gentiles' antipelargein,[519] which is, to requite one good turn with another; and especially, to nourish and cherish those by whom you were brought up and tendered in your youth.[520] Among the Gentiles, a law was extant worthy to be called the Mistress Of Piety, whereby it was enacted that children either nourish their parents, or else lie fast-fettered in prison.[521] Many men carelessly neglect this law, which the stork alone, among all living creatures, keeps most precisely. For other creatures hardly know or scarcely look at their parents, to see if perhaps the parents need their aid to nourish them. Whereas the stork mutually nourishes those which are stricken in age, and bears them on her shoulder when they cannot fly because of feebleness.

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There are to be seen among the Gentiles very religious and excellent sentences touching the honour due to parents. Isocrates says: "Show yourself to be such a one to your parents, as you wish to have your children show themselves to you." [522] Anaximenes said: "He loves his father exceedingly well, who endeavours to make him joyful without any trouble at all." [523] Plato also, in his Laws, thinks that "whoever nourishes his father or mother, or any of their parents, at home in his house, in their impotent old age, has a great treasure in his house;" and he supposes that he needs "no other picture of any of the gods to reverence in his house, because he should turn all his care and diligence to honour his parents." [524] And again, in another place he says:

"Let us pay to our parents, while they are alive, the oldest, first, and greatest debts that we owe them for our being and bringing up. For everyone must think that all which he has is theirs, who begat and brought him up. So that, according to his ability, he must supply and minister to them all that he possesses: first of all, the external goods of fortune; then of the body; and lastly, those that belong to the mind — thereby restoring all that he borrowed, and recompensing them in their old age for all their old cares and grief sustained for him. It is also seemly and requisite that even in words, so long as we live, we should show reverence to our parents. For after light and foolish words are used toward them, a terrible plague commonly comes. For before every man stands Nemesis (the executrix of judgment),[525] who thoroughly thinks upon all their offences.

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We must therefore give way to our parents when they are angry without cause, or do what they are inclined to do, whether by word or deed; knowing always that the father is rightfully angry with his son, though he is angry for nothing else than because he thinks his son has done to him what he should not do. Let us therefore erect to our parents, even when they are dead, monuments seemly for their estate while they were alive. If we do this, then undoubtedly we will be worthily rewarded at the hands of the gods." [526]

This much from Plato. St. Jerome says:

"Pay to mothers the reverence that you owe those who, serving you with the pain of their own wombs, bear the weight of your bodies; and carrying about the infant yet unknown, they become, as it were, servants to those that will be born. At that time, the mother does not hunger to fill her own belly, nor does she alone digest and feed upon the food that she eats. The babe that lies within her is nourished with the mother's food; his members are fed with another body's eating, so that the man that will be, is filled with the morsels that the mother swallows. What, should I recount the nourishment that they give to their children, and the sweet injuries of wayward infancy that they take, and put up with, from their little ones?

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Why should I speak of the food digested by the mother, which, coming from the other parts of her body into her paps, is turned into milk and moisture there, to fill the weak and tender jaws with thin liquid food for nourishment? By nature the infants are compelled to take from their mothers that which they drink; and when their toothless gums are not yet able to bite, then with the labouring of their lips, they draw from their mother's breasts what they need not chew. The mother's teat serves the child, and still attends the swathed babe; her hands to hold, and her back to bend, are ready still to dandle the suckling's limbs, that she loves full well, God knows. The mother desires often and earnestly to have her youngling grow, and wishes many a time to see him a man. For so many and great good deeds as these, the child, once it has come of age, should apply himself to do her service with a good and ready mind and heart. Let nature's debt be paid; let those that follow have their due. Pay what you owe, child, and show your bound duty by all manner of service, whatever it may be; because no man is able to pay his parents so much as he owes them." [527]

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Now, touching the country in which someone is born and brought up, every man well esteems it, loves it, and wishes to advance it; every man decks it with his virtue and prowess; every one helps it with all sorts of benefits, stoutly defending it, and valiantly fighting for it if need be, to save it from violent robbers. What, I ask you, is more to be delighted in than the good platform of a well ordered city, in which there is (as one said) the well-grounded church; in which God is rightly worshipped; and in which the word of God is duly obeyed in faith and charity, so far as it pleases God to give the gift of grace; in which also the magistrate defends good discipline and upright laws; in which the citizens are obedient and at unity among themselves, having their assemblies for true religion and matters of justice; in which they are used to having honest meetings in the church, in the court, and places of common exercise; in which they apply themselves to virtue and the study of learning, seeking an honest living by such sciences as man's life has need of, by tillage, by merchandise, and other handy occupations; in which children are honestly trained up, parents recompensed for their pains, the poor maintained by alms, and strangers are harboured in their distress? There are in this commonweal, therefore, virgins, married women, children, old men, matrons, widows, and fatherless children. If any (by the naughty disposition of nature) transgress the laws, they are worthily punished; the guiltless are defended; peace, justice, and civility flourish and are upheld. Now, what is someone who can abide to behold such a commonweal — the country where he is born and bred — to be troubled, vexed, torn, and pulled in pieces, either by seditious citizens or by foreign enemies? In civil seditions and foreign wars, all virtue and honesty is utterly overthrown, virgins are defiled, matrons are uncivilly dealt with, old men are derided, and religion is destroyed. This is why the valiant captain Joab, being ready to fight against the Syrians in defence of his country, speaks to his brother Abishai, saying: "If the Syrians are stronger than I, then you will help me; but if the sons of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come and aid you. Be courageous therefore, and let us fight lustily for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the Lord do the thing that is good in his own eyes." 2Sam 10.11-12

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Moreover Judas Maccabeus, a man among the Israelites worthily esteemed, and a famous warrior, and singularly affected toward his country, encouraging his soldiers and countrymen against their enemies, said: "They come upon us wrongfully in hope of their force, to spoil and make havoc of us, with our wives and children; but we fight for our lives and liberty of our laws, and the Lord will destroy them before our faces." The people also among themselves, exhorting one another, do cry out and say: "Let us take this affliction from our people, and let us fight for our nation and our religion." [528]

Let no man make an objection here, and say: "Tosh, these are works pertaining to the law, which we, who are of the church of Christ, have nothing to do with." For the apostle Paul, speaking to the Hebrews concerning Christian faith, says: "These through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, were valiant in fight, and turned to flight the armies of aliens." [529] Now, since our faith is all one, and the very same with theirs, it is lawful for us as well as for them, in a rightful quarrel by war, to defend our country and religion, our virgins and old men, our wives and children, our liberty and possessions. Whoever (under the pretence of religion) forsakes their country afflicted with war, not endeavouring to deliver it from barbarous soldiers and foreign nations, even by offering their lives to the push and prick of present death for the safeguard of it, are flatly unnatural to their country and countrymen, and transgress this fifth commandment. St. John says: "By this we know his love, because he gave his life for us; and we ought to give our lives for the brethren." The hired soldiers,[530] who fight unlawful battles for wages, and sell their bodies for greed of money, shall judge the men who leave their country in peril and danger. For the one has put loss of life and limbs at risk for the gain of a few odd crowns; while the other dainty fools and effeminate hearts will not hazard the loss of a limb for their religion, magistrates, wives, children, and all their possessions.

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I beseech you, what will those traitors to their country say in that day in which the Lord rewards the lovers and the unnatural traitors of their country and countrymen — when before their eyes they see the Gentiles excel them in virtue and love toward their country-people? [531] Publius Decius, the father and the son, gave their lives freely for the safeguard of the commonweal, and died willingly for the love of their country.[532] Codrus, the natural and loving king of the Athenians, understood by the oracle of Apollo that Athens could not be saved except by the king's death; and therefore the enemies had commanded that no man should wound the king. Codrus laid aside his king-like garb, and clothing himself in base apparel, rushed into the thickest of his enemies; by egging them on, he provoked one of them perforce to kill him.[533] The two brethren, called Phileni, chose to lengthen their country with a mile of ground rather than prolong their lives with many days; and therefore they allowed themselves to be buried alive.[534] But what do we suffer for the health and safeguard of our country? Hierocles says:

"Our country is, as it were, a certain other god, and our first and chief parent. This is why the one who first called our country by the name patria, did not unadvisedly give it that name. Rather, he called it so in respect to the thing which it was indeed. For patria, 'our country,' is derived from pater, a father. And he ends or terminates it in the feminine gender, thereby declaring that it takes the name of both parents. And this reason covertly leads us to think that our country, which is but one, ought to be reverenced and loved as well as both our parents — jointly knitting them together, to make them equal in honour." [535]

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Furthermore, we must make our earnest prayer for the safeguard of our country. Babylon was not the country of the Jews; yet, because of their sins, the Jews were banished by God to Babylon for the span of seventy years, Babylon was allotted to them instead of their country. And therefore the prophet Jeremiah says: "Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit; marry wives and beget sons and daughters, and give them in marriage, that they may get children. Seek the peace of that city to which I carry you, and pray to the Lord for it; because your peace and safeguard is joined to its peace." (Jer 29.5-7) Traitors to their country therefore sin exceedingly, whom the laws of the realm command to be hanged and quartered for their foul offence.[536]

I mean to speak of the magistrate and his office in another place. St. Peter utters what is requisite for this present time, where he says, "Fear God, honour the king." 1Pet 2.17 Let us therefore acknowledge and confess that the magistrate's office is ordained by God for men's commodity, and that by the magistrate, God frankly bestows on us very many and great commodities. The peers watch out for the common people, if they rightly discharge their office — not showing themselves to be detestable tyrants. They judge the people, they consider controversies, they keep justice in punishing the guilty and defending innocents, and lastly, they fight for the people. And for the excellence of their office, which is both the chief and the most necessary, God attributes to the magistrate the use of His own name, and calls the princes and senators of the people, gods.[537] This is with the intent that, by that name, they should be put in mind of their duty, and that the subjects might thereby learn to hold them in reverence. God is just, good, righteous, and does not show partiality.Act 10.34 The good judge or magistrate ought to be such a one.

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Monks and hermits praise their profession or solitary life, extolling it above the skies. But I think truly, that there is more true virtue in one political man, who governs the commonweal and does his duty truly, than in many thousands of monks and hermits, who do not have so much as one word expressed in the holy scriptures for the defence of their vocation and vowed order of living. Yes, I am ashamed that I have compared the holy office of magistrates with that kind of people, in whom there is nothing found worthy to be compared with them, insomuch as they flee from the labour and ordinance that God has made profitable for their people and countrymen. Truly, if the prince faithfully discharges his office in the commonweal, he heaps up for himself a number of very good works and praise that shall never be ended. Therefore the magistrate must be obeyed, and all his good and upright laws. No sedition or conspiracies should in any case be moved against him. "We must not curse or speak evil of the magistrate. For God himself in his law charges us, saying: 'You shall not speak evil of the gods, nor curse the prince of the people.'" Exo 22.28 If he chances to sin at any time, let us behave toward him as to our father; of whom I have spoken a little earlier.

It often happens that magistrates have a good mind to promote religion, to advance common justice, to defend the laws, and to favour honesty. And yet, notwithstanding, they are troubled with their infirmities — yes, sometimes with grievous offences. Nevertheless, the people should not therefore despise them, and set aside their dignity. David had his infirmities, though otherwise a very good prince. By his adultery he greatly damaged his people and kingdom. And, to make his trouble worse, Absalom sinned grievously, trying to separate him from his crown and kingdom. So likewise in other princes there are no small number of vices, which nevertheless neither moved nor ought to move godly people to rebellious sedition, so long as justice is maintained and good laws and public peace are defended.

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We ought to pray earnestly and continually for the magistrate's welfare. We must aid him with our help and counsel, so often as need serves and occasion is given. We must not deny him our riches or bodies to assist him with. The saints gathered their substance in common to help the magistrate, so often as public safeguard required. The Israelites of all ages always fought for their judges, for their kings and other magistrates; and so did all other people upon taking good advice. Likewise, on the other side, the princes fought for the people. I would therefore that those offices of godly naturalness were of force and flourished, even today, in all kingdoms, cities, and commonweals. Let every nation give to its magistrate what it owes him by law, or by custom, or by necessity. For Paul the apostle says: "Give to every one that which you owe: tribute to whom tribute belongs, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, and honour to whom honour is due," Rom 13.7.

Now, because the guardians or overseers of orphans supply the place of parents, and execute the offices of deceased parents to the children that remain, they worthily deserve to have the reward that is due to parents, whether it be love, reverence, thanks, or obedience. I judge the same also touching workmen and masters of sciences, those who, for the fatherly affection, love, good-will, faith, and diligence showed to their scholar or apprentice, should mutually be regarded by their scholars as a master — to be reverenced, feared, and hearkened to, as a loving father. But in these unhappy days of ours it is abominable to see the negligence of masters in teaching their scholars, and it is intolerable to behold the peevish rudeness of untoward scholars.[538] Let masters therefore learn here to show themselves to be fathers, not being otherwise affected toward their scholars than toward their own children. Let them teach their apprentices their science or occupation, and train them up in manners and all points of civility, with the very same care and diligence that they use in bringing up their own. On the other side, let youths learn to break their natural ingrafted rudeness, and to bridle their youthful lusts; let them learn to be humble and subject, to keep silence, to reverence, to fear, to love, and obey their masters. Let them always remember that their masters are given to them by God, and therefore that God is despised when they contemn their masters.

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Let them be diligent, earnest, and trusty in their work. Let them give their masters cause to perceive their earnest desire and ready good-will that they bear to him, to their occupation, and to the principles of their science. Let every one think upon, and diligently practise indeed, the things that their master teaches by word of mouth. Let them not grudge to watch and take pains. Let the masters not be grieved, so often as they are asked how to do a thing, to readily show it in every point as it should be done.[539] Unthankfulness and lack of diligence in the scholar, many times makes the master unwilling and negligent to teach him. Observe this, and in the rest, fear God, and have an eye to sound religion. When you are abroad, do not come into the company of blasphemous and riotous toss-pots;[540] behave yourself honestly, provoke no man to anger, despise no man, speak ill of no man, desire peace and quietness, honour all men, and strive to do good to everyone. When you are at home, help forward your master's commodity; do not damage him or his affairs. If any man either hurts or goes about hindering him, quickly warn him of it; seek to appease and hide (as much as you can) all occasions of falling out and chidings. Whatever you hear at home, do not blab it abroad; and make no tales at home of what you hear abroad. Be silent, quiet, chaste, continent, temperate, trusty in deeds, true in words, and willing to do any honest and household business. Beware of those by whom evil suspicions and offences may chance to arise. Do not over-boldly dally with your master's wife or daughters, nor yet with his maidens; do not stand talking with them familiarly in sight or secretly. Imagine (as it is indeed) that your master's wife is your mother, his daughters your sisters — to defile them is a filthy and villainous offence. Let every young man be neat, not nasty; gentle, just, content with a simple diet, not licorice-lipped or dainty-toothed.[541]

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But why do I stay here for so long? Let every young man be persuaded and keep in memory, that his duty is to keep himself chaste from filthy defilings, to obey and not to rule, to serve all men, to learn always, to speak very little, not to brag of any thing over arrogantly, not to answer tip for tap,[542] but to suffer much and wink at it.

For the honouring of ministers of the churches, which are the pastors, teachers, and fathers of Christian people, many things are usually alleged by those who covet to reign as lords, rather than serve as ministers, in the church of Christ. But we, who are not of that aspiring mind, acknowledge that they are given to us by the Lord, and that the Lord speaks to us by them. I speak here of those ministers who do not tell us a headless tale of their own dreams, but preach to us the word of truth. For the Lord says about them in the gospel, "He that hears you hears me, and he that despises you despises me." Luk 10.16 Therefore, the ministry is of the Lord, and he works our salvation through it. And we must therefore obey the ministers who rightly execute their office and ministry; we must think well of them; we must love them and continually pray for them. And since they sow to us their heavenly things, we must not deny them the reaping of our bodily and temporal things. "For the labourer is worthy of his reward." 1Tim 5.18 And since the Roman president among the Jews did not deny it, but aided the apostle Paul against the conceived [543] murder and open wrong by the Jewish nation,[544] a Christian magistrate, truly, ought not to deny his assistance and defence to the godly ministers of Christ and the churches. To this, the testimonies of St. Paul may be alleged. In the last chapter of his first epistle to the Thessalonians he says: "We beseech you, brethren, to know those who labour among you, and oversee you in the Lord, and admonish you; that you may esteem them through love for their work, and be at peace with them." [545]

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Again, to the Hebrews he says: "Obey those who rule over you, and give way to them; for they watch for your souls, as those who shall give account for them, that they may do it in joy, and not in trembling; for that is unprofitable for you." Heb 13.17 For how many and great calamities have fallen upon kingdoms and peoples for the contempt of God's word and his ministers, many examples can teach us — but especially that one in the last chapter of the second book of Chronicles. It is set down in these words:

"The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them; for he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place. But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and jested at his prophets, until the wrath of God arose against his people, and till there was no remedy." 2Chr 36.15-16

The words of the Lord in the gospel are like this, where he says:

"I send you prophets and wise men, some of whom you scourge and kill, that all the righteous blood may light upon you, which has been shed upon the earth; from the blood of the righteous Abel, to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah whom you slew between the temple and the altar;" and so forth. Mat 23.35

For the place is known to you all, dearly beloved, and is to be seen in the twenty-third chapter of St. Matthew. We must beware therefore, in any case, that we do not despise God, who speaks to us in his word by his servants the prophets.

We owe, by the force of this commandment, all love, reverence, help, comfort, and humanity to our kinsfolks and alliance. In this commandment are condemned any who show themselves to be astorgoi (astorgoi), Rom 1.31 that is to say, men without any natural affection and friendly love toward their own blood and kinsfolks. There is a certain natural affection, good-will, love, and pitiful mercy (which the scripture calls the "bowels of mercy") [546] in the father and mother toward their children, in brother toward brother, and in cousins toward kinsfolks and friends of their alliance.

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We have notable examples of this set down in the scriptures: of Abraham's love toward his son Isaac, and of Joseph's affection toward his father Jacob and his brethren, but especially toward Benjamin his brother by one mother. Mothers and daughters-in-law have a notable example to follow in Naomi and Ruth. Mothers and daughters-in-law (for the most part) bear a deadly hatred for one another, which is the cause of much mischief in the houses where they are. Let them learn therefore by this pretty example, how to behave themselves on both parts. Let the mother-in-law think the daughter-in-law to be her own daughter; and let the daughter-in-law honour and reverence her mother-in-law, as if she were her own mother. Many things must be winked at on both sides, many things must be taken in good part, and many things put up, with a quiet mind. Many things must be forgiven; and they must both have their ears stopped against tattling tale-bearers and wrongful suspicions. Concord in every house is the greatest treasure that may exist; and discord at home is the most perilous and endless mischief that can be invented. Paul's words, touching good turns and honour to be given to our kinsfolk, are very well known, and may be seen in the fifth chapter of his first epistle to Timothy.

Last of all, there is also to be found in the word of God a particular law for honouring old men, which bids us to rise before the hoary and grey-haired head. Lev 19.32 Old men therefore are to be honoured, whom we must worthily magnify, and in whom we must acknowledge the singular grace of God in giving them long life. By long and continual experience of all things, they have attained to much wit or wisdom, whereby they are able to help us with their counsel. Therefore, they ought to be praised, so that all men may understand that grey hairs are a crown of glory. Pro 16.31 Moreover, if aged weak persons are driven into need, then our abundance must supply their necessity.

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In short, we must not deny to old men any duty of humanity with which we may please them. In the same way, here there are also commended to us widows, orphans, wards, poor men, strangers, sick and miserable people. And for that cause, the devout and good men of old bestowed their goods liberally to refreshing old men, widows, fatherless children, and poor silly [547] creatures. Those goods today are called church goods, or ecclesiastical contributions, which undoubtedly are very well bestowed if they are laid out on those for whom they were given. In the emperor's constitutions, we may see that there were common houses and substance built and appointed for all sorts of needy people: for there is mention made of houses for fatherless children, of hospitals for old men, of spittles [548] for beggars, of places for sick men, and nurseries for children.[549] Among us today, there are hospitals and monasteries, very many of which have several places appointed for orphans, old men, poor people, impotent creatures, sick persons, and infants. Therefore, they commit an unappeasable offence, who put to other uses the substance and places ordained for old and poor people, and throw away (they care not how prodigally) [550] in riot and lustiness, the alms bestowed on poor silly souls.

And now, up to here I have declared how our parents ought to be honoured, and those who are included under the name of parents.

There now remains the third and last part of our present treatise, in which we have to see what God promises to those who honour their parents religiously; whereby we have to gather what peril hangs over the heads of those who wickedly neglect and irreligiously despise their parents. The Lord therefore says in the law: "That your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God shall give you." The meaning of which is this: Honour your father and your mother, that you may for many days enjoy the possession of the land which you will have in testimony of my favour toward you.

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These words properly belong to the Jews. But a godly minister of Christ, writing upon this place, very well and truly says: "Because the whole earth is blessed to the faithful, we do nothing amiss, when we reckon this present life among the blessings of God. This is why this promise pertains as well to us as to the Jews, because the prolonging of this present life is a testimony of God's especial favour." [551] To those who religiously honour their parents, in whatever land they dwell, He assuredly promises all kinds of blessings, felicity, and stores of temporal things, with a sweet prolonging of this present life. For Paul, interpreting this in the sixth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians, says: "That it may go well with you, and that you may live long upon the earth:" meaning any land whatsoever, and promising a temporal blessing of the Lord.

We therefore gather from this, that the contrary is threatened and set as a penalty upon the heads of those who disobediently despise their parents. By examples in other places of scripture, this will be made more manifest. Ham is cursed by his father Noah for behaving himself irreverently toward him, even in his drunkenness. Gen 9.25 Joseph is exalted to the highest dignity in Egypt, because from his childhood he honoured God and reverenced his father Jacob. Solomon says in the seventeenth chapter of his Proverbs: "Whoever rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house." (17.13) Again: "He that despitefully taunts his father, and despises the old age of his mother, shall be confounded and left in reproach." (19.26) "The son that will not heed the discipline of his father, will think of talk of wickedness." (13.1) "Whoever curses his father or mother, his light shall be put out, and the balls of his eyes shall see nothing but darkness." (20.20) For they are monsters and not men, who are unnatural toward their parents; and especially those who not only neglect and despise them, but also beat and discourteously handle them.

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The Lord commands that such fellows be slain, as people unworthy to see the light, because they forget and will not acknowledge that they came into the world by means of their parents. "He that curses father or mother," says the Lord, "let him die the death." And again: "He that strikes his father or mother, let him die the death." Exo 21.15,17 There is none of you which does not know the law, called Lex Pompeia,[552] against those who kill their parents. It is not amiss here to hear what the gentile writers say touching this matter. Homer says:

He did not nourish as he should

His aged parents dear;

Therefore the gods did from his youth

Cut off the jolliest year.[553]

And the ancient poet Orpheus says:

God sits above, and sees the sons

That do themselves apply

To do their fathers hests, and those

That shamelessly deny

Them to obey; and as he doth

Bless the one with sundry gifts,

So, for to vex the other, he doth

Devise a thousand drifts:

For though despised parents die,

Yet do their ghosts remain,

And are of force upon the earth,

To put their sons to pain. [554]

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Moreover, the tragical poet, Euripides, has:

To him, that while he lives does love

His parents to obey,

Whether he lives, or else dies,

God is a friend alway.[555]

And Meander, the comical poet, says:

The wretch is worse than mad, that with

His parents falls at odds: [556]

For wise men greatly reverence them,

And honour them as gods.[557]

Virgil also, among other horrible vices which are punished in hell with eternal and unspeakable pains, says this:

Here they that did their brethren hate,

While life on earth did last,

Or beat their parents, etc.

And immediately after:

He did his country sell for gold,

And made a tyrant king;

For bribes he made and marr'd his coun-

try's laws and every thing.[558]

And Horace in his Odes says:

It is a sweet and seemly thing,

In country's cause to die.[559]

And Silius Italicus has:

Doubt not of this: forget it not,

But keep it in thy mind:

It is a detestable thing

To show thyself unkind

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Unto your native country soil;

For no such sin remains

In hell to be tormented there

With utter endless pains,

As that: so does experience teach. [560]

I have cited these testimonies to this end and purpose: that by these, dearly beloved, you may gather the heinousness of this offence, which even the Gentiles so grievously cry out against and utterly condemn. Cain slew his brother Abel, but thereby he got his reward — to be marked with a perpetual blot of ignominy and reproach. Shimei intolerably railed upon David, his ordinary magistrate;[561] and therefore was he punished according to his deserts.[562] Absalom rebelled unnaturally against his father David; but being wrapped by the hair to a tree, and hanging between heaven and earth, he is horribly thrust through with a javelin.[563] The Lord called those who slew the prophets, by the name of adders' brood [564] and sons of the devil.[565] As for those that have reproachfully dealt with old men, or troubled widows, they have not gone unpunished. For the Lord says in the law: "You shall not afflict the widows nor fatherless children: but if you go on to afflict them, they shall undoubtedly cry to me, and I will hear them; and my wrath shall wax hot, and I will slay you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children be fatherless." Exo 22.23-24 Thus much up to here.

St. Paul, alleging this law in his epistle to the Ephesians, very aptly applies it to our learning and comfort. For he says: "Children, obey your parents, for this is right; honour your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that you may prosper and live long on earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in instruction and information of the Lord." Eph 6.1-4

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In these words he tells the parents their duty, as well as the children. Three things he requires at the hand of the parents; that is, to bring up their children, to instruct them, and to correct them. For it is the parents' office to nourish, to feed, and bring them up, till they are grown to age, so that once dispatched from hanging onto their parents any longer, they may get their livings with their own labour and travail. It is the parents' office to teach and instruct their children. That teaching or instructing consists in three things: in religion, in manners, and in the skill of an occupation.

Now touching religion, it has certain principles, rudiments, I say, and catechisms to teach by. Secondly, it has the scriptures setting out the word of God, with a full exposition of all things belonging to God. It also has mysteries, holy signs, and sacraments, to teach and to learn by. If the householder is familiar among a people who honour the true religion, and has received the lawful worship of God with true, faithful, and godly ministers and teachers of Christ's church, let him charge and see that his children go to the holy congregation to be instructed in religion there, by the public preacher. Yet nevertheless, let the father examine his children at home, and know what they have learned by hearing the sermon. Let both the father and mother also at home privately endeavour to teach their children the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, and the Lord's prayer; and let them teach them a brief and ready rule out of the scriptures for understanding the sacraments. Let them often and many times cause them to repeat the catechism, and beat into their heads such sentences as are most necessary to put them in memory of their faith and duty of life. But if it happens that the householder has his dwelling with a people who persecute the Christian faith and doctrine, who hate the true and lawful worship of God's name, and cannot abide the congregation and ministers of Christ (as it happens in the Turkish captivities and troublesome persecutions of our days), then he shall take heed and keep himself from idolatry.

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Neither shall he go in his own person to those ungodly assemblies, nor allow his family to go there, but shall rather instruct them in true religion in his own house at home, first in the catechism, and then in deeper divinity. Moreover, so often as the case and necessity require, he must freely and openly profess Christ and his gospel. For it is apparently evident by the epistles of Paul and other histories, that such churches were in private houses of great cities in the time of the apostles, and in the thickest of those hot and ancient persecutions.[566] Neither is it likely that the Jews in their captivity at Babylon, although they lacked the outward use of sacrifices, were altogether without any worship of God. Although Daniel did not sacrifice, yet at certain hours of the day, he worshipped God in his own house. Dan. 6.10 The house of Cornelius at Caesarea was the church in which Peter preached in a very good and ecclesiastical assembly or congregation; and because Joppa had no church for him to pray in, he went up to the upper part of the house to make his prayers there. Acts 10.9 Neither is it to be doubted that the eunuch of queen Candace's nobility, of whom mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles, ordained a church in Ethiopia.[567] And let them be persuaded, who are without the public and lawful use of the sacraments, that it will not be imputed to their fault — for it is committed, not by them, but by another's offence. For even in such a case, the Lord can well work by his Spirit in the minds of his people. But where, by the grace of God, liberty is given for the congregation to assemble, and to hear the free, sincere, and true preaching of the gospel, and lastly, to celebrate the sacraments, those private and domestic churches must be broken up there, and come to an end — not because the house of a godly householder is not, nor still remains, a church; but because the hearing of God's word, prayer, and the celebrating of the sacraments, ought to be public and common to all the saints. For those assemblies which the Anabaptists and all other sectaries use by stealth, are both worthily and utterly condemned.

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And now let us hear the testimonies of scripture, which command all householders to holily instruct their family in the true religion, and to declare to their children the meaning of the sacraments. Moses in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy says: "Hear, Israel, the Lord our God is Lord only: therefore you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart. And you shall show them to your children, and shall talk of them when you are at home in your house, and as you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes." [568] And again: "When your son asks you in time to come, saying, What do these testimonies, ordinances, and laws mean, which the Lord our God has commanded us? Then you shall say to your son: We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out with a mighty hand, and showed signs and mighty wonders before our eyes; and brought us out from there, and gave us all these precepts and statutes to do, and to fear the Lord our God." Deu 6.20-24 To this belongs a great part of the seventy-eighth Psalm. And in the thirteenth chapter of Exodus the Lord again says: "Sanctify to me all the first-born." Exo 13.2 "And when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What is this? You shall say to him, The Lord slew all the first-born of Egypt, and therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that open the womb." Exo 13.14-15 Also in the twelfth chapter, God (or Moses in God's name), expounding the mystery or sacrament of the Passover, said: "When your children ask you, saying, What manner of service is this that you do? You shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, which passed over the houses of the children of Israel," etc. Exo 12.26-27

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These testimonies are sufficiently evident, and need no further exposition. I will now, therefore, add to these the other things which parents have to teach their children.

Let the father instruct his children in manners. From our birth, we are all clownish and rude; and all children have unseemly and uncivil manners. This evil is doubled by evil custom and clownish company. Let the parents, therefore, teach their children manners early, which may adorn them at home, and become them abroad. Let him instruct the child how to behave himself decently in his going and in the posture of his body: how in the church, how in the market, how at the table, how in men's companies, and in all other places of company. There are excellent books [569] set out for that purpose; thus I do not need to discuss their particulars.

Lastly, let the father place his children with expert and cunning [570] workmen, to teach them some handicraft by which to earn their living another day. But first, he must test their wits, to see which each child is most apt for, and in which the child most delights. For "cunning will never be attained, where good will is lacking in the one that must learn it." If you have any children fit for learning, you will do a good and godly deed, to train them up to the ministry of the church, or some other office that stands by learning. But of all others, fault is to be found with those parents who bring up their children in lazy idleness. For, even if huge heaps of treasure were left to them, yet in three or four odd hours all may be wasted and come to nothing. To what, then, will your dainty idle gentleman trust — what will he do — when there is nothing left but his bare carcass, which is a lump of clay and not good for anything? The inhabiters of Massilia would not admit anyone to citizenship, except those who had learned an occupation to live by.[571] For there is no greater plague to a city than an unprofitable citizen.

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But who, I pray you, may be thought to be a worse citizen than the one accustomed to ease and delicateness, who all of a sudden — by some mishap or by prodigal riotousness — is deprived of them both, driven to extreme poverty, and compelled to seek out unlawful means by which to get more wealth again? Furthermore, those of old had a proverb worthy to be remembered by us at this time: "Every land maintains art." [572] "By this phrase they meant that learning and science are the surest preparation for every journey. For they cannot be taken away by thieves; but wherever you go, they keep you company, and are no burden for you to bear." [573] If mishap therefore spoils your children of the wealth that you leave them, if you have taught them an occupation, it is enough for them to live by. Kings are deprived of their prince-like dignity, and separated from their exceeding riches; so that it is no marvel that kings' inferiors are spoiled of their wealth, and banished from their countries. Dionysius of Syracuse, for his tyranny, is reported to have been throne out of his seat. But having lost his kingdom, he departed to Corinth, where he set up a school and taught children their grammar and music, whereby in that necessity he got his living.[574] He would have been hard-bested truly, and in a miserable state, if he had never learned anything, but had settled his hope upon dignity and riches. Vain hope would have been his destruction; for he would have died in extreme beggary. Thus much touching the bringing up of children in learning or knowledge of some occupation.

I have to say something, in what is left, touching the correction of those that are included under the name of children. This correction consists partly in words, and partly in stripes. In both there must be a middle-mean and measure, do that nothing is done outrageously. Do not let the admonition that is given in words be more bitter than the fault deserves. Let it nip [575] for the time present; but being past, let it be spoken of no more.

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Continual chiding breeds contempt. You will find some children also, with whom gentle dealing will prevail somewhat. And unless you sometimes praise them, and speak well of what they do, although perhaps not so well done as you would require, you will perceive that utter desperation will clean take away from them hope and courage. I think it is not good to overawe with too heavy a burden, those children who are willing to bear it. Stripes must not be bestowed except for some great offence, and that too, should not be done in the father's anger, but moderately; not to mar, but to amend them. Let the parents always remember that golden saying of St. Paul, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger." Eph. 6.4 For the best wits are hurt by too much rigorousness. Solomon, where he speaks of moderate correction, says: "The rod and correction give wisdom; but the child that runs at random brings his mother to shame." Again: "Chastise your son, and you shall have quiet, and he will bring pleasure to your soul." Pro 29.15,17 These words of his utterly condemn the father's indulgence,[576] and the mother's pampering, which is the marring of very many children. For the parents offend God as much in over-indulging their children, as they do in over-punishing them. Eli in the scriptures is ill-reported for doting over his children — he himself dies miserably, and brings the shameless wicked knaves, his sons, to a shameful ending.[577] What is to be thought of that, moreover, in the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy, where the parents are commanded to bring their disobedient children before the judge, and there, by complaint, to sue them to death? This example may otherwise seem too sharp; yet it pleased God to use it to put other men in remembrance that they are to keep their children in awe and obedience. For God is a God of salvation, and not of destruction — so that, when disobedient rebels and godless people perish through their own default, he turns that destruction of theirs to the safeguard of his obedient servants. Therefore, let parents always remember this saying in the gospel: "It is not the will of your heavenly Father, that one of these little ones should perish. Whoever offends such a one, it would be better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." [578]

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Now, touching the duty of children, I have spoken of it before in the place where I taught how and in what way parents ought to be honoured. Paul, in one word, knits up much of the matter, and says: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord." He tells the reason why: "For that," he says, "is righteous." And again he adds the cause, saying: "For God has commanded it." Eph 6.1-2 Let children therefore consider and think upon the nightly watchings and continual labour that their parents took in bringing them up, and let them learn to be thankful for it, and content with their present estate. When their parents instruct them, let them learn attentively, and show themselves like godly Jacob, rather than godless Esau. Let them learn to accustom themselves to good and honest manners. Let them willingly learn the art or occupation to which they are set. Let them yield and submit themselves to their parents' correction. Let them not stir up or provoke their parents to anger. Let them choose to learn wit, and obey their parents, of their own mind and accord, rather than to be driven to it by beating and brawling. If parents, at their departure, leave little behind them for their children to inherit, let the good children not therefore speak ill of the dead. If your father has taught you any art or occupation, he leaves for you a sufficient inheritance. Thriftiness, also, and moderate spending, is a very great revenue.[579] If your father has well and honestly taught you good manners, and trained you up in the true wisdom and perfect religion, then has he bequeathed to you a patrimony sufficient to maintain you. For what else are exceeding great riches, left to a fool or to an irreligious fellow, but a sword in a madman's hand? You are left wealthy enough by your father's legacy, if you are godly, painstaking, heedful, and honest. For goods gotten by the sweat of our own brows, for the most part continue longer, and prosper us better, than those which others leave to us.

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We have again, dearly beloved, spent a hour and a half in handling this matter touching the honour due to parents. I have kept you longer than of right I should have done; but you shall impute it to the love and good will I bear to the matter. I am not ignorant how necessary this argument is, almost to all men: and therefore I stick longer on it. For I endeavour not only to teach you things that are profitable and necessary, but also to beat them into your memories so much as I may, to the end that you never forget them. God grant you all a fruitful increase of his holy word, which is the seed that is sown in your hearts. Let us pray, etc.

2-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT.

OF THE SECOND PRECEPT OF THE SECOND TABLET,

WHICH IN ORDER IS THE SIXTH OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS,

YOU SHALL NOT KILL: AND OF THE MAGISTRATE.

JUSTICE and innocence are very well joined to the higher power and the magistrate's authority; and in this sixth precept both public and private peace and tranquility are hedged in and enclosed against open tumults and secret discords. The life of man is the most excellent thing in the world, on which all other things, of however great a price they may be, wait and attend. And the body of man is more worth than all other gifts whatsoever. Therefore, the natural order itself seems to require that the sixth commandment be placed next, which God himself has plainly expressed in these few words: "You shall not kill." Exo 20.13 For in this precept, justice and innocence are commanded and commended to us, in which it is also provided that no man hurt another's life or body. And so, in this precept charge is given to everyone to maintain peace and quietness.

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Now here are to be observed the steps that lead to murder, in which we must consider the kinds and causes of hurting and annoying. For the Lord does not simply forbid murder, but all other things in which murder consists. All egging on, therefore, and provoking to anger is utterly forbidden; slanderous taunts and brawling statements are flatly prohibited; strife, wrath, and envy, are plainly commanded to be suppressed. And in this sense, we have Christ our Lord himself interpreting this law, where in the Gospel according to Matthew he says: "You have heard it said of old, you shall not kill; whoever kills shall be in danger of judgment. But I say to you, that whoever is angry with his brother unadvisedly shall be in danger of judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of a council. But whoever says, You fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." Therefore, you see here that anger, slander, brawling, and all other tokens of a mind moved to utter ill words, are flatly forbidden. What then must you do? You must, in truth, come into charity again with the one whom you have offended; you must lay aside all wrath and envy, unless you would rather have all the honour that you do to God, be imputed to you as sin, and perhaps that you would rather choose to be utterly condemned. For our Lord goes on in the gospel, and says: "If therefore you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there before the altar" (he speaks to those who then had their temple standing, their altar remaining, and burnt-offerings in use; but we today have another manner of worshipping God) "and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." And again: "Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest at any point the adversary delivers you to the judge, and the judge delivers you to the minister, and you are cast into prison. Truly, I say to you, you shall not depart from there until you have paid the utmost farthing." [580]

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But because so few of us obey this sound and wholesome doctrine of the Lord's, it thereby comes to pass that so many great and troublesome tumults happen among men. For small is the substance of those who obey the word of God, but great is the rest and quietness of their consciences. And what pleasure, I pray you, do infinite riches bring to man, since with them a man cannot likely be without troublesome cares of mind, great turmoils, and lack of a quiet life? This law, therefore, which tends to no other end than to teach man the way to lead a sweet and pleasant life, wholly takes from the mind of man such immoderate affections as anger and envy, two of the most pestilent evils that reign among men.

I do not mean to speak too busily at present concerning anger, just as I have also determined to be brief touching envy. Of anger, many men have uttered many profitable sentences. And yet there is a holy kind of anger, which the scripture does not disallow; so that, unless a man is angry in that way, he will never be a good and godly man. For a good man has a zeal for God, and in that godly zeal he is angry at the iniquity and naughtiness of mankind. There are many examples of this to be seen in the scriptures: and this anger dislikes [581] the sin committed, rather than the person who commits the sin. For the good servant of God hates nothing in the wicked man's person, but his actual sin — so that, once the wicked ceases to sin, he will stop hating or being angry with it any longer. This anger, then, is utterly condemned when it springs from evil and corrupt affections — when no just cause is given for it other than the one who is offended either fulfils his affection in his anger, or else hurts or determines to hurt the one with whom he is angry. It is a great evil, and a fruit which, when it is sown, yields and produces one mischief upon another. And therefore the apostle of Christ counsels all men not to give any place to anger; and if it happens to enter into our minds, and sticks there awhile, yet we do not allow it to catch fast hold, or take deep root in them. "Be angry," he says, "and sin not. Do not let the sun set on your anger, and give no place to the devil." Eph. 4.26-27 For this is the apostle's meaning: if so it happens that you are angry, yet do not sin; that is, bridle your anger.

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Neither does the apostle bid us to be angry, but he wills us not to let our anger continue long, nor break out to work injury. And parorgismov parorgismos (the word Paul uses) signifies anger indeed; yet, more rightly, it signifies stirring or provoking to anger. Thereby we must understand that the one who is provoked to anger by injury, even though he is somewhat grieved and deeply touched, that grief ought to be of short continuance. Nor must we in any case allow our adversary,[582] the devil, to fasten his foot in our hearts. Through anger, he creeps little by little into our minds, and by continual wrath, he works envy. By these he captivates and perverts the whole man, with all his senses, words, and works.

For envy is anger grown into habit by long continuance. For the most part, it vexes, burns, and [mangles the one who] [583] envies, more than the party that is envied; even though the envious one never ceases to devise mischief against the man he envies. It is an endless evil which does not allow any remedy to take it away. Therefore the Gentiles baited and canvassed it to and fro with wonderful appealing quips and pithy sentences; I am not ashamed to repeat some of them here, with the intent that counterfeit Christians, addicted to envy, may be ashamed of it, and perhaps learn to blush when they find themselves affected by heathens and paynims.[584] Virgil says:

In heart, where envy's seed takes root,

There grows a poisoned grain,

Which dries and drinks from every limb

The blood of every vein;

And sucks and soaks the marrow bones,

Until they feeble wax;

(Such is th' envenom'd poison's force),

And yet no bone it cracks.[585]

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And therefore Horace says:

The Sicil tyrants never found

A more tormenting hell,

Than envy was, etc. [586]

Silius Italicus cries out:

Ill-favour'd envy, ugly hag,

And dogged end

Of mortal men, that never could

Abide to lend

One word to praise praise-worthy deeds,

But swell to see

Small things increase, and low things grow

To high degree.[587]

Ovid, speaking of envy, describes it thus:

Within did devilish envy sit,

And eat the flesh of snakes,

To feed the humour of her vice

With such kind loathly cates:

With face of tallow-caked hue,

And body lean like death,

With squint eyes turn'd nine sundry ways,

With rusty stinking teeth.

Her bitter breast was overspread

With gaid [588] as green as grass;

Her tongue, that ceas'd not to say ill,

With venom poison'd was.

She never laugh'd, unless it were

When grief made others weep;

And fretting care within her heart

Did keep her eyes from sleep.

She sees, and pines away to see,

The good success and state

Of men that prosper on the earth:

And so her deadly hate

Is to herself a deadly plague.

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Where as she goes, she mars the corn

That grows upon the ground;

She makes on trees that blossoms bear

There can no fruit be found;

And with her breath she does infect

Whole houses, realms, and towns.[589]

Since, therefore, envy is so great an evil, and the Lord commands us to keep ourselves from it, in this appears the Lord's goodness toward us; and thereby we may gather how good and profitable his law is, which tends, and is given, to no other end, than to set us at liberty from so great a mischief. And here, by the way, we perceive that our fault, and not the waywardness of God, is the reason why many in this world are never at peace and quiet, but exceedingly vexed with continual torments. For as they do not cease to envy the estate of others, so with their anger they disquiet more than themselves, and at last duly and worthily suffer the deserved punishment for their wicked deeds.

And this law not only forbids and restrains the motions and evil affections of the mind by wrath, anger, and envy, but it also commands against all manner of hurt that rises by them. Harm and hurt is done by sundry means: by beating, by violent thrusting, by overthrowing, by pulling and troubling, even though in doing so, you do not wound your neighbour.

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But your sin is greater if you give him a wound of whatever sort, either with weapon, or by any other means. And again, you sin still more grievously if you cut off or otherwise break any limb of his body; if you put out his eyes, or dash a tooth out of his head. So then, the better the limb is that you cut off, or put out of joint, the greater is the sin, and the more grievous your offence. From this, without doubt, the law called lex talionis [590] took its beginning, which commands us to cut off the hand of the one that cut off another's hand; and to pluck out the eye of the one who put out another man's eye.

Now also, the manner of killing must not be passed over. The Lord says, "You shall not kill." We kill diverse ways: either we ourselves do the deed, or else we use the help of others to strike the blow; it is done either secretly or openly. And in this way, again there are very many fashions. For sometimes we commit murder by holding our peace, sometimes by dissembling, by giving ill counsel, by consenting, by aiding, or by egging someone on to evil. Another perhaps would not do the thing that he does, except that he sees you hasten him on; except that he knows he will please you by it, and because he perceives that your help upholds him. Therefore, even though you do not strike the blow with your own hand, yet the murder that another commits by your setting him on, shall be imputed to you as well as if you yourself had killed the man. And this is no marvel, since John, the apostle and evangelist, calls hatred manslaughter. 1John 3.15

Moreover, here are to be touched the causes of murder, or doing of mischief. For upon this stands, and from this comes, the mischievous deed and foul offence. Murder is committed, and the neighbour is damaged, either unwittingly, or else upon pretended [591] malice. It is done unwittingly, as when a man purposes another thing, but by accident, or as I should rather say, by the providence of God, murder ensues.

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As for example; when my mind is to discharge a gun against a buck, meaning to kill the beast, by happenstance I strike a man, who unawares to me was in the same wood, cutting timber. Or else in ignorance I give my friend a draught of poison, where my intent was to give him a medicine to recover his health. For such chances as these, the Lord has provided in the law,[592] as among all nations, prepared sanctuaries for men to flee to, as places of refuge. Murders proceed from pretended malice — when being blinded with private greediness, I go about taking from another man what is his; and if he does not yield it to me, I kill him for resisting. Of that sort, many wars and battles are fought now-a-days; and of that sort, robberies and murders are committed by the side of the highway. That also is pretended murder, when for some injury that another man does me, I revenge myself by killing him; or else, when I am mad with anger, or overcome with wine, I murder the man, whom otherwise, if I were not in that ill-favoured condition, I would make much of and very heartily love.

But now, I think it expedient for me to declare to you, how foul and detestable an offence murder is that proceeds from malice, and for you to mark this that follows. For the consideration of it, being thoroughly scanned, must undoubtedly so work in the hearts of men, that fewer murders will be committed; and that everyone will endeavour more, by suppressing anger, to preserve mankind, which is the holy similitude of God himself. The very deed of murder, fights directly and disobediently against the eternal God, who is the life and salvation of the world. For murder destroys the very image of God, because man is created in the similitude and likeness of God. If a man were to purposely deface the image of the king or prince, set up by their commandment, he would be accused of committing treason. How great a danger is he in, then, who destroys a man — who is the reasonable, living, and very picture of God himself! We read that Theodosius the emperor determined to destroy a great number of the citizens of Antioch, for no other cause than overturning the image that was set up to honour Placilla Augusta. But to this is added, that one Macedonius, a hermit, came to the emperor's messengers, and said:

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"O my friends, go say to the emperor, you are not only an emperor, but also a man. Do not cruelly destroy the image of God. You anger your Maker, when you kill His image. Consider with your self, that you are sorry for an image of brass. Now it is evident to all men what a difference there is between a thing that is dead, and that which has life and a reasonable soul. Moreover, it is an easy matter in place of one brazen image, to set up more. But it is impossible to restore one hair to those once slain." [593]

Finally, murder is clean contrary to the nature of man. For man cherishes himself, and flesh does not destroy itself, but preserves and nourishes itself so much as it may. But all we men, as many as live, are of one lump, and of the same substantial flesh. And to kill a man, therefore, is against man's nature. Furthermore, all men are the children of one father, of one stock, and of the same progeny. Murder is therefore directly against civil humanity, and it is a plague that reigns among men. Does not the Lord our Redeemer also require charity of all men, which must so abound that we may not hesitate to die for our neighbour? To kill our neighbour, therefore, is flatly repugnant to Christian religion. And take this by the way too: that the blood of man, shed by murder, cries out of the earth to heaven for revenge: for it was said to Cain, when he had slain his brother, "The voice of your brother's blood cries out of the earth, and has come up to me."

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For bloodshed truly pollutes and makes the ground accursed on which it is shed. And it is not cleansed again, nor easily appeased, until it also drinks the guilty blood of those who have spilled the guiltless blood of innocents. Lastly, murders procure and mark the committers of it with endless spots of reproachful infamy; and what is worst of all, it brings them everlasting damnation. This is why Solomon says in his proverbs: "My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent to join them. If they say, Come with us, we will lie in wait for blood, and lurk secretly for the innocent without cause. We will swallow them up like the grave, quick and whole as those that go down into the pit. We will find all manner of costly riches, and fill our houses with the prey. Cast your lot in with us; we will all have one purse — My son, do not walk with them, but rather pull back your foot from their ways. For their feet run to evil, and are hasty to shed blood." Pro 1.10-16 Now, David says that "the blood-thirsty man, and the hypocrite, are abominable to the Lord." Psa 5.6

From this law is exempted the magistrate ordained by God, whom God commands to use authority, and to kill, threatening to punish him most sharply if he neglects to kill the men whom God commands to be killed. This sixth commandment of the law, therefore, flatly forbids us to kill any man on private authority. But the magistrate kills at God's command, when he puts to death those which are condemned by law for their offences, or when in defence of his people he justly and necessarily arms himself for the battle. And yet, the magistrates may offend in those two points two different ways. For either by law, that is, under the coloured pretence of law, they slay the guiltless to satisfy their own lust, hatred, or covetousness — as we read that Jezebel slew the just man Naboth, with the Lord's prophets.[594] Or else by peevish pity and foolish clemency, they let them escape scot-free, whom the Lord commanded them to kill — as Saul and Ahab are reported to have sinned in letting go the bloody kings whom God commanded to be slain.[595]

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And Solomon, in the seventeenth chapter of his Proverbs, testifies that the Lord as greatly hates the magistrate that acquits a wicked person, as the one that condemns an innocent man. Pro 17.15 The magistrates also, in making or repelling war, offend in two ways of this sort: for either they unjustly make war on other men, and entangle their people in it; or else they allow foreign enemies to rob and spoil the people committed to their charge. They do not protect and defend [596] that open wrong and manifest injury, with as much force as they might. Both these offences are of various sorts; and thus they are so great that they can hardly be purged. You read, therefore, that the holy kings of Israel never made war on anybody unless the Lord commanded them. And they again fought for their people, and did not allow them to be led away captive, as miserable bond-slaves. For so the blessed patriarch Abraham followed upon and pursued those four kings — rather, those cutthroat robbers of the east — and recovered by force of arms both Lot, Lot's substance, and the people of Sodom that were carried away. Gen 14.14-16 And such wars as these are taken in hand, either for the recovery, or else for the confirmation, of peace. So that, the magistrates that make war in such a cause are rightly and indeed the children of God, because they are peace-makers; for all peace-makers are the children of God.Mat 5.9

And now this place and argument require that I say something touching the office or authority of the magistrate. By God's help, I assay [597] to do this — not that I mean or can allege all that may be said about it, but only what seems to most properly declare the meaning of it, and what is most necessary for this present treatise.[598]

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Magistratus (which is the word we use for the room in which the magistrate is) takes the name a magistris populi designandis, "of assigning the masters, guiders, and captains of the people." That room and place is called by the name of "power" or "authority," because of the power that is given to it by God. It is called "domination," for the dominion that the Lord grants to it on earth. Those who have that dominion are called princes, for they have pre-eminence above the people. They are called consuls, from counselling; and kings, from commanding, ruling, and governing the people. So then, the magistracy (I will use this word hereafter to refer to the magistrate's power and place) is an office, and it is an action in executing that office. Aristotle defines a magistrate as a keeper of laws.[599] Plutarch says, in that book in which he shows that learning is required in a king, among other things: "Princes are the ministers of God for the oversight and safeguard of mortal men, to the end that they may partly distribute, and partly keep, the good things that he liberally gives, and frankly bestows upon them." [600] By the scriptures, magistracy may be defined as a divine ordinance or action by which the good is defended by the prince's aid, and evil is suppressed by that same authority, such that godliness, justice, honesty, peace, and tranquility, both public and private, are safely preserved. We gather from this, that to govern a commonweal and execute the office of a magistrate, is a worship and service to God himself. God, truly, is delighted in this. For the office of a magistrate is a most excellent thing, and abounding with all good works, as I declared in my former sermon.

Now there are three kinds of magistracies or governments of commonweals: the monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy.[601]

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We may call MONARCHY a kingdom in which one alone, by just and upright laws, rules all things and causes in the commonweal. Once that justice and equity are neglected, and against all right and reason, this one rules all the roost, then he is a tyrant, and his power is tyranny — that is to say, wrong and injury. This is a disease of that troubled kingdom. It is a vice that is, as it were, set opposite to that commonweal, so as to be its destruction.

ARISTOCRACY is the superior power of a few peers, where a certain number of holy and upright men are chosen to be the guides and rulers of the people. And this first began by the fall of tyranny. For when men perceived how dangerous it was to commit the rule of their whole state into one man's hand, they altered the order, and gave charge of it to an appointed number of chosen men, who excelled the common sort in power and authority. But if these chief or head men use evil means to come to authority, and neglect the commonweal by hunting after their own advantage, then their government is not to be called an aristocracy, but an oligarchy — that is, the violent lust of a few, and not the good and upright government of chosen peers. So then, these few violent rulers are contrary to the estate where upright headmen have pre-eminence.

DEMOCRACY may be called a commonweal in which all the people together bear the whole sway [602] and absolute authority. And this democracy first began by the fall of the oligarchy. For when the people saw that their headmen abused their power, and grew into violent rulers, they displaced them, and kept the authority to themselves — meaning that every man freely gave his voice in matters touching the commonweal. This kind of government commonly breaks out into outrageous tumults — I mean, into seditions and conspiracies. For no man will allow himself to be corrected, since every man claims for himself full and absolute authority to do what he lusts. For, in truth, he is a member of the people, in whose hands the whole authority consists.[603]

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Now, touching the excellence of these forms or kinds of government, it is not greatly to my purpose to dispute which ought to be preferred before another. Many have preferred the monarchy before the rest: but with this they added, "If he which holds the monarchy is a good and upright prince." Which, nevertheless, is rare to be found. Those which were also of that opinion, themselves lived under princes in monarchies. "But it is dangerous to speak against Jupiter." [604] Among many kings of Judah and Israel you shall find a very few good, or at least tolerable and indifferent, princes. By this we may perceive what the Lord did not in vain — by the mouth of Samuel — persuade his people to keep their aristocracy, and to be ruled by their priests and elders, as God had ordained long before, by Moses and Jethro, the wisest in the world. And yet none can deny that great perils and infinite discommodities are in the aristocracy — but there are far many more in a democracy. But such is the condition of mortal men in this corruptible flesh, that nothing among them is absolutely and on every side happy.[605] And therefore, what seemed to them to be most excellent, though it is not without inconveniences and some kind of vices, yet in comparison to others, it nevertheless brings fewer perils and lesser annoyance. But however that case stands, the apostles of Christ command us to obey the magistrate, whether a king, or senate of chosen men. For Paul in his epistle to Titus says: "Warn them to be subject to rule and power, and to obey magistrates." Tit 3.1 For to the Romans he says: "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: for there is no power except from God, and those powers that are ordained by God." Rom 13.1 Again, to Timothy he says: "I exhort you that prayers be made for kings, and for all that are in authority." 1Tim 2.1 If therefore any man lives in a monarchy, let him obey the king; if in a commonweal of whatever title, let him be ruled by the consuls, tribunes, headmen, and elders of the people. For we should obey the ordinance of God, rather than over-curiously dispute about which kind of government is better or worse than another.

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And in all cases truly, the magistrate is very necessary, and cannot be missing among men. Indeed, he is so necessary, that without the magistrate's help, the state of men can hardly prosper, or easily stand. Nor do you read that the state and commonweal of the Israelites was ever in greater danger and peril of undoing, than it was in the time between Sampson and Eli, when they were governed by no magistrates, but every man did what he thought good himself. Jdg 17.6 For all men, even from their birth, are blindly led with self-love, and therefore they seek their own advantage; nothing pleases them except what they do themselves; they utterly dislike the deeds and words of other men. Yes, such is our fond affection and opinionated sense, that however evil our causes are, yet we will not hesitate to face them out with a card of ten,[606] and to colour them with law and equity. He that would stand in denial of this, never considered man's disposition. The people of Israel, at their delivery out of Egypt, saw wonderful signs; they were marvellously fed from heaven in the desert, and every day they beheld new miracles. Yet, hearken my brethren, and consider what Moses says — the meekest and gentlest man that ever was — touching this holy people, this people of God, whom God had chosen to be a special people for himself: "How shall I alone," he says to the people, "bear your trouble, your burden, and the strifes that are among you?" Deu 1.12

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Moreover, what may be thought of that? That the wrangling disposition of the flesh showed itself in the most sure fellowship of the ancient and apostolic church, indeed, in those very vessels which were regenerate? For the Greeks murmured against the Hebrews, because their widows were little regarded in the daily ministry. Act 6.1 The Corinthians also go to law before heathen judges; and Paul therefore very sharply rebukes them, and charges them to appoint honest judges among themselves to take up matters between those who were at variance. 1Cor 6.14 Let no man therefore make this objection, and say that the ancient people of Israel were a carnal people and not regenerate. For we see that, even in the regenerate, the relics of the flesh remain. Whenever an occasion is presented, they shortly evidence themselves, and trouble the quiet state of everything. I will not say now, that most men follow the flesh rather than the spirit, and for that cause God, who loves man — who keeps and preserves civility, peace, and human society — has prepared and applied a medicine against those grievous diseases of men. He has appointed the magistrate, I say, to step between those who strive with the authority of law and equity, to judge and discuss matters between those who are at variance, to bridle and suppress wrong and affections, and lastly, to save the guiltless and the innocents. [607] Till such time as men leave their wayward disposition, whoever subverts this ordinance of God, brings utter confusion to every state, and aids wrongful dealers and violent robbers to oppress and root out the best sort of people. Truly, by what we have alleged up to now, it is manifestly apparent that the magistrate is ordained by God for the safeguard of the good, and punishment of the evil — I mean, for the good and quiet state of mortal men. This is why we read that, from the beginning, there have been magistrates in the world.

To this pertain these testimonies of the holy scripture. Moses in the law calls the judges gods, and this "judgment," he says, "is God's." [608] From this also, Jehoshaphat borrowed that saying which he spoke to the judges, where he says: "See what you do: for you do not judge as to man, but to the Lord, who is with you in the causes which you judge: let the fear of God therefore be in your hearts." 2Chr 19. 6-7

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St. Peter says that we must "obey the magistrate for the Lord's sake, by whom he is ordained to the praise of the good, and the terrifying of the evil." 1Pet 2.14 And Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, says: "There is no power except from God, and the powers that are ordained by God: and whoever resists the power, resists the ordinance of God; and he that resists shall receive damnation for himself. For rulers are not fearful to those who do well, but to the evil. For he is the minister of God, revenger of wrath on him that does evil." Rom 13.1-4 The magistrate therefore is of God; his office is good, holy, pleasing to God, just, profitable, and necessary for men. And the rulers who rightly execute their office, are the friends and worshippers of God; they are his elect instruments, by whom he works man's health and safeguard. We have examples of this in Adam, in all the patriarchs, in our father Noah, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, Daniel, and many others after the time of Christ, who rightly executed the office of magistrates.

Now there are many who would have the magistrate be of two sorts: namely, either good or bad. The good magistrate is the one who, being lawfully ordained, lawfully executes his office and duty. The evil magistrate is the one who, when he has gotten the authority by evil means, turns and disposes it as he himself lusts. And upon this, the question is usually demanded whether an evil magistrate, that is, a tyrannical one, is from God or not? To this I answer that God is the author of good, and not of evil. For God is good by nature, and all his purposes are good, being directed to our health and preservation, not to our destruction. Therefore, the good and healthful ordaining of the magistrate, without any doubt, is from God himself, who is the author of all goodness.

But here it is requisite that we make a distinction between the office which is the good ordinance of God, and the evil person who does not rightly execute that good office. If evil is therefore found in the magistrate, and not the good for which he was ordained, then that comes from other causes. The fault is in the men and persons who neglect God and corrupt the ordinance of God, and not in God, nor in his ordinance.

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For the evil prince, seduced by the devil, corrupts the ways of God, and by his own fault and naughtiness he transgresses God's ordinance. He does this so far, that he worthily deserves the name of devilish power, and not divine authority. We have an example of this in the magistrate of Jerusalem. For although he was able to refer the beginning of his power by degrees to Moses, and so to God himself who ordained it — yet, because he arrests the Saviour in the garden and binds him, it is said to his servants, "You have come out as though for a thief, with swords and staves. When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not stretch out your hands against me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness." Luk 22.52-53 Look, here he calls the ordinary magistrate the power of the devil, when he abuses his power. What could be more evidently spoken? But here you must mark that the reproach was in the person, and not in the office.

Likewise, also, the Roman empire was ordained by God, as it is clearly evident by the visions of Daniel.[609] And yet when Nero, not without God's ordinance, bore sway in the empire, whatever he did as king and emperor, contrary to the office of a good king, he did not do it from God, but from the devil. For though he hung up and beheaded the apostles of Christ,[610] moving a bloody persecution against the church, that did not spring from elsewhere than from the devil, the father of murder. So then, truly, we should at no time defend tyrannical power, and say that it is from God. For tyranny is not a divine, but a devilish kind of government; and tyrants themselves are properly the servants of the devil, and not of God. And yet, for their wicked deeds, some people do not deserve to have a king, but a tyrant. So then, the people's sin is another cause that evil magistrates are found in commonweals. Meanwhile, the king is of the Lord, and sometimes the Lord makes a hypocrite reign. This is why the evil magistrate is of God, even as seditions, wars, plagues, hail, frost, and other miseries of mankind come from the Lord: as punishment for sin and wickedness, which the Lord has appointed to be executed.

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As he himself says: "I will give them children to be their kings, and infants shall rule them; because their tongue and heart has been against the Lord." [611] Likewise the Lord stirred up the cruel kings of Assyria and Babylon against His city and His own special people, whose living was not agreeable to their profession.

But now, how and after what sort his subjects ought to be affected toward such hard, cruel, and tyrannical princes, we learn partly by the example of David, and partly by the doctrine of Jeremiah and the apostles. David was not ignorant of what kind of man Saul was — a wicked and merciless fellow. Yet, notwithstanding, he fled to escape Saul's hands; and when he had occasion given to him once or twice to kill him, he did not slay Saul, but spared the tyrant and reverenced him as though he had been his father.[612] Jeremiah prayed for Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, wicked kings both, and obeyed them until they came to matters flatly contrary to God's religion.[613] For where I spoke touching the honour due to parents, I proved by the scriptures, that we should not obey the wicked commandments of godless magistrates because it is not permitted to magistrates to ordain or appoint anything contrary to God's law, or the law of nature.

Now, the Acts of the Apostles teach us in what way the apostles behaved in dealing with tyrannical magistrates. Let those, therefore, who are vexed with tyrants, and oppressed with wicked magistrates, follow this advice in that perplexity. First, let them call to remembrance and consider what and how great their own sins of idolatry and uncleanness are, which have already deserved the revenging anger of their jealous God. And then let them think that God will not withdraw his scourge, unless he sees that they redress their corrupt manners and evil religion. So then, first they must go about and bring to pass a full reformation of matters in religion, and perfect amendment of manners that are amiss. Then they must pray continually that God will grant to pull and draw his oppressed people out of the mire of mischief in which they stick fast.

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For the Lord himself, in the eighteenth chapter of Luke, gave that counsel to those who are oppressed, promising with it assured aid and present delivery. But there are examples of what and how the oppressed must pray, in the ninth chapter of Daniel, and in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. Let those whose minds are vexed, also call to remembrance the sayings of Peter and Paul, the chief of the apostles. "The Lord," says Peter, "knows how to deliver his from temptation, as he delivered Lot." 2Pet 2.7 Paul says: "God is faithful, and will not allow His to be tempted above their strength; yes, he will turn their temptations to their best." 1Cor 10.13 Let them call to mind the captivity of Israel, in which God's people were detained at Babylon for the span of seventy years. And with that, let them think upon the good comfort of the captives, which Isaiah expressed from his fortieth to his forty-ninth chapters. Let us persuade ourselves that God is good, merciful, and omnipotent, so that he can, when he wishes, deliver us at ease. He has many ways and means to set us at liberty. Let us have a regard only that our impenitent, filthy, and wicked life does not provoke the Lord to augment and prolong the tyrant's cruelty. The Lord is able to suddenly change the hearts of princes (for "the hearts of kings are in the hands of the Lord, as the rivers of water, to turn them which way he will" Pro 21.1), and to make those who up to now have been most cruelly set against us, to be our friends and favourable to us; and to make those who up to now have most bloodily persecuted the true religion, embrace it most ardently, and promote it with a burning zeal, so far as they may. We have evident examples of this in the books of the Kings, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and in the volume of Daniel's prophecy. Nebuchadnezzar, whose purpose was to toast with fire and utterly destroy the martyrs of God for true religion, was immediately after compelled to praise God, because he saw the martyrs preserved. And by edicts, Nebuchadnezzar publicly proclaimed and set forth the only true God and his true religion.[614]

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Darius, the son of Ahasuerus,[615] allows Daniel to be cast into the lion's den. But immediately he draws him out again, and shuts up Daniel's enemies in the same den, to be torn in pieces by the famishing beasts. Cyrus, the powerful king of Persia, advances true religion. Darius, son of Hystaspes, whose surname was Artaxerxes,[616] by all means possible aided and promoted the godly intent of God's people in rebuilding their city and temple. Let us not doubt, therefore, God's aid and helping hand. For God sometimes utterly destroys, and sometimes he chastens, untoward tyrants with some horrible and sudden disease. It is evident that it happened to Antiochus,[617] Herod the Great,[618] and to his nephew, Herod Agrippa,[619] also to Maxentius [620] and other enemies of God and tyrants over men.[621] Sometimes he stirs up noble captains and valiant men to displace tyrants, and set God's people at liberty; we see many examples of this in the books of Judges and Kings. But lest any man fall into abusing those examples, let him consider their calling by God. If a man did not have this calling, or else prevented it, he is so far from doing good in killing the tyrant, that it is to be feared he may make the evil double what it was before. Thus much up to here.

Now I return to what, by my digression, remains yet unspoken. Here I have to say something touching the election of magistrates. And first, to whom the choice and ordering of the magistrate belongs; secondly, whom and what kind of men it is best to choose to be magistrates; and lastly, the manner and order of consecrating those once chosen.

No one and certain rule can be prescribed touching the election of those magistrates to whom that office should belong.

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For in some places, the whole commonalty chooses their peers; in other places, the peers choose the magistrates; and in other places, princes come to it by succession and birth. In discussing which of these orders is best, it would be folly to make much ado about it. For to every kingdom and every city is worthily left their country fashion,[622] unless it is altogether too corrupt, and not to be borne with. But where princes come to it by birth, their earnest prayer must be made to the Lord, that He will grant them to be good.

Now for the good election of magistrates, the Lord himself declares whom and what kind of men he would have chosen, in these very words: "Look over all the people, consider them diligently, and choose from among them men of courage, such as fear God, speakers of truth, and haters of covetousness, and make them rulers over thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens, to judge the people at all seasons." Exo 18.21 Four things the Lord requires in a good governour.

First, that he be a man of courage, of strength or force, that is, who has the ability to do the thing to which he is appointed. That ability consists in mind rather than in body. For it is required that he not be a fool, but wise and skilful in that which he has to do: because the office of a captain is to know how to set his army in order of battle, rather than to fight himself; as also the duty of a surveyor of works is to know how buildings must be erected, rather than to work himself; or as a chariot-man ought to know how to guide his cart in driving, rather than to draw it himself. And with this too, a boldness of stomach is demanded, to dare to do the thing that he already knows; for constancy and sufferance are very needful in every captain.

In the second place that is set down, which indeed is the first: let him fear God, let him be religious, and not superstitious. No idolater preserves the commonweal, but rather he destroys it; and a wicked man does not defend truth and true religion, but persecutes and drives them out of his jurisdiction. Let this magistrate of ours therefore be of the right religion, sound in faith, believing the word of God, and knowing that God is present among men and repays to whom he wishes according to their deserts.

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And for that cause, Justinian the emperor, in Novellis Constitutionib. 109, freely confesses that all his help is from God; and that it is therefore convenient that the making of all laws should depend upon him alone. Immediately after he says:

"It is known very well to all men, that those in whose hands the empire was held before it came to us — especially that Leo of worthy memory, and the most sacred prince Justin our father — flatly forbade in their constitutions any heretics to be admitted as soldiers in any warfare, or as dealers in matters concerning the commonwealth. Thus less occasion was given for any to think they might corrupt the members of God's holy catholic and apostolic Church, by receiving them into the fellowship of war, or the handling of public affairs. And this decree we establish." [623]

Thus says the emperor. And the godly man truly prays to God, and receives wisdom at the Lord's hand. And where the princes are God's friends, and often conference with God, there is hope that those commonweals shall prosper and flourish. But on the other side, there must be feared an unhappy end of that commonweal where the enemies of God have pre-eminence.

Thirdly, there is required of the one who must be chosen and called to be magistrate, that he be true in word and deed, so that he is not found to be a hypocrite, liar, deceiver, turncoat, or one whose mouth blows both hot and cold; rather, that he be faithful, simple, a plain dealer, and blameless. He must not be more liberal in promising than in performing. He must not be one that sets light by an oath, not a false swearer, nor a perjured man.

Fourthly, because many who are in office desire riches, and seek to increase their wealth by bribes, the Lord removes them from the magistracy, and forbids good magistrates to be covetous.

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Indeed, he expressly charges them to hate and abhor it; as in another place also, he not only forbids them to take bribes, but also commands them to shake off and rid their hands of all rewards. Isa 33.15 Covetousness and greedy desire for bribes are the very plagues that choke good magistrates. By covetous men and takers of bribes, the law, judgment, liberty, justice, and the country itself, are placed for sale and sold to the devil for money. And now, though in this place the Lord has named only the most pestilent mischief of all others, there is no doubt that He inclusively debars all other vices and evils of that sort, commanding them to be strange and far off from the good magistrate and godly governor. Those vices are pride, envy, anger, dicing, surfeiting,[624] drunkenness, whoredom, adultery, and whatever else is like these.

This place is made more manifest by conferring it with other places in the law of God. Moses, in Deuteronomy, says to the people: "Bring men of wisdom, of understanding, and of an honest life, according to your tribes." Deu 1.13 Here again, the wise man Moses requires three things in those who are to be appointed magistrates in his commonweal. First, he says, let them be wise. But the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Therefore, let those be ordained magistrates, who are friends to God and true religion; let them be wise, and not foolish idiots. Secondly, they must be men of understanding; that is, men of experience, who by long and continual exercise in handling matters, are able at the first brunt [625] to deal in all cases according to the law. Lastly, they must be men of honest report, whose life and sound conversation are by their deeds perfectly tried and sufficiently witnessed to the people. And finally, they must be those who bear authority well, and are not despised as rascals and vile knaves.

In the book of Numbers also, Moses says: "Let the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over the congregation, who may go in and out before them, and lead them in and out, so that the congregation of the Lord are not like sheep without a shepherd." Num 27.16-17 By these words of the holy prophet, we learn who are to be chosen, and how they are to be chosen, into the office of magistrates. Moses prayed to the Lord for a fit and convenient man.

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And therefore we must pray to God, who searches all men's hearts, that he will grant to send men to be our magistrates, who are fit for that place and calling. The outward show many times deceives us, and we judge someone to be a good and godly man who is indeed a notable hypocrite. God alone knows the mind. We must beseech him, therefore, that he not allow us in our choice to err or choose amiss. Let him be thought the best and fittest for the purpose, who is instructed with the Holy Spirit of God. Furthermore, the one who is appointed to that office must still be from first to last, always at one end in all matters of weight and public affairs.[626] There are some unprofitable and idle drones, who drive others forward, and after the first onset, take their ease. And there are some wicked fellows who appoint others to do something, but will do nothing themselves of that which belongs to their office by right. The guide of the people must be a man of choice elected to be magistrate, whose care is day and night to have an eye that the flock of the Lord is not scattered, endangered, nor utterly destroyed. And thus, up to here I have told you what kind of men ought to be given charge over the Lord's people.

Last of all, touching the manner of consecrating magistrates, various cities and countries have various customs. Let every country freely retain their own usual order. For my part, I think that manner of consecrating is best, in which there is little or no sumptuous pomp except what reason and decency seem to allow. The best and most profitable way, in consecrating those who are chosen, is to use a certain moderate ceremony. And that too should be done in the face of all the people, so that everyone may know who the fathers of the people are, to whom they owe honour, whom they ought to obey, and for whose health and welfare they ought to pray. The people of God had a certain prescribed ceremony, which we read that they used in consecrating their kings and magistrates. It is certain that it was first invented for profitable and good causes, and then commanded by God himself.[627]

The rest that is yet behind to be spoken touching the magistrate, I mean to defer until tomorrow. And now to end with thanksgiving, let us praise the Lord, etc.

2-7. THE SEVENTH SERMON: OFFICE OF THE MAGISTRATE.

OF THE OFFICE OF THE MAGISTRATE, WHETHER THE CARE OF RELIGION PERTAINS TO HIM OR NOT, AND WHETHER HE MAY MAKE LAWS AND ORDINANCES IN CASES OF RELIGION.

THE first and greatest thing that ought to be in a magistrate, is easily perceived by the declaration of his office and duty. In yesterday's sermon I showed you what the magistrate is, how many kinds of magistrates there are, from whom the magistrate had his beginning, for what causes he was ordained, the manner and order to choose peers, and what kind of men should be called to be magistrates. To this let us now add what the office and duty of a magistrate properly is.

The whole office of a magistrate seems to consist in these three points: to order, to judge, and to punish. I mean to speak of every one of these, severally and in order, as they lie. The ordinance of the magistrate is a decree made by him for maintaining religion, honesty, justice, and public peace. And it consists of two points: in rightly ordering matters of religion, and in making good laws for the preservation of honesty, justice, and common peace. But before I come to the determining and ordering of religion, I will briefly, and in few words, handle their question who demand whether the care of religion pertains to the magistrate as part of his office or not? For I see many who are of the opinion that the care and ordering of religion belongs to bishops alone,[628] and that kings, princes, and senators should not meddle with it.

But the catholic verity teaches that the care of religion especially belongs to the magistrate; and that it is not in his power only, but in his office and duty also, to dispose and advance religion.

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For among those of old, their kings were priests; I mean, they were masters and overseers of religion. Melchizedek, that holy and wise prince of the Canaanite people, who bore the type or figure of Christ our Lord, is wonderfully commended in the holy scriptures. Now, he was both king and priest together. Moreover, in the book of Numbers, the laws belonging to religion are given up and delivered to Joshua, newly ordained and recently consecrated. The kings of Judah also, and the elect people of God, have obtained very great praise for the well ordering of religion (as I will shortly declare to you by examples). And again, those who were slack in seeing to religion, are noted with the mark of perpetual reproach. Who is ignorant that the magistrate's especial care ought to be to keep the commonweal in safe guard and prosperity? Undoubtedly, he cannot do this unless he provides for the word of God to be preached to his people, and causes them to be taught the true worship of God — by that means making himself the minister of true religion as it were.

In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the Lord largely sets down the good prepared for men who are religious and zealous indeed; and He reckons up, on the other side, the evil appointed for the contemners of true religion. But the good magistrate is commanded to retain and keep prosperity among his people, and to repel all kinds of adversity. Let us hear also what the wise man, Solomon, says in his Proverbs: "Godliness and truth preserve the king, and in godliness his seat is held up." "When the just are multiplied, the people rejoice; and when the wicked rules, the people lament. The king by judgment establishes his dominion, but a tyrant overthrows it. When the wicked increase, iniquity is multiplied, and the just shall see their decay. Where the word of God is not preached, the people decay; but happy is he that keeps the law." [629] By this we gather that those who would not have the care of religion pertain to princes, seek and usher in the confusion of all things, the dissolution of princes and their people, and lastly, the neglecting and oppression of the poor.

Furthermore, the Lord commands the magistrate to make trial by doctrines, and to kill those who stubbornly teach against the scriptures, and draw the people away from the true God. This is to be seen in the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy. Deu 13.1-5

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God also forbade the magistrate to plant groves, or erect images, as seen in the sixteenth [630] chapter of Deuteronomy.Deu 16.21 And, he insinuated general things by those particulars; forbidding the magistrate to ordain, nourish, and set forth superstition or idolatry — thus, he commanded him to advance true religion. And so it consequently follows that the care of religion belongs to the magistrate. What may be thought of this moreover: that the most excellent princes and friends of God among God's people, claimed for themselves the care of religion, insofar as they exercised and took charge of it, as if they had been ministers of the holy things? Joshua caused an altar to be built in mount Ebal, and fulfilled all the worship of God, as commanded of God by the mouth of Moses.[631] David, in bringing in and bestowing the ark of God in his place, and in ordering the worship of God, was so diligent that it is a wonder to tell. So likewise was Solomon, David's son. Nor do I think that any man knows how much Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, laboured in the reformation of religion, which in their times was corrupted and utterly defaced. The very heathen kings and princes are praised because, when they knew the truth, they gave out edicts for the confirmation of true religion against blasphemous mouths. Nebuchadnezzar, the Chaldean, the mightiest monarch of the whole world — I doubt any greater and mightier monarch reigned in the world — publishes a decree that whoever spoke reproachfully against the true God that made heaven and earth, should be torn in pieces, and his house made a jakes,[632]. The place is in the third chapter of Daniel's prophecy. Darius the Mede, the son of Ahasuerus, king Cyrus' uncle, says: "I have decreed that all men in the whole dominion of my kingdom fear the God of Daniel," as seen in the sixth chapter of Daniel. Cyrus, king of Persia, looses the Jews from bondage, and charges them to repair the temple, and restore their holy rites again.[633]

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Darius Persa,[634] the son of Hystaspes, says: "I have decreed for every man who changes anything of my determination touching the reparation of the temple, and the restoring of the worship of God, that a beam be taken out of his house, and set up, and he be hanged on it, and his house be made a jakes." Ezr 6.11 The very same Darius [635] again, who was also called Artaxerxes, says: "Whoever will not do the law of your God (Ezra), and the law of the king, let judgment immediately pass upon him, either to death, or to utter rooting out, or to confiscation of his goods, or imprisonment." Ezr 7.26 All this we find in the book of Ezra.

The men who are persuaded that the care and ordering of religion belongs to bishops alone, make an objection and say that these examples, which I have alleged, do not pertain to us who are Christians, because they are examples of the Jewish people. My answer to them is this: the men of this opinion should prove that the Lord Jesus and his apostles translated the care of religion from the magistrate to bishops alone. They shall never be able to do this. But we, on the other side, will briefly show that those ancient princes of God's people — Joshua, David, and the rest — were Christians truly and indeed. And therefore, that the examples which are derived from them and applied to Christian princes, both are and ought to be of force and effect among us today. I will in the end also add the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah, whereby it may appear that even now also, kings have the same office in the church today, that those ancient kings had in that congregation which they call the Jewish church. There is no doubt that they ought to be accounted true Christians who, being anointed with the Spirit of Christ, believe in Christ, and are made partakers of Christ in the sacraments. For Christ (if you interpret the word) is the same as saying "anointed." Christians therefore, according to the etymology of their name, are anointed. That anointing, according to the apostle's interpretation, 1John 2.20,27 is the Spirit of God, or the gift of the Holy Ghost. But St. Peter testifies that the Spirit of Christ was in the kings and prophets. 1Pet 5.11

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And Paul affirms flatly, that we have the very same Spirit of faith 2Cor 4.13 that those of old had; and moreover, we share our sacraments with them, where he says that they were baptized under the cloud, and they all drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, which rock was Christ. 1Cor 10.24

Since the case is so, truly then, the examples which are derived from the words and works of those ancient kings, for the confirmation of faith and charity, both are and ought to be of force with us. And yet I know that everything does not consequently follow upon the gathering of examples. But for making good our argument, here we have an evident prophecy of Isaiah, who foretells that kings and princes, after the times of Christ and the revealing of the gospel, should have a diligent care of the church, and should by that means become the feeders and nurses of the faithful. Now, it is evident what it means to feed and to nourish; for it is as if he had said that they should be the fathers and mothers of the church. But he could not have said that rightly, if the care of religion did not belong to princes, but to bishops alone. The words of Isaiah are these:

"Behold, I will stretch out my hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard for the people; [636] and they shall bring your sons in their laps, and your daughters on their shoulders. And kings shall be your nursing fathers, and queens your nursing mothers; they shall fall before you with their faces flat upon the earth, and lick up the dust of your feet," etc. Isa 49.22-23

Shall not we say that all this is fully performed in some Christian princes? Among the first was the holy emperor Constantine who, by calling a general council, determined to establish true and sincere doctrine in the church of Christ, with a settled purpose to utterly root out all false and heretical fantasies and opinions. And when the bishops did not rightly go to work by the true rule and touchstone of the gospel and of charity, he blamed them, upbraiding them with tyrannical cruelty, and declaring with it what peace the Lord had granted by His means to the churches. He added, moreover, that it was a detestable thing if the bishops, forgetting to thank God for his gifts of peace, go on to bait one another with mutual reproaches and taunting libels. Thereby they give wicked idolaters occasion for delight and laughter, when as of duty they should differently handle and treat matters of religion.

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For (he says) the books of the evangelists, apostles, and the oracles of the ancient prophets, are those which must instruct us in the understanding of God's holy law. Let us expel, therefore, this quarrelling strife, and think upon the questions proposed, to resolve them by the words of scripture inspired from above.[637] After him again, the holy emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, make a decree and give an edict in these very words: "We will and command all people who are subject to our gracious empire, to be of that religion, the very religion taught and conveyed from Peter till now, which declares what the holy apostle Peter taught to the Romans." [638] And so on.

By this, dearly beloved, you perceive how kings and princes among the people of the new Testament, have been the foster-fathers and nourishers of the church — being persuaded that the care of religion first of all and especially belonged to themselves.

The second objection that they make is the leprosy of Uzziah, king of Judah, which he got by claiming for himself the office of the priest, while presuming to burn incense on the incense-altar. 2Chr 26.18-19 They object citing the Lord's commandment, who had Joshua stand before Eleazar the priest, and charged the king to receive the book of the law from the Levites hands.[639]

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But our disputation does not tend to confound the offices and duties of the magistrate and ministers of the church, as if we would have the king preach, baptize, and minister the Lord's Supper; or the priest, on the other side, sit in the judgment-seat, and give judgment against a murderer, or pronounce sentence in matters in strife. The church of Christ has, and it retains, several and distinguished offices; and God is the God of order, and not of confusion. Our discourse tends to prove to all men, by demonstration, that the magistrate should by duty have a care for religion, either to restore it in ruin, or to preserve it in soundness; and to see that it proceeds according to the rule of the word of God. For the law of God was given into the king's hands by the priests to this end: that he should not be ignorant of God's will touching political and ecclesiastical matters; by this law he must govern the whole estate of his entire realm.

Joshua, the captain of God's people, is set before Eleazar indeed; yet he has authority to command the priests; and being a political governor, he is joined as it were in one body with the ecclesiastical ministers. The political magistrate is commanded to give ear to the ecclesiastical ruler; and the ecclesiastical minister must obey the political governor in all things which the law commands. So then, the magistrate is not made subject by God to the priests as to lords, but as to the ministers of the Lord. The subjection and duty which they owe is to the Lord himself, and His law, to which the priests as well as the princes should be obedient. If the lips of the priest err from the truth, and do not speak the word of God, there is no cause why any of the common sort, much less the prince, should either hearken to, or in one tittle reverence the priest. "The lips of the priest," says Malachi, "keep knowledge, and they seek the law from his mouth; because he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Mal. 2.7 To refuse to hear such priests is to repel God himself. The godly princes of Israel always aided and assisted such priests as these; they degraded false priests; they sharply rebuked those who neglected their offices; and they made decrees for executing and rightly administering every office.

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We read about Solomon, that he removed Abiathar from the priesthood of the Lord 1Kng 2.27 (that he might fulfil the word of the Lord, which he spoke to Eli in Shiloh), and made Zadok priest in Abiathar's stead. In the second book of Chronicles it is said: "And Solomon set the sorts of priests to their offices, as David his father had ordered them, and the Levites in their watches, to praise and minister before the priests day by day, as their course required." 2Chr 8.14 In the same book again, Jehoiada the priest does indeed anoint Joash king; but nevertheless, the king calls the priest and commands him to gather money to repair the temple. 2Chr 24.1-6 Moreover, that religious and excellent prince, Hezekiah, called the priests and Levites and said to them: "Be sanctified, and sanctify the house of the Lord our God, and allow no uncleanness to remain in the sanctuary. My sons, do not be slack now, because the Lord has chosen you to minister to himself." 2Chr 29.5,11 He also appointed singers in the house of the Lord, and those who should play on musical instruments in the Lord's temple.[640] Furthermore, king Hezekiah ordained sundry companies of priests and Levites, according to their sundry offices, each one according to his own ministry. What may be said about this too: that he allocated to the priests their portions and stipends throughout the priesthood? The same king gave charge to all the people to keep the feast of Passover holy, writing to them all those letters which priests are prone to write, to put them in mind of religion and hearty repentance. And after all this there is added: "And the king wrought that which was good, right, and just before the Lord his God." 2Chr 31.20 When princes therefore order religion according to the word of God, they do what pleases the Lord. This and the like is spoken again by [641] the godly prince Josiah. Who therefore will say after this, that the care of religion belongs to bishops alone?

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The Christian emperors, following the example of the ancient kings as of their fathers, with great care provided for the state of true religion in the church of Christ. Arcadius and Honorius determined that, so often as matters of religion were called into question, the bishops should be summoned to assemble a council.[642] And before them again, the emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, established a law in which they declared to the world what faith and religion they would have all men receive and retain: namely, the faith and doctrine of St. Peter. They also proclaimed in this edit, that all whose who thought or taught the contrary, were heretics — allowing those alone to be called catholics, who persevered in St. Peter's faith.[643] By this we gather that the proper office of the priests is to determine in religion by proofs from the word of God; and the prince's duty is to aid the priests in the advancement and defence of true religion. But if at any time, it happens that the priests are slack in doing their duty, then it is the prince's office, by compulsion, to enforce the priests to live orderly according to their profession, and to determine in religion according to the word of God.

The emperor Justinian says, in Novellis Constitut. 3, writing to Epiphanius, archbishop of Constantinople: "We have, most reverend patriarch, assigned to your holiness the disposition of all things that are honest, seemly, and agreeable to the rule of holy scriptures, touching the appointing and ordering of sacred bishops and reverend clerics." [644] And in the seventeenth constitution he says: "We charge and command that no bishop has licence to sell or take away any immovables, whether houses or lands, belonging to the churches." [645]

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Again, in the fifty-seventh constitution, he forbids celebrating the holy mysteries in private houses.[646] He adds the penalty, and says: "The houses in which it is done, shall be confiscated and sold for money, which shall be brought into the emperor's exchequer." [647] In the sixty-seventh constitution, he charges all bishops not to be absent from their churches: but if they are absent, he wills that they should receive no commodity or stipend of the provincial stewards, but that their revenue should be employed on the church's necessities.[648] In the hundred and twenty-third constitution, the lieutenants of every province are commanded to assemble a council for the use and defence of ecclesiastical laws, if the bishops are slack in looking after it. [649] And immediately after he says: "We utterly forbid all bishops, prelates, and clerics, of whatever degree, to play at tables, to keep company with dice-players, to be onlookers of gamesters, or to run to gaze at may-games or pageants." [650] I do not allege all this as canonical scriptures, but as proofs to declare that princes in the primitive church had power, official authority, and a usual custom, granted by God (as Isaiah prophesied) and derived from the examples of ancient kings, to command bishops, and to determine about religion in the church of Christ.

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As for those who object that it is the church's privilege, let them know that it is not permitted to any prince, nor any mortal man, to grant privileges contrary to the express commandments and very truth of God's word. St. Paul affirmed that he had power given to him to edify, but not to destroy. 2Cor 13.10 I can be briefer here, because I will not stop to prove that those who do not properly act as [651] priests and Christ's ministers, are unworthy of indifferent [652] privileges; rather, they are soldiers and wicked knaves, full of all kinds of mischief. Among other things in the canon law, Distinct. 40, we find this written:

"See to yourselves, brethren, how you sit upon the seat: for the seat does not make the priest, but the priest makes the seat: the place does not sanctify the man, but the man sanctifies the place. Every priest is not a holy man, but every holy man is a priest. He that sits well upon the seat, receives the honour of the seat: but he that sits ill upon the seat, does injury to the seat. Therefore, an evil priest gets blame by his priesthood, and not any dignity." [653]

Thus much touching this matter.

Since I have now declared to you, dearly beloved, that the care of religion belongs to the magistrate too, and not to the bishops alone, and that the magistrate may also make laws in cases of religion, it is requisite that I inquire what kind of laws those are that the magistrates may make in matters of religion. There is no reason why the king or magistrate should suppose that power is given to him to make new laws touching God, the worship of God, or his holy mysteries; nor to appoint a new kind of true justice and goodness.

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For just as every magistrate is ordained by God, and is God's minister, so he must be ruled by God, and be obedient to God's holy word and commandment, having ever more an eye to that, and still depending on that alone. The scripture, which is the word of God, abundantly enough sets down all that is proper to true religion — indeed, the Lord flatly forbids adding to or taking anything from his holy word. The magistrate therefore makes no new laws touching God, and the honour to be given to God; rather, he religiously receives and keeps, puts in use and publishes, those ancient laws in that kingdom which God has allotted to him. For giving the book of God's law to the kings of Israel [654] pertains to this: that they might thereby learn the way to do the things which of duty they ought to see done. The Lord says to Joshua:

"See that you observe and do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. You shall not turn from it either to the right hand or to the left. Neither shall the book of this law depart out of your mouth, but occupy your mind in it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall do wisely." Jos 1.7-8

Devout and holy princes therefore endeavoured faithfully and diligently to cause the word of God to be preached to the people, and to retain and preserve among the people the laws, ceremonies, and statutes of God. Indeed, they did their best to spread it to all men as far as they could, and as time and place required, to apply it holily to states and persons. On the other side, they were not slack to banish and drive away false doctrine, and the profane worshipping of God, and blasphemies of His name; but they settled themselves to utterly overthrow and root it out forever. In this way (I say), godly magistrates made and ordained devout laws for the maintenance of religion. In this way, they bore a godly and devout care for matters of religion.

The cities which the Levites possessed, from of old were the schools of Israel. Now Joshua appointed those cities for studies' sake, and for the cause of godliness.[655] King Hezekiah was no less careful for the revenue and sure payment of the ministers' stipends, than he was for restoring and renewing every office.[656]

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For honour and advancement makes learning flourish, while need and necessity drive men to seek various shifts.[657] Beggary puts religion up for sale, and much more the invented lies of men's own mouths. Jehoshaphat sends senators and other officers with the priests and teachers throughout his kingdom. 2Chr 17.79 For his desire was, by all means possible, to have God's word preached with authority and certain majesty; and being preached, to have it defended and put in use to produce good works. King Josiah destroys the false priests that were to be found, together with idolatry and profane worship of God, putting in their place the true teachers of God's word, and restoring again sincere religion [658] — even as king Joash also, having rebuked the Levites, repaired the decayed buildings of the holy temple.[659] I am not able to run through all the scriptures, and repeat all the examples expressed in them. Let the godly prince or magistrate learn by these few, what and how he ought to determine touching laws for religion.

On the other side, Ahijah the Shilonite 1Kng 11.29-33 says to Jeroboam:

"Thus says the Lord: you shall reign according to all that your soul desires, and shall be king over Israel. And if you hearken to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight, if you keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; then I will be with you, and build you a sure house." 1Kng 11.38

But the wretch despised those large promises, and rejected God's word, his temple at Jerusalem, and his lawful worship. He also refused the Levites. Instead, he made priests of the dregs and rascal sort of people; he built himself new temples, which he decked — no, rather which he disgraced — with images and idols, ordaining and offering sacrifices not taught in God's word. And by that means, he invented a certain new kind of worshipping God and a new manner of religion. Although his desire was to seem to be willing to worship God, yet he is condemned by God as a wicked man. Hearken, I pray, to the sentence of the Lord, which he denounces against him:

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"You have done evil," says Ahijah, as the Lord taught him, "above all that were before you. For you have gone and made yourself other gods and molten images to provoke me, and you have cast me behind your back. Therefore I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will root out from Jeroboam even the one that pisses against the wall, and the one who is in prison and forsaken in Israel; and I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one carries away dung, till all is gone." 1Kng 14.9-10

And all these things were fulfilled according to the saying of the Lord, as the scripture witnesses in these words: "When Baasha was king, he struck all the house of Jeroboam, and left nothing that breathed of that which was Jeroboam's." 1Kng 15.29 But the very same king, being no better or wiser by another's mishap, nor by the miserable example of his predecessor, does not hesitate to continue to teach the people what Jeroboam had begun: to publish and defend the strange and foreign religion, contrary to the word of God,. But what followed from this? In truth, the Lord says to him by the preaching of Hanani the prophet:

"Because I exalted you out of the dust, and made you prince over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made my people Israel to sin, to anger me with their sins; behold, I will root out the posterity of Baasha, and the posterity of his house, and will make your house like the house of Jeroboam." 1Kng 16.2

This was performed (as the scripture says) by Simri, captain of the host of Israel. For he destroyed king Elah, the son of Baasha, when he was drunk, and all his posterity.[660] Amri succeeded in the kingdom, who was the father if Ahab, that mischievous cut-throat whom the Syrians slew in fighting a battle. 1Kng 22.34 After him reigned his sons Ahaziah and Joram. But when they left the religion taught in the word of God, to follow the new tradition of king Jeroboam, and added to this the worship of the shameful idol Baal, they were utterly (at last) destroyed by means of Jehu, a very just, though rigorous prince.[661] The offspring of Amri reigned about forty years, and not without shedding much innocent blood. But their reign was destroyed at last when the measure of iniquity was fulfilled — utterly torn out by the roots by the just judgment of Almighty God.[662]

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Let all princes and magistrates therefore learn by these wonderful and terrible examples, to take heed to themselves how they devise any new religion, or alter the lawful and ancient manner of worshipping, which God himself has ordained already. Our faithful Lord is our good God, who has fully, simply, and absolutely set down in his word his true religion and lawful kind of worship, which he has taught all men to keep alone and forevermore. Let all men therefore cling fast to it, and let them die in defence of it, who mean to live eternally. Whoever adds to, or takes away anything from, the religion and kind of worship first ordained and appointed by God, are punished from above. Mark this, you great men and princes of authority. For keeping or not keeping true religion is the root from which abundant fruit of felicity, or else utter unhappiness, springs and buds out. Therefore, he that has ears to hear, let him hear. Let no man allow himself to be seduced and carried away with any coloured intent, however good it is to the eye, which is indeed a mere vanity and detestable iniquity. To God, obedience is much more acceptable than sacrifices. Nor do the decrees of the Highest need any bit of our fond additions.[663]

Now follows the second part of the magistrates' ordinance, which consists in making good laws for the preservation of honesty, justice, and public peace; this is likewise accomplished in good and upright laws. But there are some who think it is mere tyranny to lay laws on free men's backs, as if it were a yoke upon necks that were not used to labour — supposing that everyone would rather be left to his own will and discretion. The apostle indeed said, "The law is not given for the just, but for the unjust." 1Tim 1.9 But the reason why the law is not given to the just, is because he is just. For the just man works justice, and of his own accord he does the thing which the law exacts from every mortal man. This is why the law is not troublesome to the just man, because it is agreeable to the mind and thoughts of those who live upright, who embrace it with all their hearts. But the unjust desires nothing more than to live as he lusts. He is not conformable in any point to the law, and therefore he must be suppressed by the law, and bridled from marring himself and hurting others.

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So then, since the laws are not a troublesome burden but an acceptable pleasure to good men, and also necessary for the unjust, as ordained for bridling lawless and unruly people — it consequently follows that laws are good and profitable for all men, and not to be rejected by any man. What may be said moreover about this? That God himself foresaw our disposition, what we would become, and yet He still favoured the true liberty which he desired to always preserve among his people. He ever meant them good, and never ordained the thing that would lead to their hindrance or discommodity. God himself (I say) was their lawgiver. He has not allowed any age, at any time, to live as lawless people. Indeed too, those commonweals have always been happy, which have admitted laws, and submitted themselves to be governed by those laws. Contrarily, those kingdoms have been most miserable of all others, and been torn in pieces by civil dissensions and foreign enemies, which have banished upright laws. They strived to maintain their own kind of freedom, their uncontrolled dealing and licentious liberty — that is, their beastly lust and uncivil rudeness. Good laws, therefore, are for the health and preservation of the people, and they are necessary for the peace and safeguard of commonweals and kingdoms.

This is why it is a wonder to see the folly of some Christians, since the heathens have given so honest a report about laws and lawgivers. They took their lawgivers for gods, confessing thereby that good laws are the gift of God.[664] But the gift of God cannot be superfluous and unprofitable. Plutarch called laws the life of cities.[665] Demosthenes expressly confessed that laws are the gifts of God.[666] Cicero named laws the bonds of the city (because without laws, it is loosed and dispersed), the foundation of liberty, and the well-spring of justice and perfect honesty.[667]

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For laws undoubtedly are the strongest sinews of the commonweal, and the life of the magistrates. So that, the magistrates cannot conveniently live and rule the public welfare without the laws; nor can the laws display their strength and living force without the magistrates. The magistrate therefore is the living law, and the law is the silent magistrate.[668] By executing and applying the law, the law is made to live and speak. Those princes do not consider this, who are prone to say, Wir sind das recht, "We are the right, we are the law." For they suppose that, at their pleasure, they may command whatever they wish, and all men must accept it by and by as the law. But that kind of ruling, without any doubt, is extreme tyranny. This saying of the poet is very well known, which represents the very words of a tyrant:

I say, and it shall be so;

My lust shall be the law.[669]

The prince, indeed, is the living law, if his mind obeys the written laws, and does not depart from the law of nature. Power and authority, therefore, is subject to laws. For unless the prince in his heart agrees with the law, in his breast writes the law, and in his words and deeds expresses the law, he is not worthy to be called a good man, much less a prince. Again, good princes and magistrates have power over the law, and are masters of the laws — not that they may turn, put out, undo, make and unmake, laws as they wish, at their pleasure; but because they may put them into practice among the people, apply them to the necessity of the state, and temper their interpretation to the meaning of the Maker.

Therefore, they are deceived as far as heaven is wide, who think that for a few privileges, granted by emperors and kings to the magistrate, to add, diminish, or change some point of law, that they may therefore utterly abolish good laws, and live against all law and seemliness.

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For, just as no emperors or kings are permitted to grant any privileges contrary to justice, goodness, and honesty, so if they grant any such privilege, it should not be received or taken by good subjects, as a good turn or benefit. Rather, it is to be considered (as it is indeed) their utter destruction and clean overthrow. Among all men, at all times and in all ages, the meaning and substance of the laws touching honesty, justice, and public peace, is kept inviolable. If change is made, it is according to circumstances, and the law is interpreted as the case requires, according to justice and a good end. The law says, "Let no man kill another: let him that kills another be killed himself." That law remains forever unchangeable; nor is it lawful for any man at any time to put it aside or wipe it away. And yet the rigour of the law may be diminished, and the law itself may be favourably interpreted. Take, for example, a man who kills someone he loves entirely well, and he kills him by chance, and not from a set purpose or pretended malice. Thus, when he has done this, he is sorry for it at the very heart, and he would (if it were possible) buy his life back with whatever he has to give for it. In such a case the killer should not be killed, and in this the magistrate may dispense with the rigour of the law. Say another bears a deadly and continual grudge [670] towards someone, whom he kills, and goes about colouring the matter under the pretence of a mishap or misfortune — for he sought an occasion to provide himself with a show of chance-medley.[671] In such a case as this, the magistrate cannot change any jot of the law, but must kill the one whom the meaning of the law commands to kill. I could allege more examples like these; but my care, on purpose, is to say only so much as I may, and not be too tedious to you with too long a discourse. By what I have spoken, it is evident that laws are good and not to be broken, and how far they should allow the prince's epiekeian (epiekeian),[672] that is, the prince's moderation, interpretation, limitation, or dispensation, lest perhaps that old and customary proverb be rightly applied to them: "Law with extremity is extreme injury." [673]

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Up to here I have declared that laws are good, profitable, necessary, and not to be broken. It remains now to tell which and what kind of laws the magistrate should chiefly use for ordering and maintaining honesty, justice, and public peace, according to his office. There are some whose opinion is that the magistrate should not use any written laws, but that he should rather give sentence as he thinks best according to natural equity, as the circumstances of place, time, persons, and cases seem to require. There are some others who endeavour to thrust the judicial laws of Moses into all kingdoms and commonweals. And there are some who, having rejected the law of Moses, would have no judgment given in law, except what is derived out of the laws of heathen princes. But those who have pre-eminence and the magistrate's authority are either good men or bad; and even in the best men, covetousness, anger, hatred, favour, grief, fear, and other affections, are rife. Therefore, having rejected all written statutes and certain laws, and having a magistrate give judgment as he thinks best, to whom I pray you, have they committed the commonweal? Have they not committed it to the rule of a beast? But what shall I say then of evil men who are in authority, since things are so amiss in the best men? A kingdom subject to the furies of hell, would be as good as one bound to the judgments of naughty men. But we will (they say) have them give judgment according to the equity of nature's law, and not according to the lust of their corrupt affections. My answer is that, without control, they will give judgment as affection leads them, and claim that they judged by natural equity. They will say that they cannot judge otherwise, nor otherwise understand the pith of the matter. They think that what they have determined is best, and that nothing is done contrary to conscience. And for your labour, you shall be called Coram nobis [674] for daring to find fault with their sentence in judgment.

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And so the just man will perish, barbarous affections will have the upper hand, and naughty men will rule the roost. Yes, and even if we grant that all men who are called to be magistrates are good, yet the diversity of opinions that will rise in giving judgment, will stir endless brawls and continual troubles among them. If all things, therefore, are well considered, the best way by far is to put written laws into use.

Let us learn this by the example of our eternal, wise, excellent, and mighty God, who gave to the Jews, his peculiar people, such laws as at his commandment were set down in writing. The magistrate has otherwise business enough to judge, that is, to apply and confer the causes with the laws; to see how far and wherein they agree or disagree; and to judge who has offended against the law, and who have not transgressed the law.

Now it is to be marked, that in Moses' judicial law there are many things proper and peculiar to the Jewish nation, and so ordained according to the state of the place, time, and persons, that if we were to apply and thrust them all upon other nations, we would seem to show ourselves more than half mad. And to what end should we bring back and set up again among the people of God the offscourings of the heathen that were cast out a great while ago? The apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ bound or burdened no man with the laws of Moses; they never condemned good laws of the heathens, nor commended naughty laws of the Gentiles to any man. But they left the laws, with the use and free choice of them, for the saints to use as they thought good. But with this, they did not cease most diligently to beat into all men's heads the fear of God, faith, charity, justice, and temperance; because they knew that those in whose hearts those virtues were settled, can either easily make good laws themselves, or pick and choose the best of those which other men make. For it makes no matter whether the magistrate picks for him and his countrymen Jewish laws out of Moses, or sufficient laws out of the allowable laws of the heathen, or else keeps the old and accustomed laws which have been used before in his country — so long as he has an eye to cut off those wicked, unjust, and lawless laws, which are found among the better sort.

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For I suppose that upright magistrates should remove curiosity and newly invented novelties. "Seldom," says the proverb, "is the crow's eye picked out without troublesome stirs." [675] And curious men's new laws are for the most part worse than the old that are broken by them and utterly abolished.

Furthermore, all laws are given for ordering religion or the outward worship of God, or else for the outward conversation of life and civil behaviour. Touching the laws of religion, I have spoken of them before. For civil and political laws I add this much, and say that those seem to be the best laws which, according to the circumstance of every place, person, state, and time, come nearest to the precepts of the Ten Commandments and the rule of charity — not having in them any spot of iniquity, licentious liberty, or shameless dishonesty. Let them, moreover, be brief and short, not stretched out beyond measure, and wrapped in with many expositions. Let them have a full respect to the matter to which they are directed, and not be frivolous and of no effect.

Now, mark that political laws for the most part consist in three especial and principal points: honesty, justice, and peace. Let laws therefore tend to this end, that discipline and honesty may be planted and maintained in the commonweal, and that no unseemly, licentious, and filthy act be committed there. Let the law forbid all uncleanness, wantonness, frivolity, sensuality, and riotousness, in apparel, in building, in bibbing [676] and banqueting. Let wedlock be commanded by law to be kept holy. Let stews [677] and brothel-houses be banished from the realm. Let adulteries, whoredoms, rapes, and incests, be exiled. Let moderate feastings be allowed and admitted. Let thriftiness be used, which is the greatest revenue that a man can enjoy.[678] Briefly, whatever is contrary to honesty and seemliness, let it be driven out and rejected by law.

Let justice be strongly fortified by laws. Let it be provided by laws, that neither citizen nor foreigner be hurt or hindered in fame, goods, body, or life.[679]

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Let upright laws be made for obtaining legacies and inheritances, for performing contracts and bargains, for covenants and agreements, for suretyships, for buying and selling, for weights and measures, for leases and things let for hire, for lending and borrowing, for pawns in mortgage, for use, commodity, and usury of money. Let order be taken for maintaining peace between the father and his children, between man and wife, between the master and the servant — and, to be short, that every man may have his own. For my meaning here is not to reckon up particularly every separate point and tittle of the law.

Lastly, means must be made by giving laws, that peace may be established, whereby every man may enjoy his own. All violent robberies and injuries must be expelled; private grudges and close conspiracies must not be thought of. And war must be quieted by wisdom, or else undertaken and finished with manly fortitude.

But that we may have such a magistrate and such a life, the apostle commanded us earnestly to pray, where he says: "I exhort you that, first of all, prayers, supplications, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." 1Tim 2.1-2

I am now again compelled to end my Sermon before the matter is finished. That which remains I will add tomorrow. Make your earnest prayers, with your minds lift up into heaven, etc.

2-8. THE EIGHTH SERMON: OF JUDGMENT.

OF JUDGMENT, AND THE OFFICE OF THE JUDGE; THAT CHRISTIANS ARE NOT FORBIDDEN TO JUDGE:

OF REVENGE AND PUNISHMENT: WHETHER IT IS LAWFUL FOR A MAGISTRATE TO KILL THE GUILTY: THEREFORE, WHEN, HOW, AND WHAT THE MAGISTRATE MUST PUNISH:

WHETHER HE MAY PUNISH OFFENDERS IN RELIGION OR NOT.

I SPOKE yesterday, dearly beloved, of the magistrate's ordinance: there are yet remaining two other parts of his office and duty: that is, judgment and punishment. Both of these, by the help of God, I mean to speak as briefly as possible. Give attentive ear, and pray to the Lord to give me grace to speak the truth.

Judgment is taken in diverse significations; but in this present treatise it imports the sentence of judges brought in between men at variance. This sentence is derived out of the laws, according to right and equity, as the case put forth of the parties required, and it is pronounced with the intent to remove the strife between those at variance, and to give to every man his own. For at sessions or assizes,[680] parties appear and sue one another for some inheritance or possession, which either party affirms to be his by law, laying out for themselves whatever they can to prove and show what right and title they have to the thing. The judges diligently hear and perfectly note all of this; then they confer with one another, and lay down the law; lastly, they pronounce sentence, whereby they give the possession to the one party, and take it from the other. There is like reason in other cases and matters. And this is judgment; indeed, I say this is the execution of justice. But this kind of quieting, and setting parties at one, is very mild in comparison to revenge and punishment, which is not executed with words and sentences, but with swords and bitter stripes.

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And there is good cause why it should be so, since there are diverse causes, some of which cannot be ended except with the sword, and some more gently with judgment in words. But the health and safeguard of the kingdom or commonweal consists in this.

Judgment and punishment therefore are the most excellent offices in the magistrate, even though perhaps they seem to be somewhat hard and cruel. But unless this, which seems to be cruelty, is put in use, all ages, states, and sexes will feel the smart of crueller things, and that which is most cruel in deed. For it is not cruelty, but rather just severity, which (as the Lord commands) is put into use to safeguard the guiltless and preserve peace within the realm and commonweal. Say there was a commonweal well-furnished with the most absolute laws for political manners and matters of religion. Suppose, also, that in this same commonweal there was no magistrate to execute, and as it were to father [681] those laws — by his authority, to bring and reduce all the deeds and sayings of men to a trial of those laws. And therefore, every man is unleashed [682] to whatever kind of life he wishes, and does what he wills. Tell me, I pray you, what good are those written laws to the men of that country? Believe me, in truth, not one half-penny's worth of good. Therefore, the best part of the magistrate's duty consists in upright judgment and a punishing revenge. And those two points require a man of courage and princely stomach; one whom the Lord living describes in his law, and tells us what kind of man he would have him be, and what the office is to which he is called. I will recount and expound this description, because the judge's person is chiefly touched in this.

Moses, at the Lord's commandment, says to the judges:

"Hear the cause of your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. You shall have no respect to any person in judgment, but you shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not fear the face of any man, for the judgment is the Lord's." Deu 1.16-17

The holy prophet in these words touches two things chiefly: he declares what the judge's office is; and what vices or diseases infect the judge, such that he cannot fulfil his office as he should.

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Now, touching the office of a good judge, the first point of it is that he repels no man, but hears every one: the small, the great, the citizen, the stranger, the known and unknown. And he must hear the parties willingly, diligently, and attentively. In this, no sluggishness is allowed from the judge, nor a mind busied about other matters. Judgment before the matter is decided is utterly excluded, because it carries away the mind of the judge before the matter is known. The thing itself cries out that the matter must first be heard and well understood, before the magistrate proceeds to judgment. And the common proverb says, "Let the other party be heard too." Very wisely said the judge to the one that made a complaint, "With the one ear he heard him, and he kept the other ear for the one upon whom the complaint was made." [683] In this we contain the perfect knowledge of the judge, and say that he must not make too much haste in unknown cases, since he must judge them by the thing itself, and not by the parties, secret tales, and private accusations.

Secondly, Moses says let him judge uprightly. To judge is to determine and pronounce truly and justly, according to the laws, what is good, what is evil, what is right, and what is wrong. We Switzers say, Urteilen, oder erteilen, oder richten; as if to say, distinguish a thing thoroughly considered; plane and make straight a crooked thing. Parties blinded with affections make straight things crooked, which the judge straightens again by applying the rule of equity and law; so that to judge is to straighten and to make plain. Moreover, to judge is to keep in liberty, by defending and punishing. The magistrate judges, therefore, when he defends the innocent, and bridles the hurtful person. But he must judge justly, that is, according to justice, and agreeably to the laws which give to every man that which is his. The judge judges unjustly when, from a corrupt mind, he pronounces sentence contrary to all law and equity.

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Now, therefore, we have to consider the vices which usually are prone to reign in judges. The vices in judges are many, and the diseases of their minds are sundry: but there are two especial diseases, and chief of all the rest. One of these two vices, which so infects the minds of judges that they cannot execute their office as they should, is accepting faces, or respect to persons.[684] That is, when the judge, in giving judgment, does not have his eye set on the things themselves, nor on the causes or circumstances of the causes as they are indeed; but he regards either [a person's] dignity, excellence, humility, poverty, relation, honours, letters,[685] or similar things. The Lord excludes this evil, and says: "You shall judge justly; you shall have no respect to any person in judgment; you shall hear the small as well as the great."

The other disease of these two is fear; a very vehement affection of the mind, which disturbs the very best and most excellent counsels, and chokes virtue before it come to light. Under fear we also include hope; I mean, hope of commodity;[686] and thus, by "fear" we understand the corruption of bribes. The judge who stands in fear of losing his life or goods, or who is afraid to displease a nobleman, or is loath to lose the common people's good will — also one who takes bribes, or hopes to be rewarded by one of the parties — perverts equity and advances iniquity. The Lord therefore says, you shall not fear any mortal man; you shall not look for any reward at any man's hand. He adds the reason why: because the matter is not yours, nor were you called in to do your own business; but the judgment is the Lord's. The will and law of God therefore must be respected. For God is able to defend just judges from the unjust hatred of anyone, whatever they may be, and against all wrong and open violence. Moreover, where it is said that the judgment is the Lord's, the judges are thereby warned that they ought to imitate the example of the most high God. Moses, in the tenth chapter of Deuteronomy, expresses and says what an example that is, and of what sort: "God accepts neither person nor gift; he does justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves to give the stranger food and clothing; and therefore you shall love the stranger." Deu 10.17-19 So must godly judges do in the judgment which is God's.

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Jehoshaphat, without any doubt a very godly prince, speaking to those whom he had made judges, said:

"Take heed what you do; for you execute not the judgments of man, but of God, who is with you in judgment. Therefore, let the fear of the Lord be upon you, and take heed, and be diligent. For there is no unrighteousness with the Lord our God, that he should have any respect to persons, or take any reward." 2Chr 19.6-7

To these I will add a few more places of the holy scripture, which will partly make manifest those that went before, and partly expound and more plainly express the office of the judge. In Deuteronomy we read:

"The judges shall judge the people with equity and justice. You shall not pervert judgment, nor have respect to persons, nor take a reward: for a reward blinds the eyes of the wise, and perverts the words of the righteous. You shall judge with justice, so that you may live and possess the land." Deu 16.18-20

Again, in Exodus we find:

"You shall not follow a multitude to do evil, nor shall you speak in a matter of justice according to the greater number, so as to pervert judgment. Nor shall you esteem a poor man in his cause. Keep far from false matters, and see that you do not slay the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked. You shall take no rewards, for rewards blind the seeing, and pervert the words of the righteous." Exo 23.2

In Leviticus also we have this:

"You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; you shall not favour the person of the poor, nor honour the mighty, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbour." Lev 19.15 Again: "You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meter, in weight, or in measure. You shall have true balances, true weights, a true epha, and a true hin. I am the Lord your God," etc. Lev 19.35

I suppose truly, and am thus persuaded, that in these few words of the Lord our God, are comprehended all that profound philosophers and lawyers of great learning scarcely absolve in infinite books and volumes of many leaves. Beside all this, the most holy prophet Jeremiah cries to the king, and says: "Keep equity and righteousness, deliver the oppressed from the power of the violent; do not grieve nor oppress the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, and shed no innocent blood." Jer 22.3 This much touching the office of judges.

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But in the eyes of some men, our discourse may seem vain and fruitless unless we also refute their objections by which they endeavour to prove that pleadings and matters of law are at an end, because the Lord in the gospel says: "To him that sues you at the law and takes away your coat, let him have your cloak also." And again: "While you are yet with your adversary on the way, agree with him quickly, lest he deliver you to the tormenter." [687] They add, moreover, the strifes in the law, which St. Paul the apostle, in the sixth chapter of his Epistle to the Corinthians, flatly condemns. To all of these objections my answer is this: just as the doctrine of the evangelists and apostles does not abrogate the private ordering of particular houses, so it does not condemn or disannul the public government of commonweals. The Lord, in the gospel of St. Luke, chides and repels the young man who desired him to speak to his brother for an equal division of the inheritance between them. He blamed him, not because he thinks ill of the one that claims an equal division or that part of the inheritance that is his by right; but because he thought that it was not his duty, but the judge's office, to deal in such cases. The words of our Saviour in that place are these: "Who has appointed me a judge between you, and a divider of land and inheritance?" Luke 12.14 And again, just as we read in the gospel, "If any man sues you at law, and takes away your coat, give him your cloak also;" so on the other side, against doing this injury, there is nothing more busily handled and required in all the evangelical doctrine than charity and well-doing. But a good deed is done in nothing, more than it is in judgment and justice. Since, therefore, that judgment was invented for practising and preserving justice and upright dealing, it is manifest that to judge in matters of controversy is not forbidden in the gospel. The notable prophets of the Lord, Isaiah and Zechariah, cry out and say; "Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek after judgment, help the oppressed, and plead the cause of the fatherless and widow."

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"Execute true judgment, show mercy and loving-kindness every man to his brother. Do no wrong to the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, and poor." Therefore, those sin who hinder judgment, and thrust judges from their seats; for as they pull away from the true God no small part of his worship, so they open a wide gate to wrong, robbery, and oppression of the poor.

The Lord, I grant, commanded what our adversaries have alleged, thereby meaning to settle quietness among his people. But because the malice of men is invincible, and the long-suffering of seely [688] souls makes wicked knaves more mischievous, the Lord has therefore not forbidden nor condemned the moderate use of judgments in law. Moreover, we read in the Acts of the Apostles that Paul more than once used the benefit of judgment, not for money or goods, but for his life, which he endeavoured to save and defend from those who lay in wait to kill him. Neither did he consent to the unjust judgment of Festus, the president, but appealed to Caesar. Acts 25.11 And yet we know that Paul did not offend in this against the doctrine of the gospel of Christ. The same Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, did not absolutely condemn the Corinthians for going to law about things belonging to their living, but because they sued and troubled one another before heathen judges. It is good and seemly, without doubt, to suffer wrong with a patient mind. But because it pleases the Lord to ordain judgment as a means of help and succour for those who are oppressed with injury, it is not sin at all for someone to seek to keep himself from wrong — not by private revenge, but by the upright sentence of judges in law. Therefore the apostle commanded the Corinthians to choose from among themselves, such faithful judges as might take up temporal matters in controversy between those who fell at variance. Thus have I declared to you the second part of the magistrate's office, which consists in judgment.

Therefore I will now descend to the exposition of the third and last part, which comprehends revenge and punishment. For the magistrate, by his office, bears the sword; and therefore he is commanded by God to take revenge for the wrong done to the good, and to punish the evil.

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For the sword is God's vengeance, or instrument, with which he strikes the blow to revenge himself upon his enemies for the injury done to him; and is generally taken in the scripture for vengeance and punishment. The Lord in Jeremiah cries out and says: "I call a sword upon all the dwellers upon earth." Jer 25.29 Again, in Ezekiel: "The sword is sharp and ready-trimmed to kill the sacrifice." And again: "I will give my sword into the hands of the king of Babel." [689] The kings of Egypt were called Pharaohs by their people, as if to say, Revengers.[690] But the sword in the magistrate's hand is to be put to two uses: either he punishes offenders with it for doing other men injury and for other ill deeds; or else in war he repels with it the violence of foreign enemies abroad, or represses the rebellions of seditious and contentious citizens at home.

But here again, another objection is cast in our way by those who say that, according to the doctrine of the gospel, no man should either kill or be killed, because the Lord has said, "Do not resist the evil;" Mat 5.39 and again to Peter: "Put your sword into your sheath. Every one that takes the sword perishes by the sword." Mat 26.52 My answer to this is: throughout the scripture, private revenge is utterly forbidden; but what is done openly by authority of the public magistrate is never found fault with. What the apostle Peter was about to take was private and extraordinary vengeance; but considering that he was called to be a preacher of the word of God, he was not to be a judge, a captain, or a man of war. And that sentence is rightly pronounced against private and extraordinary revenge: "Every one that takes the sword shall perish by the sword."

But I prove by this testimony of the holy apostle, that public vengeance and the ordinary use of the sword is not prohibited by God in the church of Christ.[691] Paul in the twelfth chapter to the Romans has taught what and how much the perfection of the gospel requires of us; and among the rest he says this: "Dearly beloved, do not revenge yourselves, but rather give way to [God's] wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay." Rom 12.19

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But this might be argued against, and this objection might be cast in his way: Then by this means, the long-suffering of Christians will provide matter enough [to warrant] murder and manslaughter. Paul therefore in the next chapter immediately adds this: "The magistrate is the minister of God for your wealth,[692] to terrify the evil doers. For he does not bear the sword in vain: for he is God's minister, a revenger of wrath to the one who does evil." Rom 13.4 We gather therefore by this doctrine of the apostle, that every one of us must leave it to God alone to take vengeance, and that no man is allowed to revenge himself by his own private authority. But public revenge, wrought by the ordinary magistrate, is nowhere forbidden. For God who said to us, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," grants to the magistrate, the authority to exercise and put that vengeance to use, which He claims for Himself; so that the magistrate's duty is to punish with the sword the wrongful dealings of wicked men, in the name and at the commandment of God himself. Therefore, when the magistrate punishes, then God himself, to whom all vengeance belongs, punishes by the magistrate, who for that reason is called by the name of God.[693] Moreover, it is written: "You shall not allow a witch to live." Exo 22.18 Again: "A wise king will scatter the wicked, and turn the wheel upon them." Pro 20.26 And again: "He that justifies the wicked, and he that condemns the just, they are both abominable in the sight of the Lord." Pro 17.15

Nor do we lack examples to prove that some have incurred the heavy wrath and displeasure of the Lord for their foolish pity in sparing those whom the Lord commanded to strike with the sword. I speak of Saul and Ahab.[694] Again, on the other side, there are innumerable examples of most excellent princes, which testify and bear witness of the praise that they deserved for punishing lewd and wicked offenders. For the prince does not sin, nor is he blameworthy at all, who kills or otherwise punishes the guilty and ungracious man. And for that reason we find it so often repeated in the law, "His blood be upon himself."

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But if the blood of the guilty is not shed, then that is imputed as a fault, and laid to the magistrate's charge because, neglecting his office, he has pardoned those who were not worthy to be forgiven; and by letting them go, he has left the innocent unrevenged. For he is made a partaker of the injury done, and the shedding of the innocent's blood. He leaves it unrevenged by letting the murderer go untouched, on whose neck the Lord charged to let the sword fall. The just severity of the upright magistrate in punishing naughty men is not (as it is falsely judged) "extreme cruelty." On the contrary, it is peevish pity that spares offenders who are not worthy to live among men, and it is utter and mere cruelty indeed. For when the magistrate lets those who have deserved death by their naughty deeds, go unpunished and at ease, he thereby, first of all, gives occasion and courage to like offenders to go on and increase in their mischievous wickedness: for they see that their own faults are borne with in other men. Secondly, the men who are not yet altogether drowned in the mire of wickedness, but are tempted and provoked to naughtiness every hour, will abandon the scruple of conscience in the end, and consent to yield to mischief; for they see that mischievous merchants [695] are gently dealt with. Lastly, offenders set free without any punishment, for the most part become little better. Indeed, they become twice worse than they were before; and the increase of his sin will at length compel you to kill him for many murders, whom you would not kill for the murder of one — whereby you might have saved many guiltless men whom that cut-throat, since his first pardon, has villainously slain. Therefore they send wolves and bears among the common people, who let such rakehells [696] escape unpunished.

Since I have now declared the right use of the sword, and proved that the magistrate has power to revenge men's injuries, and to kill heinous offenders, let us go on to consider what the causes are for which God commands us to punish transgressors. Let us see also, when they ought to be punished; and lastly, what kinds of punishment or penalties the magistrate must use.

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The especial causes for which the Lord openly commands us to punish offenders, are for the most part these that follow. The Lord resists force with force, and works the safeguard and salvation of men. He revenges those who suffer wrong, and restores again whatever may be restored. He declares His justice also, and rewards every one according to his deeds; and therefore he wipes out reproachful deeds with a reproachful death. He puts offenders in mind of their crime, and with this, for the most part, he gives them a sense of repentance unto salvation. For if the wicked one acknowledges his fault, and repents of his ill deed, and believes in Christ with all his heart, then his sin is forgiven him and he is saved. We have an evident example of this in Luke 23, in the thief that was crucified: his punishment was the occasion of his salvation. But for the other, this salvation was far off, because he did not believe in Christ, and would not be warned by the pain that he felt for his offence, to repent for his sins, and to call out to God for mercy. Furthermore, by public judgment and open execution, all other men may take an example, to learn to beware of like offences or else suffer a similar horror of torments.

But let the magistrate not execute any man until he first knows perfectly, whether the one to be punished has deserved that punishment that the judges determine; and whether God has commanded us to punish that offence — that is, whether by God's law, that which is to be punished is condemned. The truth of it shall be manifestly known, either by the proper and free confession of the man accused, or by the probable testimonies brought in and gathered against the defendant, or by conferring the laws with the offences of the one to be punished. So then, the magistrate may not punish virtue, true religion, nor good, honest, and godly men: for he is ordained by God to terrify, not the good, but offenders.

Now, touching the manner and fashion of punishment, I think it best not to over-curiously dispute. Let every nation or city still retain their penalties and order of punishing, unless perhaps their country's custom smacks somewhat of rigour and extreme cruelty. For no wise man denies that the kind of punishment must be tempered according to the rule of justice and equity.

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The kinds of punishment are exile or banishment, bondage,[697] loss of goods, imprisonment and fetters, scourges, marks with burning irons, loss of limbs, and lastly, death itself, by killing with the sword, by burning, hanging, drowning, and other such means as every nation uses by custom. Nor is the scripture without a pitiful catalog [698] of miserable torments. For in the book of Ezra we read: "And whoever will not observe the law of your God, and the law of the king, let judgment immediately pass upon him, whether it be to death, or banishment, or loss of goods, or imprisonment." Ezr 7.26 I add this not unadvisedly, because of those who are of the opinion that such torments should not so much as once be named among Christian people.

But measure and discretion must be used by the judges in punishing offenders, so that heinous faults may be plagued with grievous punishment, lesser crimes may be nipped with smaller penalties, and the smallest and lighter offences punished more lightly. That sentence in God's law ought to be remembered: "According to the fault, so shall the punishment be;" [699] where also the judge must have a consideration of his clemency and pity. Oftentimes the kind [700] and age excuses the party accused. The circumstances being rightly weighed, sometimes excuse the deeds that otherwise are not the best of themselves. The judge also must inquire after and diligently consider the former life of the man accused; for which, if it happens to have been good and honest, then he deserves some favour and mercy, unless the offence for which he is troubled is so heinous that it can allow no sparkle of pity. But godliness or the fear of God, with pouring out prayers to the Lord and a diligent and lawful examination of the deed or word (that is, of the fault committed) is the best rule for the judge to follow in choosing when to use pity and when to deal with extreme rigour. For otherwise, decent clemency is most praiseworthy before God and men.

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I have shown you, dearly beloved, that the magistrate both may and of duty ought to punish offenders; then I have shown you for what causes the Lord would have them punished; and lastly, how, when, and how much, they are to be punished.

It remains now for me to declare why, and for what offences, they are to be punished. I mean to lay this down in one word, and briefly too. All words and deeds which are contrary to the laws of God and the magistrate, that is, all things that are done mischievously against the laws, are to be punished: but laws are made either for religion or for political government; and political government consists in honesty, justice, and peace. Therefore the magistrate must punish and suppress all those who disturb, afflict, trouble, destroy, or overthrow honesty, justice, public peace, or private tranquility between man and man. Let him punish dishonesty, ribaldry, filthy lust, whoredom, fornication, adultery, incest, sodomy, riotousness, drunkenness, gluttony, covetousness, cozening,[701] cutting usury, treason, murder, slaughter of parents, sedition, and whatever is like these.

The law of the Lord, published by the ministry of Moses, in the eighteenth and twentieth chapters of Leviticus, reckons up a catalog long enough of those offences which are to be punished. And lest perhaps any man thinks today that what Moses recounted is utterly abolished, let him give ear to St. Paul, who says:

"The law is not given to the just, but to the unjust, and to sinners, to unholy and unclean, to murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, to manslayers, to whore-mongers, to those that defile themselves with mankind, to man-stealers,[702] to liars, to perjured men, and if there is any other thing contrary to sound doctrine." 1Tim 1.9-10

But apostates, idolaters, blasphemers, heretics, false teachers, and mockers of religion, offend against the laws of religion [and therefore should be punished by a magistrate's authority].[703]

But the question in controversy has been and still is today, whether it is lawful for a magistrate to punish any man in his jurisdiction for contempt of religion or blaspheming it? The Manicheans and Donatists were of the opinion that no man should be compelled, much less be killed, for any religion; but that every man ought to be left to his own mind and judgment.

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Yet the scripture expressly commands the magistrate not to spare false prophets; yes, rebels against God are commanded by holy laws and judges to be killed without mercy. There are two places to be seen in the holy scriptures: the one in the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, the other in the seventeenth chapter of the same book. In Exodus this same thing is set down for a rule: "Whoever sacrifices to any God but the Lord alone, let him be rooted out." Exo 22.20 In Leviticus, the blasphemer is slain and overwhelmed with stones. Lev 24.10 16 In the book of Numbers, the man is slain that unhallowed the sabbath-day. Num 15.32-36 And how many, I pray you, did God's revenging sword destroy of that calvish people who erected and worshipped the calf in the wilderness? [704] Elijah at mount Carmel killed hundreds of false prophets in a solemn set and appointed sacrifice.[705] Elisha, at the Lord's commandment, anointed Jehu king, to the end that he might root out the house of Ahab, and kill all Baal's priests at once.[706] Jehoiada the priest slew Athaliah,[707] and good king Josiah destroyed the wicked and stubborn priests of all high places together. 2Kng 23.20 St. Augustine, Tractatu in Joan. 11, disputing against the Donatists, proves by the example of Nebuchadnezzar, that Christian princes justly punish the Donatists for despising Christ and his evangelical doctrine. Among other things he says:

"If king Nebuchadnezzar glorified God for delivering three children out of the fire — yes, and glorified him so much that he made a decree throughout his kingdom for his honour and worship — then why should the kings of our days not be moved to do so? They see not three children saved from the flame alone, but see themselves also delivered from the fire of hell, when they behold Christ (by whom they are delivered) burnt up in Christian men, and when to a Christian they hear it said, Do you say that you are not a Christian? This they will do, and yet this they will not suffer. For mark what they do, and see what they suffer. They kill souls; they are afflicted in body. They kill others eternally, and then complain that they themselves suffer a temporal death." [708] This much Augustine has.

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In the new Testament we have most evident examples of Peter and Paul, Christ's greatest apostles. The one slew Ananias and Sapphira for their lying hypocrisy and feigned religion;[709] the other struck Elymas the sorcerer blind, and bereft him of his eyes. Acts 13.11 Nor is there one hair's difference to choose, whether a man is killed with a sword or with a word. For to kill is to kill, by whatever means or with whatever instrument it is done. God wrought that by his apostles, and He does the like by the magistrate also. For vengeance is God's, who gives it to the magistrate and chief men to be put into use and execution upon wicked offenders. There are to be seen many laws made by holy Christian princes for the state of religion, which give an especial charge to kill idolaters, apostates, heretics, and godless people. I will recount to you, dearly beloved, one law among many, made by the holy emperor, Constantine the Great. For in an epistle, entitled ad Taurum P. P., he says:

"It pleases us that in all places, and throughout every city, the temples be closed out of hand, and liberty be denied to wicked men to have access to commit idolatry there. We will also command all men to be restrained from making sacrifices. And if it happens that they offend in this, our pleasure is that they be slain with the sword, and the slain man's goods be confiscated. And we have decreed that the rulers of the provinces shall suffer like punishment if they neglect to punish the offenders." [710]

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Theodosius and Valentinianus command almost the same thing by proclaimed edicts in Codice Theodosiano, tit. 2. And Valentinianus and Martianus in Codice Justiniano, tit. 2. Lib. i. [711] Lastly, without any controversy, adulterers, murderers, rebels, deceivers, and blasphemers, are rightly punished, and not against religion. Therefore it follows consequently, that false prophets and heretics are by good right slain: for they are deceivers, blasphemers, and murderers. [712]

But in the execution of this punishment a great consideration must be had and observed; first of the persons; then of the errors; and lastly, of the penalties. For there is great diversity in persons. There are some standard-bearers, and heady grand captains, who are stout hypocrites, and full of tongue, and therefore most apt to seduce. Falling headlong to their own destruction without amendment, they draw others into danger with themselves. They must by all means be bridled and suppressed as plagues to the church, lest like a canker, they spread all over. Again, there are some silly seduced souls who are made fools by other men. They err not from malice or a stubborn stomach, but repent and amend in time. The magistrate must not immediately condemn them, but pray to the Lord, and bear with their error, and teach them in the spirit of gentleness, until they are brought to a better mind.

Moreover, some erroneous doctrines are more intolerable than others. There are some so wicked and blasphemous that they are unworthy to be heard, much less to be done. There are some which directly and openly tend to overthrow the commonweal, unless they are appeased and resisted in time. But we should first be convinced by the scripture and manifest truth, that those crimes which are brought in and accused, are such as they are said to be.

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When the truth is known, and manifest proofs of scripture are alleged, then is it lawful to most sharply punish those blasphemers of God and overthrowers of the church and commonweal. But a light and easier penalty must be pronounced on the heads of those whose offence consists in light and smaller errors. For some err in such a way that God is not blasphemed by their error, nor is the church subverted by it, nor the commonweal put in any danger at all. This is where, by the way, everyone must think of the apostle's saying: "Bear one another's burden." Gal. 6.2 And again: "Receive the weak in faith; not to doubtful questions." [713]

Furthermore, there is great difference in punishment and penalties. Those who err stubbornly, and endeavour to draw in and keep other men in their errors — blasphemers, troublers, and subverters of churches — may be put to death by law. But it does not follow from this, that everyone who errs must therefore later suffer loss of his life. The things that may be remedied and amended by threats and fault-finding [714] must not be punished with sharper correction. A mean in everything, is always the best. There is a penalty by payment of money. There are prisons to be shut up in, for those who are corrupted with the poison of false doctrine and lack of belief, lest they infect others with their contagious disease. There are also other means to punish the body, by which to suppress those who err from the truth, to keep them from marring those who are sound, and to preserve themselves so that they do not utterly perish, but through repentance, they may fall to amendment. But the fear of God, justice, and the judge's wisdom shall make him perceive by the circumstances, how he ought to punish the naughty doctrine and stubborn rebellion of malicious seducers, and how to bear with the foolish, light belief of silly seduced men, grounded upon simplicity, and not envenomed rancour.

Earnest and diligent admonition is given too late, when the fault is already committed, and is so detestable that it should immediately be plagued with the sword.

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Let the magistrate, therefore, always have an eye to timely admonish those who are to be warned to take heed of a fault. For earnest admonitions are earnestly commended to men in authority to use for their subjects when they begin to work any broil. Moreover, godly and wise magistrates have many times pardoned unwitting offenders, whom they saw ready to repent upon giving a warning. The Lord in the gospel bids us to admonish a sinner; then if he repents, to pardon his fault; but if he rejects a fair warning once given him, to punish him so much the sharper. Mat 18.15-17 And Joshua, before he proclaimed open on the children of Reuben, he first command them by an envoy to pull down the altar which they seemed to have made contrary to the law of the Lord.[715] The emperor Justinian also granted pardon to those who repented and turned to a sounder opinion, Constitut. 109. [716] Moreover, Josiah did not utterly kill all those who were wrapped in error and idolatry, but those especially that were incurable, and would not recant. The magistrate, therefore, must wisely moderate the matter, and be very circumspect in punishing offenders.

I cannot wink and slyly pass over the objections that some men make against what I have said up to here touching punishment, namely:

- the apostle Paul has not commanded us to kill or punish a heretic after the first and second admonition, but to avoid him; Tit. 3.10

- again, faith is the gift of God, which cannot be given or engrafted in any man by rigour of the sword;

- also, no man is to be compelled — he that constrains another may make a hypocrite, but he cannot make a devout and zealous man;

- and lastly, the apostles required no aid of kings either to maintain or set out the religion of Christ, or else to punish blasphemous railers and enemies of God's word.

To all this I answer thus: when Paul wrote his epistle to Titus, he wrote to an apostle. In that epistle, therefore, he instructs an apostle how to behave himself according to his duty toward a heretic past all recovery.

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If he had written to Sergius Paulus, or any lieutenant, he would undoubtedly have taught him his office. For the same Paul, standing before Sergius Paulus, then prince of Cyprus, declared to him by his deeds, the duty of a magistrate. For first, he not only most sharply rebuked the false prophet Elymas, then forsook his company, eschewed and shunned him as the apostle John did with Cerinthus,[717] but he also struck him with bodily blindness.

I grant and confess that faith is God's gift in the heart of man, which God alone searches and knows. But men are judged by their words and deeds. Admit, therefore, that the erroneous opinion of the mind may not be punished; yet notwithstanding, wicked and infective profession and doctrine must in no way be suffered. Truly, no man in this world punishes profane and wicked thoughts of the mind. But if those thoughts break out into blasphemous words, then those blaspheming tongues are to be punished by good princes. And yet I do not say by this that godliness lies in the magistrate to give and bestow. Justice is the very gift of God, which none but God give to men. But who is so foolish as to gather from this, that unjust men, robbers, murderers, and witches, are not to be punished because the magistrate cannot bestow righteousness upon unrighteous people by punishment? We must therefore differentiate between faith as it is the gift of God in the heart of man; and faith as it is the outward profession uttered and declared before the face of men. For while false faith lurks and lies hidden within the heart, and infects none but the unbeliever, the unbelieving infidel cannot be punished. But once this false and forged faith that lay so hidden, breaks out into blasphemy — to the open tearing of God and the infecting of his neighbours — then that blasphemer and seducer must afterward be plucked under, and kept from creeping to further annoyance. Not to suppress such a fellow as this, is to put a sword in a madman's hand to kill unwise and weakly men.

Faith is the gift of God; but, where he bestows faith, he uses means by which to give it. He will not have us neglect those means.

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A householder knows that faith is the gift of God. And yet, notwithstanding, he instructs his children in the word of truth; he charges them to go to church, to pray for faith, and to learn it from the preacher's mouth. A good father would not think well of it, if his son were to say: Father, I pray you, do not teach me, do not send me to church so much, and do not beat me if I am not there; for faith is the gift of God, which whipping cannot bring me to. What man can quietly abide to hear that faith is the gift of God, and therefore no man should suffer any punishment for faith, that is, for the corruption of faith and open blasphemy?

And yet Petilian, in the eighty-third chapter of St. Augustine's second book contra Petiliani literas, cries out and says: "God forbid, and far be it from our conscience, to compel any man to our religion." [718] Shall we, therefore, go on to speak the words of heretics, or to say that the Lord God has planted hypocrisy in the scriptures, where with threats and punishment he has driven men to goodness? David says: "It is good for me, Lord, that you have chastised me." Psa 119.71 And Jeremiah says: "You have chastised me, Lord, and I am chastised, like an untamed heifer." Jer 31.18 But if no man should be compelled to goodness, to what intent does Solomon (the wisest of all men) so many times command us to chastise children? "He that spares the rod hates the child," he says; "You indeed strike him, but with the rod you deliver his soul from death." [719] Daily experience, and the disposition of men, plainly teach that the most vehement affections are in men. Unless they are quickly remedied and bridled, they destroy both those in whom they are found, and other men too — those who at first might easily have been preserved with light punishment. Men in their madness despise compulsion and chastising punishment. But when they come to themselves again, and see what great evils they are delivered from by those who compelled them, they rejoice that they were chastised to their health, and praise the compulsion which they despised before.

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Let us hear what Augustine thinks and teaches about this, whose experience in this matter was very great. In his forty-eighth Epist. ad Vincentium contra Donatist. de vi coercendis haereticis, he writes thus: "My opinion sometimes was that no man should be compelled by force to the unity of Christ; that we ought to deal by words, fight in disputations, and overcome with reason, lest we have those whom we knew to be open heretics, counterfeit themselves as catholics. This opinion of mine was not confuted with the words of my questioners, but with the examples of those which showed the contrary. For first, my own city (Hippone) was objected to me. When it held wholly with Donatus [720] at times, it was converted to the catholic unity by fear of the imperial laws. And today we see it so greatly detest the naughtiness of your heretical stomachs, that it is thought truly that your "heresy" was never within it. [721] And many more places by name were reckoned to me so that, by the effect of the thing itself, I might confess that in such a case as this, it may be rightly understood where it is written: Give a wise man occasion, and he will be the wiser." [722] And again:

"Not everyone that spares is a friend; nor is everyone that strikes, an enemy. Better are the stripes of a friend than the voluntary kisses of an enemy. It is better to love with severity, than to deceive with leniency. He that binds a frenzied man, and wakes the one who is sick from lethargy, troubles them both, and yet he loves them both. Who can love us more than God himself does? And yet, just as he teaches us mildly, so he does not cease to terrify us to our health.

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Do you think that no man should be compelled to righteousness, when you read that the good man of the house said to his servants, 'Whomever you find, compel them to come in;' or when you read that the one who was first called Saul and afterward Paul, was constrained by the violent force of Christ, which compelled him to know and keep fast the truth of the gospel?" [723]

And the same Augustine again, in Epist. ad Bonifacium comitem 59, says:

"Where is that saying now, which they usually cry out, that it is everyone's free choice to believe or not to believe? Whom did Christ constrain? Whom did he compel? Look, here they have the apostle Paul as an example. Let them confess that in him, Christ first compelled him, then taught him; first struck him, and afterward comforted him. And it is wonderful how, by the punishment of his body, he was compelled to the gospel; and afterward laboured more in the gospel than all those who were called by word alone. By the greater fear, he was compelled to charity; and then his charity, once perfected, cast out all fear. Why then should the church not therefore compel her lost children to return, since the lost children have compelled others to their destruction?" [724]

Again, in the same epistle, the same Augustine says:

"Though some, who would not have upright laws ordained against their ungodliness, say that the apostles never required any such things of the kings of the earth. They do not consider that it was another time (not like this), and that all things are done in their due time and season.

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For what emperor at that time believed in Christ, to serve him by making laws in defence of religion against ungodliness? As yet, this prophecy was still being fulfilled: 'Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers took counsel against God and against his Christ.' Psa 2.2 For as yet, that was not begun which follows in the Psalm, where it is said: 'And now understand, you kings, and be learned, you that judge the earth; serve Him in fear and rejoice in trembling.' Psa 2.10-11 How do kings serve God in fear, except by forbidding and punishing with devout severity those things which are done against God's commandments? For in being a man, he serves God one way; but in being a king, he serves Him another way — because in being a man, he serves God by living faithfully; but in being a king, he serves Him by establishing convenient laws to command that which is just, and to forbid the contrary.

Hezekiah thus served God by destroying the groves and temples of idols, and those high places that were erected against the Lord's commandment. Josiah served God by doing the same. The king of Nineveh served Him by compelling the whole city to please and appease the anger of the Lord. Darius served Him by giving the idol into Daniel's power to be broken in pieces, and by casting his enemies among the lions. Nebuchadnezzar served him by a terrible proclamation, which forbade all men within his dominion to blaspheme the true and very God. In this, therefore, kings should serve God: that in being kings, they do those things which none but kings can do. This is why, in the apostles' times, kings did not yet serve the Lord, but imagined a vain thing against the Lord and against his Christ — that the prophet's sayings might yet be fulfilled. There could not then be any laws made to forbid ungodliness, I say; but rather, counsel was taken to put ungodliness into practice. For the course of times so turned, that the Jews should kill the preachers of Christ, thinking that they did God good service thereby; Joh 16.2 and the Gentiles also should fret and rage against the Christians, and make the martyrs' constancy overcome the flames of fire.

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But afterward, when that which is written began to be fulfilled, 'And all the kings of the earth shall worship him, all nations shall serve him;' what man that was well in his wits would say to kings, 'Tosh, take no care how, or by whom, the church of your Lord is defended or defaced within your kingdom; let it not trouble you to mark who will be honest, and who will be dishonest within your dominion.' For since God has given man free will, why should adultery be punished, and sacrilege be left untouched? Is it a lighter matter for the soul to break a promise with God, than for a woman to break a promise with a man? Or because those things which are not committed by contempt, but by ignorance of religion, are to be more mildly punished, are they therefore to be utterly neglected? Who doubts that it is better for men to be brought to worship God by teaching, rather than be compelled to it by fear or by grief of punishment. But because these are better, those which are not better, are not therefore to be neglected. For it has profited many men (as we see by experience) first to have been compelled with fear and grief, so that afterward they might either be taught, or follow that in deed which they had learned in words." [725]

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Up to here I have repeated the words of St. Augustine's answer to the objections of those who are of the opinion that disobedient rebels, seduced people, and deceivers, should not be punished by any law in cases of religion.

I see my hope fails me, in which I thought that I could have been able in this sermon to have made an end of all that I had to say touching the magistrate. But I perceive that I must stop here, lest by going on, dearly beloved, I be too tedious to you all. I mean tomorrow, therefore, to add the rest that is left behind. Make your humble prayers to the Lord upon your knees, and then depart in peace.

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2-9. THE NINTH SERMON: OF WAR.

OF WAR; WHETHER IT IS LAWFUL FOR A MAGISTRATE TO MAKE WAR.

WHAT THE SCRIPTURE TEACHES TOUCHING WAR.

WHETHER A CHRISTIAN MAN MAY BEAR THE OFFICE OF A MAGISTRATE.

AND THE DUTY OF SUBJECTS.

To the right of the sword, which God has given to the magistrate, also belongs war. For in my last sermon I taught you that the use of the sword in the magistrate's hand is twofold, or of two sorts. Either he punishes offenders with it; or else he repels the enemy that spoils or would spoil his people, or cuts off the rebellious purposes of his own seditious citizens.

But many doubt whether it is lawful for a magistrate to make war or not.[726] And it is a marvel to see them as blind as beetles in a matter of itself as plain as possible. For if the magistrate by God's law punishes offenders, thieves, and harmful persons; and it makes no matter whether they are few or many in number, as I declared in yesterday's sermon; even by the same law he may persecute, repel, and kill rebellious people, seditious citizens, and barbarous soldiers who, under the pretence of war, attempt to do openly what thieves and robbers are prone to do secretly. The prophet, I confess, among other things, prophesied about us Christians, and said: "They shall turn their swords into spades, and their javelins into scythes." Isa 2.4 For Christians have peace with all men, and altogether abstain from armour; for everyone does another what he would wish to have done to himself. But because all are not so minded, and many unruly persons, wicked thieves, and oppressors of the poor, live and dwell among honest and good-meaning men, as wild beasts among harmless creatures — God from heaven has therefore given the sword into the magistrate's hand, to be a defence for harmless people against unruly cut-throats.

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But we do not read any place, that we are forbidden to suppress and kill wolves, wild boars, bears, and other such beasts that annoy [727] and prey upon men or cattle. Why then should we not, by lawful war begun in a good quarrel, repel the unjust injury of violent robbers — since thieves, robbers, barbarous soldiers, and seditious citizens, differ little or nothing from wild beasts? The scripture, truly, does not deign to call them by any other names than by the names of beasts. The common sense of nature consents to this; and the doctrine of faith and religion agrees with it. "If it is possible," says the apostle, "as much as it lies in you, live quietly with all men; not revenging yourselves." See, here he says, "as much as it lies in you," and "if it is possible" — otherwise (he adds immediately after), "The magistrate does not bear the sword in vain." [728] He means, for those who trouble all things, and annoy the men who desire to live at peace. And this is confirmed by the examples of the most holy and excellent men that have been in the world, who have taken war in hand for the defence of their country and harmless countrymen. I have already declared this from St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, when in the exposition of the fifth precept, I showed what honour every man owes to his country.[729]

I will add to these some reasons of St. Augustine, uttered contra Faustum Manichaeum, Lib. xxii. cap. 74:

"Neither let him," he says, "marvel or be astonished at the wars made by Moses; because even in those, too, he followed God's commandment — not like a tyrant, but like an obedient servant. Nor did God rage with cruelty when he commanded those wars; but he justly paid home those that deserved it, and terrified those that were worthy of it. For what is blameworthy in war? Is it to be blamed that those die who once must die, so that those who live may rule in peace? To find fault with that is rather a cowardly touch, than the part of a religious Christian. Desire to hurt, cruelty in revenging, an unappeased stomach, bruteness in rebelling, greediness to rule, and whatever else is like these, are the things that are worthy to be blamed in war, and by right of law are to be sharply punished. Against the violence of injurious enemies, at the commandment either of God himself or any other lawful power, even good men are prone to take war in hand, since their state in the world is such that political order justly binds the magistrate in such a case to command it, and the subjects to obey it.

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Otherwise John [the Baptist], when the soldiers came to him to be baptized, asking 'What shall we do?' Luk 3.14 would have answered them by saying: 'Cast off your armour, forsake your soldier's life; strike, wound, or kill nobody.' But, because he knew that while they did so, as soldiers in the war, they were not murderers, but ministers of the law — not revengers of their own injuries, but defenders of the commonweal — he said to them, 'Strike no man, do no man injury; be content with your wages.' But because the Manicheans [730] have usually blasphemed or spoken against John, let them hear the Lord Jesus Christ himself commanding us to give to Caesar that stipend which John said the soldier should be content with. 'Give,' he says, 'to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God the things that belong to God.' Mat 22.21 For tribute is paid to this end: that the soldier in the war may have his pay out of hand for his pain. When the centurion said, 'I am a man set under power, having soldiers under me; and I say to one, Go, and he goes, and to another, Come, and he comes, and to my servant, Do this, and he does it;' — the Lord very well, therefore, commended his faith, and did not command him to forsake his soldiership." [731]

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To this also pertains that which follows in the same 75th chapter and in the 76th after. But of purpose, I willingly bear somewhat with you, not meaning to be tedious and overlong, by repeating too many sentences.

Thus I have shown you up to here that it is lawful for the magistrate to make war. This is where, by the way, we also gather that his subjects may lawfully, without any offence to God, take armour to battle: when they take it in hand at the magistrate's bidding. But if the magistrate's purpose is to kill the guiltless, then as I declared in my former sermons, his people should not obey his wicked commandments.

Let the magistrate therefore have an eye to himself, that he not abuse his lawful authority. And although the magistrate is licensed to make war for just and necessary causes, notwithstanding, war is most full of peril; and draws with itself an endless troop of mischievous evils. By war, the just judgment of God plagues the men whom his fatherly warning could never move; but among them, many times too, the guiltless feel the whip. In war, for the most part, soldiers misuse themselves, and thereby incur God's heavy displeasure. There is no evil in the whole world that war does not uphold. By war, both scarcity of everything and dearth arise: for highways are stopped, corn is trodden on the ground and marred, whole villages are burnt, provision goes to wrack, handicrafts are unoccupied, merchandise ceases, and all perish, both rich and poor. The valiant strong men are slain in the battle; the cowardly sort run for their lives to hide their heads, reserving themselves to be tormented with more intense and terrible kinds of cruel punishments: for wicked knaves, who abuse mankind like savage beasts, are promoted to dignity and bear the sway.

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Hands are wrung on every side; widows and children cry out and lament; the wealth, that has been carefully gathered to help in want to come, is spoiled and stolen away; cities are rased, virgins and unmarriageable maidens are shamefully deflowered, all honesty is utterly violated, old men are handled irreverently, laws are not exercised, religion and learning are not regarded, godless knaves and cut-throats have dominion — and therefore, in the scriptures war is called the scourge of God. For with war He plagues incurable idolaters, and those who stubbornly contemn His word. That was the reason why the city of Jerusalem, with the whole nation of the Jews, was utterly destroyed: "because they did not know the day of their visitation" [732] (as the Lord says in the gospel), but went on to kill the Lord's apostles, bringing upon their own necks "the shedding of all the blood, from the righteous Abel to Zechariah." [733] We read that it was for murder, idolatry, incest, and detestable riot, that the Canaanites were rased and cut off. Lev 18.27-28 The Moabites, as Isaiah witnesses, were quite overthrown for cruelty, inhumanity, and contempt of the poor.[734] The men of Nineveh unjustly vexed other nations by war, making havoc of all, to fill their greedy desire. And therefore, says the prophet Nahum, other men measured to them, the same measure they had measured to others before.[735] Micah, in his sixth chapter, flatly affirms that God sends war upon unjust men for their covetousness and false deceit. In Jeremiah it is arrogance and pride, in Isaiah riot and drunkenness, that are said to be the causes of war.[736]

But the evil and misery that war brings with it stick so fast to commonweals and kingdoms, once it has hold, that it cannot be removed, taken away, or shaken off, at our will and pleasure, by any worldly wisdom, by any leagues, with any wealth, by any fortifications, by any power or manhood; as seen in the prophet Obadiah.[737] Our sincere turning to God alone is the only way to remedy it, as Jeremiah testifies in his fifth chapter. Now this turning to the Lord consists in freely acknowledging and frankly confessing our sins, in true faith for remission of sins through the grace of God and merit of Christ Jesus: secondarily, it consists in the hatred and renouncing of all unrighteousness, in love of justice, innocence, charity, and all other virtues; and last of all, in earnest prayers and continual supplications.

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Again, you may perhaps see that some, by war, have no small commodity, profit, and inestimable riches, with very little loss or no damage at all. Such was the war which the Israelites had with the Canaanites under their captain Joshua. But I would not have it that gaping after gain would draw any man away from right and equity. And many times, the magistrates suppose that their quarrel is good, and that by right they ought to make war on others and punish offenders — when notwithstanding, the righteous God draws them into peril by that occasion, so that their own sins may be punished by the very men whom they purposed to punish for some grievous crime. We have evident examples of this in the scriptures. The eleven tribes of Israel, in a good quarrel, made war on the Benjamites, purposing to revenge the detestable crime that a few wicked knaves had horribly committed, and in which the whole tribe bore them out and upheld them — thereby becoming partners of their heinous offence. But twice the Israelites were put to the worse, and the wicked Benjamites had the upper hand in the battle.[738] In the time of Eli, the Israelites had a mind to drive the tyrannous rule of the idolatrous Philistines out of their country; but they were slain, and the ark of God was taken, and carried into the cities of their idolatrous enemies.[739] Likewise, that excellent prince Josiah is overthrown and slain by the Chaldees, because the Lord had purposed to punish and bring evil upon the whole people of Israel. God would not have so holy a prince, His servant, see this with his eyes, to his sorrow and grief.[740] From this we must gather that the truth of religion is not to be esteemed by the victory or overthrow of any people. It is not that any religion is true and right whose favourers have the upper hand; and that any religion is false and untrue whose professors and maintainers are put to the worse. For we must distinguish between religion, and the men or persons who keep that religion, which suffer the Lord's visitation for other causes.

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But all this admonishes us that the magistrate needs the great fear of God before his eyes, both in making and repelling wars, lest while avoiding the smouldering coalpit, he happens to fall into the scalding limekiln;[741] or lest, while supposing to ease his shoulders of one evil, he heaps up more or far greater evils by that same means. Princes, therefore, must precisely look into and thoroughly examine the cause of wars, before they begin or take them in hand. The causes are many, and of many sorts; but the chief causes are these that follow:

The magistrate is compelled to send aid and lift the siege of his enemy, which environs [742] the garrisons that he has appointed for the defence of some of his cities; because it would be an offence, and part of parricide, to forsake and give over, against oath and honesty, his cities and garrisons that are in extremity.

Or else the magistrate by duty is compelled to make war upon men who are incurable, whom the very judgment of the Lord condemns and bids to kill without pity or mercy. Such were the wars as Moses had with the Midianites, and Joshua [743] with the Amalekites. Of that sort are the wars in which such men are oppressed. Invincible malice will both perish themselves, and draw others to destruction as well as themselves — along with those who, rejecting all justice and equity, stubbornly persist in their naughtiness. Such were the Benjamites, which were destroyed by sword and fire of the other eleven tribes. Such today are those arrogant and seditious rebels who trouble commonweals and kingdoms, just as Absalom of old was in Israel, and Sheba the son of Bichri; of whom mention is made in the second book of Samuel. 2Sam 20.1

To this pertain the wars that are taken in hand for the defence of true religion against idolaters and enemies of the true and catholic faith. Those err, who are of the opinion that no wars may be made in defence of religion. The Lord, indeed, blamed Peter for striking with the sword, because he was an apostle; but notwithstanding, he did not thereby bid the magistrate to be negligent in looking to religion, neither did He forbid him to defend and maintain the pureness of faith. For if it is lawful for the magistrate to defend with the sword the things of account, which include liberty, wealth, chastity, and his subjects' bodies, then why should he not defend and revenge the things of greater account, and those which are of greatest weight?

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There is nothing of more and greater weight than sincere and true religion. There is, moreover, a manifest and flat commandment of God touching this matter to be seen in the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy. For the Lord commands that every city within the jurisdiction of every magistrate, which departs from God and the worship of God, should be set upon with warriors, and utterly rased, if it did not revolt from idolatry quickly. If the magistrate is commanded to punish apostates by war, then it is lawful for him to defend by war, the Church that is in danger of being drawn from true religion to false idolatry, by any barbarous prince. By war, Joshua would have suppressed the Reubenites and their confederates for building an altar against God's commandment. Judas Maccabeus fought for the people of God against the people and soldiers of king Antiochus, who purposed to tread down the Jewish religion (which at that time was the true worship of God), and force all men to receive and profess his heathenish superstition. Likewise also, Paul greatly commended those Jewish captains or judges who by faith withstood and turned away foreign enemies' invasions. And Paul himself warred in Cyprus against Elymas the false prophet, and struck him with blindness. He adds the reason why he struck him blind, which he draws from keeping religion: "Will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?" Act. 13.10. Again, forty men lie in wait for the same Paul, supposing that if he were done away with, a good part of preaching the gospel would then come to an end; and thereby the Jewish religion (which, notwithstanding, was utterly false) would have been set up and maintained as the truth.

But Paul was not negligent to remedy this case, nor did he turn the other cheek to have that struck too. Rather, he earnestly and humbly requires delivery and defence, which he did not request of a Christian magistrate (when as yet there was none), but of a Roman centurion. Nor did he once question him when he saw that the centurion chose four hundred footmen and seventy horsemen, whom he placed in battle array, to conduct Paul safely from Jerusalem to Antipatridis.[744] By that means, Paul, the vessel of election, was preserved by an armed band of Italian soldiers.[745]

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The emperor Maximinus tyrannously oppressed the Armenians. In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius says:

"The people of Armenia were long-time both profitable and friends to the people of Rome. At length, being compelled by Maximinus Caesar to change from the Christian religion (to which the whole nation was most holily bent) to the worship of idols, and to honour devils instead of God, they became enemies instead of friends, and adversaries instead of fellows. Preparing to defend themselves by force of arms against Caesar's wicked edicts, they made war on him of their own accord, and often put him to much trouble and business." [746]

Thus says Eusebius. It is lawful, therefore, for the magistrate to defend his people and subjects against idolaters, and to maintain and uphold true religion by war.

Like this, there is another reason why the magistrate may take war in hand. For perhaps some barbarous enemy invades the people committed to his charge, tearing and spoiling them most cruelly, like a wolf in a flock of sheep. This is when you did not first provoke him to it by injury, but also, after his causeless beginning, you have offered equal conditions of peace to be made. In such a case as this, the magistrate is commanded to stand forth like a lion, and to defend his subjects against the open wrong of merciless cut-throats. Moses did this when he fought against Arad, Sihon, and Og, kings of the Amorites.[747] So did Jehoshaphat, when he fought against the Ammonites and inhabitants of mount Seir.[748] So did David, when he repelled [749] the war made on him by the Syrians. Or else, the magistrate aids his confederates when they are wrongfully oppressed by tyrants (for the magistrate may make a league with the nations about him, doing nothing thereby against the word of God).

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For so Joshua delivered the Gibeonites from the siege of their enemies, and Saul the men of Jabesh Gilead, fighting for them against Nahash, a prince full of tyranny.[750] In such cases as these, magistrates and princes lawfully make war, and their soldiers and subjects rightly obey them. Indeed, the one who dies in so just a quarrel, dies a happy death with great glory, for the defence of religion, the laws of God, and his country, wife, and children. Those, therefore, that enter into warfare to sustain the troublesome toil of battle, must not set their minds upon gain or pleasure, in which they look to lie still and wallow when peril is past. But justice, public peace, defence of the truth and innocence, must be the mark for them all to shoot at, with the intent that once the wicked are vanquished, the victory is obtained, and the enemies are either put to flight, slain out of hand, or brought to better order — then religion may flourish, judgment and justice may be exercised, the Church upheld, the ceremonies, rites, ordinances, and discipline of it maintained, study and learning cherished, the poor provided for, widows and children defended and cared for; that all sorts may live in quiet peace; that old men in reverence, maidens in chastity, and matrons in honesty, may serve God, praise God, and worship God, without fear or danger. This was the mark to which our fathers Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, and other valiant men of famous memory, directed the eyes of their bodies and minds. Upon this only their hearts were settled, so often as they warred and went to battle against ungodly tyrants in defence of the church and commonweal. To them, and to all other valiant and godly soldiers, eternal praise is duly given by all the church and faithful saints. But reproach and infamy are worthily due to fearful and cowardly soldiers, to wicked, covetous, and blaspheming warriors, to riotous knaves, and inconstant traitors — by whose cowardice, gluttony, lust, and unnatural treason, excellent kingdoms come to nothing, and flourishing commonweals are quite overthrown: for God himself has cursed such knaves forevermore.

Therefore it is not lawful to make any war, unless it is against open enemies, and wicked men who are incurable. Those wars are unjust, which men make upon their own fellows, against innocent persons, or against people in whom there is hope of amendment.

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Those wars also are unjust, which are not begun by lawful means for matters of weight. All things must first be assayed, before it comes to be tested by battle. Other men's territories must not be desired; the liberty of other people or your own subjects must not be repressed; you must not follow any affection which may withdraw or seduce your mind. Of this sort are the desire of rule, covetousness, greediness for gifts, envy, and other affections like these. War is indeed a remedy to commonweals — but perilous and dangerous, even as lancing or cutting is perilous to the members. The hand is poisoned, and the arm is in danger of becoming envenomed too, by which the whole man may perhaps be cast away. Yet you do not cut off your hand until, having tried all other medicines, you plainly perceive that no other means can remedy the sore except cutting it off. Likewise, only when all helps fail at last, may war begin — nevertheless, let the prince remember to begin with war before all help and hope of recovery are utterly past.[751]

The word of God is so far off from finding fault with a war that is begun upon a just quarrel, that it makes laws of war, and it also shows a number of examples of upright wars, by wise and worthy warriors. The laws of war are recited in the 20th chapter of Deuteronomy. They are both profitable and necessary, and so evident that they need no words of mine to expound them. Moreover, in every place of scripture, these laws of war are still bid to be kept.

First of all, the chief and uppermost place must be given to religion in every camp and garrison; for the Lord himself has appointed priests and ministers of true religion to attend and serve in wars.

Secondly, let upright laws be enforced in camps abroad, as well as in cities at home. Let soldiers live honestly, justly, and rightly, as order and discipline customarily require, as they are in the city at home. For that saying which is commonly spread abroad, "Let laws in war be hushed and still," [752] does not come from God, but from the devil.

Thirdly, let him that is chosen to be guide and general of the war be godly, just, holy, valiant, wise, and fortunate, as were those old: Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, Constantine, Theodosius,[753] and many more.

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To all this must be added a chosen band of tried men: for a choice of soldiers must be made, unless the army is to consist of a troop of bastards and unskilled men, of perjured and blaspheming knaves, of cut-throats and rakehells, of drunkards and gluttons, and a beastly drove of filthy swine. Victory does not consist in the multitude of men, but in the grace of God and a chosen band. The proverb is common which says, "Where a multitude is, there is confusion." Great and innumerable armies are largely left to themselves — as we learn by daily experience, and as examples of every age testify. Moreover, loiterers in camps are always reproved. Let the Christian soldier, therefore, be idle at no time; let him ever be busy, and still doing something: let him be courageous, faithful to his country, ready to take pains, obedient to his captains, fit to take time when occasion is offered, and ever-occupied in warlike discipline — no effeminate milksop, but of manly stomach; not cruel and merciless, but severe and pitiful, as the time requires. What he may preserve, let him not destroy. But above all things, let him not forget evermore to make his prayers and supplications to God his Saviour; nor let him think scornfully, whether in peril or out of peril. Let him begin all things in God's name; let him attempt nothing without God. In adversity, and when he is overthrown, let his courage not quail, nor his heart and hope forsake him; in prosperity let him not be puffed up with pride and arrogance, but let him give thanks to God, and use the conquest like a merciful victor. Let him wholly depend on God's helping hand, and desire nothing rather than the defence of the commonweal, laws, religion, justice, and guiltless people.

Many, I know, will marvel to see me require at the hands of a soldier the things that seem to be looked for from a right good and godly man, as the common saying goes; as though, indeed, none could be soldiers except irreligious and naughty men. Soldiers, I confess, are such fellows for the most part. But what fruit, I ask you, do we reap today from such evil seed?

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The Turks overrun and spoil us; to all the heathen we are a jesting-stock to laugh at; kingdoms decay and are made subject to devilish Mahometism, and every day we are wrapped in more miseries than others.[754] But we may easily gather what kind of soldiers those of old were, who went to war from the church or congregation of Christians, even by that one history, worthy of remembrance, which Tertullian, writing to Scapula, sets down thus:

"Marcus Aurelius also, in his wars with the Germans, by the prayers which Christian soldiers made to God, obtained showers of rain in that great drought. At what time have droughts not been turned away by our prayers and fastings? Then the people crying out for joy to the God of gods, and the emperor himself, under the name of Jupiter, confessed the wonderful working of our God." [755]

Thus much from Tertullian. But Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, has more largely and fully set down the same history, and says:

"Histories report that Marcus Aurelius, brother to Antoninus Caesar, made war on the Germans and Sarmatians. When his army was in danger of being lost with drought, being at his wits' end because he did not know what way to seek remedy in that distress, at last lighted upon a certain legion of Christian soldiers whose prayers God had heard. As is the manner of our men, they had cried out to God on their knees. Suddenly, when no man looked for it, sufficient showers poured down, such that the thirst of the army, then in danger and for which the Christians had made supplications, was quickly quenched. But their enemies which hovered there, waiting for their destruction, were struck and scattered with thunder and lightning, fire from heaven. This deed is reported by heathen historiographers; but they do not report that it was obtained at the prayers of our men. For with them, the other miracles done by our men, have no place of credit.

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But among our men, Tertullian mentions this; and among the Greeks, Apollinaris also affirms, that for the miracle of that notable deed, that legion's name was changed by the emperor, and called The Legion of Thunder. Tertullian adds that the letters of Marcus the emperor are still to be had, in which the full and manifest truth of this matter is plainly declared." [756]

Up to here we have Eusebius. By this, we gather that Christian soldiers of old were not only given to prayer, but to justice also, and holiness of living. For who does not know what James the apostle said? "The earnest prayer of a righteous man avails much... Elijah was a man under infirmities even as we are, and he prayed again his prayer, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." Jas 5.16-18

It is most evident, therefore, that soldiers of old were very godly and religious men. Our soldiers these days, because they are far from religion, indeed, because they are enemies to true religion, instead of victory, they suffer overthrows abroad, and loss and destruction of their cities at home. And commonweals worthily suffer such plagues, for trusting so much in such wicked soldiers.

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For to trust them is the same as putting confidence in the very devils, whom these soldiers, for the most part, exceed in all kinds of filthiness, uncleanness, cruelty, and villainy.

But now the word of God sets before our eyes countless examples almost, of holy and upright wars, and of excellent kings and captains. Abraham, our father, setting out with a very small army, pursues the four most powerful kings or robbers of the world; he overthrows and puts them to flight. And having recovered his people, and restored their substance to them again, he gives the thanks to God, as the author of that unlikely victory.[757] Moses and Joshua destroyed about thirty-nine kings; they punished severely the unspeakable wickedness of all those nations, and planted the people committed to their charge in the land which God had promised to give them. The Judges of the people of Israel had notable wars against the heathens and infidels, whereby they broke the tyranny of those wicked men, unlawfully usurped among God's people, restoring them again to their liberty and religion. The prophet Samuel is to be numbered here among the notable captains of God's people. Jonathan, Saul's son, was a worthy captain, and a singular example of a godly man. None was more excellent or worthy to be praised than David. In war, he vanquished the Philistines, the Idumites, the Syrians, and a good part of the East beside; by war he revenged injuries; by war he maintained his liberty and kept God's people from a number of mischiefs. And yet, notwithstanding, he that warred this way is said to be a man according to God's heart's desire, and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, touching his flesh or his humanity.[758] In David's posterity you may find many excellent warriors and valiant captains: Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Amaziah, Uzziah,[759] Hezekiah, and others. Judas Maccabeus is not the last nor least place among these. He fought very stoutly for the law, religion, and people of God, and died at last in the midst of battle, in defence of religion and his country's quarrel. I will not add to these the examples of Constantine, Gratian, Theodosius, and others that were excellent in feats of war. St. Augustine writes of these and others in the end of his fifth book de Civitate Dei,[760] and Orosius very largely in the seventh book of his history, to the end of the 28th chapter.[761]

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This is sufficient for godly magistrates. Up to here I have discoursed about war to be made by the magistrate, and the use of the sword in the magistrate's hand. Touching this, I gave some notes by the way in that sermon in which I expounded the Fifth Commandment.[762]

This being thus ended, I have now to prove that Christian men may bear the office 0f a magistrate. I mean to take this treatise in hand, therefore, because our mad-headed Anabaptists, and some other builders of a devised commonweal,[763] by questioning what we have alleged up to here, set about to prove that a Christian may not bear the office of a magistrate. Their reason is because Christians, as they say, may not strive in law, nor kill any man, nor recover by war things that have been violently taken away, nor revenge any injury that is done to them. And although each of these causes of theirs is answered in its fit and several place, I will yet briefly gather together here a few substantial arguments, by which a politic [764] and Christian man may understand (contrary to the madness and dreams of the Anabaptists) if he is called to bear rule and authority. Then he both may, and of duty should, serve the Lord his God in taking upon himself and executing the office of a magistrate. For, though they feign that the doctrine of the gospel utterly cuts off all kinds of defence, and whatever else belongs to the defence of Christian men's goods and bodies, that is not at all so, and they are deceived as far as heaven is wide. For the truth teaches us clean contrary to that.

Whatever things are ordained by God as a means of men's safeguard and good estate, they are so far from unbecoming and unseemly for a Christian man (if he uses and applies himself to them), that if he refuses and neglects them, he cannot rightly be called a true Christian.

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For the first and greatest care of every Christian is, by all means that he may, to set forward and maintain the health and safeguard of all sorts of men. The magistrate is not ordained by any man, but by God himself, for the health and wealth of all mankind. This is expressly witnessed by the prophets and apostles, but especially by Paul in the 13th chapter to the Romans. Who then cannot perceive by this, that a Christian may praiseworthily execute a magistrate's office?

Furthermore, no man will deny, I know, that a Christian man's faith is not in words only, but in deeds also, to give a proof of justice and mercy, by all means to care for public peace and tranquility, to judge with justice, to defend the fatherless, widows, and children, and to deliver poor oppressed people. Nor does he contemn, flee from, nor reject, occasion, places, and means, by which he may put those good works to use. And therefore, a Christian does not refuse the place or office of a magistrate: for the magistrate's office is to judge with justice, and to provide for public peace.

Moreover, it is undoubtedly true, as we declared before, that Moses, Samuel, Joshua, and David, are not excluded from the name of Christianity. But since they were in authority and bore the names of magistrates, what allowance is there, I ask you, why a true Christian man may not bear the office of a magistrate in his commonweal? What may be thought of this, moreover? — that in the New Testament, certain notable men are well-reported when they were in authority; they were not removed from their offices because they were Christians and of a sound religion. Touching Joseph of Arimathea, we read in Luke: "And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor" (Mark says, "a noble senator" [765] ), who was a good man and just; he had not consented to their counsel and deed; he was from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, which also waited for the kingdom of God." [766] Mark here, I beseech you, how notable a testimony this man has here.

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Joseph is a counsellor or senator; yes, and what is more, a noble senator too. He sat in the senate, among those judges who condemned our Saviour Christ; but because he did not consent to their deed and judgment, he is acquitted as guiltless of that horrible murder. He is said to have been a good man and a just, and of the number of those who look for the kingdom of God; that is, of the number of those who are called Christians, of Christ. And yet, nevertheless, he was a counsellor or senator, and that too was in the city of Jerusalem. A Christian, therefore, may lawfully bear the office of a magistrate. To this belong the examples of the Ethiopian treasurer, Acts 8; of Cornelius the centurion, Acts 10; and of Erastus the chamberlain of Corinth, Rom 16, 2Tim 4. But our desire is to have the Anabaptists prove and declare from the scriptures what they object, claiming that these men, once converted to the faith, immediately put off their robes of estate, and lay aside their magistrate's sword. For we proved a little earlier, by St. Augustine's words on John the Baptist's answer [767] (who also preached the gospel), that the soldiers who were baptized were not removed from their office, nor commanded by John to surrender their armour and cease to be soldiers.

They object, again, that the Lord conveyed himself secretly away when the people were of a mind to make him a king.[768] This, they say, he would not have done; and by his example, he would commend humility to all Christian people; and as it were, he thereby commanded them not to allow the charge to rule any commonweal, to be laid upon their necks. Moreover, they add these sayings of the Lord: "My kingdom is not of this world." Again: "Kings of nations have dominion over them; but you shall not be so." [769] But they do not understand that the reason why the Lord conveyed himself away, was for the silly purpose of foolish people: they would make him a king, not to do the will of God, but being blinded by their affections, to seek to bring those things to pass that were for their ease and the filling of their bellies.

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For insomuch as he had fed them miraculously a little earlier, they therefore thought that he would be a king for their purpose, one who was able to give his subjects food without any cost or labour at all. Furthermore, our Lord did not come to reign on the earth in the manner of this world, as the Jews imagined, and as Pilate feared. They dreamed the Messiah would reign as Solomon did; and for that cause the Lord rightly says, "My kingdom is not of this world." For he has ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of his Father, having subdued all kings to himself, and the whole world beside. There he reigns by his word and his Spirit; and from there he shall come to judge at the end of the world. And although Christ denies that his kingdom is of this world, he never denied that kings and princes should come out of the world into the church, to serve the Lord in it — not as men alone, but as kings and men of authority. But kings cannot otherwise serve the Lord as kings, except by doing the things for which they are called kings.[770] And unless Christians, once they are made kings, continue in their office and govern kingdoms according to the rule and laws of Christ, how, I beseech you, should Christ be called "King of kings, and Lord of Lords?" Rev 19.16 Therefore, when he said, "Kings of nations have dominion over them, but you shall not be so;" Mat 20.25-26 he spoke to his apostles, who strove among themselves for the chief and highest dignity. It is as if he had said, Princes, who have dominion in the world, are not displaced from their seats by my doctrine, nor put out of their thrones; for the magistrate's authority is still of force in the world, and in the church also. The king or magistrate shall reign; but you shall not: you shall not reign, you shall not be princes, but teachers of the world and ministers of the churches. Thus I have briefly answered the Anabaptists objections, which in other places also, I have many times confuted somewhat more largely. By what I have said here, I think I have sufficiently proved that a Christian man not only can, but of duty also, ought to take upon himself the office of a magistrate, if it is lawfully offered to him.

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Now, before I make an end of the discourse about this place, I will briefly add what the duty of subjects is, and what every man owes his magistrate. First of all, the subjects' duty is to esteem their magistrates or princes honestly, reverently, and honourably, not vilely nor disdainfully. Let them reverence and honour them as the deputies and ministers of the eternal God. Let those abroad also give them the honour that is accustomed in every kingdom and country. It is a foul thing for subjects to behave themselves indecently towards their lords and men of authority. But a false, light, or ill opinion, once conceived, breeds contempt of the things and persons touching that opinion. Some evident testimonies of scripture, therefore, must be gathered and grafted in every man's heart, that thereby a just estimation and worthy authority of magistrates and officers may be bred and brought up in all people's minds. Here, by the way, let princes and magistrates take heed to themselves, that, they not make themselves contemptible and laughing-stocks by a spotted and unseemly life, and so by their own fault, lose all their authority among the common people. The Lord our God, truly, condescends to attribute His own name to the princes and magistrates of the people, and to call them gods, Exo 22.8; Psalm 82.1. The apostles called them the deputies and ministers of God, 1Peter 2.14; Rom 13.6. But who would not think well of gods, and those who are the deputies and ministers of God, by whom God works the wealth of the people? He that despises the one that is sent, despises the one that sends him.Luk 10.16 He that honours the deputy seems to give more honour to the one that appointed the deputy, than to the one that is the deputy. Moreover, Solomon in the sixteenth chapter of his Proverbs says: "Prophecy is in the lips of the king; therefore his heart shall not go wrong in judgment." [771] And in the eighth chapter of the Preacher: "I must keep the king's commandment because of the oath that I have made to God." [772] Again, Proverbs 24.21: "My son, fear the Lord and the king, and keep no company with those who slide back from the fear of them: for their destruction shall rise suddenly."

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And Paul said: "Whoever resists the power, resists the ordinance of God; but those who resist shall receive judgment to themselves." Rom 13.2 Of this sort I have repeated certain testimonies in the exposition of the fifth precept.

Secondly, let subjects pray for their princes and magistrates, that the Lord may give them wisdom, knowledge, fortitude, temperance, justice, upright severity, clemency, and all other requisite virtues; and that He will grant to lead them in his ways, and to preserve them from all evil; that we may live under them in this world in peace and honesty. Paul requires this at the hands of subjects, in the second chapter of his first epistle to Timothy; and Jeremiah, in the twenty-ninth chapter of his prophecy. I have recited their very words in another place; therefore, I let them pass at this time. The minds of many men are very slow and careless in this, and that is the reason why many times they feel the things that willingly they would not, and bear the burdens with grief enough, that otherwise they would not — and this is worthily too. For if they would but do their duty willingly, in praying for their magistrate earnestly, their case would undoubtedly be far better than it is. But we may gather how fervent a desire those in the primitive church had to pray for their magistrate, by these words of Tertullian, in the thirtieth chapter of his Apology: "We pray always," he says, "for all emperors, desiring God to give them long life, a sure reign, a safe house, valiant armies, faithful counsellors, honest subjects, a quiet world, and whatever else a man or emperor may desire." [773]

Let the People also obey the good and upright laws of their princes or magistrates; yes, let subjects obey them holily, reverently, and with a devout mind — not obeying their laws as the laws of men, but as the laws of the ministers and deputies of God himself.

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For Peter bids us obey them for the Lord; and Paul says, "We must not obey them for anger only, but for conscience' sake also;" [774] that is, we must not obey the magistrate only out of fear, lest our contempt and disobedience breed our punishment; but we must obey him, lest we sin against God himself, and so our own conscience argues for our wickedness. But in the fifth commandment, I proved by testimonies and examples from the scriptures, that we should not obey godless magistrates whenever they command any wicked thing, which is flatly contrary to the word of God. The apostles and faithful men of the primitive church chose to be shut up in prison, to be sent in exile, to be spoiled of their substance, to be thrown to wild beasts, to be killed with the sword, to be burnt with fire, and to be strangled, rather than obey any wicked commandments. That blessed martyr, bishop Polycarp, answered the Roman proconsul, and said: "We are taught to give to princes, and to the powers that are of God, such honour as is not contrary to true religion." [775] And St. John Chrysostom said to Gaina: "It is not lawful for a godly emperor to attempt anything contrary to God's commandments." [776]

Lastly, let subjects pay tribute to their magistrates; indeed, if necessity so requires, let them not hesitate to bestow their bodies and lives for the preservation of their magistrate and country, as I have already taught you in the fifth commandment. The Lord in the gospel simply says, "Give to God that which belongs to God, and to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar." Luk 20.25 Therefore, those who pinch, grudge at, or defraud the magistrate of any part of his tribute, are worthily blamed. Taxes and tributes are due to the magistrate, as the hire of his labour, and as it were, the sinews of public tranquility and commonweal. For "who goes to war out of his own proper cost?" 1Cor 9.7

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Every man lives by that labour in which he is occupied. The prince takes pains in governing the commonweal, and preserving it in peace. He neglects his own private and household business, by which he should live, and provides things necessary for himself and his family, by looking and attending to his country's affairs. It would be against reason, therefore, that he should not be fed and maintained on the public treasure and cost of his country. It is requisite, also, that kingdoms and commonweals be sufficiently furnished with money and substance to help in distress, either from war, famine, fire, or other miseries;[777] or to set up again men who have fallen into poverty, or to put away for greater calamities. I say nothing now touching the keeping in good repair of common buildings, such as the city-walls, bulwarks, trenches, ditches, gates, bridges, highways, wells, conduits, judgment-halls, and market-places, with many more of the same sort. There are also certain common persons, as Sergeants, watchmen, and the like, who are to be nourished and maintained from the common cost and treasury; and unless that money is still at hand and in readiness, no kingdom or commonweal can stand long in assurance. Those, therefore, who grudge to pay tribute, deny the hire of the magistrate's labour, and go to work the next best way to subvert the commonweal, and to bring it to nothing. The men that are negligent and careless in the commonweal's affairs (as some are), do not sin against any one lord, but against the whole commonweal. And therefore, you may see that such slothful workmen are seldom enriched with the good blessings of God.

But now here, by the way, all magistrates and princes must be admonished to love the people subject to their charge and government, to bear with them bountifully, and not to nip them with immoderate exactions. This is easily done if they themselves will be thrifty, and keep themselves moderately, away from riotous gluttony and over-sumptuous pride. Let a good prince consider what a sin it is to have his palace abound in riotousness and surfeiting, while his cities and towns are tormented and pined with famine and hunger. Let magistrates consider that tributes and subsidies are not the private goods of those in authority, but they are the public substance of the whole commonweal.

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God hates pillers and robbers. God abhors immoderate exactions. God curses polling tyrants. But He blesses profitable and moderate magistrates. In peace and war, agreement and concord are much more available than money that is unjustly gotten. And stronger is that kingdom, and firmer is that commonweal, which is upheld by the love and agreement of the prince and commonalty, even though the common treasure there is very small. It is stronger and firmer than that country or city which has innumerable riches heaped up together and wrung out of the citizens' entrails, where continual grudge and ill-will makes the prince and the people at continual variance. I say no more here than the very truth; experience of all ages is a witness that it is so.

Up to here, I have laid down before your eyes, dearly beloved, as briefly as I could, this much touching the magistrate. I have taken occasion upon the sixth commandment, "You shall not kill," and declared to what end and purpose God ordained him, what his duty is toward his subjects, and what his subjects' duty is toward him. Now let us pray, and beseech the Lord that he will grant to both magistrates and subjects, to walk worthily in their vocations.

2-10. THE TENTH SERMON: THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT.

OF THE THIRD PRECEPT OF THE SECOND TABLET, WHICH IN ORDER IS THE SEVENTH OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; OF WEDLOCK;

AGAINST ALL INTEMPERANCE; OF CONTINENCE.

THE nearest to our life and body is each one's mate in wedlock; for by wedlock two bodies are joined together, and are made one. For the Lord said, "And two shall be one flesh." [778] In this third precept, therefore, which is next after forbidding murder, a commandment is given for the holy keeping of honourable wedlock, and for the true sanctifying of the body against adulteries, wandering lusts, and all incontinence.

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Wedlock is prepared to this end and purpose: that honesty and chastity may flourish among good men, and that children may be brought up in the fear of the Lord. This commandment again is briefly expressed in as few words as possible: "You shall not commit adultery." [779] In the exposition of this commandment, by the help of God's good Spirit, I will first speak of holy matrimony; then of adultery; thirdly, I will show you what is contained under the name of adultery; and lastly, I will make an end with a treatise about continence.

Wedlock, which is also called matrimony, is an alliance or holy joining together of man and woman, coupled and brought into one by mutual consent of them both, with the intent that, using all things in common between themselves, they may live in chastity, and train up their children in the fear of the Lord. The gospel truly calls wedlock a joining together which God has made: for Christ said, "What God has joined together, let no man separate." Mat 19.6 Neither is it lawful to make any other the author of matrimony than God himself. God, by the means and ministry of his angels and chosen men, appointed other good and necessary ordinances for mankind's commodity; but, without the ministry of any person, He himself immediately ordained matrimony; he himself established and ratified it with laws for the purpose; he himself coupled the first married folks; and being the true high priest indeed, he himself blessed the couple whom He then joined together.

By this we may easily gather the excellent dignity of marriage or matrimony. For God ordained it; indeed, he ordained it in paradise, when man as yet was free from all kinds of calamities. Adam, when he was in the great felicity of paradise, did not yet seem to live commodiously nor sweetly enough, unless a wife were given to be joined to him. "It is not good," says God, "for man to be alone; I will make him a helper to tarry or dwell with him." [780] For God brought to Adam all living creatures which He had created, for Adam to name them. But among them all, there was nothing that Adam lusted for; his mind and nature utterly abhorred to be coupled with any of them.

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Therefore, casting Adam into a dead sleep, God frames up a woman out of his side, as he slept. As soon as Adam set his eye upon her, when she was brought to him by God who had made her, Adam immediately cries that this was such a one as he desired, that this was such a one that he could love, and with which his nature could very well agree. "This now," he says, "is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." He says, I have found a help fit for me, which has part of my flesh, and of my blood, and of my very substance. From this rises and still remains that natural proneness of men toward women. On the other side, contrariwise, the mingling and meddling of cursed men with beasts, contrary to man's nature, was long ago destroyed by fire; this showed that God abhorred it. The Lord moreover said: "A man shall forsake his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and two shall be one flesh." [781] But in the exposition of the fifth commandment, we perceived how much God sets store by the love and good-will of children toward their parents, and what charge he gives to children to honour them. It must therefore be, that wedlock is a most heavenly ordinance, since it is preferred above honouring parents. And it is so preferred that, by the law of matrimony, the precept for the honour due to parents may not be abolished, but married folks may thereby know how to behave themselves. If their parents go about breeding discord between themselves and their spouses, then the children will allow their parents' words to be severed in that, but in all other things to honour them as they should.

The holy patriarchs kept the law of matrimony, and reverenced wedlock very devoutly.[782] For no small parcel of the first and most excellent book of the bible, called Genesis, is spent in repeating the marriages of holy men. Nor is Moses, the peerless servant of God ashamed to mention the business and works of wedlock as pure and excellent, which seem to many today to be foul and filthy.

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Christ himself, being the very natural Son of God, was himself born in wedlock, although of a pure and uncorrupted virgin. He honoured and commended the knot of matrimony by granting to show his first miracle at a wedding — which was such a miracle that it declared the Lord is able to make the bitterness of marriage sweet, and the scarcity of it abound with plenty. As the apostles were married men, according to the examples of the patriarchs, kings, princes, priests, and prophets;[783] so Paul, the chief of all the apostles, cries out and says: "Wedlock is honourable among all, and the bed undefiled: but God will judge whoremongers and adulterers." Heb 13.4 He says that wedlock is honourable among all men; he means, all nations; for you will find very few people who do not greatly commend the state of marriage. Xenophon thinks that among all God's ordinances, hardly any can be found that is more commendable or profitable than wedlock is.[784] Musonius, Hierocles,[785] and other ancient sages, think marriage is so necessary to live well and conveniently, that the life of man without marriage seems to be maimed. Even they (the heathens I mean) think that whatever evils and discommodities there are in marriage, they consist in the married folks, and not in marriage. For marriage of itself is good; but many do not use well the thing that is good, and therefore they feel the smart of their foul abuse worthily. For who does not know that the fault of drunkenness is not to be referred to the wine, which is the good and wholesome creature of God, but to the excessive bibbing and over-greediness of man, who abuses God's good creature?

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"What comes out of the heart of man," says the Lord in the gospel, "and not what goes in by the mouth, defiles the man." [786] To this belongs that saying of Paul, the apostle of Christ, where he attributes sanctification to wedlock: "for the bed," he says, "is undefiled." Heb 13.4 And in another place he testifies that "the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife." [787] He also affirms that children born in wedlock are holy or clean. Moreover, the same Paul makes Christ an example of love between man and wife, and shadows the mysteries of Christ and the church by the colour of wedlock. He figures, I say, a heavenly thing by a holy type that God allows. Eph 5.22f Thus, in another place, the same apostle says that their doctrine which forbids men to marry is a very "doctrine of devils." 1Tim 4.1,3 Consequently, it follows that it is a heavenly doctrine, proceeding from God, which freely permits marriage to all men, and commends and reverences it.

The excellence and dignity of matrimony being thus understood, let us now seek out and look at the causes for which God has ordained marriage for men to embrace. God, according to his natural goodness, directs all his ordinances to the great good and abundant commodity of mortal men. Therefore, it follows that he ordained matrimony for the preservation of mankind to the end that man's life might be pleasant, sweet, and thoroughly furnished with sufficient joys. But all these causes may be reduced to three.

First, God himself says, "It is not good for man to be alone; let us make him a help therefore to be before him," or to dwell with him. Gen 2.18 So then, the first cause why wedlock was instituted, is man's commodity, that thereby the life of man might be pleasanter and more commodious; for Adam did not seem to live happily or sweetly enough by half, unless he had a wife to join himself to. This wife is not called an impediment or a necessary evil in the scriptures, as certain poets and beastly men who hated women have foolishly jangled; but she is the help or arm of the man.

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Antipater,[788] a heathen writer, in Sermone de Nuptiis, wonderfully agrees with this saying of the scripture, and expresses plainly what kind of help and what manner of arm the wife is to her husband. "Whoever," he says, "has not had the trial of a wife and children, is utterly ignorant of true mutual good-will. Love in wedlock is mutually shown when man and wife do not communicate wealth, children, and hearts alone, as friends usually do; but they have their bodies in common also, which friends cannot do. And therefore Euripides, laying aside the deadly hate that he bore to women, wrote these verses in commendation of marriage:

The wife that gads not, gigglot [789] wise,

With every flirting gill,[790]

But honestly does keep at home,

Not set to gossip still,

Is to her husband in his cares

A passing sweet delight;

She heals his sickness all, and calls

Again his dying sprite.

By fawning on his angry looks

She turns them into smiles;

And keeps her husband's secrets close,

When friends work wily guiles.

"For it is like a man having one hand or one foot: if by any means he could get himself another, he might thereby more easily lay hold of what he desires, or go where he will. Even so, the one that has married a wife will more easily enjoy the healthful pleasures and profitable commodities of this present life. For married folks have four eyes for two, and for hands, twice as many, which being joined together, they may more easily dispatch their handy business. Again, when the one's two hands are wearied, the hands of the other take their place, and carry on their work still. Marriage therefore, which instead of one member, is by increase the compact of two, is better able to pass through the course of this world than the single and unwedded life." [791]

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Thus much out of Antipater. Hierocles also in his book De Nuptiis says:

"To live with a woman is very profitable, even besides begetting children. For first, she welcomes home those of us who are tired abroad with labour and travail; she entertains us serviceably, and does all that she may to recreate our weary minds; she makes us forget all sorrow and sadness — for the troublesome circumstances of our life, and of care and business generally, while we are occupied in matters abroad, in bargaining in the country, or among our friends — these are not easily permitted to be troubled with our domestic and household affairs. But once we have dispatched them, and have returned to our wives at home — so that our minds are at quiet, and we are restored to our ease and liberty — then our cumbersome businesses are well lightened and eased, whereby they cease to trouble us any longer. Nor undoubtedly is a wife troublesome. Rather, she lightens things that are troublesome to us. For there is nothing so heavy that a man and wife, living in concord, are not able to bear, especially if they are both willing to endeavour." [792] And so forth.

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The second cause why matrimony was ordained is the begetting of children for the preservation or mankind by increase, and bringing them up in the fear of the Lord: for the Lord blessed Adam and Eve, saying, "Increase and multiply, and replenish the earth." Paul the Apostle in his Epistle to Titus says: "Speak to the elder women, that they may teach honest things, that they may make the younger women be sober-minded, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet housekeepers, good, and obedient to their husbands." Tit 2.3-5 And again, to Timothy: "Adam was not deceived, but the woman was seduced; nevertheless, through bearing children she shall be saved if they continue in faith, charity, and holiness, with modesty." [793] But begetting children would be altogether unprofitable, if they were not well brought up; for she that loves her children indeed brings them up in the fear of the Lord. Bringing them up is no small commodity to the commonweal and church of God. Also, the glory and worship of God is greatly augmented, when by wedlock a great number of men spring up who acknowledge, call upon, and worship God as they ought to do.

The third cause why matrimony was ordained, is expressed by the Apostle Paul in these words: "To avoid whoredom, let every man have his own wife, and every woman her own husband. It would be good and expedient for a man not to touch a woman," and to live single; 1Cor 7.2,1 but because this is "not given to all men," Mat 19.11 as the Lord testifies in the gospel, and concupiscence of the flesh, for the most part, burns the greatest sort of men, the Lord has appointed marriage to be, as it were, a remedy against that heat. As the Apostle in another place witnesses, saying, "Let them marry, who cannot abstain: for it is better to marry than to burn." 1Cor 7.9

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By this we learn, that the natural company of a man with his own wife is not reputed for a fault or uncleanness in the sight of God. Whoredom is uncleanness in the eyes of the Lord, because it is directly contrary to the law of God. But God has allowed wedlock and blessed it; therefore married folks are sanctified by the blessing of God through faith and obedience. Nor do we lack here any evident arguments and testimonies from Paul to prove it. For he said to the Hebrews, "Wedlock is honourable among all men, and the bed undefiled; but God will judge whoremongers and adulterers." Heb 13.4 The Apostle here spoke very reverently; and by "the bed" he understood the natural company of a man with his wife, which he says plainly is undefiled. What God has made clean, who shall call unclean? Who can deny that to the clean all things are clean? Paphnutius, therefore, both bishop and confessor, judging rightly of this, said openly in the Nicene council, that " a man lying with his own wife is chastity." [794] Nor was the most modest apostle ashamed to make laws between a man and his wife; for to the Corinthians Paul says,

"Let the husband give to the wife due benevolence; likewise also the wife to the husband. The wife does not have the power of her own body, but the husband does; likewise also the husband does not have the power of his own body, but the wife does. Do not defraud one another, unless it is with both your consents, and only for a time, so that you may give yourselves to fasting and to prayer; and afterward come together again, that Satan not tempt you for your incontinence." 1Cor 7.3-5

These words of the Apostle are so evident, that they need no exposition at all. In the same Epistle again, he says, "If you marry a wife, you do not sin." And again, "If a virgin marries, she has not sinned." 1Cor 7.28 Now what is more excellent, pure, and holy, than virginity? But a virgin does not sin if she exchanges virginity for holy matrimony.

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Chrysostom therefore says very well in a certain homily, "The first degree of chastity is unspotted virginity; the second is faithful wedlock." [795] St. Augustine also calls marriage chastity or continence. The place is to be seen in the 19th and 20th chapters, de bono conjugali,[796] and in the 199th epistle.[797] This is the head from which springs the greatest part of public honesty; for God allows wedlock, but He disallows fornication and all kinds of uncleanness. It pleased Him by his ordinance to exclude all uncleanness from his believing servants. Let the saints therefore, but magistrates especially, have an especial eye not to be slack in promoting holy wedlock, but diligent to punish severely all filthy fornication and other uncleanness.

I have repeated this up to here, somewhat largely out of the holy scripture, with the intent that I might prove to all men that wedlock is holy, and that therefore no man can be defiled with the moderate, holy, and lawful use of it. And consequently, marriage is permitted to all sorts of men. For the apostle says: "Let a bishop be the husband of one wife; let him rule his own house well, and have faithful children." [798] For it is manifest by the testimonies of scripture and ecclesiastical writers, that the apostles of Christ and other apostolic teachers of the primitive church were married men, and had wives and children.[799] Nor is there anything, next to corrupt doctrine, which more infects the church of Christ, and subverts all ecclesiastical discipline, than if the ministers of the churches — who should be lights to the whole congregation — are fornicators or adulterous persons. That offence especially, above all others, is a hindrance and a blot to all kinds of honesty. But touching this matter, I do not purpose at this time to discourse so largely and fully about it as I might.

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To this I add, that the band of wedlock is indissoluble and everlasting; that is to say, it is such a knot that it can never be undone. For from two, is made one flesh and one body, which if you sever it, you utterly mar it. "What God has joined together, therefore, let not man separate." Mat 19.6 Therefore, those who slaughter this body, commit adultery. For the laws of God and men allow a divorce between a man and his adulterous wife. And yet, do not let any lesser or lighter cause than fornication, dissolve this knot between man and wife. Otherwise, God, who has permitted the lesser in the gospel, does not forbid the greater to be causes for divorce. And in the primitive church, the epistles and constitutions of Christian princes testify that once, committing fornication was no cause for divorce. I have spoken of this in another place.

But that this holy knot may be surer, it is sufficient [800] that marriages be made holily, lawfully, and with discretion, in the fear of the Lord. Let them not be unwillingly agreed to and made by compulsion. First, let the liking of their consenting minds be joined in one, whom the open profession of mutual consent, and outward hand-fasting,[801] must afterward couple together. Let those be matched together, who are not severed by alliance of blood or near affinity. Let those be coupled in one, who may marry by the laws of God and their country, with the consent and counsel of their friends and parents. Let those who mind marriage, have a sincere heart purposely bent to seek their own safeguard and continual felicity — that is, to respect only the will and pleasure of God, and not allow any evil affections, as counsellors, make the marriage between them.

Hierocles, in his book De nuptiis, says:

"It is mere folly and lack of wit which make those things troublesome, that of themselves are easily borne, and that make a wife a grievous clog to her husband. For marriage to many men has been intolerable, not because the wedded state is so troublesome or cumbrous of its own fault or its proper nature. But matching as we should not, it falls out as we would not, and that causes our marriages to be grievous and noisome. Truly, our daily marriages commonly come to this end.

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For men usually marry wives, not for begetting children, nor to have society of life: but some marry for a great dowry, some for a beautiful body; and some, being seduced by similar causes, as it were, abused by unfaithful counsellors, have no regard for the disposition and manners of their spouse. They marry at risk, to their own decay and utter destruction." [802]

To this belongs Plutarch's admonition to parents, in his treatise about bringing up of children, where he counsels men to bestow such wives on their sons as are not much wealthier nor mightier than their children. For a very pithy saying is that usual proverb, "Marry a wife of your own degree." [803] To be short, let the fear of God, the word of God, and earnest prayer poured out to God, always be annexed to the beginning of marriages.

But it is not convenient that in lawful matrimony, any more than two alone should be joined together under one yoke of wedlock. For the use of many wives, which our fathers usurped without any blame, may not establish polygamy as a law among us these days. The time of correction [804] has now come to light, and Messiah now is come into the world, who teaches all rightly, and reforms things that are amiss. He therefore has reduced wedlock to the first prescribed rule and law of matrimony. "Two," says the Lord, "shall be one flesh." And the apostle says: "Let every man have his own wife, and every woman her own husband." [805] The multitude of Solomon's concubines, therefore, does not pertain to us.

ii.405

We do not have to follow the example of Jacob, who married two sisters. And yet, notwithstanding, the word of truth does not condemn the second, third, or many marriages which a man makes when his wife is deceased. For that saying of the apostle is general to all men, and endures in all ages: "Let them marry, that cannot abstain; for it is better to marry than to burn." 1Cor 7.9 This is taken from these words in the gospel: "All men cannot receive this saying, save those to whom it is given. For there are some chaste, who were so born out of their mother's womb; and there are some chaste, who were made chaste by men; and there are some chaste, who have made themselves chaste for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." Mat 19.11-12 Let the one that cannot receive it, therefore marry a wife, so often as necessity compels him to.

But now, especially, it stands us in hand to know how married folks must behave themselves, what they must do in wedlock, to what end they must direct their deeds and thoughts, and how they ought to be affected toward that holy ordinance of God Almighty. I will not speak much touching this, but I will briefly note the most necessary points, to give all men occasion to think with themselves, and call to mind both more and greater matters which I leave untouched.

First of all, let married folks be thoroughly persuaded and assuredly certain while they live in matrimony, that they are in the work of God, that they please God, and do an acceptable thing in the sight of the Lord. This is because of God's word, in which he blessed that kind of life, and sanctified all wedded people who live by faith in that work and ordinance of the living God. Therefore, when married couples patiently suffer the troubles that follow the married life: while they labour faithfully; while they decently do those things which belong to the charge and office of married people; while the wife loves her husband; while she dutifully obeys him; while she bears her children with grief and pain, and when they are born, diligently nourishes them, and labours to bring them up; while the husband loves his wife; while he mutually helps her, and in all things faithfully shows himself to be a careful father for his family and household — in doing these things, they please God no less than they do when they go to church to hear the word of God and to worship the Lord.

ii.406

For these works of wedlock are reputed to be good works, as much as giving alms, doing justice, and making peace. Married folks, therefore, especially need true faith in God, the author of wedlock — for by wedlock in faith, they please the Lord. Our monks could not abide to hear of this, although the word of God urges it upon them; they did not cease to magnify their counterfeit holiness and hypocritical vows.

Secondly, it is required at the hands of wedded couples to be mindful of the faith which they give and take, that they do not falsely deceive one another, but holily keep the promise that they make, and pledge their fidelity,[806] to keep it sincerely both in body and mind. Let neither of them lust after the body of a stranger, nor conceive a hatred or loathsomeness of their wedded spouse. And your body, you that are a married man, is not your body, but your wife's; just as also your wife's body is not your wife's, but yours. You steal and commit a robbery, if you take away another body's goods; and, when you have conveyed it from the proper owner, give it to another. Let the mind of wedded mates be unspotted, and the body untouched. Every man that first comes to solemnize wedlock by the holy ceremony ordained for that purpose, promises with an oath in the name of the Lord, before God and the church, that he will enjoy the company of no woman but her, that he will cling to, love, and cherish her alone without any other. Whoever violates this faith once given, is falsely forsworn, and is a breaker of a godly promise and of God's holy truth.

Nor is it sufficient for you to be faithful, unless you are courteous or tractable toward your wife, and dwell with her "according to knowledge," as St. Peter says. 1Pet 3.7 Let the husband be the head of the wife: namely, her adviser and counsellor, her ruler and guide, her sweet yokefellow and admonisher in all her affairs, her assured aid and faithful defender. Let the wife be obedient to her husband, even as we see the members obey the head: let her yield herself to her husband to be ruled and governed; let her not despise his honest counsels and indifferent [807] commandments.

ii.407

Let these two think that they are one body, or the members of one body. And therefore let them learn by the government of this mortal body, how to behave themselves in the guiding of wedlock. The worthier members do not despise the more unworthy limbs, but rather honour them, 1Cor 12.23 lighten their labour, and aid and help them. Again, the more unworthy limbs are in love with the worthier, not envying their pre-eminence any whit at all. One member does not break or hurt another; but all members mutually cherish themselves, and defend one another from harm and injury. Let there be such a mutual knitting together, and working, and love, and charity, and good-will, and fellowship, between man and wife. For to that end, the woman was taken out of the man's body, that the husband would cherish (his wife) his own body. And for that cause the apostle says: "So must husbands love their wives, even as their own bodies. He that loves his wife does love himself; for no man at any time has hated his own flesh, but loves and cherishes it, as the Lord does the church." Eph 5.28-29 What may be said to that, moreover, that the apostle, in the very same place, has made the Son of God and the holy Church an example for married folks to follow in keeping wedlock; requiring at the husband's hand to love his wife, even as Christ has loved the church; and of the wife to reverence her husband and to love him back, as the church does Christ? There is no example in the world more holy and effectual than this. For there is no love greater than the love of Christ toward his church, nor is there any love more chaste than that which the church bears to Christ. It is therefore required at the hands of wedded mates, to mutually bear most ardent and holy love toward one another. Let them use all things in common: let them be partakers both of the same prosperity and the same adversity. Let them both draw under one yoke, and bear between them one another's burden. Briefly, let these two be the members of one and the very same body. I have set down these offices of man and wife more at large in my treatise which is called "The Institution of Christian Matrimony." [808]

ii.408

Lastly, let them bring up their children in holy discipline and the fear of God, to the health of their own house and the whole commonweal. Paul says: "I would have the younger women marry, to get children, and to govern the house; for that is honest and acceptable before God." 1Tim 5.14 But touching the bringing up of children, I have already spoken in the fifth Sermon of this Decade. Now, the very begetting of children alone is very profitable both to every private or particular house, and also to the commonweal. I will not stop to show here, that the honour and glory of God is very greatly augmented, if children are not only begotten, but also brought up in the fear of God and in the knowledge of his word. Hierocles says:

"I confess that marriage is profitable, especially because it brings forth children, which is indeed a goodly fruit: for being of our very blood, they aid us in all our affairs while we are in health; and in old age, when years come upon us, they succour us well with all that they may. They are familiar companions of our joy in prosperity; and in adversity, they are our partners in sorrowing with us for our heavy mishaps." [809] And so forth.

Antipater also says:

"Man, who is endued with a civil disposition to maintain society, must augment his country and commonwealth with an increase of children. For cities could not have been preserved by any means at all, unless the headmen of every city, and the sons of noble gentlemen, seeing their ancestors wither and fall away like goodly leaves from a fair tree, had married in convenient time, and left behind them children as worthy plants, to succeed in their country. Thereby they make it flourish forever, doing their best, so far as they could, to keep it from the assaults and conquests of enemies and strangers. Therefore, shooting at nothing more than to defend and assist their country — both in their lifetime and when they were dead — they thought it most necessary and especially convenient, to marry and be married. They desired thereby both to do all things that nature requires, and also those things that touch the health and increase of their country, and most of all, the worship of God," etc. [810]

ii.409

Since, therefore, lawful matrimony is of so great an effect, and so available to live well and happily, that the faithful do not without cause begin their marriages with religion and religious rites. The Lord, truly, in the beginning quickly blessed the first marriage of our parents, Adam and Eve, and coupled them in wedlock. Whereupon the church of God has received a custom, that those who join in marriage, before they dwell together, go into the temple of the Lord where, after prayer in the midst of the congregation, they are joined together, and blessed by the minister of God in the name of God himself. This is why in wedlock, the first and chief things required, are the earnest and continual prayers of the married folks to God: that He will grant to make the husbands wise, religious, modest, gentle, honest, patient sufferers,[811] and lovers of their wives; and that it will please Him to make the wives obedient, meek, chaste, and faithful lovers of their husbands and children, housewives, and fruitful.[812] For no man is able to declare all the evils that come from even one corrupt and naughty marriage. Through [such corruption] whole houses are terribly disquieted, all wealth and honesty utterly decay, the children are bastards, God is offended and provoked to anger, and an endless mischief is brought to the whole commonweal. God, therefore, must be earnestly beseeched to bless all married people, so that both the glory of his holy name, and the commonweal's prosperity, may thereby daily increase more and more.

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Now I come to speak of adultery, which is a sin by which the husband goes to another woman, or the wife turns to another man, to whom they make the use of their bodies common — which are not their own bodies now, but their mates' [813] in wedlock. There are some who flatter themselves, and are of the opinion that they are not culpable of adultery, if they have the company of any unbetrothed maiden, or one that is unmarried; or if a woman plays the harlot with an unwedded man. They would have that (in God's name!) to be fornication, and not adultery. But the scripture teaches the contrary. If you go to another woman, you are an adulterer: you break your faith, you are forsworn: your body is not yours, but your wife's. Therefore, when you bestow your body on another, you commit adultery. If, being wedded, you lie with a married wife, you double the sin of your adultery. This offence was plagued with a most sharp punishment even at the beginning, almost as soon as the world was created. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, commanded Sarah, Abraham's wife, to be taken away and carried to his palace, that he might use her as his wife; thinking truly that she had been Abraham's sister. But the scripture says, "The Lord vexed Pharaoh and all his house with great plagues, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife." Look, here the king of Egypt is punished with grievous plagues for his adultery; and yet he did not know that Sarah was Abraham's wife. How great are the plagues, therefore, prepared for those men who wittingly and willingly, without any shame, commit adultery! To Abimelech, king of the Philistines, the Lord says, "Look you shall die, because of the woman whom you have taken away from her husband." And yet this king had taken away Sarah, not knowing that she was Abraham's wife. Joseph, being provoked to adultery by his master's wife, simply says, "How could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Every word bears some weight: for adultery is a heinous sin. Whereupon, in the book of Job, we find these words of Job himself: "If my heart has been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid in wait at my neighbour's door;[814] then let my wife be another man's harlot, and let other men have her. For this is a wickedness and sin that is worthy to be judged to death: indeed, it is a fire that should utterly consume and root out all my increase." Job 31.9-12

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Job says that not only has he not committed adultery, but he has not so much as once attempted to defile another man's wife. He confesses that adultery is a sin, and so grievous an offence that it deserves to have the adulterer's wife defiled with adultery. He adds that adultery is a fire that utterly consumes and devours all things; and lastly, that it is a sin to be judged, and punished by death.

Moreover, Solomon, the wisest of all men, says:

"May a man take fire into his bosom, and his clothes not be burnt? [815] Or can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burnt? Even so, he that goes in to his neighbour's wife, and touches her, cannot be unguilty. Men do not utterly despise a thief who steals to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; but if he is found, he restores again seven times as much, or else he makes recompense with all the substance of his house. But whoever commits adultery with a woman, lacks understanding; and he that does it, destroys his own soul. He gets himself a plague and dishonour, and his reproach will never be put out. For the jealousy and wrath of the husband will not be entreated; nor will he accept any mediator, nor receive any gifts, however great they are." Pro 6.27-35

In these words of Solomon, many things are to be noted.

First, as it cannot be otherwise, but that fire must burn the garment in which it is carried, so no man can commit adultery without damage and danger of further punishment.

Secondly, comparison is made between a thief and an adulterer. It is not that theft is thereby defended; but because thieves, although they are infamous, yet they seem to sin a great deal less than adulterers do. For a thief may make satisfaction by restoring the worth of the thing that he stole to the one from whom he stole it; but for adultery, no amends can be made.

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And who would not wish to have thieves ransack his chest, and take away his substance, rather than have his wife, his darling, defiled with adultery? Moreover, Solomon calls the adulterer mad, and without understanding. Adultery is judged to be a sin worthy of death and endless infamy. For the Lord in the law not only says, "You shall not commit adultery;" but in another place also, He goes on and adds, "And he that commits adultery with another man's wife, who commits adultery with his neighbour's wife, let both the adulterer and the adulteress be slain." Lev 20.10 And this punishment of adultery by death was not abrogated or changed by the Gentiles; for the Roman law Lex Julia is very well known, how it commanded adulterers to be put to death. [816] This law was in force in the time of St. Jerome, as we may gather by the history which he wrote of an adulteress, whose head was chopped off by seven strokes.[817]

Nor is it a marvel, undoubtedly, that adultery existed among those of old. Still today, according to the laws,[818] it is to be punished by death; for upon that one sin, many sins depend. First of all, the adulterer is a perjured man; for he has broken and violated the faith which he gave openly, before God and the face of the congregation, by calling to witness the most holy and reverend Trinity. The minister of Christ solemnised the marriage, and coupled him to his wife, by giving hand in hand. Secondly, the adulterer has committed theft and robbery; for when the adulteress makes her body common to another man, she sells, defiles, and mars, not only her own body, but her husband's.

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Thirdly, bastards born in adultery often enjoy an equal part of the inheritance with the rightfully begotten children; this cannot be done without great wrong to the lawful heirs and legitimate offspring. For against all right, they are robbed of their due inheritance, of which an equal portion is given to the one to whom, by law, no parcel is due.

Lastly, beside all these, innumerable mischiefs spring from adultery. Since, therefore, it is a serpent with so many heads, both the laws of God and men rightly punish adulterers with loss of life.

But there are some jolly fellows, in truth, who make a sport of adultery. They are persuaded that David's adultery argues for their side; and that place of scripture where we read that the Lord was favourable to the adulteress who was taken, as the deed was favorable in its doing. Why do these merry conceited men not consider how severely the Lord punished David for that offence? The bloody house of David was immediately defiled with filthy incest. For Amnon forcibly deflowers his sister Tamar. And immediately upon the heels of that, his house is again defamed by most cruel parricide, when Absalom murdered his brother Amnon at a banquet. The very same Absalom, David's son, defiles or deflowers his father's wives, and that was openly too, laying all fear of God and shame aside. He drives his father out of his kingdom, and hastens to shorten his father's days. All of these calamities David confesses he worthily deserves, for the adultery and murder committed by him. Lastly, many thousands of his people were slain in battle; David himself is hardly and with much ado restored to his kingdom; and afterward, being restored, he repented his sin all the days of his life. 2Sam 11, 19

Now, it is marvel if adulterers, considering these punishments, would still go on to allege the example of David in defence of their naughtiness. Our Saviour did not come into the world to be a judge, but a saviour; nor did he in any place usurp the right of the sword. Who, therefore, would marvel at it, to see the adulteress not condemned by him, to be stoned to death? Yet he said: "has no man condemned you?" Joh 8.10 as if he did not intend to resist the law, if judgment had been passed upon her.

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For he did not come to be a patron to adulterers, nor to break the law, but to fulfil it. But if adulterers like it well, that the adulteress was not condemned by the Lord, then let them also like that sentence with which the history is ended, when the Lord says: "Go your way, and sin no more." Let them, therefore, cease defiling and destroying themselves with filthy adultery.

The Lord has expressly named adultery in his law; but with this he inclusively means all kinds of lust and luxury, and all other things which edge forward and stir up fire in men, toward wantonness, which he forbids as severely as adultery itself. In the gospel, the Lord not only forbids the outward work of adultery, but also the very affection and wanton lust of the heart and mind. "You have heard," he says, "that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Mat 5.27-28 In the same place, he teaches us to pluck out our eyes, and cut off our hands — that is, to extinguish unclean affections that rise in our minds — while they are still young and beginning to bud, lest they break out from thoughts to deeds. So then, in this precept every unclean thought, all ribald talk, and the filthiness of bodily deeds, are utterly forbidden.

In this precept, fornication is forbidden, or that kind of whore-hunting which is said to be the meddling of a single man with an unmarried woman. This kind of whoredom is thought by many either to be a very small offence, or none at all. But the devil heartens such men, bewitches them, and by all those ill thoughts, he drives them on to commit that sin — when the doctrine of the evangelists and apostles teaches us the contrary. For the apostles, in that synodal epistle which they sent from Jerusalem to all nations, expressly names and forbids fornication. St. Peter reckons fornication among those filthy sins from which he would have Christians be most clear. St. Paul says, "Flee fornication." Again, "Let us not be defiled with fornication as some of them committed fornication, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell." [819]

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Fornication directly fights with the covenant of God, by which he is joined to us, and we to him: and whoredom also spoils God of his glory, and most filthily pollutes the temple of the Lord. Let us hear what the apostle Paul says touching this matter:

"Do you not know that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I therefore take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid! What, do you not know that he that is coupled to a harlot is one body? For two, he says, shall be one flesh. But he that is coupled to the Lord, is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every [other] sin that a man does is outside the body; but he that commits fornication sins against his own body. What, do you knot know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you are bought with a price." 1Cor 6.15-20

Therefore fornication shuts fornicators out of the kingdom of God. For the same apostle says: "Neither whoremongers nor adulterers shall inherit the kingdom of God." Gal 5.19-21 And therefore in another place he does not allow fornication to be so much as named among Christians; Eph. 5.5,3 he was that far [820] from admitting stews [821] and brothel-houses among God's people. Moreover, whoredom fills the whole body with sundry diseases. It deprives whore-haunters of all their goods and substance; it brings them to poverty and extreme misery; and it drives them at last to utter desperation. It overthrows their fame and good name with shame and ignominy. The view of this is lively expressed in the holy scriptures by the example of Samson, the strongest man among all the Israelites. Solomon, therefore, the wisest of all others, very fitly, in a convenient time and place, admonishes all men to flee the enticing baits and flattering allurements of whorish strumpets. For their end is a deadly poison, and they throw a man headlong into a bottomless pit of endless miseries. Pro 7.23f

By this law, that kind of whoredom is also prohibited which consists in defloration of virgins, and violent rapes, and by which children are defiled and carried from their parents by force.

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There is difference between forced rape, and the deflowering of a maid done without violence. Shechem defiled Dinah, the daughter of Jacob; and although he desired to have the deflowered maid to his wife, and to change his religion, yet notwithstanding he himself is slain by Levi and Simeon, the brethren of Dinah; his city is rased and filled with the blood of murdered men, whose goods were ransacked and laid open to spoil. The history is found in the thirty-fourth chapter of Genesis. All Spain was, in a manner, mingled with fire and blood for the rape which Roderichus, king of the Goths in Spain, committed on the daughter of Julianus, a lieutenant. For Volaterranus, in his second book of his Geography, says:

"Roderichus reigned three years. His filthy lust brought an end to the name, as well as to the quiet kingdom, of the Goths in Spain, by means of the Saracens that invaded their land. For when it fell out that he had deflowered the daughter of one Julianus, a lieutenant of that part of Mauritania called Tingitana, private grief pricked her father to seek revenge, to which he used the commodity of the place. This is why Julianus privately calls the Saracens out of Africa. In the year of grace 714, under the conduct of their captain Muzta, being sent by Mirmemolinus their king at that time, they entered through the straits of Morocco. In two years' space, they subdued almost all of Spain, except Asturia. In the space of this time, it is reported that seven hundred thousand men on both sides were destroyed by that war. And in that war also, the king who had deflowered the virgin, along with all his nobility, was utterly slain." [822]

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In Israel, for the Levite's concubine, whom the citizens of Gibeah of the tribe of Benjamin had violently ravished, twenty-five thousand Benjamites were slain, besides those who perished from the other eleven tribes, whose number amounted to forty thousand men.[823] Nor is it unknown to any, that the kings were expelled out of the city of Rome, and Troy. Being wearied with ten years' war (which troubled both the east and west), it was at last utterly sacked and clean overthrown, because Tarquinius had forcibly ravished Lucretia; and Alexander Paris had stolen out of Greece, Menelaus' Helena, another man's wife.[824] Almost every age ministers an innumerable sort of such examples. For the most just God has always declared by evident examples, how greatly he is offended by deflowerers of virgins and ravishers of women. And for that cause, laws and very sharp punishments are ordained and appointed for such lascivious knaves. The laws punish rapes and such forcibly committed villainies, with loss of life. But to him that deflowers a maid without violence, the Lord says, "Marry and endow her." Deu 22.28-29 Other laws appoint other penalties. Touching this, more is spoken in the civil law.

Moreover, incest is especially prohibited. They call incest an unlawful meddling of a man with a woman against the honour of blood and affinity. For "cestus" signifies the marriage-girdle which the bride wore, to show that the marriage was just and lawful.[825] We Germans call this sin "Bloutschand," by which we signify the sin committed in corrupting or defiling our own blood or kindred. In Leviticus, after the degrees of blood in which we are forbidden to marry, the Lord shortly adds,

"Do not be defiled in any of these: for in all these things the nations are defiled, which I cast out before you. And hereby the land is defiled, and I have visited its iniquity upon it, and the land has spewed out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of all these abominations. For whoever does so, shall be cut off from among his people." Lev 18.24-29

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And in the twentieth chapter of Leviticus, he has appointed death to be the punishment for incest, which has not been changed by the civil laws or imperial constitutions.

The abominable sin of sodomy, and meddling with beasts, is also plainly forbidden. Against these we have most evident and express laws set down in the eighteenth and twentieth chapters of Leviticus. We also have a very severe, yet most just, punishment laid by God himself upon the pates of the detestable Sodomites. For he consumed those filthy men to dust and ashes with fire and stinking brimstone sent down from heaven. He washed away these ashes with the waves of the Dead Sea, because he would not have so much as the cinders of such wicked men remain. Moreover, their whole cities and fruitful fields were burnt with fire. For it was not requisite that any one jot of the substance of those most wicked men should remain undestroyed. The place where those cities were situated at one time, is today covered with water, and called the Dead Sea. From this we consequently gather that the most just God will not spare the Gentiles entangled in the very same sin, even though for a time He winked at and ignored it. Fire shall destroy both them and theirs; and they themselves will forever burn in hell, where nothing will remain of them but a reproachful memory. For in the Revelation [826] of our Lord Jesus Christ to his apostle John we read: "And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them; and the devil, which deceived them, was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night forevermore" Rev 20.10. [827]

Furthermore, all other things which incite or allure us to unlawful lusts are forbidden; these baits are the excessive pranking and decking of the body,[828] evil and wanton company, gluttony, surfeiting, and drunkenness. For Ezekiel, among the rest of his prophecies, says: "This was the iniquity of Sodom: pride, gluttony, abundance of all things, and idleness." Eze 16.49

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Men are provoked to lust either by hearing or reading about dishonest ditties and bawdy ballads; or by looking at and beholding wanton dances, unseemly sights, ribald talk, and filthy examples. Those who wink at or cherish, who are the bawds or bringers together of adulterous persons, are therefore reproved by this law. The Lord in the Psalms says to the wicked: "Why do you take my covenant in your mouth, though you hate to be reformed, and cast my words behind you? When you saw a thief, you consented to him; and have been a partaker with the adulterers," etc. Psa 50.16-18 The just Lord therefore punishes all these offences in wicked men, every one according to the greatness of the sin. For some sins are far more heinous than some others are. The one that lusts after another man's wife in his mind, is an adulterer; but if he endeavours to finish his wicked thought in deed, he sins more grievously; he offends still more deeply, if he actually does the deed; and he sins most of all if, having done it once, he falls to it again. Likewise, the adulterer sins; so does the bawd, and also the one who upholds his adultery. The whoremonger sins deeply; but he that defiles himself with incest, sins more grievously; and most heinously of all, in meddling with beasts, he commits filthy sodomy.

So then, in this seventh precept, charge is given to maintain shyness, modesty, sobriety, temperance, chastity, public honesty, and true holiness of soul and body.

Next for me to say, is something touching continence. By abstinence we refrain from other men's goods, and we take from no man what is his. There are some who would have temperance extend further than continence; for they would have the one be but a part of the other.[829] In this treatise, I simply make continence the contrary of intemperance or incontinence. For continence is a virtue or power of the mind received from the Spirit of God, which suppresses affections, and does not in any way permit unlawful pleasures.

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This is familiar and shows itself in the common talk of men; in pleasures that are allowed; in apparel, buildings and dwelling-houses, food and drink, and other things also. At present, I will only examine those points of continence which were just recounted.

First of all, it is required of us to keep our tongue, and not to let it loose at random to the blaspheming of God's glory, or the hurt of our neighbour. Let the talk of a Christian man be honest, profitable, and seasoned with salt; let it be unacquainted with scoffing, lightness, lying, ribaldry, and filthiness. St. James in the third chapter of his epistle has spoken sufficiently about the tongue's properties. In his first chapter, also, he says: "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger." And Paul says:

"Let no filthy communication proceed out of your mouth, except what is good to edify with, as often as needed, that it may minister grace to the hearers, and not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed unto the day of redemption." [830]

And again:

"Do not let fornication, or any uncleanness, or covetousness, once be named among you, as it becomes saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not seemly; but rather, giving thanks. Let no man deceive you with vain words; for from such things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience." Eph. 5.3,4,6

In another place he cites this sentence out of Menander,[831] and says: "ill words corrupt good manners." 1Cor 15.33 Moreover, a man's mind is betrayed by his talk; for "from the heart's abundance the mouth speaks." Mat 12.34 If therefore in anything, then in the tongue especially, it behoves Christians to be sober and continent.

The Lord, I confess, has granted man the use of certain pleasures. For he may lawfully, without offence to God, clothe his body soberly with garments, thereby keeping his limbs from cold. God has and still allows the embracing of man and wife in holy wedlock. He grants choice of a dwelling-place, conveniently situated against the intemperateness of the air, and bids us not to wander like beasts and cattle through fields and desolate woods.

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For our necessity and pleasant feeding, he has allowed us the use of food and drink. He grants us quietness, ease, and sleep, which wonderfully refreshes the strength that is decayed and tired with pains. Therefore, so often as a godly man enjoys them, uses them, and is delighted with the honest pleasure of them, let him give thanks to God, and use them moderately in the fear of the Lord. For in so doing, he does not sin against the Lord; but by the abuse of those things, by unthankfulness for them, and by their immoderate use, he offends his God and maker.

What is allowed or permitted to married folks, I have already declared in this very sermon, so that I need not repeat it again to you here. Solomon says: "Be glad with the wife of your youth; let her be as the beloved hind and pleasant roe; let her love always refresh you, and still be delighted in it," etc. Pro 5.18-19 In the meantime, let everyone refrain from all abuse and intemperance. And if necessity at any time requires it, let man and wife lie apart, as Paul counsels them; 1Cor 7.5 or else let them give ear to the prophet Joel, who says: "Proclaim a holy fast, gather the people together; let the bridegroom come forth from his chamber, and the bride out of her closet." [832]

Our garments must be clean and honest, according to our country's fashion, to cover and become us, unless our country's fashion is too far out of order. There must be no hypocritical sluttishness in them, beyond-the-sea gauds,[833] new fangled toys, nor unseemly sights.[834] The chief apostles of Christ, Peter and Paul, were not ashamed in their epistles to write somewhat largely, touching the manner and ordering of women's apparel, because in that, most people bend to such foolish bravery.[835] Let every faithful body think what is seemly for them to wear, not so much by their degree in dignity or condition of riches, as by their religion. Excess in everything is discommended in Christians.

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And to what end do we jag and rend [836] the garments that are sewn together to cover our bodies, if not that we may by a most silly and ridiculous anatomy as it were, open and expose to the eyes of all men, what kind of people we are in our inward hearts: jagged (God knows) and ragged, vain, light, with nothing sound? A linen or woolen garment covers and becomes the body as well as damasks and velvets, the cost of which overloads your purse with expenses to buy them; and when you wear them, they mis-shape you like an ill-favoured picture.

In buildings, God does not forbid cleanliness and necessary cost, but only sumptuous expense and gorgeous excess. For these over-brave buildings are seldom finished without extorting wrong and excessive injury to the poor. Jeremiah brings in the Lord speaking against the king of Judah, and saying:

"Woe to him that builds his house with unrighteousness, and his parlour with the goods that are wrongfully gotten; which never recompenses his neighbour's labour, nor pays him his hire; who says to himself, I will build me a wide house and gorgeous parlours; who causes windows to be hewn in it, and the ceilings and joists he makes of cedar and paints them with sinoper.[837] Do you think to reign, now that you have enclosed yourself with cedar? Did your father not eat and drink and prosper well, as long as he executed justice and equity?" Jer 22.13-16

Let none of us, therefore, build sumptuous houses by robbing the poor of their hire for their labour. Let everyone dwell in a house agreeable to his profession, degree, and condition. St. Jerome condemns sumptuous cost even in churches and temples.[838] Nor do I see what gorgeous buildings bring to a man, but mischief and misery.

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Lord,[839] how unwillingly we die and depart from goodly dwellings, by which we double the fear of death and terror of sickness! The patriarchs, truly, dwelled in tents, by which they witnessed that they were pilgrims, and sought another country, the heavenly Jerusalem.[840]

Continence in food and drink is not the loathing of wine and victuals,[841] but the moderate use of them to supply our necessity, and not to cloy [842] us with gluttony. God in the scripture condemns gluttony, surfeitings, riotous after-banquets, and drunkenness, which he forbids most of all. For from drunkenness spring endless miseries and innumerable mischiefs, grievous diseases, poverty, and pinching beggary. Solomon says:

"Who has woe? who has sorrow? who has strife? who has brawling? who has wounds without a cause? who has red eyes? even those who follow the wine, and seek excess of it. Do not look upon the wine, how red it is, and what a colour it gives in the glass. It goes down sweetly, but at the end it bites like a serpent, and poisons like an adder." Pro 23.29-32

I will not repeat all that I could allege out of heathen writers against surfeiting and drunkenness. Solomon alone in that one sentence contains a great deal of matter. Moreover, he that will not hear Christ, whom is it likely that he will give ear to in the whole world? Now Christ, in the gospel, by the parable of the rich glutton, Luk 16.19f marvellously and evidently sets out the woeful end of insatiable paunches.[843] In the same gospel also, he takes occasion to touch the surfeitings and drunkenness of our age (I mean the age immediately before Judgment Day) where he says:

"As it happened in the days of Noah and Lot; they ate and drank, right up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and Lot departed from among the Sodomites. And then the deluge came incontinently, and fire and brimstone poured down from heaven, and destroyed them all." Luk 17.26-29

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Again, he adds:

"Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcome with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life; and so that day [of judgment] comes upon you unawares. For like a snare, it comes upon all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch, therefore, at all times praying, that you may escape all these things, and stand before the Son of man." Luk 21.34-36

And I would to God that all men would not write this golden, heavenly, and divine admonition of our Saviour in their halls and dining-parlours only, but in their own hearts also. For since drunkenness has in our days such good entertainment with all degrees, estates, kinds,[844] and ages, we daily feel the woeful miseries that God threatens to drunkards in the fifth and twenty-eighth chapters of Isaiah's prophecy. And it is to be feared greatly, that the day of the Lord shall suddenly light upon innumerable drunkards, to their endless pain and utter destruction. Let him hear, therefore, who has ears to hear.

Nor can I refrain here, but must recount to you, dearly beloved, what St. Martine, the bishop not of Tours in France, but of Dumia [in Germany], who flourished in the days of Justinian the emperor, wrote to Miro, king of Gallicia, touching the ordering and leading of a continent life:

"If you love continence, cut off superfluity, and keep your appetite under control. Consider with yourself, how much nature requires, and not how much lust desires. Bridle your concupiscence, and cast off the alluring baits that serve to draw on hidden pleasures. Eat without undigested surfeiting, and drink without drunkenness. Neither glut yourself with present delicates,[845] nor long after delicacies [846] that are hard to come by. Let your diet be of good cheap eats, and do not sit down for pleasure, but for food. Let hunger, not sauces, provoke you to eat. Pay but little for pastimes to delight you, because your only care should be to leave such pleasures, that thereby, in fashioning yourself to the example of God, may as much as you can, make haste to reduce yourself from the body to the spirit. If you love continence, then choose not a pleasant but a wholesome dwelling place; and do not make the lord known by the gorgeous house, but make the house known by the honest landlord. Do not boast of what you do not have, nor what you have, nor covet in order to seem more than you are. But rather, take heed that your poverty is not uncleanly, nor your niggishness [847] filthy, nor your simplicity contemptible, nor your leniency fearful.

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And though your estate is poor, do not let it be in extreme misery. Nor be out of love with your own degree,[848] nor wish for the estate of another man's life. If you love continence, avoid dishonest things before they happen, and fear no man above your own conscience. Think that all things are tolerable, except for dishonesty. Abstain from filthy talk, the liberty of which nourishes shamelessness. Love profitable communication rather than merry conceits and pleasant talk; and set more by the blunt-spoken truth than by fair and soothing statements. You may sometimes mingle mirth with matters of weight; but it must be done moderately, without the hurt or detriment of your estate and gravity. For laughter is blameworthy if it is immoderately used, childishly squeaked, or taken up by fits, as women are prone to do. Do not esteem saucy scoffing; rather, esteem civil mirth with courteous humanity. Let your conceits of mirth be without biting, your sports not without profit, your laughter without unseemly writhing of your mouth and visage, your voice without shrieking, and your pace without hasty shuffling. Do not let your rest be idleness; and when others play, take some holy and honest thing in hand. If you are continent, take heed of flattery, and let it grieve you as much to be praised by naughty men, as if you were praised for your own naughty deeds. Be gladder for it, if you displease evil men, and impute the evil opinions which naughty men have of you, for the best praise that can be given to you. The hardest work of continence is to put away the soothing courtesies of dissembling flatterers, whose fawning words undo the mind with pleasant sensuality. Do not presume too much about yourself, nor be arrogant. Submit yourself so far as you may keep your gravity; and yet do not make yourself a footstool or cushion for every man to lean on. Be told of your faults willingly, and suffer yourself gladly to be reprehended. If any man is angry with you, and chides you for cause, acknowledge your fault, and let his chiding profit you. But if he chides you without any cause, think that he would have profited you by it. Do not fear sharp, but sugared, words. Eschew all sorts of vices, and do not be an over-busy searcher-out of other men's faults. Do not be a sharp fault-finder, but an admonisher without upbraiding, so that your warning may still show cheerful mirth; and condescend easily to pardon the error.

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Neither overly praise nor overly dispraise any man. Be still, and give ear to those who speak, and be ready to instruct those who will listen. To him that asks, give a ready answer; to him that despises you, give way easily, and do not fall into chiding and cursing. If you are continent, have an eye to the motions of your body and mind, that they are not unseemly: and do not set light by them because nobody sees them; for it is no matter if nobody sees them — only that you yourself spy and perceive them. Be moveable, not light; constant, not stubborn. Be liberal to all men, fawning on no man; familiar with few, and upright to everyone. Do not readily believe every rumour, accusation, or conceived suspicion. Despise vainglory, and do not a sharp exactor [849] of the goods you have. Use few words yourself, but suffer those who speak. Be grave, not rough, nor contemning the merry nature. Be desirous and applicable to be taught wisdom. Impart what you know to anyone who demands, without any arrogance; and desire to learn the things that you do not know, without hiding your ignorance. A wise man will not change his common country fashion, nor make the people gaze on him with new-found devices." [850]

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I have recited this much up to here, touching continence, out of the writings of the blessed bishop, Martine of Dumia. For our parts, we must pray to the Lord that he will grant to bestow his holy Spirit on us, by which the force of continence in all things may take root in our hearts, to produce fruit in our deeds, agreeable to the prescribed rule of this commanded continence.

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For, unless the Holy Ghost quickens and inspires us, we give ear in vain to so many and such good commandments; and unless we live and lead a temperate and sober life, we are utterly unworthy to bear the name of Christians.

To this place also the treatise about fasting belongs, which I mean to handle in as few words as can be done conveniently. Christian fasting is a discipline, ordering and chastening the body for the present necessity, which we begin and keep of our own accord, without compulsion. With it we humble ourselves in the sight of God, by drawing from the body the matter that sets the flesh on fire, thereby making it obey the spirit. For so long as we mortal men live in this body, the flesh still resists the spirit; and it most of all rebels, when we pamper the body with delicates. This is why fasting draws from the body every evil which stirs up and strengthens it against the good commandments of God's holy Spirit.

Now the necessity for which we keep this fasting is of two sorts, public and private. We fast for the public or common necessity, when some calamity either oppresses, or else hangs over the head of the church. Of such a manner of fasting we see examples in the second chapter of Joel, and in the third chapter of Jonah's prophecy. This very same order in fasting was used in the time of our Lord's apostles, as evidently seen in the Acts of the Apostles.[851] And this kind of fasting seems to have differed very little, among those of old, from a general mourning; yes, it seems altogether to have been nothing else but a kind of lamenting. In the scriptures every book is full of examples which teach and instruct us how the holy saints humbled themselves in the sight of God with true repentance for their sins and offences. Private necessity is that for which every particular man fasts, when he feels himself vexed with bodily concupiscence, that thereby he may take from the flesh the flame and fuel, lest the body at last be fired and burned. For the Lord in the gospel said that the children of the bride-chamber fast when the bridegroom is taken from them; Mar 2.19-20 that is, in a hard and dangerous time. The marriage signifies the bond by which we are knit to Christ in faith and the Holy Ghost.

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Notwithstanding this, the godly man still rejoices.[852] With giving thanks and temperance, he eats and drinks as much as is sufficient, and is also delighted in these external gifts of God. But when he feels that the bridegroom is ready to depart, or has now almost departed out of his heart — that is, when he feels that the spirit is extinguished by the flesh's wantonness, and once his faith begins to grow cold — then he settles himself to prayer, and appoints a solemn fasting. Thereby he either keeps the bridegroom still, or else he pulls him back from being ready to depart.

But neither public nor private fastings can abide being forced: for they will not be compelled, but desire to proceed from a free, cheerful, and voluntary mind. Unwilling men do nothing well. God requires a cheerful giver. Moreover, let fastings be moderated according to the quality of places, persons, perils, and temptations: if they are not continual, let them be often, till such time as we are delivered and utterly rid of them. Let them be without superstition and feigned hypocrisy, as our Lord in the sixth chapter of St. Matthew's gospel has taught us. The words of St. Jerome, touching fasting agree very well with this; he wrote to Nepotianus as follows:

"Prescribe for yourself so long a time to fast as your ability will allow you to bear. Let your fastings be pure, uncorrupt, simple, moderated, and not superstitious. What does it avail to eat no oil, or to seek those extravagant eats which are hard to be come by, such as figs, pepper, nuts, dates, pure flour for over-fine bread, and honey? The gardens are turned over and over with digging for novelties, because we will not eat common cribble [853] bread. And so, while our dainty mouths seek after delicates, our souls are pulled from the kingdom of heaven. I hear, moreover, that there are some men who (contrary to nature) refuse to drink water and feed on bread; but suck up and swallow very costly suppings, dainty herb-broths, and the juice of beets — not out of a cup, but out of a shell. Shame! Should we not blush at such silly toys, and are we not ashamed of such superstition?" [854] Thus much says Jerome.

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And it is evident, that even today this vice is especially received among our wealthy and religious men.

But the end of Christian fastings is that the church, or sinners, should submit and humble themselves before the Lord, that the flesh should be obedient and subject to the spirit, that the flesh should not hinder the sinner from working righteousness, and that the intent and mind of the one that prays, should be more earnestly bent toward God. For fasting is of the number of those works which are not absolute and perfect of themselves, but have another meaning; they are ordained for another end and purpose: therefore fasting is a certain help to the prayers and virtues of godly men. Therefore, in the prophets we find that the fastings of the Jews displeased the Lord: for they did nothing else but fast alone; that is, at a certain appointed time they abstained from their usual manner of eating, but did not restrain themselves from sin and wickedness. Instead, they let their flesh have the bridle at will, when indeed they should have ceased pampering it, that the flesh thereby being weaker, the spirit might be stronger to do and fulfil all sorts of good works. And therefore the Lord says: "I have not chosen such a manner of fasting;" and the rest, as it follows in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, and in the seventh and eighth chapters of Zechariah's prophecy.

Truly, the apostle Paul says expressly that "meat does not commend us to God: for if we eat, we do not have anything more; and if we do not eat, we do not have anything less." [855]

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Therefore, a person does not truly fast, if he abstains only from a certain kind of food, at a certain appointed time. But he truly fasts, if he refrains from the pleasures of the flesh, so that he may thereby make his flesh subject to the spirit, and do the works of faith and charity which are acceptable in the sight of the Lord. Therefore, if you desire to fast a true fast, then eat, drink, sleep, and take heed to your body, that it does not grow insolent. Fast from all sin; do not eat the meat of malice; do not taste the juncats [856] of lust and pleasure; and do not be set on fire with the wine of wantonness. Fast from evil deeds, abstain from evil words, and refrain yourself from naughty thoughts. For also Basil says: "True fasting consists in freeness from vices, in continence of tongue, in suppressing anger, in cutting off concupiscence, backbiting, lying, and perjury," etc. [857] But even as the good works themselves, which are done by faith, do not merit the kingdom of heaven (for that glory is due to the merit of Christ alone), even so, fasting — which is an aid and help to good works — does not meritoriously deserve the kingdom of God.

But now I see a doubtful disputation arise among most divines of our age, touching the time and manner of fastings, and also about the choice of foods. There are some who affirm and uphold the fasts of Lent,[858] and embering days, and such others, as the fasts which God has appointed. There are those who say you have not fasted, if by any means you taste any flesh; and there are those who prescribe and appoint some certain hours to fast in. But for my part, I do not see any such doctrines taught to us in the scriptures. For the Lord in the gospel did not keep any of their devised fasts when he fasted forty days; but he altogether abstained from all kinds of food, even as Moses and Elijah had done. Therefore, by that deed of his, he did not give us any law to fast in this way. Moreover, the Lord in the gospel evidently teaches that the thing which enters in by the mouth, does not defile the man, but that which issues out from his heart. Mat 15.11,18

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"To the pure all things are pure." Tit 1.15 And Paul says: "I know, and am persuaded through the Lord Jesus Christ, that nothing is common of itself; but to him that thinks that anything is common, to him is it common." Again: "Let him that eats, not despise him that does not eat; nor let him that does not eat, judge him that eats: for him that eats, the Lord has taken." Rom 14.14,3 Moreover, the place is evident where Paul affirms in the fourth chapter of his first epistle to Timothy, that forbidding meats is a "doctrine of devils." Nor does any man need to tell us here any whit about the Tatians and Encratites;[859] for they slandered the good creatures of God. Paul speaks of those who, although they do not utterly condemn meat and marriage, yet they nonetheless forbid the use of meat.

Furthermore, we do not read that any laws were ordained in that age which next followed after the preaching of the apostles, which commanded and prescribed any time and order of fasting, or choice of meats. I will repeat to you, dearly beloved, the words of Irenaeus the martyr, which are to be found word for word in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius, as they are here set down:

"The controversy not only touches Easter-day, but also touches the manner of fasting. For some think that the fast ought to be kept for one day only, others two, others more, and some for a whole forty days; so that they make a day, counting the hours of both the night and day. This difference in observing the times did not first begin in our age, but it was brought in a great while ago (I suppose) by those who did not simply keep what was taught from the beginning, but by negligence or unskilfulness, fell into a worse use and custom afterward. And yet, notwithstanding, all of these — though they jarred in the observation of times — were nevertheless (and are) agreeable with us; nor has the discord about fasting broken our concord in faith." [860] Thus much from Irenaeus.

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Moreover, Socrates Constantinopolitanus in the ninth book and thirty-eighth chapter of his [861] Tripartite History, [862] witnesses that about the year of our Lord 453, in the reign of Theodosius the younger, the same diversity was in the church. It sets it down in these words following:

"Furthermore, they do not have the same kind of abstinence from meat. For some altogether abstain from living creatures; some among living creatures, eat fish only; some, along with fish, feed on fowls also, saying that they (as Moses says) have their substance of water; some are known to abstain from herbs and eggs; some feed on dry bread only; some not so much as that: some fast nine hours, and then use any kind of meat without difference; and innumerable customs are found among sundry men."

Now the very same Socrates, showing his opinion about that diversity, says:

"And because no ancient writing is found touching this thing, I think that the apostles left it free to every man's judgment, that everyone may work the thing that is good, not by fear or necessity." [863]

The fasts of Christians, therefore, ought to be free, and not bound to laws. Apollinus, a certain ancient and ecclesiastical writer, disputing against Montanus the heretic, says: "This is the one who taught that marriages are undone, and who first of all appointed laws for men to fast by." [864]

ii.434

And truly, to go about setting down for all men and nations one manner of fasting, at one appointed time, one prescribed order and choice of meat, is mere folly, and a brain-sick kind of madness. For according to the choice of air, so are men's bodies of sundry temperatures, and one kind of meat does not stir men of various complexions to one kind of affection. The most godly way, therefore, and profitable order for the church, is that all pastors in every congregation should teach sobriety, temperance, and the true fast indeed. They should not presume to prescribe any laws for the choice of meats or times, but leave that free to every man and nation, who undoubtedly will have an especial eye to temper themselves from the things by which they perceive that their health will be endangered; but most of all, at the time when the flesh begins to grow over-wanton, or when some great peril hangs over their head. For the time of fasting is not prorogued [865] till an appointed number of years or days are expired, but till the looseness or wantonness of the flesh, its temptations or motions, are utterly bridled. Fastings being so ordered, as they are exercises of godliness, obtain great praise indeed in the church of the Lord.

This much up to here touching fasting. Now, to close this seventh precept, I say it forbids all intemperance, it commands holiness, and the clean and lawful use of all the members of the whole body. And therefore, there is contained in this short precept a good part of the doctrine of Christ and his apostles. For Paul says to the Thessalonians:

ii.435

"We beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that you increase more and more, as you have received from us how you ought to walk, and to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord [866] Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your holiness; that you should abstain from fornication; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in holiness and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, as the Gentiles, who did not know God. God is a revenger of all such, as we have forewarned you and testified. For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness." [867]

And immediately after again: "The God of peace sanctify you throughout, that your whole spirit, and soul, and body, may be preserved blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." [868]

I have again, my brethren, passed beyond the appointed time of an ordinary sermon, keeping you longer than I usually do. Pardon this fault; for I hope I have not troubled you, almost two whole hours, without profiting you any whit at all. Make your prayers now, and depart in peace. By the help and will of God I will, within these few days, add the rest of the Ten Commandments. The grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

THE

THIRD DECADE OF SERMONS

WRITTEN BY

HENRY BULLINGER.

3-1. THE FIRST SERMON: THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT.

OF THE FOURTH PRECEPT OF THE SECOND TABLET, WHICH IN ORDER IS THE EIGHTH OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL. OF OWNING AND POSSESSING PROPER GOODS, AND THE RIGHT AND LAWFUL GETTING OF THE SAME; AGAINST SUNDRY KINDS OF THEFT.

FOR sustaining and nourishing our lives and families, we men need earthly riches. Therefore, next after the commandments touching the preservation of man's life, and keeping wedlock's knot holy, in this fourth commandment a law is given for validly getting, possessing, using and bestowing wealth and worldly substance. This is to the end that we should not get them by theft or evil means, that we should not possess them unjustly, nor use or spend them unlawfully. Justice requires us to use riches well, and to give to every man that which is his. Now, since the laws of God are the laws of justice, they necessarily say by way of commandment, "You shall not steal." These words, again, are few in number; but in their sense, they are of ample signification. For in this precept, theft itself is utterly forbidden; all shifting subtleties are flatly prohibited; deceit and guile is banished; all trickery and cheating are clean cut off; [869] covetousness, idleness, prodigality, or lavish spending, and all unjust dealing, is debarred. Moreover, a charge is given here to maintain justice, and especially in contracts and bargains. Wonderful turmoils, truly, are raised up and begun among men of this world about getting, possessing, and spending temporal riches.

iii.18

It was expedient therefore, that God in his law, which he ordains for our health, commodity, and peace, should appoint a state, and prescribe an order, for earthly goods — as he has most excellently done in this law. And that you may better understand it, I will at present, by the help of God's Holy Spirit, discourse on the proper owning and upright getting of worldly riches. In this treatise the whole consideration of theft in all its kinds shall be plainly declared.

For the proper owning and possessing of goods is not prohibited by this precept; but we are forbidden to get them unjustly, to possess them unlawfully, and to spend them wickedly. Yes, by this commandment the proper owning of particular substance [870] is lawfully ordained and firmly established. The Lord forbids theft; therefore he ordains and confirms the proper owning of worldly riches. For what can you steal, if all things are common to all men? For then you would have stolen your own things, and not another man's, if you take from another what he has. But God forbids theft; and therefore, by making this law he confirms the proper possession of particular goods. But because there is no small number of that furious sect of Anabaptists, who deny this propriety [871] of several [872] possessions,[873] I will declare by some evident testimonies of scripture, that it is both allowed and ratified of old. Abraham is called the father of faith in the scripture. Eliezer, his servant, says about him: "God has blessed my master marvellously, so that he has become great; and He has given him sheep and oxen, silver and gold, manservants and maid-servants, camels and asses;[874] and he has given all that he has to his son." Look then, Abraham was wealthy, and possessed by the right of propriety all those things which God had given him; and he left them all, by the title of inheritance, as particular and proper goods to his son Isaac. Isaac and Jacob therefore possessed their own and proper goods. Moreover, by the hand of Moses, God brought his people, the Israelites, into the land of promise. As the grounds of it, God divided to the tribes by lot, through Joshua [875] his servant, appointing to every one a particular portion to possess.

iii.19

By laws He provided that those inheritances should not be mingled and confounded together.[876] In Solomon and the prophets, there are many precepts and sentences tending to this purpose.

But I know very well that these troublesome wranglers object, saying that Christian men are not bound to these proofs that are fetched out of the old Testament.[877] And although I could confute that objection, and prove that those places out of the old Testament do bind us to mark and follow them in this case, I would rather, for shortness' sake, allege some proofs out of the scriptures of the new Testament, to stop their mouths with. Our Lord Jesus Christ greatly commended in his disciples works of mercy, which consist in feeding the hungry, in giving drink to the thirsty, in clothing the naked, in visiting prisoners and those that are sick, and in harbouring strangers and banished men. He therefore grants to his disciples a propriety and possession of particular goods, with which they may frankly do good to others, and help the needy and the man in misery. But once the proper owning of several goods is taken away, good deeds and alms must of necessity be utterly lacking: for if all things are common, then you give nothing of that which is yours, but all that you spend is from the common riches.

Yet Paul the apostle, in his epistle to the Corinthians, bids every one to lay up alms by himself, which Paul might receive when he came to Corinth. He also commanded every one to bestow so much as he can find it in his heart to willingly give, and according to the quantity that every one possesses, not according to that which he does not possess. And yet, they are not to bestow it in such a way, that those to whom it is given would have more than enough, and those who give would be pinched with penury and lack necessary things. The same apostle says:

iii.20

"We beseech you, brethren, that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you: that you may walk honestly toward those who are without, and that you may lack nothing." 1Thes 4.11-12

I could allege out of his other epistles, many more proofs of this same sort; but these are enough to declare sufficiently, that propriety of goods, in both Testaments, is permitted to Christian men.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Act 4.32 we read that among those of the primitive and apostolic church all things were common; but what follows in the same book declares what kind of communion they had. For Luke says, "None of them said that anything was his of what he possessed." Look here, the first Christians possessed houses, grounds, and other riches, by the right of propriety; and yet they possessed them not as their own goods, but as the goods of other men, and as if it were in common. Notwithstanding, the right of propriety still remained in the possessor's own hands. And if at any time necessity so required, they sold their lands and houses, and helped the need of those who lacked. If they sold, then what they sold was undoubtedly their own: for no good man sells another man's substance, but only that which is his own, or that which he has taken in hand to husband as his own. Moreover, St. Peter, compounding all this controversy, says to Ananias, "While the land remained, was it not your own? And when it was sold, was it not in your power? How is it then, that you lied to the Holy Ghost, and kept back part of the price of the land, as though you had brought the whole price to us?" Act 5.3-4 It was in Ananias' power not to have sold the land; and when it was sold, it was in his power to have kept the whole sum of money for himself. And for that deed, he would not have been excluded from the church of the faithful. It was therefore free at that time, even as it is today, either to sell or not to sell their lands and possessions, and to bestow it commonly for relieving the poor. Therefore, that place in the Acts of the Apostles does not take away the right of propriety, nor command such a communion of every man's goods as our mad-headed Anabaptists go about ordaining.

iii.21

And because I perceive that some very stiffly stick to the letter, and urge such a communion of substance, it shall not be tedious to recount to you, dearly beloved, other men's judgments touching this point — I mean, the opinions of those who, by conference of scriptures, have made this matter most plain and manifest.[878]

Though we read in the second chapter of the Acts, that all who believed were joined in one,[879] it must not be so understood as though, like monks forsaking their own proper house, they dwelled together in common, all in one house. Rather, as it is added immediately after, they continued daily in the temple with one accord. It is not that they left off every man to eat in his own house and to provide things necessarily required by nature, or that every one sold the house he had; since there is afterward added, "breaking bread from house to house." If they broke bread from house to house, let these Anabaptists answer, in what houses the Christians at Jerusalem broke their bread. In the houses of unbelievers? I think not. Therefore, they broke bread and ate meals in the houses of the faithful. How therefore did they all sell or forsake their lands and houses? How did they live together like cloisterers? Though Luke says that "as many as believed were joined in one," that is to be understood, that they often assembled in the temple. So then, that communicating of goods among the Christians was nothing but a sale, which the wealthier sort made of their lands and houses, to the end that by bestowing that money, the poor might be relieved, lest being compelled by penury and famine, they might turn from Christianity to Judaism again. Moreover, we read in many places of the Acts, that Christians kept for themselves the use of their houses and ordering of their substance; as in the ninth chapter of the Acts we find of Tabitha, who was full of good works, making coats and clothing for widows and poor people. In the twelfth chapter of the Acts we read that Peter the apostle, being brought out of prison, "came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together to pray." He does not say to dwell, but to pray; whereby you may understand that the congregation was assembled in that house to pray.

iii.22

Again, in the ninth chapter, Peter stays many days in the house of Simon the tanner, who was a Christian man, and dwelt in his own house. And in the eleventh chapter, "the disciples, according to each one's ability, sent help to the brethren who dwelt in Jerusalem." Look here, "as each one," he says, "was of ability." But what ability could any of them have had, unless they had something of their own in possession? In the sixteenth chapter, Lydia, the woman who sold purple, when she was baptized, said, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there." Why did she not say sell my house, but "come into my house," unless it was because she so possessed her house after she believed, that she made it common to the apostles? In the twentieth chapter, Paul boasts that he has not desired any man's gold, silver, or precious clothes. But what sense or reason could be in these words, unless it was lawful for Christian men to keep the possession of that which is theirs? And in the twenty-first chapter, Philip had a house and four daughters at Caesarea. Why did he not sell his house? Philemon, Phm 16.22 Paul's host, had both a house and a servant too. It is therefore most plain and evident, that the Holy Ghost's meaning is not to have such an order of life observed, as these people devise; but that every man should govern his own house and family well, and relieve the brethren's necessity, as his ability will allow and bear. Other places also belong to this end: 1Timothy 5, Titus 2, 1Thess. 4, 2Thess. 3. And when in almost all his Epistles, Paul prescribes their office and duties to parents and children, to husbands and wives, to masters and servants, what else does he do, but teach how to order our houses and families? This much so far.

What may be said of this moreover: that many wealthy men in the gospel are reported to have been worshippers of God? Joseph of Arimathea, who buried the Lord after he was crucified, is said to have been a wealthy man, and a disciple of Christ also. The women were wealthy, who followed the Lord from Galilee, and ministered to him and his disciples, from their goods and substance.

iii.23

The eunuch treasurer of Queen Candace was a wealthy man. Tabitha of Joppa, whom Peter raised from death to life, was rich, and spent her substance freely upon poor and needy people. Lydia, the seller of purple, was wealthy too; and innumerable more, who were both godly and faithful people. Though the Lord said to the young man, "If you would be perfect, go, and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me;" Mat 19.21 — that is not a general law, or a simple doctrine belonging to all men. Rather, it is only a demonstration, to show that the young man to whom he spoke had not yet so perfectly fulfilled the law, as he thought truly that he had done. For he thought that he had done all, and that nothing was lacking. For the young man set more by his goods than he did by God and the voice of God's commandment. For he departed sadly, and did not do as the Lord had bid him; and thereby he declared that he had not yet fulfilled the law. Moreover, we may from other places, gather that the Lord did not relegate his disciples to misery and beggary. Nor was Paul the apostle ashamed to make laws for rich men, and to prescribe an order as to how they ought to behave themselves.

"To those who are rich in this world," he says, "charge that they not be high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us abundantly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to give, glad to distribute, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold upon eternal life." 1Tim 6.17-19

To this belong the admonitions of our Saviour, who says: "You cannot serve God and mammon at once." Again, "Riches are thorns that choke the seed of the word of God." And again, "Truly, I say to you, a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." [880] The minds of wealthy men are not to be utterly discouraged and driven to desperation, as though it were impossible for them to be saved.

iii.24

So too, they are to be admonished about the imminent perils, lest perhaps they sleep securely over their riches, being seduced by Satan to abuse their wealth, when indeed they should rather use it according to the rule of the Apostle, which I just recited. The Gangresian synod,[881] a very ancient council, rightly condemned those who taught that, "faithful rich men could have no hope to be saved by the Lord, unless they renounce and forsake all the goods they possess." [882] St. Augustine enrolls and reckons the Apostolics in his catalogue, or bead-row, of heretics: "Taking arrogantly this name to themselves, they did not admit into their company any of those who used the fellowship of their own wives, or possessed any proper substance." After that he adds: "They are therefore heretics, because, separating themselves from the church, they think that those who use and enjoy the things that they themselves lack, have no hope to be saved. They are like the Encratites, and are also called by the name of Apotactites." [883] Riches, truly, are not evil of themselves, but the good gifts of God; it is their abuse that makes them evil. But I will speak about the use of them later.

Now, here follows the treatise about getting wealth and riches, which are necessary for the maintenance of our lives and families. Touching the getting of them, there is a large discourse among our lawyers. For they say, that goods are gotten by the law of nations, and by the specific law of every particular country. "By the law of nations" is meant: by prevention of possession, by captivity, by finding, by birth, by casting up water,[884] by changing the kind, by increase in bondage, by mixture, by building, planting, sowing, tilling in a ground free from possession, and by delivery. "By the specific law of every particular country" is meant: by continuance of possession, by prescription, by giving, by will, by legacy, by fiefment,[885] by succession, by claim, by purchase.[886] To address all these particularly, would be a labour too tedious for me to speak, and for you to hear, dearly beloved, and little profitable.

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Therefore, we will frame what we have to say to the manners and customs of our age; and we will utter what tends to our avail. Principally, and before all things, we must close and shut an evil eye, lest we be carried away with too much concupiscence and desire. "The light of the body," says our Saviour Christ in the Gospel, "is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body shall be lightened: but if your eye is bad, your body shall be all dark." [887] The mind of man, being endued with faith and not infected with concupiscences and naughty lusts, gives light to all things that he takes in hand, pursues, and does. But if his mind is corrupt and unclean, then his deeds will also savour of corruption and uncleanness. Therefore, faith and upright conscience must subdue and beat down too much concupiscence and covetousness, which take their origin and roots from distrust, making unholy and unclean all the counsels of man, all his thoughts, all his words and deeds. And that we may be able and of sufficient force to captivate and bring them into subjection, it is necessary that the grace of Christ assist us — which every godly-minded man and woman asks of God, with godly and faithful prayers.

It is beneficial that we always set before our eyes, and have deeply graven in our hearts, the doctrine of our Saviour Christ touching these, and the instruction also of his holy apostles; which is not much, so that it may be well borne away. We will therefore repeat to you, dearly beloved, three separate places, two of them out of the Gospel, and the third out of Saint Paul.

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In these places, as if a perfect abridgement, you may be apprised of whatever things can be required of those who worship God in truth. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, thus says our Lord and Saviour:

"Do not hoard for yourselves treasures on earth, where rust and moth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up treasure for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your hearts also be. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will lean toward the one, and despise the other: you cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not be concerned for your life, what you will eat or drink; nor yet for your body, what you will put on: is not the life more worthy than food, and the body of more worth than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air, for they do not sow, nor do they reap, nor carry into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you, by taking careful thought, can add one cubit to his stature? And why do you care for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they do not labour, nor do they spin; and yet I say to you, that even Solomon in all his royalty was not arrayed like one of these. Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field which, though it stands to day, is cast into the furnace tomorrow; will He not much more do the same for you, O you of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or, What shall we drink, or With what shall we be clothed? For the Gentiles seek after all these things. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not care then for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Sufficient for the day is its evil." Mat 6.20-34

Thus says the Lord in the sixth chapter of Matthew's Gospel.

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Again, in the twelfth chapter of St. Luke's gospel he says: "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for no man's life stands in the abundance of things which he possesses:" that is, the life has no need of superfluity, or no man's life has need of more than enough.

"And he put forth a similitude, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth fruits plentifully; and he thought to himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no place to store my fruits? And he said, I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there I will gather all my fruits and my goods into them; and I will say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up in store for many years; take your ease: eat, drink, and be merry. But God said to him, you fool, this night they require your soul back from you: then whose will be these things which you have provided? So is he that gathers riches to himself, and is not rich toward God." Luk 12.15-21

Paul, the vessel of election, following his teacher and master in all things, cries out, and says:

"Godliness is a great lucre, if a man is content with what he has: for we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain that we may carry nothing away; but having food and raiment, we must be content with it. For whose who would be rich fall into temptations and snares, and into many foolish and noisome lusts, which drown men in perdition and destruction. For covetousness, and the love of money, is the root of all evil; while some have lusted after these, they erred from the faith, and wrapped themselves in many sorrows. But you, man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness," etc. 1Tim 6.6-11

Therefore, whoever means by bodily labour, or any kind of traffic, to get a living and things necessary for himself and his family, let him take these godly precepts instead of treacle, [888] and other wholesome medicines to strengthen his mind against the envenomed force of poisoned greediness, and the infecting plague of covetousness. And when with this medicine against poison, compounded by the doctrine of the evangelists and apostles, he has fortified his mind against the plague, then let him immediately bend himself to some labour and kind of occupation.

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But let every one pick out and choose an honest and profitable occupation, not a needless art, or a science hurtful to any other man. And finally, let all men flee idleness as a plague or contagious disease. And now, again, let us in this case hear the heavenly words of that holy apostle Paul, who says:

"We charge you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother who lives inordinately, and not after the institution [889] which he received from us. For when we were with you, we warned you of this: that if any would not work, they should not eat. For we hear it said that there are some who walk among you inordinately, not working at all, but are busy-bodies. Those who are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that working in quietness, they eat their own bread." 2Th 3.6-12

In all ages, and among all honest men, both idleness and needless occupations have always been condemned. Hesiodus said:

Both gods and men abhor

The lazy hand-inbosom'd lout, [890]

That works not in a common weal,

But lurks, and lives without

Pains-taking; like the idle drone,

That lives upon the spoil

Of that, for which the busy bees

Do tire themselves with toil.

And Sophocles said:

Where idleness does sit a-brood,

There's never good egg hatch'd. [891]

For God does not assist slothful persons and idle slow-backs. Now, I call needless occupations, those which idle and ill-disposed people use to be troublesome to their neighbours, and to deceive other men.

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I confess, they exercise an occupation, but one that is utterly unlawful and unprofitable to all men except themselves, to whom it brings in excessive gains. Of this sort are usurers, engrossers,[892] hucksters, and others, who have many arts to frank [893] themselves with an idle show of business, like a swine shut up to be fatted in a sty. As for those whose wealth has come to them by wealth, not by their own labour, or their own industry,[894] but by inheritance of their ancestors' leaving, let them consider by what means the riches were gotten, which have now fallen to their lot by inheritance. And if they perceive that they are heirs of unjustly-gotten goods, let them be liberal, and make amends for them,[895] not doubling the evil in possessing unjustly, and more wickedly digesting the thing that came by nothing. Let them put no trust or confidence in their ill-gotten riches, nor let them give themselves to idleness, but remain busy in some honest thing. Yet, most commonly it comes to pass that ill-gotten goods are spent very lewdly.[896] The best way, therefore, is either to be heir to a good, just, and liberal man; or else to seek means by your own toil and travail,[897] to have enough with which to sustain both your own life and the lives of your family.

But many men doubt here, and call this into question: first, whether bargaining, and buying and selling, are lawful or not; and then, what one occupation, among all others, best befits a godly man. Those who stick upon these doubts I wish to consider these reasons that follow. First, it is manifest, that contracts are for the most part voluntary, and that bargains are made with the mutual consent of the buyer and seller; so that each one may deliberate, and choose what he would have, to see whether it is best for his purpose or not. Of this sort are the exchange of things, suretyship, letting, hiring, mortgaging, borrowing, lending, covenanting, buying, selling, and other things like these.

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These things, as experience proves, even the holiest men cannot be without, so long as they live in this frail world. Nor does the Lord of the law in any place forbid these kinds of contracts, but rather plants them in his commonweal of Israel, that the people might know and acknowledge them to be the ordinances of God. Abuse, deceit, guile, and confidence in them is flatly forbidden by the word of the Lord. If any man therefore uses them moderately, not standing upon them, or reposing his trust in them, he does not sin. Here again, let us hear the words of the apostle:

"Let those who have wives be as though they had none; and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they had not rejoiced; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; and those who use this world, as though they did not use it. [898] For the fashion of this world passes away." 1Cor.7.29-31

In like manner, in no place do we read that just and lawful gains have at any time been forbidden. Indeed, the Lord blesses the labour and travail of his servants who love him, so that even as in virtue, so also they may increase in riches and substance. The examples of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob evidently testify of this. Even the apostles do not ask us [899] to look for no gain, but charge us only to keep ourselves from gaping after filthy gain.

There are many and diverse occupations among men; and men's state and conditions need many and sundry things. There is an occupation, or grosser kind of labour, which is put into practice by force of hand and strength of body rather than by art (although it does not altogether lack wit and discretion). There is also a finer and subtler labour: that of wit; although it is not done without the body and strength of man, it is accomplished by wit rather than by the bodily force of the one who labours. Of the first sort are all those occupations or sciences which are commonly called handicraft, in which we also reckon the merchandising, husbandry, and grazing of cattle.

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Of the latter sort are the study of tongues, of medicine, law, divinity especially, philosophy, and lastly, governing a commonweal. The patriarchs, truly, who were most innocent and excellent men, for the most part either exercised husbandry, or else the bred and fed cattle to increase. There are many examples: Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, and others. The Levites and prophets lived by their study and ecclesiastical ministry. The feat [900] of merchandising is nowhere condemned in the holy scriptures; but those merchants are condemned who neither fear nor seek after God, but use odd shifts and subtle sleights to deceive and cheat their brethren and neighbours. For James, the apostle of Christ our Lord, says:

"Go now, you who say, Today, and tomorrow, let us go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and win: and yet you cannot tell what will happen tomorrow; for what is your life? It is a vapour that continues for a little time, and then vanishes away. For that, you ought to say, If the Lord wills, and if we live,[901] let us do this or that." Jas 4.13-15

Neither is Lydia found fault with for selling purple, in the Acts of the Apostles. Solomon, where he praises a good housewife, commends her greatly for exercising good business. Pro 30.1 All notable kings have lived by governing their commonwealths; even as Joseph did, the preserver of Egypt, and Daniel, the chief next to the king in Babylon and Media. For there are many members in a man's body, and sundry uses to which they are applied; and yet, notwithstanding this, they may all agree, and tend together to preserve and safeguard the body; even so, God has ordained diverse arts and occupations for men to labour in; yet nevertheless, he would have them all serve the commonweal's commodity.

But now it is not for me to definitively pronounce which of all these occupations a godly man should first choose, and then put into practice. Let every man weigh for himself the things that I have alleged up to here; then let him search and test himself, as to what kind of life and occupation his mind is most willing, and to which he himself is most fit and profitable.

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Let him also have a diligent regard to consider, which arts are simplest and most agreeable to nature; and what occupations have the least need of craft and deceit; and lastly, what sciences least draw us away from God and just dealing. When this is scanned,[902] then let every man choose for himself that which he takes to be most convenient and wholesome, both for his soul and also his body. We cannot all manure the ground, nor are all heads equally apt to receive learning; a few among many govern the commonweal; and all are not fit to be men of handicrafts. Every one has his sundry disposition; every one is inspired by God; every one has the aid and counsel of his friends and well-wishers; every one has sundry occasions; and every one has the rule of God's word. Let him be content with and so fix himself on them, that God's commandments may still have pre-eminence.

But for the one that labours, and takes pains in his occupation, these rules of admonition which follow are as necessary as those which have been recounted. For first of all, every one must take heed of prodigality or riot, in food, drink, apparel, nice pranking of the body, and gorgeous buildings; needless expenses must always be spared. For the Lord's will is that every man should keep and not lay out the wealth he has, where no need requires it. For the Lord hates and detests riot and needless cost to maintain his pride. Moreover, the man that is wasteful of what is his own, for the most part desires other men's goods. From this arise innumerable mischiefs, threats, conspiracies, downright deceit, shameless shifts, murders, and seditions. Secondly, let the one who labours in his vocation be prompt and active; let him be watchful and able to abide labour; he must not be a lither-back,[903] or an unfit or slothful fellow. Whatever he does, let him do it with faith and diligence. Sloth and sluggishness utterly displease God. The Lord disapproves the yawning mouth and folded arms, the signs of sleep which commonly follow the careless man who neglects the state and condition of his house and family.[904]

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But on the other side, the scripture commends highly faithful labourers, and good and dedicated people in work. Let us hear, I beseech you, the golden words of Solomon, the wisest among all men. Where he blames sluggards, he says:

"Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways, and learn to be wise. She has no guide, nor overseer, nor ruler; and yet in the summer she provides her grain, and gathers her food in the harvest. How long will you sleep, you sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep? Yes, sleep on still a little, slumber a little, fold your hands together yet a little, and take your ease: and in the meanwhile poverty will come upon you like a traveller, and necessity like a weaponed man." Pro 6.6-11

Again, David cries in the psalms: [905] "The labours of your hands shall you eat: O well are you, and happy shall you be." What may be thought of this, moreover: that the Lord God would not have Adam live idly in paradise, that happy place, for his state and condition? For He enjoined him in tending and dressing that good garden. Idle people, therefore, are the most unhappy of all mortal men; and slothful drowsy-heads are nothing but an unprofitable lump of unoccupied earth.[906] Lastly, let the artificer have a regard, that he hurt no man by his art or occupation. And let this be the rule for him, to keep his eye on in all business and affairs of his science: "Whatever you would have done to yourself, do the same to another; and whatever you would not have done to yourself, do not do that to another." [907] Moreover, you hurt another man two different ways; that is, by keeping back, and taking away — for example, if you withhold what you owe, and it is not your own; or if you take away what is another man's, and he does not owe it to you. But, I will speak somewhat largely at present, of the hurt done in withholding and taking away, so that you may thereby better understand the Lord's commandment, "You shall not steal," and more perfectly perceive what kinds and sorts of theft there are.

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THEFT, they say, is a deceitful fingering of another man's goods, moveable and bodily, which is done against the owner's will, with the intent to gain either from the thing itself, or from the use of it, or from the possession of it. Therefore, they say, a mad man does not commit theft; because no endeavour of craft or deceit can possibly be found in him. Nor, they say, can that man be convicted of [908] theft, who by mistaking, and not by set malice, took another man's good instead of his own. But he is not called a deceitful fingerer, who only lays a hand upon the thing; but he alone, who by any manner of means, conveys it from the possession of the true owner. Now they say that it is done against the owner's will, not only if it is by force and violently taken from him: but also if he does not know of its taking away; or if he does know, yet he cannot forbid them; or if he can forbid them, yet for some reason he will not. Nor is it added without a cause, that theft is committed for gain and profit's sake. For if one in jest, or for some other honest cause, takes anything away, he does not thereby deserve to be called a thief. But they make two sorts of theft: the manifest theft, as that with which the thief is taken; and the theft that is not manifest, as when, after the deed, one is convinced of theft. There is a large discourse about these in Digestorum Lib. XLVII. tit. 2.[909] Let us return to further open our present proposition.

Your withholding hurts another man when, in buying and selling, you use a false measure or false weights. This rule is referred to as unjust and false exchange; I mean, exchange of money in the bank.[910] Touching these points, we will recount the commandments and sentences only of the Lord our God, who in Leviticus sets this as the law:

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"You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meter, in weight, or in measure: you shall have true balances, true weights, a true ephah" (that is, a bushel or a peck [911] in measure of dry things), "and a true hin," (that is, a pint and a half in measure of liquid things, or the twelfth part of a pint and a half [912]). "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." Lev 19.36 In Deuteronomy we read: "You shall not have in your bag two manner of weights, a great and small. Nor shall you have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small" (to the end, that in receiving or buying you may use the greater, and in laying out or selling, you may use the lesser); "but you shall have a just and a right weight, and a just and right measure shall you have; that your days may be prolonged upon the land which the Lord your God gives you. For all who do such things, and all who do unrightly, are abominable to the Lord your God." Deu 25.13-16 To this pertains that sentence of Solomon's in the Proverbs, where he says: "Two manners of weights, and two manners of measures, both these are abominable to the Lord." Pro 20.10 But what can be heard or thought of, that is more grievous and horrible than a man who is abominable in the sight of his God?

In the sixth chapter of Micah also, the Lord threatens diverse and grievous punishments, which he intends to lay upon the necks of those who do not use justice in weights and measures. Why, therefore, do we not flee from doing wrong and unrighteousness, choosing sooner to be happy rather than unhappy; and hearken to the Lord, who says, "Good measure, and pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, they will give into your bosom; for with the same measure that you measure to others, others shall measure back to you." Luk 6.38 Let us be thoroughly persuaded, therefore, that riches gotten by craft and theft can neither flourish long, nor yet be for our health to enjoy.

Again, men are damaged by those who possess inheritances that are due to others, yet withhold them; who break their promises, and deceive men in contracts, bargains, and covenants; who make a face, as though they gave the thing which they either change, or which they retain for themselves by some coloured shift; or else they give it back once they have marred or utterly destroyed it.

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Both the one and the other, truly, is fraud and guile and flat deceit. But now, by the way, mark this manifest and usual point of God's just judgment: that wrongful possessors of other men's heritages are both short-lived, and the most unfortunate of all other people. Touching these wrongful withholders, Solomon pronounces that they shall find no gain. For gain unjustly gotten, however great it is, more truly deserves to be called a loss rather than a gain.

To this precept belong things that are found, which you deny to the demander, as though you either have not found them, or else you claim them to be your own by law. To this pertains the pledge, or pawn, which you withhold. A man that takes a journey into a far country has put you in trust with certain silver plate, and a pound weight of gold, to keep for him against his return, because he had hope that you would keep them safely. But at his coming back, when he demands them, you deny the thing. In so doing, you have stolen it from him, and cracked the credit that your friend had in you; and last of all, you have doubled the sin. A poor man has gaged [913] to you some precious thing that he sets much by. When he claims it back, with ready money in hand to pay the sum which he borrowed upon it, you deny him the pledge; you quarrel with him, and use subtlety to defraud him of his pawn. In so doing, you steal it from him. Moreover, the Lord gave other laws to his people to this end and effect, touching the taking of pledges or gages.

For in Deuteronomy he says, "No man shall take the nether or upper millstone for a pledge: for he has laid his life in pledge to you." [914] For it is all one, as if he had said: you shall not take from your neighbour's hand instead of a pledge, that with which he gets his living and maintains his family: for thereby you take from him both life and living. And immediately after he says: "When you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to fetch a pledge from there; but stand outside, so that the one who borrowed it from you may bring it outdoors to you." Deu 24.10-11

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The Lord forbids cruelty, and would not have rich men be too sharp in ransacking poor men's houses, nor over-curious [915] in taking pledges from poor men's hands. For he adds afterward: "And if it is a poor body, you shall not sleep with his pledge; but deliver him the pledge when the sun goes down, so that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless you; and that shall be imputed for righteousness to you before the Lord your God." Deu 24.12-13

Lastly, those who withhold the labourer's wages, damage their neighbours most of all. The labourer's hire is withheld two different ways: for you either never pay it; or else you pay it with grudging and grunting, you delay the payment too long, or otherwise diminish some part of his hire. But mark now, that the name of hirelings has ample signification, and is extended to all kinds of artificers. The common sorts of wealthy men have a cast now-a-days to use the help of handi-craftsmen, and bid them to keep a reckoning of their hire and wages in books of accounts. Meanwhile, though they perceive that these poor men lack money, they will not pay so much as one penny. Indeed, when these men require the debt that is due, the wealthy take them up with bitter words, and send them away empty, till they themselves are disposed to pay. And so these foolish and wicked wealthy men do not cease to lash out prodigally in riot, the very things that are not clearly their own, but which they withhold from other poor men. Let us hear therefore the laws and judgments of the Lord our God touching this horrible abuse and detestable fault. In Deuteronomy we read:

"You shall not deny, nor withhold, the wages of a hired servant, who is needy and poor, whether he is of your brethren, or of the strangers that are in your land and within your gates; but you shall give him his hire the same day, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is needy, and he holds his life by the hire," (that is, he lays the hope of his life in it, as he that looks to live by it,) "lest he cry to the Lord, and it be turned to sin to you." Deu 24.14-15

The words of James the apostle most fitly agree with this law of the Lord, where he says:

"Behold, the hire of labourers who have reaped your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cries out; and the cries of those who have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." [916]

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What can be more terrible to the hearer's ears? The labourer's hire, which is withheld, cries out, and cries even up into heaven; and most of all, it enters into the ears of the most just, severe, and mighty God. What now may these defrauders look for from God's hand, but heavy punishment to light upon their cursed heads? Tobit, therefore, most rightly and briefly concludes this matter, and gives excellent counsel to all sorts of people, saying: "Whoever works anything for you, give him his hire immediately, and do not let your hired servant's wages remain with you at all. For in so doing, and fearing God, you shall have thanks." Tobit 4.14

Now follows the second member or part of detriment, which consists in taking away another man's goods. And this taking away also is of sundry sorts.

Now, the first place of these sorts is attributed to THEFT itself (of which we have spoken somewhat before). This theft is committed, not in taking away money only, but in wares also, and wrongfully dealing in other men's grounds, in removing land marks or mere-stones;[917] and whatever is translated, denied, or clean taken away, against all right; or whatever is maliciously, against all conscience and consent of the other party (that is, of the true owner), delayed, or foaded off,[918] till a longer time has passed than ought to be. For in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus the Lord sets this down for a law, and says: "You shall not steal, you shall not lie; no man shall deal with his neighbour deceitfully." Eph 4.25, 28 And Paul says to the Ephesians: "Laying lies aside, everyone speak the truth to his brother; for we are members of one another. Let the one who stole, steal no more; but rather labour with his hands in working the thing that is good, that he may give to the one who has need." We may extend this almost to all the offices and duties of men. For whoever denies the debt and duty which he owes by right, sins against this commandment.

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For example, if the householder denies the duty that he owes to his family; again, if the family consumes the householder's substance, and deceives the good man whose care is bent to maintain his charge, and are set to undo him by prodigally spending his money and goods which they filch from him secretly. Again, if the lord, or master (although this point may well come under the damage done by withholding) is too rough to his hinds, or husbandmen.[919] Or if the plough folks idly waste their master's substance, or slackly look to their tillage and business, or spend his wealth and riches in riot. So then, the servant offends against this commandment, if he does not seek all the means that he may, to diligently care for his master's affairs, and faithfully augment his wealth and possessions. And in like manner, maidservants may offend against their mistresses, in the duties which they owe. And therefore Paul, having an eye to this precept, charges Titus, and says: "Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, and to please them in all things; not answering back, nor pilfering, but showing all good faithfulness, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." Tit 2.9-10 And like this is that which the same apostle repeats in the sixth chapter to the Ephesians, the third chapter to the Colossians, and in first Timothy, sixth chapter. For in this commandment, his doctrine of the duties of masters and servants has a fit place (so far as concerns the householder's riches), and whatever else is like this.

To this precept, robbery and deceit also fully belong, both of which extend far, and contain many kinds. Fraud is infinite: for the iniquity of men is bottomless, their crafts are diverse, and they are of so many sorts that no one man can number them all. And robbery is not always armed with force and weapons, but is sometimes furnished with sleights and coloured words. Nor do robbers lurk and lay wait in woods and wide-open fields alone, but also conduct themselves in the thickest throngs of every good city. You take away your neighbour's goods under the false title and pretence of law; you rob him, I say, when by your lawsuit, your gifts, or your other fetches, you extort from the judges a corrupted sentence to maintain your wrongful claim.

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There are some who, under the title of a deed of gift, do not hesitate to wrest whole heritages from legitimate heirs. These and other shifts, or cozenings like these, are contained partly under robbery, partly under deceit, but altogether and flatly under plain thievery.

Although at dice, players give their mutual consent to gaming, because each one's desire is greedily set to get the other's money, and they make blind fortune (I mean, the dice or cards) the divider of their goods between them, the dice and cards are therefore worthily condemned by all good divines. And Justinian the emperor, as it is extant, Cod. Lib. iii. tit. ultimo, having a regard to his subjects' commodity, decreed that it should be lawful for no man, either in public or in private houses, to play at dice. For although dice-play has been used from great antiquity, it has ended with and burst out into tears. For many, having lost all the substance that they have in dice-play, at last break out into cursing and blaspheming God.[920] Otherwise, there is none so ignorant that he does not knows well enough, that those exercises of the wit or body which are free from the poisoned desire for filthy gain, and on which neither the hurt of our neighbour nor ourself depends, are lawful enough to be used by Christians.

USURY [921] is when you grant to another the use of your goods, such as land, houses, money, or anything else, from which you receive some yearly commodity. For you have a manor, a farm, lands, meadows, pastures, vineyards, houses, and money, which you let for hire to another man upon a certain covenant of gain, to give a return to you for the use of it.

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This bargain, this covenant, is not unlawful of itself, nor is it condemned in the holy scriptures. And the very name of usury is not dishonest of itself. The abuse of it has made it dishonest, so that, not without cause, it is detested today by all men. For usury is condemned in the scripture, so far as it is joined with iniquity and the destruction of our brother or neighbour. For who would forbid to let for hire the use of our lands, houses, or money, so that thereby we may receive some just and lawful commodity? For buying, setting to hire, and similar contracts are lawfully allowed to us. And just as it is the part of him that gives to do good, so it is the duty of him that takes not to use a good turn without any manner of recompense, to the hurt and hindrance of the one who gives it. In bestowing mere benefits there is another consideration, about which we read in the sixth chapter of Luke: "If you lend to them, from whom you hope to receive again," etc. And the lawyers discuss this matter thus: that it is not usury when the debtor gives a pension, and some yearly fee, in recompense for the money which he has borrowed, saving the principal sum which he has borrowed whole, by a covenant that was previously made, of selling it back again; because the thing ceases to be lent, which is so granted to another man's use, that unless the debtor agrees, the creditor cannot claim the thing so long as the debtor pays his pension; for the assured payment of this, he has put himself in bond — for such a crediting is a flat contract of buying. They say, therefore, that usury is committed in lending alone (which ought to be without hire), and not in other contracts or bargains. Let those, therefore, who deal in these kind of trades, have this always before their eyes as a rule to be led by: "Whatever you would have done to yourself, do that to another: and whatever you would not have done to yourself, do not do that to another." [922] And let them think about those words of the apostle: "Let no man beguile his brother in bargaining." 1Thes 4.6 I know very well, that touching money, they are prone to allege that it does not endure as lands and vineyards do, but is consumed and made less with use and tossing from man to man; and therefore, no commodity ought to be taken for the use of it. [923]

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But if a man puts money into another man's hand, with which he buys himself a farm, a manor, lands, or vineyards, or otherwise occupies it to his gain and profit, I see no cause why a good Christian and an honest man may not reap some lawful commodity from the hire of his money, as well as from letting or leasing his land. It is in the power of him that so lets out his money, to buy a farm with that money, and so to take the whole gain for himself; but now we see that, in letting the other have it, he grants him the use of his money, whereby he is a very great gainer. This fellow to whom this sum is lent, or otherwise given on covenants of contract, gets some means of living with the money, with the revenue of which he nourishes his whole family, paying to his creditor the portion agreed on. Once he has made a full restitution of this, he makes the living his own forever, and acquits himself from the yearly pension. In this kind of covenanting, no man, I think, will say that the poor is oppressed when the thing itself rather cries that the poor is greatly helped by such usury. Usury is therefore forbidden in the word of God, so far as it bites (for here I use the very term of the scriptures) [924] his neighbour — while it hinders him or otherwise undoes him. For thus says the Lord in Leviticus:

"If your brother has grown poor and fallen into decay,[925] whether he is a stranger or indweller, relieve him that he may live with you. You shall take no usury from him, nor more than right; but fear the Lord, that your brother may live with you. You shall not give him your money upon usury, nor lend him your victuals for increase.[926] I am the Lord your God." Lev 25.35-38

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Therefore the Lord disapproves all arts of covetous and deceitful men, with which they not only exceed measure in exacting usury, but purposely let out their money and substance to hire, that by this occasion they may wipe their debtors of all that they have.

No man, I think, can in a few words express all the wicked fetches of subtle usurers; they invent such new ones every day. I will therefore recite here the judgment of the Lord against a few wicked arts and detestable deeds of usurers, in lending, letting, and selling. This is to the end that, once considered, all men may judge and take heed of the like. The prophet Amos in the eighth chapter says:

"Hear this, O you who swallow up the poor, and make the needy of the land to fail, saying: After a month [927] we will sell corn, and at the week's end we will set out wheat, we will make the ephah small, and the sicle [928] great, and falsify the weights by deceit — that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat. The Lord has sworn by the excellence of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall the land not tremble for this? Shall everyone not mourn who dwells in it? And it shall rise up wholly as a flood," etc. Amo 8.4-8

Therefore, so that the wrath of God may be turned away from falling upon commonweals and kingdoms for unjust extortion in usury and detestable usurers, it is the role of a holy magistrate to bridle usurers with upright laws; and according to the quality of times, places, states, and persons, to appoint a lawful, just, and honest lucre,[929] that usurers may not, in lending, letting, buying, and selling, oppress the poor people, but that equity and justice may be kept in all things. The magistrate has a notable example of this duty in Nehemiah, suppressing the covetousness, cruelty, and extreme injury of usurers, and other oppressors of his Jewish commonalty. It is set down at large in the fifth chapter of the history of Nehemiah. In what I have alleged up to here, therefore, I do not mean to father or defend unjust occupiers, usurers, or their insatiable covetousness.

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But I affirm flatly, that they live off the blood and bowels of their brethren and countrymen, and that they will be undoubtedly damned, unless they repent from their sin and extortion. The very law of nature works greatly against them, which I argue here, and say to them: "Whatever you would not have done to yourself, do not do that to another." Luk 6.31 "The publicans also came to John, that they might be baptized by him, and said, Master, what shall we do? To whom he said: Exact no more than is appointed for you." Luk 3.12-13 These publicans were those who lived on the public toll and customs which they had farmed at the Romans hands for a certain sum of ready money. Now, he did not bid these publicans to abandon their toll-gathering, but willed them to be content with their appointed duty. In like manner, I urge the same sentence, and say to all usurers and occupiers: "Exact no more than is appointed for you." But if you want a certain constitution and ordinance set down by the magistrate, for the gain of your money in various trades, then let equity, humanity, and charity prevail in your minds, and let the common law sink into your hearts, which says: "Whatever you would that men should do to you, do the same to them." "If your eye," says the Lord, "is good, all your body is full of light; but if the light that is in you is darkness, how great then is that darkness!" Mat 6.22-23

SACRILEGE is the spoiling of holy things which are consecrated to God and the use of the church. For the church of God has hallowed goods and riches, with which it partly maintains sincere doctrine and the holy ministry of the church; and partly relieves the needy saints and impotent brethren. The church also has goods and possessions, to keep the places of prayer, spiritual houses, and hospitals in due reparations; and lastly, for the public help of all people in common calamities and grievous afflictions. Therefore, church-robbers are those who convert the church- goods from the lawful and holy purpose, for which they were ordained, into a profane and godless use; spending them prodigally in hunting, fancy clothing, superstition, whore-hunting, dicing, drinking, and excessive banqueting. Bishops and magistrates these days greatly offend in these things.[930]

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And it cannot be otherwise, but that some great misfortune, and more calamities than one, must follow that foul abuse of ecclesiastical riches and spiritual goods. For as Christ our Lord, the very Son of God, is spoiled and defrauded in the poor and needy; so doctrine and godliness come to an end, honest studies utterly decay, the sheep of Christ are altogether destitute of good and faithful shepherds, and are left for a prey to ravening wolves and merciless robbers. Yet we must have a regard not to include in the number of church-robbers, such heads and overseers of holy religion as some kings of Judah were, but Hezekiah especially, and many other bishops and pastors of the primitive church, who, in many troublesome broils, when either wars wasted their countries and commonweals, or else when hunger or some other public calamity oppressed and pinched their silly [931] countrymen, did not hesitate to bestow the church-goods liberally, and to empty the treasure of hallowed money, that thereby they might do the poor oppressed some good. But they would undoubtedly have been wrongful church-robbers if, to spare money and other vessels which are without life, they would not have redeemed living creatures, their countrymen, from death and penury. There is an excellent passage about this matter in St. Ambrose, Officiorum, Lib. 11. cap. 28.[932] There are also notable examples of it in the ecclesiastical history.[933]

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Moreover, in the number of church-robbers, divines include Simoniacs — that is, merchants,[934] by which I mean, buyers and sellers of spiritual and ecclesiastical dignities. For such was Simon Magus, Act 8.18f their grand patriarch, reported to have been in the Acts of the Apostles. In the civil law, whoever went around with secret gifts to buy the voice of any man to speak on his side when public offices were to be bestowed, was guilty of ambition. And beside the shame and open infamy, he was compelled to pay a hundred crowns for his offence.[935] But because this does not belong to sacrilege, we let it pass, and return to our matter.

Those are church-robbers who either do not pay at all, or else pay unwillingly the goods that are due to the church; I mean, their tithes and yearly revenues. It is to be seen in the scriptures, how terribly the prophets threaten church-robbers. Haggai testified, that the ground brought forth such bad and little fruit for nothing else, but because the people did not truly pay that which by duty they ought to pay the temple. Hag 2 In Malachi, God promises the people to make their ground fruitful, if they will liberally pay the stipends and tributes due to the temple. Mal 3.10 Now the ministers of the churches may use those revenues or stipends, by good law and by right, just as those who use the profit of the ground which they themselves have husbanded. For so the Lord expressly teaches in the eighteenth chapter of the Book of Numbers. Num 18.8 Paul's saying agrees with this in the ninth chapter of his first epistle to the Corinthians. 1Cor 9.14 And the Lord Jesus himself also gave alms to the poor from the stipend which he had, as seen in the thirteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel. Joh 13.29

Moreover, beggars commit sacrilege, who abuse the name of Christ, and make their poverty a cloak to keep themselves idle. The apostle commands Timothy not to cherish such idle hypocrites and wandering vagabonds with the alms and expenses of the church goods.1Tim 5.13-16 But now, the greatest sacrilege of all, is if a man translates the glory of God, the Creator, to a creature.

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There is a kind of theft called Peculatus, which is committed in filching the common treasure, or purloining away the prince's substance.[936] This kind of robbery breeds new exactions every hour, and gives wicked magistrates good cause and fit opportunity to poll [937] the poor commonalty. Cato incidentally [938] spoke of this sort of robber when he said: "Private thieves lead their lives in chains and fetters, but public thieves in gold and purple." [939] Under this title of robbery all those are contained, who either do not pay at all, or else pay with ill-will, the tributes and taxes that are due to their magistrates. Lastly, all those are counted faulty in this kind of thievery, who abuse the public wealth or treasure of the commonweal.

There are some others who take children whom they know very well, and sell them to others, to thereby get an advantage; or else steal away other men's servants. The lawyers call this kind of theft Plagium.[940] And those people are guilty of this offence, who by evil whispering, persuasion, and seditious doctrine, draw servants and handmaids from obedience to their masters, and children from doing reverence and duty to their parents. And when captains who are hired by foreign princes to serve for money in foreign wars, against the parents' will and knowledge, carry away whole bands of silly young men, whom they entice with many fair promises, and entrap with sundry sleights, leading them to wars in which they perish and never return to their friends again — such captains, I say, are to be reckoned in the number of men-stealers.[941]

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This offence was punished of old by death, as evident in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, and in the law of Constantine, which is seen in Cod. Lib. ix. tit. 20.[942]

There is another sort of thief, which we call felons;[943] and those steal and drive away other men's cattle. In this order of thieves are placed those people who misuse the cattle lent to them; and also those who, when they could, will not help another man's cattle in jeopardy. For the Lord in the law commanded them to bring back that which goes astray, and to restore it to the rightful owner. Deu 22.1f

This much I have spoken up to here, my brethren, touching the sundry kinds of theft, of the just and lawful getting of goods, and also of the proper owning of particular riches.

3-2. THE SECOND SERMON: USE OF EARTHLY GOODS.

OF THE LAWFUL USE OF EARTHLY GOODS; THAT IS, HOW WE MAY RIGHTLY POSSESS,

AND LAWFULLY SPEND, THE WEALTH THAT IS RIGHTLY AND JUSTLY GOTTEN;

OF RESTITUTION, AND ALMS-DEEDS.[944]

In my last Sermon, dearly beloved, I declared to you by what means goods are rightly gotten, how many kinds of theft there are, and sundry ways of getting wealth unlawfully. There is still left another treatise for me to add, in which to teach you what the true use is of goods that are rightly gotten, how we may lawfully possess them, and how we may justly spend and dispose them in this transitory life.

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For justice not only will not defraud a man, but so much as it may, it endeavours to do good to all men. Nor is it enough for a godly man not to hurt anybody, unless he also does good to all that he can. And many men sin in this point, while they are persuaded that they have done all the duty that they owe, if they hurt no man, and if they possess what they have without trouble to any man. Meanwhile they have no regard whether they help or do good to any man, or not. And he sins just as greatly in the sight of the Lord, if a man does not rightly use goods that are justly gotten, as he someone who has heaped up wealth in wickedness and by naughty means. I will tell you, therefore, so far as God gives me grace, how and in what way, godly men may holily possess and dispose these earthly goods.

First of all, so that the use of worldly wealth may be healthful to the owner, holy men have a diligent care that nothing of another man's remains in their possession. That is, they carefully separate wealth that has been rightly come by, from unjustly gotten goods, and faithfully restore whatever they find in what they have, that by right belongs to other men. For they are thoroughly persuaded, and truly believe, that by this means the wealth that is left to them, although it is somewhat diminished by restitution, will prosper them better, endure longer, and be far more fruitful to them.

Now this restitution is flatly commanded, and it is also very necessary to be put in practice. For the Lord in the law, by various means (and very carefully), also charges it, as seen in the twenty-second of Exodus. Exo 22.1-15 Moreover, as often as the just and holy commandment of God was cast off and neglected through the covetousness and wickedness of mankind, the Lord raised up grievous and almost unspeakable evils against its contemners, and scattered abroad the unjustly gotten goods by wars, mishaps, and diverse calamities. For the prophet Isaiah cries out, saying: "The Lord shall enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people, and shall say to them, It is you that have burnt up my vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses." Isa 3.14 And Amos in the third chapter of his prophecy cries:

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"They store up treasures in their palaces by violence and robbery. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Miseries shall invade you on every side of the land, and your enemies shall bring down your strength, or riches, from you, and your palaces shall be spoiled." Amo 3.10-11 We therefore read in the gospel, that Zacchaeus, of his own accord, promised four-fold restitution, that is, a full and absolute recompense of whatever he had wrongfully taken away; Luk 19.8 and it is assuredly certain that he performed that promise. For he understood by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that a restitution of his ill-gotten goods was especially necessary, and that he would never be happy until he had made full amends for all his wrongful dealings. Very rightly, therefore, St. Augustine said in his fifty-fourth epistle to Macedonius, where he writes:

"If, when you can, you do not restore what you have of another man's goods, repentance is not truly performed, but falsely feigned: but if repentance is truly taken, then sin is not forgiven, unless restitution is made of that which was taken away; but as I said, when it can be restored." [945]

The example of Zacchaeus teaches us when restitution ought to be made; as soon as he was received into the favour of Christ, and understood the works of truth and equity, he immediately promised restitution, and performed it out of hand. Therefore we must not foad off from day to day to make restitution. No man needs to double his offence. For you need not by your day to day delays, augment the other's discommodity and hindrance any longer, the one from whom, by your subtle means and wicked violence, you have wrested the goods that he has. Consider that God knows this man, to his loss, has lacked them long enough, and been without them too long.[946] If you demand, to whom should you make restitution? I answer, to the one from whom you took it, if you know from whom you had it, and who you have defrauded. But by that means, you say, I will bring myself into obloquy and infamy. I bid you not to do so.

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But, if you invented a means to take it, then find some handsome way to restore it again, whereby you may escape and not incur the note of infamy. And pray to the Lord, that he will show you a ready way, and apt to accomplish the thing you intend. If you mean in good sadness [947] to make true restitution, you will undoubtedly find a way to do it without reproach and obloquy. But if you dally and jest with the Lord, you will not be without a thousand excuses, the best and the soundest of which will never set your conscience at quiet liberty. Nor is God mocked. I cannot tell, you say, from whom I have taken it, and therefore I do not know to whom I should restore it. If indeed you do not know from whom you have taken it, then you have the poor and needy on whom to bestow it. You should deal your unjustly gotten goods to them, and not to superstition or its ministers.

Now, let every one make restitution of so much as he has taken away; or at least, of so much as he is able to restore. For many have spent, and so prodigally wasted other men's goods, that they are not able to make restitution of anything again. Let such fellows acknowledge their fault, and repent of their folly from the bottom of their hearts. And if it happens at any time afterward that they come by goods, then let them be that much more liberal from their own goods, as before they were prodigal in spending other men's. But if all the riches which you possess are other men's goods, and gotten by theft and robbery — so that, if you made a full restitution, there would not be a penny left for you, but you must beg — then you are truly hard-pressed, and in too woeful an undertaking. Indeed, you are mad and far beside yourself, if you will not stop, but still go on to paint your pride, and to maintain a port with other men's pence, and satisfy your lust in the bowels, blood, and sweat of poor men's brows. Why do you not rather abase yourself to poverty, and use your unjustly gotten goods, as needy people use their alms? For you live off what should be the poor's. Therefore lay down your pride, and forsake your ruffling [948] riot.

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Consider who you are, and what you live on: and still endeavour to make restitution so far as you can; and let it grieve you to see yourself not able to restore the whole again. If it is not a grief to you to suffer poverty for a time, to labour and faithfully exercise some honest occupation, and to train up your children, leading them by the hand to work as it were; then you shall not lack something to live on, even though you restore all, whatever you have, of other men's goods. But there is very small and almost no faith at all in many men; by this it comes to pass that very few, or none, can be persuaded to make true restitution. To this I add (before I go any further) that those who have corrupted the minds of simple souls, with evil words, should especially think of a restitution; who with secret backbiting raised slandered other men; or with perverse counsel have stirred up mightier men against the weaker sort. For these things surpass and are far above all earthly riches.

Thus much I have said up to here touching restitution, of which other men have left very ample discourses. For my part, I see that to a godly mind this work of restitution is short and plain enough; and therefore I have spoken of it as shortly as I have. For a godly and well-disposed man with all his heart desires and seeks to obey the law of God; and therefore, by calling to God for aid, he will easily find a way to work justice and equity. As for those whose desire is to seem just to men, rather than to be just indeed, and who love this world more than it becomes them, with their over-many questions and innumerable exceptions and suppositions,[949] they make the treatise of restitution so tedious and intricate, that no man will ever be able to make it so plain that they will understand it. I will not therefore answer them any more, but only warn them to examine their own conscience, and see what that bids them to do. Now I would have that conscience of theirs to be settled in, and mindful of, the general law which says: "Whatever you would have done to yourself, do that to another; and whatever you would not have done to yourself, do not do that to another."

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After this, I will now somewhat freely discourse upon the just possessing, using, or disposing of well-gotten earthly. First of all, no man must put any confidence in riches, which are transitory things indeed, and quickly decay. We must not settle our minds upon nor be in love with them; but by all means take heed that they do not drive us to idolatry, nor hinder the course that we have to pass. Heaven is the goal at which we run. Here again, we must all give ear to the divine and heavenly words uttered by the prophet David, who said:

"Put your trust in God always, pour out your hearts before him; for God is our refuge. As for the children of men, they are but vain: the children of men are deceitful upon the weights, they are altogether lighter than vanity itself. Do not trust in wrong and robbery, to not give yourselves to vanity. If riches increase, do not set your hearts upon them." [950]

The apostle Paul, being endued with the same spirit, bids us to use the world and worldly things, as though we did not use them.[951] Again, he calls covetousness the worshipping of idols; and charges rich men not to put their trust in uncertain riches,[952] but in the living God, who ministers sufficiently enough to all living creatures. And therefore the Lord in the gospel forbids us to heap up treasures upon earth. Mat 6.19

Now, on the other side, we are not bid by the apostles to spend our goods prodigally, in riot and wantonness. For we must not abuse the wealth that the Lord has lent us, in pride and luxury, as many do who chuck it all in dicing, sumptuous building, strange clothing, excessive drinking, and over-dainty banqueting. The end and destruction of such people, the Lord very finely (though not without terror to those who hear it) sets down in the parable of the rich glutton who, after his delicate fare and costly apparel, after this life, was tormented in hell with unspeakable thirst, and toasted there with unquenchable fire. Therefore, these temporal goods must be rightly, holily, and moderately used, without excess.

Every man must acknowledge that these terrestrial goods are the mere and free gifts of our bountiful and heavenly Father, and not given for our deserts, or gotten by our might.

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For we have from God's liberality, all things necessary to maintain our lives. It is the Lord who blesses and prospers our labour. Finally, these are not evil, but the good gifts of God, which he gives to maintain our lives, and not for our destruction. The fault is in ourselves, that riches are a snare to bring many men to evil ends. Moreover, the Lord himself requires, and in his word he commands us, to be thankful to Him for his good benefits bestowed on us; to use them with thanksgiving; to praise his name for all things; and to rejoice in his fatherly goodness shown to us. For thus Moses, the servant of God, charges the Israelites in Deuteronomy:

"When you have eaten therefore, and filled yourself, then thank the Lord your God in that good land which he has given you. Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God, that you would not keep his commandments, his laws and ordinances, which I command you this day. Yes, and when you have eaten, and filled yourself, and have built beautiful houses, and dwell in them; and when your beasts and your sheep have grown many, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is increased; then beware, lest your heart rise, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage. Do not then say in your heart, My power and the might of my own hand has prepared me this abundance. Remember the Lord your God: for it is he that gives you power to get substance," etc. [953]

Moreover, Paul the apostle says that all the creatures of God are good, created for our good and for our preservation; and he bids us to use them with the fear of God and with thanksgiving. 1Tim 4.4 And again: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1Cor 10.31 And in another place: "Let your manners be far from covetousness; and be content with the things that you have: for he has said, I do not forsake nor leave you. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do to me." Heb 13.5-6

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Let earthly goods also serve our necessity. Now necessity requires a commodious dwelling-place, sufficient victuals, attractive apparel, and keeping honest company with our neighbours and equals. Let every man measure and esteem these circumstances, first by his own person, then by his family or household. For a householder must warily provide and foresee, that no necessary thing is lacking in his family. There are sundry testimonies of scripture about this care of the householder; but especially that of St. Paul, in the fifth chapter of his first epistle to Timothy. And here, note that "necessity" means all things which the body or life of man necessarily requires and stands in need of; and finally, whatever the honesty and suitableness of every man craves or demands. Thus far truly, and to this end or purpose, it is lawful for any man to lay something up in store against years to come. The man whose primary charge is keeping a great house, needs more to maintain it with: and the one whose family is not so big, needs that much less, as his house is the smaller. And one state of life, and a greater port, becomes a magistrate; while another countenance, and a lower sail, befits a private person. But in these cases, let every man consider what necessity requires, not what lust and rioting will egg him on to. Let him think to himself, what is seemly and unseemly for one of his degree.

And yet, in this treatise we do not make so strict a definition of necessity, that we thereby utterly condemn all pleasure and moderate liberty for sensuality and luxury. For I know that God has granted and given to man, not only the use of necessity — I mean, the use of those things which as men we cannot be without — but also all those moderate pleasures with which to delight him. Let no man therefore make scruple [954] of his conscience in the sweet and pleasant use of earthly goods, as though with that sweet pleasure which he enjoys, he sinned against God. Let him rather make conscience in the just and lawful use of those terrestrial riches. For the Lord has nowhere forbidden mirth, joy, and the sweet use of wealth, so long as nothing is done indecently, unthankfully, or unrighteously.

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For the prophet Jeremiah, alluding to the promises of God's law contained in the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus and the twenty-eighth of Deuteronomy, says:

"They shall come and rejoice in Zion, and shall have plenteous goods which the Lord shall give them, namely, in wheat, wine, oil, young sheep and calves; and their soul shall be as a well watered garden; for they shall no longer be sorrowful. Then the maid shall rejoice in the dance, yes, both young and old folks: for I will turn their sorrow into gladness, and I will comfort them, and make them merry. I will make drunk the hearts of the priests with fat, and my people shall be filled with my goodness, says the Lord." Jer 31.12-14

Moreover, in the fourth chapter of the third book of Kings we read: "And under Solomon they increased, and were many in number as the sand of the sea, eating and drinking, and making merry." [955] Again, in the eighth chapter of the same book we find:

"And Solomon made a solemn feast, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, which came out from among all the people, even from the entrance of Hamath to the river of Egypt, before the Lord seven days and seven days — that is, fourteen days in all. Afterward he sent away the people, and they thanked the king, and went to their tents very joyfully, and with glad hearts, because of all the goodness that the Lord had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people." 1Kng 8.65-66

Like this is what we read in the eighth chapter of Nehemiah, in these words:

"And Ezra, with the Levites, said to all the people who were sad and sorrowful, This day is holy to the Lord your God: do not be sorry, and do not weep; but go your way to eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send part to those who do not have," etc. Neh 8.10

And the Lord, truly, does not require us to be without any sense and feeling of those pleasures which, by his grace, he has given us to enjoy. Nor would he have us be altogether numbed, like blocks and stocks and senseless stones. For he himself has grafted in us all the sense and feeling of good and evil, of sweet and sour. And our God and Maker has, from his eternal goodness and wisdom, ordained a certain natural excellence in his creations, and has adorned them, and made them so delectable, that we may delight in and desire them.

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Yes, and what is more, our God has planted in them a nourishing force and virtue to cherish us, and to keep our bodies in fair and good liking. For David says:

"And [he makes grow out of the earth] wine that makes glad the heart of man, and oil to make him have a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen man's heart. The trees of the Lord are full of sap, in which the birds make their nests, and sing," etc. Psa 104.15-17

Moreover, it is reported that Jacob, the patriarch, drank to drunkenness; and the scripture says of Joseph and his brethren: "And in drinking with him they were made drunk with wine." [956] Now no man will take this drunkenness of theirs for that excessive bibbing which the holy scripture everywhere condemns — but for a certain sweet and pleasant measure in drinking by which, once satisfied, they were made the merrier. For that mad kind of drunkenness bereaves the senses, and is so far from causing men to be jocund [957] and merry that, clean contrariwise, it makes them wayward, uncivil, out of order, beastly, swinelike, and filthy. Haggai the prophet uses a similar phrase, where he says: "Consider your own ways in your hearts: you sow much, but you bring little in; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but not unto drunkenness:" Hag 1.5-6 that is, not to a sweet and pleasant sufficiency, so that being filled and jocund with it, you need not desire more, but give thanks to the Lord, your good benefactor, for bestowing that plenty on you. I somewhat more largely declare this because of the Anabaptists,[958] and certain senseless Stoics, and other newly sprung up hypocrites (the Carthusian monks),[959] who set about making men into mere blocks, and with the most tragic outcries, utterly condemn all allowable pleasure and lawful delights.

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To colour and commend their odd opinion to the ears of men, they abuse many places of the sacred scriptures: "Woe (they say) to you who now are full, and laugh now; for the time will come when you shall hunger and weep:" Luk 6.25 when indeed, this and similar sayings were uttered by God against the wicked, and those who unthankfully abuse the benefits and creations of their good God.

And therefore, as a conclusion to what I have said up to here, I add this: that godly men must still take careful heed that they not let loose the reins to lust, and thus exceed the golden mean.[960] For mean and measure in these allowed pleasures is liked and looked for in other things as well.

Furthermore, let goods and earthly substance serve, honour, and show courteous humanity one man to another. For, by duty, we owe honour and humanity to our kinsfolks and alliance, our friends and acquaintances, our countrymen and strangers. For we must not only do good to those who are familiar with us, but also to those whom we never saw before, in keeping hospitality for wayfaring strangers, so far as our substance will stretch to maintain it. For if instead, your wealth is slender, such that it will do no more than maintain your own house and family, then no parcel of God's law [961] binds or bids you to distribute to other men the wealth which you yourself need as much or more than they. It is sufficient for you to provide for those of your own household, that they are not a burden to other men's backs. So then, the man whose wealth is small, is not compelled to spend what little he has [962] in honouring or showing courtesy to other men: it is enough for him to bear with a valiant heart his own hard circumstance, and to take heed that his poverty does not lead him to offend against right and honesty. Let those who are differently stored, and richer men who have wealth at will, be courteous and liberal to entertain strangers with open hospitality. Let their minds be set to use liberality to their own praise and honesty, and not be given to filthy greediness and dishonest sparing of every odd halfpenny.

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For you will find some who, though they are well stored with wealth and possessions, are yet so wholly given over to gathering more, that neither for their own honesty's sake, nor for any show of courtesy, will they even once bestow a dodkin [963] upon any man whatever, whether he is their own countryman, or an unknown stranger. These sorts are always chambered, and keep to themselves in secret counting-houses; their bags are their pillows on which they sleep and dream of their ruddocks;[964] they are not seen to stir abroad, lest occasion is offered to them to provide entertainment, or to show some civility to aliens and strangers. The scripture gives a far better report of the most holy and famous patriarchs, our grand predecessors.

Lot sat in the gates of Sodom to wait for strangers and wayfaring men, to the end he might take them home to his house, and entertain them as well as he could. And if it happened that he met with a stranger, he did not desire to take him home to his house for fashion's sake only, that is, with feigned words; but in earnest, he used all the means he could to compel him to stay at his inn,[965] and lodge with him that night. You read in Genesis about our father Abraham, that in the very heat of the day, as he sat in the door of his tent, Gen 18.1 he saw three men who were travellers. At first sight, even though he did not know them, he entertained them very lovingly, and welcomed them heartily. He did not hesitate to look when they came, nor to request that they refresh themselves with him; but he starts up, and meets them before they come to the door of his tent, where he speaks to them first. And in his country-manner, with obeisance, once he had courteously greeted them, he invites them very lovingly into his house, and says: "I beseech you, my Lord, if I find favour in your sight, do not pass by your servant, I pray you." Look, here he calls a traveller, and a stranger too, by the name of Lord (even as we Germans in entertaining strangers, are prone to say: Sind mir Gott wol kommen, lieben herren und guten freunde.) [966]

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And although he was a man of high authority and very great name in the land where he dwelt, notwithstanding, he forgot himself as it were, and said: "Do not pass by your servant, I pray you." He calls himself a servant of strangers. Moreover, he goes on to say: "Let a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and refresh yourselves under the tree. And I will fetch a morsel of bread to comfort your hearts; and then you shall go on your way." In these few words he contains, in a manner, all the points of civil courtesy. Nor did Abraham use these words to make a show only of bounteous liberality. But once he had entreated them to stay, and his desire been granted, he stirs his stumps to accomplish in deeds, the thing he had promised; he makes haste to Sarah, who was in the tent, and says to her: "Make ready at once, three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes." The scripture further adds this clause:

"And Abraham, running to his beasts, caught a tender and good calf, and gave it to a young man, who hurried and made it ready at once. And he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them, and stood with them himself." Gen 18.7-8

That is, he served them himself, as they ate under the tree. This is wonderful, truly, and to be thought on deeply. Those goods were well and worthily bestowed upon so bountiful, liberal, and courteous a man as Abraham was. He knew how to use his wealth so honestly and with such commendable courtesy. Nor was he alone, in all his house, so frank and liberal: his wife and family were readily given and very willing to put that holy exercise into use and practice. All things were therefore ready in an instant.[967] Also, in making preparation, no diligence was lacking. All things were choice; for riffraff and refuse-gear were not served to these strangers, but the best and nicest of all that was found. The good man himself takes pains, like a servant. He himself brings in his country fare, which far excels all costly eats and princelike dishes. And he sets his guests to a meal with butter and milk, and serves the last course with veal, well fed, and dressed housewife-like.

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Nor was he content with this courtesy and entertainment, but he humbled himself further still, and waited at the table, while his guests were at meal. The table, notice, was served by the one to whom those great and ample promises were made by God. He is the father of all the faithful, and the root and grandsire of Christ our Lord; he was the friend of God and confederate to powerful kings. He himself was the most honourable prince in all the land, because in war, he had overcome and vanquished four of the mightiest kings of all the East, and brought them back to slavery and bondage, delivering his people that had been taken captive.

This excellent and worthy man, I say, may well be a pattern for all wealthy men to follow, in bestowing honour, courtesy, and hospitality upon strangers and unknown men. For, lastly, beside his rare and seldom seen hospitality, he moreover showed this point of courtesy: when they rose from their meal, he kept them company some part of the way. Let our wealthy penny pinchers, therefore, at last be ashamed of, and abandon their niggish lives and insatiable covetousness. What pleasure, I pray you, do they have from their riches? To whom do they do good? Who do they honour with their close-kept coin? Or what honour or honesty does their money procure or get them, while they live among men? Why do the wiser sort of wealthy men not leave this crew of miserable wretches, and instead hearken to the apostle's words, who says, "Remember to keep hospitality; for by that means, many have lodged angels unwittingly and unawares." Heb 13.2 And truly, he speaks there about Lot and Abraham. Nor is it to be doubted, that we entertain the very angels of God, and Christ himself, as often as we show courtesy and hospitality to good and godly mortal men.

Lastly, let the goods of wealthy men serve, not only to entertain men of credit, but also to relieve poor and needy creatures. For that wholesome saying of Paul must be beaten into their heads; "Charge those who are rich that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to give, and glad to distribute, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold upon eternal life." 1Tim 6.17-19

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The prophet Isaiah very well agrees with this doctrine of the apostle, [968] where he says touching Tyre: "Their occupying and their wares shall be holy to the Lord: their gains shall not be laid up nor kept in store, but shall be for those who dwell before the Lord, that they may eat enough, and have sufficient clothing." Isa 23.18 Look, here Isaiah teaches us the means to lay up treasure that will endure forever. Moreover, in the sixth chapter of Matthew, the very same thing is repeated that was spoken of before. Let every one also call to memory the other wholesome sentences of the Lord his God, to stir him up to giving alms. In Deuteronomy Moses says:

"Beware that you do not harden your heart, nor shut your hand from your needy brother: but open your hand liberally to him. You shall give to him, and let it not grieve your heart to give to him: because for this thing, the Lord your God shall enrich and bless you in all your works, and in all that you put your hand to. The land shall never be without poor; and therefore I command you, saying, Open your hand liberally to your brother who is poor and needy in the land." Deu 15.8

In the Psalms we find, "A good man is merciful and lends; and guides his words with discretion. He disperses abroad, and gives to the poor: his righteousness remains forever; his horn shall be exalted with honour." Psa 112.5, 9 Solomon also says: "Let mercy, or well-doing, or faithfulness never depart from you: bind them about your neck, and write them in the tablets of your heart; so you shall find favour and good estimation in the sight of God and men." Pro 3.3-4 Again, "Honour the Lord with your substance, and give to the poor from the firstborn of all your increase: so shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses overflow with sweet wine." Pro 3.10 And again, "Whoever shuts his ear at the cry of the poor, shall himself cry, and not be heard." Pro 21.13, The sayings of the apostles and evangelists plainly agree with these in all points. "Give to everyone that asks of you." Mat 5.42 Again: "Truly, I say to you, inasmuch as you have shown mercy to the least of these my brethren, you have shown it to me." Mat 25.40 This sentence is surely worthy to be noted, and deeply printed in the hearts of all Christians. For if the Lord Jesus reputes that what you bestow on the poor, is bestowed on himself, then undoubtedly he thinks that he is neglected and despised by you, as often as you neglect or despise the needy.

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This is undoubtedly true and most surely certain: for the Lord and Judge of all people assures us by promise, that at the end of the world, in that last judgment, he will sentence in this way and order: "Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom, etc. For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink," and so on, as seen in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel. Mat 25.34-35 To this also belong the words of St. John the apostle, where he says: "Whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his compassion from him, how does the love of God dwell in him?" 1Joh 3.17 And from this, undoubtedly, first arose the common voice of those of old, which used to say: "If you see a needy body dying with hunger, and do not help him while you may, you have killed him, and given consent to his death." [969] Let him that has a store of earthly goods, therefore, know for a surety, and be thoroughly persuaded in his heart, that he especially is bound to do good to the needy.

Moreover, let him that is wealthy do good to all men, as near as he can. For the Lord says: "Give to everyone that asks of you." Luk 6.30 And Tobit gives his son this lesson, saying: "Do not turn your face from any poor man." [970] But if you cannot, through lack of ability, do good to all men, then chiefly help those whom you perceive are godly-disposed, and yet pinched with penury. For St. Paul says, "Let us do good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of faith." Gal 6.10 Let us therefore aid, help, and relieve fatherless children and poor widows, old men and impotent people, those who are afflicted and persecuted for the profession of the truth, and those who are oppressed with any misery and calamity. Let us further and help forward good and holy learning, and all the worshippers and true ministers of God who live in want and scarcity. Finally, let us relieve strangers, and whomever else we may.

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Now, our duty is to aid and to benefit others,[971] with counsel, comfort, help, money, food, drink, lodging, raiment, commendations, and with all other things in which we perceive that they lack our helping hand. I said something about this in the tenth sermon of the first Decade.[972] We must also help them readily, with a willing heart and a cheerful mind: "for God requires a cheerful giver." 2Cor 9.7 And in helping them, let us do it liberally: for Tobit [973] says, "Be merciful according to your power.[974] If you have much, give plenteously; if you have little, gladly do your diligence to give of that little. For in so doing the Lord will bless both you and yours." Tob 4.8-9

I have said this much up to here, my brethren, touching the lawful use of earthly goods. God grant that every one of you may print these sayings in his heart, and put in practice this holy work. Let us pray to the Lord that he will grant to so direct us in His ways, that in getting those transitory goods, we do not lose the everlasting treasure of his heavenly kingdom.

3-3. THE THIRD SERMON: BEARING AND ABIDING TRIALS.

OF THE PATIENT BEARING AND ABIDING OF SUNDRY CALAMITIES AND MISERIES:

AND ALSO OF THE HOPE AND MANIFOLD CONSOLATION OF THE FAITHFUL.

I will not do amiss, I think, my reverend brethren,[975] if to the treatise which I have already made about earthly riches, and of their use and abuse, I also add here a discourse about the diverse calamities with which man, so long as he lives in this frail flesh, is continually vexed and daily afflicted. For since many men either lose their temporal goods, or else cannot get them by any means, these are the causes why they are oppressed with penury and neediness. It can only be profitable and very necessary for every good man to know, from the word of God, the very reason and ground of his consolation in his miseries — lest, being swallowed up by too great a sorrow, and entangled in utter desperation, he gives himself over to be Satan's bond-slave.

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Now this treatise serves for the whole life of man. For I do not mean to speak of any one calamity alone, such as poverty or penury, but generally of all the miseries that happen to man. Truly, since man is born to grief and misery, as birds are born to flying [976] and fishes to swimming; his life can never possibly be sweet or quiet, unless he knows the manner and reason of his calamity. And if he knows the reason of it, religiously taken and derived from the word of God, then his life cannot choose but to be sweet and quiet, however otherwise it seems to be most bitter and intolerable. The mind of man, truly, is sorely afflicted and grievously tormented with lamentable miseries. But, on the other side, it is sweetly eased and mightily upheld by the true knowledge of those miseries, and by holy consolations, derived and taken from the word of God.

First of all, it is requisite to lay before our eyes and reckon up the several kinds and special sorts of calamities of mortal men. The evils which daily fall upon our necks truly are innumerable. But those which most usually happen are the plague or pestilence, sundry and infinite diseases, death itself, and the fear of death, whose terror to some is far more grievous than death can be. To these may be added the death and destruction of most notable men, or those of whom we make most account; robberies, oppressions, endless ill chances, poverty, beggary, lack of friends, infamy, banishment, persecution, imprisonment, forced torments, and intense punishments of sundry sorts and terrible to think about, unseasonable and tempestuous weather, barrenness, dearth, frost, hail, deluges, earthquakes, the sinking of cities, the spoiling of fields, the burning of houses, the ruin of buildings, hatred, factions, secret grudges, treasons, rebellions, wars, slaughters, captivity, cruelty of enemies, and tyranny; also the lack of children; or troubles, cares, and hellish lives [977] by unfit mates matched in wedlock, by children disposed to nothing, maliciously bent; disobedient and unthankful to father and mother; and lastly, care and continual grief in sundry sorts for sundry things, which never cease to vex our minds.

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For no man, in however long a catalog, can reckon up all the evils to which miserable mankind is woefully endangered, and every moment tormented. New miseries rise up every day, of which our elders never heard; and they are appointed to be felt and suffered by us, who with our new and never heard of sins, daily deserve new and never seen punishments — when the miseries which our forefathers felt would otherwise have been enough, and sufficient to plague us all.

But now, the good and godly worshippers of God, as well as the wicked contemners of his name, are troubled and put to use with these evils. Indeed, the saints are afflicted and vexed throughout their lifetime, when contrarily, the wicked abound with all kinds of joy and delightful pleasures. Upon this, it happens that great temptations and complaints arise in the minds of the godly. The wicked gather by their happy state and pleasant life, that God likes their religion, and accepts their manner of dealing, by which they are confirmed and grounded in their errors. And on the other side, because of the miseries which they have long suffered, the godly revolt from godliness, and turn to the ungodly, because they think that the state of the wicked is far better than theirs. Now it is good to know and learn all this out of the scriptures. It is to be manifestly seen in the example of Abel and Cain, that since the beginning of the world, the godly as well as the wicked are and have been afflicted. For, as the one was pitifully slain by the other for his sincere worshipping of God, so the other was made a vagabond for the murder; out of fear, he dare not abide in any place to take his rest. Jacob, surnamed Israel, is read to have been vexed with many calamities. The same is also reported of the Egyptians while they persecuted the Israelites. Saul was vexed, and David was afflicted. The Lord our Saviour, with his disciples, bore the cross of grief and trouble. Again, on the other side, the Jews who cruelly persecuted Christ and his disciples, were horribly destroyed, and that was worthily too, for their villainous injury.

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The evils that the church of Christ suffered in those ten most bloody persecutions,[978] before the reign of Constantine the great, are unspeakable. But Orosius, the notable, diligent, and faithful historiographer, mentions that due and deserved punishments were unstoppably laid upon the necks of those persecuting tyrants, about whom I will say something in a convenient place.[979] And by the testimonies of both God and man, and also by manifold experience, we see it proved that the godly as well as the ungodly are touched with miseries. Yes truly, the best and holiest men, for the most part, are troubled and afflicted, when the wicked and worse sort are free from calamities, leading their lives in ease and pleasures. And while the good suffer persecution and injuries, the wicked rejoice at it. For the Lord in the gospel says to his disciples: "Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall weep and lament, the world shall be glad; but you shall be sorrowful." Joh 16.20

But now, what kind of temptations are those which arise in the hearts of the godly through their tribulations. The scripture, in many places, teaches us what those men, who are not altogether godless nor the enemies of God, gather from the felicity of the wicked, especially in that wonderful discourse of Job and his friends. The prophet Habakkuk complains thus:

"O Lord, how long shall I cry, and you do not hear? How long shall I cry out to you for the violence that I suffer, and you do not help? Why am I compelled to see iniquity, spoiling, and unrighteousness against me?

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Why do you regard those who despise you, and hold your tongue while the wicked treads down the man that is more righteous than himself? The wicked circumvents the righteous; and therefore wrong judgment proceeds." Hab 1.2-4

In Malachi, the hypocrites cry:

"It is but vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his commandments, and that we have walked humbly before the face of the Lord? [980] Now, therefore, we call the proud and arrogant blessed and happy: for the workers of wickedness live happily and are set up; and they tempt God, and go on in their wickedness, and are delivered." [981]

The holy prophet Asaph describes all this most fully and significantly in the Psalm, where he says:

"My feet were almost gone, my treadings had well-near slipped: for I was grieved at the wicked, when I saw the ungodly in such prosperity. For they are in no peril of death; they are, I say, troubled with no diseases by which they are drawn to death, but are lusty and strong. They come into no misfortune like other men; but are free from the evils with which other folks are plagued: and this is the cause that they are so held with pride, and wrapped in violence as in a garment. Their eyes swell with fatness, and they do whatever they lust. They stretch forth their mouth to heaven, and their tongue goes through the world. Yes, and they dare to say, Tosh, how would God perceive it? Look, these are the ungodly, these prosper in the world, and these have riches in possession. Then I said, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence; and I bear punishment every day. And while I thought thus to myself, I had almost departed from the generation of God's children." Psa 73.2-15

Now, since this is so, it consequently follows to beat out the causes of these calamities. For in so doing we will be better able to judge rightly about the miseries of both the godly and wicked sort of people.

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The causes of calamities are many, and of many sorts; but the general and especial cause is known to be sin. For by disobedience, sin entered into the world, and death by sin.Rom 5.12 And so, consequently, diseases and all the evils in the world entered in. Those who refer these causes to, I cannot tell what — blind constellations, and the movings of planets — are very light-headed and vain fellows. For, by our evil lusts and corrupt affections, we heap up day by day one evil upon another. And at our elbow stands the devil, who whispers [982] in our ear, and eggs us on; and as helps to spur us on, there is a crew of naughty packs,[983] who never cease to train us in it; and daily there rise up diverse instruments of tribulation, with which the most wise and just God allows us to be exercised and tormented.

But the same causes of affliction are not always found in the holy worshippers of God, as in the wicked despisers of His name. The saints are often afflicted so that, by their trouble, the glory of God may be known to the world. For when the disciples of Christ saw the blind man in the gospel, who was blind from his mother's womb, they said to the Lord: "Master, who sinned — this man, or his parents — that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God might be made manifest in him." Joh 9.2-3 Likewise, when the Lord heard say that Lazarus was sick, "This disease is not unto death, but to the glory of God, that by it the Son of God may be glorified." Joh 11.4 And yet, if we touch this matter at its heart, none in the world can be found who are without sin; so that, if the Lord were to mark our iniquities, he would always find something to be punished in us. This is declared at large in the book of Job.

Furthermore, the Lord allows his spouse, the church — which he loves full dearly — to be troubled and afflicted to this end and purpose: that he may openly declare that the elect are defended, preserved, and delivered by the power and aid of God, and not by the policy or help of man.

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For Paul says: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be God's, and not of us. While we are troubled on every side, we are not made sorrowful; we are in poverty, but not in extreme poverty; we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken in it; we are cast down, but we do not perish; we always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might also be made manifest in our body. For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that also the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." [984] The apostle also says: "Virtue is made perfect in infirmity." [985]

Again, the afflictions of the holy martyrs and faithful saints of Christ are testimonies of the doctrine of faith, as our Saviour says in the gospel, "They shall deliver you up to councils, and they shall scourge you in their synagogues; indeed, you shall be brought before kings and rulers for my sake, that this might be for a witness to them and the people." Mk 13.9 Even so, in like manner the saints, overladen with miseries, are made examples for us to learn how to overcome and despise [986] the world, and aspire to heavenly things.

Finally, the Lord tests those who are his, by laying the cross upon their necks, and he purges them like gold in the fire. He cuts from us many occasions of evil, that he may bring us to bearing greater and more plentiful fruit. The wisdom of the Lord in this follows the manner of goldsmiths, who put their gold into the fire to purge and not to mar it. And he also imitates good husbandmen who, when their corn is a bit too rank, mow it down; and prune their trees, not to destroy them, but to make them bear more abundant fruit. And this flesh of ours, truly, in peace and quietness is luskish,[987] lazy, drowsy, and slow toward good and honest exercises; it is content, and seeks no further than earthly things; it is wholly given to pleasures; it utterly forgets God and godly things. Now, therefore, it is not only expedient, but very necessary, to have this dull and sluggish lump stirred up and exercised with troubles, afflictions, and sharp persecutions.

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The saints in this are like iron which is somewhat worn and diminished by use; but by lying still, unoccupied, it is even more eaten with rust and canker. Most truly, therefore, St. Peter said, "Dearly beloved, do not think it strange that you are tried with fire, which is to test you, as though some strange thing happened to you. But rather rejoice in that you are partakers of the afflictions of Christ; so that, when his glory is revealed, you may be merry and glad." [988] For Paul says to Timothy:

"Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel; for which I am afflicted as an evil doer, even unto bonds: and yet I suffer all things for the elect's sakes, that they might also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying: For if we are dead with him, we shall also live with him: if we are patient,[989] we shall reign with him: if we deny him, he shall also deny us." [990]

For in his epistle to the Romans he says: "Those whom he knew before, he also predestined, that they should be like-fashioned to the shape of [991] his Son, that he might be the first-begotten among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, he also called; and whom he called, he also justified; and whom he justified, he shall also glorify." [992] Again, in the same epistle he says: "We rejoice also in tribulations; knowing that tribulation works patience; patience proof; proof hope: and hope does not make ashamed," etc. [993] The private examples of the saints, and public examples of the whole church, very plainly declare this. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would never have known that God's helping hand had been so faithful and always present with them — they would never have been grounded in so sure a hope, nor shown such especial fruit of their excellent patience — if they had not been exercised with many perils and oppressed with infinite calamities. From this it comes that David cried: "It is good for me, Lord, that you have troubled me." Psa 119.71 The church of Israel was oppressed in Egypt, but to the end that it might be delivered with more glory, and pass into the land of promise.

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The Jewish church was afflicted by those of Babylon and by the Assyrians, so that their temple was overthrown, and the saints carried captive with the worst of the people. But the godly sort in their very captivity feel the wonderful help of God. And by that means, they are made better by their afflictions, so that the name of the Lord was widely known among the Assyrians, the Chaldees, the Medes and Persians, to His great glory and renown, as declared at large in the histories of Daniel, Esther, and Ezra. [994]

Here it is also to be noted that certain punishments are applied as appointed by the Lord, such as plagues for certain sins. So that, most commonly, a man is plagued by the very things in which he sinned against the Lord. David offended God with murder and adultery; and therefore he is punished with the shame of his own house, with whoredom, incest, and the detestable murder of his own children; and lastly, he is driven out and banished from his kingdom. It was pride and arrogance in which Nebuchadnezzar sinned; and therefore, being disordered [995] in his wits and turned into a beastly madness, he led his life for a certain time with beasts of the field. But just as Nebuchadnezzar was restored to his kingdom when God thought it good, so David, at a convenient time, felt the mercy of the Lord in settling him in his seat again. For this saying of the Lord is firmly ratified forever, not only to David, but to everyone that believes, which set down in the scriptures is in these words: "If his children forsake my law, and do not keep my commandments, I will visit their sins with rods, and their iniquities with scourges: yet will I not utterly take my goodness from him; I will not break my covenant, nor will I change the thing once it has gone out of my mouth." Therefore, it is to our profit that the Lord afflicts us, as He himself testifies in the revelation of Christ,[996] uttered [997] by John the evangelist, saying: "Those whom I love I rebuke and chasten." Rev. 3.19

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And long before that, Solomon said: "My son, do not refuse the chastening of the Lord, neither faint when you are corrected of him. For whom the Lord loves, him he chastens; and yet he delights in him, as a father in his son." [998]

I will now touch on the persecutions and terrible plagues laid upon the neck of the whole church of God, or several martyrs of them. They were, for the most part, breathed out by worldly tyrants against the saints for their open confession and testimonies of their faith, and of the truth of the gospel. Thus, the causes of those broils most commonly were the sins and offences of the saints, which the justice of God visited on his holy ones, no doubt to the good and salvation of the faithful. For from that bloody persecution under the emperors Diocletian and Maximinian, which caused many thousands, indeed, many millions of martyrs to come to their end, we read the following in the history of Eusebius of Caesarea. He learned it, not by hear-say, but was himself an eye-witness:

"When the manners of the church were utterly marred and its discipline corrupted by too much liberty and wantonness; while among ourselves we envy one another, and diminish one another's estimation; while among ourselves we snatch at and accuse ourselves, fomenting deadly war among ourselves; while dissimulation sits in the face, deceit lurks in the heart, and falsehood is uttered in words, so that one evil is heaped on another — the Lord begins little by little with the bridle, to check the mouth of his tripping church. And reserving the untouched congregations, he begins first to allow those who served as soldiers in the camps of the Gentiles to feel persecution. But the people could not be made to remember themselves by that means, insofar that they did not cease to persist in their wickedness. And the very guides of the people and chiefs of the church, unmindful of God's commandment, were set on fire among themselves with strife, envy, hatred, and pride — such that they might think to exercise tyranny rather than the office of ministers, because they had forgotten Christian sincerity and pureness of living. Then at length the houses of prayer and churches of the living God were thrown to the ground, and the holy scriptures were set on fire in the broad and open streets." [999]

This much, word for word, out of the eighth book of his Ecclesiastical History.

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And yet here I differentiate between sin and sin. For the saints sin, and yet they commonly abstain from heinous crimes — though now and then they too fall into them, as evidenced by the example of David. Yet, for the most part, they flee from theft, murder, whoredom, and other grievous [1000] sins like these. And while the saints are afflicted by tyrants, it is not for neglecting justice and true religion, but for contemning superstition, and steadfastly sticking to Christ and his gospel. The Lord therefore forgives and washes away the sins of the holy martyrs in the blood of Christ, reputing them to suffer death, not for the sins which they have committed, but for their zeal and love of true religion. He also punishes the tyrants for the death of his martyrs, because, in putting them to death, they follow their own tyrannous affection, and not the just judgment of the living God. The Lord's mind, truly, was to chasten his people Israel by tyrants. But the tyrants (as Isaiah witnesses in his tenth chapter) did not take it to be so; but rather, following their own affections, they passed all measure in afflicting them, and never sought after justice and equity. Therefore, they are punished by the Lord for killing his innocent and guiltless servants.

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For the thing which the Lord persecuted in his people (I mean, their sins and offences), the tyrants neither punished nor persecuted. But the thing that pleased God (I mean, the love of true religion, and the utter detesting of idolatry), that they are mad about, and persecute it with sword and fire and unspeakable torments. Therefore, to this belongs that saying of Peter: "See that none of you is punished as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer, or as a busy-body in other men's matters. But if any man suffers as a Christian, do not let him be ashamed, but rather glorify God on this behalf." 1Pet 4.15-16

Yet, for all this, I would not have heinous offenders despair one whit. They have the example of the thief that was crucified with Christ; let them follow that: let them, I say, confess their faults, believe in Christ, commit themselves wholly to his grace and mercy, and lastly, suffer patiently the pain of their punishment; and in so doing, there is no doubt that they shall be received by Christ into Paradise, and live there forever, as the thief does with Christ.

And although the godly is slain among transgressors, yet he is no more defiled by suffering with them than Christ our Lord was, being hanged among thieves. For though the godly and ungodly are wrapped and coupled together in like punishment, yet they are severed by their unlike ending. After this bodily death, the wicked is carried to hell, there to burn without intermission; and the godly is taken immediately into heaven, to live with Christ his Lord, to whom he committed and commended [1001] himself. Touching this matter, and the causes of the afflictions of the holy men of God, I will not be aggrieved to recite to you, dearly beloved, a notable passage from St. Augustine out of his first book De civitate Dei.

"Wherever good men suffer the same and like punishment that the evil sort do, it is not to be thought that there is no difference between them, just because there is no difference in the thing they suffer. For in one and the same fire, gold shines and chaff smokes; and under one flail, the husk is broken and the corn is purged; and note that the scummy froth is not mixed with the oil, even though the weight of the same press crushes both at once. Even so, one and the same misery, falling upon the good and the bad, tries, refines, and melts the good; and on the other side, it condemns, wastes, and consumes the evil sort.

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Thus it comes to pass that in one and the same affliction, the evil detest and blaspheme the Lord, while contrarily, the good pray to and praise His name for what he lays upon them. So there is much that happens in afflictions to mark not what, but with what mind, every man suffers. For if you stir up dirt and sweet ointments alike, one will stink filthily, and the other will give off a sweet-smelling aroma. Therefore, in that hurly-burly and irruption[1002] made by the barbarous people, what did the Christians suffer that was not rather to their profit, while they faithfully considered those troubles? This is especially because, humbly considering the sins for which God (being angry) filled the world with so many and such great calamities — and even though Christians are far from committing heinous, grievous, and outrageous offences — they do not repute themselves to be so clear of all faults, that they do not judge themselves worthy to suffer temporal calamity for the crimes they do commit every hour and moment. Over and above this, every man who perhaps lives laudably enough, yields a little to carnal concupiscence in some points, even if not to the outrageousness of horrible sins, or to the gulf of heinous offences and abominable iniquities. Yet, notwithstanding, he yields to some sins which either he haunts very seldomly, or else he commits those which are less, all the more often. Besides this, I ask you, what man is there, when he sees and knows very well the men for whose pride, lascivious lives, covetousness, and damnable iniquity God plagues the earth (as he has threatened), who so esteems these men as they should be thought of, and so lives with them as he should live with such people? For often many things are wickedly dissembled [1003] if wicked-doers are not taught, corrected, chided, and admonished for their evil behaviours. This is either because we think the pain is too much to tell them their faults; or we are afraid to have the heavy looks of those with whom we live; or else we avoid their displeasure, lest they hinder or hurt us in temporal matters — when either our greediness desires to have something more, or our infirmity fears to lose the things which it already holds and possesses.

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So that, although the life of the wicked displeases the good (but for which they do not fall into the same damnation which is prepared for the evil after this life), yet since the good bear with and forbear their damnable sins, because they fear them in lighter and smaller trifles, they are justly scourged with them in this temporal life, even though they are not punished with them eternally. While they are punished by God with the wicked, they justly feel the bitterness of this life, for the love of whose sweetness they would not be bitter in telling the wicked of their offences. Therefore, this seems to me to be no small cause why the good are whipped along with the evil, when it pleases God to punish the naughty manners of men with the affliction of temporal pains. They are scourged together, not because they lead an evil life together, but because they love this temporal life together. I do not say alike, but together; when the better sort should despise it, so that the evil ones, being rebuked and corrected, might obtain eternal life. If they would not be our fellows and partners in getting eternal life, they should still be carried and lovingly drawn, even while they are our enemies — because, so long as they live, it is always uncertain whether their minds will be changed to be better or not. This is why they do not have a like cause, but a far greater cause to admonish men for their faults, to whom the Lord says by the mouth of the prophet: 'He truly shall die in his sin, but I will require his blood at the hand of the watchman.' Eze 3.18 For to this end, the watchmen (that is, the guides of the people) are ordained in the churches: that they should not forbear rebuking sin and wickedness. And yet for all this, that man is not altogether excusable for this fault which, although he is no guide or overseer of the people, he nevertheless knows many things worthy of control, and yet he winks at them in those with whom he lives and converses, because he will give no offence to them, for fear he might lose those things in this world which he uses as he should not, or he is delighted in them as he should not be." [1004]

And so forth. I have previously repeated all this out of St. Augustine.

iii.78 [an extensive Latin passage from the footnote on p. 77, is omitted here – WHG.]

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The last and hindmost cause of the calamities which oppress the holy saints of God is because, in afflicting his friends, the Lord thereby gives a most evident testimony of his just judgment which shall fall upon his enemies for contemning his name and majesty. For St. Peter says:

"The time has come that judgment [1005] must begin at the house of God. If it first begins with us, what shall the end be of those who do not believe the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely are saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" 1Pet 4.17-18

This is like that notable sentence of the Lord's, which he spoke when he went to the place of execution, saying: "If they do this in a moist tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Luk 23.31 If the saints (by whom are meant the fruitful trees that produce most precious fruits of good works) are so miserably tormented and wrongfully vexed in this world by the sufferance of God, then what shall we say, I ask, about the wicked, who are so far from virtue and good works? They shall, undoubtedly be plagued with unspeakable pains and punishments.

For touching the causes of those calamities with which the wicked are tormented, they can be none other than the heinous crimes which they commit from day to day. And they are therefore punished by God's just judgment, to the end that all men may perceive that God hates wicked men and wickedness alike. So we read that Pharaoh was afflicted. Saul fell upon his own sword, and was slain in the mount Gilboa, with many thousands of Israelites, because he had sinned against the Lord, who purposed to destroy him as an example of His judgment, and as a terror to those who would follow after. Antiochus Epiphanes, Herod the Great, Herod Agrippa, and Galerius Maximianus, the emperor, were taken horribly with grievous diseases, and died of them.[1006]

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The reason was, because they sinned against God and his servants. He determined to take vengeance on them, and to make them proofs of His just judgment — thus to be examples for tyrants to perceive what plagues remain for those who seek the blood of the godly and faithful. Our good God ordains all things to the best for his creatures;Rom 8.28 and in a way, He sends all calamities and miseries to draw us from wickedness. Yet, because hypocrites and wicked people despise the counsels and admonitions of God, and will neither acknowledge God when he strikes, nor turn to him when he calls them, all things turn to their destruction (even as all things work to the best, for those who love the Lord). Therefore they perish in their calamities. For in this world they feel [1007] the wrath of the almighty God in most horrible punishments; and in the world to come, once they have departed out of this life, they will forever bear far greater and more bitter pains than any tongue can tell.

But if it happens that the wicked and ungodly sort do not feel any plague or grievous affliction in this life, then they will be punished so much the sorer in the world to come. There is no man who does not know the evangelical parable of the rich unmerciful glutton who, while he lived in this life, lusted in surpassing delights. Notwithstanding, in hell he was tormented with unquenchable thirst, and parched with hellfire which never ceased burning. Therefore, the felicity of the wicked in this life is nothing but extreme misery. For St. James the Apostle says: "You have lived in pleasure on earth, and been wanton; you have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter." [1008] This, I say, will return to you, as to well-fed beasts that are fattened to be slain, to make meat of them. [1009]

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For Jeremiah goes to work a little more plainly, and says:

"O Lord, you are more righteous than for me to dispute with you. Yet notwithstanding, I would talk with you. How does it happen that the way of the ungodly prospers so well, and that it goes so well with those who, without shame, offend in wickedness? You have planted them, they take root, they grow, and bring forth fruit." And immediately after: "But draw them out, O Lord, like a sheep to be slain, and ordain or appoint them [1010] for the day of slaughter." Jer 12.1-3

With this also does that agree, which the prophet Asaph, after he had roundly and largely reckoned up the felicity of the wicked, adds, saying:

"You, truly, have set them in slippery places; you shall cast them down headlong, and utterly destroy them; they are oppressed with such sudden calamities; they are perished and swallowed up by terrors! Even as a dream that vanishes as soon as one awakes, you Lord, shall make their image contemptible in the city." Psa 73.18-20

For David before him also cried out, saying:

"Yet a little, and the ungodly shall be nowhere; and when you look in his place, he shall not [1011] appear. I have seen the ungodly in great power, and flourishing like a green bay-tree; and I went by, and lo, he was gone; I sought him, but he could not be found." Psa 37.34-36

In like manner, Malachi the prophet also witnesses that there is a great difference, in the day of judgment, between the worshipper and despiser of God, and between the just and unjust dealer:

"For the day of the Lord shall come, in which the proud, and those who work wickedness, shall be burnt as stubble with fire from heaven, so that there shall remain for them neither root nor branch." Mal 3.18, 4.1

Those who are wise, therefore, will never be offended hereafter by the felicity of the wicked. They will never desire and long to be made partakers of their unhappy prosperity. They will not grudge at all, to bear the misery of the cross, which they daily hear is laid by God upon his saints, to the end that they may be tried and refined of the dross of the flesh and of this unclean world. Thus far I have sufficiently reasoned about the causes of calamities.

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Let us now see, my reverend brethren,[1012] how, and in what order, the godly and sincere worshipper of God behaves himself in all calamities and worldly afflictions. His courage does not draw back, [1013] but rather kicks all desperation aside, because he understands that in faith he must manfully bear all sorts of evils. Therefore he arms himself with hope, patience, and prayer. Among men there are some, truly, who as soon as they feel any affliction, quickly cry (as commonly said) that it would be best if they had never been born, or else destroyed as soon as they were born.[1014] This is a very wicked saying, and not worthy to be heard in a Christian's mouth. But far more wicked are those who do not hesitate to destroy themselves,[1015] rather than be compelled by living, to suffer any longer some small calamity, or abide the taunts of the open world. And yet on the other side again, men must reject the unsavoury opinion of the Stoics, touching their indolentia or lack of grief. Touching this, I will recite to you, dearly beloved, a most excellent discourse from a notable doctor in the church of Christ, [John Calvin], set down in the following words:

"We are too unthankful towards our God, unless we willingly and cheerfully suffer calamities from his hand. And yet such a cheerfulness is not required of us, that it would take away all sense and feeling of grief and bitterness. Otherwise there would be no patience in the saints' suffering of the cross of Christ, unless they were both pinched by the heart with grief, and vexed in body with outward troubles. If there were no sharpness in poverty, if no pain in diseases, if no sting in infamy, and no horror in death, what fortitude or temperance would it be, to take small account of and set little by them? But since every one of them naturally nips the minds of us all with a certain bitterness engrafted in them, the valiant stomach of a faithful man shows itself in these: if being pricked with the feeling of this bitterness, however grievously pained with it, notwithstanding this, he worthily vanquishes and quite overcomes it by valiant resisting and continual struggling.

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Patience proves itself in this: if when a man is sharply pricked, notwithstanding, he so bridles himself with the fear of God, that he never breaks out to immoderate unruliness. Cheerfulness clearly appears in this: if a man, once wounded with sorrow and sadness, quietly rests himself upon the spiritual consolation of his God and creator. The apostle Paul has finely described this conflict which the faithful sustain against the natural feeling of sorrow and grief, while studiously exercising patience and temperance, in the following words: 'We are troubled on every side, but not made sorrowful: we are in poverty, but not in extreme poverty: we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken in it: we are cast down, but we do not perish.' 2Cor 4.8-9 You see here, that to bear the cross patiently, is not to be altogether senseless and utterly bereft of any kind of feeling.

The Stoics of old foolishly described the valiant man as one who, laying aside the nature of man, should be affected alike in adversity and prosperity, in sorrowful matters and joyful things — indeed, as one who should be moved by nothing whatsoever.[1016] And what had they done, I ask you, with this exceeding great patience? [1017] In truth, they painted the image of patience, as it has never been found among men, nor possibly could be. Indeed, while they went about having patience that is overly exquisite and too precise, they took the force of it out of the life of man. Also among Christians in our day, there are certain new upstart Stoics, who think it is a fault not only to sigh and weep, but also to be sad and sorrowful for any matter. And these paradoxes for the most part, truly, proceed from idle fellows who exercise themselves in contemplation [1018] rather than in working; they can do nothing else but daily breed such novelties and paradoxes. But we Christians have nothing to do with this iron-like philosophy, since our Lord and master has not only in words, but also with his own example, utterly condemned it. For he groaned at and wept over both his own and other men's calamities, and taught his disciples to do likewise.

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'The world (He says) shall rejoice, but you shall be sorrowful, you shall weep.' Joh 16.20 And lest any man make that weeping to be their fault, he pronounces openly that happy are those who mourn. Mat 5.4 And this is no marvel: for if all tears are disapproved, what should we judge about the Lord himself, out of whose body bloody tears trilled? [1019] If all fear is noted to proceed from unbelief, what shall we think of the horror with which we read that the Lord himself was struck? [1020] If we disapprove all sorrow and sadness, what shall we think of that place where the Lord confesses that his soul is heavy unto death? Mat 26.38

I was minded to say this much, with the intent that I might keep godly minds from desperation — lest perhaps, out of hand, they forsake seeking patience because they cannot utterly shake off the natural motions of grief and heaviness. That cannot help but happen to those who make patience to be a kind of senselessness, and turn a valiant and constant man into a senseless block, or a stone without passions.[1021] For the scripture praises the saints for their patience while they are so afflicted with the sharpness of calamities, that their stomachs are not broken by it, nor their courage utterly quailed; while they are so stung with the prick of bitterness, that they are filled with spiritual joy; while they are so oppressed with heaviness of mind, that they are yet cheerful [1022] in God's consolation. And yet that repugnancy is still in their hearts, because the natural sense flees from and abhors the thing it feels contrary to itself. On the other side, the motions of godliness even through these difficulties, by striving, seeks a way to the obedience of God. The Lord expressed this repugnance when he said to Peter: 'When you were younger, you girded yourself, and went where you would: but when you are old, another will gird you, and lead you where you would not go.' It is unlikely, indeed, that Peter, when it was needed that he glorify God by his death, was drawn to it with much ado, against his will.

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For if it had not been so, his martyrdom would have deserved little or no praise. However, with great cheerfulness of heart, he obeyed the ordinance of God; and yet, because he had not laid aside the affections of his flesh,[1023] his mind was drawn in two different ways. For while he saw before his eyes the bloody death which he had to suffer, he was undoubtedly struck through with the fear of it, and with all his heart he would have escaped it. And on the other side, when he remembered that he was called to it by God's commandment, overcoming and treading down all fear, he willingly and cheerfully yielded himself to it.

If therefore we mean to be Christ's disciples, our chief and especial study must be to have our minds endued with so great an obedience and love [1024] of God, as to be able to tame and bring under control, all the contrary motions of our minds to the ordinance of His holy will. And thus it will come to pass that, with whatever kind of cross we are vexed, we may constantly retain quiet sufferance and patience, even in the greatest troubles of our minds. For adversity will have a sharpness to nip us with; likewise, being afflicted with sickness and diseases, we will groan and be disquieted and wish for health; being oppressed with poverty, we will be pricked with the sting of care and heaviness. In like manner, we shall be struck with the grief of infamy, contempt, and injury done to us; also, at the death of our friends, nature will move us to shed tears for their sakes. But this must still be the end of our thoughts: 'Why, the Lord would have it so.' [1025] Let us therefore follow his will." [1026]

Thus much has Calvin on this.

This is why the faithful, once over-taken and entangled with calamities, chiefly remedy their miseries with patience, which (as Lactantius says) "is the quiet bearing, with an indifferent mind, of those evils which are either laid or done upon our pates." [1027]

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For the faithful man, by patience, having his eyes thoroughly fastened upon the word of God in faith and hope, sticks fast to God and clings to his word. He suffers whatever adversities may happen to him, always moderating the grief of his mind and the pains of his body with wonderful [1028] wisdom. So that at no time, being overcome with the greatness of grief or sorrow, does he revolt from God and his word, to do the things that the Lord has forbidden. By patience, therefore, he vanquishes himself and his affections; he overcomes all calamities; and he stands still steadfastly, with a quiet mind and a heart well-disposed toward God. Though the faithful Christian suffers all things with patience, he still finds fault with those things that are wicked, and will hardly bear with anything that is against the truth. For our Saviour, Christ Jesus, the only perfect example of patience, most patiently yielded his hands and his whole body to be bound by the wicked; yet nevertheless, he reproved their iniquity, saying: "You have come out as a thief with swords and clubs, although I was with you daily in the temple: but this is your hour and power of darkness." [1029]

To this now belongs that excellent description or living image [1030] of patience, laid down by Tertullian in the following words:

"Go to now, let us see the image and habit of patience. Her countenance is calm and quiet; her forehead smooth, without furrowed wrinkles, which are the signs of sorrow or anger; her brows are never knit, but slack in cheerful wise, with her eyes cast attractively down to the ground, not for the sorrow of any calamities, but only for humility's sake. Upon her mouth she bears the mark of honour, which silence brings to those who use it. Her colour is like those who are near no danger, and are guiltless of evil. Her head is often shaken at the devil, and she has a threatening laughter with it. Moreover, the clothes about her breasts are white, and close to her body, as that which does not wag with every wind, nor toss with every blast. For she sits in the throne of that most meek and quiet spirit, which is not troubled with any tempest, nor overcast with any clouds; but is plain, open, and of a goodly clearness, as Elijah saw it the third time.1Kng 17.21 For where God is, there also is Patience, 1Kng 19.12 his darling, which he nourishes." [1031]

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Moreover, the blessed martyr Cyprian, in his sermon De bono patientiae, reckons up the force or works of patience, and says:

"Patience is that which commends us to God, and preserves us. Patience is that which mitigates anger, which bridles the tongue, governs the mind, keeps peace, rules discipline, breaks the assaults of lust, keeps under [1032] the force of pride, quenches the fire of hatred, restrains the power of the rich, relieves the need of the poor, maintains unspotted virginity in maidens, chastity in widows, inseparable charity in married people; which makes humble in prosperity, constant in adversity, meek in taking injury; which teaches you to forgive quickly those who offend you, and never ceases to crave pardon when you offend others; which vanquishes temptations, which suffers persecutions, and finishes with martyrdom.[1033] This is what surely grounds the foundations of our faith; this is what augments the increase of our hope; this is what guides us, so that we may keep the way to Christ, while we go by the suffering of it; this is what makes us continue as the sons of God — while we imitate the patience of our Father." [1034]

Thus much from Cyprian.

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To this, if it pleases you, you may add for a conclusion, that short but very evident sentence of the Lord in the gospel, "Through your patience, possess your souls;" Luk. 21.19 and also these words of the apostle, "Do not throw away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you need patience, so that after you have done the will of God, you might receive the promises. For yet a very little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. And the just shall live by faith: and if he withdraws himself, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. We are not of those who withdraw ourselves unto perdition: but we turn in faith unto the winning of the soul." [1035]

But since patience is not born in and together with us, but is bestowed by God from above, we must beseech our heavenly Father that he will grant to bestow it upon us, according to the doctrine of James the apostle, who says: "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men indifferently, and casts no man in the teeth:[1036] and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, not wavering." [1037]

Now the sound hope of the faithful upholds Christian patience. Hope, as it is used now-a-days, is an opinion about things to come, commonly referred to good as well as evil things. But indeed, hope is an assured expectation of, or looking for, those things which are truly and expressly promised by God, and believed by us, by faith. So then, there is a certain relation of hope to faith, and a mutual knot between them both.

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Faith believes that God said nothing but truth, and lifts up our eyes to God; and hope looks for those things which faith has believed. But how should you look for anything, unless you know that the thing that you look for is promised by God, and that you will have it in convenient time? Faith believes that our sins are forgiven us, and that eternal life is prepared for us through Christ our Redeemer. Now, hope looks and patiently waits to receive in due time the things that God has promised us, however it may be tossed with adversities in the meantime. For hope does not languish or vanish away, even though it does not see what it hopes for. Indeed, it does not quail, even if things fall out clean cross and contrary to it, as if the things which it hopes for, were not so. And therefore Paul said: "We are saved by hope: but hope that is seen, is no hope. For how can a man hope for what he sees? But and if we hope for that we do not see, then we abide with patience." Rom 8.24-25 Abraham hoped that he would receive the promised land, when as yet he did not possess one foot of ground in it, but saw it inhabited by most powerful nations. Moses hoped that he would deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt, and place them in the land of promise, when as yet he did not see the manner and means of how he would do it. David hoped that he would reign over Israel, and yet he felt the peril of Saul and his servants hanging over his head,[1038] so that more than once he was in danger of his life. The apostles and holy martyrs of Christ hoped that they should have eternal life, and that God would never forsake them; yet nevertheless, they felt the hatred of all sorts of people; they were banished their countries; and lastly, they were slain by various torments. So (I say) hope is the hope, and looking for, of things not present, and things not seen. Indeed, it is a sure and most assured looking for, of things to come. And that is not of whatever things, but of those things which we believe in faith, and of those which are promised to us by the very true, living, and eternal God. For St. Peter says: "Hope perfectly in the grace which is brought to you." [1039] Now, they hope perfectly who, without doubting, commit themselves wholly to the grace of God, and assuredly look to inherit everlasting life.

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Furthermore, the apostle Paul calls hope the safe and sure anchor of the soul. Heb 6.19 And by however much the promise of God is made surer, by so much is hope made firmer and more secure. For hope is not looking for anything whatsoever, but hope is of faith; that is, hope is for the thing that faith has believed, and which we know to be promised to us in the word of God. And therefore Paul expounds faith by hope, where he says: "Faith is the ground of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Heb 11.1 Faith is therefore the foundation upon which hope rests; and so God himself, and his infallible word, is the object to our hope. 1Tim 1.1 And for that reason, Paul calls God our hope, and so also do the prophets. To this belongs the ninety-first Psalm, where the faithful cries: "You are my hope, Lord; you have set your house very high." [1040] You will find innumerable places like this in the book of the Psalms. But hope cannot be sure where there is no sound faith and an express promise of God. Now, since God's promises are about temporal things as well as eternal things, hope is also about transitory things as well as everlasting things.

And as faith is the gift of God's grace, and not the power or effect of our own nature, so too hope is given to us from above, and it is confirmed in us by the Spirit of God. For in our looking for things, there are both groanings and longings for them. Temptations assail and urge us sorely, as though the thing which is deferred for a season, were utterly denied; or as though God did not know our state and condition, because he seems sometimes, as if it were forever, to neglect and not consider our earnest expectation. This is why our hope needs great consolation and confirmation by the Spirit of God. If it is sound, hope sustains and upholds the mind of man [1041] however overladen it is with very weak infirmities.

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And when the Lord defers his promises, and seems somewhat too long either in neglecting our calamities, or in laying more troubles on our backs which are otherwise sufficiently afflicted — then comes hope, which doing her duty, bids us to encourage our hearts, and await the Lord's leisure. Just as He cannot possibly hate those who worship him, so he can never fail nor in the least point deceive them; for he himself is the eternal truth and everlasting goodness.

Here now, the passages of scripture touching on the certainty of hope are very profitable to teach that the people who hoped in God were never confounded, even though He long delayed aiding them with his helping hand. The Lord promises the land of Canaan to the seed of Abraham, but four hundred and thirty years first come about, before he settles them in possession of it. Indeed, before he brought them to it, he led them about in the wilderness a whole forty years. He delivers the Israelites from the captivity of Babylon, but not till seventy years were spent. What may be thought about this also: that having promised his only Son immediately after the beginning, notwithstanding, God did not send him till and toward the latter end of the world? The saints must therefore still endure, and always await the Lord's good leisure,[1042] because truth cannot possibly fail them, and all who hope in it are surely saved. David cries: "Our fathers hoped in you; they hoped in you, and you delivered them. They called upon you, and were saved: they hoped in you, and were not confounded." [1043] And again: "The Lord is good; happy is the man that hopes in him." Psa 34.8 And again: "Those who hope in the Lord shall be like mount Zion; they shall not be moved, but shall stand fast forever." Psa 125.1 And Paul, in his temptations, cries out in his Epistle to the Philippians, saying: "I know that my affliction shall turn to my salvation, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that I shall be ashamed in nothing." Phi 1.19-20

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I have said this much up to here, to teach you how the faithful behave themselves in sundry calamities. For they do not despair, but confirm their hearts with assured hope, and suffer all evils with a patient mind, quietly waiting for the Lord in their troubles, who is the only hope of all the faithful. Now, I mean to add to the end of this a few general consolations which may further confirm the hope of the faithful, induce them to patience in suffering calamities, and cheer up their heavy spirits under all manner of afflictions.

First of all, let the afflicted weigh with himself where affliction comes from. Evil men, the devil, sickness, and the world, are what afflict us — but not without God, who suffers them to do it. Satan could not trouble Job, either in goods or body, except by God's sufferance. And the prophet David cries: "You are He that took me out of my mother's womb; you were my hope when I still hung upon my mother's breasts. I was left to you as soon as I was born. You are my God; my time is in your hand." [1044] And the Lord says in the gospel: "Are not two sparrows sold for one farthing? and not one of them lights upon the ground without your Father. Yes, even all the hairs of your head are numbered." Mat 10.29 Now God, by whose government all things are ruled, is not a God and a Lord only, but also a Father to mortal men. And his will is good and wholesome toward us; beside this, whatever he does, he does it all in order and justly. But if the will of God is good toward us, the thing cannot help but be good to us, which happens by the sufferance and will of Him who loves us so dearly. And in this, the children of the world differ much from the sons of God. For these (I mean the sons of God),[1045] in comforting one another in their calamities, say this: Do not suffer and grudge at the thing that you cannot alter; it is God's will that it shall be so, and no man can resist it; suffer, therefore, the power of the Lord, unless you would rather double the evil that you cannot escape. But the worldlings, on the other side,[1046] are asked if they will suffer the hand of the Lord; and submit themselves to God or not? They give this answer: "I must do so, whether I will or not,[1047] since I cannot withstand it."

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We may gather from this, therefore, that if they could withstand it, they assuredly would.[1048] But the children of God patiently bear the hand of God, not because they cannot withstand it, nor because they must suffer it by compulsion; but because they believe that God is a just and merciful Father.[1049] For thereby they acknowledge and confess that God, of his just judgment, persecutes the sins of those who have deserved far more grievous and sharp punishment than he lays upon them. They also acknowledge that God, as a merciful father, chastens them to amend their lives and safeguard their souls. And therefore, for chastening them, they yield hearty thanks to him; and utterly forsaking themselves and their opinions, they wholly commit themselves into the Lord's hands, whether they live or die. The Apostle, going about settling this in the hearts of the faithful, says:

"God speaks to you as to his sons; My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are rebuked by him. For the Lord loves those he chastens, and scourges every son that he receives. If you endure chastening, God tenders you as his sons; for what son is it that a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastisement, of which all are partakers, then you are bastards and not sons. Since, therefore, when we had fathers of our flesh, they corrected us, and we reverenced them, should we not much more rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" Heb 12.5-9

Secondly, let the faithful believer who is oppressed with calamities, consider and weigh the causes for which he is afflicted. For either he is troubled and persecuted by worldlings for the desire that he has for righteousness and true religion: or else he suffers due punishment for his sins and offences. Let those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake rejoice and give God thanks, as the apostles did, Act 5.41 for He thinks them worthy to suffer for the name of Christ.

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For the Lord said in the gospel: "Blessed are those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile and persecute you, and say all manner evil against you [1050] for my sake: rejoice, and be glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Mat 5.10-12

But if any man feels the scourge of God for his sins, let him acknowledge that God's just judgment has fallen upon him; let him humble himself under the mighty hand of the Lord; let him confess his sins to God; let him meekly require pardon for them, and patiently suffer the plague which he has worthily deserved with his sins. Let him follow the examples of Daniel and David. Daniel confesses his sins to the Lord, and says: "We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly; we have not obeyed your servants the prophets, who spoke to us in your name. Lord, righteousness belongs to you, and open shame to us. You have visited and afflicted us, as you foretold by Moses your servant." Dan 9.5-11 And David, when he was compelled to forsake Jerusalem and go in exile through Absalom's treason, said to the priests who bore the ark after him: "Carry the ark of God back into the city again. If I find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back again, and He will show me both himself and his tabernacle. But if he says thus, 'I am not delighted in you,' [1051] then here I am, let him do with me what seems good in his eyes." 2Sam 15.25-26

And truly, it is much better and more expedient to be punished in this world, and then, after this life, to live for ever, than it is to live here without afflictions, and to suffer everlasting pains in another world. Paul, truly, plainly says: "When we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, so that we may not be damned with the world." 1Cor 11.32 And the very end of all chastenings and calamities with which the saints are exercised, tends toward nothing but this: that by despising and treading down the world, they may amend their lives, return to the Lord, and so be saved. But we have spoken about the end of afflictions, before.

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Furthermore, the men who bear the yoke of afflictions, lay before themselves the plain and ample promises of God. They never turn their eyes from these, and from the examples of the saints. There are innumerable examples of those who have felt God's helping hand, ready to aid and deliver them in all their needs. Now our good God promises to help and deliver not only those who are afflicted for righteousness' sake, but also those whom he visits for their faults and offences. For David says: "The Lord heals the contrite of heart: The Lord looses those who are bound in chains: The Lord gives sight to the blind: The Lord sets up again those who fall. He is not angry forever; nor does he always chide. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor reward us according to our iniquities. And how wide the east is from the west, so far has he set our sins from us." [1052] To this belongs the whole thirtieth chapter of Jeremiah's prophecy. And Paul bears witness to this, saying: "Just as the afflictions of Christ are many in us, so our comfort is great through Christ." 2Cor 1.5

Nor are we without examples enough by which to prove this, and to lay before our eyes the present delivery of the saints, and the repentance of sinners in extreme calamities. Our ancestors, the patriarchs, Noah and Lot, along with their families, were delivered by the mighty hand of God from the deluge that drowned all creatures under the heavens, and the horrible fire that fell upon Sodom. Jacob and Joseph, being wrapped in sundry tribulations, were unwound and rid from all, by their merciful God; even as the children of Israel were also brought out and delivered from the servile bondage of Pharaoh in Egypt. The people of Israel in the wilderness, under their guides and judges, often sinned grievously against the Lord, for which they were punished roundly, and sharply scourged; but they were quickly delivered again by the Lord, as often as they acknowledged their sins, and turned to Him again. There are also notable examples of God's deliverance of his people in David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Manasseh, and many others.

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There are innumerable places in the gospel, where Christ delivered his professors [1053] from sin, from diseases, from perils, and from the devil. In the Acts of the apostles, may be found most excellent patterns of quick delivery by the mighty hand of God. The apostles are imprisoned, and fast bound in fetters; but they are loosed and brought out by the angel of God, and placed in the temple to preach the gospel openly. Peter likewise is delivered out of prison, Act 5.18-20 when Agrippa had determined to make an end of and dispatch him the next day. The apostle Paul, being oppressed with an infinite sort of calamities, always felt the present hand of God at all times ready to rid him out of misery. Act 12.6-10 And setting this tribulation and delivery of his as an example to all the faithful, he says to Timothy: "You know my persecution and afflictions [1054] which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; I suffered these persecutions patiently. But the Lord delivered me from them all. Yes, and all who would live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution." 2Tim 3.10-12 The apostle reckons up many more examples in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews. All this, I say, the saints consider; and in times of temptation and affliction, they comfort and strengthen themselves with it. For so Paul teaches us, where he says: "Whatever is written, is written for our learning, that through patience and the comfort of the scriptures, we might have hope." Rom 15.4

Beside this also, the faithful call to their minds the commandments of Christ our Lord, with which, commending patience to us, he has laid the cross upon us all. For he says in the gospel: "If any man would go after me, let him forsake himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever would save his life shall lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what advantage is it to a man, to win the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what will a man give for a ransom of his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then he shall reward every man according to his work." Mat 16.24-27 And again, in another place he says: "If any man comes to me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, indeed, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross, and come after me, he cannot be my disciple." Luk 11.26-27

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After these words the Lord brings in certain parables, by which he teaches us to test our ability before we receive the profession of the gospel. The faithful apostles Peter and Paul, had an especial eye to the precepts of their master Christ, exhorting us to patiently bear the cross of Christ. "For Christ," Peter says, "was afflicted for us, leaving to us an example, that we should follow his steps." 1Pet 2.21 And Paul said, "Through many tribulations, we must enter into the kingdom of God." Act 14.22

Another comfort that the faithful have in their afflictions is this: that the time of affliction is short; that the joy and reward in the world to come is unspeakably larger and more excellent than the tribulation of this life is troublesome — so that, there can be no comparison between the joy of the one and the grief of the other. And lastly, our good God does not lay burdens on us that we are not possibly able to bear.

Touching all these points, I think it convenient here to repeat proofs out of the scriptures, to prove them true. St. Peter calls the time of affliction short, or momentary.[1055] And the prophet Isaiah, or rather, the Lord in Isaiah's prophecy, long before Peter's time, said: "Go, my people, enter into your chambers, and shut the doors after you; hide yourself a little while, until my indignation is past." Isa 26.20 Paul also says: "The fathers of your flesh for a few days chastened you according to their own pleasure; but the Father of Spirits (for a short time) corrects you to your profit, that you might be partakers of his holiness. But no chastising for the present seems to be joyous, but rather grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it brings the quiet fruit of righteousness to those who are exercised by it." Heb 12.9-11 Again he says: "We suffer with Christ, that we may be glorified with him. For I am certainly persuaded that the afflictions of this time are not comparable to the glory that will be shown upon us. For the momentary lightness of our affliction wonderfully, above all measure, produces for us an everlasting weight of glory while we look, not for the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen: for the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal." [1056]

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Again, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, the same Apostle says: "God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able; but with the temptation, He will make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it." 1Cor 10.13 But if it so happens that the Lord seems to us to extend our tribulation longer than justice would seem to require, then we must later remember that we may not prescribe to God any end of his will, but must permit him freely to afflict us without any control — for so much, so long, and by such means, as seem best to His godly wisdom. He who is himself the eternal wisdom, and loves us entirely well, knows well enough his time and season, when to make an end of our miseries, and rid us from afflictions. In the scriptures are sundry examples to comfort the men whose afflictions endure for any length of time. The woman in the gospel who was troubled with an issue of blood for the span of twelve years, which had almost driven her to utter despair of recovering her health. Mar 5.25-26 Another lay bedridden [1057] a whole eighteen years. By the pool Bethesda [1058] lay the weak creature who had been diseased thirty-eight years. Joh 5.2-9 This span of time, surely, was very troublesome. Yet at last they were all restored to health again by God, who knows best at what time and season his help is most expedient and profitable for mankind. Let us therefore wholly submit ourselves to his good, just, and most wise will, to be delivered when and how he thinks best.

But the chief comfort and greatest hope in tribulation is that no force or misery can possibly separate the faithful and elect servants of God from God himself. For the Lord in the gospel cries out, and says: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, nor shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to take them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." Joh 10.27-30

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To this belongs that outcry [1059] of St. Paul, which he uses to encourage us Christians, where he says:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? [1060] Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are killed all day long, and are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nevertheless, we overcome in all these things through him that loved us. For I am sure, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rule, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom 8.35-39

I confess, the saints feel grief and many discommodities in their calamities; yet it is such that even in their discommodities, they have far more commodities. They are therefore diminished in one way, but augmented in another way, so that the cross of theirs is not their destruction, but an exercise for them, and a wholesome medicine. And therefore I think that that same worthy and golden sentence of St. Paul can never be too often beaten into our minds, where he says: "We are troubled on every side, yet are we not without shift; we are in poverty, but not in extreme poverty; we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken in it; we are cast down, but we do not perish." 1Cor 4.8-9 Therefore, the faithful in this world may lose their earthly riches; but do they thereby lose their faith? Do they lose their upright and holy life? Or do they lose their riches [1061] of the inner man, which are true riches in the sight of God? The apostle cries: "Godliness is a great lucre with a mind that is content with what it has. For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain that we may carry nothing away: but having food and raiment, we must be content with that." 1Tim 6.6-8

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And the Lord, truly, who out of his goodness has created heaven and earth and all that is in them for the use of men, who even feeds the ravens' young ones, will not cause the just man to die with hunger and penury. Moreover, that man who gathers treasure as the Lord has commanded him, does not lose his treasure in this world. The faithful know that a most wealthy treasure is laid up in heaven for them, those who for their Lord and master's sake, are spoiled of their terrestrial goods in this world. Job, that worthy and notable servant of God, cries, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked I will return to the earth again:[1062] the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as the Lord pleased, so has it happened.[1063] Blessed be the name of the Lord." Job 1.21

Last of all, it is manifest that to deny the truth in order to thereby escape persecution, is not the way to keep our wealth and quiet estate; rather, it is the means to lose them; indeed, by so doing we are made infamous to all good men of every age and nation. For we see that those who would not hazard their riches for Christ and the cause of his truth, but rather choose to keep their worldly wealth by dissimulation and renouncing of the truth,[1064] retained infamous reproach forever, and they daily augment the most terrible torments. This horribly vexed their guilty conscience. They nevertheless lost, in the devil's name, the wealth which they would not risk even once in the cause of their Saviour. But on the other side, those who jeopardized themselves and all their substance in the quarrel of Christ, manfully despising all dangers that could happen, always found a sweet and pleasant comfort, which strengthened the minds of their afflicted bodies. For they cry with the apostle: "We have learned, in whatever state we are, to be content with it. We know how to be low, we know also how to exceed: everywhere and in all things, we are instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to have plenty and to suffer need. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us." Phi 4.11-13

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They know that the same apostle has said: "You have suffered with joy the spoiling of your goods, knowing that you have in heaven a far more excellent substance, which will endure." Heb 10.34 For the Lord in the gospel also said: "Truly I say to you, There is no man that has forsaken house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, who shall not receive a hundredfold now, at present, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life." Mk 10.29-30 So then the saints and faithful servants of God are oppressed with servitude in this present world: but with this, they know and consider that the Lord himself became a servant for us; by this, those who are servants in this world are made free through Christ; and by terrestrial servitude, a way is made to celestial liberty.

The faithful are exiled, or banished from their country. But the heathen poet says, "A valiant-hearted man takes every country for his own." [1065] Truly, in whatever place of the world we are, we are in exile as banished men. Our Father is in heaven, and therefore heaven is our country. Therefore, when we die, we are delivered from exile, and placed in the heavenly country and in true felicity. In like manner, those whom the tyrant kills with hunger and famine, those he rids of innumerable evils. And again, whomever famine does not utterly kill but only torments, it teaches to live more sparingly, and afterward to fast longer and more devoutly. Now, in this case the faithful who suffer famine, call to remembrance the examples of the ancient saints, whom Paul speaks of when he says: "They wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, and tormented; of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in wilderness and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth." Heb 13.7-8 Christians also consider that the state of famished Lazarus — who died among the dogs that licked his sores Luk 16.21 — was far better than the surfeiting of the strut-bellied glutton who, being dead, was buried in hell.[1066]

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Moreover, it is to be abhorred, detested, and (yet) lamented by all men, to see a crew of barbarous villains and unruly soldiers violently abuse not only honest matrons, but tender virgins also, who are not fit yet or ripe for a man. But the greatest comfort that we have in so great a mischief and intolerable ignominy is that chastity is a virtue of the mind. For if it is a treasure of the mind, then it is not lost even though the body is abused. In the same way, the faith of a man is not thought to be overcome, even though the whole body is consumed with fire. And chastity is not lost, truly, where the body is deflowered; because the will of the abused body perseveres to still use that chastity, and does what it may to keep it undefiled. For the body is not holy because the members of it are undefiled, or because the secret parts of it are not indecently touched. Consider that the body, being wounded by many casualties, may suffer filthy violence; and that for health's sake, physicians may do things to its members that otherwise are unseemly to the eyes. Therefore, so long as the purpose of the mind remains (by which the body must be sanctified), the violent deed of another's filthy lust does not take from the body that chastity which the persevering continence of the deflowered body seeks to preserve. And meanwhile, there is no doubt that the most just Lord will sharply punish those shameless beasts and monsters of nature, who dare undertake to commit such wickedness.

The saints are confirmed in their tribulation by the innumerable examples of their forefathers, by which they gather that it is no new thing that happens to them. From the beginning, God has exercised his servants and the church — his spouse, whom he loves so dearly — with many afflictions and tribulations. Here I think it is very expedient, and comforting for afflicted minds, to reckon up the best and choicest examples that are in the scriptures, many of which are both private and public. The chances and pilgrimages of the latter patriarchs (because I do not mean to speak of those before the deluge) are those which I call private examples.

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For our father Abraham is called by the mouth of God out of Ur of the Chaldeans to go into Palestine, from where he is driven by a famine into Egypt. There he is again put to his shifts, and feels many pinches. After that, when he came into Palestine again, even till the last hour of his life, he was never without one mishap or another to trouble and vex his mind. His son Isaac felt famine also, and had one misfortune upon another to plague him with. It is not sin to call Jacob the most wretched man who lived in that age, considering the infinite miseries with which he was vexed. While he was still in his mother's womb and saw no light, he began to strive with his brother Esau. Afterwards, as a stripling, he had much ado to escape Esau's murdering hands by exiling himself from his father's house into the land of Syria; there again he was kept and exercised sharply in the school of afflictions. On his return to his country, he was wrapped in and beset with perils enough, and endless evils. The detestable wickedness of his untoward children would have been enough to kill him at his age. In his latter days, for lack of food, he goes down as a stranger into the land of Egypt, where in true faith and patience he gave up the ghost. The scripture testifies of Moses, the great and faithful servant of God, that in his youth he was brought up in the Egyptian court; but when he came of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing to be afflicted with the people of God, rather than enjoy the temporal commodities of this sinful world.[1067] He counted the rebuke of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of the Egyptians. Heb 11.24-26 This same Moses was grievously afflicted, first by Pharaoh and his princes, and after that afflicted again by those of his own household, and by his own countrymen whom he had brought out of the land of Egypt. David also, the anointed of the Lord, was troubled a great while with his master Saul, who was a madman and would have brought him to his end.

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But having obtained the kingdom at last (despite all that Saul could do), afflictions did not cease to follow David; for after many troublesome broils, he was thrust from his kingdom by Absalom, and very strictly dealt with. Yet in the end, God out of his goodness set him up again.

In the new Testament, Christ himself, our Lord and Saviour, and also that elect vessel of his, the apostle Paul, are excellent examples for us to take comfort by. The Lord in his infancy was compelled to flee the treason and murdering hands of cruel tyrants. He was not free from calamities his whole life; and at his death he was hanged among thieves. And Paul, speaking of himself, says:

"If any others are the ministers of Christ, I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in imprisonments more plenteous, in death more often. From the Jews, five times received I forty stripes less one; three times I was beaten with rods, once stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck; a day and a night I have been in the depth; in journeying often; in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own nation, in perils among the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labour and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that outwardly come to me, the trouble which daily lies upon me, is the care of all the churches." 2Cor 11.23-28

These, I say, are private examples.

We have a public example in the church of Israel afflicted in Egypt, many times troubled under their kings and judges, and lastly led captive by the Assyrians and men of Babylon. Afterward, being brought home again by the goodness of God, they pass many brunts, and are sharply afflicted under the monarchies of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans. What shall I say of the apostolic church of Christ? Even when it first began, like an infant creeping on the ground,[1068] it shortly felt the cross, and yet it still flourished in those afflictions which even to this day it patiently suffers. Histories mention ten persecutions with which the church of Christ was terribly shaken and sharply afflicted (from the eighth year of Nero, till the reign of Constantine the great, a span of three hundred and eighteen years). [1069] This was without intermission or a time of respite in which to breathe, and to rest itself from troublesome broils and merciless slaughters.[1070]

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That beast and lecherous monster, Nero, raised against the Christians the first persecution of those ten,[1071] in which it is said that Peter and Paul, the Apostles of Christ, were brought to their ends. The second was moved by Flavius Domitianus, which banished the Apostle John to the Isle of Patmos. The third persecutor after Nero was Trajan the emperor, who published most terrible edicts against the Christians. Under him, the notable martyr and preacher Ignatius, with many other excellent servants of Christ, was thrown to wild beasts, and cruelly torn in pieces. The Emperor Verus most bloodily stirred up the fourth persecution through all France and Asia; in this, the blessed Polycarp was burnt alive in fire, and Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons, was beheaded with the sword.[1072] In the fifth persecution of the church of Christ, Septimius Severus, throughout many provinces, bloodily crowned many a saint with the garland of martyrdom; among whom is reckoned Leonidas, the father of Origen. Julius Maximinus was the sixth after Nero to play the tyrant against the church. In that persecution, especially the preachers and ministers of the churches were murdered. Among them, beside countless other excellent men, were slaughtered Pamphilus and Maximus, two especially notable lights.

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The seventh blood-sucker after beastly Nero, was Decius the Emperor, who proclaimed most horrible edicts against the faithful. In his time, St. Laurence, a deacon of the church, was broiled on a grate-iron; and the renowned Virgin Apollonia, for her profession, leaped into the fire alive. Licinius Valerianus was as cruel as the rest in executing the eighth persecution against the faithful professors of Christ and his gospel. In that broil were slain many millions of Christians, and especially St. Cornelius and Cyprian, the most excellent doctors in the whole world. Valerius Aurelianus purposed, rather than put into execution, the ninth persecution: for a thunder rushed before him to the great terror of those who were around him; and shortly after, he was slain as he journeyed; and so his tyranny was ended by his death. But Caius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, Maximinianus Maxentius, and Marcus Julius Licinius, not being terrified by this horrible example, raised the tenth persecution against the church of Christ. Enduring for the span of ten whole years, this brought to destruction an infinite number of Christians in every province and quarter of the world. Eusebius of Caesarea surpassingly [1073] paints this broil for the eyes of the reader: for he himself was an eye-witness and on-looker of many a bloody pageant and triumphant victory of the martyrs, which he repeats in the eighth book of his Ecclesiastical History. In that slaughter [1074] were killed the first apostles of our Tigurine church, both martyrs of Christ and professors of his gospel, S. Felix and his sister Regula.[1075]

After those ten persecutions followed many more and more terrible butcheries, stirred up by many kings and barbarous men, in sundry quarters of the earth; on the heels of these, followed the merciless blood-sheddings committed by the Saracens, Turks, and Tartars.[1076]

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Moreover, the butcherly bishops [1077] of Rome extremely annoyed [1078] the church of God, by shedding more Christian blood in civil and foreign wars, than any tongue can possibly tell. Nothing new therefore happens to us today, who in the church of Christ suffer diverse persecutions and afflictions; for we have examples of great efficacy, both new and old, to confirm our hearts, so that they do not faint in calamities.

And therefore the prophets and apostles, and their Lord and master, Jesus Christ, foretell these perils, calamities, and all persecutions. This is because they would have us fortify our minds against these miseries at all times and seasons, lest, by being shaken with them unawares, we would revolt from our faith, and forsake our profession. The Lord says to his disciples:

"Because I have chosen you out of the world, the world therefore hates you. Remember the words which I spoke to you, saying, The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my words, they will also keep yours. But they will do all these things to you for my name's sake, because they do not know the one that sent me. I have said this to you, so that you will not be offended. They will drive you from their synagogues: and the time is coming when whoever kills you, will think he is doing God good service." [1079]

At this time I do not mean to recite out of the prophets and apostles, the rest that is like this, because it cannot be briefly repeated.[1080] Let everyone pick out, and apply to his own comfort, the plainest and most evident testimonies that he lights upon by reading.

And although the saints do not rejoice at the destruction of their persecuting enemies, whom they could wish to be converted, and so saved, rather than be punished in this present world, and be damned forever in the world to come to. Yet they are glad when they see the Lord punish their afflicters, because thereby they perceive that God has a care for those who are his servants.

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They also gather, by the present vengeance of God upon the wicked, that as afflictions are for the health and amendment of the faithful, so they are to the hurt and destruction of unbelievers. For while they persecute others, they themselves are destroyed; and while they trouble the church of the living God, they kindle a fire of the wrath of God against themselves, that will never be quenched. For in the prophecy of Zechariah, we thus read what the Lord speaks touching his church:

"Behold, I make Jerusalem a cup of poison [1081] to all the people that are round about her: yes, Judah himself shall be in the siege against Jerusalem.[1082] And in that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all people; so that all those who lift it up shall be torn and rent, and all the people of the earth shall be gathered together against it."

The Lord has a like saying in Jeremiah, where he speaks against the persecutors of his church:

"Take this wine-cup of indignation from my hand, and make all the people to whom I send you, drink of it; so that when they have drunk from it, they may be mad, and out of their wits, for fear of the sword which I will send among them. For I begin to plague the city called by my name; and do you think then that you shall escape unpunished? You shall not go unpunished." [1083]

And this is what St. Peter alludes to saying:

"The time is that the judgment of God begins at the house of God: if it first begins with us, what shall the end of them be, who do not believe the gospel?" 1Pet 4.17

I have briefly repeated above the ten persecutions in order, which the Roman emperors stirred up against the church of Christ. Now, histories mention that there was not one of them that was not requited with some notable calamity. And beside the particular revenges that followed every persecution, it is to be noted that the most just Lord began to more abundantly requite the death of his saints upon the necks of blood-thirsty Rome after the space of three hundred and forty-two years (for that many years are reckoned from the last of Nero to the second year of the emperors Honorius and Theodosius [1084]).

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For within the space of one hundred and thirty-nine years, Rome was six times taken and brought into subjection to the barbarous nations.[1085] For in the four hundredth [1086] year of grace, which was the second year of Honorius' and Theodosius' reign, the Visigoths, under their captain Alaric, both took and sacked the city, nonetheless using great mercy in their victory. After that, the Vandals under their guide Genserichus, again broke into the city cruelly, and spoiled it very greedily.[1087] After them came the Herules, and the remnant of Attila's army, with their captain Odacer, who took the city, and got the kingdom for themselves, utterly extinguishing the rule of the Romans in the western part of the world.[1088] Then again, when about fourteen years had come and gone, in comes Theodorieus Veronensis with his Ostrogoths, who slew the Herules, and obtained the city.[1089] But being recovered by the faith and industry of the valiant captain Belisarius, and restored to Justinian the emperor of the east, it was immediately taken again by Totylas,[1090] a prince of the Goths. With fire and sword he sacked it, pulled down houses, and overthrew a great part of its walls. Rome was so defaced by this, that for a certain span of days, no man dwelt there. That spoil of the city happened about five hundred and forty-eight years after Christ's incarnation.[1091] And thus Christ, in revenging his church, lay deserved plagues upon the necks of bloody Rome, beside other miseries which it suffered by the Huns and Lombards (I pass over that).[1092]

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For this is enough to show how miserably Rome was plagued for afflicting the church of Christ which nevertheless remained safe despite the tyrants' heads, and overcame those brunts; and it shall reign with Christ forevermore. In like manner, the Saracens were extinguished and utterly destroyed when they had suffered many a great overthrow, and had been plagued throughout the whole world with sundry mishaps and adverse calamities. The Turks also daily feel their woes and miseries, and are likely hereafter to feel sharper punishments. Moreover, the popes [1093] are slain with poison by one another, and are strangely vexed with awful terrors. They are nowhere sure of their lives, but even in the midst of all their friends, they are beset with miseries; they live in fear continually, the whole pack of them. Furthermore, even those among them who live most happily, rot away with the disease that follows filthy pleasures; there is no kind of death either sharper to the patient, or more detested among all men, than this. And their adherents, who by setting on to persecute the church of Christ, either dropped away with a similar disease that waits upon filthy lust, or they were consumed little by little, as Herod and Antiochus were;[1094] their death came long before it dispatched them, and tormented them beyond all measure. Yes, and besides these bitter plagues, they destroy one another with endless civil wars. The Lord therefore is righteous, and his judgments are just and equal; he never forgets to revenge his friends by finding out his own and his servants' enemies, to punish them for their deserts.

Since then, my brethren, the case so stands, I beseech you: let us patiently suffer the hand of the Lord our God, as often as we are touched with any calamity, or tempted by the Lord our God, knowing this: that the Lord strikes us that he may heal us, and troubles us that he may comfort us and receive us to himself, into joys everlasting. And that we may so do, since we are otherwise too weak by ourselves, let us pray to our Father which is in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord, that he will grant to be present with us in our temptations, and guide us in the way of constancy, peace, and righteousness.

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And for an example, let everyone set before his eyes the order that Christ our Saviour and master used — who, a little before the cross of his passion, took himself to prayer. For going up into the mount of Olives, he beseeches his Father humbly, and prays to him ardently. He is instant in prayer, and presses Him earnestly; and yet, he submits all to his Father's will and pleasure. Let us also do the same, that we may have a trial of our Father's present aid with the effectual comfort of our minds, and that we may give him praise forevermore for his goodness. Amen.

3-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: THE NINTH & TENTH COMMANDMENTS.

OF THE FIFTH AND SIXTH PRECEPTS OF THE SECOND TABLET,

WHICH ARE IN ORDER, THE NINTH AND TENTH OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. THAT IS,

YOU SHALL NOT SPEAK FALSE WITNESS AGAINST YOUR NEIGHBOUR:

AND YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSE, ETC.

WE have now come to the exposition of the two last precepts of the Ten Commandments. The ninth commandment is: "Do not speak false witness against your neighbour." By this precept, faith is confirmed in covenants and contracts: it rules the tongue, and commends verity to us, the fairest virtue of all others; and it teaches us to use modesty and sincerity both in word and deed. Up to here, we have not yet heard anything in all of God's commandments touching the tongue, except a little in the third commandment. But from the tongue arise the greatest commodities and discommodities of our life.

"For the tongue" (says James) "is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles And the tongue is fire, even a world of wickedness. The tongue is so set among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire from hell. All the nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and things of the sea, is meeked and tamed by the nature of men; but no man can tame the tongue, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father; and with it we curse men that are made in the similitude of God. Out of one mouth proceed both blessing and cursing." Jas 3.5-10

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Therefore, in this ninth precept the way is set down very well and necessarily, how men should frame and order their tongues.

Now, summarily, this precept commands us to use our tongues well, that we do our neighbour no harm either privately or publicly, either in his life, good name, or riches, by word or writing, or otherwise by painting, neither by simulation nor dissimulation, nor yet so much as by a beck [1095] or a nod. All things are forbidden that are against truth and sincerity. What is required from all our hands is simplicity, plain speaking, and telling of the truth. Briefly, every man is commanded to endeavour mutually to maintain plain dealing and verity. For in the twenty-third chapter of Exodus we read that the Lord charged us, saying: "You shall not have anything to do with a false report." And in the nineteenth of Leviticus, "You shall not steal, says the Lord, nor lie, nor deal falsely one with another." And the apostle James, after he had touched the evils of the tongue (especially because out of one mouth proceeds good and bad) adds: "These things, my brethren, should not be so. Does a fountain, from one hole, send forth sweet water and also bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive-berries? Or a vine bear figs? So too, no fountain can give both salt-water and fresh." Jas 3.10-12 Truly, since God has given man a tongue, so that by the means of it one man may know another's meaning, that it may bless or praise God, and do good to all men; it is altogether requisite that it should be applied to the use that it was made for.[1096] Thereby, out of a good heart a man might utter good talk, clear from deceit and hurt, from blasphemy and railings, and from filthy speaking.

But it is best for us to more closely sift the special points of this precept, or argument, by parts. First of all, in this commandment, every man is forbidden to bear false witness in the court, before a judge.

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Therefore, all witness-bearing is not forbidden us, but only false witnessing. "Do not speak (he says) false witness." It is lawful, therefore, to bear true witness, especially if a magistrate demands it of you. And therefore the Hebrew phrase is very significant; it says, "Do not answer false witness against your neighbour." [1097] Now, he that answers has been asked a question. And in bearing witness, he that speaks must have a regard to God alone and simple truth; he must lay aside all evil affections, hatred, fear, or all part-taking; he must hide nothing, nor dissemble in his speech. He must not devise anything of his own making, nor corrupt the meaning of his words that are spoken, as those false witnesses did in the Gospel, when they said before the judges, "I will destroy this temple, and in three days build it again;" Mat 26.61 for they corrupted the meaning of Christ. And the Lord says in the law, "You shall not take up a false report, nor shall you put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. You shall not follow a multitude to do evil, nor shall you speak in a matter of justice according to the greater number, to pervert judgment." Exo 23.1-2

He that bears false witness, therefore, commits a sin against God and his neighbour. For first of all, he stains himself with sacrilege and perjury; and so, by telling a lie in the name of God, he spites God himself. Moreover, he does as much hurt to his neighbour, as he takes in damages by the judge's sentence, either in body, goods, or loss of life. For it is manifest that the judge, being moved by your false witness, punishes the accused party in body, goods, or life itself. He would not have done this, if he had not been drawn into it by your false witnessing. And therefore, a very good and just law is that which Moses uttered in these words: "If a false witness is found among you, then you shall do to him as he had thought wickedly to do to his brother; and you shall put evil away from your midst. Thus the rest may hear and fear, and after that, not dare to do such wickedness among you anymore. You shall have no compassion on him; but life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot." Deu 19.18-21 To this belongs the saying of Solomon in the Proverbs, where he cries, "God hates a false witness." [1098] And again, "A false witness shall not escape unpunished." We have an example in the two false witnesses that rose against the chaste and honest Susanna. [1099]

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In this law are also condemned all false and wrongful accusations, and unjust judgments bought for money at the mouth of unrighteous judges. And just as those deeds are worthily forbidden, so likewise are those disapproved who set their tongue for sale; I mean, those merchants who, for a morsel of bread, will easily be hired either to bless or curse the innocent. You may find a great number of these cursing, spiteful, and soothing tongues in every degree and state, among both rich and poor, among both spiritual and lay people.

Furthermore, we have commended to us here, the inviolable keeping of bargains, covenants, and contracts; and on the other side, are we especially charged not to use either guile, deceit, or craft, or any kind of cozening.[1100] I have spoken of this where I treated theft.

But now the thing that is especially forbidden to the faithful in this, is to tell a lie — that is, to speak an untruth, either on purpose to hurt his neighbour with it, or upon any vain and light occasion, or otherwise, from some evil affection. For many kinds and sundry sorts of lies are reckoned among men. St. Augustine, in his fourteenth chapter ad Consentium de Mendacio, mentions eight kinds of lies.[1101] I will name only a few among many.

There is a JESTING lie, as when I say that I lie, or other men know that I lie, and they take some profit by my lie, or (as I should rather say) some pastime or pleasure. To lie in that way, even though it is no great and heinous sin, is still a sign of great levity; which the apostle disapproves in the faithful, as it may appear in the fifth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians. And yet I do not think that devised fables, parables, and feigned narrations are hereby forbidden. These are used everywhere in the scripture in matters of most importance; so they also have a very good grace, being very necessary of themselves, and profitable for the readers. Notwithstanding, St. Augustine would not have jesting mirth [1102] numbered among lies.

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There is, moreover, an OFFICIOUS lie; that is, when I form [1103] or tell an untruth for duty's sake, to the end that, by my lie, I may keep my neighbour harmless from the evil or mischief that hangs over his head. There are many examples of this sort in the holy scriptures. The midwives of Egypt kept the Hebrew children alive, whom Pharaoh commanded to be slain at birth; and being accused before the king of breaking the law, they excused themselves by an officious and a very witty lie, and pretended a certain speedier travail in the Hebrew wives' birthing process, than the Egyptian women had. Exo 1.17-19 Rahab with a very strange tale, deceives the citizens of Jericho; and by her lie she preserves the spies of the people of God. Jos 2.4-6 And Michal, David's wife, saved her husband's life with a lie, and sent away her father Saul's servants without accomplishing their purpose, for which the king had sent them. 1Sam 19.13-14 And Jonathan feigns many a thing at his father's table, for the good-will that he bore toward David. By honest shifts and godly deceits, Jonathan rid David of the bloody hand of his cruel father Saul. 1Sam 20.28-29 The holy widow Judith, also by lying and dissembling, entered the tent of captain Holofernes; and by cutting off his head, set her afflicted country-folks at liberty again.[1104]

Now it has been a question among the divines of the primitive church, whether those whose examples I have alleged here, sinned in lying or not. Origen, and those who followed him, permitted a wise and godly man to lie, if it were for the welfare of those for whom the lie was made.[1105] Nor was St. Jerome reluctant about Origen's opinion: for upon the epistle of Paul to the Galatians, he wrote that Peter and Paul, to serve the time, used a kind of simulation.[1106]

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But St. Augustine, admonishing Jerome about that matter, flatly denies that we should even once suspect that a lie is allowed in the sacred scriptures. On the other side again, St. Jerome tells Augustine, that the best interpreters of the ancient church are full and wholly of his mind. There are, to and fro, very learned and large epistles written on both sides, which are extant now, and may be seen among us; and therefore I need not stay upon this any longer.[1107] The same Augustine, in the fifteenth chapter of his book that he wrote ad Consentium contra Mendacium, says:

"He which says that some lies are righteous, is to be thought to say nothing else but that some sins are righteous, and consequently, that some unrighteousness is righteous. What can be said that is more absurd than this? For what is sin, if not contrary to righteousness? Thus, those things that are done against the law of God cannot be righteous. Now it is said to God, your law is truth; and therefore what is against the truth cannot be righteous. Who doubts that every lie is against the truth? Therefore, no lie can possibly be righteous." [1108] And so forth.

Now, on the other side, very notable learned men have thought that Augustine was a bit too stubbornly set against lying. And therefore some, going between both as it were, say that they (those whose examples I just alleged) were not altogether without sin; and yet they suppose that their fault in those lies was a very small sin. I wish that those who allow themselves to lie officiously, would take heed to themselves, lest by following their own affections more than enough, they at last mistake for an officious lie, that which is indeed a pernicious lie.

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For the last and worst kind of lie is a PERNICIOUS lie: and that proceeds from a corrupt mind, and it tends to damage your neighbour, who deserved no hurt at your hand. This kind of lie is cried out against throughout the scriptures. And the fault of it increases according to the quantity of mischief that it creates. For divines and ecclesiastical preachers lie perniciously above all others, when they kill the souls of men with lies and corrupt doctrine, and make the bodies and goods of silly seduced people subject to the curse of God, and put them in danger of a thousand more perils. And to this belongs hypocrisy also, which in the Gospel, the Lord Jesus wonderfully taunts and baits exceedingly. Now hypocrisy shows itself not so much in crafty and deceitful words, as it also does (and far more) in the whole conversation of our lives — such as when we make a semblance, or dissemble, those things that are not as we portray them, and by that means lie to God and beguile our neighbour.

Furthermore, forbidden in this law are tale-bearings, secret slanders, backbitings, veiled whisperings, and all suspicions which arise by such occasions. Spiteful quips, therefore, and heads that are ready to speak evil of all men, are plainly condemned. For there are some who are without honesty, not hesitating to slander all estates and conditions, both high and low, private and public, and people of all ages. And for that purpose, they cast abroad infamous libels, they stick up written pasquils,[1109] and set out pictures with which to defame men. And they seem very eloquent to themselves, while with bitter words they check, and find fault with all sorts of men. Yes, they consider the impudent [1110] prattling of their unbridled tongues, to be a commendation of uncontrolled liberty, and free licence to speak. But those who take delight in cursed speaking, sin very grievously – that is, those who carry about a tongue full of bitterness, curses, and deceit; just as those who exceedingly love to hear envenomed speech and hurtful talking, are also not without sin. But we differentiate, and except from wrongful quarrels, those accusations which are justly made and openly shown, either by writing or by word of mouth; and we except those kinds of chidings and chastenings which preachers use in sacred sermons.

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For those who in that way chastise and pursue wicked vices and errors, purpose nothing else but the glory of God and the safeguard of men's souls, which they desire to advance by all the means they can, not seeking to utter the spite or wreak the malice of their naughty affections.

But we may gather by many arguments, that it is a heinous crime to falsely slander and to wickedly backbite our brethren and neighbours. For there is scarcely anything that so much disgraces us, as backbiting does. We are made in the similitude and likeness of God, that we may be the sons of God — but false accusations make us out to be, instead of the sons of God, the sons of the devil. Now we all abhor and utterly detest the name of the devil. But if you are a wrongful slanderer, then you are the very same that you so detest. For the devil takes his name from wrongful accusing, and he is called a slanderer.[1111] Moreover, in the book of Proverbs, God is said to hate backbiters and wrongful slanderers. And in the twenty-fourth chapter we read: "The thought of a fool is sin, and a slanderer is hated by men." Pro 24.9 For a good name (as Solomon witnesses) is a precious treasure. Therefore, when the fame and good name of a man is put in hazard by the false reports and slanders of a wicked tongue, the chief jewel that a man has is put in jeopardy. So that, in very deed a slanderer seems to sin more deeply than a thief, unless a man makes more account of his transitory riches than of his name and good report. And therefore, it is strange today, that a thief is never pardoned for stealing, and yet backbiters are never once touched for slanders.[1112] I would to God that magistrates would just once, rightly weigh the sundry circumstances of sundry matters, and punish every fault with penalties agreeable to the offence, and revenge the greater crimes with great and sharper punishments. For God truly requires of and charges every one of us, to do our best in maintaining truth, for the defence of our neighbour's good name, and the preservation of his earthly substance.

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In this law also it seems that FLATTERY is forbidden which, as the proverb truly says, makes a fool mad, and causes one who is mad, to be incurably mad. And therefore Solomon says that a flatterer is worthy to be cursed by all men. "Those (he says) who say to the wicked, You are just, shall be cursed by the people, and hated by the tribes." Pro 24.24 And in another place: "The words of a tale-bearer are as though they were simple,[1113] and yet they pierce to the inward parts of the heart. When he speaks softly, do not believe him: for there are seven mischiefs in his heart." Pro 26.22, 25 And therefore it is said very well in Ecclesiastes: "It is better to hear the rebuke of a wise man, than the song of a fool," Ecc 7.5 that is, of a flatterer. And yet, even though flattery is so great an evil, it is notwithstanding favoured by all men. So that, like an infecting plague, it has crept into the church, into princes' palaces, into judges' courts, and into every private house. Like an alluring mermaid, it has a song that delights our flesh. Like fools, we are blinded with self-love, and do not mark that flatteries and allurements breed our destruction. Ezekiel greatly blames all flattering preachers, and says: "Woe to those who say to the people, Peace, peace, when there is no peace; who daub with untempered mortar, who sew enticing pillows under every elbow, and put alluring kerchiefs upon every head, to hunt after and catch souls." Eze 13.10,11,18 The apostle Paul says about such teachers who delight more in lies and flattery than in sincere verity: "The time will come that they will not abide hearing sound doctrine; but those whose ears itch, will get themselves teachers according to their lusts, and will turn their ears from the truth, and be turned to fables." 2Tim 4.3-4 And David, praying against this plague as the thing that is most pernicious to all kings and princes in authority, says, "The righteous will strike me friendly:[1114] but the precious balms of the wicked will not anoint my head." [1115] And again, "Lord, deliver me from lying lips and a deceitful tongue." Psa 120.2 I have said this much up to here, for the exposition of the ninth commandment.

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Now for the tenth and last commandment which, word for word, is expressed thus: "You shall not covet your neighbour's house, you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's." The Lord in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy lays down these words in this manner and order: "You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, you shall not covet your neighbour's house, nor his field, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbour's."

Nor is there any difference or contrariety in the thing itself, even though in Exodus, "Your neighbour's house," and in Deuteronomy, "Your neighbour's wife," are placed first in order. Now, this goes [1116] somewhat against those who divide this last precept into two commandments, which indeed is only one, as may be partly gathered by this inverted order set down in two different places.

In this precept, COVETING is especially forbidden; I mean, evil longing and corrupt desiring. For coveting is a word indifferently used in the better as well as the worse signification. For David affirms that he longed after God and his law: "I have wished for your salvation, Lord," And, "I have longed for your commandments." Psa 119.131. Therefore, we must be able here, with discretion, to judge between that good affection which God first created in man; and that other motion, the root of evil, that grows in our nature by the descent of corruption from our first father Adam. There was in Adam, before his fall, a certain good appetite with pleasure and delight. He was not so hungry that hunger pained his empty bowels (which is indeed a plague for sin); but he ate with a certain sweet and delectable appetite. He was delighted with the pleasures of Paradise. With a certain holy desire, he both loved and longed after the woman which God had brought and placed before him. And this good appetite or desire proceeded from God himself, who made both Adam and all his affections good at first. Yes, and today also, there are certain natural affections and desires in men, such as to eat, to drink, to sleep, etc., belonging to the preservation [1117] of man's life. Of themselves, these are not to be counted in the number of sins, unless by corruption of original vice, they surpass the bounds for which they are ordained.

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But in this treatise on the tenth commandment, desire is used in the worse part, and it is taken for the concupiscence or coveting of evil things. This concupiscence, being translated from Adam into us all, is the fruit of our corrupt nature, or the offspring of original sin, whose seat is in the heart of man; and it is the fountain and head-spring of all sin and wickedness that is to be found in mortal men. For the Lord expressly says in the gospel: "Whatever enters in by the mouth, goes into the belly, and is cast out into the sewer. [1118] But the things that come out of the mouth proceed from the heart; and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, whoredoms, theft, false witness-bearings, spiteful speaking — these are what defile the man." Mat 15.17-20 And the apostle James, speaking altogether as plainly in another place says: "Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God: for everyone is tempted when he is drawn away, and enticed with the bait of his own concupiscence. Then, when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." Jas 1.13-15

Concupiscence, therefore, is a motion or affection of the mind, which out of our corrupt nature, lusts against God and his law, and stirs us up to wickedness, even though the consent, or deed itself, does not presently follow from our conception of it. For if the deed follows the lust, then the sin increases by steps and degrees. For first we must consider the very blotting out, or corrupting, of the image of God in us, original sin, and that disease that lies hid in our members, which we call evil affections. Secondly, we must consider that it increases by our delight and pleasure in it. Thirdly, it is augmented, if we consent [1119] and seek counsel to commit the crime. And, lastly, if the consent breaks out into doing the deed, then is it greater and greater, according to the qualities of accidents or circumstances.

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Now, all these are reckoned in the number of sins, though one is greater than another by degrees., By God's sufferance, I will speak somewhat more largely, touching this, when I come to the treatise about sin. Therefore, that evil and unlawful affection which is of our natural corruption, and lies hidden in our nature — but which betrays itself in our hearts against the pureness of God's law and majesty — is that very sin which is condemned in this law. For although there are some who think that such motions, diseases, blemishes, and affections of the mind are not sins, yet God flatly condemns them, by forbidding them in this law. But if any man doubts this exposition, let him hear the words of the apostle, who says: "I would not have known sin, except by the law: for I would not have known lust, unless the law had said, you shall not lust. Without the law, sin was dead: I once lived without law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I was dead." Rom 7.7-9 And again, "The affection of the flesh is death, but the affection of the Spirit is life and peace: because the affection of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not obedient to the law of God, nor can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Rom 8.6-8 The affection of concupiscence therefore condemns us; or, as I should rather say, we are worthily condemned by the just judgment of God for our concupiscence, which every hour and moment betrays itself in the thoughts of our hearts.[1120] There are (I confess) sundry fantasies and many thoughts in the minds of men, which — if they do not tend to the offence of God or our neighbour, nor contain any uncleanness or self-love — are not to be counted in the number of sin, as I declared to you immediately after the beginning.

So previously, truly, God has forbidden the grosser sins which man daily commits against him; and now at last he comes to the concupiscence and corrupt nature of man, the well-spring of all evil, which in this precept he goes about stopping and putting to sleep: or, as I should rather say, to reveal to the eyes of all men the infirmity and weakness of mankind. For where is someone who has not sometimes felt concupiscence? Yes, where is someone who is not pricked with the sting of fleshly concupiscence, every hour and moment?

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What man is there, I pray you, who is not diseased with the natural sickness common to us all, and spotted with the blemish of original guiltiness? Therefore, being convinced of sin before the Lord, we are not able to excuse our fault, nor escape the sentence of the judge who condemns all flesh. For the just Lord expressly condemns our natural corruption and wicked inclination, which is a continual turning from God, and rebellion against the sincerity which he requires at our hands. For those who are clean in heart are called happy, because they shall see God. Mat 5.8 Therefore, those whose hearts are wrapped in lusts, diseased with concupiscence, and spotted with the poison of original guilt, shall not see God. But such are all of us, who are the sons of Adam. And therefore this law convinces us all of sin, infirmity, natural corruption, and damnation, which follows upon the heels of our corruption.

Moreover, God in his law not only requires the outward cleanness of the body, but also the inward pureness of the mind, the soul, and all our affections. And he charges us that whatever we think, determine, or set about to do, should tend to the health and profit of our neighbour. This commandment, therefore, may be referred to all the others that went before. For the Lord himself, expounding this commandment, "You shall not commit murder," adds this: "Whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger of judgment;" Mat 5.22 and again, in expounding this precept, "You shall not commit adultery," he adds; "Whoever looks at another man's wife to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Mat 5.28

And here he exactly repeats the things which we covet. In longing after these, we are prone to sin. Now, our covetousness consists in the desire either for things or persons. The things that we covet are either immoveable or moveable — as we Germans usually say, Die guteren sind etliche ligende, etliche farende.[1121] Immoveable things are houses, farms, lands, vineyards, woods, meadows, pastures, fish-pools, and the like. Moveable things are money, cattle, honours, office, and dignities. The persons are wife, children, man-servants and maid-servants.

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These and similar things which our neighbour possesses, none of us ought to covet to his hurt or hindrance: or if any man happens to covet them, let him not consent to the concupiscence, nor take delight in it; let him not seek to obtain the thing that he so desires, nor suffer his ill-conceived purpose to break out into doing the deed, in taking from his neighbour his things or persons. For God requires at the hands of those who worship him, that sort of righteousness which is altogether sound and absolutely perfect, not in the outward deed alone, but also in the inward mind and settled purpose of the heart. Thus, the Lord says in the gospel: "Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of God." Mat 5.20 But touching how God's commandments are fulfilled, and faith is absolute righteousness, I will tell you later, in another sermon, as I have said something already in the sermon I made on true faith.

Up to here, in twelve sermons, I have run through and declared the ten precepts of the moral law. In these, I told you that the form of virtue is laid before our eyes, thereby to frame our manners according to the will of God. God himself has divided all the branches of his moral law into two tablets. The first shows our duty to our Creator, and it teaches us how to rightly worship our God and governor. The second tablet, in six whole precepts, declares what, and how much, every man is bound to owe to his neighbour, and how we may all live quietly, well, and civilly with one another. It commands us to honour our parents, and all those whom God has ordained to stand in the place of our parents. It forbids murder, or doing injury to any man, in his life and body. It forbids whoredom, adultery, and wicked lusts, commending wedlock, cleanness, and a continent life.[1122] It forbids lies, false witness-bearings, and evil [1123] desires; and it bids us to love our neighbours with all our hearts, being ready at all times with all our power, to do them good.

To God, our Lord and most prudent lawgiver, be all praise and thanks for ever and ever. Amen.

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3-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: THE CEREMONIAL LAW.

OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW OF GOD, BUT ESPECIALLY OF THE PRIESTHOOD,

TIME AND PLACE APPOINTED FOR THE CEREMONIES.

IN the partition of God's laws, we placed the ceremonial law next after the moral law.[1124] And therefore, since the moral law is already expounded, by the help of God I next have to treat the law of ceremonies. And that I may not hide anything from you, note this by the way: some write Ceremoniae, and some Cerimoniae. These are two words used for ceremonies, but consider that various men have various opinions touching where the word comes from. For some (following the opinion of Servius Sulpitius) think that they are called Ceremoniae a carendo.[1125] But Festus asserts that [1126] ceremonies first took their name from the town Caeres, or Caerete.[1127] For Livy, in his fifth book, says that the relics [1128] of the Romans were kept by the townsmen of Caeres during the French wars, at the time the Frenchmen invaded Rome.[1129] By this occasion, it is likely that as a remembrance of the benefit, all the worship due to God, and all the holy rites or customs, were called ceremonies, after the name of the town. But wherever the word is derived from, we use it in this treatise for the holy deed of worshipping God, and the ecclesiastical rites of sacred religion.

Now, ceremonies are holy rites belonging to the ministers of religion, and also to the place, time, and holy worship exhibited to God. The ceremonial laws, exactly teach and precisely describe all these: how they ought to be kept and observed as they should be. Ceremonies, therefore, are the actions and rites which the laws or rules, called ceremonial, frame or appoint.

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Now ceremonies are ordained either by God, or men. Touching those which God has instituted, they are of two sorts: the one sort he ordained in the old Testament to the ancient Israelites; and the others, he ordained at the coming of Christ, to us who are the people of the new Testament or covenant. I mean to speak of the ceremonies of the new Testament, when I treat the church and its sacraments. At this time, I will discourse about the ceremonies of the old Testament, which were holy rites and actions ordained and delivered by God himself to the people of Israel until the time of amendment. They were partly to represent and show [1130] the mysteries of God in a shadow; and partly to worship God by them. They were also to keep the people of God in a lawful religion with them, and in the society of one ecclesiastical body.

But men have also brought in many and sundry sorts of ceremonies. Among the heathen, the arch-flamines [1131] did this, who were the priests and ministers of idols, which the offices and places of both their kings and princes sometimes supplied. Among the Hebrews, Jeroboam, king of Israel, to the destruction of him and his followers, changed the ceremonies which God had ordained, into his own — that is, into men's inventions and detestable blasphemies. 1Kng 12.26-33

In this latter age of the world, in which we live, there is no halt to ceremonies instituted daily by brain-sick [1132] people — the misery of which many learned men have (and still) lament and bewail today. Augustine complains that, in his time, ceremonies increased too fast in the church of God. What do you think he would say, if he were alive to see them now-a-days? [1133] But I will speak of this at another time.

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Now, because the word ceremonies is attributed as a name to any heathenish rites whatsoever, in this treatise I would have you know that I speak not of every ceremony, but only of those which were delivered of God by Moses to the people of Israel; not at the will of Moses, but at the will of God, by the means or ministry of Moses, as it was said to him: "See, that you do all things according to the pattern that was shown to you in the mountain." [1134] The origin, therefore, or the beginning of these ceremonies which we treat, are referred to God himself, the most true and assured author of them. And they therefore pleased God, because they were godly, and they might be exhibited in faith. Contrarily, the ceremonies in religion that are devised and ordained by men are utterly condemned, as seen in the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy. Also, in the seventeenth chapter of second Kings we find: "Israel walked in the ordinances, or ceremonies, which they themselves had made to themselves." 2Kng 17.8 It is known to all men, what happened to Jeroboam and his household, and all the kings of Israel that walked in the ways of Jeroboam.[1135] So then, these ceremonies of ours (the ceremonies of which I speak) are actions and rites not in profane but holy matters, which God himself first ordained, and which God's people use and exercise.

These ceremonies were not delivered to all people or all nations, but only to the people of Israel. And that too, as the apostle says, was only "until the time of amendment," [1136] as that which should lie upon the shoulders of the Jews till the coming of Messiah. At that time, they would be taken away, and after that appear no more. And in this sense, truly, the apostle Paul calls the law the schoolmistress [1137] until Christ.

Moreover, we have to note the end to which ceremonies were ordained. Ceremonies especially belong to the doctrine of piety and faith. For they were added to the first tablet as a shore, or a prop, to uphold or fix it.

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For they teach the outward worship of the true God, which godly men give to Him. And the Israelites were not only drawn from strange gods by them, but from strange worship also, with which they were too much and too long inured and trained up in the land of Egypt. This was to the end that they would not have any occasion to receive or admit any strange kinds of worship, when God's worship was furnished and wrapped as it were, in such exquisite sorts of curious ceremonies. Moses in the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy makes this the reason why God appointed such busy ceremonies. Therefore, ceremonies, and the use of ceremonies, are expressly called in the scripture, the worship of God. For it pleases God to be worshipped with them; and with them he retained his people in the true worship of him, and in the true religion and communion of one ecclesiastical body. For the church is severed and divided by admitting or bringing in new or strange ceremonies, as evident in the states and dealings of Solomon and Jeroboam. Moreover, the apostle Paul said, "Are not those who eat of the sacrifice, partakers of the altar," 1Cor 10.18 and consequently of the whole religion? Furthermore, the chief or especial mysteries of Christ and his church were shadowed in ceremonies,[1138] and were the sacraments of the Jewish people with which the Lord would bind them to himself, put them in mind of his benefits, and lastly, keep the piety, obedience, and faith of his people in use and exercise. And the Lord especially required faith and faithful obedience at the hands of his servants in observing these ceremonies.

Therefore, as often as the people were ignorant of the meaning of the secret mysteries contained in those figurative shows, those ceremonies did not please but utterly displeased His majesty: as often, I say, as they were without faith, and observed only the outward actions or ceremonies, without any inward zeal or touch of conscience. For the Lord in Jeremiah cries out saying:

"Heap up your burnt-offerings with your sacrifices, and eat the flesh: for when I brought your fathers out of Egypt, I spoke no word to them of burnt-offerings or sacrifices; but this I commanded them, saying, Hearken to and obey my voice, and I will be your God and you shall be my people." Jer 7.21-23

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And yet, in another place we read that the offering of sacrifices, and that external action of the people in worshipping God, was acceptable and of a sweet-smelling savour in the nose of the Lord.[1139] Now, upon what does this diversity arise, I pray you, if not upon the difference of the minds of those who worship the Lord? For sacrifices pleased him, and the honour that was done to him in simple obedience and faith alone, pleased him too. But he utterly disapproved of that religion in which he was worshipped with outward shows, and not with the faith and sincere obedience of the inward heart. We read that Cain sinned in this way; for God commanded not to sacrifice in the manner that Cain did.

Again, he commanded to sacrifice and to worship him with external ceremonies, [1140] in faith that Christ would come to be the Saviour of the world.[1141] It was not that they should hope to be justified by the external action, but by the one who was prefigured in all their ceremonies, Christ Jesus, the sacrifice once to be offered to save them all;[1142] who was the life and meaning to which all those ceremonies led, that are expressed in the law.

But it is not amiss here, to particularly examine and look into not all and every one, but the chief ceremonies, and those which are more significant than the rest. Let this labour of mine not seem to any man to be more curious than needed, or less profitable than it shows for. For it is undoubtedly available for the sound understanding of the abrogation of the law.[1143] All things whatsoever that God has laid down in the holy scriptures, are altogether profitable to our edification, and carry with them a divine authority by which we may confirm our minds. Therefore, they are veritable fools and godless people, or to use a gentler term, they are shuttle-witted,[1144] and ignorant of all good things, whose stomachs are turned at the ceremonies that God has taught, and whose ears are offended to hear a sober and godly treatise upon the exposition of those divine ceremonies.

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There are some (and that is no small number) who think it very profitable and an excellent thing to construe Homer and Virgil allegorically. In divine ceremonies, only foolish heads are persuaded that no profit or wisdom lies secretly hidden — when indeed, in the whole world there is nothing more profitable, pleasant, excellent, or full of wisdom in allegorical types, than the ceremonies that God has ordained. For in them the mysteries of Christ and his catholic church are very finely, plainly, and notably described.

Now, in reckoning up and touching these several ceremonies, I will chiefly follow the very natural order. Ceremonies pertain to the ecclesiastical worship of God. Therefore, it is necessary that there should be persons appointed in the church to be the masters, or rather the public ministers of those ceremonies, to exercise and put them in practice as the Lord ordained them. It is necessary that there also be a certain place and time appointed at which God should be especially worshipped, rather than another place or time. Moreover, the holy rites (that is, the ceremonies) must be appointed and certainly numbered, so that the worshippers of God may know what and how great the honour is that they are bound to give to him. And first of all, I mean to say something about the persons (that is, the priests or Levites) still referring the hearers to the reading of the holy Bible, in which the whole is fully contained and largely described.

The beginning of priesthood among the old people is derived almost from the creation.[1145] For they say that in every family, the first-begotten were always the priests. It is certain that when the firstborn of Egypt were slain, the Lord by a law consecrated to himself the first-begotten of the Israelites. Exo 13.2, 15 And the preeminence, or dignity, of the first-begotten has always been very great by the civil law. The first-begotten always ruled and bore sway in his father's house, and he was, as it were, a king among his brethren. To the first-begotten, the inheritance was due; to the other brethren, portions were given. The first-begotten excelled the rest in the dignity of the priesthood. Therefore, when Cain and Abel strived about their birthright, they did not contend about a trifle, but about a matter of very great weight.[1146]

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Thus, when the mother-virgin is said in Luke to have borne the first-begotten son, let no man think that she was the mother of the second-begotten, or many more sons. For Luke calls Christ her first-begotten son, Luk 2.7 in which his dignity and excellence is noted. For to Christ our Lord belong the kingdom, priesthood, and inheritance. And by his bountiful liberality, we are adopted to be his partners both in the kingdom, priesthood, inheritance of life everlasting, and in all heavenly things.

But to return to our purpose again, the dignity of priesthood among the people of Israel, of right belonged to Reuben, because he was the first-begotten. But by committing detestable incest, he lost his right.[1147] Next to him, therefore, was Levi, who also lost that dignity for the sin which he committed in killing the men of Shechem traitorously, and profaning the sacrament of circumcision.[1148] But because the tribe of Levi behaved itself manfully, not only in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, but also in punishing idolaters — I mean, the men that worshipped the golden calf — they therefore received the office or dignity of priesthood in reward for their virtue. And at that time, the Levites were chosen to the place of the first-begotten of all the seed of Israel. For thus we read: "And Moses said to the Levites, Consecrate your hands unto the Lord this day, every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that a blessing may be given to you this day." Exo 32.29 And again:

"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel, for all that first opens the womb among the children of Israel; and the Levites shall be mine; because all the firstborn are mine. For the same day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I hallowed to myself all the firstborn in Israel;" and so forth. Num 3.12-13

By this it appears that the tribe of Levi was appointed to the priesthood in the church of Israel. Moreover, this dignity or ministry, was singularly confirmed to this tribe immediately upon the insurrection of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, by the wonderful miracle that the Lord wrought upon Aaron's rod.

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It alone budded among the other eleven twigs, as a witness that God had appointed the tribe of Levi alone to the office and function of holy priesthood. And for that cause, the same rod was put into the ark and kept in the tabernacle: to the end that no other tribe would affect the priesthood at any time thereafter. All of this is largely declared in the sixteenth and seventeenth chapters of the Book of Numbers.

Now, there was a certain order among the Levites. There were degrees and appointments to various offices. For the Levites were divided into three families, that is, into the Kohathites, Gersonites, and Merarites. And those were again parted into four orders. For first of all, princes were chosen out of the family of Kohath to bear sway and rule the rest. The remnant of the Kohathites, and the other two orders (the Gersonites and Merarites), were subject to them, and obeyed the first order of Kohathites who were their governors. For the chief priest, Aaron, along with his sons Ithamar and Eleazar, had preeminence among the rest. Thus we read in the third chapter of Numbers:

"And you shall give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons; for they are given to him from the children of Israel. And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons to attend to their priest's office; and the stranger that comes near shall be slain." Num 3.9-10

In this, the chief priest Aaron bore the type or figure of Christ, who is the true, best, and greatest king and bishop — the one to whom all Christians are subject as their chief bishop and head, whose dwelling is in heaven.

And here, observe that all the Levites did not serve in the tabernacle, nor did they all instruct and teach everywhere throughout the land of Israel. There were certain ordinances touching the choice and refusal of those among the Levites who were to be called to the ministry or priesthood. Time will not serve me to reckon all the laws appointed for that purpose; but the chief of them may be seen in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of Leviticus. In the eighth chapter of the book of Numbers, the age is appointed for those who were thought to be fit for the ministry: that is, from the twenty-fifth to the fiftieth year of their age.

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The priests who were called and chosen to the ministry, were also consecrated. The manner of consecrating them is far larger and busier than what I can declare in few words. By their consecration was meant that those who serve the church in the office of priesthood ought to be adorned with various gifts, and endued with holy conversation. For to this especially belongs the anointing of the priests, which is a type of the Holy Ghost. Unless an ecclesiastical minister is so endued, he exercises the office to his own destruction. This ceremonial anointing of priests is set down by Moses in the twenty-ninth chapter of Exodus, the eighth chapter of Leviticus, and the eighth chapter of the book of Numbers. We must also add to this, the habit or apparel that the priests used. When they did not minister in their charge or office, the priests wore the same kind of garments as laymen did, as we may gather out of Ezekiel.[1149] But when they did serve in the ministry, then they wore ceremonial raiment according to God's commandment. Moses sets down a very large description of this in the twenty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Exodus.

There are nine sorts of ceremonial garments,[1150] though some count only eight. Josephus makes it ten.[1151] First of all, before they went about their offices, the priests washed themselves in water,[1152] and then put on their holy garments. Among those garments, some were indifferently used by both the inferior and chief priests. And first, their privates are hidden with linen breeches coming down to their knees and hams; the upper part of these was tied above their hips with a gathering band, like the upper part of our common trousers.[1153] This was to the end that, if they were to fall while they were busy killing their sacrifices, or in bearing burdens to and fro, those parts which shame bids us to cover, would not appear.

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Upon their linen breeches they had a close coat, made of double linen which (as Josephus says) was made of silk.[1154] That was plain, or close to the body, without plait or gathering, and it came down just to the calf of the leg. Such were what soldiers usually wore, and called cassocks.[1155] These were so fit for their limbs, and close to their bodies, that they were light, and allowed them either to run or fight. And therefore, making themselves ready for the ministry of God, the priests put on such a cassock that, notwithstanding being attractively clad, they might discharge their office, and exercise their ministry, with much expedition.

The third kind of raiment was a belt or girdle, which girded that cassock around the priest. This girdle was woven of purple, scarlet, and blue silk, like an adder's skin, hanging down beneath the knee, but in the holy ministry, it was tucked back upon the left shoulder.[1156]

The fourth kind of ornament was a mitre, or a little round cap, which covered his head almost to the ears; in fashion, it was as if a man had cut a bowl in half, and set the upper part upon his head.[1157]

Then there was the ephod. Mention of this is not made in Exodus, where the ceremonial garments are reckoned, as it were, by purpose; but it is made in other places of holy scripture. This garment was indifferently common to all the priests.[1158] This ephod is thought to have been a linen cloak, such as David wore when he danced before the ark. 2Sam 6.14 We read of the priests whom Saul had slain by the hands of Doeg the Edomite: "And he killed that same day eighty-five men who wore linen ephods." 1Sam 22.18 His meaning is not that they were slain while the ephods were on their backs; but that they were killed when they were of that age and order that they might wear an ephod — that is, that they might minister in the priesthood of the Lord.

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Therefore in Hosea we read, "You shall be without ephod and teraphim;" Hos 3.4 that is, without priesthood and religion. For the term ephod began to be used for the very priesthood; it was the garment or sign, for the thing signified. But if any man takes these words of Hosea to be spoken about the more notable ephod (of which I have cause to speak shortly), I will not greatly challenge him. Now this linen ephod seems not to differ much from that which the Papists call a surplice. The chief priest and under-priests used these five garments alike. The other four properly belong to the high priest alone.

The first of these four was called megil, and was a coat down to the ankles;[1159] a garment of all blue silk, from the neck down to the sole of the foot, being close on every side, except for the places at which to put his head and arms out. At the hems beneath hung seventy-two bells, and as many pomegranates, so placed that between two bells hung one pomegranate, and between two pomegranates hung one bell. The reason made for this, is that the sound might be heard when the high priest went into the holy of holies — because he might later die the death unless he did so.[1160]

Now follows the ephod of the high priest, which differs much from that which I spoke of before. For it was not made of linen, but woven with weaver's work of diverse colours of gold, purple, and silk. It was unlike the other in shape and making, for it belonged to the high priests alone. It was a breast-lap, coming over the bulk from the neck to the hips — for, like a curet,[1161] it covered the breast. It came over the back part of the shoulders, and around both sides under the arm-holes. It bore the same fashion that women's stomachers [1162] do today, which we Switzers call libli.[1163] This ephod was worn on top of his megil, and came down to the ankles.[1164]

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Upon each shoulder he bore an onyx-stone, called schoham;[1165] in which were graven the names of the children of Israel. Against the breast there was nothing woven in it, but a place was left void for the breast-lap of judgment. For the breast-lap of judgment, which is called hosen, was the eighth ornament of their attire; and it was a woven cloth made of gold, purple, and silk, about a hand-breadth square, doubled, and hemmed on every side, because it should not unravel. Woven in that were precious stones of wonderful greatness (for their kind) and marvellous price. These were placed in four sundry rows, so that every rank contained three stones. In these, as in the onyx-stones, were graven the names of the children of Israel.[1166] They glistered with a wonderful brightness; for no stones were set in the breast-lap except those which as shone exceedingly. By this it seems that Urim and Thummim was nothing but these rows of precious stones: for Urim and Thummim Exo 28.30 signify light and perfectness; for just as these stones gave great light, so they were pure and without any manner of spots. And they thought that the high priest never spoke rightly in a matter of weight, nor when asked, did he truly utter the answers and oracles of God, except when the breast-lap of judgment hung on his breast. Now this breast-lap of judgment was tied to the ephod, or the other breast-lap, by golden rings beneath; and above, it hung down the shoulders by golden chains, that were fastened under the onyx-stones. This was the most precious and excellent part of the high priest's apparel. For it was the coffer of wisdom, and treasury of all law and knowledge, of equity and justice. The Israelites fetched from this as it were, the determinate answers to those doubts which they stuck upon at any time. This is the reason (it seems) that some have translated Urim and Thummim into the Greek δήλωσιv καὶ ἀλήθεια; [1167] that is (they say), doctrine and truth are in the priest's breast.

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The last of all is the golden plate. For upon the high priest's head there was a blue silk lace, upon which this plate was put, which was broad beneath and sharp above. In fashion, it was somewhat like the label of a bishop's mitre, in which was written, "Holy to the Lord," or "The holiness of the Lord." For Christ our Lord, alone, is holiest of all, and the one who sanctifies us all. He that usurps that name or title is an antichrist. Some think that in that plate was written that name of God [1168] which was not lawful for any man to utter.[1169] This plate was tied to the cap,[1170] full upon the forehead, with a blue silk lace; and it was a crown upon his head, as it were.[1171] Thus, I say, were the high priest and under-priests arrayed at the start.

These sundry ceremonies have sundry and godly significations. The Lord declared by Moses that the use and end of these ordinances was to be for glory and comeliness' sake.[1172] For they were invented, partly for winning credit and authority for the ministers of religion, and partly for the commendation or advancement of religion itself — because the things that are most regarded, are set forth with such great solemnity. Moreover, it was profitable and especially necessary to set the people to work with these busy ceremonies. If they had been without such ceremonies of their own, they were profane, and ready to embrace the idolatrous rites of heathen nations.

Furthermore, those ceremonial clothes used by the priests, Aaron's successors, offer to us the beholding of Christ, who is the true and highest priest. He was apparelled with the garment of righteousness, temperance, and virtue, which garment is common to us also. For all Christians must put on and be clad with Christ. And yet Christ has pre-eminence, as the high and chief priest among us all — not only because he sanctifies us, and endues us with virtue; but also because he has certain properties peculiar to himself, such as being both God and the Saviour of the world.

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He bears us upon his breast and shoulders, as Aaron bore the precious stones: for we are not vile, but very dear in the sight of God. Out of the breast of our high priest, Christ, glisters and shines the light of eternal wisdom. For in him, as the treasury of God's eternal wisdom, are all the riches of knowledge and wisdom laid up and locked. He is the light of the world; he is both truth and perfectness; so that the whole world should by right, require and seek from Christ alone, its laws, ordinances, answers, and whatever else is needful to perfectness and true happiness. He is the Holy of holies, the very majesty and holiness of God. Upon his head the crown of glory is very rightly placed, as he alone sanctifies, reigns in glory, and lives forevermore.

Besides all this, the priests were taught by these ceremonies, to understand by their very apparel, what was required from their hands, and what kind of men they ought to be. Let the priests be always ready to execute their office; let them walk honestly before God and men; let them be temperate and far from lust and sensuality; let their loins be girded with the belt of justice and verity; let their breast, their sides and back, be furnished with the word of God; let their head be covered with the helmet of salvation — upon that let Christ Jesus, the Saviour, be placed; and let him be the chief of the ministers and of the ministry. But chiefly, let the priest be heard in the church. For if he is dumb, he shall die the death; but if he rings out the name of the Lord, and preaches his law, then he stirs up in the church a savour in the nose of God, far surpassing the smell of sweet pomegranates. Therefore, under these clothes is hidden the signification of the priests' manners, of their virtues and vices. Next after a man's talk, there is nothing that commends him sooner than his apparel. For as the man is, such is his talk, such is his clothing. Therefore, the raiment denotes what conversation the priest ought to have. Consequently, in the scriptures we are bid to put on other clothing — when the meaning of the Holy Ghost is that we should change our wicked conversation. So their very garments partly instruct the priests as to what they have to do, and what is seemly for them.

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But now the time and course of this treatise invites me to say something about the priests' office. Their office consisted in many things, but especially in teaching and instructing. For the chief reason why the priests were ordained by God, was to instruct the church in true piety, and to teach the people the law of God. For thus we read that the Lord said to Aaron: "You and your sons that are with you, shall drink neither wine nor strong drink when you enter into the tabernacle of witness, lest you die. Let it be an everlasting ordinance among your posterities, that you may differentiate between holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean; and that you may teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them by the ministry of Moses." Lev 10.10 Ezekiel almost repeats the same law in as many words in the forty-fourth chapter of his prophecy. And Malachi declares it also, as seen in the second chapter of his prophecy. Therefore, those who think that the Levitical priests were appointed only to kill the sacrifices, are utterly deceived. Moreover, the Lord everywhere in his laws ministers matter for the Levitical priests to instruct the people in; and that matter was not heathenish philosophy, the edicts of kings, or decrees of senators, but the very word of God, delivered to them by God himself. And that this doctrine might be more commodiously uttered to the people, the priests appointed certain holy days in which the people should assemble together, to hear them preach the word of God.

The next point of their duty,[1173] after teaching, was to bless the people. That blessing was not free for every priest to use as he wished, but was bound to a certain form of words, very solemnly uttered, as expressed in the sixth chapter of Numbers:

"And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, In this way you shall bless the children of Israel, and say to them: The Lord bless you and keep you: the Lord show his face to you, and be merciful to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace." Num 6.22-27

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They undoubtedly used this manner of blessing in their holy assemblies, especially at the breaking up of the congregation, when the people departed. In another place it is said that God blessed; but here it says that Aaron and his sons blessed the people. Upon this, we have to note that God works inwardly, and performs in the faithful, whatever the priests wished to the people in that form of blessing; so that, to bless is still the sole and proper work of God alone. And therefore, very significantly, after that solemn blessing uttered by the mouth of the priest, God adds: "And they shall call, or put, my name over, or upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them." The priests, therefore, lay before the people the name of the Lord; they commend to them the mighty power of his Godhead; and they show them that all goodness flows from God; they teach them how they may obtain it through faith in Christ, who is the blessed Seed that blesses all those who call upon his name.

Now, in this solemn blessing, six principal points are chiefly contained. First the priest says, "The Lord bless you:" that is, may the Lord bestow upon you whatever belongs to the safety of your body and soul. Secondly he says, "The Lord keep you;" for it is not sufficient to receive good things at the hand of the Lord, unless they are preserved by his power, and not taken from us by his wrathful indignation, nor lost again by our own negligence. Thirdly he says, "The Lord show you his face," or, "the Lord make his face shine upon you." The Lord, then, shows us his loving face when, after his anger, he shows us his favour, and becomes good and gracious to us. And therefore, in the fourth clause follows a plainer exposition, where the priest says, "The Lord be merciful to you:" as if he had said, The Lord always be gentle and favourable to you in all that you go about, either in words or deeds. The fifth blessing is, "The Lord lift up his countenance upon you." Now the Lord lifts up his countenance when he looks upon us, when he watches over us, and directs and guides our ways.

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The last desire is, "Peace;" which is taken for the salvation and chief goodness that happens to mankind, even though in another sense it is put contrary to war or battle — and the peace of the conscience is no small felicity to mortal men.[1174] These were the good things that the priests wished to light upon the people, teaching them by this, to beseech the Lord for those blessings with ardent prayers and earnest supplications. Even to this day, there remain the psalms that the priests made for the people's sake, to sing. For after David had brought music into the temple, then playing upon musical instruments with a sweet melody and the singing of psalms, begin to be taken as an office among the priests. The first book of Chronicles says very much touching this music used in the temple, where it treats David and his dealings, how he distributed the singers into twenty-four orders, and that was done by course. 1Chr 24

Moreover, the priests were commanded [1175] to minister the sacraments, and to sacrifice. For they circumcised the infants;[1176] their office was to see the Passover eaten, and to offer sacrifices of sundry sorts to the Lord. I will speak about this afterward, in a convenient place. And so that they might more commodiously offer their sacrifices, David, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, divided the two families of Eleazar and Ithamar into twenty-four orders: for they ministered by course, as seen in the twenty-fourth chapter of first Chronicles. All the while that their turn to minister lasted, the priests remained within, and never set foot outside the temple. For there were houses built within the temple for the priests to dwell in when their lot came to serve the Lord; they never went to their own houses until their course had expired, and their time to minister was fully finished. The priests also kept the holy vessels and cleaned them; they kept the candles burning, and the holy fire, so that it would not go out. To be short, they had charge of all things which seemed to belong to the service of God, such as oil, frankincense, and similar things.

Now before the temple was erected, and the Israelites had obtained a place to settle in the land of promise, the priests' office was to see the tabernacle pitched, and taken down again, and carried to and fro.

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For in the third chapter of Numbers, we read this: "The Levites shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation, and have charge of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle." For the tabernacle was so appointed, that when they journeyed it might be taken into many pieces.[1177] Therefore, when the Israelites were ready to remove their camp, Aaron and his sons came with the coverings appointed for the purpose, to wrap up and carry the holy vessels in. The Kohathites bore the ark, the table, the altar, and instruments belonging to it. The Gersonites had charge over the cords, the coverings, the hangings, the curtains, the veils, and ropes, belonging to the tabernacle. The Merarites bore the harder stuff that was made of wood and brass, such as the pillars, bars, stakes, and planks. Whoever desires to understand all of this more closely, let him read the third and fourth chapters of the book of Numbers. When the temple was built, there were porters and warders of the temple appointed among the Levites. The trumpets also, with which the congregation was called together, were in the Levites hands, [1178] as we read in the tenth chapter of Numbers. The priests also were appointed to be ready and serve in the wars, as seen in the twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy. For the Lord would not have the laws be hushed where armour clattered; for victories avail greatly to godliness and to the study of religion.

Beside this, the priests also had another office: that was to judge between cause and cause, between clean and unclean. Both of these are more largely declared in the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy, and in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Leviticus. As often as any difficult matter happened to arise among them, its hearing was brought to the mother city, Jerusalem.[1179] And if any man was suspected of being a leper, the Levitical priests judged of his disease according to the laws prescribed to them. So up to here, I have summarily laid down the offices of priesthood among the old people, reckoning up only the especial parts belonging to their service.

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Now, as those priests served the Israelite church, so they lived from the revenues of the church. For the Lord appointed them certain stipends and dwelling-places in the land of promise. For he assigned forty-eight cities for them to inhabit in the land of Israel, six of which were cities of refuge for men to flee to as sanctuaries. Moreover he commanded to lay out and appoint, for the sustenance of the priests' cattle and families, the suburbs and farms outside the walls of the cities, within a thousand cubits' compass on every side.[1180] In those cities were schools, so conveniently placed throughout all the land, that all men might easily go with very small pain from the places thereabout to the synagogues, to hear the word of God. In those cities, no sacrifice was made, for they were commanded to sacrifice in one place alone. And so, three times a year they went up to the temple to sacrifice to the Lord. But every sabbath-day the law was taught in every town where there were synagogues. Moreover, the rents belonging to the priests were great and ample, as seen in the eighteenth chapter of the book of Numbers, and in the last chapter of Leviticus. The wealth of the priests was enough and sufficient to maintain their families, and to live honestly. And those with that stipend did not give themselves to riot and idleness; but living moderately, they applied themselves to learning, and to teaching the people. This much up to here touching the persons belonging to the ministry of holy religion.

And because by law they could not sacrifice except in one place alone, a certain place was appointed to the people, in which (as in a holy shop) the priests would exercise their holy ministry in sacrificing to the Lord. And therefore, the very order and course of this argument now requires that I say something touching that holy place.

That place in the beginning was the tabernacle built by Moses; and afterward it was the temple which Solomon made. The law which forbade them to sacrifice anywhere but in that one place alone, unless it was by dispensation, is extant in the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy, and in the seventeenth chapter of Leviticus. And that place contains the mystery of Christ, who was offered up but once, and in one place, to cleanse the sins of the world. I will speak of him somewhat more later.

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Now that tabernacle, or tent was called the tabernacle of appointment,[1181] because the Lord appointed it both to give answers in it, and to have his lawful worship duly accomplished in it. It was appointed to the people in place of a temple, so long as they wandered and dwelt in the wilderness. For insomuch as they wandered forty years in the desert, it was not convenient for them to have a settled temple, but such a one as they might carry to and fro in their journeys, as often as they moved. That tabernacle was erected in this order, and in its manner, it was of the following form and fashion. First of all, silver sockets were stuck into the earth, close to the ground, to fasten in and set boards upon, with which to make a wall. Under every plank, or board, were two sockets. For every board had two tenons, like pikes, by which they were stuck into the sockets.

The boards on either side of the tabernacle, north and south, were twenty in number. At the upper end, which was toward the west, were ten boards, or planks, all overlaid with gold, and ten cubits high apiece. These, when they were set up, were stuck or fastened into the sockets. On the back sides, those boards had golden rings, through which were thrust bars of sittim wood (which is thought to be white-thorn). Exo 26.15-29 This was partly to join the boards close together, so that they might be like a wall without chink or crevice; and partly, it was to make them stand steadfast without wagging to and fro. The sanctum on the east side was closed with a veil. Exo 26.31-33 Moreover, ten curtains, or hangings, were made of broidered work,[1182] which were coupled together with loops or taches.[1183] These curtains were laid on top of the boards that were set upright, as if it had been the rafter or roof of a house. Over these, curtains were three coverings more, the uppermost of which was made of taxus leather,[1184] well able to keep water out in rain.

Now the tabernacle was thirty cubits in length, and ten cubits in breadth; as may be gathered by the measure of the boards. Exo 26.1-14 It was also divided into three parts: the first was called sanctum sanctorum, holy of holies, and adytum aedis (the house into which no man came but the high priest alone), or the chancel [1185] of the temple.

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The second was the sanctum, whose length was twenty cubits, as the length of the first was ten. The third part was called atrium, the court, which was a hundred cubits in length, and fifty in breadth. This atrium was compassed about with fifty-three pillars, that were fastened down into brazen sockets. These were five cubits in height; on these hung net-works, through which a man might easily see. At the very entry, a veil twenty cubits long was hung on four pillars. The sanctum sanctorum was divided from the sanctum by the most precious veil, hung on four pillars of silver. And the sanctum was severed from the atrium with the second veil, which was very precious; it hung upon five pillars overlaid with gold. In the midst of the atrium stood the inner house, by which I mean the tabernacle. That was divided (as I just said) into the sanctum and the sanctum sanctorum.

Into the sanctum sanctorum no man entered but the high priest only, once in a year. In this was laid the ark of the covenant of our Lord, between the cherubim. Some (based on the apostle's words) add the golden censer to this (Heb 9.4). But others think that Qumiathrion (Thumiaterion) meant the incense altar, and not the censer. It would seem thereby (if these fellows are not deceived), that at the time when the apostle wrote, the golden altar did stand within the veil in the sanctum sanctorum. But it is manifest by the fortieth chapter of Exodus, (as I mean to show you shortly,) that the golden altar from the beginning was placed in the sanctum before the veil. And this agrees with what may be gathered out of the first chapter of St. Luke.[1186] But however it was, this is sure: that the ark of the covenant was not seen by any mortal man, except the high priest alone, when he offered incense in the sanctum sanctorum, once in a year. For it was hidden with the first veil; the staves with which it was borne appeared a little within the Sanctum by holding up the veil, which was somewhat pushed out by the ends of the staves. Thus, whoever stood anywhere near the sanctum might easily discern it; but someone that stood farther off could hardly perceive it. For in the eighth chapter of the third book of Kings you read: "And they drew out the staves, that the ends of them might appear out of the sanctum sanctorum into the sanctum, but they were not seen from without." 1Kng 8.8

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The sanctum was open daily for the priests, who of course supplied the place of ministry before the Lord. In the sanctum, before the veil, the golden table was placed on the north side, furnished with showbread.[1187] Right opposite, on the south side, was set the golden candlestick. Now, in the middle between [1188] those two, before the veil and the ark, stood the golden altar, called the altar of incense, which was consecrated for burning sweet perfumes. And in the atrium, not very far from the second veil of the sanctum, appeared the altar of burnt-offerings; and between the altar and the veil was put the laver, out of which the priests washed themselves when they set about their ministry. All the people who came to the sacrifice, might easily on every side, see the altar. And this was the setup of the holy tabernacle, which was in place of a temple for the Israelites. Touching this, whoever looks in the twenty-sixth, twenty-seventh, thirty-sixth, thirty-eighth, and fortieth chapters of Exodus, may read more largely and fully about it.

Now, what I have said up to here touching the building of the tabernacle, has a very good end to be applied; and it contains and comprehends no obscure signification. For first of all, it was profitable to nourish and maintain the unity of the catholic faith. For with that one tabernacle, as with a sure bond, the Israelites were tied first to God and his religion, and then to one another — sundry members were compacted and knit into one body as it were. For the whole people was gathered to that tabernacle, as to one parish-church, to worship and pray to one God and Lord. And because the children of Israel dwelled in tabernacles, it pleased the Lord to also have a tabernacle built for himself, and placed in the midst of them. Thereby he might testify that he dwells in the midst of his people. The tabernacle therefore being the palace of God as it were, the most high and mighty king stood in the midst of the people as a testimony of his divine presence, to strike the fear and reverence of God into the hearts of all his subjects.

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We men lay up in our tabernacles, or houses, the things that we have; and we will be sought and inquired after at our houses. Therefore, the Lord placed in the tabernacle the holy things — as it were his treasure. And He would be inquired after in the tabernacle, promising that there he would hear the prayers and requests of all the faithful who called upon his name.

Moreover, in those ceremonies are contained the secret mysteries of Christ and his church. For Paul calls us the temple of God, and our bodies the tabernacle of the Lord: for the Lord dwells in us. The boards of the tabernacle are the rafters, beams, and pillars of the church as it were. And the church has her pillars, which are doctors and other excellent men inspired with the Holy Ghost.[1189] And each faithful man is a board overlaid with gold, if he keeps sincerity, and remains in the unity of the faith. The boards of the tabernacle were joined together with bars: and so must sound doctrine keep all the faithful (which are the boards of the mystical tabernacle) in their duty and quiet concord, without crack or crevice. The curtains, though they were many, yet were they knit together with golden loops, as if they had all been but one piece: and therefore the sundry members of the church must be gathered together, and be knit together in one by charity, that they may be one among themselves, and as it were, a roof of righteousness in the church of God. The coverings of the church, to keep out storms, are faith, repentance, and the desire to do good. Christ himself is the socket of it; "for no other foundation can be laid than what is already laid, even Christ Jesus." 1Cor 3.11 Moreover, the veil that was spread before the sanctum sanctorum signifies, as the apostle [1190] says, that the way of the saints, by which they had to go in, was not as yet made manifest, so long as the first tabernacle stood. Therefore, when Christ had come, and had finished all with his death, then the veil that hung in the temple was rent from the top to the very ground.

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By this, all men might understand that the way was opened into the sanctum sanctorum, that is, into the very heavens; and that satisfaction was made for all men in respect to the law.[1191] In the tabernacle also hung other veils, which were as shadows of the flesh [1192] of Christ. Those veils hung at the very entry into the sanctum and the atrium. Now Christ, our Lord, is the way and the door, by whose incarnation and death we have an entry made into the kingdom of God. Yes, Christ himself is our tabernacle in whom we dwell and live, and in whom we worship and please our God; he is the curtain and ceiling, the rafter and ornament of his church; he is the trusty and most assured covering that defends us from the injuries of man and the devil; he is the bar of the church, which joins its members together, and keeps them in the unity of faith.[1193] He is the pillar and socket of his church; he is the head,[1194] and only all-in-all both of our life and true salvation. Hidden in those figures, therefore, those of old had the chief mysteries about Christ and the church. Christ is not now to be beheld other than he was beheld in the beginning of the world by the ancient patriarchs; namely: as very God and very man, the only and highest king and priest, the true Saviour of the world, in whom and by whom alone the faithful have their whole salvation.

To proceed now: this tabernacle, by the Lord's appointment, was erected in Shiloh, as soon as they came into the land of promise, and it continued there until the time of Eli; as is evident in the eighteenth chapter of Joshua, and first and third chapters of first Samuel. Under Eli, the ark was taken by the Philistines and carried into Palestine;[1195] from there it was restored again, and placed in Beth Shemesh; from there again to Kiriath-jearim, into the house of Abinadab in Gibeah, that is, on the hill; for his house was set on a high place. For in the sixth chapter of the second book of Samuel we read: "David went with all the people to Baale Judah (which in the fifteenth chapter of Joshua is called Kiriath-jearim), to fetch from there the ark of God."

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And shortly after; "And they fetched it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah," that is, on the hill. For there was a high place in Kiriath-jearim, in which Abinadab dwelt. Some others, who take Gabea for the proper name of the town,[1196] say that the ark was transported from Palestine into Gabea. But this is sure, the ark was conveyed from the house of Abinadab into the house of Obed-edom, and from there into the city of David, that is, into Zion. For so the city of David is expounded in the eighth chapter of the third book of Kings.[1197]

In Zion, David pitched a new tabernacle for the ark of God, in which he placed it; and he appointed priests to minister there before the Lord, as it is described at large in the sixteenth chapter of the first book of Chronicles. And yet, in building that new tabernacle, David did not neglect the old tabernacle of appointment. For after the time of Eli, and the taking of the ark by the Philistines, it seems that it was transported diversely from place to place. Shiloh, in which it was first placed, was desolate, as seen in Psalm seventy-eight and the seventh chapter of Jeremiah. Therefore, when Saul reigned, it appears to have been pitched in Gilgal, where he offered peace-offerings as a sign of thanksgiving to the Lord for the victory against the Ammonites, as seen in the eleventh chapter of the first book of Samuel. In the twenty-first chapter of the same book, it is apparent that the tabernacle was in Nob for a time (a town not very far from Jerusalem, Isaiah 10). That is where Ahimelech, the priest, gave David the fresh showbread that was taken from the golden table. In the time when David reigned, the tabernacle was erected in Gibeon, a city of the Benjamites: for in the twenty-first chapter of first Chronicles we read: "The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offerings, was at that time (when the angel appeared to David with a sword ready drawn) in the hill of Gibeon." [1198] It was also in that place during the reign of Solomon, and he went to that hill to pray to the Lord before the temple was built.

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For in the first chapter of the second book of Chronicles we find: "And Solomon, with all the congregation, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for there was the tabernacle of God's appointment, which Moses the servant of the Lord made in the wilderness. But the ark of God David had brought from Kiriath-jearim into the place which David had prepared for it: for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem. Moreover, the brazen altar that Bezalel the son of Uri had made, was there before the tabernacle of the Lord: and Solomon and the congregation went to visit it." Therefore, though we read in the third chapter of the third book of Kings, "Solomon loved the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places:" that is not spoken in dispraise, but in praise of Solomon, as one who did not risk sacrificing in every place, but in the high places — namely, upon that consecrated altar which was appointed by the Lord, of which I just spoke before. There are others who think that Solomon was not simply blamed in these words for offering on the altar of burnt-offerings (for that was altogether lawful), but because he had deferred till then the building of the temple. But what goes before and follows, greatly tend towards those words being spoken in that sense and signification which I first alleged. The same Solomon, when the temple was built, commanded and saw that the old ark, with all the instruments belonging to it, were brought by the priests as a precious treasure from Gibeon, and placed in the temple which he had built for that purpose. The holy scripture bears witness to this: "And they brought the ark of the Lord, and the tabernacle of appointment, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle — the priests and Levites, I say, brought them into the temple" — the third book of Kings, eighth chapter, and the second book of Chronicles, fifth chapter.[1199] And so the tabernacle of the Lord, which stood four hundred and seventy-eight years,[1200] was abrogated at the end, and the temple was erected in its place.

Touching the temple of the Lord, which was prepared by David, but built and finished by Solomon, I need not use many words in its description, because it is very busily set down in the third book of Kings and second book of Chronicles, and painted out in full.

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The place where the temple was afterward built, is reported to have been shown to David by the angel of the Lord; and David first sacrificed there to the Lord, adding these words: "This is the house of the Lord God, and this altar is for the sacrifice of Israel." 1Chr 22.1 It is as if he had said: This plat of ground is appointed for the temple; in this piece of land the house of the Lord shall be built; yes, here shall be offered that only and effectual [1201] sacrifice for all men, the very Son of God, Christ Jesus incarnate. For all the interpreters of the holy scriptures agree that the place where Abraham had once offered his son Isaac, was at Jerusalem, on mount Moriah; and they agree that the temple was erected in that appointed or fatal place; and that the hill Golgotha, or Calvary, was not far off, but at the very top of mount Moriah. This was the place and holy hill in which the holy gospel testifies that Christ was offered for the sins of the whole world. This was prefigured in a type of the ancient sacrifices and other ceremonies belonging to the temple.[1202] The use and end of the temple was none other than the use and end of the tabernacle before.

Jeroboam and the kings of Israel therefore sinned most grievously, when they forsook the temple to make sacrifices in the high places, in their cathedral churches at Bethel and at Dan, and in other high and pleasant places. The people of Judah with their kings sinned most grievously, either for sacrificing to God in the high places, or else because they did not utterly cut down those high places. For the Lord's will was to be worshipped in one place, which he had chosen for himself. The plain law touching that matter is found in the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy, and expressly set down in the seventeenth chapter of Leviticus in these words:

"Whoever of the house of Israel kills an ox, or a sheep, or a goat, inside the camp or outside the camp [namely: as a sacrifice to the Lord — for otherwise they might lawfully kill a beast for their sustenance in any place whatsoever], and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer his sacrifice before the dwelling-place of the Lord; blood shall be imputed to that man, as if he had shed blood.

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Therefore, when the children of Israel bring their offerings, let them bring them to the Lord before the door of the tabernacle of appointment, to the priest, that he may offer them. And let them no longer offer their offerings to devils, after whom they have gone a-whoring. This shall be an ordinance to them forever in their generations. And he that does not do this, shall be rooted out from among his people." Lev 17.3-4

There are three things to be noted in these words: first, that it was not lawful to sacrifice except in that one place only, which was before the altar of burnt-offerings. Secondly we have to mark that this commandment was given to the end that all men should understand that the sacrifice was made to God, to whom the tabernacle belonged. Thirdly, that to offer a sacrifice outside the place, against God's commandment, was to make a sacrifice to the devil — that the offerer was to be judged a murderer; and that he was excommunicated by the Lord God, as excluded from the company of God and his holy saints. But though Samuel, Elijah, and certain other patriarchs, by God's sufferance, made sacrifices upon some special causes in other places, and not before the altar in the tabernacle, they did it by dispensation.

Therefore, those who sacrifice in high places, not to strange gods only, but even to the very true God, sinned first of all by disobedience: for God disapproves, indeed, he curses, all the worship done to him which we ourselves first invent without the warrant of his word — it is faithful obedience that pleases Him best. Secondly, they sinned by making a schism in the unity of the ecclesiastical body. Thirdly, for despising the mystery of Christ that was to be offered at mount Golgotha; and for not referring the meaning of their sacrifices to Christ, the only truth of all their typical ceremonies. Lastly, they sinned by trusting in their sacrifices, as in well-wrought works, unto justification; and by neglecting the worship of God, and changing it into trifles of their own inventions.

The temple stood four hundred and forty years, from the time that Solomon first built it until the first destruction of it under king Zedekiah.[1203]

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And from its reparation of it to the utter overthrow [1204] under Vespasian, it stood five hundred and eighty-two years.[1205] There are others who reckon it otherwise. Thus, I have spoken a little up to here, of a great deal that concerns the temple.

Now it remains for me to touch and lightly review [1206] the holy instruments belonging to the tabernacle and temple of the Lord. Among these, the ark of the covenant was chief. Deu 31.26 The ark was so called because of the tablets of the covenant that were put in it. It was also called the ark of the Lord God of hosts, who dwells upon it between the cherubim; and by that means, the Lord himself was called by this name: "he that sits between the cherubim," because from there he gave answers to his servants, and he had placed the ark in the midst of his people to be a sign that his presence was always among them.

I will say nothing here, touching the stuff of which, and the form in which, the ark was made. For the matter and fashion are, in their colours, painted very lively in the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus. I will now say something about the meaning, mystery, and use of the ark. We men lay up in our coffers and chests, the treasures that we set most store by. And therefore we understand that in the ark was laid the treasure of the church, and all the substance of which the faithful took most account. We must not therefore seek these things in men: not in Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, St. Mary, John, Peter, or Paul; much less in the Romish indulgentiary.[1207] But we seek our treasure in the one in whom all fulness dwells, and in whom all the treasures of God's wisdom and knowledge are heaped up in store; the one who is not seen here on the earth, but in the sanctum sanctorum, in heaven above, I say. And he is called Jesus Christ — whose divinity is figured by the purest gold, and his humanity by the sittim-wood, that is, of cedar, or rather, white-thorn.

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For he took flesh upon himself, in all points like our sinful flesh — the very flesh that we have, except that it was not sinful.[1208] Out of this ark, the faithful fetch all good and necessary things for the use of their life and eternal salvation. For we read that the TABLETS of the covenant, the pot of MANNA, and Aaron's ROD that budded there, were laid in the ark. For we heard that in Christ were hidden the jewels of the church. Christ is our wisdom, the word [1209] of the Father, and the fulfilling of the law. He is just himself, and he is our righteousness also. In Christ is the heavenly food: for he is the bread of life that came down from heaven, to the end that everyone who eats of it may live eternally. In Christ the priesthood budded again: it seemed at the death of Christ upon the cross, truly to have been cut down for growing anymore. But at his resurrection, it budded again; and he took the everlasting priesthood that will never be ended. For even now, as he stands at the right hand of the Father in heaven, he makes intercession to Him for us. Moreover, the ark was compassed with a crown, because Christ our Lord is a king who delivers us, his faithful servants, from all evil, and makes us the sons of God.

We read that upon the ark was placed the MERCY-SEAT, which was either the cover of the ark, or else a seat set upon the ark. As the apostles John and Paul interpret it,[1210], it prefigured Christ our Lord, who is the throne of grace, and the propitiation for our sins — not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. Out of the propitiatory, or mercy-seat, were also uttered the oracles and answers of God. For we read in the holy scripture, that the use of the mercy-seat had been this: that Moses, entering into the tabernacle, received at the mercy-seat the answers and commandments of God, which he declared to the people. Exo 25.21-22 And Christ alone is the one whom we are to hear, the one by whom our heavenly Father declares his will to us, saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear him." Mat 17.5

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TWO CHERUBIM have their faces turned toward the mercy-seat, and they look toward one another. St. Peter says of this, that "the angels desire to behold" 1Pet 1.12 the Saviour of the world, who is declared in the gospel. The same angels always serve our Lord and Master — and are ready at his beckoning — as the one who is Lord over all. Now, none carried the ark of the Lord except the priests alone. For only those who are anointed by the Holy Ghost, and endued with true faith, receive Christ and are made partakers of his heavenly gifts. Neither must we wink at and let pass the note given in the fourth and fifth chapters of the first book of Samuel. There it is said that, for abusing the ark and turning it to another use than that for which it was given, and for attributing to it more than the scripture willed, the Israelites were slain by the Philistines, and the ark was carried into captivity. This was to the end that all men might learn by it, not to attribute more to the sacraments and mysteries of God than is convenient;[1211] and not to apply them to any use other than that for which the Lord has ordained them. For the ark was not ordained to be taken for God, even though it bore the name of God;[1212] nor was it made to the end that they should look for grace and help to proceed from it, as we read they did. But it was given to them as a token that God, their confederate, was in the midst of his people, so long as they kept the tablets of the covenant that were enclosed in the ark, and clung to God alone, at whose hands they should look for all good things through Christ, his Son, who was prefigured by the ark.

Next to the adytum, or sanctum sanctorum, in the sanctum, stood the GOLDEN TABLE, the matter and fashion of which is declared in the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus. Upon the table we men set our food and sustenance; by the table we are refreshed; and at the table we forget our cares, and are merry and jocund.

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Therefore, the table can be none other than Christ our Lord, and Christian doctrine: for Christ is the sustenance of our life; he is the joy and mirth of the faithful. The table was made of gold without, and all wood within, because Christ, our table,[1213] is both God and man. The table [which is the type of Christian doctrine] [1214] is set out in the church. Therefore, it is not to be sought at Athens, among the sophisters, nor among the Gymnosophists of India,[1215] nor in the Jewish synagogues. On the table are set twelve new loaves, divided into two parts. For the bread of life, which is new and sweet, feeds and fills both the Jews and the Gentiles. Moreover, that bread was holy and not profane, and none might eat it but the priests alone. In like manner, only the faithful are worthy of Christ, the bread of life, and only those who believe may receive it.

The loaves were called SHOWBREAD, or the bread of sight;[1216] by this is meant that the bread of life [which is Christian doctrine] should always be in sight before our eyes. And just as those loaves were always to be set before the Lord in the sight of all men; so must the doctrine of Christ not be secretly hidden, but openly shown to all people. A vessel with frankincense was set upon the showbread, because those who eat the heavenly bread offer prayers and thanksgivings to God without intermission — these are as sweet to God as frankincense. In the twenty-fourth chapter of Leviticus it is declared at large in what way the showbread is prepared.

The GOLDEN CANDLESTICK is in the sanctum; it stands before the veil on one side, or over against the table. We have the description of it in the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus. Candles are set up in our common houses to give light to all those in the house. And Christ our Lord has come as a light into the world, that whoever follows him should get the light of life. Joh 8.12

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Out of Christ proceed, and upon Christ stick, other noses of candlesticks, which have their light from Christ, the chief candlestick. For the Lord said to the apostles, "You are the light of the world." So then, Christ is the shank or shaft of the candlestick, upon which shank many snuffs or noses stick,[1217] which hold the light up to the church.[1218] for whatever light is in the ministers of the church, they have it all from Christ, who is the head of light, and very light itself. The candlestick is wholly of gold. And Christ is very God indeed, the light and wisdom of the Father: and the ministers of Christ must be sincere and thoroughly extinguished from all affections of the flesh: and to that end belongs the use of the snuffers that pertained to the candlestick.

In the middle, between the table and the candlestick, before the veil, in the sanctum, stood the golden ALTAR OF INCENSE, which is exactly painted out in the thirtieth chapter of Exodus. That altar was ordained for two uses. First, incense or perfume was offered on it every day, which it was not lawful to prepare or offer to any other god or creature. That was done twice every day, at morning and at evening. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, was in that ministry when he saw the angel, and for unbelief's sake he was made dumb for a season. Luk 1.9-20 Secondly, incense was offered on that altar in a certain solemn manner once a year at the feast of cleansing, as declared in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus.

Now, INCENSE or perfume is understood to mean the prayers of the faithful, as David witnesses where he says: "Let my prayer be set forth in your sight as the incense; and let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice." Psa 141.2 Now there was but one incense altar alone. Whoever built any more was condemned of blasphemous wickedness. That sole altar prefigured Christ our Lord, both God and man, the mediator and intercessor between God and man, by whom the saints offer all their prayers to God, their Lord and heavenly Father.

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Many altars are built, therefore, by those who choose creatures to be their intercessors, by whose mediation they desire to obtain what they lack from the hands of God. In the end of the thirtieth chapter it is expressly said: "Whoever makes incense like it, to smell it, shall perish from among his people." Exo 30.38 Therefore, the faithful church of Christ offers her prayers to God the Father through Christ alone. This altar of which we speak, was bound about with a crown of gold: for Christ, our Lord and altar, is a very king and priest, and wears the crown of glory. Now we must pray at morning and evening, that is, continually and very earnestly. And we must always pray in and through the name of Christ. And it is Christ alone through whom God has been pleased with the prayers of those who have prayed in the morning, that is, at the beginning of the world; and is today pleased with those who pray to him at evening, that is, at the end and last days of the world. Therefore, those who offered incense in the high places everywhere, sinned most grievously against the Lord. For just as they were rebellious and disobedient to God, preferring their own inventions before the laws of God (which they neglected), so they despised the mystery of Christ, the only mediator, in departing from that sole altar.

In the court or atrium, stood another altar which was called the BRAZEN ALTAR, or the altar of burnt-offerings, which is finely described in the twenty-seventh chapter of Exodus. This also was one of a kind. For it was not lawful for any religious man to sacrifice in any other place, except in the holy place where this altar was located, unless by some singular dispensation. Therefore, when the Reubenites with their confederates had built an altar by the banks of Jordan, and its fame was brought to the ears of the other tribes of Israel, they all agreed with one consent, that the crime was to be punished with open war. Jos 22.10f From this we may gather again the greatness of their fault in neglecting that altar, and offering sacrifices in the high places, of which I spoke before.

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Now, our sole and catholic altar is Jesus Christ, who offered himself a living sacrifice for us to God. Nor is there any sacrifice in the whole world that can cleanse sin, except that one alone. Nor do any sacrifices of the faithful please the Father, except those that by faith are offered upon the altar, Jesus Christ. For Christ sanctifies us; and being sanctified, we offer by him the sacrifice that he well accepts. I have taken this from the apostle's doctrine in the thirteenth chapter to the Hebrews, and the twelfth chapter to the Romans.

The last of the holy vessels was the BRAZEN LAVER, which was placed in the atrium, between the veil of the sanctum and the altar of burnt-offerings. It is described in the fortieth chapter of Exodus. Exo 40.30 In it was contained the water with which the priests, who ministered before the Lord, washed themselves. By that laver Christ was signified, which is the washing of the faithful. And by it was meant that holy things were not to be handled with unwashed hands and feet. Those who are purified by the Holy Ghost, and made fit for the ministry by the grace of God, wash themselves. But those who are not partakers of the grace of life, are in danger of death.

Other instruments beside these are also reckoned among those belonging to the tabernacle. But in a way, these are chief. I thought it not good, by busily beating out every particular, to repeat every small thing, lest by too long a treatise I should be too tedious for your patience.

Now, the same holy vessels that were in the tabernacle, were also in the temple; except that in Solomon's temple, there was far more show and pomp than in the tabernacle. For no other cause, undoubtedly, than to have the mysteries of Christ and of the church increase more and more every day in the sight of the world. Christ, the true Solomon and king of peace and tranquility, the very eternal felicity itself, has raised up in this world a church for himself, which stretches to the ends of the world; the prophets have spoken very largely of this — Zechariah especially, and the famous prophet Nathan, second Samuel, chapter seven. This much up to here, about the holy place.

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After the holy place in the sacred ceremonies, next to be handled is the holy time. For just as a certain place was given to outward religion, so also an appointed time was assigned to it. Holy days are to be employed for holy actions. For actions are either those which we call handiworks, invented to get victuals, clothing, and other things necessary for the use of our bodies; or else they are holy or religious, which are done for the exercise of outward religion. We must not consume all our time in handiworks and secular business; nor can we bestow all our time on outward religion. But those actions are not without time: for every action is contained in time. Therefore, God has divided the time into sundry parts for sundry actions. Thus he would have some working days, to serve for handy actions; and other holy days for the exercise of outward religion. It is not that working days are not holy and dedicated to the Lord (for he claims all days and times fir himself, and he would be worshipped in heart at all seasons). But holy days are singularly, and more precisely, consecrated to the outward worship of God, than working days are.

Therefore, the festival or holy day which is holy to the Lord by God's appointment, was kept for the devout exercise of God's outward worship. Thus, those days are not holy, nor are those feasts lawful, which are not held to the one and only God, Jehovah. Nor are those holy days lawful, in which the lawful service of God is not lawfully exercised. And for those reasons, in the prophets, the sabbaths and festival-days of the Israelites are many times rejected, because they were unlawfully solemnized, without pure faith and sincere affections.

Now all holy days had one common name, though they were called sabbaths, feasts, holy days, meetings, and assemblies. All holy days, by whatever name they were called, were ordained to God alone, not to creatures, not for surfeiting and wanton chambering.[1219] All holy days were invented for the health, profit, and recreation of mankind. For holy days are no burden, but for the easing of our burdens. Secular works, I confess, are profitable; but ease is also necessary. For without rest, labour cannot continue.

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The Lord's will, therefore, is to give man a time of recreation, and He bids his servants to be merry on the holy days in holiness and modesty; so that their ease may be an honest recreation, and not a reproachful sensuality. Again, ease is not good of itself, but it is good in respect to another thing. God bids us to cease from work, yet he sets us to work another way; he wills us to cease from bodily labour, and begin to work in the heart and mind, and wholly apply ourselves to his holy service. Therefore it is needful to have holy assemblies, the reading of the holy scriptures, public prayers, sacrifices (for what they ought to offer at every feast and holy day is prescribed in the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth chapters of Numbers), the celebration of the sacraments, and whatever else the Lord has commanded to be done at festival-days and solemn seasons. For one thing especially is required here, which Mary found as she sat at the feet of Jesus, and heard his word. Luk 10.39,42 Moreover, all feasts generally contain the memory, and put us in remembrance, of notable things: every feast according to the name. The sabbath did put them in mind of God's good benefit in creating the world for our benefit and profit. It was also, as Moses witnesses (Exodus 31.13), a sign of the true sanctification which God alone bestows upon the people who call upon his name. The other holy days beat into them the memory of the other benefits that God had shown them, and had their several significations (as I will shortly declare).

Now there was a certain measure and number of holy days, which were distinguished and very wisely ordered: first into seven-nights, in which the seventh day was a sabbath: then into months; for the first day of every month was holy to the Lord, and was called the feast of the new moon: and lastly, they were divided into yearly feasts, which returned once every year at an appointed season. There were three such yearly feasts: the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles.[1220] Besides these, other days were made holy days also. God had not commanded these, but they were received by the church to the glory of God in remembrance of his great benefits.

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For the feast of lots, which they called Purim, and was brought in by Mordecai, was received by the whole church, as seen in the ninth chapter of Esther. The feast of dedication was ordained by Judas Maccabeus, with the consent of the whole church, in memory that the temple was restored and the people delivered from the tyranny of king Antiochus, as we read in the fourth chapter of the first book of Maccabees. And Christ our Lord honoured that feast of dedication with a holy sermon. Joh 10.22f Moreover, there were solemn fastings appointed to be kept among the people of God: as in the fifth month, in which the city was set on fire; in the seventh month, in which Gedaliah [1221] was slain; and in the tenth month, in which Jerusalem was besieged. The prophet Zechariah speaks of these fastings in his seventh and eighth chapters. And in the time of Esther, a fast was ordained in the month Adar, as a remembrance of the calamity which was wrought, or rather purposed, against the Jews by the wicked Haman. Est 9.20

I spoke a little about the SABBATH and its signification above, and in another place also, where I expounded the Ten Commandments.[1222] The sabbath was observed by a natural and divine law from the first creation of the world, and it is the chief of all other holy days. For it was not first ordained by Moses, when the Ten Commandments were given by God from heaven. Rather, keeping the sabbath was received by the saints from the beginning of the world. And therefore we read what the Lord said in the commandments: "Remember that you keep the sabbath-day holy." Before the law was given, there is evident mention made of the sabbath in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus,Exo 16.23 and the second chapter of Genesis. Gen 2.3

The second kind of holy days were the NEW MOON, solemnized at the beginning of every month. Mention is made of it in the 10th and 28th chapters of the book of Numbers, 1Samuel 20, Psalm 81, Ezekiel 46, and 2Chronicles 2.

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That solemnization is reported to have been ordained in remembrance of the light created; to admonish the people not to ascribe the months to Janus or Mars, or any other planet, but to the one and only God, the maker, governor, and ruler of all things and seasons. Moreover, it was a sign of the reparation or renewing of faithful minds by the heavenly illumination. We Christians may truly and indeed solemnize the new moon when being brought out of darkness into the light by the Son of God, we walk as becomes the children of light, and we reject the works of the devil and of darkness.

The third kind of holy days were the YEARLY FEASTS that return once every year; of which I find three: the Passover, the Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Now, the Lord's will was that in these three feasts, there should be general assemblies and solemn meetings in the holy place: namely, at the tabernacle, and after the tabernacle, at Solomon's temple. For thus says Moses in Deuteronomy:

"Three times a year, every male shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which he has chosen; that is, in the feast of sweetbread,[1223] in the feast of weeks, and in the Feast of Tabernacles. Nor shall he appear empty-handed in the sight of the Lord: every one according to the gift of his hand, and according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given you." Deu 16.16-17

That is to say, every man shall offer to the Lord what he can, according to the measure of riches which the Lord has given him. Now those three solemn feasts were divided into three separate months, most apt to journey and travel in. In the spring time the Passover was held, when the corn first began to spindle,[1224] or turn into ears. About harvest time, when the first work belonging to husbandry was done and finished, they kept the feast of Pentecost. And lastly, when all their fruits were in, they went up to the Feast of Tabernacles. As many went to it as could possibly go. Some are of the opinion that those who appeared once a year before the Lord, were dispensed with, and they might lawfully tarry at home at the other two feast-times.

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But I think truly that religious men seldom used such dispensations. In one place, the Lord promises that he will defend and keep the bounds and substance of those who travel to seek his name. However those dispensations may have been admitted, this is most sure (as appears by all histories): that at those feasts were very great assemblies.

Now the feast of Passover was called by many names,[1225] but it was especially termed the feast of sweet or unleavened bread: for they fed on unleavened bread for the span of seven whole days. The ceremonies of that feast, with the sacrifices that were to be offered there, are described at large in the twelfth chapter of Exodus, and the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus. In that feast the paschal lamb was eaten, in no other place than at the tabernacle, or afterward at the temple (Deu 16), as a remembrance of that notable deliverance of Israel and all the faithful out of Egyptian servitude and slavery. In that feast, God would have the first-fruits of their land offered to him, in token of the manna with which he fed their fathers. Moreover, that feast signified the passing over and delivering of the faithful, which was accomplished by Christ in the shedding of blood. Whereupon the apostle said, "Christ our Passover is offered up." 1Cor 5.7. But I will speak more of the Passover in my next sermon.

The Pentecost was also called the feast of weeks, and new corn; Exo 34.22 for showbread was set out at that feast, made from the new year's corn.[1226] They reckoned seven weeks from the next day after the Passover, that is, fifty days; and upon the fiftieth day they celebrated the memory of the law of God, revealed and given by God himself from heaven to his people Israel. For on the fiftieth day of their departure out of Egypt, we read that the Lord himself spoke to them at mount Sinai, and gave them the law of the ten commandments. Thus Pentecost was a memorial that, just as then, the church was illuminated with the very word of God. The old Pentecost was a figure of the day in which Christ the Lord, being the end of the law, sent the Holy Ghost upon his disciples, and illuminated his spouse the church.

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The ceremonies belonging to this feast are expressed by Moses in the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus. They kept the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month, as Moses commanded in Deuteronomy, saying:

"When you have gathered in the crop of your land and vineyards,[1227] then you shall keep the Feast of Tabernacles for the span of seven days: and you shall be merry in your holy day, you and your son, and your daughter, your manservant, and your maidservant, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, all that are within your gates. Seven days you shall keep holy to the Lord your God, in the place which the Lord has chosen for himself; because the Lord your God has given you happy success in all your fruits, and in all the work of your hands. See therefore that you rejoice."

Moreover, the manner of this feast, solemnly celebrated, is to be read in the eighth chapter of Nehemiah, where whoever looks, will find it described to the full.

Now this Feast of Tabernacles of the seventh month was divided into four solemnities.[1228] For the first day of the month was the feast of trumpets, or the sounding of trumpets. This was a memorial of those troublesome wars which the people happily won by the help and aid of God, against the Amalekites, and all other heathen enemies of theirs. And by that feast, it was signified that the whole life of man on earth is continual warfare.

On the tenth day of the same month, the feast of cleansing was held. In that feast, the priest, in a solemn form of words, began to confess aloud the people's sins; and every man, quietly following in the same words, recited them privately to himself, and in his mind he quietly spoke to the Lord.[1229] To those confessions was added the ceremony used with the scapegoat, and the sacrifice, which is set down at large in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus.

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And so the sins of the people were cleansed: which was a type of the cleansing that would come through Christ; who being once offered, took away the sins of the world with the only sacrifice of his body. It also contained the doctrine of true repentance.

On the fifteenth day began the Feast of Tabernacles. Lev 23.42-43 For the people dwelt in tabernacles for the span of seven whole days; that is, from the fifteenth to the twenty-second. The scripture declares the end of this ceremony to be, that their posterity should know that the Lord placed their forefathers in tabernacles. By this, they were put in mind of the good that He did to them while they were in the wilderness. For they were kept forty years in the wilderness, so that they lacked neither victuals nor clothing. And we are warned by that feast, that the life of this world is but a stage, and that we have no abiding place to stay forever here, but are still looking for the world to come; as the apostle Paul taught us in 2Cor 5, and Heb 13.

The fourth feast of this month was held on the twenty-second day. It was called the congregation, or assembly. On that day, the offering and stipend was gathered and given to the ministry, for reparations of the temple, for the cost of sacrifices, and the maintenance of the ministry.[1230] It is thought that the eighty-fourth Psalm was sung in that feast: "How pleasant are your tabernacles," etc., and certain other Psalms called Torculares Psalmi,[1231] which they used. This much up to here concerning the feasts that occur once in every year.

Here also I think it necessary to mention the Year of Jubilee. Now this year of jubilee was every fiftieth year as it fell by course, which is described at large, with all the ceremonies belonging to it, in the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus. It was declared to all the people in the land of promise by the sound of a trumpet made of a ram's horn, with a proclamation of freedom to all those who were wrapped in servitude or bondage.

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In that jubilee was contained, very evidently, the mystery of Christ our Lord, who declared to us the meaning of that ceremony out of the sixty-first chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. In St. Luke's Gospel, chapter 4, he says that he is the one who indeed proclaims the jubilee, the true freedom and acceptable year of the Lord. Now, he has pronounced remission and freedom to all the faithful, not with a trumpet made of a ram's horn, but with the gospel. For by the mercy of God in the merit of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, all debts or sins are forgiven to all the faithful who live on the face of all the earth, on the condition that we whose sins are forgiven, should likewise forgive the trespasses of those who offend us. And in Christ, truly, we have the true and everlasting rest that shall never fail us. By Christ we are granted return to our possession or country,[1232] from where we were fallen — that is, to heaven, the place of the faithful.

This much I have said about the holy time or holy days, as briefly as I possibly could. The rest is to be seen in full in Exo 23, Lev 23, Num 28 and 29, and Deu 16. What remains touching this argument (I mean, touching the Jewish ceremonies) I will by God's leave make an end of in the next sermon. Now let us make our humble prayers and supplications to God, etc.

3-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: THE JEWISH SACRAMENTS.

OF THE SACRAMENTS OF THE JEWS; OF THEIR SUNDRY SORTS OF SACRIFICES,

AND CERTAIN OTHER THINGS PERTAINING TO THEIR CEREMONIAL LAW.

IN my last sermon I spoke of the holy persons (I mean, the ministers of God's religion, the Levitical priests); and the place and time assigned to God's service. There now remains for us to consider the holy thing which those holy persons exercised in the holy time and place — I mean, the very worship and holy rites so ordained, taught, and prescribed by God himself, that all men might easily understand how to do service, and what honour to give to the Lord. In this treatise, we must first consider the Jewish sacraments, and then their sacrifices.

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The ancient church of the saints had two especial sacraments; circumcision, and the paschal lamb. I will speak separately about both, and agreeably to the word of God, according to the grace which the Lord grants to me.

Now circumcision was the holy action by which the flesh of the foreskin was cut away as a sign of the covenant that God made with men. Or to describe it more largely, circumcision was a mark in the private members of men, as a token of the eternal covenant of God. It was ordained by God himself, to testify of his good-will toward those who were circumcised, to warn them about regeneration and cleanness, and to distinguish between the confederates of God, and other people or nations.

Therefore, the author of circumcision is God himself: and its beginning is of great antiquity. For the Lord says in the gospel: "Circumcision did not begin at Moses, but at the patriarchs." Joh 7.22 Moses truly renewed or repaired the law or custom of circumcision; but Abraham, the renowned friend of God, was the first to be circumcised, in the ninetieth year [1233] of his age, and on the very same day that God, making a covenant with him, first ordained the use of circumcision. For he added circumcision as a seal to the league which he made with Abraham and with his seed forever. The place is found in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis.Gen 17.10 It was first ordained in the 2046th year after the creation of the world, 390 years after the deluge, when Shem, the son of Noah, was 487 years old. So that Moses is found to have been born 320 years after the first institution of circumcision. By this it appears that circumcision was in use among the patriarchs 400 years before the law was given to the Israelites by the hand of Moses.[1234]

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Now because circumcision is added as a sign or seal to the league that was made between God and Abraham, I must briefly, and by a short digression, touch the manner or order of that covenant. God, in making leagues, as he does in all other things, applies himself to our capacities, and imitates the order which men use in making confederacies. By leagues, as by most sure and steadfast bonds, men bind themselves to the society and fellowship of one body or people. In this society, they mutually risked both lives and livings, the one in defence of the other's liberty, to the end that they may be safer, and live more quietly from the wrongs and injuries of all other nations. In these leagues, they precisely express who makes the confederacy, upon what conditions, and how far the covenant will extend. And therefore, when God's mind was to declare the favour and good-will that he bore toward mankind, and to make us partakers wholly of himself and his goodness, by pouring himself out upon us to our great good and profit, it pleased him to make a league or covenant with mankind. Now, he did not first begin the league with Abraham, but He renewed with him the covenant that he had made a great while before. For He first of all made it with Adam, the first father of us all, immediately upon his transgression, when he received him, a silly wretch,[1235] into his favour again. And He promised his only-begotten Son,Gen 3.15 in whom He would be reconciled to the world, and through whom he would wholly bestow himself upon us, by making us partakers of all his good and heavenly blessings, and by binding us to himself in faith and due obedience. This ancient league, first made with Adam, He afterward renewed with Noah; and after that again, with the blessed patriarch Abraham. And again, after the space of four hundred years, it was renewed under Moses at mount Sinai, where the conditions of the league were written at large in the two tablets; and many ceremonies were added to that. But most excellently of all, most clearly and evidently, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ himself displayed that league. Wiping away all the ceremonies, types, figures, and shadows, he brought in place of them, the very truth, and he most absolutely fulfilled and finished the old league.

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He brought all the principles of our salvation and true godliness into a brief summary which, for renewing and fulfilling all things, and for the abrogation of the old ceremonies, he called the new league, or New Testament. In that testament, Christ alone is preached, the perfectness and fulness of all things; in it there is nothing more desired than faith and charity; and in it holy and wonderful liberty is granted to the godly. I will speak of that at another time. But now I return to the league which was renewed with Abraham.

We are expressly taught in Genesis, who they were that made the league; that is, the living, eternal, and omnipotent God, who is the chief maker, preserver, and governor of all things; and Abraham with all his seed, that is, with all the faithful, of whatever nation or country they may be. For so the Apostle expounds the seed of Abraham, especially in his epistle to the Galatians, where he says, "If you are Christ's, then are you the seed of Abraham, and heirs by promise." Gal. 3.29

How long this league should endure is eternal, and without end or term of time. In the renewings or declarations of the league, many things were added which afterward vanished away — especially when Christ had come in the flesh. Yet, notwithstanding, in the substantial and chief points, you can find nothing altered or changed. For God is always the God of his people. He always demands and requires their faithful obedience, as may be most evidently perceived in the new Testament.

For there are two points, or especial conditions, contained in this league: the first declares what God promises, and what he will do for his confederates — I mean, what we may look for from his hands. The second comprehends the duty of man, which he owes to God, his confederate and sovereign prince. Therefore, for his part God says, "I will be your God, and Saddai,[1236] that is, your fulness and sufficiency; I will be your God, and the God of your seed after you." God of himself is wholly sufficient to most absolute perfectness and blessedness; nor does he need the help of any other, since whatever is anywhere, it is both of him, and it has its abiding by him. God alone suffices man, and He alone is the giver of all that men desire, or that belong to perfect felicity.

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And therefore, Saturnus (perhaps by occasion of the word Saddai) took his name among the heathen; it signifies to suffice, or satisfy. For God alone is able to satisfy or suffice all, who is himself very fulness and sufficiency itself. But now God shows, by two arguments, that he will be the sufficiency, or all in all, to the seed of Abraham. For first he says: "To your seed will I give the land of Canaan." [1237] In this promise he comprehends all earthly and bodily benefits: namely, great wealth, felicity, tranquility, abundance of all things, health, glory, notable victories, and whatever else pertains to the preservation and temporal happiness of mankind. Now, the holy scripture declares how he performed this promise to the seed of Abraham. By that means, he teaches us that the very true God was the God of Abraham's seed, as he had promised their father Abraham. Secondly, he promises that Seed in which all the nations of the earth were to be blessed; Gen 12.18 namely, Christ the Saviour, whom he had promised to Adam many years before. To bless is to enrich with all spiritual benediction. In this he comprehends all the spiritual gifts of God; the forgiveness of sins, the reviving of life, and glory everlasting. To bless is also to take away a curse; so this promise of God's to Abraham is the same promise he made to Adam, saying; "The seed of the woman shall tread down the serpent's head." Gen 3.15 For the head of the old dragon is nothing else but the power and kingdom of Satan. His power is the curse: sin and death. Therefore, when his head is crushed or trodden down, the curse is taken away; and instead of the curse, a blessing succeeds. By this, I say, he declares that He will be the God of Abraham and of his seed.

The second condition of the league between God and man, prescribes to man what he must do, and how he must behave men himself toward God, his confederate and sovereign prince. "Walk before me," says God to man, "and be upright." Gen 17.1 Now, those who walk before God, direct all their life, words, and works, according to the will of God. His will is that we should be upright. That uprightness is gotten by faith, hope, and charity; in these three are contained all the offices of saints, who are the friends and confederates of the Lord. Therefore, this latter condition of the league teaches the confederates what to do, and how to behave themselves before the Lord;

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namely, to take him for their God, to stick to him alone, who alone is their all in all, to call upon him alone, to worship him alone, and through the Messiah, to look for sanctification and life everlasting. These were the conditions of the covenant. The number of ceremonies were not added to it in Abraham's time, but were given to the Israelites afterward, under the leading of their captain Moses.

To this confederacy, the Lord added circumcision as a sign or seal to confirm it. Seals are put to writings for an effectual enforcement, and for confirmation's sake. The tablets, or writings, contain and give evidence of all the points of the whole league. Circumcision, therefore, is added to the league in place of the writing [1238] and of the seal. For that reason, circumcision is called the league itself [1239] — even as the writings or letters of covenants among us are commonly called the very covenant, when indeed they are but evidences of the league. They contain in writing all the order of the confederacy, and they confirm it with a seal. It is usual that the signs take the names of the things which they signify. It is thus no marvel that circumcision is called the league, when indeed the league is not the cutting of the skin, but the communion of fellowship which we have with God. In the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, thus says the Lord touching this sign of outward circumcision: "This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you, and your seed after you; every male shall be circumcised among you. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and you," etc. Gen 17.10-11 Look, in these words of the Lord's, circumcision is first named the covenant here; and afterwards, for exposition's sake, it is called the sign of the covenant. In the same sense, St. Stephen calls it a testament, in the seventh chapter of Acts, when he meant that it was the sign or seal of the testament.Act 7.8

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Moreover, the manner of circumcision is declared: "You shall," says God, "circumcise the flesh of your foreskin." The cutting or taking away of this flesh was called circumcision. But now, we do not find expressed whose office it was to cut that skin away. It appears that, before the law, the most honourable in every house or family circumcised; I mean, the first-begotten or the ancient of every household. This office was turned over to the priests, once the law was given.[1240] It is a singular example, and no more are to be found like it, that Zipporah, the wife of Moses, circumcised her son. Exo 4.25

Now also, the time of circumcision is set down: namely, the eighth day, when the new-born child began to have a little more strength. And we gather from the fifth chapter of the book of Joshua, that they did not circumcise them with knives of iron, but of stone. For in that chapter the Lord in express words commanded to circumcise the sons of Israel with knives of stone.[1241] But it is manifest by the rites of the sacraments, that God alters nothing in the ceremonies of the sacraments. And therefore we conjecture and gather, that Abraham used none other but knives of stone, especially since we read that Zipporah, Moses' wife, circumcised her son with a stone.

The rest of the Jewish trifles, which they sow abroad touching circumcision ceremonies, I let pass here on purpose: for they are utterly unworthy to be heard, and have no mystery contained in them. But the knife of stone is of force in the exposition of the mystery of circumcision — for circumcision had a mystery and a most certain meaning hidden within it.

For, first, circumcision signified that the whole nature of man is unclean and corrupt; and therefore, all men have need of cutting and regeneration. And for that reason, cutting was made in the member with which man is begotten.[1242] For we are all begotten and born the sons of wrath in original sin. Nor does any man deliver us from that damnation, but he alone that is without sin: namely, the blessed Seed, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin Mary. With the shedding of his blood (which was prefigured in the blood shed in circumcision) he cleanses us from sin, and makes us heirs of everlasting life.

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And now, this circumcision argues sorely against those who deny original sin; and it puts them to their shifts,[1243] who attribute justification and salvation to our own strength and virtue. For if we were clean, if we could get salvation by our own power, why did our fathers need to be cut in that way? The things that are cut off are either impure, or else superfluous. But God made nothing impure or superfluous. Now he made the flesh of the foreskin. If the flesh of the foreskin had been evil, God would not have made man with the flesh of the foreskin. The skin, therefore, is not evil of itself, nor is it superfluous. But the cutting of the foreskin rather teaches us to understand that we are corrupt by our birth and nature; we cannot be cleansed from that corruption except by the knife of stone. And for that reason, truly, circumcision was given in that member, and in no other. I will shortly add another reason out of Lactantius, why it was given in no other part of the body.

Moreover, circumcision signified and testified that God Almighty, of his mere grace and goodness, is joined to us with an indissoluble bond of covenant. His will is first to sanctify us, then to justify us, and lastly to enrich us with all heavenly treasures through Christ, our Lord and reconciler. For that was the meaning of the stony knife: because Christ, the blessed Seed, is the rock of stone out of which flow most pure and cleansing waters; and by his Spirit he cuts from us whatever things hinder the mutual league and amity between God and us. He also gives and increases in us both hope and charity in faith, so that we may be knit and joined to God in life everlasting, which is the blessed and happy life indeed.

Now, here it is expedient to hear the testimonies of the law and the apostles. In the thirtieth chapter of Deuteronomy, Moses says: "The Lord your God shall circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, that you may love the Lord your God." Deu 30.6Now the outward and visible cutting was a sign of this inward circumcision.

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And Paul also, speaking of Abraham, says: "And he received the sign of circumcision, as the seal of the righteousness of faith which he had, being yet uncircumcised; that he should be the father of all those who believe, though they were not circumcised; so that righteousness might be imputed to them also," etc. Rom 4.11 Look here, Abraham's circumcision was a sign that God had justified Abraham by His grace. He received this justification by faith before his circumcision. This is an argument that whose who believe, though they are not circumcised, are nevertheless justified with faithful Abraham; and again, it is an argument that the Jews, who are circumcised, are yet [1244] justified of God by faith. And for that reason, circumcision was given in the very body of man, that he might bear in his body the league of God, and thereby be admonished that he is justified by grace through faith.

By this we also gather that the grace of God (and the justification of the godly) is not tied to the sign. For if it had been, then Abraham would not have been justified before his circumcision, but in his circumcision. Furthermore, if it had been so, then the Lord, whose will is to have mankind saved, would not have given the commandment to have them circumcised on the eighth day — for many children died before the eighth day, and never came to circumcision; and yet they were not damned. To this we may add that Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Jochebed, and Miriam (Moses' sister), with countless more matrons and holy virgins, could not be circumcised; and yet they were saved by the grace of God through faith in the Messiah that was to come. The grace of God, therefore, was not tied to the sacrament of circumcision. Yet it was not despised and neglected by the holy saints of the old church, but it was used to the end for which it was ordained: that is, to be a testimony and a seal of free justification in Christ,[1245] who circumcises us spiritually without hands, by the working of the Holy Ghost. Col 2.11

Furthermore, by the outward and visible sign, God gathered into one church those who were circumcised. In this number, those whom he had chosen beforehand, he joined to himself with the bond of his Spirit.

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St. Paul, for the very same reason, called the people of one religion the circumcision, as is evident by the fifteenth chapter to the Romans, and the third chapter to the Philippians. Therefore, by circumcision God separated his people from the unbelieving nations. Upon this, to be called uncircumcised was as great a reproach among them, as to be called a dog is now among us. For an uncircumcised person was considered to be an unclean and profane man,[1246] and someone who had no part in God or in His covenants.

Finally, circumcision put the circumcised in mind of their duty their whole life long; namely, that every man should think that he had taken it upon himself to profess God, and to bear in his body the sacrament of the Lord. For that is the reason why the Israelites were named, or had their names given to them, in their circumcision. For it is evident in Luke,[1247] that John the Baptist and Jesus our Saviour had their names given to them at their circumcision; even as the first circumcised, whose name was Abram before, was called Abraham at his circumcision. Gen 17.5

It admonished the circumcised of his duty, in giving his name to the Lord, his confederate, to be enrolled in the register of God among the names of those who give themselves to the Lord. Therefore, by covenant and duty, he should frame his life, not after his own lust and pleasure, but according to the will of God, to whom he entrusted himself. For the condition of the covenant was that the circumcised should not defile themselves with idolatry and strange religions; that they should not pollute with unclean living, the bodies and minds that were hallowed to the Lord; but that, persevering in true faith, they should pursue godliness, show the works of repentance, and be obedient to God in all things. For thus says Moses in the tenth chapter of Deuteronomy: "Circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, and do not harden your necks any longer." The prophet Jeremiah alludes to these words in his fourth chapter, saying: "Be circumcised to the Lord, and cut away the foreskin of your heart." And the martyr St. Stephen, rebuking the unbelieving Jews, says: "You stiff-necked people, of uncircumcised heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost." Act 7.51

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Very rightly, therefore, the holy apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, second chapter, declares that there are two sorts of circumcision: the one of the letter, in the flesh, the outward circumcision made with hands; the other in the heart, of the Spirit, the inward circumcision made by means of the Holy Ghost. The circumcision of the heart, God well likes in those who are his; but circumcision in the flesh he utterly disapproves of, if the heart is not circumcised as the flesh is. The liking and disliking of these two circumcisions, was so plainly declared before, that I need not stay upon it any longer.

And here I think it is not amiss, before I make an end of circumcision, to repeat to you, dearly beloved, the words of the ancient writer Lactantius, where he speaks of circumcision thus:

"The meaning of circumcision was that we should bare our breasts: namely, that we should live with a simple and plain-dealing heart; because that part of the body which is circumcised, is partly like a heart, and partly an object of shame. The reason why God commanded us to bare it, was that he might by that sign admonish us not to have a covered heart; that is, that we should not cover within the secrets of our conscience, any crime of which we ought to be ashamed. And this is the circumcision of the heart of which the prophets speak, which God has translated from the mortal flesh to the immortal soul. For the Lord, being wholly set and fully minded according to his eternal goodness, to have a care for our life and safeguard, set repentance before our eyes for us to follow — as a way to bring us to it. So that, if we bare our hearts, that is, if by confession of our sins we satisfy the Lord, we should obtain pardon (which is denied to the proud and those who conceal their faults) by God, who does not behold the face as man does, but searches the secrets of the breast." [1248]

This much up to here, that ancient writer of the church, Lactantius Firmianus, has declared to us touching the mystery of circumcision.

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Now all this, which I have said up to here touching the meaning and mystery of circumcision, was set forth, as in a picture, to be seen by all men's eyes, so often as circumcision was solemnized in the church. There, the league which God made with men, was renewed as it were. There the grace of God, his sanctification, and our corruption, was declared. In this, Christ appears, the rock of stone, who with his Spirit, cuts and washes away all the spots of the church. Moreover, the worshippers of God learned by that sign (as by all the holy ceremonies), that being in one celestial [1249] body, they ought to endeavour by pureness of living, to win the favour of God, their confederate. This is because, in a way, by visible circumcision an open confession was made of the true religion, of free consent to the true religion, and of a binding by promise to it. Therefore, anyone who despised or unadvisedly neglected that holy ceremony was sharply punished, as may be gathered by the seventeenth chapter of Genesis, and the fourth chapter of Exodus. So much up to here concerning circumcision.

Now follows the second sacrament of the ancient church; I mean, the PASCHAL LAMB. It is a Hebrew word, not signifying a passion, as it would seem if it were derived according to the Greek etymology; but it signifies a skipping, leaping, or passing over: for the Hebrew signifies to leap or pass over.[1250] Moses shows the cause of this word in the law, where he says: "The Lord shall go over to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the upper post, and the two side posts of the door, the Lord will pass over that door, and will not allow the destroyer to come within your houses." Exo 12.23

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This sacrament is also known and called by other names. For it is called a sign, remembrance, solemnity, holy assembly, the feast of the Lord, worship, observation, oblation, and sacrifice. But though that ceremony is called a passing over, that is not done without a trope.[1251] For the passing over was the very benefit, in which the angel of the Lord passed over the Jews, left their houses untouched, and saved their lives. But because the paschal lamb was a memorial and a renewing of that benefit, it therefore took the name of the benefit: even as I admonished you before,[1252] that it is usual in sacraments for the signs to be called by the names of the things they signify, because of the likeness and mutual proportion between them.

Let us see now what the Passover was, and what kind of ceremony belonged to it. The Passover was a holy action, ordained by God, in the killing and eating of a lamb. This was partly to the end that the church might keep in memory the benefit which God did for them in the land of Egypt — to be a testimony of God's good will toward the faithful, and to be a type of Christ. And partly it was to gather all its partakers into the fellowship of one body, and put them in mind to be thankful and innocent.

This sacrament was first ordained by God himself, and not by man. For Moses delivered to the children of Israel whatever he received from the Lord's hand: as seen at large in the twelfth chapter of Exodus. And he instituted that ceremony at that very time when he brought the Israelites out of Egypt. Now since this ceremony came first from God, it consequently follows that all the Passovers which followed it, even until that Passover which the Lord held with his disciples a little before his death, were holy and divine actions. To flesh and worldly wisdom, many points, I might say all the parts, of this sacrament, seem to be merely absurd and altogether needless. But faith, which looks up to God, who is the author of this sacrament, has a great regard for, and greatly reverences, all the mysteries contained in it.

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For even as God is the chief and most absolute wisdom, so all his ordinances are most absolute and surpassing profitable.

Here now is noted the time when this sacrament was first delivered to the church of Israel: namely, in the four hundred and thirtieth year (counting from the promise made to Abraham, or from the time that he first departed from his country), which was the 2447th year from the beginning of the world, 791 years after the general flood.[1253] The time is also appointed when the Passover should be held, namely, every year, in the month of Nisan, which takes part of our March and April. Moreover, the very day is named, that is, the fourteenth of the month, beginning their account at springtime's equinoctial.[1254] For on the tenth day, they chose the lamb that should be eaten, and on the fourteenth day they killed it. There is also set down the hour of the day when it should be slaughtered: that was, about eventide,[1255] namely, between three and five o'clock in the afternoon, according to the course of our dials; and as the Jews usually reckoned the hours of the day, it was to be killed between nine and eleven o clock. And this meaning lies hidden in killing the lamb at eventide: that Christ should be slain in the latter days of the world; yes, the very hour and moment in which Christ should die, was foretold in this: for he gave up the ghost about the ninth hour. St. Peter says about this, that the prophets searched at what moment, or minute of time, the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, signified that Christ would come and suffer.[1256]

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Furthermore, there was a certain appointed place assigned to this sacrament. In Egypt, truly, they ate it by companies here and there in several houses. But once they had come into the land of promise, it was not lawful to hold Passover in any place but at the tabernacle of appointment; and after that, at the temple in Jerusalem. Being divided into several houses at Jerusalem, therefore, they ate it by companies, as seen in the twenty-second chapter of St. Luke's gospel. And that was a type that Christ, who was to be offered but once at mount Calvary, should be effectual forever to cleanse the sins of all his people.

It was also appointed there, who should hold the Passover: namely, the whole circumcised congregation of Israel, being assembled by houses and families, in companies sufficient to eat a lamb.[1257] For as Christ is the Saviour of us all, so all sinners (for we all are sinners) are the reason why Christ our Lord was offered on the altar of the cross.

Moreover, there is great diligence [1258] used in describing the manner of killing and eating the lamb. First, they chose this lamb for themselves from among other lambs and kids. The fifth day after, they cut its throat and saved [1259] the blood in a platter. With a bunch of hyssop, made like a holy-water stick, they sprinkled the blood on the two sides and upper posts of the door. The lamb itself they ate publicly, not boiled with water, but roasted with fire. And they also ate it whole: I mean, both head and feet, and appurtenance too; and they ate with it lettuce or sour herbs, and unleavened bread. And while they were at it, they stood about it with their loins girded, shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands. They ate it in haste: they neither broke nor tossed a bone of it to the dogs, but burnt the bones with fire. From evening until morning, no man set one foot out of doors.

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All these ceremonies had their ends to which they tended. They contained great mysteries, and bore a very evident signification of things past, things present, and things to come. They also joined the whole congregation, or Jewish church, into one body and a profession of one religion. And they also warned all those who ate of the lamb, to be thankful to God, and zealous in religion. I will touch upon this by parts, and teach you as briefly as I can.

First of all, the Lord's will was to keep in memory, and to forever prolong the remembrance of that great benefit which he once did for his people of Israel, [1260] in marvellously preserving His chosen flock. He slew in one night all the first-born of the Egyptians; and the next day, He led his elect out of Egypt, where for a long time they had sustained great misery in bondage. He would not only have this benefit preached by word of mouth — for it is certainly sure that, in that feast, most effectual sermons were made touching God's benefits and grace shown to their fathers; — but he would also have laid before their eyes a holy action and ceremony, a lively picture and mirror as it were; as though their deed were newly done again before their faces. For the visible action, in a way, made a sermon for their eyes and other senses. This is why Moses said, when he interpreted the ceremony and holy action: "When your children ask you, What does this worship of yours mean? You shall say to them, This sacrifice is the passing over of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he slew the Egyptians, and delivered our houses." Exo 12.26-27

But this ceremony was the signification of a thing already past. And therefore it should have little availed that age of man which followed, to celebrate a benefit which did not at all belong to them, unless the Lord had applied it to every age and season. God would therefore have this be a testimony to their posterity, of His favour, goodness, and perpetual assistance;[1261] to put them in mind that he was not only the God of their fathers and ancestors, but that he would be the God of all the posterity of the Israelites; that he would bear with and spare them for the blood of Christ; and finally, that he would and could defend them from all evil, and bestow upon them all good and fatherly blessings.

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For we read in Psalm 136: "O praise the Lord, for he is good, because his mercy endures forever: who struck the first-born of the Egyptians; for his mercy endures forever: with a strong hand and an outstretched arm; for his mercy endures forever," [1262] Therefore, besides the remembrance of the benefit which God did for their fathers, their posterity used that ceremony to stir up their faith, to believe that God would have mercy on and do good for them according to his natural goodness, even as he did for their fathers before them. And by that means, this ceremony was no small exercise of faith in the children of Israel.

Furthermore, those ceremonies contained the mysteries that were to come, of Christ, the Saviour of us all. For in them was prefigured what Christ should be, what he should do for the world, by what means the faithful should be partakers with him, and how they should behave themselves before him. For among many other beasts, none was thought to be more fit for this sacrament than a lamb. This was not so much for the signification of simplicity and patience that was in Christ, like the quietness of a lamb, as it was because a lamb was the daily sacrifice that was offered to the Lord. For Paul says: "Christ our paschal Lamb is offered up." 1Cor 5.7 And by the law, a lamb was offered up in sacrifice every morning and evening. Exo 29.38-39 For Christ is the Lamb that was killed since the beginning of the world;Rev 13.8 of whom John the Baptist testified, saying, "Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world." [1263] And because we all went astray like sheep, every one after his own way, the Son of God came down to us, and became a sheep, of our very substance and nature. Yet he was sound and without spot — without sin and wickedness — conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin Mary.

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He was a male and a year old. That is to say, he was strong and whole, the same today that he was yesterday, and the same forever: namely, the Saviour of the whole world. The ceremonial lamb was chosen and taken from among other lambs and goats: for Christ descended lineally from righteous men and sinners — as seen in the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel. Likewise, for the shedding of the lamb's blood, God forbore with the whole church of the Israelites. For the blood of Christ [of which the lamb's blood was a type][1264] was to be shed, so that all the faithful might be cleansed by it; and by shedding it, the anger of God the Father might be appeased, and be reconciled again to the church. The blood was sprinkled upon the upper and two side-posts of the house with a bunch of hyssop. Hyssop, truly, is a base herb of small account; just as the preaching of the Gospel seems to be foolish, vile, and of no value. And yet, by preaching the gospel, the blood of Christ for the remission of sins is sprinkled on us, who are the house of God.

Now, we receive the Lamb unto life when we eat; that is, when we believe that Christ suffered for us. For Christ is eaten by faith, as declared at large in the sixth chapter of St. John. The lamb is dressed with fire, and not with water: it is not eaten raw, but roasted. For Christ was not man alone, but very God also, the true burnt-offering. He is able to fully absolve us, so that no addition of ours is needed. All our additions are mere water, and altogether cold. Moreover, the whole Lamb was to be eaten: the head, the feet, and appurtenance. For unless we believe that Christ is very God and very man, and that he is our wisdom and righteousness, we do not eat him wholly. Those who deny that Christ is God, do not eat the head; those who deny that Christ is man, do not eat the feet; those who do not acknowledge the gifts that are in Christ, which he communicates to the faithful: namely, righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, redemption, and life, do not eat the appurtenance. The bones of the Lamb were neither broken nor thrown to the dogs, but burnt with fire — for in Christ not one bone was broken, as the apostle John bears witness in the nineteenth chapter of his gospel.

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In this also lies hidden another mystery. For although the Son of God suffered in his humanity, yet in his divinity he still remained without any passion. Now the things in Christ which we cannot attain because of the excellence of his Godhead, we earnestly wish for and greatly desire. Moreover, Christ is the food of the reasonable and faithful soul, and is not to be cast to dogs and unbelieving miscreants.Mat 7.6 The Lamb was to be eaten in haste, without delay: for Christ must be eaten by faith, out of hand, without foading off;[1265] and that too, with a sharp desire and eager appetite. They were commanded to eat sour herbs and unleavened bread with the lamb: for the faithful must repent of their life ill-spent, and wholly take themselves to a purer trade of living. For here follows the manner of how they ought to behave themselves toward their Redeemer. They stood to eat the lamb, having their loins girded, with shoes on their feet, and staves in their hands. Such was the habit of wayfaring men, or pilgrims. We therefore must so behave ourselves in this present world, as become pilgrims and strangers who contemn this world, and look for another country.Heb 11.16 In their journey, therefore, let them give themselves to temperate modesty; let their feet be shod with the preaching of  the gospel of peace; Eph. 6.15 let them wholly lean upon the staff of God's aid and succour; and let them depart with as much haste as possible, from the bondage and corruption of this naughty world.

This very same ceremony was, as it were, a confession of the true religion, and as a cognisance, by which the people of God were known from other people and nations. Therefore, all the Israelites were gathered together into one church and society in which, by celebrating the Passover, they professed that they were the redeemed, the libertines,[1266] and the people of the living God.

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For to this belongs the commandment which charged them that no stranger should eat of the lamb, but the circumcised alone should partake of it; that it should not be divided into many parts; that it should be eaten nowhere but in one place alone, and that was to be done by companies of all the Israelites; and lastly, no man should once set foot out of doors until the next morning. By this it is given to us to understand that neither Christ, nor our salvation, is to be found outside the church, in the sects or schisms of wicked heretics. Christ, the Lamb of God, gathers all the faithful into one church, in which he keeps them, and saves them at last.

Last of all, this ceremony put God's people in mind of their duty, of thankfulness especially,[1267] of the study of godliness and harmless innocence. Therefore, they gave thanks to God for these and all his other benefits; they praised his name; and utterly abstained from all leavened bread. For you will find nothing so severely forbidden in this ceremony, as eating leavened bread. "Whoever eats leavened bread," says the Lord, "his soul shall perish from among the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger, or born an Israelite." Exo 12.19 The same saying is often repeated afterward, and thoroughly beaten into their brains. Now the apostle Paul, whose cunning and learning was great in the law of Moses, expounding what was meant by leavened bread, says: "Therefore, let us keep the feast, not in the old leaven, nor in the leaven of malice and unrighteousness, but in unleavened bread, that is, in sincerity and truth." [1268] This much up to here touching the eating of the paschal lamb.

To these sacraments were also added sacrifices of sundry sorts and many kinds. These were not first invented and taught by Moses, but were taken up and used immediately after the world was created. For Cain and Abel offered burnt sacrifices to God, the maker of the world: the one sacrifice was of the fruits of the earth; and the other of the cattle in his flock.

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Likewise Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with all the other patriarchs, are known to have sacrificed to the Lord. Now, the heathenish sacrifices of the Gentiles, as the heathen writers themselves testified, were partly like, and in many points, one with the Jewish sacrifices. It is not unlikely, therefore, that every one of the grand patriarchs of the Gentiles, taught his own nation the manner of sacrificing which they had learned from their forefathers, Shem, Ham, Japheth, and from the holy patriarch Noah himself. But it is undoubtedly certain that the holy fathers brought in nothing of their own invention, nor added anything more to the sacrifices than they had received and learned from God, who is the author of all goodness. Even though Moses more precisely distinguished and certainly ordered the sorts, kinds, and differences between sacrifices, yet whatever he did, he did at the Lord's appointment. God instructed Moses in all that he did. For the book of Leviticus — in which are specially described all the kinds of sacrifices — immediately after the beginning, testifies that Moses was called by God, and that he learned from the Lord all the ceremonies of the sacrifices which he commanded the Israelites to keep. And in the seventh chapter of the book of Numbers we read: "And when Moses came into the tabernacle of appointment, he heard the voice of God speaking to him out of the mercy-seat."

Now, as I was about to say, there were diverse sacrifices variously differing in many points among themselves, and yet having many things in common and general with one with another. It was general to all sacrifices, that they were not to be offered anywhere but in the one appointed place alone. It was general to all sacrifices, that of duty they ought to be offered by faith, as they were taught by the word of God. It was general to all sacrifices, that they be made according to the Lord's commandment, with holy fire, and not with strange fire, or fire that was profanely kindled. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, were slain for nothing else but because they used profane or strange fire in sacrificing to the Lord. For when the Israelites, or Levites, first sacrificed as the Lord had commanded them, in the tabernacle of appointment, then God gave a token that he liked that manner of sacrifice, by sending fire from heaven. Lev 9.24

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Thus, in the sixth chapter of Leviticus the priests are charged to maintain or keep the holy fire always burning, first in the tabernacle, and then in the temple. It is manifest that the heathen imitated this, in commanding the vestal virgins at Rome to always keep the holy fire burning. By this perpetual fire is meant the perpetual working of the Holy Ghost in the church of Christ — which must be kept active and stirred up in the hearts of the faithful with fervent prayers, with the sincere doctrine of the Lord, and with the right use of the holy sacraments. It was also general to all sacrifices, that neither wild nor unclean beasts were offered to the Lord. Moreover, this general rule of sacrifices is given by Moses in the twenty-second chapter of Leviticus, saying:

"Let no deformity be in the thing that you offer: if it is blind, or lame, or maimed; if it has pushes,[1269] or scabs, or tetter,[1270] you shall not offer it to the Lord, nor shall you put any of it on his altar." Lev 22.21-22

Truly, if any man had brought a deformed oblation to the Lord, he plainly showed himself to be a contemner, and utterly unthankful toward his maker. And therefore in Malachi the Lord cries out, and says:

"When you bring the blind for sacrifice, do you not sin? And when you bring the lame and sick, do you not sin? Offer it, then, I pray you, to your prince or captain. Will he be content with it, or will he accept your person? says the Lord of hosts. And so I say: My name is held in contempt and is of no estimation among you." Mal. 1.6-8

The just and true God, therefore, at all times requires truth, liberality, sincerity, and integrity in those who worship him; and on the other side, he abhors and utterly detests uncleanliness, lying, and hypocrisy.

There are certain other things also, which are generally common to all sorts of sacrifices. But I will not particularly recall every jot or minute at this time. But what peculiarities every sundry sacrifice has, will evidently appear in the exposition of their sundry sorts, which I will now speak of in order, as they lie.

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I. First of all, I will expound to you that kind of sacrifice which in the scripture is called HOLOCAUSTUM.[1271] That sacrifice was wholly consumed with fire, so that nothing but the skin or hide of the beast was left for the priest. The word is derived from the Greek: for it is called holocaustum, as one would say olon kanston [olon kanston]; that is, wholly burnt or consumed with fire.[1272] This sacrifice was of three kinds: I mean, it was made in three sorts, namely, with greater, little, and less, living creatures: namely, with an ox, a bullock, or a calf. Or, if any man's ability were not sufficient to stretch to that expense, then he offered a lamb, or a kid. And still again, if he could not offer that because of his poverty, it was lawful for him to sacrifice birds — not geese, roosters, or other unclean fowls, but turtles, doves, and other kinds of clean birds.

Now the manner of making this burnt sacrifice was in the following order. The beast that was to be offered was placed at the one side of the altar on which the priest shortly laid his hands, and cut its throat. The blood was saved, to be sprinkled round the altar; the skin was flayed from the slaughtered beast, and that alone was all the fees that fell to the portion or share of the priest. The legs were chopped off, and washed together with the appurtenance. Immediately after, a fire was made on the altar, on which was laid the whole sacrifice: namely, the head, body, legs, and appurtenance. These were altogether burnt on the altar before the Lord. But if it so happened that a turtle or a dove were offered for a sacrifice, then the priest with his finger wrung and broke its neck, and the blood was let drop around the sides of the altar. The feathers were also tossed at the one side of the altar, into a place where ashes lay; the wings were jointed;[1273] and last of all, the whole body was burnt on the altar. This was the manner of the sacrifice, or oblation, which they commonly called a burnt-offering. The signification of this was most cheerful and pleasant to those who were persuaded of it, that the burnt-offering prefigured the very Son of God, to be incarnate by the unspotted virgin, and be sacrificed once for the cleansing of all the sins of the whole world.

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For in the mirror of that sacrifice, they beheld the cross and passion of the Lord, who took our sins upon himself and, being slain, shed his blood for the remission of sins, offering himself wholly to God the Father in the fire of charity and heavenly zeal. The very same Christ is the turtle or pigeon.

Moreover, beside these ceremonies in the burnt sacrifice, it was required that no burnt sacrifice of beasts should be made at any time without that kind of offering which they called minha.[1274] That oblation was a handful of corn, or meal, or crusty bread soaked in a caldron, or a bowed piece of bread (which we call a cracknel) baked in an oven or in a frying-pan, which was burnt with oil and frankincense on the altar of burnt sacrifices. And truly, Christ is the bread of life, who by the eternal Spirit, as the apostle says, offered himself to God the Father for us, to be the meat and preservation of our life. Heb 9.13-14

In the number of burnt sacrifices are reckoned the daily sacrifices that were offered every morning and every evening, and the sacrifices for the anointing or consecrating of priests. A large exposition is made about the daily sacrifice in the twenty-ninth chapter of Exodus and the sixth chapter of Leviticus. It was called the daily offering, because every morning and evening two lambs were offered, namely, one in the morning, and another at the evening. In these lambs, Christ was most manifestly prefigured; who is that Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world; whose virtue is always effectual and has power to take away the sins of the faithful. For the Lamb [1275] was killed from the beginning of the world; he was once slain upon the cross, yet his merit and effectual power still endures, and absolves all those who are delivered from their sins.

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Now the sacrifices of consecrating — I mean, of the priests, the tabernacle, and all the vessels or instruments belonging to the holy ministry — are in many points the same as the burnt-offerings; but in some things they differ from them. This may be fully seen in the twenty-ninth chapter of Exodus and the eighth chapter of Leviticus. And Christ our Lord first began the priesthood by his passion; after that, he hallowed all the faithful to be priests to himself.1Pet 2.9

II. The second kind of sacrifice was the OBLATION, which they called minha. It was a gift, reward, or sacrifice of a wheat cake; by another name it was called a meat-offering. This sacrifice was of the fruits of the earth, and was not always offered of one sort: for there are three kinds of this sacrifice. What was offered was either parched wheat sticking in the ears; or wheat out of the ears; or else clean meal, unbaked; or at least, it was meal made into bread. This bread, again, was made three different ways, in three fashions. For either it was baked in an oven or furnace; or else soaked in a pot or caldron; or else fried in a frying- pan, like cakes. To these was added, as sauce for the sacrifice, salt, oil, and frankincense.

Honey and leaven, by a general rule, were utterly barred from all sorts of sacrifices. For cakes made with honey were never allowed nor admitted in their offerings. Yet, in the feast of thanksgiving they did eat leavened bread. Therefore, when any man offered wheat, it was first anointed by the priest with oil, then seasoned with salt, and last of all, it had frankincense put on it. After that, the priest took out one handful from the whole (but in the sacrifice for the priest all of it was burnt), and burnt it on the altar; the rest he reserved as a share for himself. Lev 6.23 And frankincense was always used in all meat-offerings, except in the sacrifice for sin and in the sacrifice for jealousy; as seen in the fifth chapter of Leviticus and the fifth chapter of Numbers. Whoever desires to know the rest that belongs to the full rites and ceremonies of the meat-offerings, will find them in the second chapter of Leviticus. For I do not mean to particularly recall here, every jot and tittle of their accustomed ceremonies.

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Now even as Christ was prefigured in beasts and birds, so he is represented in this bread or cakes. For he is the bread of life, and has sundry fashions of infirmity and glory. You will not find any leaven In Christ — that is, no sin, uncharitableness, hypocrisy, or pride. In Christ there is no sweetness or honey-like taste, of worldly or wicked pleasures. But you may find salt in him, a well-seasoned temperateness, altogether heavenly, and most absolute wisdom. Because of Christ, and for his sake, all things of ours are acceptable to God; and for Christ's sake our prayers are heard by God the Father. Upon Christ, therefore, there is a sweet-smelling frankincense in the nose of God the Father.

In these ceremonies are also foreshadowed the manner and matter of our sacrifices: namely, that they would be without hypocrisy, bitterness, hatred, envy, and fleshly pleasure, and they should be seasoned with godly and continual prayers.

With the meat-offerings we may place the drink-offerings also. For in those sacrifices, wine was poured out to the Lord, as evident in the twenty-ninth chapter of Exodus, the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus, and the twenty-eighth chapter of the book of Numbers. Now Christ is our wine, our drink, and joy unto eternal life. He pours himself into the minds of the godly, that he may fill them with joy, and live in them and they live in him. And therefore he consecrated in wine, the memory of his blood that was shed for us, for the remission of our sins.

With these meat-offerings may be joined the sacrifices of the first-fruits, of the first-begotten, and of the tenths. Touching all this, there is much to be read in various places of the law; such as the thirteenth and twenty-third chapters of Exodus, in the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, and the eighteenth chapter of the book of Numbers. Now, Christ is the first-begotten and the first-fruits of all the faithful, for whose worthiness and merit we are all spared, and by whom we (being sanctified) are made the sons and heirs of God. To him, as to our Maker and Redeemer, we owe our very souls as tithes, and whatever else is dear to us, and good in us. Moreover, it is a point of thankfulness to frankly bestow part of our earthly riches on God, which we have from his hands, for the maintenance of his true worship, and the relief of all who are in poverty.

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III. The third kind of sacrifice is that which is offered for SIN, and is therefore called Hattah, a cleansing, or Ascham, a sacrifice for sin. In a word, we may call it a cleansing sacrifice. For it was offered for sin committed unwittingly or by ignorance (these were divided into four sorts by the degrees of the sinners; such as, if the chief priest sinned, if the whole church sinned, if the prince sinned, or if some man of the meaner sort sinned). Or, they offered it for sin committed willingly, or out of a set purpose, which was yet an excusable sin; or else for a great and heinous crime, which ignorance could by no means excuse. The ceremony used in this sacrifice is very ample and large; thus, I do not mean presently to touch it. It is most exquisitely set down in the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Leviticus.

Nor is it to be doubted that Christ was laid before their eyes in that sacrifice, as well as in all their other oblations. For Christ is the end of the law, [and the mark to which the ceremonial laws tended].[1276] And Isaiah in the fifty-third chapter of his prophecy says: "Though he never committed unrighteousness, nor was any deceitfulness was found in his mouth; yet has it pleased the Lord to strike him with infirmity; that when he had made his soul an offering for sin," (for here is put Ascham,) "he might see his seed, and prolong his days, and that the advice of the Lord might prosper in his hand." Isa 53.9-10 To this belongs that whole disputation of the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, in which he shows that Christ is the true sacrifice for sin that cleanses the whole church and its sins. In this ceremony were shadowed the disposition of sins, the passions of Christ, and the power and strength of death.

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Now these many and sundry sacrifices appointed for sins, were kept uncertainly, because they were usually offered by those who sinned, at the very time they committed the sin: but the certain, yearly, and universal sacrifice was that which is described at large in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus; it may be referred in that place to the number of cleansing sacrifices. For in the feast of atonement, on the tenth day of the seventh month every year, was solemnized the sacrifice of cleansing or atonement, for all the sins universally of all the people. I will not over-busily describe the manner of this general sacrifice at this time, since it is set down clearly as light in that place in Leviticus which I just cited; and since, in expounding the mystery of it, I mean to show and make plain, as many shadows in it as need to be marked. For I will say something touching the meaning and mystery of it.

In that most pleasant mirror, was figured the whole passion and effect of the passion, of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, who by that sacrifice every year, was laid before the eyes and renewed to the minds of all the faithful church of God. For this manner of representing our redemption and salvation pleased God — by sacraments rather than by pictures, colours, or stage-plays, which are greatly regarded today (although scarcely godly) by no small number of trifling and fantastical heads.[1277]

Now, mark that the high priest alone, did all that was to be done in this solemn sacrifice — except that two ministers joined him, the one to lead away the scapegoat, and the other to carry out from the camp, the bullock and he-goat that was to be offered. Indeed, charge is very precisely given, that no man should join the high priest when he enters the tabernacle, and makes an atonement for the sins of the people. "Let no man," says the Lord, "be in the tabernacle of appointment when he goes in to make sacrifice in the sanctuary, until he comes out again." Lev 16.17 For no man must be joined to Christ in finishing the work of our salvation and redemption.

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For he alone is the Saviour; he alone has trod the press, and he alone was crucified for us. The patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and all other creatures, are utterly excluded from having any thanks for our redemption and salvation. Christ alone remains the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. To attribute our salvation to creatures, to our own works and our own merits, is to admit creatures into the tabernacle, with the high priest, and to incur the indignation — that is, the terrible curse, of the almighty, true, and ever-living God. For the Jewish high priest prefigures Christ our Saviour, who has a priesthood, as the apostle Paul says, which cannot go by succession from him to any other.[1278]

Now, Aaron took a bullock of his own for a sin-offering, and a ram for a burnt-offering; and he took two he-goats from the people. Therefore, Christ our Lord, the true and only priest of his church, offered for us the thing that he took from us: namely, the substance of our flesh. There is also added, that Aaron (whose name, we understand, refers to each one that was the high priest among the people of God), when he went to sacrifice, clothed himself with the usual and common garments of the other priests (I mean, those which the other priests usually wore) — except that they were holy and without spot. For, although Christ the Son of God took our nature upon himself, and became like us, being clad, as it were, in the usual garment of men; yet notwithstanding this, his fleshly garment (I mean, his body that was like ours) was altogether free from corruption,[1279] and clean without spots of sin.

Aaron first of all killed a steer for himself and his family: by this he declared that he was not the very and true high priest, but the type of him that was the true priest. For Paul says: "Our high priest had no need, as those high priests had, first to offer sacrifices for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For he did that once, when he offered up himself." Heb 7.26-27 Afterwards, Aaron drew lots at the door of the tabernacle, to test between the two goats, which should be slain for the sacrifice, and which should be sent away as the scapegoat into the desert.

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The two goats signify Christ our Lord, very God and very man, in two unseparated natures. He is slain, and dies in his humanity; but he is not slain nor does he die in his divinity. Yet, being one and the same Christ, unseparated, he is the Saviour of the world, and works the redemption of us mortal men. So a mystery was hidden in the two goats. Pro 16.33 And because, as Solomon says, the lots are guided by the Lord's will, it was not without the especial will of the Father, that the Son was sacrificed and killed on the cross.

Moreover, the high priest took the blood, first of the bullock, then of the slain goat, and with a censer in his hand, he went within the veil. There, with the incense, he made a cloud of smoke before the mercy-seat; and with his finger, he sprinkled the blood seven times toward the mercy-seat. The apostle Paul expounded all this in the ninth chapter to the Hebrews, saying, "Christ did not enter into the tabernacle made with hands, but into the very heavens; not with the blood of a bullock, or a goat, but with his own blood, and found for us a perpetual cleansing and remission of our sins." Heb 9.11 For "he is our propitiation; not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1Joh 2.2 And the apostles alluded to this, as often as they called Christ our propitiation; as St. Paul did in the third chapter to the Romans, and St. John did in the second and fourth chapters of his first epistle.

Now, sprinkling the blood seven times was a token of the full perfection, or perfect fulness, of the cleansing. We too need to be sprinkled with the finger, not of man, but of Christ [1280] Jesus, our Lord and Saviour — whose finger is the Holy Ghost, by whom our cleansing comes upon us. To the sprinkling of the blood is also added sweet-smelling incense. [1281] For, as the apostle testifies, Christ, our high priest, offered prayers for us with tears, and was heard in that which he feared.[1282] Whereupon, by the cloud of smoke (that is, by the great quantity of smoke) was noted the great efficacy of earnest prayers.

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When that was done, the high priest again went into the sanctum, and set the blood on the golden altar of incense. For in the work of our redemption, both innocent blood, and earnest prayer for us, must be joined together. Out of the sanctum, he again came to the altar of burnt-offerings, which stood in the court (called the atrium). There he gave the other goat to a convenient man to be taken into the wilderness. But in delivering the goat, he used a precise manner and singular ceremony. For the high priest laid both his hands upon the goat, and confessed over its head the sins of the people, who themselves also confessed their sins, following the priest clause by clause in the entire confession [1283] which he recited. Then, as soon as all the sins were laid upon the head of the goat, it was sent away, so that by that means it might carry away the sins of all the people [1284] into the desert.

From this ceremony, the Gentiles undoubtedly borrowed their kind of cleansings or purgings of the people, which in Greek is called Kaqarmata,[1285] and in Latin piamina. For their manner was that, in extreme perils, one should give himself for the rest. They took him and either killed and burned him on the altar, or they threw him into the water — praying that all their evil luck might go with him, and that the gods (being pacified with his death) might again be favourable to the rest. But the wretches erred as far as heaven is wide: for Christ the Son of God was made sin for us, that is, he was made a sacrifice for sin; indeed, he became a curse for us, that by him we might receive a blessing. For the prophet Isaiah had an eye to this, when he said: "We all went astray like sheep; every one turned after his own way: but the Lord has thrown down upon him all our sins," Again: "He was wounded for our offences, and struck for our wickedness." And again: "The pains of our punishment were laid upon him, and he bore our griefs." [1286]

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Now the goat carried the sins into the desert, not that the sins should cease to be, but that they should no longer be imputed to them. For in the church, there is sin in the saints, truly; but it is not imputed to them. Sin is imputed to all those who are outside the church, in the desolate wilderness. The convenient man that would carry away the scapegoat, can be none other than Christ himself, who in the days of his flesh, observed the convenient time and fit occasion — often repeating that his hour had not yet come. But at last, when the convenient time had come for him to die, he then said that his hour had come. And by dying, he conveniently carried away the scapegoat, I mean, the sin of the whole world.

When this also was thus accomplished, the high priest again washed himself; and putting off the common garments of the inferior priests, he again put on his high priest's attire. Now this often and manifold washing in the holy ceremony, is a shadow or type of the most absolute remission of sins; even as the changing of a garment is also a sign or figure of glorification — as seen fully in the third chapter of Zechariah's prophecy. And Christ, being glorified, entered into heaven to appear there in the sight of God, as the only and effectual sacrifice for us mortal men. Therefore, Aaron sacrificed a ram for a burnt-offering: for Christ is the sacrifice which endures always, and purges all the faithful.

Moreover, Aaron sent the bullock and the other goat to the holy place outside the camp, that they might be burned there. Paul thus expounds about this: "The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest for sin, was burnt outside the tents: therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his blood, suffered outside the gate." Heb 13.11-12

Although in what I have alleged up to here, I have declared by fits,[1287] the end and fruit of this ceremony, I do not think it necessary to particularly repeat it again — since I see that the Holy Ghost takes pains in the scripture to very busily beat it into our heads.

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The end of all this stir and solemnity is,[1288] that all the sins — I say, all the sins of God's universal church — by the one and only sacrifice, offered only once, are most perfectly blotted out and absolutely purged. Let us therefore hear the very words of the Holy Ghost, who speaks most plainly and evidently in the scripture, saying: FIRST, "And the high priest shall confess over the goat all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their trespasses and all their sins." [1289] SECONDLY, "And the goat shall bear all their misdeeds into the desert, upon itself." THIRDLY, "The same day the priest shall make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, so that you may be clean from all your sins before the Lord." FOURTHLY, "And let this be an everlasting ordinance o you, to cleanse the children of Israel from all their sins once every year."

Who is such a sot or dull-head as to think that all the sins of the people are washed away with the blood of beasts? "If," says the apostle, "they had once fully cleansed sins, then they would have ceased to offer any more." Heb 10.1-2 By this ceremony, therefore, the mystery of Christ to come was beaten into all men's brains; and once every year it was laid out for the eyes of all men to behold. Zechariah borrowed his prophecy of Christ from this ceremony, in his third chapter, where he says: "Behold, I bring forth the Branch, my servant. For behold, the stone that I lay before Joshua: on one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will cut its engraving, says the Lord of hosts, and I will take away the sin of this land in one day." Zec 3.8-9 The Lord promises the Messiah, who was prefigured by the priests, and especially by the high priest Joshua. Christ is the stone on which the eyes of all men are steadfastly fixed, as upon their only Saviour. He is dug into and cut, in his passion; and by suffering and dying once, he purges the sins of the whole earth.

From this ceremony, and from this place in scripture, Paul, the holy apostle of Christ, borrowed almost his whole discourse in his epistle to the Hebrews, touching the sacrifice of Christ offered once for all the sins of the whole world. In this discourse, he often repeats from the law the word "once"; and he does that with a certain emphatic vehemence.

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Now, to appoint other priests, to institute another time, and to ordain another manner of sacrifice, is utterly to kick at, and tread underfoot, this heavenly and most evident truth. But this doctrine of the only sacrifice of Christ is the true, ancient, sound, unreproveable, and everlasting doctrine. By this sacrifice, all those are saved who are saved, and by this sacrifice, all those have been saved, who have been saved since the beginning of the world. Paul, the apostle of Christ and of the Gentiles (whose skill in the law was inferior to no man's), calls the enemies or adversaries of this doctrine fools, mad, inconstant, light-headed, carried with every puff of wind, wicked, apostates who have revolted from Christ, liars, false apostles, deceivers, schismatics, dogs, enchanters, witches, detestable, and cursed. Therefore, if an angel from heaven teaches us anything else, let him be accursed to us.[1290]

By the way, this must not be concealed: that in that yearly sacrifice, it was required and looked for at men's hands, first, that they should confess their sins; then, that they should be sorry in their minds, in good earnest and indeed, for the sins they committed; and lastly, that they should keep the sabbath, I do not mean an idle resting from honest business, but a quietness in the faith of Christ, and ceasing from ill deeds. Whoever so prepares himself in the feast of atonement — that is, in the time of the preaching of the grace of God through Christ — he is without doubt thoroughly cleansed by that one sacrifice of Christ Jesus. Up to here, I have not without good cause spoken so largely about this, as you perceive I have. For this one place gives a wonderful light, both to the understanding of many places in the scriptures, and also of the mystery of our redemption, and of Christ our Redeemer, and does it so plainly, that no other place [1291] so clearly expounds, sets forth, and lays them open before our eyes to be seen and looked at. It also teaches us to understand the words of Christ our Lord in the gospel of St. John, where he says, "There is one who accuses you, even Moses in whom you hope: for had you believed Moses, you would then have believed me; for he wrote of me." John 5.45-46

Now with the sacrifice of atonement and the other cleansing sacrifices, we advisedly include the sacrifice of the RED COW; Num 19.2 I mean, of the cleansing, or of the cleansing or holy water, which was ordained against all sorts of defilings and uncleannesses.[1292]

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For there were sundry kinds of uncleanness, about which there is a large discourse to be seen in Moses' law. And in these, a type for our corrupt nature and continual sins is laid before us. There is fully described in the nineteenth chapter of the book of Numbers, first the very ceremony and sacred rite; then is declared how to make the holy cleansing water against all defilings; lastly is added the use and effect of that holy water.

A red cow would be brought to Eleazar the priest, without spot and had never felt the yoke. Out of hand, it was carried out and slain outside the camp. Part of the blood was saved by the priest, and with his finger he sprinkled it seven times towards the tabernacle of appointment. But he burnt the whole cow with fire, so that no part of it was left; and into the fire he cast cedar-wood, hyssop, and a scarlet lace. Once this was done, the priest washed himself in water; and another priest, who was clean, took his place. Gathering the ashes, he laid them up in a clean place. Therefore, as often as required, they put those ashes into an earthen vessel, into which they poured running water. The holy cleansing water was always prepared in that way; and with a sprinkler made of hyssop, they sprinkled it on all those who were defiled. This was the manner and ceremony of the cleansing, the use and end of it immediately follows.

The apostle Paul testifies that the circumstances of this ceremony laid before us a most evident type of Jesus Christ. For in the ninth chapter to the Hebrews he says: "If the ashes of a young cow, sprinkled, sanctifies those who are partakers of it, to the purifying of the flesh, then how much more shall the blood of Christ!" Heb 9.13-14 Therefore, both the priest and the cow bore the type of Christ. The cow being female, denotes the infirmity of man's nature; the red colour admonishes us about the Lord's blood, by which we are washed from our uncleanness. There was no spot to be found in Christ; for he was the Holy of holies, and altogether free from and without any sin. He was not brought to death by the yoke of necessity; for he offered himself of his own free will.

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Indeed, he offered himself willingly to go to his death, and that was outside the camp, or walls of the city, at mount Calvary: which the apostle Paul touches in the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews. Christ, both God and man, was wholly offered in body and soul. His blood is wholesome for us, if it is sprinkled in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. The faithful also must die with Christ; they must be humbled, and burn with love toward God as red as scarlet: [1293] that was the meaning of the cedar-wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet lace, which were thrown into the fire.

Moreover, the ashes which came from the sacrifice were gathered up and preserved to purify and cleanse with. Those ashes were nothing else than the type or figure of the effect of Christ's death or sacrifice — I mean, the very cleansing and remission of our sins. Therefore blood and water gushed abundantly out of the pierced side of Christ,[1294] that we might learn that out of the death of Christ flows our cleansing and our life. For life consists in blood, and water purges and is a sign of cleansing. The ashes were gathered by a man who was clean, who nevertheless was made unclean, and remained so, until evening. Finally, the water was sprinkled on the defiled with a sprinkler made of hyssop, to the end that he might be sanctified or purged by it. The water was kept in a holy place: for pearls [1295] and that which is holy, should not be thrown to dogs and filthy swine. The Lord also requires preachers to teach the effect of Christ's passion, and to lay before the world, in the contemptible and lowly [1296] preaching of the gospel, our redemption and sanctification in the death and blood of Christ. He requires, I say, holy teachers who are themselves faithful and cleansed in the blood of Christ.

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And yet those teachers still pray, with the whole church beside, even till evening (I mean, till the end of their lives) "Forgive us our trespasses." For the Lord himself said; "He that is washed is clean, and needs only to wash his feet." Joh 13.10 To this pertain the frequent washings used in this ceremony, which signify that all sins are purged by the grace of God; that the saints always have a holy care to watch against the assaults of sin; and that those sins are cleansed in no other way than by the water of Christ's grace. Lastly, it is most often and earnestly repeated in the law, that they all remain unclean, however many, being once denied, are not again cleansed with the holy water of separation. For the Lord said to Peter, "Unless I wash you, you shall have no part with me." Joh 13.8

My meaning is not to run through every particular point of this ceremony, but to touch the especial matters only. Therefore, I now proceed to that which remains.

To these cleansing sacrifices may also be added the sacrifices by which the bodily defilings, which were figures of the defilings of sin, were purified and cleansed. Of this sort were the defilings of the seed, eating and touching unclean creatures, leprosy, and the woman in child-bed. Moses largely handles all these from the twelfth to the fifteenth chapters of Leviticus. And in all this, nothing else is prefigured to the church of God, but our natural corruption and original wickedness, with their free cleansing by the grace of God, in the blood of Christ our Saviour. With these we may also number the sacrifice for jealousy. This sacrifice is thoroughly treated in the fifth chapter of Numbers, although the manner and order of it rather seems to belong to the judicial laws of God.

IV. The fourth kind of sacrifice, was the sacrifice of THANKSGIVING, which they called schelamim, or scholomim, the sacrifice of health, or the peace-offering: for it was offered to give thanks either for the recovery of health, or for felicity and prosperity. By this, I mean when they had received some good turn at the hands of God, or else had escaped by His aid, the brunt of some mishap or evil fortune. In this sacrifice, they used a beast either from the herd or from the fold.

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It was not lawful to offer birds; for it was done either with a bullock or a heifer, with a male or a female lamb, or with a he or she-goat. It was slain before the atrium: its hide or skin was the priest's fee. The blood was sprinkled around the altar. The kidneys, the caul of the liver, the rump of the lamb, and all the fat, was burnt on the altar of burnt-offerings. The right shoulder was heaved, and the breast was waved toward the ends of the world. (For thruma and thnupha,[1297] that is, the heaving and waving, were not kinds of sacrifices, but were ceremonies only, which the priests used in making their sacrifices and oblations. The heaving signified that Christ would be heaved or lifted up; and once lifted up, he would draw all men to himself. Joh 12.32 The waving of the breast toward every part of the world was a token that the preaching of Christ should be spread in every corner of the world.) The breast and the shoulder were both the priest's portion, together with the jaw-bone and the paunch or belly. The rest of the flesh was returned to the man who made the oblation, and was eaten by him in a holy banquet. The remnant of ceremonies belonging to this sacrifice are to be found in the third chapter of Leviticus. Lev 7.1-13 For if it were thoda [1298] — a confession, praise, or protestation — then a cake of pure wheat flour and salt steeped in oil was added to the sacrifice, or sodden cracknels, or bread baked in pans. Part of this was heaved and fell to the priest's share; the rest was returned to the offerer; even leavened bread was allowed to be eaten in the banquet.

Now, Christ was also preached in this kind of sacrifice, with the effect and power of his death and passion; and in it was shown the whole manner and order of giving thanks to God for his good benefits. There are sundry sorts of benefits. If a man received a good turn, or if an ill turn had not befallen him, or if he recovered his health or escaped some misfortune, then he offered a sacrifice to the Lord.

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There were also other ancient benefits common to all men.[1299] Such as, the fact that God made the world and all that is in it; and that through Christ he has redeemed all the faithful. There are daily benefits; and ultimately, all things are full of God's good benefits. For all these benefits, we must offer our sacrifice to God alone, and not to any creatures which he has made. Indeed, we must offer these to him with all our hearts; all our affections must be hallowed to the Lord. For out of the beasts which were sacrificed to the Lord for thanksgiving, those parts in which the especial power of life consists, were chosen and given to the Lord. For in the kidneys is the power of generation; in the blood the vital spirit; in the liver the spring of all the blood, etc. Now, we must give thanks by a sacrifice — that is, by Christ — for [1300] we are saved for Christ's sake; and all good things are bestowed on us by God, not for our own sakes, nor for any creatures' sakes, but for Christ's sake, our only Saviour and Redeemer. To those who offered a sacrifice, a sober and merry banquet was allowed, because the felicity of those who are not unthankful, is for the most part augmented two-fold, double. The knowledge of Christ is a banquet of delicacies, and a continual feast.

Those offerings which are called vows and free-will-offerings,[1301] much agree with sacrifices of thanksgiving The free-will-offering proceeded from mere good will and devotion of the mind, without the necessity or compulsion of any law or ordinance — as when a servant gives his master the thing he does not owe him, as a declaration only of the good will he bears toward him. But the free-will-offerings differ in this from the sacrifice of thanksgiving, because in the sacrifice of thanksgiving, a charge was given that whatever was left, which was not spent the first day, should not be eaten on the morrow, but be burnt with fire. On the other side, in the free-will-offerings it was lawful for them to eat the remnant on the second day, and [1302] to burn their leftovers on the third day. Now, the vowed sacrifices were those which were offered by a covenant to the Lord; for example, a man in peril might vow to make a sacrifice to God, if he is delivered out of that imminent danger.

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If it happens that he is delivered, and he offers the sacrifice for his delivery, then the thing that is offered is called a vowed sacrifice. The ceremonies of the two [1303] wholly agreed with the sacrifice of thanksgiving. More about them may be seen in the seventh chapter of Leviticus.

The meaning of these sacrifices was that all good benefits are bestowed on us for Christ's sake; and [1304] we receive with those benefits the very good will which we have to serve the Lord.

I have said this much up to here touching the sacrifices of the people of God. I have not touched every point, but only those of most importance. In these sacrifices, as in a lively action, Christ our Lord was set forth: his passion and the effectual merit of his death. So that, we may call the holy actions of these sacrifices, sermons on the passion of Christ and instructions [1305] about our redemption by our Lord and Saviour.

Now, because we have previously spoken about vowed sacrifices, we must borrow leave here for a digression, to say something about their usual vows. For vows belong to the Jewish ceremonies. There is a large discourse in the law of God about making, performing, and redeeming vows, but especially in the twenty-seventh chapter of Leviticus. To vow is to promise anything [1306] with a solemn oath, either for our own welfare or another's. And therefore a vow was an action referred to God alone, and that too was in a holy and lawful thing. But there was a difference in vows; because vowed things were divided into four kinds. For sometimes they vowed men, sometimes they vowed other living things, sometimes houses, and sometimes lands or other immoveable substances.[1307] Again, there was a difference in men according to their ages, and according to their ages they might be redeemed. No redemption was permitted at all for clean living creatures. But they were free either to leave houses to the use of the ministry, or else to redeem them with such a sum as the priest valued them at.[1308]

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In lands, redemption was sometimes permitted, and sometimes not permitted. And in the thirtieth chapter of the book of Numbers a precise commandment is given touching the votaries,[1309] when their vows have force and when their effect is small. It is diligently beaten into their heads, that vows lawfully made to God are not to be reneged on, but strictly kept and thoroughly performed. Rash or unlawful vows, the Lord never liked nor received.

The prophet speaks of lawful vows, and those made to the true and only God, where he says, "Make vows, and pay them." Psa 76.11 We do not read that any of the godly sort made vows to any saints or any other creatures; nor that they vowed anything which was not in their power to vow, nor which was contrary to the will of God to whom they vowed it, nor which was to their neighbour's hindrance, nor which lacked some evident commodity. And truly, these kinds of vows were permitted to the Israelites, till the time of amendment, for no other reason than to remain in the worship of the one true God, and not make their vows to any other strange God.

To the treatise of vows belongs the discipline and order of Nazarites. There is a large discourse about this in the sixth chapter of the book of Numbers. The Nazarites were those who would take upon themselves, of their own accord, a stricter and more severe course of life than the common people used. This was either because they wished to attend more freely to God's service, without hindrance; or else because they had previously lived too licentiously. They kept this vow as a discipline, to make other men follow their example of virtue and of honest living. Thus, some have taken it that the Nazarites have their name from the word separation, because Nazir among the Hebrews signifies a separation. Separating themselves from the common course of life that other men led, the Nazarites gave themselves to a peculiar form of living for God and godliness' sake. That severe and strict discipline continued in some all their life, as it did in Samson and Samuel.[1310]

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Moreover, those who wholly gave themselves to the study of the scriptures were called Nazarites by the prophets Amos and Jeremiah.[1311] This was because of their most temperate life (which is required of students), and because they were wholly dedicated to the ministry of God. Sometimes it also endured only for a certain span of days or months. These Nazarites, according to the commandment of the law, abstained from certain things from which they were not barred by any other law, and which were not unlawful for other men to use outside the necessity of that vow. First of all, they abstained from wine, from all things that the vine brought forth, and whatever else made men drunk. But it is manifest that, as wine is the good creation of God, so no drink is forbidden by the law. Yet, because the Nazarites were consecrated to the Lord, and sanctified by a certain peculiar kind of living; and because wine is the means that leads to drunkenness (which is the gulf of all sin and filthiness), the Nazarites did not therefore abstain from wine without cause. They also took heed of idleness, the mother of mischief, and utterly despised all worldly pleasures.

Furthermore, so long as the time of their vow endured, they did not clip their hair, but let their locks grow out at length. Thereupon, some think they took their names, and were called Nazarites, insofar as Nazer signifies hair. They suppose they were called Nazarites, as if to say they were long-locked or shaggy-haired people.[1312] But the apostle Paul bids the woman to pray, or to come into the congregation to hear a sermon, with her head covered, for no other reason but that she is not in her own power, but is subject to another: that is, to her husband. And therefore, the Nazarites let their hair grow because, by the vow which they had made to God, they were no longer in their own power, but were wholly yielded into the power of God. And the head, which is the tower of the body and the most excellent part of it, being covered [1313] with a bush of hair, was a token that the whole man was given to the Lord by vow, to whom alone he ought to have an eye, and upon whom alone he should wholly depend.

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Moreover, it was required at the hands of the Nazarite, that he should not defile himself with the contagious company of wicked and naughty persons. To this also belongs the commandment which charged the Nazarite not to be present at the death or burial of his parents, or children, or wife, or brethren, or sisters. For he ought to settle the eyes of his mind on God alone, and in comparison to Him, to lightly treat and loathe the things which were most dear and precious to him. But if he were caught unawares,[1314] and was defiled by seeing a dead body,[1315] he was not thereby acquitted of his vow, as if his life prior to that point was sufficient for its performance. He was commanded to sanctify himself the seventh day, and then again undertake to keep his vow.

By all this, we may plainly perceive what and how great the sin of Samson was, who was a Nazarite to the Lord — because he not only lurked in the brothel-house with the harlot, but he also betrayed the secret of God to her. He tossed aside the covenant made with God, of which his hair was a sure testimony. Therefore, the Lord forsook him, and that wonderful strength which he had from heaven was clean taken away from him. For the strength of Samson did not lay in his hair, so that by cutting off his hair, his strength was also cut away. Rather, it lay in the Spirit of the Lord, who was given to him from God above. And therefore we so often find this sentence in the scripture: "And the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson." [1316] Therefore when the Spirit of God departed, his strength also departed. But it departed from him when, being wholly joined to the harlot, he was made one soul with her, and preferred her before God and his commandment. Thus he allowed his hair to be lopped off,[1317] and utterly revolted from the ordinance of the Lord. For by that means, the Spirit of God forsook him. Upon this, he was immediately after placed into the hands of his enemies, the Philistines. There, when he was miserably vexed, and when he heard evil spoken of the name of God,[1318] and blasphemed because of his captivity, he repented heartily, and called upon the name of the Lord.

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By this it came to pass that, when his hair grew out again, his strength returned; that is, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him again, being brought to him, not by the growth of his hairs, but by his repentance and earnest calling upon the Lord. Nor did Samson desire to revenge his own private injury, so much as to suppress their blasphemous mouths, and to deliver the people of God [1319] from fear and slavery. The strength of God therefore returned again, with which, bending the pillars of the theatre, Samson was himself slain with the fall of the palace; and at his death, he slew many more than he had killed during his lifetime before.

But now we return again to the purpose: to add the other ceremonies that belong to the exposition of the vow of the Nazarites.

When the time had expired, therefore, which the Nazarite had taken upon himself to observe, he came to the tabernacle of the Lord, and offered the sacrifices that are prescribed in the law. He testified that he was a sinner, and plainly confessed that any goodness and virtue [1320] that was to be found in him, was given and bestowed from God above. And therefore he shaved his head, and cast his hair into the fire,[1321] in which the peace-offering was burning. At last, when all this was accomplished in this manner, it was lawful for the Nazarite, as one loosed of his bonds, to return to his old life again. This much up to here touching the discipline of the Nazarites.

Now, touching the clean and unclean, there is a long discourse in the law of Moses. In my former treatise, I lightly touched on and passed over certain things. But now at last (for here I mean to make an end of speaking about ceremonial laws) I will add something touching the choice of meats — I mean, of clean and unclean meats.

In the beginning, God, truly, created all things; and he so created them that, as the Creator is good, even so, all his creatures (even today) are good also. Nor does he contradict himself now, when he forbids certain meats, as though something in itself were unclean. There are other mysteries that lie hidden under this doctrine of the choice of meats.

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The laws, which are given touching meats and victuals, seem to be small and of little value; but it pleased the Lord in a small thing to admonish us what we have to do in a greater thing; and that even in the smallest things, the authority of his Godhead ought to be regarded. For the authority of the law depends upon God: God is the lawgiver, and the law is his invention. This suppresses the impudence [1322] of mortal men, which makes, undoes, and every day devises new laws and ordinances. Therefore, in these kinds of laws, God commends to his people that faithful obedience be shown to him — even as, in the beginning, he commanded Adam not to taste of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thereby requiring that faithful obedience be shown to him. Truly, the obedience and faith in the Maccabees, in old Eleazar, and in certain other godly men who stood against king Antiochus, even to the point of shedding their blood and suffering a most bitter death, pleased the Lord exceedingly.[1323] Others abstained from swine's flesh, for which they obtained neither praise nor glory among wicked men.[1324] When the word of God says that a thing is holy, it is holy indeed, because He is holy that commands it. When God says that anything is unclean, it is unclean indeed, so that to eat anything against the word of God, is to defile the eater. "You now are clean," says the Lord in the Gospel, "because of the word which I spoke to you." John 15.3 It is needful, therefore, that we believe the word of God, and that obedience go before faith.[1325] Then it can only be that the deed or work done by faith, as Eleazar's was (who would not taste the swine's flesh), must be acceptable to God, with whom whatever is not of faith, is sin and wickedness. Rom 14.23

Moreover, in his laws [1326] touching the abstaining from the flesh of certain living creatures, the Lord had a great regard for the health and soundness of mortal men's bodies.

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For some of those meats which he forbids eating, are thought by physicians to be scarcely wholesome for our bodies. And thereupon the saints gather this syllogism: If God cares for the health of our bodies, he is truly far more careful for the preservation of our souls. What may be thought of this: that many nations have tempered [1327] themselves from eating and touching some living creatures? The people of Israel were sufficiently superstitious and curious of themselves. Therefore, that they should not be their own carvers, and invent toys [1328] as they thought best, God gave them such laws for the choice of their meat, that they contained hidden mysteries in them, thereby drawing Israel away from their own devices, and severing them from all other nations. Moses testifies of this in the fourteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, saying: "You are a holy people to the Lord your God; and the Lord your God has chosen you from among all the nations on the face of the whole earth, to be a peculiar people for himself." In the Acts of the Apostles, a vision is shown to St. Peter,[1329] in which the unclean beasts meant the Gentiles. Lastly, God would have the nature and disposition of the beasts that he forbade being eaten, be thoroughly scanned. For in their diet at the table, he laid the heavenly philosophy before their eyes in figures. He gave them occasion, even in their meat, to think and speak about the true holiness of the mind, to the end that men should not be filthy, impudent, foul, and unclean. And therefore, this clause is repeated so many times: "I the Lord your God am holy." [1330] It was as if to say, All these ceremonies tend to this end: that you may give yourselves to holiness. Therefore, in those figures he taught the godly what to follow, and what to flee from.

Now, in the law of the clean and unclean, he first of all put certain generalities; and then he descends by specialities; and in a catalog, he reckons up certain particular things in a very natural course and order. The place is set out in full, in the eleventh chapter of Leviticus and the fourteenth chapter of Deuteronomy.

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Those beasts were allowed to be eaten, which cleave the hoof, and chew the cud. Here are two things set down, in which the duty of a good man is notably contained: for if we would be clean, we must divide the hoof, and also chew the cud. Our affection [1331] is the foot of our minds; this affection must not be followed, without discretion to judge between affections in all things. And as in a cleft, there are two parts or sides, the right and the left, so a good man chooses the good, and flies from the evil. Chewing the cud is our judgment. For we must not admit everything which we hear and see, but only those things which we have examined exactly, and found to be contrary neither to God nor to his law.

Many living things are then particularly recited, which were not lawful to be eaten among the people of the Lord. Those were either four-footed beasts upon the earth, or fishes, or birds, or those which creep upon the ground. Of four-footed beasts, four by name we are especially forbidden: the camel, whose long and lofty neck teaches us that pride and arrogance must be eschewed;[1332] the coney or mountain mouse,[1333] for God utterly disapproves the men who are altogether overwhelmed in the earth, like coneys, and never lift their minds to heaven;[1334] the hare, a fearful beast, which warns us to shake off all cowardly fearfulness; even as the hog also puts us in mind to avoid all uncleanness, for a hog is the very type and picture of nasty filthiness; from that comes the byword to call an uncleanly person a beastly swine.[1335] And as the fable goes, Circe with her enchantments turned Ulysses' men into a sort of loathly hogs.[1336] Furthermore, of fishes, those were allowed for meat that have fins and scales on them. If they lacked either of them, they were forbidden — such as the eel which, though it has fins, it lacks scales, and therefore it was not to be eaten. For just as the bodies of fishes are ruled with the fins, so the whole man must be governed by hope. [1337]

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The scales are hard and cover the body. And unless we are constant and patient in the Lord's work, we are worthy to be abhorred by the Lord our Maker. Of birds, those are forbidden, which are the greatest raveners, devourers; which love and live by unclean meats; which fly abroad at owl-light, at midnight, and in the dark; and those which are crafty, unstable, and uncheerful.[1338] In this, therefore, what is commended to us is well-doing, abstinence, temperance, simplicity, light, constancy, cheerfulness, soundness, and pureness of living. Lastly, no small number are noted of those creatures which creep on the ground: for men altogether wrapped in worldly muck, utterly displease the Lord.

I have on purpose not reckoned up all the names of the forbidden creatures, partly because it would have been too tedious for you, and partly because the interpreters of the Bible vary widely in the interpretation of their names. Thus, I cannot marvel enough at the extreme blind stubbornness of the Jewish people, in keeping the choice of their meats so strictly, when their own rabbins vary, and cannot tell certainly, what creatures the Lord forbids them.

To this belongs that command — even before the law, in the time of Noah — by which God forbade eating the blood and the flesh, with the blood of anything torn by wild beasts, or strangled. Before the deluge, the fathers ate the herbs and fruits of the earth. After the flood they had leave to eat the flesh of living creatures; yet, they were to cut the throat, and drain the blood out of the body. The place is found in the ninth chapter of Genesis.9.3-4 Moreover, the Lord with great severity says in the law: "Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eats any manner of blood, I will set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people." Leviticus 17.10. And the same law is repeated in the nineteenth chapter of the same book, and in the twelfth and fifteenth chapters of Deuteronomy. It is again repeated in the third and seventh chapter of Leviticus. Nor is it without very just and great causes, that he so severely forbade the eating of blood. For first of all, after the words recited above, he immediately adds: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls: for blood shall make an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, Let no soul among you eat blood," etc. Lev 17.11-12

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Look, a most evident reason is given in these words, why it was not lawful to eat blood: because blood was the most excellent and precious thing, as that which was ordained for the sanctification of mankind. For God gave blood to be the price with which sins should be cleansed; to be the price of redemption, I say, by which men should be absolved of their sins. Blood is also the life, that is, the nourishment of life.

The blood, therefore, was a sign of the blood of Christ that was to be shed upon the cross. By his blood, as a most full and absolute atonement, the faithful are cleansed and thoroughly sanctified; and in his blood is the nourishment of the soul unto life everlasting. It was not lawful to eat the flesh of the sacrifices whose blood was carried into the sanctum [1339] for sin, but it was to be burnt outside the camp. So too, it was unlawful to eat the [1340] blood, which [1341] was the cleansing for their sins. Therefore, he is considered to eat blood, who attributes to his own strength or works the atonement which was made by the blood of Christ — esteeming Christ's blood to be profane, and not attributing to it the full satisfaction for all sins. Again, he is considered not to eat it, but to pour the blood at the altar, who ascribes the benefit of our redemption to the only merit of Christ, and esteems it of so great a value as it should be esteemed by right.

Lastly, God would have it deeply printed in the minds of men, that no man should shed another's blood, nor live by the blood and bowels of other men — as mercenary soldiers, covetous persons, usurers, and cozeners do, in sucking out and shedding the blood of silly people with subtle sleights and open injury. And God, talking with Noah, with terrible threats [1342] beat a horrible fear into all murderers, saying: "If men are slack, I will take vengeance upon the shedding of blood." Gen 9.5-6 For man was made to the image and likeness of God. How can God choose, then, not to take the reproach as done to himself, which is done to his image? For whoever throws down the image of the king, offends against the king, and is accused of treason.

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But now, touching strangled, this law was given: "Do not eat with blood." And again, "Do not eat of that which dies of itself, nor of that which is torn by wild beasts," etc. [1343] But strangled and carrion that dies of itself, signified dead works. Whoever desires to get God's favour, [1344] is bid to purge himself of these. Therefore, whoever lives in wickedness, without repentance, not regarding the blood of Christ his Saviour, eats of what is strangled.

Now also, the touching of unclean things is set down in the law by these three notes: if you touch an unclean thing, or if you carry it, or if it falls by chance into some vessel or garment of yours. Whoever sins unwittingly, truly, is defiled by the "falling" of an unclean thing. But whoever sins willingly, and of a set and pretended purpose [i.e., "carries it"], sins more heinously. But whoever upholds wickedness [i.e., "touches it"], and compels others to commit it, sins most grievously of all. In touching unclean things, and also in other instances, it is said that the uncleanness shall abide till evening. That is an evident prophecy of Christ: namely, that the Messiah should come at evening, that is, at the end of the world, to purge the sins of all the earth.

Summary

I have stayed in and stuck upon the ceremonial laws enough, and long enough, by two whole sermons thus far (I pray to God it may be to your profit, dearly beloved). Therefore, that I may now come to an end, I will bring the chief points about which I have spoken, into a brief summary.

I divided the whole treatise about the ceremonial laws into three especial branches. For I spoke of the holy persons, of the holy time and place, and of the holy things which these holy persons exercised in the sacred place — I mean, the sacraments, the sacrifices, and other holy ceremonies. The holy persons are the priests. I showed you their first beginning, their ordering, their mystical apparel, and their sundry offices.

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When I spoke of the holy time and place, I described the tabernacle to you, and noted for you what was within the tabernacle: namely, the ark of the covenant, the golden table, the golden candlestick, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt-sacrifices, and the brazen laver: I declared the mysteries of all these to you. In the treatise about the holy time, I touched all the kinds of holy-days and solemn feast-days, with all their certain and uncertain holy-days. Last of all, in our discourse on the holy things,[1345] I told you of the two sacraments of the old church, circumcision and the Passover; and also of the sacrifices, some of which were burnt-offerings, some meat-offerings, some peculiar, and some of thanksgiving.[1346] In these, we also spoke somewhat touching free-will-offerings and vowed sacrifices. Finally, we spoke of vows, of the discipline [1347] of the Nazarites, of clean and unclean creatures, of the choice of meats, of blood and strangled, and of touching unclean things.

The Lord Jesus enlighten your hearts, that all this may tend to the glory of his name, and the health of your souls! Amen.

3-7. THE SEVENTH SERMON: THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.

OF THE JUDICIAL LAWS OF GOD.

IN prosecuting the treatise of God's laws, I have now, lastly, to speak of that sort which are called the judicial laws. I will treat these, dearly beloved, as briefly as I can, so far as I am persuaded to be expedient for your edification. This treatise will not be unpleasant nor unprofitable to every zealous hearer, although it does specially belong to courts of law, where judgment is exercised. For the judicial laws were set out by God [1348] with wonderful faith and diligence by the ministry of his servant Moses; and God is not in the habit of revealing anything to mankind with such precise and exquisite diligence, unless it directly tends to mankind's great commodity.

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Now, although these judicial laws are very few in number, and not to be compared in multitude with the huge volumes of the laws and decrees of emperors, kings, and wisest sages — yet in their short breviary, they contain the chief points of judgment and justice, and in effect, almost as much as is contained in the books of the laws and constitutions of the emperors and civil lawyers. The good Lord would not by too long and burdensome a pack of laws be too burdenous and troublesome to his people. Nor was it needful to over-curiously stick upon every individual thought of ill-disposed persons. It is sufficient for all wise men, people, and nations, if everyone has as much law as is sufficient for the conservation of peace, civil honesty, and public tranquility — as all the holy scripture [1349] witnesses that the people of Israel had.

Now, these judicial laws are the most ancient, and the very fountains of all other good laws which are to be found in almost the whole world. Moses was before all other lawgivers that were of name and authority. Among them, Mercurius [1350] Trismegistus, and Rhadamanthus the Lycian [1351] are thought to be the eldest. The Egyptians called their Mercurius by the name of Thoth, who, as Lactantius affirms, slew Argus who had so many eyes, and upon that murder, fled into Egypt.[1352]

Now Argus and Atlas lived about the time of Cecrops Diphyes;[1353] and Cecrops is reported to have lived in the same time as Moses.[1354] Rhadamanthus also is supposed to have lived after the days of Joshua, Moses' servant and successor.

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But the most famous lawgivers, of the greatest and most ancient nations, followed long after the death of Moses: Draco and Solon among the Athenians, Minos with the Cretians, Charondas of the Tyrians [Thurians], Phoronaeus to the Argives, Lycurgus to the Lacedemonians, Pythagoras to the Italians, Romulus and Numa to the Romans. Plato wrote of laws a little before the reign of Philip, king of Macedon and father to Alexander the Great.[1355] And Cicero, Lib. ii. de Legibus, says:

"I see therefore that the opinion of the wisest sort was that law was neither invented by men's wits, nor was yet the decree or ordinance of people; but it was a certain eternal thing, ruling the whole world with discretion to command or forbid, to do or leave undone. So they said that the chief and highest law is the wisdom of God, which commands or forbids all things by reason. Upon which that law, which the gods have given to mankind, is rightly commended: for it is the reason and discretion of the wise which is able either to command or else forbid;" and so forth.[1356]

Therefore the judicial laws of God are commended to us, not so much for their antiquity, as for the authority which they have of God.

Now, that we may plainly and distinctly discourse upon this matter, you have to mark that to judge is an action; and in this treatise, it is taken for an action done in the courts of judgment. For it signifies to take up and determine between matters which are at variance, or else upon hearing a cause, to give sentence or judgment. Finally, to judge signifies to deliver those who are in danger, to relieve the oppressed, to defend the afflicted, and to suppress mischievous offenders with punishment. Judgment, therefore, is not the sitting or meeting of judges in assizes or sessions. Rather, it is the very diligent discussing of causes; the giving of sentence according to right and equity by the laws of God; and also the assertion and defence by which the good are delivered, and punishment is executed upon ill-disposed and wicked offenders.

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The judges are the overseers of judgment and justice; I mean, those who justly, according to the laws, give sentence between those who are at discord; who defend and deliver the good, and punish and bridle the wicked. And so, the judicial laws are those which inform the judges how to determine about controversies and questions, how to judge justly, how to punish the wicked, and how to defend the good, so that peace, honesty, justice, and public tranquility may be among all men. This alone is the end and mark to which both the judge and all the judicial laws tend and are directed. For God, our good Lord and lawgiver, would have it go well with man, that we may live happily, civilly, and in tranquility. And therefore, in this treatise we do not exclude the care and defence of pure religion, but make it one of the especial points which the judicial laws look to.

And now, as with the ceremonial laws, so also the judicial laws are added by God to the Ten Commandments, to expound and confirm them with. For the precepts of the Ten Commandments are the chief and principal precepts to which we must refer all laws, as to the eternal mind or will of God. I do not think I need to stand and show you, dearly beloved, to what precepts of the Ten Commandments each separate judicial law is to be referred: for that is very plain and evident to everyone who takes but small pains to confer and lay them together. For the judicial laws that are set out against murder and injury pertain to this precept: "You shall not murder." And whatever is spoken against adultery, fornication, and filthy lusts, are added to the commandment: "You shall not commit adultery." Likewise, whatever is said in the judicial laws against deceits, shifts, cozenings, and usury, belong to the commandment: "You shall not steal." Lastly, all the laws touching the bridling of heretics and suppressing apostates by force, are set down to make plain the first, second, third, and fourth commandments of the first tablet. For some laws may be applied to more precepts than just one of the Ten Commandments. But this is easy and plain to perceive by every man. Therefore I will not stand any longer about it.

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Now, because the judicial laws first of all require judges — those, I mean, who should maintain and execute the laws (for laws without executors seem to be dead, and on the other side, they are alive under a just magistrate, who is called the living law for that reason).[1357] Therefore, above all other laws are placed those judicial laws which were given by God touching the magistrate or judges, with their office and election. We read thus about their election: Moses to the people, "Bring men of wisdom and of understanding, and expert, [1358] according to your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you." Deu 1.13 Again: "I will make you [1359] rulers and judges to judge the people, according to your tribes, in all your cities which the Lord your God gives you." Deu 16.18 And yet again, more plainly: "Seek" (says Jethro, being inspired from above, to Moses) "out of all the people men of courage, and those who fear God, true men, hating covetousness," (namely, those who hate to take money and bribes), "and over the people make of them rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens: and let them judge the people at all seasons. If you do this, you shall both keep the ordinances of God, and the people in peace and safety." Exo 18.21-23 To this belongs that which we read in the book of Numbers, where Moses prayed, saying: "Let the God of the spirits of all flesh set a man over this congregation, who may go out and in before them; so that the congregation of the Lord are not like sheep without a shepherd." Num 27.16-23 In this, Moses has left us an example to imitate, in making our prayers to God for the election of our judges. For oftentimes our opinions or judgments about men utterly deceive us. But the God of spirits beholds the minds and hearts, and knows what everyone is in thoughts and inward meaning. He therefore must be sought to give and show to us, not hypocrites to be our judges, but men of truth and virtue. In the same place, Moses leaves us the description of consecrating newly chosen judges: for they were set before the Lord, and hands were laid upon them, with prayers and supplications.

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Moreover, the office of judge is very briefly described by the Lord (yet in most effectual and absolute sentences), from the mouth of Moses, in these words:

"Hear the causes of your brethren, and judge righteously between every man and his brother, and the stranger that is with him. You shall have no respect to any person [1360] in judgment; but hear the small and the great alike; and do not fear the face of any man: for the judgment is God's." Deu 1.16-17

Again:

"Judge the people with just judgment. Do not bend in judgment.[1361] Have no respect of persons, nor take any bribes; for rewards blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert just causes. Judge with justice, that you may live, and possess the land which the Lord your God gives you." Deu 16.18-20

And again:

"Do no unjust thing in judgment; do not accept the face of the poor, nor fear the face of the mighty, but judge your neighbour justly." Lev 19.15

Again:

"You shall have nothing to do with a false report; you shall not follow a multitude to do evil; nor shall you speak in a matter of justice according to the majority, to pervert judgment:" Exo 23.1-3

That is, if you see an innocent condemned by the multitude, do not therefore condemn him because the multitude has condemned him; but judge justly, and do not commit evil because of the many voices of the multitude.

"You shall not esteem a poor man in his cause; nor shall you keep the poor from his right in his suit. Keep far from a false matter; and see that you do not slay the innocent and righteous.[1362] You shall not oppress the stranger; seeing that you yourselves were strangers in the land of Egypt." Exo 23.7, 9

And truly, when God had delivered the people from the tyranny of the kings of Egypt, he did not put them in subjection to kings again, nor burden them with the tributes which kings are prone to exact from their subjects. For he made them a commonweal, or an aristocracy, which was the most excellent kind of regiment, in which the choicest men in all the multitude were picked out to bear the sway and to rule the rest.

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Yet, because he was not ignorant of his peoples' foolishness, and that being weary of their liberty, they would crave a king (which he afterward also dissuaded them from [1363] by his servant Samuel), he made laws for a king also, that the king might understand that he was to live under the laws, and to give judgment according to the laws. The discipline or institution of a king is thus expressed in the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy:

"When you have come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, and shall say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are about me; then you shall make him king over you, whom the Lord your God shall choose. One from among the midst of your brethren shall you make king over you; and you may not set a stranger over you, who is not of your brethren. But he shall not gather many horses for himself, nor bring the people back again into Egypt, to increase the number of horses" — that is, to get himself a strong troop of horsemen — "for the Lord has said, henceforth you shall not go that way again. Also let him not take many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away: nor let him gather too much silver and gold. And when he is set upon the seat of his kingdom, he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, according to the copy of the book which the priests use, the Levites. And it shall be with him; and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and to keep all the words of this law, and to do these ordinances. And let not his heart arise above his brethren, nor let him turn from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left; that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, both he and his sons, in the midst of Israel." Deu 17.14-20

Thus much up to here about the magistrates, judges, and kings.

Now I suppose that all things are contained in this institution of a king, which are most largely set out by other authors, touching the discipline and education of a prince. And by the way, this is especially to be noted: that kings are not set as lords and rulers over the word and laws of God; but they are, as subjects, to be judged by the word of God, as those who ought to rule and govern all things according to the rule of His word and commandment.

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And here I have to repeat to you some of the judicial laws; I do not mean all and every one, but those alone which are the chief and choicest to be noted. By these, you may consider of the rest, and plainly perceive that the people of Israel were not destitute of any law which was necessary and profitable for their good estate and welfare. I will recite them to you as briefly as possible, and in as natural and plain an order as I possibly can.

There is extensive speech throughout the scripture, of the holy buildings, of not removing those things which were consecrated to the Lord, and finally, of maintaining and publishing true religion. Nor do I think it is greatly to the purpose to recite all the laws word by word, nor to make particular mention of all the commandments touching those matters. Truly, of the heathen, and overthrowing their temples and superstitious holy toys, this commandment is briefly given by the Lord himself:

"When the Lord your God has cast out many nations before you, you shall root them out; nor shall you make league with them, nor pity them, nor join affinity with them: because they will seduce your sons to serve strange gods; and then my fury will wax hot against you, and I destroy you. But you shall do this to them: you will destroy their altars, break their idols,[1364] cut down their groves, and burn their images with fire. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; and the Lord your God has chosen you to be a peculiar people for himself." Deu 7.1-6

The same law is set down in the twenty-third chapter of Exodus, and is again repeated in the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy. To this idolatry belong the laws that were published against idols and images. In the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus the Lord says: "Do not look back to idols, nor make molten gods: I am the Lord your God." Lev 19.4 Also in the twenty-sixth chapter: "You shall make no idols nor graven image, nor rear up any pillar, nor set you up any image of stone [1365] in your land, to bow down to it: for I am the Lord your God." Lev 26.1

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Again, in the sixteenth chapter of Deuteronomy: "You shall plant no grove of trees near the altar of the Lord your God; nor shall you set up any image which the Lord your God hates." Deu 16.21-22 There are also, beside these, many other laws to this end and purpose in every place through the entire volume of the scriptures.

Of handling and treating well the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers, the Lord gives this commandment:

"You shall not afflict the widow, nor the fatherless. But if you go on to afflict them, without doubt they shall cry to me, and I will assuredly hear them, and will be angry with you, and will slay you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children be fatherless." Exo 22.22-24

To this belongs a good part of the fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy. In the twenty-fourth chapter, the Lord says: "Do not pervert the judgment of the stranger, of the fatherless, and of the widow. Remember that you were a stranger in the land of Egypt." Deu 24.17-18

About receiving and refusing witnesses and their witness-bearings in judgment, these few notes are given m the law:

"One witness shall not have force against a man, whatever his sin or offence may be: but in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. If a false witness rises up against a man to accuse him of trespass, the judges shall make diligent inquisition; and if they find that the witness has borne false witness against his brother, then they shall do to him as he had thought to have done to his brother; so you shall put away evil from your midst." [1366]

Now, for the oath which the judges have to exact, or for those who are at variance, or else the vow witnesses have to take, the Lord commands it to be done by calling to record his holy Name; and that too, is of none other but his name alone. Deuteronomy 10, etc.

Moreover, where Moses so often bids the judges in a hard and doubtful matter, to take recourse to the high priest, that in effect is a kind of appeal to God himself, or to the oracle of God, for the declaration of it. This is seen in the eighteenth chapter of Exodus, and in the first and seventeenth chapters of Deuteronomy.

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There are exquisite precepts in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus, as well as in other places of the books of Moses, about lawful wedlock, and against incestuous and unprofitable marriages, and also about the degrees of consanguinity and affinity. Truly, where there is not a lawful marriage, there is no matrimony. Therefore, the children that are born of it are counted bastards; nor is there any dowry or inheritance for them.

The Lord in many places of his law charges parents to bring up their children honestly, and to instruct them in the fear of God. Among the rest he says: "The words which I command you this day you shall show to your children, and shall talk of them when you are at home in your house, and as you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes; and you shall write them upon the posts of your house, and upon your gates," etc. Deu 6.6-9

Again, for honouring, reverencing, and nourishing parents, there are some things set down in which the honour and duty to be given to parents is diligently commended to all sorts of people, not only in the moral law, but also in the judicial laws. I will speak of these when I come to treat parricide, under which title I comprehend the evil handling and naughty demeanour of men to their parents.

Now, how great the authority of fathers over their children was, we may conjecture especially by the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, where it is permitted to the father in poverty, to sell his daughter. Exo 21.7 Again, in another place, leave is given to the father either to deny, or else to give, his deflowered daughter in marriage to the one who defiled her. Exo 22.16-17 And again, it was in the father's power to break the vow [1367] which the child had made without his knowledge or consent, Numbers 30. But to disinherit the children (if the children had not deserved it, but some corrupt affection had blinded the parents) lay not in the power or will of the parents. That law which is published in the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy; shows and forbids the father to place the second in the right of his eldest or first-begotten son.

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Concerning coming to inheritance, and the succession of goods, or the lawful succession by kindred, there is a precise law in the twenty-seventh chapter of the book of Numbers. There the case of the daughters of Zelphad is set down, who requested that their father's name should not be wiped out, but that their father's inheritance and name might be given to and still remain with them. On that occasion, the law was made that if the sons died, the heritage should be conveyed and given to the daughters, or at least to those who were nearest in affinity. And to this belongs the law of raising seed for the deceased brother, and almost the whole thirty-sixth chapter of the book of Numbers. On this law also hangs the right which comes by adoption.

Furthermore, there are many profitable, honest, and wholesome laws about whoredoms, adulteries, and the ravishing whoredom of virgins. In the twenty-third chapter of Deuteronomy it is said, "There shall be no whore from the daughters of Israel, nor whoremongers from the sons of Israel." Deu 23.17 And in the same place, he forbids bringing oblations which are the price from a harlot's hire. In Leviticus, this charge is given: "Do not set out your daughter for hire, to make her play the harlot; lest the land be defiled, and filled with sin." Lev 19.29 Therefore, in the twenty-second chapter of Deuteronomy, the maid that was deflowered, and yet feigned herself to still be a virgin, when she was given to a husband, was commanded to be stoned to death before the doors of her father's house; to the end that parents, being terrified by so grievous a thing, might be stirred up to look more warily to their children. In the twenty-second chapter of Exodus this law is given: "If a man entices a maid who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall endow her and take her as his wife." There are most sharp laws against whoredoms and adulteries in Deuteronomy 22; for there adulterers are punished with death. The same punishment was appointed for anyone who ravished a virgin by violence.

There are rules given in the fifth chapter of Numbers for suspicions and jealousy.Num 5.14-18 There are most severe and yet most just laws expressed against detestable, unlawful, and altogether devilish lusts — such as, against most filthy incest,Lev 20.12 abominable sodomy,Lev 20.13 horrible and unnatural bestiality.Lev 18.23 Those sins which God has cursed, are not once worthy to be named among men, Leviticus eighteenth and twentieth chapters.

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Divorce and separations were permitted by law in the twenty-fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, for no other reason than the hardness of the Jewish people's hearts, Mat 19.8 and for avoiding some greater inconvenience: namely, lest perhaps any man poison, strangle, or otherwise kill his wife whom he hated, when he could rid his hands of her by no other means. And those who were divorced in that manner, might at their pleasure be married to others.

Moreover, so that justice might be maintained, and every man might enjoy his own, there was a charge very diligently given in the law, for the division of things — for the partition of the land of promise by equal portions, and for the particular possession of proper goods — that possessions might be given to every tribe by lot, and that no man should by any means do away with the possessions given to him. To this belongs what is spoken by Moses in the thirty-second, thirty-third, thirty-fourth chapters of the book of Numbers, and oftentimes in other places also.

And yet, notwithstanding, this law was not at all prejudicial to traffic by exchange. For there were many and very upright laws published for buying and selling, for letting and hiring, for borrowing and lending, for usury and things left in custody. Whoever desires to see these places in the law, he has them in the twenty-fifth of Leviticus, in the twenty-second of Exodus, in the fifteenth and twenty-third chapters of Deuteronomy. And I suppose to this is to be referred the law which is given concerning pawns or pledges: "If you have taken your neighbour's garment in pledge, you shall restore it to him again before the sun sets. For that is his only covering;" that is, it is the garment with which he covers his flesh, and in which he sleeps. "For it shall come to pass, that if he cries out to me, I will hear him; because I am merciful." Exo 22.26-27 Again; "You shall not take the nether or upper mill-stone in pledge: for he has pledged to you that on which he lives." Deu 24.6

The laws for things left in custody, or committed to the credit of another man, and for taking oaths, commands every man to make true restitution of the thing given to him to keep. But if it were to be stolen from the one to whom custody of it was committed, then the one that kept it ought to purge himself by an oath before a magistrate, to show that he did not consent to have the thing conveyed away. The same order is commanded to be observed in things that are borrowed, lost, or otherwise broken: as seen in the twenty-second chapter of Exodus.

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And because it is manifest that no small part of the goods of the ancient Israelites consisted in the multitude of bondmen, the law of God therefore stays long upon the discourse about bondage and bondmen, and of their binding and manumission.[1368] Yet it diligently commands to handle bondmen mercifully, like men, and every sixth year to set them free from slavery. But if it happened that at the sixth year's end, any bondman desired to remain in his master's house, he was permitted to do so, on condition that his voluntary bondage was confirmed by the ceremony of emancipation. Namely: the bondman, being brought before the judges, should testify there, that he would serve in bondage voluntarily; thereupon, the lobe [1369] of his ear was to be bored with an awl, and fastened to the door. Exo 21.1-6 That was the sign or token of faith and obedience. For David, alluding to this, said that the Lord had bored through his ear; that is, by faith he had bound himself to obedience.

Moreover, in these laws the Lord limited the time of bondmen's manumission, because the lords of bondmen should not use them over-cruelly for their own gain and commodity's sake. All of this was fully set down in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus. We must also refer to that, the clemency that ought to be shown to servants, for in the twenty-third chapter of Deuteronomy it is said: "You shall not deliver to his master the servant which has escaped from his master to you; but let him dwell in any place to which he has fled." And yet, manstealing is most sharply forbidden. Now, the offence called Plagium,[1370] that is to say, manstealing, is committed by whoever entices other men's bondmen to run from their masters, or whoever steals other men's servants by theft or robbery, either keeping them for themselves, or else selling them to others. This law is given against such things: "Whoever steals a man, and sells him, if he is convicted of the crime, let him die the death." Exo 21.16 The same law is repeated in the twenty-fourth chapter of Deuteronomy.

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Little is said about free men in the law; but those who were known to be harlots' children, whose fathers no man knew, were excluded from bearing office in the commonwealth. Also, foreigners (such as Ammonites and Moabites) were utterly barred from rule and authority in the Israelite commonweal (Deuteronomy 23).

All deceit, cozening,[1371] robbery, shiftings, and subtle crafts, are flatly forbidden in the law, under the title of theft. For in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus we read: "You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie one to another." And in the nineteenth chapter of Deuteronomy: "You shall not remove your neighbour's meerstone." [1372] In the twenty-second chapter of Exodus, the Lord punishes theft with four or five-fold restitution. Whoever did not perform this, was sold, and brought into extreme bondage. But if the stolen thing was found with the thief, and recovered again, then the stealer restored to the owner double the value of what was stolen. To this law belonged whatever was spoken concerning sacrilege, stealing cattle, robbing the common treasury, and carrying away other men's bond-slaves (which I said something about a little earlier).[1373] And to this pertains that excellent law which says:

"You shall not deny or keep back the wages of a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is of your brethren, or of the strangers within your land. You shall give him his hire the same day, and do it before the sun goes down; because he is needy, and sustains his life with it:[1374] lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it is sin to you." Deu 24.14-15

Concerning doing and receiving damage, and making full restitution for the harm that is done, there are many constitutions in the law of the Lord.

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"If any man," says the law, "digs a well, and does not cause it to be covered, so that another man's ox or sheep falls into it, then let the one who owns the well take for himself the beast that perished, and pay the worth of the beast to its owner." Exo 21.33-34 The like law is made in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus, touching an ox that pushes with his horns. The twenty-second chapter gives the law of restitution, in giving like for like if either one man's pasture is eaten up by another man's cattle, or if one man hurts another man's corn or vineyard. For the law commands him to restore other pasturings, other corn-ground, and other vineyards, not from the worst, but from the best, to the one that had the damage done to him.

Likewise, if any man had set thorns on fire, and by his negligence had allowed it to catch hold on corn either standing in the field upright, or stacked up in mows [1375] at home — then the one by whose negligence the fire began, made amends for the loss that the other received.[1376] The same law is again repeated in the twenty-fourth chapter of Leviticus. In the twenty-second chapter of Deuteronomy, many things are expressed that must be referred to this title of theft. Of this sort is the law that bids us to bring back the ox that goes astray, and to restore the things that are found to the one that lost them; to keep our buildings in good repair, so that our brethren are not harmed by misfortune in the fall of them. And like these also, is the law which says: "You shall have a place outside the camp to go to, and bear a paddle-stick at your waist, with which as you sit, you shall dig a hole to hide your ordure, or cover your excrements in." Deu 23.12-13 And in effect, a like matter is handled in the civil law.[1377] For necessity requires that in commonweals there should be laws concerning draughts, and the order of buildings, so that no man should trouble or annoy his neighbours around him by his excrements or by building new houses. To this place we may also add the laws that were made concerning separating lepers from those who were clean, lest the contagious disease infect the healthy little by little. The laws about lepers and leprosy are set down at large in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Leviticus.

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In the law, the Lord commanded that just weights and just measures be kept, where he says: "You shall not have in your bag two manner of weights, a great and a small.[1378] Nor shall you have in your house different measures, a great and a small. But you shall have a right and just weight, and you shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God gives you. For all who do such things, and all who deal unrightly, are an abomination to the Lord your God." This law is given in the twenty-fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, Deu 25.13-16 and repeated in the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus.

There are many laws set down in the book of the Lord, about public judgments, witchcrafts, and the punishment of offenders. "You shall not," says the Lord, "allow witches to live." Again: "The fathers shall not be killed for the sons, nor the sons for the fathers: but every one shall be slain for his own offence." [1379] Nor does the law conceal the manner of killing: for it gives into the magistrate's hands the use of the sword, stones, and fire. And sometimes it is left to the judge's discretion to punish the offender according to the circumstance of the crime committed, either in body or goods, in loss of limbs or life, in scourging with rods, or selling into bondage. In the twentieth chapter of Leviticus, almost all the offences are reckoned up that are to be punished with immediate death. And in the same way, such punishments are repeated in the eighteenth and twenty-first chapters of the same book.

There is a precise charge against witches and soothsayers [1380] given in the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy. Deu 18.10 In the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus this short precept is given: "You shall not seek out witches, nor observe your dreams: you shall not decline to sorcerers, nor inquire of soothsayers, to be defiled by them." [1381] The law expressly gives judgment of death and extreme punishment against them, Leviticus 20.27. In the twenty-second chapter of Exodus, this strict sentence is sharply pronounced: "Let no woman live that is a witch." Exo 22.18

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Against heretics, schismatics, apostates, and false prophets, the law gives judgment in the thirteenth and eighteenth chapters of Deuteronomy; where it most plainly teaches how such people are to be handled. And like this is the law for stoning blasphemers, which is contained in the twenty-fourth chapter of Leviticus; and also the law for contemners and breakers of the Lord's sabbath, Numbers 15 (vv. 32-36)

There is much to be found in many places of the law, against seditious rebels and secret slanderers. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were rebels, of whose ends you may read in the sixteenth chapter of the book of Numbers. If any man maliciously slandered his wife's chastity, and was not able to prove it true, he was fined [1382] at a sum of money, or punished with stripes, as seen in the twenty-second chapter of Deuteronomy. In the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, this precept is given: "You shall not go up and down with tales among your people. Nor shall you hate your brother in your heart; rather, rebuke him and tell him your mind plainly." Also in the twenty-second chapter of Exodus it is said, "You shall not rail upon the gods (or judges),[1383] nor blaspheme the ruler of your people." Exo 22.28

Moreover, there are various kinds of murder, of which some are greater or smaller than others. The most detestable murder of all is parricide (when one kills his father or kinsman [1384]). Under this, we comprehend the evil-treatment or currish [1385] handling of parents by their children. "Whoever strikes father or mother, or curses them," says the law, "let him die the death." Exo 21.15,17 Again, they are bid to kill the rebel who dares stand up to resist the upright decrees and holy ordinances of the elders, Deuteronomy 17. And also, in the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy, we find: "If any man has a stubborn, froward, and rebellious son, who will not listen to the voice of his father, and the voice of his mother, and they have chastened him, and he still would not listen to them: then his father and his mother shall take him, and bring him to the elders of that city, and to the gate of that place, and say to the elders of the city, 'This son of ours is stubborn and disobedient, and will not listen to our voice; he is a rioter and a drunkard. And immediately, all the men of that city shall stone him with stones until he dies. And so you shall put evil away from you; and all Israel shall hear and fear." Deu 21.18

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Furthermore, murder is either committed willingly, or else unwillingly. There is an example of murder committed unwillingly, in the nineteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, where the case is put as follows: Two friends go to the wood to hew wood together; and as the one swings his stroke, the head of the axe slips from the handle, and strikes the other so that he dies from it. This deed the Lord neither imputes, nor would he have it imputed to the man, but to himself;[1386] and therefore He gives licence to the man to flee to the sanctuary. For His mind was that the sanctuaries should be a safeguard for those who killed men unwillingly, and not to bladers [1387] and cutters, not to those who poison or otherwise kill their neighbours out of a set pretence or purpose.[1388] There is much to be seen about this in the thirty-fifth chapter of Numbers, and the fourth and nineteenth chapters of Deuteronomy. The law for murder unwillingly committed also includes the case put forth thus: Two men fight together, and in their fight they strike a woman with child, so that either she falls into labor before her time, or else she shortly dies out of hand. In such a case, the Lord taught what is to be done, in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus. There the law of like for like is set down: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand," etc. In the same place also, another kind of murder is put, which is committed either by your beast — such as by your ox that pushes with his horns, or by your wolf, or by your dog that you keep in your house; or else by some instrument or building that is in your possession. Now you either knew, or did not know, the fierceness of your beast, the peril in your instrument, or the rottenness of your building. If you did not know it, you were then excused. But if you knew it, and did not seek a way to prevent the mischief, the Lord charged that you should die for it. But if clemency were granted to you to redeem your life, you should not refuse to pay any sum of money, however great it was.

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Now willful murder, committed on pretended malice,[1389] is utterly unpardonable in the law of God. "Such a one," says the law, "you shall pull from my altar, that he may be killed." Exo 21.14 In this case, redemption of life is not permitted, but the blood of the murderer is strictly required. Many cases of this severity, and many other things tending to this end, are to be read in the thirty-fifth chapter of Numbers and the twenty-first chapter of Exodus. In the twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy is described the action, partly ceremonial and partly judicial, which was solemnized when any man was found to be slain, and no man knew who was the murderer. There, the manner is also prescribed, how to atone for the murder. By this we may gather how horrible a sin murder is in the sight of God and the catholic church.

Lastly, the law does not leave the order of war untouched. For it gives precepts concerning the beginning, making, and ending of war; which are to be read in the twentieth chapter of Deuteronomy. Moreover, examples of terrible wars are set out in the law, such as that with the Amalekites in the seventeenth chapter of Exodus, and with the Midianites in the thirty-first chapter of the book of Numbers. Something also is said there touching the division of spoils gotten in the wars.

I know, my brethren, that I have been somewhat tedious in reciting the laws to you. But because the most wise and mighty God does nothing without especial causes and the evident profit of mankind, I could not allow this part of the law to pass untouched — also considering that I see it so diligently taught by God himself, and that it makes much of the opening and maintaining of the moral law. Our good God, who knows all things, also knows the dullness and over-slackness of man's wit, and how it requires things to be forcefully driven many times, for man to do good and eschew evil. And therefore, in these judicial laws the holy Lord has added a holy kind of compulsion to drive men on with.

In the moral laws, He frames our manners and teaches us what to do, and what to leave undone. With the ceremonial laws, he helps forward the morals; and under types and figures, he lays before the eyes of our body and mind the mysteries of God and his heavenly kingdom.

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And lastly, by the judicial laws he compels us to keep the laws, and preserves their integrity. Now all these together tend to this end only: that man may be saved, that he may worship God aright, and live according to the will of the Lord.

By the help of God, I have spoken this much up to here concerning his holy laws. Now let us praise the goodness of the Lord, who does not allow his people to lack anything necessary for their commodity; and even today instructs us with these laws to the glory of his name and the health of our souls.

3-8. THE EIGHTH SERMON: THE OLD & NEW TESTAMENTS.

OF THE USE OR EFFECT OF THE LAW OF GOD,

AND OF THE FULFILLING AND ABROGATING OF IT:

OF THE LIKENESS AND DIFFERENCE OF BOTH THE TESTAMENTS AND PEOPLE,

THE OLD AND THE NEW.

Up to here, in large sermons, I have laid out [1390] the law of God by several parts. Yet, I think I have not said all that should be said, nor made an end as I should, unless I now add a treatise about the use, effect, fulfilling, and abrogating of the law of God — even though I have touched this argument here and there in my sermons. Now, by this discourse or treatise, dearly beloved, you will understand that the Testament of the old and new church of God is all one; and that there is but one means of true salvation for all those who either have been, or at present are saved in the world. You will also perceive in what the old Testament differs from the new. Moreover, this treatise will be necessary and very profitable both to the understanding of many places in the holy scripture, and to the easy perceiving and most wholesome use of those things which I have said up to here touching the law. God — who is the author, wisdom, and perfect fulness of the law — give me grace to speak those things that will set forth his glory, and be profitable for the health of your souls.[1391]

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The use of God's law is manifold and of sundry sorts; and yet it may be reduced to three especial points, and we may say that its use is threefold or of three sorts.

FIRST of all, the chief and proper office of the law is to convince all men that they are guilty of sin, and are the children of death by their own fault. For the law of God sets forth for us the holy will of God; and in setting it forth, it requires a most perfect and absolute kind of righteousness from us. And for that reason, the law is usually called the testimony of God's will, and the most perfect exemplar of his divine pureness. To this belong those words of the Lord in the gospel, where briefly recounting the sum of God's commandments, he says:

"The first of all the commandments is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord: and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbour as yourself. There are no other commandments greater than these." Mar 12.29-31

Therefore, to this also pertains that saying of the apostle Paul: "The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and unfeigned faith." 1Tim 1.5 But since the law requires at all our hands, most absolute righteousness, charity, and [1392] a pure heart, it [1393] condemns all men of sin, unrighteousness, and death. For in the law of God it is expressly said: "Cursed is everyone who does not abide in all that is written in the book of the law, to do it." [1394] But which one of us fulfills all the points of the law? What man, I ask, either has had, or today has, a pure heart within him? What man has ever loved or now loves God with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind? What man never lusted after evil? Or who now does not lust every day? Therefore, imperfection and sin is revealed in mankind by the law, or by betraying the law.

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What shall we say to this? Where, I pray you, does there appear in any man, that divine and most absolute righteousness which the law requires? Job cries, "I know truly that a man, compared to God, cannot be justified." [1395] Or, "How shall a man be found righteous, if he is compared to God? If he argues with him, he shall not be able to answer one for a thousand.[1396] If I have any righteousness in me, I will not answer him, but I will beseech my judge." [1397] Likewise, these are the words of the apostle John, who says: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." Again, "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." 1Joh 1.8,10 Therefore, by this means the law is a certain mirror [1398] in which we behold our own corruption, frailness, imbecility, imperfection, and our judgment — that is, our just and deserved damnation. For the apostle expressly says that the law was given to the end that it might make manifest men's transgressions, and by that means drive them to acknowledging their imperfection and guilt in sinning. For none of us looks into his own bosom, nor into the secrets of his own breast, but we all flatter ourselves, and will not be persuaded that our thoughts and deeds [1399] are as corrupt as they are indeed; and therefore the law creeps in, and lays open the secrets of our hearts, and brings to light our sin and corruption. "Before the law," says the apostle, "although sin was in the world, yet it was not imputed." [1400] The same apostle also says: "The law works wrath; for where there is no law, there is no transgression." And again, "By the law comes the knowledge of sin." [1401] For in the seventh chapter to the Romans the same apostle says more fully:

"I would not have known sin except by the law: for I would not have known lust, unless the law had said, you shall not lust.

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But sin, taking occasion [1402] by the commandment, worked in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law, sin was dead. I once lived without law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I was dead. And it was found that the same commandment which was ordained for life, was for me an occasion of death," etc. Rom 7.7-10

A good part of that chapter is spent in that matter. Therefore, the proper office of Moses, and the principal use and effect of the law, is to show man his sin and imperfection.

As for those who stop here, and go no further to make any other use and effect of the law — as though Moses did nothing but kill, and the law did nothing but slay — they are diversely and not lightly deceived. I repeat it here again, and tell them that the very proper office of the law is to make sin manifest; and also that Moses' chief office is to teach us what we have to do, and to urge it with threatenings and cursings, especially when the law is compared with the gospel. For in the third chapter of the second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul calls the law the letter; and immediately after, he calls it the ministration of death; then again, he calls it a doctrine written in letters and ink, and figured in tablets of stone — which should not endure, but perish and decay. The same apostle, on the other side again,[1403] calls the gospel the ministration or doctrine of the Spirit, which endures and does not decay, which is written in men's hearts, and gives life to believers.[1404] Upon this, we freely confess that the law properly manifests our infirmity;[1405] but the gospel gives a medicine and a remedy to that which was almost past hope.

And now, here, we must think that our holy ancestors did not have the law alone to convince them of sin; nor did Moses do nothing else but kill and slay; nor was Moses given to wound them, but to heal them.[1406] And he did that, not by his own power or virtue, but by guiding them to Him that cherishes the contrite in heart, and heals all their sorrows: that is, Christ Jesus, who also worked by the ministry of Moses.

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For we must not think, from the beginning of the world, nor from Moses' time till the coming of Christ, that only the bare letter was preached, and that the grace and Spirit of God was idle and not wrought in the minds of the faithful. For the law shows us, and invincibly proves to us that the perfection which the most holy and perfect God requires of us in his law, is not in us — I mean, in our flesh. In this, it revokes and pulls back mankind (not by virtue of itself, but by the power of the quickening Spirit of Christ) from confidence in the flesh, in which there is no health nor jot of perfection. And consequently, it gives us occasion to turn to Christ our mediator, who alone is our sanctification and perfection. And so, for this occasion, the law is a path and ready way, and as it were, a schoolmaster given to us by God, to draw us away from all confidence in our own strengths, from all hope of our own merits,[1407] and from trust in any kind of creatures. And thus the law leads us directly by faith to Christ, who was made by God (as I said just now) our "righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." 1Cor 1.30 Without him, there is no salvation under the sun. Therefore, Moses not only urged the law, but also preached Christ and life in Christ. For the Lord in the gospel says to the Jews: "Do not think that I will accuse you to my Father; there is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For if you had believed Moses, you would undoubtedly have believed me: for he wrote of me." Joh 5.45-46 And Paul says to the Galatians:

"If there had been a law given which could have given life, then no doubt righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ would be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, and shut up for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, that we should be justified by faith." Gal 3.21-24

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Look, what could be said more plainly than that the law has confined all under sin? But to what end? "That the promise by the faith of Christ Jesus would be given to those who believe." And again: "Before faith came," that is, before the one came to whom our faith is directed, and upon whom it is grounded, "we were kept under the law." How? In truth, being shut up for the faith that was to be revealed. Therefore our fathers were shut up in the law, so that they would not break out at any time, and seek life and salvation anywhere else but in Christ alone. Therefore, the law led us [1408] by faith directly to Christ. And yet more plainly he says: "The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ." Look, here again the law brings us to Christ. And again he adds; "That we should be justified by faith." Therefore the law sets forth the true doctrine of justification, teaching plainly that we are justified by faith in Christ, and not by the merits of our own works. In this point, it is openly like the gospel, and takes to itself the office of the gospel: and this is no marvel, since to many men, through their own fault, the gospel [1409] becomes and is made the letter. Furthermore, the same apostle in another place says that "in sacrifices they called their sins to remembrance;" Heb 10.2-3 and we know that the purging of sins was prefigured in them. [1410] Therefore, even the ceremonial laws also led them to Christ, testifying and teaching them that he alone cleanses us from all our sins. I conclude from this, that the office of Moses and of the law, both was and is, to expose to us our sin and judgment; and yet it was not to condemn us only, but also by occasion to lead us to Christ.

By this we also learn that the law not only teaches us the first principles and rudiments of righteousness, but the very true and absolute righteousness. For Moses expressly says that he taught a most perfect and absolute kind of doctrine, as that in which both life and death wholly consist. Deu 30.15

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And the apostle says that the law leads us by the hand to Christ, so that we should be justified by faith. Now, the righteousness of faith is the most perfect righteousness. Therefore, though the precepts of the law are called in some places the rudiments of the world,[1411] that is for two especial causes: the first is because the law is, as it were, the first instructions or elements, which are finished when the doctrine of the gospel comes, and so it gives way to the gospel as to more absolute principles; the second is because ceremonies are taught under outward things or signs, those outward things prefigure, and set forth to be seen, the inward things — even Christ himself and his holy mysteries.

And out of what I have said up to here, we may also learn that the ancient saints, who lived under the old testament, did not seek righteousness and salvation in the works of the law, but in the one who is the perfection and end of the law, even Christ Jesus. And therefore they used the law and the ceremonies as a guide and school mistress to lead them by the hand to Christ their Saviour. For as often as they heard that the law required perfect righteousness from their hands, they understood by faith through grace, that in the law Christ was set forth to be the most absolute righteousness, to whom all men ought to fly to obtain righteousness. So often as they met together in the holy congregation to behold the holy ceremonies which God ordained, they did not look upon the bare figures only, nor did they think that they pleased God and were purged from their sins by that external kind of worship. Rather, they cast the eyes of their minds and of faith upon the Messiah to come, who was prefigured in all the ceremonies and ordinances of the law. Therefore, the law was abused by those who thought they were acceptable to God, and served him as they should, because they were busy in those ceremonial works. The prophets in their sermons sharply accused, and evermore cried out against those thoughts and persuasions. And in that sense, and for that cause, the people of Israel are many times called a carnal people. It was not that all the patriarchs and fathers before the coming of Christ were carnal or fleshly.

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It was because they yet lived under those external shadows and outward figures; and because there were perhaps some among the people who did not perceive the spiritual things that were shadowed under those external figures, and perhaps thought that they were acceptable to God for working and doing that external work.[1412]

The SECOND use, and another office of the law is, to teach those who are justified in faith by Christ, what to follow and what to eschew, and how the godly and faithful sort should worship God. For the law of God comprehends a most absolute doctrine both of faith in God, and also of all good works. For in the first use of the law, I declared how the moral and ceremonial law teach us faith in God and in Christ his Son, and how it brings man to the knowledge of himself, so that he may understand how in himself — that is, in the nature of man — there is no good thing nor any life; but that all the gifts of life, virtues, and salvation, are of God the Father, the only well-spring of all goodness, through Christ his Son our Saviour.

In this second argument about the end, use, or office of the law of God, we must acknowledge all the forms of virtues, and the treasure of all goodness, set forth to us in the law of the Lord; and that the apostle applies the precepts of the law to exhortation and consolation. The first of the two tablets of the moral law, teaches what we owe to God, and how he will be worshipped by us. The second tablet frames the offices of life, and teaches us how to behave ourselves toward our neighbour. The ceremonies also belong to religion;[1413] and the judicials teach the government about a house or a commonweal, so that by them we may live honestly among ourselves and holily towards God. Therefore, the law teaches all justice, temperance, fortitude, and wisdom, and it instructs a godly man in every good work in which a holy worshipper of God must necessarily be instructed.

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This is why, as often as the holy prophets of God would set up again and restore the worship of God, and the true religion that had decayed, they would cry out against and rebuke the faults and errors of men; and lastly, when they would teach them to do those good works, which are good works indeed, they always led them to the law, and cited all their testimonies out of the law. We have evident examples of this in the fifteenth Psalm of David, and in the first and thirty-third chapter of Isaiah's Prophecy, and in the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel also. Paul in the thirteenth chapter to the Romans refers all the offices of our life to the law of charity; for the Lord himself, before Paul, had done the same in the gospel. Moreover, the prophet David in the ninety-fourth Psalm cries, "Blessed is the man, Lord, whom you instruct in your law;" and in the seventy-eighth Psalm, "He made a covenant with Jacob, and gave a law in Israel, that the posterity might know it, and put their trust in the Lord, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments." Again, in the nineteenth Psalm he says:

"The law of the Lord is an undefiled law, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, and gives wisdom to the simple: the statutes of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, and gives light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is holy, and endures forever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether:[1414] they are more to be desired than gold and precious stone; and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb." Psa 19.7-10

And to this end tends the sense of all the alphabetical psalm, number 119 in order.

The THIRD use or office of the law is to repress the unruly; and the law commands us to constrain with punishment, those whom no reason can move to orderliness — so that honesty, peace, and public tranquility, may be maintained in Christian commonweals.[1415]

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For there are some, and that is no small number of people, who refrain from doing evil, and live somewhat tolerably, not so much for the love of virtue, as for the fear of punishment that will ensue from their inordinate living. Therefore it pleased the goodness of God, by giving the law, to put in a caveat, and to make a proviso for the tranquility of mankind. And it seems that the apostle had an eye to this when he said:

"We know, that the law was not given to the just, but to the unjust, to the lawless and disobedient, to the ungodly and to sinners, to the unholy and unclean, to murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, to manslayers, to whore-mongers, to those who defile themselves with mankind, to manstealers, to liars, to the perjured; and if there is anything else that is contrary to wholesome doctrine," etc. 1Tim 1.9-10

After the declaration of the use, the end, and the office of the law, I next have to teach you how, and by means, the law of God is fulfilled. It is impossible for any man, of his own strength, to fulfil the law and fully satisfy the will of God in all points. For it is manifest that in the law, not only is the outward work required, but also the pureness of the inward affections, and as I just said, a certain heavenly and absolute perfectness as it were. For the Lord himself in one place cries, "Be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Mat 5.48 But so absolute a perfectness is not found in us so long as we live in this flesh: for the flesh, even to the very end of our life, still keeps her corrupt disposition; and even though many times it is overthrown by the spirit that strives against it, yet it still renews the fight.[1416] So that there is not found in us, nor does there remain in our strength, that heavenly and most absolute perfectness. But let us hear the testimony of the holy apostle Paul touching this matter, who says: "We know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I do, I do not allow: for what I would do, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do." Rom 7.14-15

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And again: "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, no good thing dwells: for to will is present with me; but I find no means to perform what is good." Again: "I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, rebelling against the law of my mind, and subduing me to the law of sin which is in my members." Rom 7. And at the end, he concludes, and says: "So then, with the mind I serve the law of God; but with the flesh, I serve the law of sin." Now there are some who think that Paul spoke these words not of himself, but of others who were carnal men and not as yet regenerate. But the very words of the apostle force the reader, whether he will or not, to confess, that the words recited may be applied even to the man that is most spiritual. Augustine says (i. Lib. Retractat. cap. 23) that he himself was at one time of the opinion that those words of the apostle ought to be expounded about the man who is under the law, and not under grace. But he confesses that he was compelled by the authority of others' writings and treatises to think that the apostle spoke them about those men who were most spiritual, and of his own person — as Augustine at large declares in his book [1417] against the Pelagians.[1418] Even St. Jerome also, who is said to have thundered out a most horrible curse against those who taught that the law commanded impossible things,[1419] expressly writes to Rusticus that Paul is speaking of himself in this place.[1420]

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But if the flesh with its corrupt disposition remains, by which it incessantly strives with the spirit, then truly, that heavenly perfectness is never perfect in us so long as we live; and consequently, so long as we live, none of us fulfills the law.

Here also is to be inserted that disputation of Paul, where he proves that no mortal man is justified by the works of the law. His meaning is not that no man is justified by the very works of the law, but that no man is justified by the works of our corrupt nature,[1421] which does not perform what the law of God requires — for it is not able to perform it, as the apostle says. And very well and truly he says; "We know that a man is not justified by the deeds of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ: and we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the deeds of the law; because by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified." Gal 2.16 Nor must we understand the deeds of the law to refer only to the ceremonies. For even as the ceremonies do not justify us, so likewise the morals do not. The apostle speaks of the morals, when he speaks of the deeds of the law. For in the third chapter to the Romans, the apostle says: "By the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight." And immediately after he adds the reason why, saying: "for by the law comes the knowledge of sin." But in the seventh chapter he shows by which law it comes: namely, the moral law. For the moral law says, "You shall not lust." But the apostle says, "I would not have known sin except by the law; for I would not have known concupiscence, if the law had not said, you shall not lust." In his epistle to the Ephesians, Eph 2.9 he speaks to the Gentiles, and says simply that works do not justify. But speaking to the Gentiles, he could not have meant it about ceremonial laws, but about moral virtues, that is, all kinds of works that seemed good. To the Galatians he says: "As many as are of the deeds of the law are under the curse." Gal 3.10

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And to prove that, he adds; "For it is written, Cursed is everyone that does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." Now unless we understand the morals as well as the ceremonials to mean the deeds of the law, I do not see how his proof can be consistent with what went before. For he says expressly, "in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." Now who does not know that the ceremonials were not written alone, but that the morals were written also? And St. Augustine in his book, De Spiritu et litera, cap. viii., proves by many arguments that Paul understood the deeds of the law to mean the morals also.[1422]

Now, so that we may conclude this place, I will here recite the words of the apostle in the eighth chapter to the Romans,[1423] saying:

"What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God performed by sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh, and by sin condemned sin in the flesh — that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the spirit."

In these words, the apostle teaches us two things: first, that the law cannot now, nor ever could, justify us. The fault of this weakness or lack of ability, he does not cast upon the law, which of itself is good and effectual and is the doctrine of most absolute righteousness; but he lays the fault of it upon our corrupt flesh. Our flesh neither could, nor can, perform that which is required of us by the law [1424] of God. Thus, in the council held at Jerusalem, St. Peter said: "Now, therefore, why do you tempt God by putting on the disciples' necks, the yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" Acts 15.10

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The latter is inferred upon the first: namely, when the law could not give us life, and we were unable to do what the law required at our hands, then God, who is rich in mercy and goodness, sent his Son into the world, that he, being incarnate, should die for us, and so take away the sin of our imperfection, and bestow on us his perfectness and fulness of the law.[1425] It is therefore manifest that Christ has fulfilled the law, and that he is the perfectness of all the faithful in the world.

But here this place requires a fuller exposition of how Christ has fulfilled the law, and how he is made our perfectness. First of all, whatever things are promised and prefigured in the law and the prophets, Christ our Lord has fulfilled all those. For these promises; "The seed of the woman shall crush the serpent's head;" "In you shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed;" [1426] and countless others like these, our Lord fulfilled when, being born into this world, he made atonement for us and brought us back to life again. In like manner, he fulfilled all the ceremonials while he himself, being both priest and sacrifice, offered himself up, and is now and ever an effectual and everlasting sacrifice, and an eternal high priest — always making intercession at the right hand of the Father, for all faithful believers. He also spiritually circumcised the faithful, and has given them the sacrament of baptism instead of circumcision. He is our Passover, who instead of the paschal lamb has ordained the Eucharist, or supper of the Lord. Finally, he is the fulfilling and perfectness of the law and the prophets. Moreover, our Lord fulfilled the law, in that he most absolutely satisfied the will of God in all points, being himself the holiest of all, in whom there is no spot, no evil concupiscence, nor any sin. In him, the love of God is most perfect, and righteousness is altogether absolute. He freely communicates this righteousness to us, who are most imperfect, if we believe and have our hope fast settled in him.

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For he forgives us our sins, being made a cleansing sacrifice for us, and he makes us partakers of his own righteousness. For that reason, it is called imputed righteousness, to which the testimonies of the apostle pertain. "God," says Paul, "was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their sins to them. For him who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God by him." [1427] Again: "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, without works. So also, if we believe in God through Christ, our faith shall be imputed to us for righteousness." Rom 4.3,24 For by faith we lay hold on Christ, whom we believe to have made most absolute satisfaction to God for us; and consequently, we believe that God is pleased with us for Christ's sake, and that his righteousness is imputed to us as our own (and is indeed our own by gift), because we are now the sons of God.

These things being diligently weighed, it is easy for us to answer those who question and demand this: Since no mortal man of himself exactly satisfies the law, how then are righteousness, life, and salvation, promised to those who observe the law? Our answer is, in truth, that this promise respects the perfect righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to us. Otherwise it is assuredly certain that the holy scripture does not so much as in one jot disagree or depart in any point from itself. The apostle plainly says: "If there had a law been given which could have given life, then righteousness would have been by the law: but now, the scripture has confined all under sin, so that the promise might be given by faith to those who believe." Gal 3.21-22 This is why the one who does the thing for which the law was chiefly ordained, keeps or fulfils the law, even of the Ten Commandments. But the law was chiefly ordained (as I declared a little earlier) to the end that it might convince us all of sin and damnation, and so by that means send us from ourselves, and lead us by the hand to Christ, who is the fulfilling of the law unto justification for everyone who believes. Rom 10.4

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And therefore, someone fulfils and keeps the law, if he has no confidence in himself and his own works, but committing himself to the true grace of God, he seeks all righteousness in the faith of Christ. Thus it is now evident that these two sentences of Christ our Lord are of one sense and meaning; "Whoever believes in me, has life everlasting:" and, "If you would enter into life, keep the commandments." [1428] For Paul also, in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts, says: "Be it known to you, brethren, that through Christ is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all who believe are justified from all the things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses." Act 13.38 And to this place now belongs all the work [1429] of justification, of which I have disputed at large in another place.[1430]

Now that faith with which we believe that Christ has satisfied the law, and that he is our righteousness and our perfection, is neither of our own nature nor of our own merits, but is poured into us by the grace of God through the Holy Spirit which is given into our hearts. This Spirit abiding in our hearts, inflames our breasts with the love and desire for God's law, to endeavour to express and show the law in all our works and conversation. This desire and endeavour are never fully accomplished because of the flesh's frailty, or the weakness of man's nature — which remains in us till the last gasp and end of our life. Notwithstanding, it is acceptable to God by grace for Christ's sake alone. Nor does any godly man put any confidence in this other, but only in the first fulfilling of the law, as that alone which is absolute and perfect. For Paul in his epistle to the Romans cries out: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" [1431] And yet immediately after, he answers, "I thank God," namely, because he has redeemed me from death, "through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. There is then [1432] no condemnation for those who are grafted in Christ Jesus, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the spirit," etc. Rom 7.25-8.1

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Thus, since we are in Christ, we are in grace, and therefore God is pleased with our works, which being given to us by faith and by the liberal Spirit,[1433] proceed from a heart that loves God, the giver of them all.[1434] For John said: "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous." He also adds the reason for it, and says; "For all who are born of God overcome the world:" now everyone is born of God, who believes; as declared in first John.[1435]

By this, it is easy to reconcile these two places, which at first blush seem to jar one with another: The laws of God are heavy, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear: and, The laws of God are not grievous, nor heavy to be borne.[1436] For they are not heavy for the faithful who are in Christ, and those which have the gift of God's Spirit — that is, those who are reconciled to God by Christ their Lord and Saviour. Without Christ and faith in Christ, they are most grievous and heavy for every unbeliever to bear.[1437] So the faithful, being stirred up by the Spirit of God, voluntarily and of his own accord, does good to all men so far as his ability allows him; and he will not in any case do harm to any man — not because he fears the punishment that in the law has appointed for the disobedient, unjust, and wrongful dealers; but because he loves God. And so he also fulfills the judicial law.

Here I know full well that you will make this objection and say that, if the law is fulfilled, and the fulfilling of it [1438] has a place in the saints and faithful ones, then why, I ask you, did I need the abrogating of the law? [1439]

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Why did Paul and all the best divines need to dispute so largely about the abrogation of it? I will therefore say something about the abrogation of the law, first generally, and then by parts in particular. But first of all, these words of the Lord in the gospel must be beaten into the head of every godly hearer:

"Do not think," he says, "that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets: indeed, I did not come to destroy, but to fulfil them. Truly, I say to you, heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of the law shall pass away, till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore looses one of the smallest of these commandments, and teaches men to do so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whoever does and teaches them, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Mat 5.17-19

Let everyone therefore be assuredly persuaded that the law of God, which is the most excellent and perfect will of God, is forever eternal, and cannot be dissolved at any time, either by men, or angels, or any other creatures. Let every man think that the law, so far as it is the rule for how to live well and happily — so far as it is the bridle with which we are kept in the fear of the Lord; so far as it is a prick to awake the dullness of our flesh; and so far as it is given to instruct, correct, and rebuke us — that so far, I say, it remains unabrogated, and even today has her commodity in the church of God. Therefore, the abrogating of the law consists in this that follows.

I told you that God's commandments require the whole man, and a very heavenly kind of perfectness. Whoever does not perform this, is accursed and condemned by the law. Now, no man fulfils that righteousness; therefore, we are all accursed by the law. But this curse is taken away, and most absolute righteousness is freely bestowed on us, through Christ Jesus. For Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made the curse, righteousness, and sanctification for us. And so, it is in this sense that the law is abrogated; that is, through Christ the curse of the law is taken from the faithful, and true righteousness is bestowed upon us through grace, by faith in the same Christ Jesus.[1440]

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For he is that blessed Seed in whom all the kindreds of the earth are blessed. Act 3.25 He is our righteousness. For Paul says, "By him everyone that believes is justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." Act 13.39 Therefore, the law is put for the curse of the law: or else the law of God is taken for that which is revealed or made manifest by the law, that is to say, it is taken for sin; for by the law comes the knowledge of sin. Therefore the law is abrogated (that is, sin is taken away), not that it should not exist, or should not express itself [1441] in us, but that it should not be imputed to us and condemn us; "for there is no damnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." [1442] Moreover, the law is taken for the vengeance or punishment which is appointed by the law for transgressors. Therefore, the law is abrogated, because the punishment appointed by the law is taken from the necks of the faithful believers; "for the law is not given to the righteous man." 1Tim 1.9 For Christ delivered the faithful from eternal punishments, while he, being guiltless, suffered afflictions for wicked sinners. Furthermore, the apostle says: "The fleshly mind is enmity against God: for it is not obedient to the law of God, nor can it be." Rom 8.7 But now this hatred or enmity of God's law is by faith pulled out of the hearts of the faithful; and in its stead, the love of God's most holy will is engrafted. Thus, the law is said to be abrogated in this sense also, because the hatred of the law is taken away. And therefore the apostle compares those who are under the law, to bond-slaves, and those who are free from the law, to sons and children. He also attributes to them the spirit, not of bondage, but of adoption. "For because you are sons," he says, "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, which cries, Abba, Father," etc. Gal 4.6 To these it may be added that the law of God has types and shadows; and the ceremonies are very burdensome, for which the whole law is also called a yoke. But now the Son of God came into this world. Fulfilling the figures, he showed us the very truth, and abolished those types and shadows; so that now no man can condemn us for neglecting or passing over those ceremonies or figures.

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And so again, in that sense, the law of God is abrogated — that is to say, that kind of government which Moses ordained came to nothing, once Christ came and his apostles began to teach. For without regard to the ecclesiastical regiment appointed by Moses, they congregated churches, to whom they did not teach that kind of regiment which Moses had ordained. For they constantly rejected the priesthood of Aaron, the sacraments, sacrifices, choice of days, meats, and apparel, which Moses had taught their elders; and instead of all those rites, they preached Christ alone, and his two sacraments, etc. [1443]

I have said this much up to here, generally touching the abrogation of the law. Now I will more largely expound on it again, in several parts. The whole law is divided into the MORAL, CEREMONIAL, and JUDICIAL laws.

The MORAL LAW is contained in the Ten Commandments, the FIRST precept of which teaches us to honour and worship one God alone, and not to compare any strange gods with him. Our Lord Jesus in the gospel so earnestly urged and diligently taught this commandment, that we may perceive very well that nothing in it is altered. The SECOND precept forbids idolatry, that is, the worshipping and honouring of all manner of images, whether they are the images of God himself, or of any of his creatures. But it is known that the apostles, in the doctrine of the gospel, used all the means that they could to banish and drive away all kinds of idolatry. Paul and John cry, "Flee from idolatry." [1444] And because Christ and his apostles most diligently teach us to sanctify and glorify God's holy name, they thereby give their consent to establishing the THIRD commandment, which forbids defiling God's name by taking it in vain. The FOURTH commandment, concerning sanctifying the sabbath-day, is alone called ceremonial by St. Augustine.[1445]

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But it must not be understood simply as ceremonial: for so far as the outward worship of God requires a certain appointed time to be exercised, and carries with it the sacrifices of the law, that is how far, I say, it is ceremonial. But in that it teaches us to meet in holy-assemblies to worship God — to pray, preach, partake of the sacraments, and offer spiritual sacrifices — in these things, it is eternal and not ceremonial, as I declared before in the exposition of the sabbath.[1446] The FIFTH precept, touching the honour due to parents, the Lord himself ratifies in the fifteenth chapter of Matthew's gospel; he also diligently teaches the SIXTH against murder, and the SEVENTH against adultery, in the fifth chapter of the same gospel. The EIGHTH, which is against theft, is revived by the apostle, who charges that no man deceive [1447] his brother, and that no man steal any more; but that everyone should labour with his hands, so that he may have things necessary for himself, and be able to give to the one that lacks.[1448] The NINTH precept — which is for bridling the tongue so that no lie is made, nor false witness borne against our neighbour — is confirmed by Christ himself and his apostles, so often as they give rules for ordering the tongue, and charge every man to speak the truth to his neighbour. And they also condemn evil lusts and affections, by which they do not abrogate but affirm the tenth commandment, which forbids all manner of concupiscence. Therefore, the whole abrogation of the Ten Commandments, so far as they are abrogated, consists in those points which I just spoke about: namely, that Christ in faith is our perfect and absolute righteousness, etc. The apostle, bearing witness to this, says: "What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh, even by sin, condemned sin in the flesh — that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the spirit:" as seen in the eighth chapter to the Romans.[1449] I have therefore more briefly discussed this matter here, because I have spoken of it at the full in the treatise about the Ten Commandments.

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I have now come to speak of the CEREMONIALS. These ceremonials were given and granted until the time of amendment — namely, until Messiah should come. Messiah has already come; therefore all the ceremonies, even to the coming, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ our Lord into the heavens, have come to an end; they have no place any longer in the church of the Christians. And yet, here we must and do differentiate between the writings concerning the ceremonies, and the very things of the ceremonies that are set down in writing — I mean, the very ceremonies themselves, or the actions that were used. For the writings concerning the ceremonies, which were set forth by the Spirit of God, are not taken away from Christians,[1450] nor abrogated, so that they may not be read, retained, or used in the church (as I declared in the second sermon of the first decade).[1451] For they are effectual to instruct us in Christ Jesus, when we behold in them the manner how Christ was preached and prefigured to the ancient church of the holy fathers. Paul, truly, most significantly preached Christ out of the ceremonies; no man will deny this, who diligently reads his epistle to the Hebrews. For in that epistle, Paul wonderfully lays Christ and all his gifts before the eyes of the whole church. Therefore, the ceremonials both may and ought to be read in the church, so that Christ is sought in them; and when he is found, he is aptly preached. For that reason, in the fifth and sixth sermons of this decade (where I handled the ceremonials), I annexed to them certain notes about their significations, so that I might open a way for the students of the scriptures and lovers of Christ to go forward and proceed in that kind of argument.

Now the ceremonial [1452] things (or the stuff of the ceremonies) — such as the priesthood, the place, time, sacrifice, and whatever else is like these — are utterly abrogated, so that from then on, they are not used, nor do they have any place in the church of Christ.

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Jeremiah foretold this in the third chapter of his prophecy, saying: "In those days they shall no longer boast of the ark of the Lord's covenant: no man will think about it, nor shall any man mention it; for from then on it shall neither be visited, nor shall such things be done anymore." Jer 3.16 By the ark, the prophet means those points of the law which are abolished by the coming of Christ. From the promise that God made to Jeremiah, saying that "he would make a new covenant," Jer 31.31 St. Paul gathers this observation, in his epistle to the Hebrews: "In that he says, A new covenant, he has worn out the first; for that which is worn out, and grown old, is ready to vanish away." Heb 8.13 The same apostle says to the Ephesians: "Christ is our peace, who has made both one, and broken down the middle wall that was a block between us; taking away in his flesh the hatred, even the law of commandments contained in the ordinances, to make of two one new man in himself, so making peace." Eph 2.14 God truly severed the Jews from the Gentiles while he chose and consecrated them to be a peculiar people to himself — not only by the calling of the word, but also by the sacraments. For there were ceremonies prescribed and given, which would encompass and contain [1453] the heritage of the Lord, as a middle wall between the Jews and the Gentiles. So that the note of difference consisted in the ceremonies, by which the Jews were known to be the lawful heirs of God's good promises, and of which the Gentiles had no part or portion. But Christ came into the world, with the intent that from two peoples, the Jews and the Gentiles, he might make one church. And therefore, he broke down the middle wall that parted them; that is, he clean took away the ceremonial ordinances which were a block between them. [1454]

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For Christ in that case did the same thing that princes usually do, when they go about bringing two nations at variance, into one kingdom and under one authority. They first take away the diversity of arms,[1455] which are the evidences of their ancient hatred — so that when the cause of the remembrance of the grudge is taken from their eyes, they may better agree between them in mind and behaviour. Even so, Christ took away circumcision, the sacrifices, and all the ceremonies, to the end that he might make one church and fellowship of the Jews and Gentiles.[1456] To the Colossians, Paul compares the ceremonies to an obligation, or to a hand-writing,[1457] by which God has bound us, as it were, so that we cannot deny the guilt. But he says that we were so delivered by Christ from the guilt, that the obligation or hand-writing was cancelled or torn in pieces. But by cancelling the hand-writing, the debtor is acquitted and set at liberty. And therefore we read that at the death of our Lord, the veil of the temple was torn in pieces from the bottom up to the very top — so that thereby all people might understand both that their sins were then forgiven, and that the people of God were set at liberty from all the burden and yoke of the law. Truly, when the wicked, stiff-necked, and disloyal people of the Jews, after the death of Christ, went on to exercise, prorogue,[1458] and impose [1459] on all men, the ceremonies which were finished and abrogated at the coming of Messiah [1460] — then Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father, by means of the Roman princes, utterly defaced their city, and overthrew the temple in which they boasted.[1461]

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This is what the prophet Daniel, and Balaam many hundreds of years before Daniel's time, foretold and said would come to pass.[1462] Nor have they had up to now, for the span of 1500 years and more, any place to restore and set up again their city and temple.

In Theodoret [1463] and Ruffinus we read that in the reign of Julian the emperor, the Jews set about with very great hope and presumption, to build a new temple. And they sought the foundation of it in the place where that temple had stood, which was burnt by Titus, son and general [1464] to the emperor Vespasian. But Christ our Lord — who in the gospel, foretold its desolation out of Daniel's prophecy, said among other things, "And Jerusalem shall be trodden underfoot by the Gentiles, till the time of the Gentiles are fulfilled," — mightily repressed their wicked endeavours, and hindered their labour for going forward. For when they had gathered and brought together many thousands of bushels of lime and chalk, a whirlwind suddenly came with an awesome storm and blustering, which scattered abroad and carried away the stores provided by them. A terrible earthquake also happened, by which almost all the buildings of the place were swept away, and leveled to the ground. Finally, when a great company, who were busy in the work, remained that same night, taking their rest in a certain porch or gallery near the newly begun city and temple, the whole building and roof of it, falling down all of a sudden, slayed all who were within reach of it. In the morning, each of those who remained alive, ran to seek his friend among those who were slain by the ruinous building. And when those terrors could do no good, nor turn them from their purpose, then suddenly out of the nearby trenches, foundations, and storehouses, where their tools and other necessaries lay, a fearful fire sprang forth, which burnt many who urged the work, and compelled the rest to take to their heels. For in that one day, it broke forth at various times, and so at last repressed the stubborn rashness of that stiff-necked people. And because these things should not be thought to have happened casually or by coincidence, the night before and the night following, there appeared in the sky a bright or glistering sign of the cross, and the garments of the Jews were filled over with crosses, not bright but black, which could not be rid nor wiped out by any painstaking or manner of means.

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Therefore, in spite of their teeth,[1465] and full sore against their wills, being compelled by those horrible terrors, fearful judgments, and bitter plagues of Christ our Lord, they forsook the place. Every man fled to his house, leaving the work undone, and openly confessing that Jesus Christ, whom their forefathers had crucified, is a most mighty God. However, Julian, with Pharaoh, and the chief of the Jews, still persevered in their disloyalty and spiteful blasphemy against Him [1466] and his holy church.[1467]

But however the Jews may abide in their willful stubbornness, even today, the Lord declared from heaven openly enough, that he is no longer delighted with the ceremonial rites, because he destroyed all the instruments belonging to that ancient kind of worship; and he made the very shop of that old religion — I mean the temple and city of Jerusalem — level with the ground. Touching the temple, the Lord in the gospel spoke to his disciples, when they beheld it with wonder,[1468] and said: "Do you see all these things? Truly I say to you, there shall not be left here one stone standing upon another." [1469] And again, weeping over the unthankful city, he said: "They shall not leave in you one stone standing upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation." And now that all this was accomplished and fully finished, word for word, Josephus, who was an eye-witness, largely testifies of it in the eighteenth chapter of his seventh book De Bello Judaico.[1470] As I just told you, from one thousand five hundred years ago to this present time, the Jews never had any place given them to build their temple again. If they were not beside themselves, they might easily gather by this, that the Messiah has already come into the world, and that he has abrogated all the ceremonial rites.

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It is a very slender, or rather, it is no defence at all for the Jews to repeatedly allege the words in the law, where the ceremonies are described: "You shall keep it for an everlasting ordinance." For in this sense, "everlasting" is taken as long-lasting and unchangeable, so far as it respects the will or authority of mankind. For the Lord, threatening grievous punishments, forbid that mankind's unadvisedness should change or abrogate the holy ceremonies. And yet, since he ordained those ceremonies only until the time of amendment, God neither sins, nor incurs the crime of inconstancy, when he changes or takes away the ceremonies according to the determinate purpose which he intended from the beginning. Moreover, so long as the thing signified [1471] does not decay, and only the shadow or momentary figure vanishes away, it is assuredly certain that the ceremony yet remains in full effect and substance. The whole man lives forever; and yet the things that are temporal or corruptible in him, perish in death, and are abolished in his glorification.

But so that all these things may appear as clear as daylight, I will particularly run through and touch the more notable sorts of ceremonies. It is evident that the priesthood of Aaron is utterly abrogated, by the words which the apostle cites out of David, saying: "The Lord has sworn, and will not repent, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." [1472] Christ, therefore, is the one and only high priest, and an everlasting priest too, having an immutable priesthood which cannot pass from him by succession to any other man or angel. For now standing at the right hand of the Father in heaven — the true temple prefigured by the tabernacle and temple at Jerusalem — he makes intercession for us, and performs all the offices of a high priest. The apostle of Christ, St. Paul, speaks very largely about this in his epistle to the Hebrews.

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This Christ Jesus, our high priest, has consecrated all the faithful to be kings and priests unto himself. And yet, notwithstanding, he ordains ministers of the church to instruct the church by doctrine and examples, and to minister the sacraments; I do not mean those old and ancient ones, but those which the Lord has substituted in place of the old ones. He expressly declares what doctrine they must teach. The mystical attire and garments of the priesthood he neither commended to his apostles, nor left to his church, but took them away with all the ceremonies [1473] that are called the middle wall between the Jews and Gentiles. The Lord himself, and his apostle Paul, would have the pastors of the people be clad with righteousness and honesty; and they would precisely remove the ministers of the church from superiority and secular affairs. They would also appoint stipends for the ministers to live on; yet not those which the law allowed them, but those which were most tolerable and convenient for the state and condition of every church. [1474]

The Lord left free the place to serve and worship God in, without exception or binding us to any one prescribed or particular place. In the gospel according to John he said:

"The hour shall come, and is already, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father neither in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem, but in the spirit and in truth: for the Father requires such to worship him. God is a Spirit; and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." [1475]

The apostle followed the Lord in this doctrine, and said; "I would that men pray in every place, lifting up pure hands, without anger." 1Tim 2.8 Nor did the Lord, as I just showed you, allow the temple to be utterly overthrown in vain, considering that at his death he rent its veil. And yet, for all that, the ecclesiastical assemblies are not condemned by it. I spoke about this in the exposition of the fourth precept,[1476] "Remember to keep the sabbath-day holy." Truly, the tabernacle and the temple bore the type of the catholic church of God, out of which there are no prayers or oblations acceptable to the Lord. But the church is extended to the very ends of the world. And yet it does not follow from this, that all are in the church who are in the world.

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Those alone are in the church, who through the catholic faith are in the fellowship of Christ Jesus; and by agreement of doctrine, by charity, and by participating in the sacraments (unless some great necessity hinders them), are in the communion of the holy saints. But it is burning incense and sacrificing in high places, when someone seeks any other sacrifice than the one and only oblation of Christ Jesus; or looks for any other means to offer their prayers to God the Father, than Christ alone [1477] — as they are taught by the mouth of the pastor sincerely preaching the word of God. Moreover, the church of God has no need now for any ark, any table, any showbread, any golden candlestick, any altar either of incense or burnt-offerings, nor yet any brazen laver. For Christ alone is all in all to the catholic church. That church has all these things spiritually and effectually in Christ Jesus, and can seek nothing in any other creatures. If it perceives any man ushering in again either these or like ceremonial instruments, it sharply rebukes and bitterly curses him for his unwarrantable rashness and blasphemous presumption in the church of Christ. For what need does the church have of shadows and figures, when it now enjoys the thing itself, even Christ Jesus, whose shadow and figure the ceremonies bore? Moreover, the church has signs enough, in that it has received from Christ two sacramental signs, in which are contained all the things which the old church comprehended in sundry and numerous figures.

Furthermore, he has left the holy time to worship God in, free to our choice. In the gospel he says: "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath: therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath." Mar 2.27-28 And the apostle Paul says: "Let no man therefore judge you in food, or drink, or in part of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbaths: which are the shadows of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Col 2.16-17

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I spoke of the Christian sabbath in the exposition of the fourth commandment.[1478] As for the new moons, they are not solemnized by the church of Christ, insomuch as Christ taught us to attribute to God [1479] not only the beginning of months, but also the whole year, and the commodity [1480] of it — with the light of the sun, the moon, and all the stars in heaven.

Moreover, Christians celebrate their Passover more spiritually than bodily; even as they also solemnize their Pentecost, or Whitsuntide.[1481] For just as he sent his Spirit upon his disciples, Joh 20.22 so he sends daily it upon all the faithful. That is the reason the alarm is struck in the faithful, to encourage them as soldiers to skirmish with their enemies.[1482] For the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the faithful are daily assaulted and provoked to battle by the world, and by the devil the prince of the world. Furthermore, the feast of propitiation, being finished on the cross, endures forever. Nor do the saints send out a scape goat anymore, to bear their sins into the desert; for Christ our Lord came once, and was offered up, and by his sacrifice he took away the sins of the whole world. Finally, since the faithful daily consider and bear in their minds that they have no abiding place in this transitory world, but look to a place to come, Heb 11.16 they need not, as the Jews did, celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles once a year. In the same way, the faithful no longer acknowledge a year of jubilee: for Christ came once, and preached that acceptable year to us, even the gospel, by which it is proclaimed that all our sins and iniquities are clearly forgiven us. For so Christ himself interprets it in the fourth chapter of St. Luke's gospel, taking occasion to speak of it out of the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah's prophecy. Isa 61.1 And thus, the holy time and festival days are abrogated by Christ in his holy church. Notwithstanding, it is not left destitute of any holy thing or necessary matter.

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But now, this present year in which this book is first printed, is the year of grace 1550; and according to the Romish tradition, it is called the Year of Jubilee. I am therefore compelled, by necessity as it were, to make a little digression, and say something about the Romish jubilee.

I call it the Romish and not the Christian jubilee, because, as I showed you just now, the church of Christ, after our redemption wrought by Christ and preached by the gospel, neither acknowledges nor receives any other year of jubilee. In the ancient Jewish year of jubilee, the meaning of the letter, and of the spirit, is to be considered. According to the letter, bondmen were set at liberty, and lawful heirs received back their patrimony and possessions, which had either been exchanged away, or otherwise gone from them. The meaning of that order is little regarded, and the care of the oppressed is utterly neglected by the holy pope, because it could not be brought back into all the kingdoms in these latter days, without troubling all estates. Thus, those who recently brought in the year of jubilee, and preached it to the foolish world, did so not for any zeal they had to help the oppressed, but for the desire they had to augment their own treasures, by robbing the world.[1483] The spiritual and hidden mystery of the jubilee commended to those of old, the free remission of all sins through Christ, by faith in Christ. This free grace cannot without reproach to Christ, be otherwise preached than it has already been taught by the holy gospel. Therefore, the church went without the observation of any year of jubilee for the span of 1300 years after Christ's incarnation. At last, the upstart Boniface VIII, bishop of Rome,[1484] first invented that wicked ordinance. For Platina says in the life of that Boniface, "This is he that first brought in the jubilee, in the year of Christ 1300, in which he granted full remission of all their sins, to as many as visited the apostolic see. And he ordained it to be observed every hundredth year."

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So then, the church of Christ went without this jubilee, without peril of salvation, for the span of 1300 years. And therefore, we may also be without it, without any peril and damage — indeed, to our great profit and commodity. For if our Romanists go on to impose it on the world as a thing necessary to salvation, then they would condemn the universal church which existed before pope Boniface's time, the one who first brought in this unfamiliar jubilee. Thus we are so far from not being able to be without it, that we should detest and abhor it by all means possible, as a very wicked and blasphemous ordinance — considering that we have to believe the jubilee is utterly abrogated by Christ, and that all sins are freely forgiven through Christ, for all who believe, in whatever place of the world they live and converse in.

This pope Boniface annexes the remission of sins to his false promise and impure place. Now, I doubt whether this blasphemous antichrist [1485] could do anything more horrible, and more against the honour of the Saviour.[1486] For in this is defiled the glory of the only-begotten Son of God, who is the only health [1487] of the whole world. In this is defiled the salvation of many thousands, for whom Christ died on the cross. And in this also is defiled the glory of the Christian faith, by which alone we are made partakers of eternal salvation. This ungracious and wicked pope was the one about whom that common proverb speaks: "He entered like a wolf, he reigned like a lion, and died like a dog." [1488] For truly, so blasphemous an ordinance was worthy of such an author; so foolish a people was worthy of such a pastor; and so devilish a pope was worthy of such an end.

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Platina writes that in that year of jubilee, such great heaps of people came to Rome, that although the city was fairly large, one man could not pass by another for the throngs.[1489] For the world is necessarily deceived. If it were not so, they would give ear to the Lord who cries, "O all you that thirst, come to the waters, and you that have no money, draw near. Why do you spend your money on nothing," etc., Isaiah 55.1, and John 4.14, 7.37. Now, all the while that the world was thus set on madding, the righteous Lord was not asleep, nor did he dissemble how much they displeased him with that devilish [1490] invention. For the very same year, He stirred up Ottoman,[1491] the patriarch and first founder of the Turkish empire, by whose means He notably scourged the church of Rome and the corrupt manners that had crept into Christendom. A few years after, succeeded Clement the sixth,[1492] Paul the second, and Sixtus the fourth,[1493] as wicked men as he, and as may be found in the histories of their lives — men who changed the year of jubilee from every hundredth to every fiftieth year, and at last to every twenty-fifth year, so that they might suck more advantage out of men's foolishness. But now back to the matter at hand.

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The sacraments of the ancient Jews are also flatly abrogated, and in their places are substituted new sacraments, which are given to the people of the new covenant.

Instead of circumcision, baptism is appointed. The apostles, in the synod held at Jerusalem, opposed themselves to those who were of the opinion that circumcision was necessary to salvation; and in that council they admitted Paul's doctrine, who both thought and taught the contrary. For in one place Paul says; "Look, I Paul say to you, if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. For I testify to every man who is circumcised, that he is a debtor to the whole law, to do it. Christ is made of no effect to you: as many of you as are justified by the law, have fallen from grace." Gal 5.2-4 Nor is it right or convenient that in the church of Christ there should remain so bloody a sacrament as circumcision was, once His blood had been shed on the cross — which staunches and takes away the blood of the old Testament.

Instead of the paschal Lamb, the Lord's Supper is ordained, which is called by another name: the eucharist, or a thanksgiving. For so the Lord himself expounds it in Luke, as he ate the last Passover with his disciples. At the end of it, he immediately ordained the sacrament of his body and blood, which he bids them to celebrate in remembrance of him,[1494] until he returns again in judgment. Therefore the Lord left [1495] the supper as an unchangeable sacrament until the end of the world.

Moreover, I suppose that no man would once deny that all sorts of sacrifices contained in the law are utterly abrogated, if he but considers that both the temple and the two altars, with all the holy instruments, have been utterly overthrown and come to nothing. I told you that those sacrifices were remembrances of sins, and types or figures of the cleansing and atonement that was to be made by Christ Jesus.[1496] Therefore, when Christ had come and was offered up for the sins of the whole world, then truly all the sacrifices of the ancient Jews came to their end. For where there is a full and absolute remission of sins, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

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And in the new Testament, there is a full remission of sins; therefore in the new Testament there is no longer any sacrifice offered for sins. For Christ, only and alone, is in place of all the sacrifices. For he was offered up once, and after that he is offered no more. By once offering up himself, he has found eternal redemption — so that all who are sanctified, are sanctified by no other oblation than that of Christ, made upon the cross once for all. This is why Christ, being once offered upon the cross for the sins of the whole world, is the burnt-offering of the catholic church. He is also the meat-offering, which feeds us with his flesh offered on the cross unto eternal life, if we receive and feed on him by faith. [1497] Moreover, he is the drink-offering of the church, which quenches with his blood the thirst of the faithful unto life everlasting. He is the purging and daily sacrifice of the church, because he is "the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world." [1498] His death and passion cleanses all men from their sins, from their errors and iniquities. Finally, he is the church's sacrifice of thanksgiving, because by Christ we offer praise to God, and by Christ we render thanks to the Lord.[1499]

To conclude: the only supper of the Lord, which we call the eucharist, contains in it all the kinds of ancient sacrifices which, in effect, are of but two sorts: namely, purging and atonement, such as those which were offered for sin; or else of thanksgiving, such as those which rendered thanks and offered praise to the Lord. Now, the supper is a testimony, a sacrament, and a remembrance of the body of Christ which was given for us, and of his blood that was shed for the remission of our sins. For the body and blood of our Lord, which were but once offered upon the cross,[1500] and neither can nor ought to be offered any more by men, are not sacrificed afresh in the celebration of the supper. But in celebrating it, there is reiterated a remembrance of the thing, I mean, of the oblation, which was made but once, and in once offering, it was sufficient.

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Again, in the supper we render thanks to God for our redemption, for which also the universal church offers praise to his name. Therefore, the supper of the Lord comprehends the whole substance and matter which was prefigured in those ancient sacrifices; so that, in that point, the church is not destitute of any good or necessary thing, even though it no longer retains those sacrifices of the former church. Indeed, they should no longer be solemnized in the church, because they were nothing but the figures, types, and sacraments of Christ to come. But the church now believes, and rightly too, that Christ has already come, and has fulfilled and accomplished all things — as he himself testified when he cried out on the cross, saying, "It is finished."

Moreover, all vows have come to an end, because all sacrifices, in which the vows consisted, are vanished and gone. Likewise, the discipline of the Nazarites is now dissolved, because the temple with all the ceremonies belonging to it has faded away. There still remains in the church, a Christian and moderate discipline, but not what is described in the law. And the saints perform to God the vows which they have made in the church, that are not contrary to faith and godliness; but they are sparing, wary, and very religious in making vows. For what do we have to give to God, which we have not first received from his hands; and to perform, that we were not previously bound to in baptism?

Christ does not distinguish between clean and unclean in the gospel, as Moses did in the law. "That," he says, "which enters into the mouth does not defile the man; but that which comes out of the mouth." Mat 15.11 And the apostle Paul flatly says that "to the clean all things are clean." Tit.1.15 He speaks much like this in the fourteenth chapter to the Romans, and more in other places. In his epistle to the Colossians he says: "If you are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, then why, as if living in the world, are you led by traditions (do not touch, do not taste, do not handle), all of which perish in abusing?" [1501] And so forth.

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To Peter it is also said: "What Blood and God has sanctified, do not call unclean." In the synodal epistle, set forth by the apostles in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts, both blood and strangled things is forbidden and exempted from the meat of men. Yet, that commandment was not perpetual, but momentary, for a time only. For it pleased the apostles, for charity's sake, to bear with the Jewish nation in this, who otherwise would have been too stubborn and self-willed. The Jews at that time, every day, rifely [1502] heard the reading of the law, which expressly forbade them to eat blood and strangled things, as if the preaching of the gospel had not begun to be sown among them. And therefore, they could not help but be greatly offended to see the Gentiles so lavishly use the prohibited things. This is why the apostles would have the Gentiles for a time abstain from the things that were otherwise lawful enough, to see if perhaps by that means they might win the Jews to the faith of Christ. For the epistles, which Paul wrote a few years after the council at Jerusalem, sufficiently argue that the decree of the apostles against blood and strangled things was not perpetual. But the commandments given against things offered to idols, and against fornication (in the use of which the Gentiles thought they did not greatly offend) are perpetual, because they are morals, and in the number [1503] of the Ten Commandments. But I have spoken of that matter in another place.

And now, because I have mentioned the synodal decree ordained by the apostles and elders of the council at Jerusalem, I think it is not amiss to recite to you, dearly beloved, as a conclusion to this place, the whole epistle sent by the synod, because it bears an evident, full, and brief testimony, that the law is abrogated in the manner which I have declared. Now, this is their epistle, or constitution:

"The apostles, and elders, and brethren, send greetings to the brethren which are of the Gentiles, that are in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. For we have heard that certain ones who departed from us have troubled you with words, and encumbered your minds, saying you must be circumcised, and keep the law — we gave them no such commandment: it seemed good therefore to us, when we had come together with one accord, to send chosen men to you, with our beloved Paul and Barnabas, men who have jeopardized their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall tell you the same things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to charge you with no more than these necessary things; (that is to say) that you abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled things, and from fornication. If you keep yourselves from these, you shall do well. So fare you well." Act 15.23-29

This is word for word the catholic, the synodal, apostolic, and ecclesiastical epistle of the council held at Jerusalem, both brief and easy. For just as the speech of truth is simple, so also may true religion and Christian faith be easily laid down in very few and evident words.

Immediately at the beginning, in their accustomed manner of subscribing and inscribing their epistle, they out of hand turn to and address the false apostles with whom Paul and Barnabas were in controversy. And they declare what kind of doctrine the false prophets held, which up till then they had preached to the churches as the catholic, true, and apostolic doctrine: namely, that those who would be saved, must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. For these false prophets did not think that faith in Christ, without the help of the law, was sufficient for full and absolute justification. They boasted that they were sent from Jerusalem,[1504] by the apostles and disciples of the Lord, who all taught with one consent the same doctrine that they preached. And they said that Paul alone, with his companion Barnabas, sowed a certain doctrine in the churches that was peculiar to himself, schismatic-like, touching faith which justified without the works of the law. This is why the apostles, immediately after the beginning of their epistle, declare what they think of such false teachers and their unwarranted doctrine: "We confess," they say, "that those false teachers went from here, out of Jerusalem, but we deny that they were either sent or instructed by us. For we gave no such commandment to anyone." And so they testify that what those fellows taught is utterly false: namely, that the apostles and disciples of the Lord preached that the law is requisite to full justification.

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Indeed, they go on yet more plainly to declare what the doctrine of those false apostles was: "They trouble you," they say, "with words, and encumber your minds, commanding you to be circumcised and to keep the law." The sum of their doctrine, therefore, was that unless a man were circumcised and kept the law, he could not be saved: whereby they ascribed salvation to keeping the law, or to the merit of their works.

The apostles attribute two perilous effects to this doctrine. The first is, "They trouble you with words." They are words, they say, which amaze, rather than appease, comfort, or pacify your minds; indeed, they trouble you so, that you cannot tell what to believe, or what to trust. And moreover, they stir up strifes, discords, and jarrings among you. Paul seems to have alluded to these words of the apostles in his epistle to the Galatians, saying: "I marvel that you have so soon turned from Christ, who called you by grace, to another gospel; which is not another gospel indeed, but there are some who trouble you, and intend to pervert the gospel of Christ." The second effect is this: "They encumber or weaken your minds." Gal 1.6-7 For those who lean on the law and works, have nothing stable or steadfast in their minds. For since the law requires a most exact and absolute righteousness, and thereby kills (because such righteousness is not found in us) those minds are therefore weakened and subverted, that are taught to lean on the works of the law, which law no man rightly keeps as he should.

Therefore, Paul says to the Romans: "If those who belong to the law are heirs, then faith is vain, and the promise is made of no effect." And immediately after, again: "Therefore the heritage is given by faith, according to grace, that the promise may be sure to all the seed," etc. The false apostles therefore subverted and weakened minds, by teaching that salvation is obtained by the law. Truly, this is a grievous judgment against those who, along with them, teach the same.

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Then with like liberty, they go on to the other side to show their opinion of Paul and Barnabas. Indeed, they adorn them, as their messengers, with a most holy testimonial, to the end that they may have more authority among all men, and that all men may understand that there was a full agreement and consent of doctrine and religion, between them and the other apostles. "We being gathered together with one accord," they say, "have sent messengers to you." See here, about the false apostles, they testified that they did not send them, nor give them any command: but these men they do send, and with one accord, they give them a command. But whom do they send? "Our beloved Paul and Barnabas, who have jeopardized their lives for the name of Christ Jesus." These two are most choice apostles, and they are holy, glorious martyrs, our dearly-beloved brethren, being of the same religion and doctrine with us, who have declared what their lives and doctrine are, by their manifold virtues and manful suffering of peril and dangers.

But because Paul and Barnabas were themselves no small doers in that controversy and disputation, they joined to them two other chosen men, Judas and Silas, to the end that they might indifferently, without suspicion, declare the things which were alleged in the council for both sides — as I mean to show you in the exposition of the general decree.

For now, in a few words, they comprehend the very decree of the whole and universal synod; in laying it down, they first of all name the author of the decree, saying: "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us." They first set down the Holy Ghost, and then themselves; making Him to be the author of truth, and themselves to be the instruments by which He works: for he works in the church by the ministry of men. But men's authority, without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is none at all. Therefore the apostles very significantly say: "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us:" that is, after we had assembled in that synod to treat the matter of justification and the law (about which Paul and his adversaries stood in controversy), we did not follow our own judgments, nor did we use proofs of our own inventing; but searching out and hearing the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, we write this to you upon His warrant.

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In the second place, they set down the sum of the decree, saying: "That we might not charge you with greater burdens than these necessary things, (that is to say) that you abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled things, and from fornication." Therefore, they say, the doctrine of the gospel which Paul has up to now preached with us, is sufficient to obtain life and salvation. We do not intend to lay any greater burden on you than the doctrine of the gospel, and abstinence from those few things. In this sentence, they seem to have had an eye to the opinion of St. Peter, who in the council said: "You know that, being called by God, I went to the Gentiles, and preached salvation to them through the gospel. You know that as I was preaching faith in Christ Jesus to them, being neither circumcised nor keeping the law, the Holy Ghost was given to the Gentiles from above — so that their hearts were purified by God himself, by faith and not by the law — and that they were made heirs of eternal life." Act 10.45 And upon this he infers: "Now therefore, why do you tempt God by laying upon the disciples' necks a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they." Act 15.10 See here, that St. Peter called the law a burden and a yoke. And therefore, where the apostles say that they will not lay upon the church any greater burden, they thereby signify that the law is flatly abrogated. Therefore, they set the church free from the burden of the law, and acquit it from all burdens like the law.

We now gather by those words of the apostles, that those burdensome and innumerable ceremonies, which the church has received by councils and synods since the time of the apostles, were laid upon the church unjustly, and against the apostolic spirit, and today they are wickedly retained and defended in the church. For in express words they said: "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to burden you with no more than these necessary things."

But if any man objects, and says that those ceremonies were laid upon the churches' necks for the ignorance of the people, as a rule or instruction [1505] to guide or teach them by — my answer is that such instruction is clean taken away; and whoever tries to minimize it, desires nothing else but to bring in Judaism again.

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God knew very well what kind of church he purposed to gather together of Jews and Gentiles; and yet he abolished those external ceremonies. Now who better knows than God what is expedient, or not expedient, for his church? Therefore the things that he abolished were not expedient for the faithful: upon which the apostles rightly and very well pronounced, "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us not to lay upon you any greater burden." Therefore let them be ashamed of their doings, who lay so great a burden on the shoulders of the church, that otherwise ought to be most free.

Now, here is also added the conclusion of the sentence: "than these necessary things, (that is to say) that you abstain from things offered to idols," etc. In these words they had an eye toward the sentence of St. James, the apostle and brother of the Lord. For, confirming and allowing St. Peter's opinion touching justification by faith, and of not laying the law on the Gentiles' necks, he alleges a testimony of scripture out of Amos; Amo 9.11-12 who foretold that the Jews should be cut off because of their sins, and that the Gentiles should be taken in their place, among whom the true church of God should be. This was prefigured by the ruin and reparation of David's tabernacle. The same prophet also foretold a reason how, and a cause why, the Gentiles should be received into the church: not for circumcision's sake, nor by the help of the law, but by grace through faith. For he says: "The remnant of the men shall seek after the Lord, and all the heathen upon whom my name is called, says the Lord, who does all this. All these works of God are known to him from before the world began." Act 15.17-18 Look here, they shall seek the Lord, and shall be received into his fellowship, upon whom his name shall be called. This phrase of speech signifies that those who are elect shall be the sons of God; for the name of the Lord is called upon those who are named the sons of God, and are his elect. Now the whole scripture attributes that to faith. By faith, therefore, we are made the members of the church, and sons and heirs to God our maker.

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But if any man murmurs against the counsel of God, and says, Why does God do so? let him think that this deed is the deed and work of God, whom it is not lawful for man to challenge; and all of whose works are known from the beginning of the world to have been done in judgment and righteousness. From this, it consequently follows that this counsel of his is good and righteous, by which he joins to himself and sanctifies [1506] the heathen nations, through faith in Christ. [1507]

Now upon these words of the prophet St. James (subscribing, as it were, to St. Peter's opinion) gathers and infers this: "Therefore, my sentence is that we do not trouble those who have turned to God from among the Gentiles;" that is to say, I think they are not to be molested, or charged with the observation of the law. But lest the Gentiles upon hearing that the law was abolished, thereby think they might freely do whatever they would, and by that means abuse their liberty; and also, against all charity, despise and give offence to the Jewish brethren, James therefore adds: "But I think it best for us to write to them, that they abstain from the filthiness of idols." For there were at that time certain converts of the Gentiles, who thought it lawful for them to enter into idol-temples, and partaker of things offered to idols — because an idol is nothing, since there is but one God alone. From this they gathered that those sacrifices were nothing, that they did neither good nor harm; and therefore Christians might with a safe conscience partaker of them. But St. James and Paul also, 1Cor 8, 9, and 10, would have the heathen converts abstain utterly from the worship of idols: that is, from the idols themselves, and from those things which are offered to false and feigned gods in the idol-temples.

Moreover he adds: "Let them beware of fornication." The Gentiles, truly, forbid by good laws the adulteries and defilings of virgins and matrons, with very sharp punishments suppressing the violent deflowerers of honest women. But they thought of it very lightly (and in a way, as no fault at all) for someone to commit whoredom, who of their own accord put their chastity for sale; or if an unwedded man dealt so with a single woman.

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And therefore the apostle James (as Paul also did in 1Cor 6 and 1Thes 4) very severely requires the holy and pure use of the body, without any filthy and unclean beastliness.

Last of all,[1508] he would have the Gentiles restrain from eating blood and strangled things. He adds the reason why, saying, "For Moses of olden times, has those in every city who preach him in the synagogues, where he is read every sabbath-day." I spoke somewhat about this constitution (i.e., touching blood and strangled things), before I made this digression.

Now, therefore, since the matter is at that point, it is evident that they are offended without cause, who think that St. James made and published this decree without any right and reason; and who think that the fruit of that synod was very perilous, not at all wholesome, and flat contrary to Christian liberty. For it is assuredly certain that the meaning of James in no point differed from the mind of St. Paul, who very well and praiseworthily said,

"Let us follow the things that make for peace, and things with which we may one edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for meat's sake. All things are pure; but it is evil for that man who eats with offence. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything by which your brother stumbles or falls, or is made weak," etc. Rom 14.19-21

It is also most certain, that St. Paul — who was so sharply set to defend the Christian liberty, that he withstood Peter openly [1509] at Antioch — would not have been hesitant to resist St. James, if he thought this constitution either had been, or should be, prejudicial to Christian liberty. Truly, he would neither have preached, nor yet commended, this tradition of the apostles to the churches of the Gentiles, if he had not thought that it was both wholesome and profitable for them all to embrace. But he did preach and commend it to the churches, as seen in the sixteenth chapter of the Acts. And therefore, some murmured against St. James without cause, because he forbade them to eat blood and strangled things.

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Finally, the conclusion of their epistle is: "If you keep yourselves from these, you do well; so fare you well." They praise that abstinence, and teach it as a good work, because it is also commended to us in all the scriptures.

Thus, I have not digressed far from our purpose, I trust, to speak of the decree of the apostolic synod held at Jerusalem. This much at this time, touching the abrogation of the ceremonial laws.

It remains here for me to say something concerning the abrogation of the JUDICIAL laws. Now therefore, the judicial laws seem to be abrogated in this sense: because no Christian commonweal, no city or kingdom, is compelled to be bound and to receive those very same laws, which were published and set out by Moses in that nation of old, according to its time, place, and state. Therefore every country has free liberty to use those laws which are best suited and most requisite for the estate and necessity of every place, and of every time and persons. Yet this is to be done in such a way, that the substance of God's laws is not rejected, trodden down, and utterly neglected. For the things which are agreeable to the law of nature and the Ten Commandments, and whatever else God has commanded to be punished, must not in any case be either clean forgotten, or lightly regarded. Now the end to which all these laws tend, is that honesty may be nourished, peace and public tranquility be firmly maintained, and judgment and justice be rightly executed. Because I have disputed about these at large in the exposition of the precept,[1510] "You shall not murder," I am content to be much briefer here.

The holy apostle Paul commands us to obey the magistrate. He allows the authority of the sword, which he confesses that the magistrate does not have in vain, received from the hand of God. And therefore, he did not disallow or find fault with the election of the magistrate, the use of the sword, the execution of judgment and justice, nor with upright and civil laws.

Now, whoever confers the laws and constitutions of princes, kings, emperors, or Christian magistrates, he must confess that they draw very near in likeness, and very well agree with one another and with these judicial laws of God.[1511] Such laws are to be found either in the Code, in the book of Digests or Pandects, in the volume of New Constitutions,[1512] or else in other books containing the good laws of various nations.

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The emperor Justinian forbade by law either to sell or otherwise make away with the possessions of the church [1513] and things consecrated to God. For the sincere confessing and pure maintaining of the catholic faith, the emperors, Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, made a most excellent and holy law.[1514] Constantine the great charged Taurus, one of his lieutenants, to shut the idol temples, and to destroy with the sword those rebels who went about to open them, and to sacrifice in them.[1515] Laws were made for the relief of the poor, and so that kings and emperors had care over them. This is to be seen in more places than one in the emperor's laws and constitutions. It is very certain, that whoever reads the Code, Lib. i. tit. 2, he will find much that belongs to this argument.[1516] For honestly training up children, and liberally sustaining aged parents, there are very commendable laws in the books of the heathens.[1517] Concerning the authority that parents have over their children, much is written and many things are to be found. Honorius, Arcadius, and many other princes, have made very tolerable and laudable decrees concerning wedlock, incest, and unfit marriages: where they also speak very well and wisely of the law of divorce.[1518]

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But if I go on to add or contrast every title of the judicial laws contained in this sermon, with the sundry and particular laws of the decrees of Christian princes, I know I will be too tedious for your patience. For then this treatise would surpass the time of an ordinary sermon. Let it therefore suffice for the time being, that by declaring these notes, [1519] I have clarified and made a way for the diligent lovers of the truth, to come to the understanding of other things, which we have omitted here — and that they may believe that the substance of God's judicial laws is not taken away or abolished, but that ordering and limiting them is placed in the will and arbitrement [1520] of good Christian princes. Yet, in such a way that they ordain and appoint what is just and equal, as the estate of time, place, and persons best requires. Thus honesty and public peace may thereby be preserved,[1521] and God the Father may be duly honoured through his only-begotten Son Christ Jesus, to whom all praise is due forever. For we see that the apostles of Christ neither required nor commanded any nation, in the administration of political affairs, to bind themselves to strictly keeping Moses' law. This rule must always be kept and observed.

St. Peter simply commands and says, "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; whether it is to the king, as having preeminence, or to rulers, as to those who are sent by Him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of those who do well." 1Pet 2.13-14 And yet the same apostle affirms that "we should obey God than men," Acts 5.29 so often as men publish laws against true religion, justice and equity. I spoke concerning this, in the exposition about the common place of the magistrate.[1522] And so, I thought it good to say this much touching the abrogation of the judicial laws.

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Now if every one of you thoroughly ponders the things that I have said up to here touching the law of God, the parts of the law, the use or effect of it, the fulfilling and abrogating of it — then it will not be difficult to determine what everyone ought to think concerning the point or title of this treatise, which I promised in the beginning of this sermon. I said that I would speak somewhat toward this end: namely, that the testament of the old and new church [1523] is all one, and that there is but one way of true salvation to all who either are, or have been, saved in this world; and also, how the new testament differs from the old. I have already shown [1524] that all the points of the law have a respect and a kind of relation to Christ; and that in the law, he was preached to the fathers as the only Saviour, in whom alone they were to be saved. Who cannot perceive that they had no other way to be saved than the very same one which we enjoy today by Christ Jesus? [1525] And yet, that this may appear more evident, I will not hesitate to take some pains to make this matter more manifest to you, with as plain a demonstration as possible — although it is not likely that there is a plainer one than I have already shown you.

Truly, no difference is to be found among the people, testament, church, or manner of salvation, of those who share one and the same doctrine, faith, Spirit, hope, inheritance, expectation, invocation, and sacraments. Therefore, if I am able to prove that all these things were indifferently common to those of the old church as well as to us, then I have obtained what I shot at: namely, that in respect to the substance there neither was, nor is, any more than one testament — that the old fathers are one and the same people that we are, living in the same church and communion, and saved not in any other but in Christ alone, the Son of God, in whom we also look for salvation.

I thus prove that they and we have one and the same doctrine: our doctrine is the doctrine of the gospel; and the fathers were not without the same doctrine, as it is made evident by St. Paul, who testifies: "God truly promised the gospel of God beforehand by his prophets in the holy scriptures, about his Son, who was made of the seed of David after the flesh, and has been declared to be the Son of God with power by the Spirit," etc. Rom 1.1-4

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What could be said more plainly? The gospel which is preached today,[1526] was promised of old by the prophets in the holy scriptures: namely, that the Son of God would come into the world to save all faithful believers. This gospel also teaches that the faithful are not justified by the works of the law, but are freely justified by grace through faith in Christ.[1527] St. Paul says: "By the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight: for by the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God is declared without the law, being witnessed by the testimony of the law and the prophets. The righteousness of God comes by the faith of Christ Jesus to all, and upon all that believe." Rom 3.20-22 St. Peter fully agrees with Paul, where he says in the synod held at Jerusalem, "Neither we nor our fathers were able to bear the yoke of the law, but believe, as they did, to be saved through the grace of our Lord Christ Jesus." Act 15.10-11 Consequently, in all other substantial and material points, there is no difference in doctrine between us and them.

To proceed now: those whose doctrine is one, must of necessity have one faith; "for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom 10.17 How does that argue that Abraham and the rest of the [1528] holy fathers are set before our eyes as examples of faith for us to follow? We see that it is so in the holy gospel of the Lord, and in the sacred writings [1529] of the apostles. But who would give us such foreign examples to imitate, which do not concern the thing for which they are given? Paul shows in many places, but especially in the fourth chapter to the Romans, that faith must be imputed to us for righteousness; as we read that it was imputed to Abraham. Now that faith of his was not another faith, but the very same faith as ours, which rests upon the promise of God and the blessed Seed. For Paul calls Abraham the father, not only of those who are born of the circumcision, but also of those who walk in the steps of the faith which was in Abraham before he was circumcised. Rom 4.12

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Besides that, the confirmation of the Christian rule (by which I mean the Apostles' Creed or articles of our belief) is fetched out of the scriptures by the fathers of the old Testament. This is undoubtedly a most obvious argument that their faith and ours are the very same faith. They believed in the Messiah who was then to come; and we believe that he has already come, and we more fully perceive and nearly see all that which was spoken of before in the prophets — as I will shortly declare, when I come to show the difference between the two Testaments.

Who can doubt that one and the same Spirit governed our forefathers and the people of the new covenant, considering that the Spirit of God is one alone; and that St. Peter expressly testifies that the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets? 1Pet 1.11 And St. Paul also says: "Since we have the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed, and therefore I spoke; and we believe, and therefore we speak." 2Cor 4.13 Therefore, although the apostle says in another place, that the faithful "have not received again the spirit of bondage unto fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father;" Rom 8.15 he does not deny that the faithful fathers had the same spirit that we have. For they too cried to God as to their father, although they did not obtain it by the law (which terrifies), but by the grace of Messiah. Again, the same apostle says: "Whoever is led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God:" Rom 8.14 We may thus convert this sentence and say that the sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. But unless someone never read the scriptures, who would deny that the ancient fathers were the sons of God, and were so called both by the Lord himself, and also by his servant Moses. [1530]

Moreover, what may be thought about this: that our forefathers were called kings and priests, and consequently, they were a royal priesthood and a priestly kingdom? St. Peter applied these names to the faithful believers in Christ Jesus. [1531] Now such a kingdom and priesthood cannot exist, or remain, without the unction of the Spirit.

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I confess that the holy apostle John said in his gospel: "The Holy Ghost was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified." Joh 7.39 But he was not speaking of the substance of the Holy Ghost, which is co-eternal with the substance [1532] of the Father and of the Son; nor does he altogether deny that the fathers had the Holy Ghost. For in that place, he speaks of the excellent gift, which after the ascension of the Lord was poured out upon the people who believed. For John, interpreting himself, immediately before says this: "These words, 'Whoever believes on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of the water of life,' spoke of the Holy Ghost,[1533] which those who believe on him would receive." Therefore, when the Lord spoke those words, the gift of the Holy Ghost was not at that time as commonly and plentifully poured out upon all men, as it was upon the faithful after the glorification of the Lord Jesus.

And truly our forefathers and the holy prophets could not have so precisely and expressly foretold all the mysteries of Christ and the church, which the evangelists and apostles testify is now accomplished and fulfilled,[1534] unless they had been governed in their prophecies by the very same Spirit with which the apostles were afterward instructed. For it is a wicked thing for us to think that the prophets and patriarchs, like madmen, did not know what they babbled, and spoke words which they did not understand. Abraham saw the day of Christ, and he was glad of it. Joh 8.56 For by that spiritual sight of his, he had and felt within himself a certain kind of spiritual joy. How many times David in the Psalms testifies that the service of God and the holy congregation delighted him at his very heart! He did not utter these words so much for the joy that he had in the external ceremonies, but that, by the Spirit and by faith, he beheld in these ceremonies the true Messiah and Saviour of the world.[1535] And since it is evident that our forefathers were justified by the grace of God, it is manifest that this justification was not wrought without the Spirit of God; through this same Spirit our justification today is wrought and finished. Therefore, the fathers were governed by the very same Spirit that we of this age are directed by.

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St. Augustine was of this opinion, whose words, dearly beloved, I mean to recite to you word for word out of his second book, de Peccato Orig. contra Pelag., et Celest. Cap. 25.

"Things to come," he says, "were foreseen by the prophets by the same spirit of faith, by which they are believed by us to be already finished. For those who could prophesy these things to us of faithful love, could not choose but to be partakers of the same thing themselves. And thus the apostle Peter says, Why do you tempt God, to lay upon the disciples necks the yoke that neither our fathers nor we were able to bear; but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they were. Why does Peter say this, I ask, if not because they are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not by Moses' law — the law which brings not the salving, but the knowledge of sin? But now the righteousness of God is made manifest without the law, as witnessed by the law and prophets. Therefore, if it is made manifest now, at this time, then it must be that it existed before, though it was hidden then. The hiddenness of it was prefigured by the veil of the temple which was rent in pieces when Christ died, to signify that it was then revealed. And therefore, this grace of the only Mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus, was then in the people of God, but it was hidden in them — like rain hidden in a fleece, which God separates unto his inheritance — not of duty, but of his own voluntary will. But now that fleece is wrung out, in a sense — that is, the Jewish people being reprobated — it is openly seen in all nations, as if [spread] on the bare ground in an open place." [1536]

This much out of Augustine.

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Now there was also set before the eyes of Israel, a carnal and temporal felicity, which was not yet all that they hoped upon; for in that external and transitory felicity was shadowed the heavenly and eternal happiness. For the apostle, in the fourth and eleventh chapters to the Hebrews, says that the fathers, out of that visible and temporal inheritance, hoped for another invisible and everlasting heritage. Nor was Christ so expressly promised to them for any other end; nor was the blessing and life in Christ so plainly laid before them for any other purpose; nor was Christ himself so often prefigured in almost all their ceremonies, for any other intent than this: that they might thereby have hope of the very same life into which we are received through Christ our Redeemer. For the Lord says in the gospel, that we shall be gathered into the kingdom of heaven, into the same glory with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Mat 8.11

But here an objection is made, that life and salvation was only promised to the fathers, and not performed; but being shut up in prison, they looked for the coming of Messiah. For my part, I do not find anything in the scriptures written about such a prison into which the holy patriarchs were fast locked up. Peter, truly, mentions a prison; but he would have the disobedient spirits in that prison, and not the obedient ones. But if any man objects that Christ descended to them below, we truly do not deny it. Yet we say with it, that he descended to the departed saints; that is, that he was gathered to the company of the blessed spirits, which were not in the place of punishment (that is, in torments), but in the joys of heaven; as the Lord himself confirms when, being ready to descend to them below, he said to the thief, "This day you shall be with me in Paradise." Luk 23.43

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It may also be proved by many places of scripture, that the ancient holy fathers, from Adam's time until the death of Christ, at their departure out of this life, for Christ's sake they immediately entered not into prison, but into eternal life. For our Lord says in the gospel of St. Mark: "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." Mk 12.27 And he is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Consequently, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, live or are now alive; and yet not in body, corporally; for their bodies being buried, were long since rotten. Therefore, their souls live in joy; and their very bodies shall rise to judgment again. In the gospel of St. Luke, the Lord mentions Abraham's bosom, into which are gathered all the blessed spirits; and he testifies about it, that it is placed aloft, and that it is not a place of pain and punishment, but of joy and refreshing. Luk 16.22-23 And therefore, we often read in the scriptures of the holy fathers, that they were gathered to their people — that is to say, they were received into the fellowship of those fathers with whom, in this world, they had remained in the same faith and same kind of religion. For the sequences and circumstances of those places manifestly declare that those words cannot be expounded of the burial of the body corporally. Again, in the gospel of St. Matthew, the Lord says: "I say to you, that many will come out of the east and out of the west, and shall rest themselves with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Mat 8.11-12 Now if the Gentiles must be gathered into the kingdom of heaven, and that they must be placed in the fellowship of the fathers; then it must be that the fathers were already in heaven, and felt the joys of it at that very time when the Lord spoke these words. In the gospel of St. John, he also says plainly: "Abraham was glad to see my day; and he saw it, and rejoiced." Joh 8.56 This saying, although we understand it to be spoken of the justification and joy of the conscience, yet we do not separate it from the joy of eternal life; because the one of necessity depends on and follows the other.

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Moreover, we must consider here the occasion on which these words of the Lord seem to have been spoken. The Lord had said: "Truly, truly, I say to you, if a man keeps my saying, he shall never taste of death." The Jews took hold of these words and said, "Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead; and yet you say, If a man keeps my saying, he shall never see death. What, are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are also dead. Who do you make yourself?" The Lord answered, and showed that Abraham is quickened, or else preserved in life and heavenly joy, through faith in the sayings of Christ Jesus; and however he may be dead in body, yet notwithstanding this, his soul lives in joy forever with God, in whom he put his trust. To this may be added that David in the sixteenth psalm, calling God his hope, his expectation, and his inheritance, among other things says:

"The Lord is always at my right hand. Therefore my heart is glad, my glory rejoices, and my flesh shall rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will make me know the path of life. In your presence is the fulness of joy, and at your right hand there are pleasures forevermore." Psa 16.10

In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul apply this testimony of David as a thing spoken propheticly about Christ Jesus; yet notwithstanding this, no man can deny that the same testimony may refer to David, in a way, who in that psalm makes a profession of his faith, declares his hope, and expresses his Michtam, that is, his delight, or the arms or emblem by which he would be known.[1537] Therefore, those words first pertain to Christ, and then to David, and then to all the faithful: for the life and resurrection of Christ is the life and resurrection of the faithful. Again, in another place the same prophet says: "I believe truly to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Psa 27.13 Now, in the land of the living there is neither death nor dolour (grief), but fulness of joy and everlasting pleasures. By faith David looked to obtain these joys and delights at the hand of God, through Christ his Saviour, and indeed, according to his hope, he possessed it immediately after he departed this life, even though it would be many years after his death before Christ came in the flesh — even as we today are also saved by him; even though it is now one thousand five hundred odd years [1538] since he departed from the earth in his flesh.

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In the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, Paul says; "And all these holy fathers, having obtained a good report through faith, did not receive the promise, because God had provided a better thing for us, that they should not be made perfect without us." But I think, simply, that this must be understood of the perfect or full felicity in which the holy fathers are not consummated or made perfect without us — because there is yet remaining the general resurrection of all flesh, which must come first. And once that is finished, then the felicity of all the saints is consummated or made perfect. This felicity shall not be given to the soul alone, then, but to the body also. St. Peter also constantly affirms that salvation is first of all purchased by Christ for the souls of the holy saints; then immediately upon their bodily death, they are received to be partakers of the same salvation, by the same Christ; and lastly, that at the end of the world, the bodies of the saints being raised from death, as the bodies of all men will be, they shall appear before Christ to be judged by him. "The Lord," he says, "shall judge both the quick and the dead. For to this end the gospel was preached to the dead, so that in the flesh they should be judged like men, but in the spirit they should live with God;" 1Pet 4.5-6 — that is to say, the death of Christ is effectual to the fathers who died in the faith. Thus, they now live with God in soul, and they are again to be judged in their flesh, like all other men, at whatever time the Lord comes to judge the quick and the dead. Therefore, our salvation is not yet perfect nor consummated, but shall be made perfect at the end of the world.

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Moreover, our forefathers did not pray to any other, but to God alone, the only Creator of all things; and they believed truly that he would be merciful to mankind for the blessed Seed's sake. They did not call upon God as we usually do today, through the Mediator and intercessor Christ Jesus, even as the Lord himself testified and said in the gospel: "Up to now you have not asked anything in my name: ask, and you shall receive;" Joh 16.24 And yet, they were not utterly ignorant of the Mediator, for whose sake they were heard by the Lord. In the ninth chapter of his prophecy, Daniel makes his prayer, and he desires to be heard by God for the Lord's sake, that is, for the promised Christ's sake.

Finally, as often as the holy saints said in their prayers, "Remember, Lord, your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," they did not look back to the persons or souls of the deceased patriarchs, but ahead to the promise that was made to the patriarchs. Now, since that promise is, "In your seed all the kindreds of the earth shall be blessed;" and since Paul testifies that Christ is that blessed Seed; it consequently follows that in their prayers, the holy fathers had an eye to the blessed Seed, and that they desired God to hear them for Christ's sake. For in one place also, the Lord promises deliverance to king Hezekiah, saying: "I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake." 2King 19.34 But in the seventh and twenty-eighth chapters of Isaiah's prophecy, it is manifest that the city was spared for Christ's sake, the son of the virgin, who is the foundation placed in Zion — the one whom Ezekiel in the thirty-fourth chapter calls by the name of David, and the gospel calls David's son.

Last of all, the apostle Paul shows that the ancient fathers had among them the very same sacraments which we now have; as in other places he also makes us partakers and applies to us both circumcision and the Passover, the sacraments which were given to those of old; as it appears in Colossians, the second chapter, and 1Corinthians, the fifth chapter. In the tenth chapter he threatens grievous punishment to the Corinthians at the hands of God, unless they abstain from things offered to idols, and from all heathenish sensuality. And he then brings in the example of the Israelites, which he applies to his purpose in this manner:

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"I would not have you be ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were the church of God, and that they had the same sacraments which we have today. For they were all baptized unto Moses (that is, by Moses, or by the ministry of Moses) in the cloud and in the sea (for the cloud and the sea were figures of baptism). And they also ate of the same spiritual food, and drank the same spiritual drink."

And immediately after, he interprets his own meaning, saying: "For they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, which rock was Christ." 1Cor 4.10 Manna truly, and the rock typically, represent the spiritual food with which Christ refreshes both us and them, for he is himself the bread and drink of eternal life. But although they bodily, outwardly, and visibly received their sacraments, yet because they were destitute of faith and the Holy Ghost, because they were denied with worshipping of idols, with surfeiting and fornication — they displeased God, and were destroyed by him in the desert. And therefore, unless you also abstain from those filthy vices, neither shall baptism and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper [1539] avail you, but you shall undoubtedly be destroyed by the Lord.

Therefore, since it is declared by the most evident proofs of scripture, [1540] that the old fathers had the same sacraments, the same invocation of God, the same hope, expectation, and inheritance, the same Spirit, the same faith, and the same doctrine, which we have today, I hope the mark at which I shot is fully hit. And I trust that I have sufficiently proved that the faithful fathers of the old testament, and we the believers of the new covenant, are one church and one people, who are all saved under one congregation, under one testament alone, and by one and the same means: namely, by faith in Christ Jesus.

I have said this much up to here touching the likeness, agreement, and unity between the old and new Testaments, or the people of God. I will now add something touching the diversity between them, and the things in which they differ.

Truly, you can find no diversity in the substance — the difference between them consists in the manner of administration, in a few incidentals and certain circumstances.

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For there were annexed to the promise or doctrine of faith, and to the chief and principal laws, certain external things, which were added until the time of amendment; so that the whole ecclesiastical regiment, the manner of teaching the doctrine of godliness, and the outward worship of God, was of one sort among the old fathers, and of another sort among us. But the especial things in which they differ may be recited and set down in these few principal points.

First and foremost, all things of the new covenant are clearer and more manifest than those of the old testament. The preaching [1541] of the old covenant always had in it, for the most part, some misty or cloudy thing; it was still covered and wrapped up in shadows and dim displays. But the publishing of the new testament is clear and manifest, so that it is called the light which is without any mists and darkness. Moses covered his face with a veil, nor could the children of Israel behold his countenance. But we, beholding not only the countenance of Moses which is now uncovered, but the pleasant and amiable face of Christ himself, greatly rejoice to see our salvation openly revealed before our eyes. In that sense, the Lord said that his disciples were happy, where he broke into these words: "Happy are the eyes which see the things that you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things you see, and did not see them; and to hear the things you hear, and did not hear them." Mat 13.16-17 In this sense, the just man Simeon called himself as happy a man as lived, upon which he was ready to die, saying: "Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation; which you have prepared before the face of all people; to be a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of your people Israel." Luk 2.29-32

But although our forefathers did not have as much light as shines to us in Christ since his coming in the flesh, yet that little light which they had was sufficient to get salvation by faith in Christ. Even we ourselves, although we see him far more clearly than our forefathers did, notwithstanding that, we behold him but in a mist,[1542] compared to the brightness in which he shall appear.

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For hereafter we shall see him face to face in the glory of his majesty; [1543] and yet, even this sight of him which now we have, is sufficient to salvation. Therefore, it is a very fine similitude, and prettily said by some, "Although at daybreak the brightness of the sun is not as great as it is at noonday, yet wayfarers or travellers do not stay till the sun is at the highest, but take the morning before them to go on their journey, and have light enough to see the way." For in like manner, they think that to our forefathers, even that little portion of light in the morning, was sufficient by the leading of faith, to bring them through all impediments to eternal felicity. In the meantime, we have great cause to rejoice [1544] that Christ, the very sun and light of righteousness, after the misty light of the daystar of the law,[1545] shines forth to us in the new testament.

Moreover, the forefathers in the old testament had types, shadows, and figures of things to come; but we have now received the very thing itself which was prefigured to them. Therefore, the thing which God promised to them, he has performed and given to us. They truly believed that Christ would come and deliver all the faithful from their sins; and we believe that he has already come, that he has redeemed us, and has fulfilled all that the prophets foretold of him. Therefore, the Lord said in the gospel: "The prophets and the law prophesied till John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and suffers violence by every man." Luk 16.16 From this it is gathered that, when the thing prefigured has come and is present, the figures and shadows which foreshowed the things to come, then come to an end and vanish away. Therefore, the yoke and burden which our fathers bore, is thereby taken from our necks.

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The worshipping of God, which they did externally, was very busy [1546] and burdensome — such as the Aaronic priesthood, the tabernacle or temple that was to be thoroughly furnished with most exquisite things and instruments, their sundry sorts of sacrifices, and many more ceremonies like these. Now, we who are the people of the new covenant, are freely disburdened and set at liberty from all this cost and business. And the one by whom we are disburdened is Jesus Christ, in whom alone we have all things necessary to life and salvation. For it pleased God the Father to recapitulate in him, and as St. Paul says, to bring into a sum,[1547] all things requisite to life and salvation; that the things which seemed before to be dispersed here and there, should be fully exhibited and brought to us in Christ alone. For Christ is the fulfilling of all the types and ceremonies — by whose Spirit, since we now possess the thing prefigured, we no longer need the representing types and shadows. The external things that Christ has ordained are very few, and of very small cost. Therefore, the people of the new testament enjoy a surpassing great and ample liberty.

To this, I suppose, belongs that excellent passage of St. Paul, which may be seen in the fourth chapter to the Galatians. Gal 4.24-26 There, in handling this matter diligently, he conceives that there are two mothers. The one engenders [1548] to bondage, and the other to liberty. He does this under the type of Hagar and Sarah, by which he denotes the two doctrines: that of the law, and that of the gospel. That of the law engenders to bondage, but that of the gospel engenders to liberty. Therefore, the law engenders the holy fathers and the prophets to bondage, not that they should abide as bond-slaves forever, but that it might keep them under discipline — indeed, that it might lead them to Christ, the full perfection of the law. The liberty of the fathers was so oppressed and covered by the weight and heap of ceremonies, that although they were free in spirit before the Lord, yet notwithstanding, in outward show they differ little or not at all from true bond-slaves, because of the burden of the law that lay upon their shoulders. For insomuch as the law was not as yet abrogated, they were compelled to precisely observe it. But when Christ had come and fulfilled all things, then the shadows vanished away, and that heavy yoke was taken from the neck of us Christians.

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So by this means, our mother Sarah engenders us to liberty. She is the mother of us all. Of that mother (which is also called the holy mother church) we have the seed of life. She has fashioned us, and brought us forth into the light; she collects [1549] us in her bosom, in which she carries both milk and meat (the word of God) to nourish, save, and bring us up.

Now, the bonds being cancelled, and the middle wall which was a barrier, being broken down, God more liberally rules his church, and He does not retain it any longer under so strict a custody. For the people of God are not contained within the bounds of the land of promise — they are dispersed to the ends of the world; nor are the circumcised His people now, and those who keep the law. Although it is not to be doubted that even then, when circumcision was in force,[1550] he had some who were his people among the Gentiles, such as Job and others, whom He himself knew. Rather, those who acknowledge Christ are his people, although they are neither circumcised nor busied with the law. This is a new people, gathered together out of the whole world by faith and the Holy Ghost. Christ has given his own name to this new testament in which the Jews have no inheritance, unless they forsake their stubborn opinion of the law, and cling to Christ alone without affiance [1551] to the law. All the books of the prophets are fully fraught with testimonies touching the calling of the Gentiles to the communion and fellowship of God, and also touching the reprobation of the Jews, who are utterly rejected for their unreclaimable [1552] affiance to the law.

Furthermore, the apostle Paul puts another difference between the two testaments, alluding to the prophecy of Jeremiah, as seen in the eighth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Hebrews. For he attributes certain excellent gifts to the people of the new testament: namely, absolute and full remission of their sins. For he says, "Because I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,[1553] and I will remember their sins and iniquities no more." Heb 10.17 He also attributes to the people of the new testament a most exquisite reformation and absolute illumination of their minds.

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For he says, "I will plant my laws in their minds, and write them in their hearts; and then no man will teach his neighbour or his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the little to the great." Jer 31.33-34 But of the law it is written that it was graven in tablets of stone. Yet for all this, let no man think that the fathers obtained no remission of their sins. For as they had free forgiveness of their sins by faith, so God both wrote his law and poured his Spirit into their hearts. For which of us today can say that we excel in knowledge and in faith,[1554] either Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Daniel, or Zechariah? So then, the difference is not that the fathers of the old testament were without the remission of sins and the illumination of the Holy Ghost, and that we alone have obtained them, who are the people of the new testament. Rather, the difference consists in the greatness, ampleness, largeness, and plentifulness of the gifts: namely, because they are more liberally bestowed and more plentifully poured out upon more now, than they were of old. For all nations, being called, draw the water of life not by drops, but by whole handfuls. The Lord pours out his Spirit upon all flesh. Act 2.17 Of old, God was known only in Jerusalem; but now, since Christ has come into the world, his disciples have gone through all the corners of the earth, and taught all kingdoms to know the Lord. Of old, the worthy men [1555] and prophets were not so many that they might not be numbered — because the land of promise alone, in a way, bred such good and holy men. But who today is able to reckon all the kings, princes, noblemen, prophets, bishops, doctors, martyrs, and excellent persons of every sex, estate, and age, who have been and are today bred, not only in Jerusalem, but also in Arabia, Idumea, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Asia, Egypt, Africa, Greece, Italy, the east, the south, the west, and the north? Free remission of sins is preached to all countries and kingdoms. All the faithful in every nation under heaven, are received into the grace and favour of God the Father, through Christ. All have received in great abundance the gift of the Holy Ghost. All have prophesied. All have known the Lord.

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Finally, the law makes no man perfect.[1556] The gospel simply makes perfect, and directly leads us to Christ, without any barrier, and causes us to rest and to content ourselves in him alone.

Last of all, I will not slip over this difference, although it is of little weight, and it is such that others like it may be easily observed: that the law, appointing a certain land, peculiarly separated from other nations, promised to the fathers of old, the possession of it, so long as they kept the law. But if they transgressed the law, then it threatened that they would be uprooted and utterly cast out of that good land. Lev 18.26-28 But to us, no one limited land is expressly promised: "for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness of it; the round world, and all that is in it." Psa 24.1 But although He does not here assign to us any certain or particular thing, as he did to our forefathers of old, yet he does not at any time neglect us; for he feeds, blesses, and preserves us in every land and nation. Therefore, the promises which were made of old to our forefathers concerning the land of promise, now having come to an end, they have utterly vanished. Thus those who, for an age or two ago, incited many nations to arm themselves to recover the holy land, seem to have been besides their wits.[1557] By his coming into the world, Christ has sanctified the whole earth: for in every nation of the world, there are some sons and heirs of God and his kingdom.

I have spoken more briefly, touching the likeness and agreement, and the unlikeness and difference, between both the old and new Testaments or people, because I already handled the same matter in the first sermon of the first decade, and in the sixth sermon of the third decade. Finally, I but briefly touched the abrogation of the law, because a good while ago I set forth two treatises: the one, Of the Ancient Faith,[1558] and the other, Of the Only and Eternal Covenant of God.[1559] I know these treatises are familiar among you.

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I will not here, in the conclusion, recapitulate the special points of this sermon; partly because I have already been somewhat too long; and partly because I have, I hope, used so plain an order, that every point is indifferently well-settled in every man's memory. Thus, by God's grace and sufferance, I have made an end to treating God's holy law, in which I have been occupied a good sort of days, by several sermons. Blessed be God and our heavenly Father, world without end, whom I beseech to bless us all through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

3-9. THE NINTH SERMON: OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY.

OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY, AND OF OFFENCES.

OF GOOD WORKS, AND THEIR REWARD.

I HAVE already discoursed long upon God's laws, through many sermons. Now, therefore, because upon the consideration and handling of the law, certain points arise, these are not [1560] to be omitted. These depend upon and are annexed hand in hand to the law. Of this sort are Christian liberty; good works and the reward of good works; and lastly, sin and the reward or punishment of sin. I will speak of them in order, as God puts it into my mouth — whom I desire you to pray to with me, beseeching him not to allow me to speak in these or other points of holy doctrine, the thing that will sound against his holy will.

Christian liberty depends upon and follows the abrogation of the law, as the effect of it. This liberty ministers to us an occasion to speak about offences.

Now, the most holy apostle of Christ, St. Paul, has reasoned very diligently and largely concerning Christian liberty. From this, we may gather that the consideration of Christian liberty is neither of no weight, nor is it of little profit.

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And this treatise about it is especially necessary to us of this age, among whom there are no small number of men who either do not understand what Christian liberty is, or else, if they do know it, they foully abuse it, thereby fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. I will therefore tell you who is the deliverer that sets us at liberty; who he sets at liberty; and in what and how far they are set at liberty. Once these things are known, it will be an easy matter to perceive what Christian liberty is, what the property or disposition is of those who are so set at liberty, and how far they must beware of giving offence to any man, and thus abusing their granted liberty.

There is no other deliverer promised, given,[1561] and preached to us, than Christ Jesus, the Son of God. For the one that delivers other men, must himself be free from the bands which tie those who wish and look to be set at liberty. But throughout all ages, none is to be found in the whole world, nor yet in heaven, except Jesus Christ [1562] alone, the Son of God. For that cause, the gospel says, "If the Son sets you at liberty, then you are free indeed." Joh 8.36

Now, those whom the Lord delivers, are bond-slaves; this is why he delivers them from bondage, and incorporates them in the liberty of the sons of God. He sets all bond-servants at liberty, excluding none but those who exclude themselves by their own fault: their own unbelief and disobedience. For the coming of the Son of God was to set all those at liberty who were entangled in bondage. Therefore, he delivers us so far as we are bond-servants. For bondage and liberty are so opposed and contrary to one another, that without the consideration of the one, we cannot conceive the meaning of the other. Thus I think it best here to speak as much about bondage as this present argument seems to require.

FIRST, bondage is nothing else but the state or condition in which bond-servants find themselves. Now those who are in bondage are either born bondmen, or else they are made bond-servants. The children that issue from bond-servants are born bond-slaves. The others that are made bond-servants, are made so by captivity (from which they take their names), and are called captives.

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For Pomponius says, Slaves were so called because the captains commanded them to be sold for money when they were taken captives in wars by their soldiers — to spare their life and save them by that means. In Latin, these bondmen are also called Mancipia, eo quod ab hostibus manu caperentur,[1563] because they were taken prisoners by the hand of their enemies. Or else they are made bondslaves by the civil law — as when a freeman, above twenty years of age, for profit's sake, allows himself to be sold for money.[1564] Therefore, bondmen have lost all liberty, and wholly hang on their master's government, in whose power it lies to kill them if they so desire.

Now, there are two sorts of bondage: political [1565] and spiritual. Political bondage is not, by grace and the preaching of the gospel, removed from the church of the faithful, so that there should be no bondmen at all; or that they should not do their duty, or the service that they owe of right. For the apostle Paul says:

"Let every man walk according to how he is called. And so I ordain in all churches. Are you called being a servant? Do not care about it: yet if you may be free, rather use it." 1Cor 7.17, 21

And again:

"Servants, obey those who are your bodily masters, with fear and trembling and singleness of heart, as to Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will, serving the Lord and not men; knowing that whatever good thing any man does, he shall receive that back again from the Lord, whether he is bond or free." Eph 6.5-8

And in his epistle to Timothy he says:

"Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine is not blasphemed. And those who have believing masters, do not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather serve them, for they are believing and beloved, and those who are partakers of the benefit." [1566]

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And yet, in this bondage, the faithful have this comfort by the preaching of the gospel: that however they are bonded in body, they are free in mind and soul. For the apostle again says: "He that is called a bondman in the Lord, is the Lord's freeman; likewise, he that is called free is bonded to Christ." 1Cor 7.22

This is a comfort to the faithful in all their afflictions, who know that their spirit is safe and free, however their body may be strictly imprisoned or sharply tormented. Therefore, the saints are at liberty, however narrowly they may be looked to and shut up in custody; they are victors and vanquishers, however they may be bound and oppressed; finally, they enjoy the most exquisite pleasures even when they are vexed [1567] with most infinite evils. I know that the children of this world mock and scoff at these pleasures and the liberty of faithful believers, as though they were mere dreams and fantasies of fools and asses. But God [1568] soundly pays them back for their scoffs and mockery, not only in the world to come, but also in this present life. Meanwhile, like miserable caitiffs, [1569] being in extreme captivity, even slavery, [1570] they nonetheless think they are at liberty, and in most absolute felicity. For they serve a filthy service in detestable slavery, making themselves bondmen to abominable whoredom, to beastly mad drunkenness, to wicked mammon,[1571] and to other most vile pleasures, in which they die and rot with endless shame and infamy. But the apostle Paul speaks of the service and afflictions of the saints, who even in their afflictions enjoy their liberty and rejoice in the Lord. He says:

"We are troubled on every side, yet we are not made pensive; we are in poverty,[1572] but not in extreme poverty; we suffer persecution, but are not utterly forsaken in it; we are cast down, but we do not perish; bearing about always in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might also appear in our body." 2Cor. 4.8-10

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And again:

"In all things we endeavour to show ourselves as becomes the ministers of Christ; in much suffering, afflictions, necessities, sorrows, stripes, imprisonments, seditions, labours, watchings, fastings; in glory and ignominy; in reproaches and praises; as deceivers, and yet speakers of truth; as unknown, and yet known; as dying, and look, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, and yet always rejoicing; as poor, and yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." 2Cor 6.4-5, 8-10

Look, here you see how the saints in extreme servitude have a cheerful consolation and are always at liberty: as seen by infinite examples in the Acts of the Apostles and other ecclesiastical histories.

Now we come to the SECOND part of bondage. Spiritual bondage has a certain likeness to bodily servitude. For Adam became a bondman by his own fault; and from him, we are all born bondmen. He was once at liberty, and had the Lord as his friend and favourer; but he disloyally revolted from God, and got himself another master, the devil, a tyrant as cruel as possible, who having gotten power over him for his sin, like a merciless lord, miserably handled him like a bond-servant. Now, from our corrupt grandsire, we are born corrupt and sinners; and for our sin, we are also under the devil's dominion; we are in danger of [1573] the law, and of its curse: for we are the bond-slaves of sin; we are made subject to sundry calamities because of our sin. Therefore, this is called spiritual bondage, not because it is only in the mind of man, but only because it is opposed to bodily bondage.[1574] For sin has also made our body subject to the curse; nor do we sin in mind alone, but in the body also — for every part and all the members of our bodies are subject to sin, and infected with iniquity.

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Therefore, we serve in most miserable bondage while, being under the devil's dominion, we do the things that please the flesh, by egging on evil affections, bearing fruit to the devil, our cruel and our rigorous master, or rather to abortion at the peril of our lives; for this truly is our hardest and most lamentable servitude and bondage.

Now, on the other side, let us see what Christian liberty is — that is to say, from what, and how far, the Lord has made us free. In a word, Christ our Lord has delivered us from a grievous bondage — namely: he has made us free, so far as we were slaves and bond-servants by sin. We may more largely expound on this, and say that the Son of God came into this world; and having first oppressed the tyranny of Satan and crushed his head by his own death and passion, he has translated us into his own kingdom, and made himself our Lord and king. Secondly, he has adopted us to be the sons of God, and with his blessing took away the bitter curse of the law; for he took away all sins, and purged all the faithful from their iniquities. Thirdly, he most liberally bestowed the free gift of the Holy Ghost, to the end that the sons of God should willingly and of their own accord submit themselves to the will of God, and do the things that the Lord would have them do: for the hatred of the law does not remain, even though the weakness of the flesh still abides. Lastly, our Lord and King has taken from the shoulders of his elect, the burden of the law, the types and figures, with all the costs belonging to them; and once being set at liberty, he has forbidden us to entangle ourselves again with any laws and traditions of men.

All this being laid together, we make this definition: To deliver is to make free, and to set at liberty from bondage. Someone is free, or manumissed, who being delivered from bondage, enjoys his liberty. Therefore manumission, or liberty, is nothing else but the state of the one made free; the commodity, I say, which a free-made man has received and enjoys by reason of his deliverance; namely:

That in being delivered from the tyranny of Satan, from sin, from the curse of the law, and from death, he is made the son of God and heir of everlasting life. And also,

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That he has received the Spirit of liberty, by which he wholly gives himself to be the servant of God, to serve Him all his life long. And lastly,

That being delivered from the law of Moses and from those of all mortal men, he altogether depends on the gospel only — having at liberty, the free use of external things, such as food, drink, clothing, and similar indifferent things.

Christian liberty chiefly consists in these last three recited points.

Now I will add to this, such testimonies of scripture as will better confirm and more plainly declare my exposition. And first of all, I will allege those testimonies which are to be found in the books of the holy evangelists; and then those in the writings of the apostles.

In his hymn of thanksgiving, Zacharias the priest, and father of John the Baptist, declares the truth and goodness of God in performing for us what he promised to our forefathers; namely, "That being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life." Luk 1.73-75 In this testimony of his, we have true liberty — I mean, that freedom in which, being delivered by the Lord from all our enemies, both visible and invisible, we should no longer serve them with fear, but serve our God in joy and gladness. Also added is the manner and order of serving him: "in holiness and righteousness." Holiness cuts off and casts away all uncleanness and inconvenience; and righteousness gives to every man that which is due: namely, the things which we owe to every man out of duty; and it contains in it both freedom and benevolence. In this kind of service, those who are made free, serve the Lord their God — not for a day or two, or a few certain years, but all the days of their life. Therefore, true Christian liberty is the perpetual service which we owe and give to God.

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In the eighth chapter of St. John's gospel, addressing the Jews who bragged greatly about the vain and silly liberty which they received from their ancestors, Christ our Lord makes this objection: "Truly, truly, I say to you, that whoever commits sin, is the servant of sin. And the servant does not abide in the house forever; but the Son abides forever: if the Son therefore makes you free, then are you free indeed." Joh 8.34-36 In these words, he mentions both bondage and liberty. Whoever commits any sin is a bondman to sin, as to a cruel master or a never-contented tyrant; for he obeys as one that is bound to sin. All the sons of men are such bondmen; their punishment is [1575] to have no inheritance in their Father's house, which is the heavenly Jerusalem.[1576] As for those which the Son of God restores to freedom, they are partakers of the heavenly kingdom, and fellow-heirs with the Son of God. But Christ makes none free but those who are faithful.[1577] Therefore, the sons of God and fellow-heirs of Christ are made free and set at liberty for Christ's sake, who is their only deliverer. Nor is there any other in heaven or on earth, beside Christ Jesus, who is able to set us at freedom and at liberty.

In the sixth chapter to the Romans, Paul says:

"Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey it by the lusts of it;[1578] nor should you give your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin; but give yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have power over you; because you are not under the law, but under grace." Rom 6.12-14

In these words, he exhorts those who are purged and made free by Christ, to live holily in their spiritual bondage. Now, he does not say, Do not let sin be in you, or in your mortal body: but he says, "Do not let sin reign in you, or in your mortal body." But when does sin reign?

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In truth, sin reigns when we obey its lusts; that is, when we do not resist, but fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Sin therefore does not reign in our mortal body, so long as it is only felt in the body and not obeyed or permitted to rule, but rather resisted and trodden underfoot. He expounds that same sentence by another somewhat more easily understood one: I would not have you permit your members to sin, as to a tyrant, to use them as instruments to work all unrighteousness: I rather require you to give yourselves to be ruled and governed by God. For since He has set you free from death and brought you to life again, it is requisite [1579] that you give your members to God, as lively instruments, to work all righteousness. And you are easily able to do so, because "You are not under the law, but under grace."

The rest of that chapter, up to the end, depends on this:

"What then?" he says; "shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Do you not know, to whomever you commit yourselves as servants to obey, you are servants of the one whom you obey; whether it is of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, you were the servants of sin, but now you have obeyed with your heart, the form of doctrine into which you were brought.[1580] Being made free from sin, then, you have become the servants of righteousness." Rom 6.15-18

Yet he shows that the freemen of Christ do not abuse their liberty, and give themselves again to be governed by their old and tyrannous master, sin. For Paul makes sin and righteousness to be, as it were, two masters; and assigns to each of them the hire, or reward, that they give to their servants; the one being life, the other, death. Lastly, he says generally, that we are servants of the one to whom we give ourselves to obey. From this he infers, "Being redeemed by the grace of God from the bondage of sin, and from death, which is the reward of sin, we are translated into the bondage of righteousness (whose reward is life), that we may live by it."

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For he more significantly expresses his meaning in what follows, saying:

"I speak in the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh. Just as you have given your members as servants to uncleanness — iniquity unto iniquity — even so, now give your members as servants to righteousness, unto holiness. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. What fruit did you have, then, in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin and made the servants of God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end is everlasting life. For the reward of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom 6.19-23

All this is so plain and evident, that it needs no larger exposition of mine. And yet in the next chapter, the seventh, he more fully expounds all that he said before, by using a comparison in a parable.

"The woman," he says, "who is in subjection to the man, is bound to the man by the law, as long as he lives. If while the man lives, she goes aside to another, she is considered an adulteress; but if the man is dead, she may couple herself with another man. Even so, I say, we are dead to the law." Rom 7.1-4

For Christ died for us, and in his body was offered up to be a sacrifice, or oblation, to cleanse and purge our sins, that we might then be united and coupled to him; and that we, being conceived and made with child [1581] by the Holy Spirit, may labour, give birth, and be delivered of an excellent issue and the holy fruit of good works — for while we served sin as our master, and gave birth to an ill-favoured babe of death (by which I mean, iniquity and wickedness), we were subject to sin, for which death is appointed and ordained as its punishment. But let us now hear the very words of the holy and blessed apostle, saying:

"Even so, my brethren, by the body of Christ we also are dead concerning the law, [1582] that we should be coupled to another, who is raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the lusts of sin,[1583] which were by the law, worked in our members to bear fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law to which we were in bondage, [1584] and dead to it, that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." Rom 7.4-6

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That place in the eighth chapter to the Romans is unknown to no one, where he says: "The law of the spirit of life through Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." Rom 8.2 Immediately after, he adds the manner of this deliverance, saying: "For what the law could not do, God did by sending his own Son;" and so forth — for the words are sufficiently plain, and understood by all men.

In the seventh chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians he says: "You were bought with a price; do not become the servants of men." 1Cor 7.23 In these words, the holy apostle exhorts servants under the colour or pretence of worldly [1585] bondage, not to commit to anything for their earthly masters' pleasure, which sounds against sincerity and is repugnant to pure religion. That is, although [1586] they are called by the name of servants, yet they should not obey the wicked laws and ungodly ordinances of mortal men. The cause that should pull and draw us away from it, is because we are redeemed and set at liberty by the price of Christ's blood. It would therefore be too bad and unworthy a thing, if contrary to the effect of our liberty, we were to obey the naughty laws and ordinances of man.

This also is extended and stretches out to the laws of men which are made in matters of religion. For in the fifteenth chapter of the holy gospel written by the evangelist St. Matthew, the Lord and Saviour says, "In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men;" and "Let them alone: they are blind leaders of the blind." And the apostle St. Paul says: "If you are dead with Christ to the rudiments of the world, why, as if yet living in the world, are you led [1587] by traditions, (do not touch; do not taste; do not handle; which all perish in the abusing) [1588] according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things have a show of wisdom in superstition and humbleness of mind, and in neglecting the body; not in any honour to satisfying the flesh." Col 2.20-23

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First of all, he shows that the faithful ones of Christ Jesus have nothing to do with decrees of man's inventions, and that they are not bound to observe men's traditions, because they are dead to such traditions with Christ; that is to say, by Christ Jesus [1589] they are redeemed and set free from traditions; in Christ's death, these traditions finished and came to an end, while he made us his own and set us at liberty. Then, by imitation, he also mimicked the words of those who make those decrees, saying, "Oh, do not touch, do not taste, do not handle."

These three precepts stretch very far, and comprehend many petit decrees; all of which he immediately confuted with these probable arguments. First, because they appoint the worship of God in things that perish in their use; but the kingdom of God is neither food nor drink, but consists in spiritual things; what enters by the mouth does not defile the man. Secondly, because they are not made by God, the author of all goodness; but they have their beginning from man's inventions: "But in vain they worship me," says the Lord in the gospel, "teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." Mat 15.9 Nor does the holy apostle St. Paul wink at and slily pass over them, because he will not answer to the things which most commend these traditions. First of all, they are commended for the show and appearance of wisdom that is in them; for they seem to have been (not without great wisdom) ordained by wise men, in that they so fitly serve every person, time, and place. The earnest defenders of men's traditions cry out, and say: Our ancestors were no fools, their laws are full of wisdom. But Jeremiah cries out on the other side, saying: "They have rejected the word of God; therefore what wisdom can there be in them?" Jer 8.9 Another reason why traditions are commended is the Greeks' eqeloqrhskeia (ethelothreskeia); that is to say, a kind of worship which we have chosen from our own brains, and taken ourselves to serve and worship God with; for men gladly and willingly receive the traditions of men, because they are agreeable to their inclination.

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Indeed, Christ says in the holy gospel; "If you had been of the world, the world would have loved her own. Now, because I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you." Joh 15.9 And again he says: "That which men set much store by, is abominable to God." Luk 16.15 Moreover, men's traditions are commended for their humility, which is understood in two manners or respects. First, it is said to be humility if any man readily obeys and easily yields to what is urged, obtruded, and thrust upon him by men of countenance and authority. Secondly, the laws of men may seem to exercise humbleness, and keep men in humility; but such obedience and humility may rather be called sacrilege, because it is not ruled and directed by the word of God, as the thing by which alone it should be tempered and squared. Rather, it transfers and conveys the honour of God from Him to men. Last of all, men's traditions are commended for neglecting the flesh — Oh, that discipline and chastisement of the flesh seems a good thing to them, by which the wantonness of the flesh is somewhat bridled and tamed. The apostle adds finally, "Not in any honour to satisfying the flesh" — that is to say, although these things have a show of religion and holiness, nonetheless, they indeed have no honour at all, considering that those external things are ordained by God for the ease and relief of men's necessities. Indeed, Paul flatly finds fault with those decrees, because they give the body no honour for satisfying itself; that is, according to the measure of the body's necessity. For moderate care and looking to the body is not only permitted, but also commanded, lest we mar the body by too great a lack and strictness, and make it unfit to do good works. Nor is the care of the flesh forbidden anywhere, unless it tends toward lusts and sensuality. This is why the apostle says, "Do not cherish the flesh unto concupiscence." Rom 13.14 Therefore, God has granted man, for his necessity, the use of food, drink, sleep, clothing, rest, allowable pleasures, and other necessary things.[1590]

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In the fourth chapter to the Galatians, St. Paul says: "When the fulness of the time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, and made under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive by adoption the right (or inheritance) [1591] of children. Now, because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Therefore you are no longer a servant, but a son: if you are a son, you are also a heir of God through Christ." Gal 4.4

And immediately after, again: "Stand fast in the liberty with which Christ has delivered us, and do not be wrapped again in the yoke of bondage."

In the second chapter to the Hebrews he says: "Christ was made partaker of flesh and blood with us, to the end that, through death, he might expel the one who had lordship over death, that is, the devil; and that he might deliver those who through fear of death were all their life in danger of bondage." [1592] Thus, I hope these testimonies of scripture suffice for our purpose.

These things being well-weighed and thoroughly considered, will plainly teach what kind of liberty those have who are made free by Christ, and what their property and inclination is: namely, most religious, and altogether given to holy things; that is to say, in all points addicted to the Spirit, without which there is no liberty, and by which all the sons of God are always governed. The Lord's freemen most diligently beware that they not unadvisedly offend any man by their liberty, or vainly abuse their purchased freedom; for they continually have before their minds and eyes, the weighty sayings of the holy apostles of their Lord Christ Jesus. St. Peter in the second chapter of his first Epistle says: "As free, and not using liberty as a cloak for maliciousness, but even as the servants of God." 1Pet 2.16

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And Paul says: "Brethren, you have been called to liberty; only do not let liberty be an occasion for the flesh, but by love serve one another. For though I am free, I have made myself servant to all, that I may win the more." [1593]

Therefore, those specially [1594] abuse Christian liberty, who seeking after carnal things under the colour and pretence of the Spirit and of liberty, brag that by the preaching of the gospel they are set free from all bodily debts and duties: and therefore they deny to their masters, creditors, magistrates, and princes, the duty that they owe them; and by that means they revolt and rebel against them.[1595] These fellows are seditious stirrers, not reverencers of evangelical doctrine. Paul cries: "Give to every one that which is due: tribute to whom tribute belongs; custom to whom custom is due; fear to whom fear; and honour to whom honour pertains. Owe nothing to any man, but this: that you love one another." Rom 13.7-8

Moreover, those also abuse Christian liberty who, when they have not [1596] received the Spirit of liberty and of the sons of God, when they are not yet delivered from Satan nor justified by Christ, notwithstanding, they promise liberty to all men. They think that, for the opinion which they have conceived of their liberty, they may do whatever it pleases them; by that means questioning good laws and severe discipline, with exclamations and outcries that liberty is entrapped by laws, that it is betrayed and trodden underfoot. Against such men, and especially against the teachers of that vain and pernicious liberty, St. Peter takes exception, and says:

"These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, for whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they have spoken these great swelling words of vanity, they entice through lusts in the voluptuousness of the flesh, those who had clean escaped from those who are wrapped in error, while promising them liberty — though they themselves are the bond-servants of corruption. For by whomever a man is overcome, he is brought into bondage," 2Pet 2.17-19 and so forth, as follows.

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Now when men abuse liberty in that manner, that licentious lust is not worthy to be called by the name [1597] of liberty.

Last of all, those abuse Christian liberty, who abuse indifferent things, and have no regard for their weak brethren, but offend them unadvisedly. In this case, therefore, we must always have in mind this notable saying of St. Paul: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things do not edify." [1598] Touching this matter, there is more to be seen in the fourteenth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle written to the Romans.

And here by occasion (indeed, being rather compelled by necessity), I will speak a little, and as much as requisite for the godly-disposed to know, touching offences. Scandalum, a word which the Latins borrow from the Greeks, signifies a falling, a tripping, a stumbling-block, an offence, a block or hindrance. Such are street stones which stick up higher than the rest, or traps that on purpose are subtly set or hidden to snare the feet of those who pass over them. For those who either step on or stumble over them, either fall or are turned from the straight path.

Now this kind of snare or stumbling-block, by a metaphor, is transferred to the estate of religion and the manners of men. For someone gives offence who with contrary, foolish, or unseasonable words or deeds, either does or says to another man, anything by which he takes occasion to sin. Therefore scandalum is an occasion given to sin and to act wickedly — the very impulse or drive to a fall or to wickedness. There are others who define scandalum as an offence joined with contempt [1599] — for an offence usually draws contempt with it; or as we may also say, an offence rises upon contempt. To conclude, therefore, it is an injury offered by one man to another.

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Now we offend other men either by our words, or else an offence is given by our deeds. The offence that is given by words is partly in evil, foolish, and unseasonable doctrine, and partly our daily talk or communication. The greatest offence is that which arises from wicked doctrine, directly contrary to the true doctrine of the holy gospel. Next to this is that offence which arises from foolish and unseasonable doctrine — which although it is derived from the word of God, it is nonetheless either unaptly uttered, or unwisely applied. For the preacher may sin either by too much toleration or leniency; or else by too much sharpness and contrariness to waywardness, so that the hearers, being offended, wholly draw back from all hearing of the gospel. And yet, for all this, the light of the gospel must not be hidden, nor the truth slily winked at, because men will be offended by it. But preachers must with all their diligence take heed that the word of God is wisely presented and aptly dispensed.[1600] Whatever things are against the laws of God, must be accused most constantly, and confuted without fear, most diligently — however much the world and worldlings may storm against it.

Now, their brethren may be caused to stumble by their daily talk: that is, whoever lets their tongue run loose to talk about they care not what; and whoever at their pleasure, without advice, babbles they care not how. This sort of daily talk includes filthy speech and ribaldry, but especially those blasphemous words that are irreverently uttered against God, the holy scriptures, and the articles of our faith — for evil words corrupt good manners.1Cor 15.33 I do not exclude here, the letters or writings of men who unadvisedly offend their brethren.

Lastly, stumbling-blocks of offence are laid before many men either by promises, or else by threats. I mean, someone may be turned from the right path of truth into byways and errors, by alluring enticements of many fair promises; or else by terrible threats and torments. For so Pharaoh lay a stone of offence before king Zedekiah, by causing him to make a league with him, and by that means to trust more in the power of Egypt than in the mighty hand of God.[1601]

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Tyrants often give weak Christians causes of offence, when by torments, they drive them to deny the name of their master Christ.

Now the deeds, by which men are offended, are of two sorts: they are either lawful and at our free choice, or else they are unlawful and utterly forbidden. But even lawful deeds are made unlawful by abuse. For it is lawful for the faithful to eat what they desire: for to the clean all things are clean. But your eating is made unlawful, if you eat with the offence of your weak brother. For he does not understand that it is lawful to eat indifferently every kind of thing; and you know very well that if you eat, he will be offended — and yet, notwithstanding this, you eat and despise him. Assure yourself that in so doing, you give cause for offence, and you do not sin a little against your weak brother. To this we add all unseasonable [1602] use of free and indifferent things.

But here we must note that the doctors of the church diligently distinguish and differentiate between weak brethren and stubborn persons. The weaklings are utterly ignorant in some points of religion; and yet, notwithstanding, they are tractable enough, and fear the Lord. They do not err on purpose with malicious contrariness, but are touched with a certain weakness of faith and religion, nevertheless allowing themselves to be willingly instructed. The apostle says about such believers: "Receive the one who is weak in faith, not to strifes over disputations." Rom 14.1 But the stubborn and obstinate people are those who, when they know the truth and liberty of the saints, notwithstanding harden their minds, and set themselves against the truth of liberty [1603] which they know; desiring to have much granted to them, and for every man to bear with them. This is not so much that they ever mean to give way to the truth, as to the end that, by this occasion — once granted to them — they may at last subvert the truth and Christian liberty, and in its place, set up their trifles and superstitious vanities. The Lord speaks of such men in the gospel, saying: "Let them alone; they are blind leaders of the blind." Mat 15.14

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And Paul in the second chapter to the Galatians says: "Titus, being a Greek, was not circumcised because of incomers, false brethren, who came in to secretly spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage. We did not give way for subjection to them for so much as an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you." Gal 2.3-5

Moreover, to this place is referred the difference that some men very wisely make between giving and taking an offence.

An offence is given then, when by your fault, by your inappropriateness and levity,[1604] you either do or say something for which your brother has cause to be offended. The other kind of offence is not given, but taken or picked out, not by your fault, but by the malice or wickedness of someone else. For example, when you do not sin either in word or deed, when your deeds are not all insolent, nor your words unseasonable — when you either say or do something that is both free and lawful for you to say and do — and yet another "takes pepper in nose" [1605] and is offended with that liberty of yours. This is the same as a man walking in a plain path, [1606] who happens to trip or stumble, and quickly quarrels with his companion,[1607] as though he had laid a block in his way.

Now, the unlawful and forbidden deeds with which men are offended, tend against God and his laws; they are done contrary to all seemliness, equity, right, and reason, and they stir up others to imitate similar revels and a desire for ill rule: such are idolatry, murder, whoredom, covetousness, pride, and luxury. So wicked king Jeroboam set up the golden calves to be a stumbling-block for all the people of Israel. And in like manner many, with their drunken tippling and audacity in gaudy apparel,[1608] not only offend others, but also make them worse, and by their ill example draw them into similar and more foolish vanities.

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Finally, giving offence is a very great sin, as the saying of the Lord in the gospel affirms. For in Matthew he says: "Woe to the world because of offences. Offences must come; but woe to the man by whom the offence comes! Whoever offends one of these little ones that believes in me, it would be better for him that a millstone were hung around his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Mat 18.6-7 And Paul the apostle says, speaking to the brethren who give offence: "Through giving offence your brother perishes, for whom Christ died." And again: "And so, sinning against your brethren, and wounding their weak consciences, you sin against Christ himself." 1Cor 8.11-12 What can be devised that is more heinous than to sin against Christ? Let us all therefore take heed, that we give no occasion for offence to the weak, by abusing our Christian liberty, but that we always do the things that belong to charity.

Last of all, we must especially confirm our minds against the enemies of the gospel, who do not cease daily to lay innumerable heaps of offences upon the preachers and zealous followers of evangelical doctrine. "You," they say, "are the causes of all the broils, seditions, wars, and hurly-burlies,[1609] with which the world is disquieted today." Against these offensive outcries, I say that we must confirm our minds with that notable saying of Christ in the gospel: "I did not come to send peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man at variance with his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: and a man's foes shall be those of his own household." Mat 10.34-36 Here we must call to remembrance, and lay before our eyes, the notable examples of the prophets and apostles. King Ahab said to Elijah the prophet, that he was the disturber and plague of the kingdom; but the prophet replies that it was not he, but the king, who was the troubler of the country. 1King 18.17-18 The rebellious Jews objected to Jeremiah that, since the time they began to leave the worship of their [idol] gods, and to hearken to the preaching of the word of God, they never had one bit of felicity, but that mishaps by troops fell upon one another's necks. To this objection, the prophet answered that those misfortunes lighted upon them because of their sins, and especially for their rebellion, and for unthankfulness' sake.[1610]

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The unbelieving Jews at Thessalonica cried out against Paul and Silas, saying: "These fellows, who have troubled the whole world, have also come here." Act 17.6 But Paul said, speaking against the Jews, his enemies and persecutors:

"Just as they have killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, so they persecute us: they do not please God, and are adversaries to all men — resisting us so that we may not preach the gospel to the Gentiles to their salvation — that they may still fulfil their sins; and thus at last, the endless anger of God may fall upon them." 1Thes 2.15-16

Let the faithful think about and have in their minds these sayings and similar ones; and let them still persevere with constancy and patience, to spread abroad the doctrine of the gospel, however the world may fret and cast offences in the way.

This much up to here touching offences.[1611] It remains now, as I promised in the beginning, to say something at the end of this sermon concerning good works. For we have learned that Christian liberty is not licentiousness, but an adoption into the number of the sons of God, which bestows their whole life upon the study of godliness and virtues. We have learned that the law of God is the rule and doctrine of good works. The course of order, therefore, now requires that we have something said touching good works.

First of all, let us determine the true and certain signification of works, because the word is used diversely, and has ample signification. For works are the labours and busy exercises of men, by which they get their livings. For Paul commands every man to work with his own hands; the law forbids us to do any work on the sabbath-day; and the Israelites were oppressed in Egypt with hard and wearisome work and toil. There are also workmen, to whom in the gospel the Lord commands they be paid the hire that is their due. Mat 18.34 A work also is the thing which is made or expressed by the artificer or workman; for the prophet Jeremiah says of a potter: "He made a work upon a wheel." Jer 18.3 Moreover a work signifies an office or duty; for Paul says, "Do the work" (meaning the office) "of an evangelist." 2Tim 4.5

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And speaking in the church at Antioch, the Holy Ghost says, "Separate to me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have chosen them." Act 13.2 Furthermore, the works of the Lord are called the mighty deeds of God, by which he declares his power and goodness to men — and in that sense, heaven, earth, and man himself, are said to be the works of God's hands. Works also are the benefits of God bestowed upon us. For in the gospel he says: "I have shown you many good works:" Joh 10.32 (as if he had said, I have done you many good turns).[1612] There are also evil works, I mean works of iniquity, for which some men are called workers of iniquity; their deeds are the works of the flesh and of darkness.[1613] Again, there are good works, I mean various virtues, or the fruits of faith. Of this sort are justice, temperance, charity, patience, hope, etc. For the Lord said in the gospel: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify the Father which is in heaven." Mat 5.16 The apostle says that we are made for good works, to walk in them. Eph 2.10 Those are called the fruits of repentance, and works worthy of repentance.[1614] They are called the works of light,[1615] and the fruits of the Spirit. Gal 5.22 These are the works of humanity, benevolence, and charity, as commended in Tabitha, who is said to have been full of good works. Act 9.36 Paul says: "Let us work good to all, while we have time; but especially to those of the household of faith." Gal 6.10 Mary bestowed a similar work of humanity and charity upon Christ our Saviour, who said: "She has wrought a good work on me." Mat 26.10 This being declared, we will now describe good works in their colours and qualities.

Good works are deeds or actions, wrought by those who are regenerate by the Spirit [1616] of God, through faith, and according to the word of God, to the glory of God, the honesty [1617] of life, and the profit of our neighbour. I will explicate [1618] this brief description by parts, and expound it as well as the Lord gives me grace.

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First, I will show by proof, that there are no other well-springs from which good works flow, than God himself, who is the author of all good things. For the prophet says: "All men are liars; God alone speaks the truth." [1619] And the Lord says in the gospel: "None is good but God alone." Mat 19.17 Good works, therefore, must have their beginning, not of man (who is a liar and corrupt), but of God himself (the well-spring of all goodness). And God renews all men by his Spirit and by faith in Christ Jesus; so that once regenerated, they no longer do their own works of the flesh, but the works of the Spirit, of grace, and of God himself. For the works of those who are regenerate, grow by the good Spirit of God that is within them. Even as sap gives strength to trees to bring forth fruit, this Spirit in like manner causes sundry virtues to bud and branch out of us, as the Lord himself testifies in the gospel: "I am the vine, you are the branches. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine; so also you cannot, unless you abide in me. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing." Joh 15.4-5 When we say that a good work is done by faith, we refer that to the same cause. For faith is the gift of God, by which we lay hold on Christ, and through which we are both justified and quickened. As the scripture says, "The just shall live by his faith." Hab 2.4 And in another place Paul says: "By faith Christ dwells in our hearts." [1620] And again: "I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Gal 2.20 Now, he that lives does works of life through the one, no doubt, by whom he is quickened; and he that is justified does works of righteousness through the one that justified him.

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That is, the righteous work righteousness through Christ; and righteousness contains the whole company of virtues. So then, God alone still remains the only well-spring and author of good works.

But let us now see the testimonies of scripture, by which we may evidently learn that the works of those who are regenerate, are attributed to God himself — who works in the hearts of the regenerate by his Spirit and by faith. Moses testifies, saying: "The Lord shall bless you, and the Lord your God shall circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, that you may love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live." Deu 30.5-6 Look here, the reason that godly men rightly love the Lord, proceeds from the circumcision of the heart. Now who, I pray you, circumcises the heart beside the Lord? The prophet Isaiah more plainly says: "You, Lord, shall ordain peace: for even you have wrought all our works in us." Isa 26.12 In the gospel of St. John our Saviour says: "He that works verity comes to the light, that his works may be seen, because they are wrought by God." And again: "Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he brings forth much fruit; for without me you can do nothing." [1621] Paul also says to the Philippians: "To you it is given, for Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him." Phi 1.29 And yet again more plainly: "It is God who works in you, both to will and to do according to the good purpose of the mind." Phi 2.13 Likewise, St. James also says: "Every good giving, and every perfect gift, is from above, and it comes from the Father of lights." Jas 1.17 Moreover, St. Peter, ascribing all the parts of good works to God, says: "The God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus, restore, uphold, strengthen, and establish you." 1Pet 5.10 For "we are not able of ourselves," Paul says in another place, "to think anything as being of ourselves; but all our ability is of God." 2Cor 3.5

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Therefore, God alone still remains the only well-spring of all good works, from whom, as from a spring-head, good works flow into the saints, as into sundry streams and channels.[1622]

Yet here, this must be added by the way: that good works, although they indeed proceed from God, and in a very true and proper phrase of speech, they are the fruits of the Spirit and of faith, both are ours, and they are also said to be ours — that is to say, the works of faithful men. This is partly because God works them by us, and uses our ministry in doing them; and partly because we are by faith the sons of God, and are therefore made brethren and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. For by this right of inheritance, all the works of God (which are God's gifts in us), are not another's, but our own and proper works. Indeed, the scripture attributes them to us as to sons and freeborn children. For the Lord says in the gospel: "The servant does not abide in the house forever; the son abides forever." Joh 8.35 Therefore, just as all things in the father's house come to the son by right of inheritance and title of propriety — even though the son has not gotten them by his own industry, nor gathered them by his own labour, but has received them by the liberality of his parents — even so, the works of God which he works in us and by us, which are God's gifts bestowed upon us, both are, and are said to be our own because we are the sons of the household by adoption; and therefore, we are the lawful heirs. Thus it would be the sign of a very unthankful mind for an adopted son, being forgetful of his father's beneficence and liberality, to brag that all those goods which he enjoys by right of inheritance, were gotten and come by through his own labour and travail. Of this Paul said very religiously: "What do you have that you have not received? If you have received it, then why do you boast as though you did not receive it?" 1Cor 4.7 Very well thought was the holy martyr of Christ, St. Cyprian, who was prone to say: "We should boast of nothing, because we have nothing of our own." [1623]

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To this belongs that saying of the prophet Isaiah: "Will the axe boast against the one that hews with it; or the saw brag against the one that draws it?" [1624] Truly, we are the instruments or tools of God by which He works; for the apostle says: "We are joint-workers with God; you are God's husbandry, you are God's building. According to the grace which God has given me." 1Cor 3.9-10 Therefore, according to the meaning of the apostle's writing, St. Augustine writes in the sixth chapter, Lib. de Gratia et libero arb.:

"When grace is given, our merits begin to be good, and that is through grace. For if grace is taken away, man falls — not being set up by free will, but thrown down by it headlong. This is why, when man begins to have good works, he must not attribute them to himself, but to God — to whom it is said in the Psalm, 'Be my helper: do not forsake me.' In saying, 'Do not forsake me,' he shows that if he is forsaken, he is able to do no good by himself." [1625]

So then, St. Augustine plainly enough declares in these words that good works are ours in that way. Yet, notwithstanding, they do not cease to be the works of God; indeed, they should be ascribed to the grace of God that works in us.[1626]

Now, by what we have alleged up to here out of the scriptures, touching the true origin and cause of good works, we may easily understand how and in what way the scripture attributes righteousness to our merits. For in another place [1627] I have sufficiently declared (and I will again say something when I come to the treatise about the gospel) that faith justifies us in the sight of God, not works. This is the especial point and chief foundation of evangelical and apostolic doctrine.

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All our works generally, are either the works of NATURE (or the flesh), or the works of the LAW, or else the works of faith or GRACE. Now the works of nature or the flesh do not justify, but they condemn us, because "that which is born of flesh is flesh." And "the lust of the flesh is death, and enmity against God." Rom 8.6-7 What the apostle thought and said touching the works of the law, I declared in my previous sermon: "By the works of the law," he says, " no flesh shall be justified." Rom 3.20 But if we beat out and examine the works of grace and faith, we will find that such works both are, and have been, done by faithful and just men.

From this it is manifest, that justification always went before the works of righteousness. For the just man works righteousness; thus righteousness is the fruit that the just produce. Man, truly, is justified freely by grace, and not by works which follow after justification. What may be said to that place where the scripture says that even Abraham, the father of all who believe, was not justified by the works of grace and faith? He lived 430 years before the law; Gal. 3.17 he believed in God; and by true faith, he did most excellent works. And yet he was not justified by his works of faith. For Paul plainly argues this way:

"If Abraham were justified by works, then he has something to boast in; but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. To him that works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of duty;[1628] but to him that does not work, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Rom 4.2-5

Now, though we conclude that we also shall be justified according to the example of Abraham, by faith and not by works, we ground that conclusion, not upon our own minds, but upon the apostle's doctrine, who says: "Nevertheless it was not written for him only, that faith was imputed to him for righteousness; but it was written for us also, to whom it shall be reckoned, if we believe in Christ." Rom 4.23

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Touching this matter I have already disputed in the sixth sermon of the first Decade. I truly am persuaded that this doctrine of the apostles and evangelists ought to be laid up in the bottom of every faithful heart: that we are justified by the grace of God, not by merits; through faith, and not through works.

But while we urge and repeat this doctrine to the people, we are said by many to be the patrons of all naughtiness, and utter enemies to all good works and virtues. But by preaching our doctrine of justification by faith only, we do not contemn good works, nor think they are superfluous. We do not say that they are not good; but we cry out against the abuse of good works, and the corrupt doctrine of good works, which is defiled with the leaven of the Pharisees. For we teach to do good works. But we will not have them put up for sale, to be bought in what order of bargaining I cannot tell. We will not have any man put his confidence in them; we will not have any man boast of the gifts of God; we will not have the power to justify, or to merit life everlasting, attributed simply to them. For by that means, Christ would grow vile and contemptible;[1629] for with his death alone, he merited for us the heavenly kingdom of God Almighty. Nor by this do we separate good works from faith, as many think we do. Our doctrine is that works and faith are not severed, but cling together as closely as possible. Yet, notwithstanding, justification is properly ascribed to faith, and not to works. For works consist in our worthiness; but faith clings to the promise of God, which sets before us both righteousness and life in the only-begotten Son of God, Christ Jesus our Saviour. And Christ is sufficiently able of himself, and by his own power and virtue, to justify those who believe in his name, without any aid or help of ours at all.

I will not wink at some men's objection; but I freely confess that the scriptures here and there, in a way, attribute both life and justification to good works. But the scripture is not contrary to itself.

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Therefore, we must search good works, and examine in what sense, and how, life and justification are ascribed to our works. St. Augustine answers this objection, by referring our works to the grace of God. For in his book, De gratia et libero arbitrio, the eighth chapter, he writes this:

"If eternal life is, by duty, given for good works, as the scripture most plainly testifies, saying, 'Because God will reward every man according to his works,' Mat 16.27 then how is eternal life of grace, considering that grace is not given as due to works, but given freely and without deserving? As the apostle Paul says, 'To him that works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of duty.' Rom 4.4 And again, 'The remnant,' he says, 'are saved by the election of grace.' Rom 11.5 And immediately after he adds, 'If it is of grace, then it is not now of works; for then grace is no more grace. How then is eternal life, which is gotten by works, a gift?' Rom 11.6 Or else, did the apostle not say that everlasting life is a gift? Yes, truly; he said it so plainly that we cannot deny it. Nor are his words so obscure that they require a sharp understander, but only an attentive hearer. For when he said, 'The reward of sin is death,' he adds straightaway: 'But the gift of God is life everlasting in Jesus Christ our Lord.' Rom 6.23 I think therefore, that this question cannot be otherwise resolved, unless we understand that even our good works, for which eternal life is given, must be referred to the grace and gift of God; because the Lord Jesus says, 'Without me you can do nothing.' Joh 15.5 And the apostle, when he had said, 'You are saved by grace through faith,' Eph 2.8-9 immediately adds, 'and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.'" [1630]

This much up to here out of St. Augustine.

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Now although this answer of St. Augustine is godly and plain enough to anyone who simply searches for the truth, I am sure there are some who will never be answered with it. They will, I know, proceed to infer from St. Augustine's words, that works, and not faith alone, justify us. For they argue thus: We are justified and obtain eternal life by grace; good works belong to the grace of God; therefore, good works justify us.

Now it is not amiss to close and buckle hand to hand with these disputers, so that in this little [refutation], you may perceive that these are mere shifts of sophistry, which they put for sale under the name and colour of sound arguments. First of all, there is no man so foolish, if he has read the doctrine of St. Paul, who does not know very well that those two propositions cannot hang together: we are justified by grace; and, we are justified by works. For that sentence of St. Paul is as clear as the sun, where he says, "If it is of grace, then it is not of works: for then grace would not be grace." Rom 11.6 We freely grant both their propositions; namely, that we are justified by grace, and that works belong to the grace of God, or are the gift of God. But we deny their consequence, and say that it is false; namely, that works justify. For if that is true, then we may in like manner truly say, A man sees; a hand belongs to a man: and thereupon infer that a hand sees. But who would gather so vain a consequent? For all of us understand that a man consists of sundry members, and that every member has its effects [1631] and offices. Again, who does not know that the grace of God, which is otherwise undivided, is divided and distinguished according to the diverse operations which it works? For in God there is a certain general grace, by which he created all mortal men, and by which he sends rain upon the just and unjust alike: but this grace does not justify; for if it did, then the wicked and unjust would be justified.

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Again, there is that singular grace whereby he adopts us to be his sons, for his only-begotten Christ's sake. I do not mean that he adopts us all, but only believers. He does not reckon their sins, but imputes to them the righteousness of his only-begotten Son our Saviour. This is that grace which alone justifies us in very deed. Moreover, there is a grace which, being poured into our minds, brings forth good works in those who are justified. This grace does not justify, but it engenders the fruits of righteousness in those who are justified. Therefore, we confess and grant that good works belong to grace, but only in a certain manner, order, and fashion.

Again, they object and say, But grace or faith, and works, and also justification and sanctification, are so joined together, that they cannot be severed from one another. Therefore, the thing that agrees with one is applicable to the others also.

Truly, I neither dare nor in any case question that faith and works cling together; but I utterly deny that the two are all one, so that the thing which is attributed to the one may also be applied to the other. For although faith is weak and imperfect in us, notwithstanding, it leans and stays on Christ's perfection alone, and only thus far does it justify us. But our works have in them some sprinkling of vice, and some sparkle of error (I use the mildest phrase of speech), because of the original disease that is natural in us all. But it does not follow therefore, that the grace of God is polluted by any vice or fault of ours — which would follow of necessity, if because of the strait knot between them, the properties of the one were common to the other. Although the light of the sun is not separate from its heat, yet the light is not the same as the heat. Nor is it a valid argument to say that the sun gives light to the world; therefore the heat of the sun gives light to the world, because the sun's heat and light cannot be separated. Rather, it is in respect to its light that the sun lightens the world, not in respect to its heat. And yet the sun both warms and lightens the earth at once.

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In like manner, we are freely justified by the merciful grace of God, for Christ's sake, our Lord and Saviour — not in respect to and in consideration of the works of grace that are found in us, even though these works are engendered and brought forth by that free grace. And so we must attribute all glory wholly to the grace of God, and not part stakes with him, and take any part of his glory as our own share.

These wranglers have yet another shift, claiming: "Although we say that eternal life is given by God to all faithful believers, it is not only for faith in Christ Jesus, but also for works of faith. All the glory nevertheless redounds to God, since we acknowledge and confess that those works are wrought in us by the power and grace of God."

Our answer to this, is that glory must be so given to God as he pleases to have it given to him. If the will, purpose, and counsel of God were to receive us into his friendship for works' sake, which his Spirit and grace bring forth in us, then He would have sent his only-begotten Son into the world unadvisedly and without discretion; and would have rashly appointed him to terrible pangs of bitter death. But God, in all that he has created, either in heaven or earth, much less in this case, which is the greatest that belongs to man — the chief and most excellent creature that he has made — never at any time did anything rashly, without great advisement. Therefore, it is assuredly certain that it was never the counsel and purpose of God, for our own good works [1632] and virtues, to redeem us from the tyranny of Satan and to accept us for his sons; but it was for the only sacrifice and satisfaction of his only-begotten Son Christ Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. For the judgment of Paul in this matter remains firm and invincible, where he says: "If righteousness comes from the works of the law, then Christ died in vain." Gal. 2.21 And that divine saying of St. Peter remains forever uncontrollable: "There is salvation in no other." Act 4.12

Again, they lay certain places of scripture together, and thereupon argue thus: Although Paul in one place says, "You are saved by grace through faith;" Eph 2.8 yet in another place the same Paul says, "We are saved by hope." Rom 8.24

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Now who does not know that hope is upheld and strengthened by patience as it were? Christ himself in the gospel, agreeing to this, says, "In your patience you shall possess your souls." Luk 21.19 Therefore it is not faith only, but also hope and patience that bring us to salvation.

To this, we answer thus: The holy apostle sufficiently expounds himself, if a man will take the pains to read him throughout, and weigh with himself the end and cause for which he spoke each separate sentence. "You are," he says, "saved by grace through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast," etc. In these few words, has he not most evidently declared what his belief is touching grace or faith, and works? Who would desire plainer speech? There is none who is so much a dorhead, [1633] that he does not understand that the benefit of salvation is wholly and merely ascribed to grace. For Paul does not divide salvation or justification partly to faith or grace, and partly to works; nor does he attribute the first place to faith, and the second place to works. He utterly excludes all boasting. "You are," he says, "saved by grace through faith." And immediately after he adds, "and that not of yourselves." He annexes the cause: "it is the gift of God." And again: "not of works." He shows why: "Lest any man should boast." He that does not understand this, undoubtedly understands nothing at all. He that twists this, or otherwise cavils at it, speaks against the sun, and says that the light is darkness. Now, although the same apostle in another place says, "We are saved by hope," Rom 8.24 it is by marking the whole place to be gathered, that his meaning is understood. It is as if he had said, "I told you that those who believe in Christ are the sons and heirs of God, and thereby they have their salvation and felicity. But I would have everyone understand it in hope and expectation — not in enjoying the very thing itself, and its present fruition." Now, who can infer from this, "Therefore hope justifies"? Rather, we make this argument: Patience is not patience at all, unless the patient man is first justified by true faith. Therefore, the commendation of patience wholly depends upon faith, and not the praise of faith upon patience — even though faith is declared and shown by patience.

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For it is an utterly unworthy sentence to come out of a Christian man's mouth, to say that faith is made perfect by good works; that is to say, where faith lacks a piece, good works patch it up. For when we name faith, we do not simply name the quality of believing what is in our minds, but we have an eye to Christ himself, our Lord and Saviour, together with his righteousness and heavenly gifts. Our faith rests and firmly stands upon Him alone, as upon a base and sure foundation. But to go about supplying the want of anything in Christ Jesus, is nothing but to disgrace the Son of God with devilish blasphemy. The faith of saints, I confess, declares and shows itself by works; but it does not follow from this, that works therefore make perfect what seems to be lacking in Christ's perfection. For there is nothing lacking in our deliverance, redemption, and justification wrought by Christ. The apostle James said indeed, "Do you see how faith was made perfect by works?" Jas 1.22 But his meaning was only to say, Do you see how faith, by the works which followed it, declared itself to be a true and righteous faith, and not a hypocritical faith? For before these words he said: "Do you see how his faith was effectual through works?" Again, the apostle Paul said: "I fulfil [1634] that which is lacking in the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church." But you may better translate the Greek ta usterhmata [ta usteremata] to be what is left behind, rather than what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. For the Greeks use this term not only for those things that are lacking, but also the remnant (which word St. Ambrose used) [1635] — I mean, the remnant and those things that remain behind.

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And St. Peter says, that "Christ suffered for us, leaving behind him an example for us, that we might follow his trace and footsteps." 1Pet 2.21 Therefore, the apostle affirms that by suffering, he fulfilled the remnant left behind.

After this, they again allege the words of the apostle Paul, where he says: "If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains out of their place, and yet have not charity, I am nothing." 1Cor 13.2 For they infer from this, "Therefore not only faith, but also charity, indeed, charity rather than faith, justifies."

But we say that in this sentence, Paul neither denies that faith alone justifies, nor does he attribute the justification of the saints to charity. For when we affirm that we are justified by faith, or when we make faith the cause of justification (which must be beaten into our memories by repeating it often), we do not understand that faith, as it is a virtue in us, works — and by the quality that sticks to us, faith merits — righteousness in the sight of God. But so often as we mention faith, we understand the grace of God exhibited in Christ, which is freely applied to us through faith, and received as the free gift of God bestowed upon us. And in that sense, Paul uses the term faith, when he affirms that faith justifies. But in this place, the thirteenth chapter to the Corinthians, he does not use the term faith this way, but uses it for the power of working miracles. This is manifest by that which follows, where he says, "so that I can remove mountains." Such faith does not comprehend Christ wholly, but only the power in showing miracles. Therefore, such faith may sometimes be found in an unjust man and a hypocrite; as it was in Judas Iscariot, to whom the faith of miracles profited nothing, because he was without justifying faith — which is never without charity, but of itself engenders charity.

Again they object, using that saying from the gospel of St. John, "Whoever knows my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abiding in him;" Joh 14.21-23 Thus God is joined to us for observing the commandments; that is, for our works' sake.

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Again, we allege this saying of the same evangelist and apostle John: "By this we know that we abide in him, and he in us: because he has given us of his Spirit." 1Joh 4.13 But that Spirit of God is a free gift: therefore we are joined to God by mere grace, free grace.

It follows in John: "And we have seen and testify, that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world." 1Joh 4.14 You hear, I hope, what it is that the world is saved by, and what Christ the Saviour of the world is.[1636] Now, who does not know that he was sent to us from the Father by the mere and only grace of God? It follows now, how that grace is received: "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God." But in the sixth chapter of John, instead of 'confesses,' the word 'believes' is used, and that is no marvel, since out of a true faith a true confession arises. By faith, therefore, we are saved; and by faith we are joined to God. But letting pass these wranglers, who will never be without a store of such sophistical shifts, we again return to our purposed argument, which is to show you how, and in what sense, life and justification are attributed to works.

Those who are well-exercised in reading the holy scriptures, so that they may reconcile the places of scripture that seem at a blush to be at discord, teach that faith and works in very deed are not separated one from another. For the same Holy Spirit who gives faith, also with that, regenerates the understanding and will, so that the faithful one ardently desires, and endeavours in all things, to do service to God his maker. Therefore, for the inseparable knot between faith and good works, which always keep company and attend upon faith, we say, that which is sometimes somewhat improperly attributed to works, is somewhat more properly to be attributed to faith: namely, justification. But most properly of all, justification is to be ascribed to Christ, as apprehended by our faith; for indeed, he is the foundation and subject of our faith.

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I will yet try to make this more manifest. In true faith there are two things to be considered: reconciliation and obedience — reconciliation, because by faith we understand and truly believe, that God is reconciled to us for Christ's sake, by whom we are adopted into the number of the sons of God — and obedience, because those who are reconciled wholly yield themselves to the one to whom they are reconciled, with earnest desire and zeal to do his will and pleasure. So then, we say that faith [1637] is of two sorts: justifying faith, and obeying faith.[1638] St. Paul mentions justifying faith [1639] where he says: "Being justified by faith, we have peace toward God through the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we are reconciled." Rom 5.1-2 Again, he mentions obeying faith,[1640] where he says: "Do you not know, that to whom you give yourselves as servants to obey, you are his servants to whom you obey; whether it is of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom 6.16 That is to say, this obedience makes you do the things that are righteous, and to be the servants of righteousness, which will turn to you to eternal life; and not the servants of sin, which turns you to death. Now, therefore, justification is properly attributed to the reconciling righteousness which is through faith in Christ Jesus; and it is improperly ascribed to the obeying righteousness, or the righteousness of obedience. For the obeying righteousness is from the reconciling — and without the reconciling righteousness, obedience should not be called righteousness. To which this also is to be added: that those who are justified do not put any confidence in this obedience, as that which is always spotted in this world because of our flesh.

To this also agrees this other explication which I will annex here. The most proper work of faith is purification and sanctification. For St. Peter expressly says that by faith our hearts are purified. Acts 15.9 But the holy scriptures show there are two especial things in sanctification: first, all the faithful are freely purified by the blood of Christ Jesus; for again St. Peter says: "You know that you are redeemed not with transitory things, such as gold and silver; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of an unspotted Lamb." 1Pet 1.18-19

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St. Paul says: "You are sanctified [1641] by the will of God through the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ, made once. For with that one oblation, he made perfect forever those who are sanctified." [1642] St. John also says: "The blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanses us from all sin." 1Joh 1.7 Therefore, the most proper phrase of speech is to say that we are sanctified through faith by the blood of Christ, who said: "I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified through the truth." Joh 17.19 The latter is that those who are sanctified by the blood of Christ through faith, day by day sanctify themselves, and give their minds to holiness; to the doing and study of which, the apostles most earnestly exhort the saints. For Peter says: "As he which called you is holy, so also be holy in your conversation;[1643] because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy." St. Paul says: "This is the will of God, even your holiness," etc. 1The 4.3 St. John says: "Now are we the sons of God; and yet it does not appear what we shall be: but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he also is pure." 1Joh 3.2-3 Now this purging or purification, which is made by our care and industry, is called by the name of sanctification, not because it is made by us as of ourselves, but because it is made of those who are sanctified by the blood of Christ, in respect to Christ's blood.[1644] For unless that sanctification which is the very true and only sanctification indeed, goes before our sanctification (I mean, before that sanctification which we work), it is no sanctification at all. But if that goes before, then it is imputed for our sanctification, even though meanwhile the spots of sin remaining in us defile ours, so that we put no confidence in it. Therefore, as often as you read in the holy scriptures that righteousness is attributed to our good works, you should think straightway that it is done for no other causes than those which I have already declared to you. For the apostolic Spirit cannot be repugnant or contrary to itself.

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This will yet be made a great deal more manifest, if we call to remembrance and consider that the apostles had to deal with two kinds of men: the one sort affirmed that they were sufficiently able to satisfy or fulfil the law by their own strength, and that they could by their deserts and good works, merit eternal life; indeed, they affirmed that the merit of Christ was not sufficient to get salvation, unless the righteousness of men was added to it. Paul disputed against these constantly and pithily in all his epistles; for they made Christ and the grace of God of no effect. The other sort of men were those who, abusing the doctrine of grace and faith, wallowed like swine in all filthy sins, because they thought that it was sufficient for salvation if they said that they believed; but they never declared their faith or belief by any good works, even though occasion for that was given to them. St. Peter very well and wisely disputed against these in the first chapter of his second epistle; and St. James in the second chapter of his epistle. For he affirms, that Abraham was not justified by faith only, but by works: that is to say, that he was not justified by a vain opinion, but by faith which bore and was full of good works. For James uses faith and justification in one sense, and Paul in another. Paul uses faith as an assured confidence in the merit of Christ; and he uses justification as absolution and remission of sins, for adoption into the number of the sons of God, and lastly, for imputing Christ's righteousness to us. But in James, faith signifies a vain opinion; and justification imports, not the imputing of righteousness, but the declaring of righteousness and adoption. For it is undoubtedly true that the holy [1645] apostles of Christ, St. Peter and St. James, would not by their writings make void the grace and merit of Christ, to advance the merits of mortal men — but rather to withstand the impureness of those who put the faith of Christ in peril of being disgraced,[1646] and offend all good men, for meanwhile they live most wickedly in detestable sins, without repentance. Therefore, the apostles of Christ, requiring good works at the hands of the faithful, first of all require a true and living faith, and they refer them both to the grace of God.

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Let us therefore most firmly hold, that the apostles attribute justification, life, and salvation, to good works improperly; to true faith properly — but most properly to Christ, who is the subject and foundation of true faith. For although true faith is not without good works, yet it justifies without good works, by itself alone. For it is most certain that life and salvation are bestowed on us in the same manner that health and life was given to the children of Israel who were poisoned by the serpents in the wilderness. They had their health restored them not by any works, but only by beholding and looking upon the brazen serpent. Therefore, we also are made partakers of eternal life by faith alone, which is the true beholding and looking up to Christ. "As Moses," says our Saviour, "lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that every one who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Joh 3.14-15 And the apostle Paul says: "You are saved by grace through faith; not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast," etc. Eph 2.8-9

The testimonies of certain doctors of the church agree with this doctrine of the evangelists and apostles. I will recite some of them to you, dearly beloved, not because these testimonies of the scripture are not sufficient, but because we will not then seem to be the beginners and bringers of new doctrines. Although, in very deed, what is derived out of evangelical and apostolic doctrine cannot be new, even if all the doctors of the church were to question or deny it. Now, therefore, give ear to how some, even the best of them, show not only in words, but also by proofs, that faith alone justifies.

Origen, a very ancient writer, says upon the third chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the Romans:

"Paul says that justification by faith alone is sufficient for a man; so that every one is justified who believes only, even though no works are once wrought by him. Now if we require an example where anyone was ever justified by faith alone without good works, that thief I suppose is a good enough example.

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Being crucified with Christ, he cried from the cross, 'Lord Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.' In the writings of the evangelists there is no mention made of any good work which he did in his lifetime; and yet, because of his faith only, Jesus said to him: 'Truly I say to you, this day you shall be with me in paradise.' Luk 23.42-43 Therefore this thief was justified through faith, without the works of the law. For after this request and prayer of his, the Lord made no inquiry about what his works were during his lifetime; nor did he look at what works he would do after this expression of faith and believing; but immediately upon his confession, he both justified and took him as a companion to go with him to paradise. Moreover, to the woman mentioned in the gospel of St. Luke, it was not for any work of the law, but for faith only that he said, 'Your sins are forgiven you.' And again, 'Go in peace, your faith has made you safe.' Luk 7.48, 50 Furthermore, in many places of the gospel we find that our Saviour used a similar kind of speech, always making faith to be the cause of men's salvation. And a little while after, the same apostle says: 'God forbid that I should glory in anything but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.' Gal. 6.14 You see here that the apostle glories not in his own righteousness, or chastity, or wisdom, or other works or virtues of his own, but he most plainly pronounces and says, 'Let him that glories, glory in the Lord;' 1Cor 1.31 and so, by that means, all boasting is excluded." [1647]

And so forth, with many other sayings tending to this purpose.

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St. Ambrose said in his exposition on the third and fourth chapters of Paul's epistle to the Romans:

"They are freely justified, says St. Paul, because, when they work nothing, nor do anything for God again, yet they are justified through faith only, by the gift of God.[1648]

"According to the purpose of God's grace, says Paul, it was so ordained by God that, laying the law aside, the grace of God should require faith only, unto salvation." [1649]

"By the example of the prophet, this confirms the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works: he calls them blessed, with whom the Lord has covenanted, that they should be justified before their Maker, without labour and the keeping of the law." [1650]

St. John Chrysostom, addressing faith, the law of nature, and the Holy Ghost, expressly says:

"I cannot prove that the one who works the works of righteousness, without faith, enjoys eternal life. But I can show, by good proof, that the one who believed, without works, both lived and obtained the kingdom of heaven. No man without faith has obtained life; but the thief believed only, and for his faith, he was justified by the most merciful God.

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And though here, perhaps, you will object that he lacked time to live justly, and to do good works, I answer that I do not greatly strive about that. But I stick to this only: that faith alone justified and saved him. For if he had lived any longer, and had neglected faith and works, he would undoubtedly have fallen from salvation. But the only end and argument at which I now shoot, is that faith of itself brings salvation, and that works of themselves never saved any workers that wrought them." Chrysostom declares this at large using the example of the centurion,[1651] Cornelius.[1652]

I suppose these testimonies are sufficient for those wits that will be answered and do not stand obstinately in quarrellings and janglings; otherwise I could allege a great number more. But I will not be over-tedious to you, dearly beloved, nor seem to be endless in an evident matter.

But now, because there is a question annexed to this treatise about the righteousness of works, which touches the merits of good works, I will therefore summarily say something about merits, or rather, about the hire and reward of good works. It is to this end, specially: lest any man, thinking irreligiously about the merits of good works, thereby obtains for himself, not good but evil works.

The name merits is an unfamiliar term, not used in the scriptures. For in that signification in which our merit-workers use it — namely, for meritorious works, meaning that for which both life and the grace of God are given, as a matter of duty, like a debt that is due — in that signification, I say, it obscures the grace of God, and it makes man too proud and arrogant.

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What, I pray you, can our works deserve, since none of the saints dare be so bold as to plead their merits before the Lord? Job cries: "If I were to justify myself, my own mouth would condemn me. If I were to go about showing myself to be an innocent, He would prove me a wicked-doer. If I wash myself with snow-water,[1653] and make my hands ever so clean at the well,[1654] yet You will dip me in the mire, and my own garments will defile me." Job 9.20-30 David cries: "Do not enter into judgment with your servant; for in your sight no man living will be justified." Psa 143.2 Christ our Lord in the gospel says: "When you have done all things that are commanded, then say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done only what we ought to do." But a little before our Lord said: "Does the master thank the servant who does the things that were commanded him?" Luk 17.9-10 The holy apostle St. Paul also cries: "I do not despise the grace of God: for if righteousness is of the law, then Christ died in vain." Gal 2.21 Again, in the gospel of St. Luke, the Pharisee is greatly blamed who was not content to put confidence in his own righteousness, but needed to boast of his merits also. Luk 18.9-14 And Nebuchadnezzar felt no little plague for saying that the kingdom of Babylon came to him by his own art, industry, power, and virtue. Dan 4.28-33 How much greater a punishment do we think they are worthy of, then, who are persuaded and brag that they have deserved or earned the kingdom of heaven by their merits?

And yet, all this does not tend to void the stipend of good works, or deny the reward that is prepared for virtues. For the one who promised is true, and what he promised he will perform. Now he promised rewards to those who work righteousness: even as, according to his justice and truth, he has threatened terrible punishments to wicked and impenitent sinners. But the promises of God are of two sorts: namely, they lay before our eyes the gifts and rewards of this present life, and of the life to come. For the Lord in the gospel of St. Mark says: "Truly I say to you, there is no man who has forsaken house, or brethren, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, who will not receive a hundredfold now, at this present time, with persecutions — and in the world to come, life everlasting." Mk 10.29-30

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And Paul says: "Godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This is a sure saying, and by all means worthy to be received. For therefore we both labour and suffer rebuke, because we have our hope settled in the living God," etc. 1Tim 4.8-10 And here it will do well to reckon up and cite the testimonies of scripture which concern the reward of good works. I will therefore recite a few, but such that are evident and pertain to the matter. The Lord in Isaiah cries: "Say to the just, that it shall go well with him; for he shall eat the fruit of his study, or travail. And woe to the wicked sinner; for he shall be rewarded according to the works of his hands." Isa 3.10,11 In Jeremiah we read: "Refrain from weeping; for your labour shall be rewarded to you." Jer 31.16 And in the gospel the Lord says: "Blessed are you when men speak all kinds of evil sayings against you, lying, for my sake. Rejoice and be glad; for great is your reward in heaven." Mat 5.11 The apostle Paul also says: "Glory, honour, and peace, to everyone that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." Rom 11.10 Again: "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may bear the deeds of his body, according to what he has done, whether it is good or bad." 2Cor 5.10And again: "Every one shall receive a reward according to his labour." 1Cor 3.8

Now, let us remember that the reward is promised and great gifts are prepared for those who labour manfully. To sluggards and slow-backs, the evils of this present life are imminent, and also of the life to come. To those who strive lawfully, the garland is due. But if it happens that the reward is deferred, and that those who strive do not receive the promises later, out of hand — yet let the afflicted think that their afflictions tend to their commodity, and that they are laid upon them by their heavenly Father. Let not their courage therefore fail them, but let them show themselves to be men in the fight, and call to God for aid; for "whoever perseveres to the end, shall be saved." Mat 24.13 Let everyone call to remembrance the old examples of the holy fathers, to whom many promises were made, the fruit of which they did not reap till many a day had come and gone, in which they strove against and overcame many a sharp temptation.

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The apostle Paul cries: "I have fought a good fight, I have fulfilled my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day: not to me only, but also to those who have loved his appearing." 2Tim 4.7-8 They must lay before their eyes the truth of God, who says: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away." Mat 24.35 The Israelites, truly, were held captive in Egypt a long time. But the Lord did not forget his promise; for in a fit and convenient time, he set them at liberty with abundant joy and glory for the triumph gotten over their oppressors. The Amalekites and Canaanites, I confess, exalted themselves in sin and wickedness a great while; but when the measure of their iniquity was fully filled, they were then thoroughly recompensed for their pains by Him that is the severe revenger of unrepented wickedness. The scripture therefore exhorts all men to have sure hope, persevering patience, and invincible constancy. I spoke of this in the third sermon of this third Decade. To this place, I suppose, belong those excellent words of St. Paul, where he says:

"It is a faithful saying: for if we are dead with him, we shall also live with him; if we are patient, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, he shall also deny us; if we are unfaithful, he abides faithful; for he cannot deny himself." 2Tim 2.11-13

And again:

"Do not cast away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a very little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now, the just shall live by faith; but if he withdraws himself, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who withdraw unto perdition; but we pertain to faith, to the winning of the soul." [1655]

Yet, for all this, we must not abuse these and like testimonies touching the reward of works, nor the very name of merits, where it is found to be used by the fathers; nor must we twist it against the doctrine of mere grace, and the merits of Christ our Saviour.

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We must think that the kingdom of heaven and the other special gifts of God are not like the wage that is due to servants, but like the inheritance of the sons of God. For in the last day of judgment, the judge will reckon up many works for which he seems to recompense the elect with eternal life as it were; and yet, before that recital of good works, he will say: "Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you since the beginning of the world." Mat 25.34 Now if you demand, why he will mention works in the day of judgment rather than faith, my answer is that it is a point or usual custom in the law, for judgment not only to be just, but also by the judge's pronunciation, to have the cause made manifest to all men why it is just. And God deals with us according to the order of men. Therefore he not only gives just judgment, but he would also be known by all men to be a just and upright judge. But we are not able to look into the faith of other men, which consists in the mind; and therefore, we judge by their words and deeds. Honest words and works bear witness of a faithful heart; though dishonest pranks and statements betray a kind of unbelief. The works of charity and humanity declare that we have faith indeed — though the lack of these argues the contrary. And therefore the scripture admonishes us, that the judgment shall be according to our works. In the twelfth chapter of Matthew, this sense is agreed to, where it is said, "By your deeds [1656] you shall be justified, and by them you shall be condemned." Mat 12.37 To Abraham, after he had determined to offer his son Isaac, it was said: "Because you have done this thing, and have not spared your only-begotten son, I will bless you, and multiply you exceedingly," etc. Gen 22.16-17 But it is manifest that God made that promise to Abraham before Isaac was born; indeed, he made it as soon as Abraham was brought out of his country. Therefore, the promise was not first of all annexed as a reward to the works of Abraham, etc.

Therefore, God examines our works according to his own favourable mercy, and not with the extremity and rigour of law; and He rewards our works with infinite benefits, because they proceed from faith in Christ — though for the sin which abides in us, they are impure and not at all meritorious.

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Now, hereby he gives us a proof that he regards us and our works; because, in testifying of the greatness of his love toward us, he grants not only to honour us, but also his own gifts in us, which he has graciously bestowed upon us of his great goodness. Our bountiful God imitates in this, the manner of dealing which fleshly fathers use in this world toward their children: for they bestow gifts upon their children as rewards for their well-doing, thereby provoking them to greater virtues, when indeed all things belong to the children by right of inheritance. And the true and proper cause of this reward, which the father gives to the child, is not the obedience of the son, but the mere good-will and favour of the father. Moreover, two things are to be observed in this. First, although God, in the manner of men, allures us with rewards, draws us on with gifts, and keeps us in good works with manifold recompenses; yet the reward or recompense must not be the mark at which the worker ought to look, which would respect his own glory and commodity rather than the love and honour that he owes to God. God will be worshipped for love's sake only; and he will be loved out of mere good-will, and not for the hope of any reward. For as he requires a cheerful giver, so he looks for such an uncoacted [1657] affection, voluntary love, and free good-will, as children naturally bear toward their parents.

The last is that our works, which some call merits, are nothing else but the mere gifts of God. Now, a person would be very unthankful if, by another man's liberality, he has been given licence to occupy that man's land for his own best commodity, and yet at length he goes about translating the right to that land from the true owner, who lent it him, to himself. But I would be loath to detain you longer than reason would permit, by drawing out this treatise too far. I will therefore recite to you, dearly beloved, a notable conference of places in the scripture made by St. Augustine, from which you may evidently understand and infer this conclusion: that the rewards of good works, or the merits of the saints, are by the very free and mere grace of God.

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Therefore, in the seventh chapter of his book, De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, Augustine says this:

"John the forerunner of our Lord, says, 'A man can receive nothing, unless it is given him from heaven. Joh 3.27 Therefore, if your good works are the gifts of God, then God crowns your merits, not as your merits, but as his own gifts. Let us therefore consider the merits of the apostle Paul (that is to say, the merits which he says are in himself), whether they are the gifts of God or not. 'I have,' he says, 'fought a good fight, I have fulfilled my course, I have kept the faith.' 2Tim 4.7 First of all, these good works would not have been good works, unless good thoughts had gone before them. Give ear, therefore, to what he says about those good thoughts: 'not because we can think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves, but our ability is of God.' 2Cor 3.5 Then let us also consider every individual particular. 'I have fought,' he says, 'a good fight.' I demand, by what power he did he fight? by that which he had of himself, or by that which was given to him from above? It is unlikely that so great a teacher of the Gentiles as the holy apostle St. Paul was, should be ignorant of the law, which in Deuteronomy is heard to say: 'Do not say in your heart, My own strength and the power of my own hand has done this wonderful thing: but you shall remember the Lord your God, because he gives you strength and power to do it.' Deu 8.17-18 But what does it avail to fight well, unless the victory ensues? And who, I pray you, gives the victory, but he of whom St. Paul himself says, 'Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ?' 1Cor 15.57

And in another place, when he had cited the place out of the Psalms, where it is said, 'Because for your sake we are killed all day, and are counted as sheep appointed to the slaughter,' he immediately added, and said: 'But in all these things we overcome, or have the victory, through him which loved us.' Rom 8.36-37 We have the victory, therefore, not through ourselves, but through him that loved us. After that, he again said: 'I have fulfilled my course.' But as he said this, so in another place he also says: 'It is not of the willer, nor of the runner, but of God who shows mercy.' Rom 9.16 This sentence cannot by any means be so inverted, that we may say, It is not of God who shows mercy, but of the willer, and of the runner. For whoever dares to take it upon himself to so invert that sentence of the holy apostle, he openly shows that he flatly questions the words of St. Paul.

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Last of all he said, 'I have kept the faith.' 2Tim 4.7 But in another place he again confesses, saying, 'I have obtained mercy that I might be faithful.' 1Cor 7.25 He did not say, I have obtained mercy because I am faithful; but that I might be faithful,' declaring by this, that faith itself cannot be obtained without the mercy of God; and that faith is the gift of God, as he most evidently teaches where he says, 'You are saved by grace through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' Eph 2.8 For they might say, We have therefore received grace, because we have believed — by that means attributing faith to themselves, and grace to God. But, to prevent that insinuation, the holy apostle St. Paul, when he had said, 'By faith,' he straightway adds, 'And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' Again, lest they say that they meritoriously deserved such a gift by their works, he quickly annexes, 'Not of works, lest any man should boast.' Eph 2.9 This is not because he denied good works, or made them void, considering that he says that God rewards every man according to his works — but it is because works are of faith, and not faith of works. And so, by this means our works of righteousness proceed from Him, from whom that faith also comes, touching which it is said, 'The just lives by faith.' [1658]

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All this, up to here, I have recited word for word out of St. Augustine. In it, all that may be said concerning the merits of good works are sufficiently well contained, and so soundly confirmed by proofs of scripture, that I do not mean to add anything to them. For I see it sufficiently manifest for all to understand, what and how the ancient fathers thought and taught about the merits of sinful men. For what can be said more briefly, sincerely, and fully, than that a reward is prepared for the good works of men? Yet, that reward is nothing else but the grace of God; and the merits or good works of the saints are the gift of God. As he crowns these merits, he crowns his own gifts. Thus, in all this, the ecclesiastical and apostolic doctrine remains immutable and unreproveable. We are justified and saved by the grace of God [1659] through faith, and not through our own good works or merits.

We now return again to good works, and come to expound the description or definition of good works, which we set down in the beginning of this treatise.

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Now, therefore, unless our works spring in us from God through faith, they cannot have the name of good works. And contrarily, if they proceed from God through faith, then they are also framed according to the rule of the word of God. And for that reason, in the definition of good works, I significantly said that they are done by those who are regenerate by the good Spirit of God, through faith, according to the word of God. For God is not pleased with the works which we imagine and devise of ourselves, of our own brains and authority,[1660] without warrant from his word. For the thing he most of all likes and looks for in us is faith and obedience, which is most evidently seen in the very example of our grandfather Adam.[1661] And contrarily, he disapproves and utterly rejects the works of our own choice and our good intents, which spring in and arise from our own minds and judgments; as I will declare to you by these testimonies of scripture.

In the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy we read: "Every man shall not do that which is righteous in his own eyes. Whatever I command you, you shall observe it; nor shall you add anything to it, nor take anything from it." Deu 12.8 Moreover, in the history of Samuel, a notable example of this matter is to be seen. For Saul, the king of Israel, received a commandment to kill all the Amalekites, with all their beasts and cattle; but contrary to the precept, through his own good intent (he thought), and for the sake of a religious zeal of his own choosing, he reserved the fattest oxen for sacrificing. And for that cause, the prophet came and said to him, "Is a sacrifice as pleasant and acceptable to the Lord as obedience? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice; and to hearken is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness [1662] is as the vanity of idolatry." 1Sam 15.22-23 Look, here in these few words you have the goodly praise and commendation of a religion of our own inventing, and of our own good works which arise from our own good intents and purposes. Those who neglect the precepts of the Lord, to follow their own good intents and forecasts, are flatly called [1663] witches, apostates, and wicked idolaters.

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They seem in their own eyes truly to be jolly fellows, and true worshippers of God, and zealous followers of the traditions of the holy fathers, bishops, kings, and princes: but God, who cannot lie, flatly pronounces that their works do not differ at all from witchcraft, apostasy, and blasphemous idolatry; nothing more heinous than these can be devised by any means. In the Gospel, therefore, citing that place out of Isaiah's prophecy, the Lord plainly condemns, rejects, and treads underfoot all those works which we choose for ourselves, which have their beginning from our own good intents and purposes. He says, "In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Every planting, which my Father has not planted, shall be plucked up by the roots. Let them alone; they are blind leaders of the blind." Mat 15.9, 13-14 And thereupon St. Paul boldly affirms that the precepts of men are contrary to the truth, and are mere lies. Tit 1.14 In one place, Paul says, "Whatever is not of faith is sin:" and in another place, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." [1664]

Upon this we may gather that the works which are not framed by the express word of God, or by a sure consequence derived from it, are so far from being good works, that they are plainly called sins. I pray you, force however great a good turn upon a man against his will, and see what favour you win from his hand, and how you will please him with that forced benefit. Therefore, good works first of all require the precise and express observing of God's will, to which alone they ought to tend.[1665] In his epistle to the Colossians, the same apostle openly condemns the Greek eqeloqrhskeian (ethelothreskeian); that is, the voluntary religion which they brought in to be observed, of their own choice and mind. And what need do we have, I pray you, to invent for ourselves other new kinds of good works, considering that we have not yet done those works which God himself [1666] prescribes, and in express words requires at our hands? Now, our adversaries may perceive by this, that we do not altogether simply condemn good works, but those alone which — by rejecting the word of God — we first set abroach [1667] by our own imaginations and fantastic inventions. Of this sort are many upstart works of our holy monks and sacrificing shavelings. But to conclude: the works that are repugnant to the word of God, are by no means worthy of any place or honour.

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And that we may more rightly perceive the sense or meaning of good works, we must in my opinion diligently observe these words of the apostle: "We are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before ordained, that we should walk in them." Eph 2.10 He makes two notes here concerning those that are good works indeed. The first is, "We are created in Christ Jesus for good works." It therefore necessarily follows that good works are wrought by the one who is grafted in Christ Jesus by true faith: for unless the branch abides in the vine, it cannot bring forth fruit. All the works of the unfaithful, therefore, however they may shine with the title of righteousness, they are notwithstanding that, not good works indeed. The latter is, "Which God has before ordained, that we should walk in them." We must not therefore account that all the works which men may do are to be counted good works indeed; but only those which God has ordained of old, that we should walk in them. Now what works those are, the Lord has very plainly expressed in his law (which is the eternal will of God). Thus the Lord, in the gospel, being demanded to answer questions concerning eternal life and true virtues, sends the demander to the law. He says: "What is written in the law?" Luk 10.26 And again; "If you would enter into life, keep the commandments." Mat 19.17 Therefore, the Ten Commandments are a most sure and absolute platform of good works. So that you may better understand, I will briefly recapitulate, and lay it before your eyes in a picture as it were.

To the first precept, belong the fear, faith, and love of God, with assured hope, persevering patience, and invincible constancy in trouble and afflictions. To the second belongs the true and sincere worship with which God is pleased, with the utter refusal of all superstition and perverse religion. The third depends upon the reverence of God's majesty, the free confession of his might, the holy [1668] invocation of his name, and the sanctification of it.

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In the fourth precept is comprehended the moderate conservation of the ecclesiastical ceremonies, the preaching of God's word, public prayers, and whatever else belongs to the outward service or external worship due to God. To the fifth you may annex the natural love of children toward their parents, of men toward their country and kinfolks, the due obedience that we owe to the magistrates and all those in authority, and lastly, the offices of civil humanity. To the sixth you shall join justice and judgment, the protection of widows and orphans, the delivering of the oppressed and afflicted, well-doing to all men, and doing hurt to no man. To the seventh you shall add the faith of wedded couples, the offices of marriage, the honest and godly upbringing of children, with the study of chastity, temperance, and sobriety. To the eighth is to be reckoned upright dealing in contracts, liberality, bountifulness, and hospitality. Under the ninth is couched the study of truth throughout our lifetime, faith in words and deeds, with decent, honest, and profitable speech. In the tenth and last, you may remember good affections, holy wishes, with all holy and honest thoughts. And so, this is the compendious platform of good works. Now, if you desire to have it more briefly expressed than this that you see, then turn yourself, and hearken to the words of Christ our Lord, who gathers these ten into two principal points, and says: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself. Whatever therefore you would have men do to you, even so, do to them." [1669]

All the faithful who desire to do good works, must surely fix their eyes upon these precepts of the Lord. And they must do that all the more diligently and constantly as they more surely and evidently perceive and see this: that God in the law and the prophets, requires nothing else nor any other works, at the hand of his elect and chosen servants.

Now, therefore, let us hear out of the holy prophets, those evident testimonies touching good works, which consent and wholly agree with the law of the Lord. Moses in Deuteronomy cries: "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul; that you keep the commandments of the Lord, and his ordinances, which I command you this day?" Deu 10.12-13

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And in the fifteenth Psalm, the kingly prophet David asks this question: "Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle?" and presently he answers it himself, saying: "Even he that walks uprightly, and does the thing that is just and right;" and so forth,Psa 15.1 as it is contained in the Ten Commandments. Isaiah also, in his thirty-third chapter, moves the same question, and answers it even as David had done before him.Isa 33.15 Jeremiah, in the twenty-second chapter, urges and reiterates these words to the Jews: "Thus the Lord commands: keep equity and righteousness, deliver the oppressed from the power of the violent, do not grieve nor oppress the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, and shed no innocent blood in this place." Jer 22.3 And Ezekiel, in his eighteenth chapter, knits a catalog of good works, in no point unlike these, except that it is somewhat more largely amplified.Eze 18.5-20 In Hosea, the Lord says: "I desire mercy more than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than whole burnt-offerings." Hos 6.6 Micah diligently inquires what the worshipper of God should do to please him, and what works he should do to delight the Lord? And immediately, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he answers, saying: "I will show you, man, what is good; and what the Lord requires of you: namely, to do justly, to love mercy, and with reverence to walk before your God." Mic 6.8 In like manner, the prophet Zechariah, to those who demanded of him certain questions touching virtues and those good works which please the Lord, gave this answer: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: Execute true judgment; every man show mercy and loving-kindness to his brother: do no wrong to the widow, the fatherless, the stranger and the poor; let no man imagine evil in his heart against his brother, nor be lovers of false oaths. For these are the things which I hate, says the Lord." [1670]

The preaching of the evangelists and apostles fully agrees with this doctrine of the prophets. In every place, they taught that charity, righteousness, and innocence are the scope and sum of all good works. The apostle James says: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted of the world." Jas 1.27

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It now remains for me to draw to an end, and in what is left to be said touching the description of good works, to confer places of the scripture for the confirmation and plain exposition of it. Now, we said that good works indeed are wrought by those who are regenerate, to the glory of God, the ornament of our life, and the profit of our neighbour. For the Lord in the gospel prescribes this end to good works: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Mat 5.6 Also the apostle Paul, more than once, exhorts us to good works; and as a most effectual reason to pursue them, adds this: "That by those works of ours, we may adorn the doctrine of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus." Tit 2.10 And just as an attractive and cleanly garment adorns a man, so good works showcase the life of Christian people. For upon this it rises, that the apostles of Christ so often persuaded us to put off the old man, and put on the new, which is created in the similitude and likeness of God.[1671] For thereby we obtain both honour and glory; we both are, and are called, the servants, and indeed, the sons of our Lord God, whose property and virtue shines in us, to the glory and praise of his holy name. And as he requires good works at our hands, if we do them, then on the one side we please and delight him, and on the other side, he honours us in turn — as may be proved by many testimonies of the holy scripture. But the thing itself is so plain and without any controversy, that it needs no business to prove it at all. He truly augments his gifts in us every minute, while we are intent to do good works. For in the gospel he says: "To every one that has shall be given, and he shall abound; and from him that does not have, shall be taken even what he has, and it shall be given to him that has." Mat 25.8, 29 To this may also be added that God is favourable to those who work righteousness, and enriches them even with many temporal gifts, and at last he brings them to everlasting life. For the apostle Paul expressly says: "God shall reward every man according to his deeds; to those who, by continuing in well-doing, seek glory, honour, and immortality, eternal life." Rom 2.6-7

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And again, "Glory, and honour, and peace, to every one that works well:" Rom 2.10 although the godly in all their good works do not (as I told you before) respect so much the recompense and reward at God's hand, as the advancement of God's glory, the fulfilling of his will, and the profit of our neighbour. For Paul says: "Do all things to the glory of God:" and again, "Let no man seek his own, but every one another's profit: even as I do in all things please all men, not seeking my own commodity, but the profit of many, that they may be saved." [1672] Therefore, all the godly so direct and temper their works, that they may please, delight, and honour God, and profit many men; for in so doing, they express or represent the nature of God, whose sons they are, and are also called. For he liberally pours out his benefits on all creatures; therefore, his sons are beneficial and bent to do good to all men.

I had this much to say up to here touching the nature or property, cause, end, and effect — that is, the very true and right meaning — of good works. By this I hope it is evidently perceived, how and in what sense the Lord in the scriptures is said to attribute the name of righteousness and justification to the good works of the saints, his servants: and that true principle of our religion remains firm and unreproveable, in which we confess and hold that "we are justified by the grace of God for Christ's sake through faith, and not for works."

Now, therefore, nothing more is left except this: for us to make our humble petition to God for true faith in Christ our Lord, and that by his grace he will so guide us, that we may now in works, put into practice that which up to here we have been taught in the words of this treatise — that is to say, that we may indeed express in good works, the faith that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord, which we profess in words. Amen.[1673]

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3-10. THE TENTH SERMON: ORIGINAL AND ACTUAL SIN.

OF SIN, AND OF THE KINDS OF IT: NAMELY, OF ORIGINAL AND ACTUAL SIN,

AND OF SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST;

AND LASTLY, OF THE MOST SURE AND JUST PUNISHMENT OF SINS.

WE have now lastly to discourse about sin, which, as I told you, is to be referred to the treatise of the law. That I may lawfully, religiously, rightly, and profitably speak of this to the edifying of you all, I desire you to make your humble prayers with me to God the Father, in the name of Christ his Son, our gracious Lord and Mediator.[1674]

Sin is taken for error, by most men; I mean, that by which we not only err from the thing which is true, right, just and good, but we also follow and decline toward that which is nothing. The Latins derive their word peccatum, sin, from pellicatus, whore-hunting. This is a fault of wedded people who are corrupted with the spirit of fornication, as when men prefer harlots before their lawful wives. And this definition, truly, wonderfully agrees with this present treatise. For all we who believe, are pledged [1675] to our God by faith, as to our spouse and husband. If we therefore prefer other gods before him, or choose rather to serve them — if, I say, we let pass the true goods indeed, to follow the shadow of goods, vain hopes, and the pernicious pleasures of this world, then we sin indeed, and we commit fornication against our spouse and husband.[1676] But the learned sort, for the most part, differentiate between peccatum and delictum, both of which, in effect, signify sins.[1677] But when the thing is not done that should be done, they call that delictum; and when that is done that should be left undone, they call that peccatum. St. Jerome seems to have used delictum for the first fall to sin.[1678]

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St. Augustine says that peccatum is committed by one who sins wittingly, and delictum by one who sins from ignorance.[1679] I see that those words are confounded in some places, and that the one is used for the other. In some places the error, or delictum, is used as the milder term; peccatum, in a more grievous sense; and a heinous crimen, a mischief, a revolting or wickedness, for the greatest of all.[1680] For St. Augustine says: "Neither is every peccatum crimen,[1681] because every crimen is peccatum." Therefore we say, that the life of a man [1682] living in this transitory world may be found to be without that heinous offence, crimen, for which the whole world cries out and accuses him.[1683] But "if we say we have nullum peccatum, no sin," (as the apostle says) "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1Joh 1.8 Among the Hebrews, sin is called by sundry names, which import and signify perverseness, a fault, an error, a revolting, infirmity, vice, ignorance, and transgression. For transgress signifies to depart from the truth,[1684] from our duty or office, not to keep the right path, but to turn away from the prescript rule of the law of God. Now that rule, or law of God, the Hebrews called Torah — that is to say, a direction, or a leading by the hand;[1685] for it directs a man in the ways that are acceptable to the Lord. And therefore the Greeks call sin by the names anomia and paranomia (anomia and paranomia). Again, in the Hebrew tongue, sin is the same as saying a turning away from good to evil; also a revolting, as when you draw your neck out of the yoke of someone's power to whom you are a servant. Finally, it signifies the crime or guilt by which we endanger ourselves to the rod of punishment.

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Truly St. Augustine takes great pains to discover a proper definition of sin. In his second book, De Consensu Evangelistarum, he says: "Sin is the transgression of the law." [1686] Ad Simplicianum, Lib. i.: "Sin is an inordinateness or perverseness of man; that is, a turning from the more excellent Creator, and a turning to the inferior creatures." [1687] De Fide contra Manichaeos, cap. 8, he says: "What else is it to sin, but to err in the precepts of truth, or in the truth itself?" [1688] Again, Contra Faustum Manichaeum, Lib. xxii. cap. 27: "Sin is a deed, a word, or a wish, against the law of God." [1689] De duabus animabus contra Manichaeos, cap. 11, says: "Sin is a will to retain or obtain that which justice forbids, and is not free to abstain." [1690] And In Retract. Lib. i. cap. 15, he says: "That will is a motion of the mind, without compulsion, either not to lose or else to obtain, some one thing or other." [1691]

As I do not utterly reject all these definitions, I wish this to be considered and thought of with the rest: Sin is the natural corruption of mankind, and the action which arises from it, contrary to the law of God, whose wrath it brings upon us, both death and sundry punishments. You hear how well this definition consists in its parts. You hear of our natural corruption in it; and in naming that, it appears how this definition does not agree with the sin of our first parents, in whom there was no natural corruption.

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I mean to speak of this in a convenient place. You hear the action named, which arises from our natural corruption, and how it is repugnant to the law of God. You hear that sin brings upon us the wrath of God, that is, death and sundry sorts of punishments appointed by the mouth of God to plague us for our sins. I will speak of these in order as they lie, so far as the Lord gives me grace and ability.

Now, it therefore seems that this treatise may most aptly begin at discussing the original cause and beginning [1692] of sin. There are some who derive the original cause of evil or sin from the influence of the planets, saying, "I sinned, because I was born under an unlucky planet." There are others who, when they sin and are rebuked for it, give this answer: "It is not I, but the devil who is at fault, that I have committed this grievous crime." And sometimes, laying aside all excuses, they cast the blame on God directly, and say: "Why, God willed that it should be so; for if he would not have it so, I would not have sinned." Another says: "Since God could have prevented it, and would not, he is the cause and author of my sin." But it is no new thing now, that men whet their blasphemous tongues against God, the maker and ruler of all things. For our first parents, when they had sinned and were accused of it by God himself, found a shift to translate the sin which they committed, from themselves to the other, and would not confess the truth as it was in very deed. Such is the abominable wickedness of man. For Adam, answering God contrarily, casts the fault of his offence not only [1693] upon his wife, whom God had coupled to him, but also upon God himself. "The woman he says, "whom you gave to be with me, gave me from the tree,[1694] and I ate." Gen 3.12 It is as if he had said: If you had not given me the woman, I would not have sinned. But the Lord coupled him to a wife, not to the end that she should be an occasion for evil, but that the man might be in a better case and condition. Again, the woman simply imputes the cause of that evil to the devil, saying: "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate."

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Look, these are most corrupt, false, wicked, and detestable opinions touching the original cause of sin, with which the justice and truth of God is mightily offended. Nor is the nature of man the cause of sin. For God, who created all things, also created the nature of man, and made it good, even as all other things which he created were good. Therefore the nature of man was good. For it is an incidental quality that happened to man either in, or immediately after, his fall; it was not a substantial property, to have his nature so spotted with corruption as it is now.[1695] Now we, being born in sin, of sinful progenitors, have sin as our natural property by descent; for St. Augustine, writing, De Fide contra Manichaeos, cap. 9, says: "And if we say that any men are evil by nature, we mean that they are evil because of the original descent of our first parents' sin, into which we mortal men are wholly born." [1696] But this now requires a more exact and ample declaration.

This greatly argues that the devil alone is not the author of sin, such that when we sin, the blame for it should redound to him, and we who sinned may escape without fault. It is in his power to egg and persuade us, but not to force a man to do evil. For by his power, God restrains the devil from being able to do the thing that he would do: he can do no more than God permits him to do. For if he had no power over a herd of filthy swine, then how much less authority he has over the excellent souls of God's most excellent creatures! He has, I confess, great subtleties, and he has more than rhetorical force with which to persuade us. But God is stronger, and never ceases to prompt good and wholesome counsels unto the souls of his faithful servants.

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Nor does he permit more to Satan than is for our commodity, as seen in the example of that holy man, the patient Job; and also in the example of Paul, 2Cor 12, and in his words, saying, "God is faithful; he will not allow us to be tempted above what we are able to bear." 1Cor 10.13 Therefore, those are vainly seduced, who cast the fault of their sin upon the devil's shoulders.

To proceed: if you demand of those who lay the blame for their sin on their evil destiny, 'What is destiny?' they will answer either that it is a course knit together by eternity and linked to itself, like a certain chain and continual row of counsels and works necessarily following one upon another, according to the disposition and ordinance of God; or else they answer that destiny is the evil stars or planets. Now, if you demand again, 'Who made the stars?' they have no other answer but God. It consequently follows, that they force the cause of their sin upon God himself. But all the ancient and best philosophers never pretended or alleged destiny [as the cause of sin], much less those Christians who freely confessed the mighty power of their God and Maker. And even among our men, I mean those who seemed to be Christians, those who held the opinion of destiny and constellations were those kinds of fellows that wise men would be ashamed to follow as authors. Bardesanes [1697] imputed to destiny the conversations of mortal men. And the Priscillianists, who were condemned in the first council held at Toledo, thought and taught that man is tied to fatal stars — that he has his body compact according to the twelve signs in heaven, placing Aries in the head, Taurus in the neck, and sequentially, every sign in his several limbs.[1698]

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St. Augustine, In opusculo lxxxiii. quaestionum, Quaest. 45, soundly confuting the destinies of planets, among other reasons says this:

"The conceiving of twins in the mother's womb, because it is made in one and the same act, as the physicians testify (whose discipline is far more certain and manifest than that of the astrologers), happens in so small a moment of time, that there is not so much as two minutes between conceiving the one and the other. Therefore, how does it come about that in twins of one bearing, there is so great a diversity of deeds, wills, and chances, considering that of necessity they must have one and the same planet in their conception, and that the mathematicals give the constellation of them both, as if it were but of [one] man?" [1699]

Great light may be added to these words of St. Augustine, if you annex to them and examine narrowly the example of Esau and Jacob's birth, and their sundry dispositions. Augustine, writing to Boniface against two epistles of the Pelagians, Lib. ii. cap. 6, says:

"Those who affirm that destiny rules, will have not only our deeds and events, but also our very wills, depend upon the placing of the stars at the time in which every man is either conceived or born; this placing they usually call constellations. But the grace of God not only goes above all stars and heavens, but also above the very angels themselves. Moreover, these disputers for destiny, attribute to destiny both the good and the evil that happen to men. But God, in the evils that fall upon men, duly and worthily recompenses them for their ill deserts. But the good which they have, he bestows upon them not for their merits, but of his own favour and merciful goodness through grace, that cannot be looked for from duty; laying both good and evil upon us, not through the temporal course of planets, but by the deed and eternal counsel of his severity and goodness. So then, we see that the falling out of good or evil has no relation to the planets." [1700]

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Therefore, this place may be concluded with the words of the Lord in the prophet Jeremiah, saying: "Thus says the Lord, you shall not learn according to the manner of the heathen, and you shall not be afraid for the tokens of heaven; for the heathen are afraid of them. Yes, all the observations of the Gentiles are vanity." [1701] For the planets have no force to do either good or evil. And therefore the blame for sins is not to be imputed to them.

I have now to prove to you, that God is not the cause of sin, nor the author of evil. "God," they say, "would have it so. For if he would not have had it so, I would not have sinned; for who may resist his power?" Rom 9.19 Again, "Since he could have prevented it, and would not, he is the author of my sin and wickedness" — as though we did not know the crafty quarrels and subtle shifts of mortal men. Who, I pray you, does not know that God does not deal with us by his absolute power, but by an appointed law and ordinance; I mean, by commodious means and a probable order? I know God could, by his absolute power, stave off all evil; yet he neither can nor will either corrupt or mar his creature and excellent order. He therefore deals with us in the manner of men: he appoints us laws, and lays before us rewards and punishments. He commands to embrace the good and eschew the evil. For performing these, he neither denies us his grace (without which we can do nothing), nor does he despise our diligent good-will and earnest travail.

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If man is slack in this, the negligence and fault is imputed to man himself, and not to God, even though He could have kept off the sin [1702] and did not; for it was not His duty to keep it off, lest perhaps he disturb the order and destroy the work which he himself had made and ordained. Therefore, God is not the author of sin or naughtiness. Touching this matter, I will first add some testimonies of the holy scripture; then I will answer sundry objections of the adversaries of this doctrine; and lastly, I will declare the original cause or headspring of sin and wickedness.

The testimonies which teach that God is not the author of sin or naughtiness are many in number. But among them, this is an argument of greatest force and probability: because God is said to be good naturally; and all which he created was made good in its creation. This is why Solomon [1703] says:

"God has not made death; nor has he delight in the destruction of the living. For he created all things, that they might have their being; and the beginnings of the world were healthful; and there is no poison of destruction in them; nor is the kingdom of hell upon the earth, for righteousness is immortal. (but unrighteousness brings death);[1704] and the ungodly call it to themselves both with words and works, and thereby they come to nothing," Wis 1.13-16 and so forth.

This is seen in the first chapter of the book of Wisdom; and these words surpassingly agree with the first chapter of that most excellent prophet Moses.[1705]

In the fifth psalm, David says: "You are the God that takes no pleasure in wickedness: nor shall any evil dwell with you. The unjust shall not stand in your sight: for you hate all those who work iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;[1706] the Lord abhors both the bloodthirsty and deceitful man." Psa 5.4-6 Look, you can devise nothing more contrary to the nature of God than sin and naughtiness, as you may perceive more at large in the thirty-fourth chapter of the book of Job.

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The wise man says: "God created man good; but they sought out many inventions of their own." Ecc 7.29 And therefore the apostle Paul derives sin, damnation, and death, not from God, but from Adam; and from God he fetches grace, forgiveness, and life, through the mediator Jesus Christ. That passage of Paul is far more manifest than to need any large exposition. Let it only be considered and diligently weighed by the readers and hearers. I would wish them always to bear in mouth and mind the very words and meaning of this notable sentence: "Even as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin," etc. Rom 9.10

The same apostle in the seventh chapter to the Romans evidently declares that the law is holy, the commandment is good and just; and thereby he insinuates that in God, or in His will — and in his law, which is the will of God — there does not spring any spot or blur of sin or naughtiness. In our flesh, Paul says, evil lurks, and out of us iniquity arises. "I know," he says, "that in me, that is in my flesh, there is no good." Rom 7.18 In that chapter, there are many sentences to be found which wonderfully confirm this argument.

Again, in the third chapter to the Romans, the same apostle says: "If our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance? (I speak In the manner of men)," [that is, I use the words of wicked people.] "God forbid: for how then shall God judge the world? For if the truth of God has more abounded through my lie to his glory; then why am I still judged as a sinner?" etc. Rom 3.5-7

Truly, if God were the author of sin and of all evil, and he would have the wicked be such as indeed they are, then why, I pray you, would he judge or punish them as transgressors, since they fulfilled his will by sinning? Rom 9.19-20

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To this place also belongs that testimony of the blessed evangelist and apostle John, in his canonical epistle, where he says: "If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, such as the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust of it. But he that fulfills the will of the Father [1707] abides forever." 1Joh 2.15-17 Look here, God is utterly free from all evil. Evil, he says, is not of the Father, but of the world. And the one who does the will of the Father does not do what the world wills, but what God wills. Therefore, these two — good and evil, sin and the will of God — are directly opposed and repugnant to one another. These testimonies, though few in number, are notwithstanding, in my judgment, sufficiently significant and able to persuade a godly-disposed hearer.

Now, upon this we first infer a conclusion, and we boldly warrant that point of Catholic doctrine which, ever since the apostles' time, has been defended with much diligence against the impure philosophy of some. Yet I do not utterly condemn all the parts of philosophy, knowing very well that some points of it are very necessary and profitable to zealous lovers of God and godliness. This conclusion is that God is not the author of evil, nor the cause of sin. Then, out of the same testimonies, we gather that the original cause of sin or evil is derived from man himself, and his suggester and provoker, the devil; in such a way, we say, that the devil, being first corrupted himself, then corrupted man. Nevertheless, he was not able of himself to have done anything, if man had not, of his own accord, consented to evil.

And here we must set before our eyes the fall of our first father Adam, that by the consideration of it, we may better be able to judge the original cause of sin and iniquity.

God created Adam, the first father of us all, according to His own similitude and likeness. That is to say, God made him good, most pure, most holy, most just, and immortal, and adorned him with every excellent gift and faculty; so that there was nothing lacking to Adam in God, which was requisite to perfect happiness. [1708]

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Touching this similitude or likeness to God, I will take occasion to speak afterwards, upon the words of Paul. So then, Adam was endued with a very divine, pure, and sharp understanding. His will was free, without constraint, and absolutely holy. He had power to do either good or evil. Moreover, God gave him a law, which might instruct him what to do and what to leave undone. For in saying, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil," Gen 3.3 God simply requires faith and obedience from his hands, and that he should wholly depend upon God. He had to do all of this, not by compulsion or necessity, but of his own accord and free good-will. For the wise man very truly and holily wrote in the fifteenth chapter of Ecclesiasticus,[1709] saying: "God made man in the beginning, and left him in the hand of his counsel. He gave him His commandments and precepts: if you will, you shall keep my commandments, and they shall preserve you." Wis 15.14-16

Therefore, when the serpent tempted the mind of man, and persuaded him to taste of the forbidden tree, man knew well enough what peril was laid before him, and how the serpent's counsel was flatly repugnant to the Lord's commandment. In the meantime, God neither compelled him, nor did Satan in the serpent, force him to sin, while he resisted and withstood him. For God had said: "You shall not eat of that tree, nor touch it: if you do, you shall die for it." Therefore, Adam was at his own free choice, and in the hand of his own counsel, either to eat or not to eat. Indeed, God declared his mind to Adam in giving a precise command that he should not eat of it; and he annexed to the commandment the danger of its breach, thereby drawing him away from eating the fruit, and saying, "Lest perhaps you die." And as Satan could not, so also he did not, show any violence, but used such probable words to counsel Adam as he could, and he did indeed at length persuade him. For when the woman's will gave ear to the word of the devil, her mind departed from the word of God. By this she rejected the good law of God, committed that sin of her own perverse will, and drew her husband into the fellowship of that same offence, who yielded of his own accord.

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The scripture most significantly expresses it in these words: "And the woman, seeing that the tree was good to eat of, and pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, took the fruit of it, and ate, and gave to her husband with her, and he ate also." Look, here you have the beginning of evil, the devil. You have heard what moved the mind or will of man to that evil: namely, the false persuasion of the devil, or his subtle praise of the fruit of the tree, and consequently, a mere lie; and the pleasant appearance of the delicate tree. But what our first parents did, they did of their own accord and free will, being led by hope to obtain a more excellent life and profounder wisdom, which the seducer had falsely promised them. We therefore conclude that sin does not spring from God, who hates and prohibits all evil, but from the devil; from the free election of our grand-parents and their corrupted will, which was depraved by the devil's lie; and from the false appearance of feigned good. So then, the devil, and the yielding or corrupted mind of man, are the very causes of sin and naughtiness.

To proceed now: this evil flows by descent from our first parents into all their posterity, so that today sin does not spring from elsewhere, but from ourselves. That is to say, it springs from our corrupt judgment, depraved will, and the suggestion of the devil. For the root of evil yet remains in our flesh by reason of that first corruption; this root produces a corrupt branch, like itself in nature; and as he has always done by his sleights, subtleties, and lies, Satan even now cherishes, tends, and tenders this branch, as an imp of his own planting. And yet, notwithstanding, he labours in vain unless we yield ourselves to his hands to be framed as he wishes.

Now, therefore, so that there may appear less doubt or darkness in this, for confirmation's sake I will add two most evident testimonies. The one is out of the writings of the evangelists, and the other out of the doctrine of the apostles.

The Lord in the gospel says: "The devil was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth, because the truth is not in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own; because he is a liar, and the father of lies." Joh 8.44

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By these [1710] words of the Lord, we gather that evil is to be referred to the devil, who being created in truth and goodness, did not stand fast in truth and goodness, but degenerated from his nature in which he was made good; and he fell [1711] into another corrupt and wicked nature, and out of himself has dispersed all evil into the world (as it appeared by the history of our first parents); namely, murder and lies (under which are comprehended all other evils) of which he is expressly said to be the father — that is, the cause, the author, the well-spring, and beginning. This is not because he was made such by God, but because he did not stand fast in the truth. To those, therefore, who demand from what beginning Satan came, and whether God made him or not? our answer is that God indeed made all the angels, and also those which afterward became reprobates and wicked devils. But we do not therefore say that the cause of evil redounds to God. For we know that in the beginning, God made all the angels good; for all things which he made were good.

Furthermore, it is said that the devil did not stand in the truth; that is, he revolted from the truth, from which he could not have revolted if he had never stood in it. Therefore, in the beginning God placed all his angels in the truth. He required from them truth, faith or fidelity, and the duty that they owed him. They were able to have done this, if they themselves would. But they disloyally fell from their allegiance, and sinned against the Lord, as the apostle Peter testifies.2Pet 2.4 And therefore, the fault of their falsehood and of all their naughtiness, was not in God, but in the rebellious and revolting angel. For since the time of his fall there is no truth, no fidelity, no integrity, no fear of God, no light or goodness to be found in him. Therefore, St. John said truly in the canonical epistle: "He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning." 1Joh 3.8 For he is the first sinner, and the beginning of sin. This note may also be added to this: that by Peter and John, the devil is said to sin. For sin is repugnant to the will of God.

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Therefore, God would not have had him perish. But since he did perish, it follows that he perished, not by the fault of God, but by his own fault.

Let us now hear the other testimony concerning the corrupt will of man, which is indeed the cause of sin. "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, nor does he tempt any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away and enticed of his own concupiscence. Then, when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death." Jas 1.13-15 In these words, St. James, I hope evidently enough, shows God to be free from all fault of sin, and that it derives it from us ourselves — showing, by the way, the beginning and proceeding of sin. Nor does James in this place question the place in Genesis where Moses said, "God tempted Abraham." Gen 22.1 For in Moses, "tempt" signifies a trial or a proof of something. But in this argument of ours, it signifies stirring or drawing someone to evil, to thus corrupt us. Therefore, just as God cannot be tempted by evil — that is to say, just as God is good and uncorrupt by nature — so God does not corrupt, deprave, or defile any man with evil; for that is contrary to the nature of God. Where then does sin have its beginning? The holy apostle answers, saying: "Yes, every one is tempted, corrupted, and drawn into evil, when he is drawn away and enticed by his own concupiscence." Jas 1.14 Look here, sin begins from our concupiscence, and it is accomplished and finished by our own work and labour.

Note here, by the way, what a weight and emphasis every one of the apostle's words carries with it. For first, he makes concupiscence our own, or proper to us all, even as the Lord had said of Satan, "When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own." Now, because concupiscence is our own, sin is therefore our own also. For concupiscence draws us away from that which is true, just, and good, to that which is false, unjust, and evil. The same concupiscence entices us, that is, it deceives us by making a show of false hope — just as fowlers use meat to entice birds into their nets; once they have deceived them, they catch up and kill them. I ask you, what could be spoken more plainly?

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We are cast into evil by our own concupiscence: this concupiscence draws us from God; it entices and utterly deceives us. And then, having laid the foundation of sin and opened the well-spring from where it flows, James very properly alludes and by an allegory shows us the genealogy, that is, the beginning and proceeding of sin. That concupiscence, he says, which is proper to us all, conceives sin in us, as if it were a womb; and immediately after, it gives birth to it: namely, when our lust bursts out into the act, when we greedily prosecute what we lusted after, and once obtained, we enjoy it against the law of God. Death, without intermission, follows on the heels of this; "for the reward of sin is death." Jas 1.15

I trust that by these evident proofs of scripture, I have plainly declared that God is not the cause of evil; but it is our corruptible will or concupiscence; and it is the devil who stirs, provokes, and inflames our depraved nature to sin and wickedness, as he is the tempter and utter enemy to mankind and his salvation.

It will not be amiss here to hear the objections to this doctrine by certain cavillers,[1712] and to learn how to answer them according to the truth. There are some, when they see that we do not derive sin from the nature of God, but from the corruptible will of man, and from the false suggestion of the devil, immediately object that God created Adam, and consequently He created sin in Adam. To this we answer that sin is the corruption of the good nature made by God, and not a creature created by God either in or with man. God created man good; but man, left to his own counsel, through the persuasion of Satan, by man's own action and depraved will, corrupted the goodness that God created in him: so that now sin is proper to man — I mean, to man's corrupt action against the law of God; it is not created in him by God. To this they reply: But were the will and ability that were in Adam, from somewhere else than from God himself? Undoubtedly, no: it was from God. Therefore, they say, sin is of God. I deny it; for God did not give Adam will and the power of working, to the end that he should work evil; for by express commandment, God forbade Adam to do wickedness.

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Therefore Adam himself naughtily applied the will and power which he received from God, by using them untowardly.[1713] The prodigal son received money from his father's hand; the intent was not that he should waste it prodigally with riotous living, but that he might have something upon which to live and supply the want of his necessities. Therefore, when he had lavishly squandered it, and utterly undone himself, the fault was in himself for abusing it, and not in his father for giving it to him. Furthermore, to have the power to do good and evil, as Adam had from God, is a thing without fault in itself; even as having poison, bearing a weapon, or wearing a sword, is a thing that no man can worthily blame. They have in them a force to do good or harm; they are nothing unless they are abused: and the one that gives them to you, leaves to you the use of it. If he is a just man, he puts them into your hand not to abuse, but to use as equity and right require. Therefore, if you abuse them, the fault is imputed to you, and not to the one who gave them to you. Now, since God is most absolutely just, of himself, and He gave Adam that will and power, it consequently follows that He gave them to Adam not to do evil, but good. Why then is the most just God blamed in such a case where sinful man is entirely to blame? We therefore conclude this: that because affection in Adam, being moved by sense and egged on by the serpent, persuaded him to eat of the forbidden fruit, when his understanding yet held the word of God which forbade him to eat; and his will had free choice and liberty to incline to whichever part it pleased him; he notwithstanding [1714] willed and chose that which God had forbidden him — we therefore conclude, I say, that sin is properly imputed to man who willingly transgressed, and not to God [1715] who charged him that he should not sin.

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Here again the adversaries ask this question, Why did God create man so frail, that of his own will he might incline to evil? Why did God not rather confirm in man the goodness and perfect soundness of nature, so that he could not have fallen or sinned? To this the scripture answers, saying: "Who are you that disputes with God? Woe to him that strives with his Maker! Woe to him that says to the father, Why did you beget? and to the mother, Why did you give birth?" [1716] Unless God had made man fallable,[1717] there would have been no praise of his works or virtue; for he could neither have willed nor chosen, but would have been good by necessity. Yes, what if man should be made altogether fallable? For so the counsel of God required him to be. God does not give his own glory to any creature. Adam was a man, and not a God. But to be good of necessity is the proper glory of God, and of none but God.[1718] And as God is bountiful and liberal, so he is also just. He does good to men; but with that, He wills that men acknowledge him and his benefits, and that they obey him, and be thankful for it.

He had bestowed innumerable benefits upon Adam. Nothing was lacking, therefore, but to give him an occasion to declare and show his thankfulness and obedience to his good God and benefactor. He offered Adam this occasion by making that law, or giving his commandment. We see therefore that God did not ordain that law to be a stumbling-block in Adam's way, but rather to be a staff to keep him from falling. For in the law, God declares what he would have him do. He shows that he does not wish the death or destruction of Adam. He teaches him what to do, so that he may escape death and live in felicity and perfect happiness. For this reason, He also provided that the law should be a plain and easy commandment: "You shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil," says the Lord; "for if you do, you shall die the death: but you shall eat of any other tree in the garden." What else was this, than as if he had said, You shall have an eye to me in all things; you shall stick to me, obey me, be subject to me, and serve me; nor shall you fetch the forms of good and evil from anywhere else than from me; and in so doing, you shall show yourself obedient and thankful to me your Maker.

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Did God desire any unjust thing in this, or more than he should at the hands of Adam? He showed him the tree as a sacrament or [1719] sign of what he enjoined him by giving the law; namely, that the tree might be a token to put him in memory that he ought to obey the Lord alone, as a wise, bountiful, excellent, and greatest God and Maker. I pray you, what difficulty or darkness was there in this? St. Augustine is of the same opinion with us, who in his book De Natura Boni adversus Manichaeos, cap. 35, says:

"He therefore forbid it, that he might show that the nature of the reasonable soul ought to be, not in man's own power, but in subjection to God; and that it keeps the order of her salvation by obedience, which it corrupts and mars by disobedience. And for this, God called the tree which he forbade, by the name of the tree of knowledge of good and evil: because if Adam touched it against the Lord's commandment, he would by trial feel the punishment of his sin. And by that means, he would know the difference between the good that follows obedience, and the evil which ensues the sin of disobedience." [1720]

Now, therefore, when the serpent had crept in and began to tell man of other forms of good and evil that were directly contrary to the law of God, and once man had received them as things both true and credible,[1721] he disloyally revolts against God, and by his own fault, he wrought his own destruction through disobedience. Therefore God always dealt justly with him; and man contrarily dealt too unjustly, and was utterly unthankful, however men may go about cloaking or not hearing of their unthankful stubbornness.

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But though we say that man was made fallable, we will not have it so understood, that any man should think that there was in Adam any one jot or prick of infirmity before his fall. For just as he was most absolutely perfect in all points, so he was in no point created so frail that he must sin or perish by death. For God, who is one in substance and three in persons, said: "Let us make man in our image, after our own likeness." Gen 1.26 Note here, that Tselem (image) signifies the picture or counterfeit of another thing, and that Demuth (likeness) imports the very pattern by which any picture is drawn or image portrayed.[1722] Therefore, God is the example or pattern, to which a picture or similitude was framed as a resemblance. But that representing likeness cannot be this body of ours; for God is a Spirit, and is in no point like the nature of dust and ashes. Therefore, we must of necessity resemble the image of God as to spiritual things, such as immortality, truth, justice, and holiness. For so the apostle Paul has taught us, where he says, "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on that new man, which is shaped after God in righteousness and holiness of truth." [1723] Therefore, there was no lack in our grandfather Adam, of anything that was requisite to absolute perfectness. Thus, even a blind man may perceive that man was not created for death and destruction, but for life, felicity, and absolute blessedness.

But, they say, God foreknew the fall of man which, if he would, he could have withstood it; now, since he could and would not, God is to be blamed because Adam sinned. It is a weighty matter indeed,[1724] when all fear of God being laid aside, men at their pleasure flatly fall to railing against the majesty of God almighty. I answered this objection in the beginning of this discourse; yet I would moreover add this here: that upon God's foreknowledge, no necessity follows that Adam sinned of necessity, because God foreknew he would sin.

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A prudent father foresees by some untoward tokens, that his son will one day come to an ill ending. Nor is that father deceived in his foresight: for his son is slain, being taken in adultery. But the son is not slain because his father foresaw that he would be slain; rather, it is because he was an adulterer. Therefore, St. Ambrose, or whoever was author of the second book De Gentium Vocatione, cap. 4, speaking of the murder which Cain committed, says: "God truly foreknew to what end the fury of the madman would come. And yet, just because God's foreknowledge could not be deceived, it does not follow that the necessity of sinning urged the crime upon him," etc. [1725] And St. Augustine says, De Libero Arbitrio, Lib. xiii. cap. 4:

"Just as your memory does not compel those things to be done that are gone and past, so God by his foreknowledge does not compel those things to be done which are yet to come. And just as you remember some things that you have done, and yet have not done all those things which you remember; so God foreknows all things which he does, and yet He does not do all of what he foreknows. But God is a just revenger of that of which he is not the evil author." [1726] And so forth.

Another objection like this, is made by those who say: Before all beginnings, God determined with himself to deliver mankind from bondage. Therefore, it could not be otherwise, but that we should first be tangled in bondage. Thus it benefited us to be drowned in sin, so that by this means the glory of God might shine more clearly. As the apostle said, "Where sin was plenteous, there was grace more plenteous." Rom 5.20 But it is a marvel that these cavillers do not better consider that God, of himself and without us, is sufficient unto himself for absolute blessedness and most perfect felicity; and that his glory of itself could (as it does) reach above all heavens, even if there had never been any creature brought into light.

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Is not God without beginning? But we his creatures had a beginning. God is glorious from before all beginnings: therefore he is glorious without us; and his glory would be as great as it is, even if we did not exist.[1727] What dullard is so foolish as to think that the eternal light of God draws any brightness of glory from our darkness, or out of the stinking dungeon of our sin and wickedness? Would God's glory be no glory, if it were not for our sins? The wise man in Ecclesiasticus says: "Do not say it is the Lord's fault that I have sinned: for you shall not do the thing that God hates. Do not say, He has caused me to do wrong; for he has no need of the sinner," for the wicked are not necessary to him. "God hates all abominations of error; and those who worship God will love no such things." Wis 15.11-13 Therefore, why do we not change our manner of reasoning, and consider the matter as it is indeed? God, of his eternal goodness and liberality, whereby he wishes himself to be shared among us all to our felicity, determined from everlasting to create man in his own similitude and likeness. But because he foresaw that man would fall headlong into a filthy and miserable bondage, he therefore ordained by the same his grace and goodness, a deliverer to bring us out of thraldom;[1728] to the end that he might communicate himself to us — that we might praise his gracious favour, and render thanks to his fatherly goodness. And so, whatever we have sinned and turned to our own destruction, God converts it again to our commodity and salvation: even as we read he has done in the case of Joseph and his brethren — which is a type of spiritual things [1729] and of our salvation as it were. We must wholly endeavour to do what we may, in reasoning about this argument, to so turn it that all glory may be given to God alone, and to us, nothing but silence in the sight of God. [1730]

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Now, last of all, there are still some places of scripture which must be run through and expounded along the way. The apostle Paul truly says: "God gave them up to a reprobate sense." Rom 1.28 But this kind of giving over is, as Augustine also says,[1731] a work of judgment and justice; for they were worthy to be given up to a reprobate sense. The cause is prefixed in the words of the apostle. For God had made himself manifest to them; but they were not only unthankful towards him, they also grew wise in their own conceits, and set about to intrude on Him [1732] I know not what manner of religion and worship. Therefore, that they might see by proof that they were fools and ungodly, God gave them up to filthy lusts. In like manner, king Amaziah would not give ear and hearken to the Lord, because God had determined to punish his iniquities; as may be seen in the fourth book of Kings, the fourteenth chapter, and second Chronicles [1733] twenty-fifth chapter. Likewise, the Lord put the spirit of error into the mouths of the false prophets, and they seduced Egypt (Isaiah nineteen). A seducing spirit also went out from the Lord of judgment, and was a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets: as seen in the last chapter of the third book of Kings. 1Kng 22.19-23 Now the Lord does all these things with just and holy judgment.

Again, God is said to blind men's eyes when he revokes or takes away the light of his truth and sincerity from those who contemn it, leaving those who delight in darkness to walk and stay in their darkness still. Then the Lord permits his words to be preached to the unthankful and ungodly receivers of it, to their judgment or condemnation; for truly, so the evangelical and apostolic doctrine teaches us to think. "This is condemnation," says the Lord, or this is judgment, "that the Son of God, the very true light, came into the world, and the world loved darkness more than light." Joh 3.19 And Paul said: "If the gospel is yet hidden, it is hidden in those who perish; in whom the God of this world has blinded the senses of the unbelievers," etc. 2Cor 4.3-4

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In the same sense, God is said to harden man. For when the Lord calls man and man resists, making himself unworthy of the kingdom of heaven, God then leaves him to himself: that is, he leaves man to his own corrupt nature, according to which the heart of man is stony, which is mollified and made tractable only by the grace of God, Therefore, the withdrawing of God's grace is the hardening of man's heart; and when we are left to ourselves, we are hardened. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, offended the eyes of God's most just and heavenly majesty, by his murdering of the Israelite infants, by his tyranny, and many other vices horribly committed against the law of nature. Therefore, it is no marvel that he hardened his heart. But if any man will not admit or receive this exposition, he still cannot deny that God in the scriptures uses our kinds of phrases and manner of speech. Now, we customarily say, This father, by too much indulgence [1734] or dealing over-gently, mars or hardens his son; he makes him stubborn and stiff-necked. Yet, the father does not tender his son to destroy him, but to save him. Indeed, by the abuse of his father's clemency, the son both destroys and hardens himself. Therefore though the son is hardened, that comes by his own fault and not his father's, even though the father bears the name of having hardened him, or made him past grace. And truly, if you diligently consider the history of Pharaoh, you more than once find this sentence repeated: "And God hardened Pharaoh's heart," namely, when some benefit or delivery from evil was previously wrought. It is as though the scripture had said, By this benefit of delivering him from evil, God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, while he abused the goodness of God, and supposed that all things would afterwards be out of peril and danger, because God had taken away this present punishment and began to do him good. Yet I confess, that immediately upon calling Moses — before God had benefited Egypt, or laid any punishments on it — God said this: "I know that the king of Egypt will not let you depart;" and again: "See that you do all these signs and wonders which I have put in your hand before Pharaoh. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he shall not let the people go." Exo 3.19; 4.21

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But these sayings do not tend to this: that we should make God the author of all Pharaoh's falsehood, rebellion, and stubborn dealing against the Lord. Rather, they were spoken to the comfort and confirmation of Moses, who is therefore so forewarned,[1735] that, when he deals earnestly with the king and yet cannot obtain his suit, he should know that he had God's business in hand, and that by His long sufferance, God is the cause of that delay. Yet, in the end, He would temper all things to His own honour and glory. The case, by a similitude, is the same as if a householder were to send his servant to his debtors, saying to him, Go your way, and demand my debts; yet I know that you will receive none of them; for by my sufferance and gentle dealing, I will cause these debtors to be all the slacker to pay what is owed. Yet, do your duty; and meanwhile, I will see what is needful to be done.

To this may be added, that even in those very chapters where it is so often said, "God hardened Pharaoh's heart," this also is afterward annexed, which lays the hardening of Pharaoh's heart on Pharaoh's own head, saying, "He hardened his heart, and did not hearken to them." In the ninth chapter of Exodus, when Pharaoh was well whipped, he cries: "I have now sinned; the Lord is just, but I and my people are unjust or wicked:" and immediately after, again: "But when Pharaoh saw that it ceased raining, he sinned still more, and hardened his heart, and it was hardened." So then, these and like places must be conferred with these words, "I have hardened Pharaoh's heart;" and out of them must be gathered a godly sense — such a sense, I mean, that it does not make God the author of evil.

Now, the prophet Amos also says very plainly: "There is no evil in a city, that the Lord does not do it." [1736] But Augustine, contra Adimantum, cap. 26, very rightly wrote:

"Evil in this place is not to be taken for sin, but for punishment; for the word (evil) is used in two significations: the one is the evil which a man does; the other evil is the pain which he suffers. Now the prophet in this place, speaks of that evil which is the punishment that men suffer.

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For by the providence of God, who rules and governs all things, man so commits the evil which he will have, that he may suffer the evil which he would not have. Therefore, the evil that God does is not evil in respect to God, but it is evil to those on whom his vengeance lights. So then, in respect to Himself, God does good; because every just thing is good. That vengeance of His is just, and so consequently, it is good." [1737]

That place in Isaiah must also be understood in no other way, in his forty-fifth chapter, saying: "I am the Lord, and there is no other. It is I that created light and darkness: I make peace and evil: yes, I, even I the Lord, do all these things." Isa 45.7 For here he takes evil for war, and he makes it the contrary to peace.

Again, St. Augustine, De Natura Boni contra Manichaeos chap. 28, says: "When we hear that all things are of him, and by him, and in him, we must understand it to be spoken of all the natures that exist naturally. For sins are not of God, because they do not keep nature, but defile it; the holy scriptures diversely testify of these sins, that they are of the will of those who commit them." [1738] This much from St. Augustine.

Nor is it a matter of any great difficulty to answer that sentence of Solomon's, where he says, "God created all things for his own sake; yea, the ungodly against the evil day." Pro 16.4 For we believe that the most just God has appointed a day of affliction, judgment, or punishment, which shall come upon them in due time and season.

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But though the apostle says, "He has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardens;" we must not so twist it as to say that God, of necessity, drives any man to sin, and that therefore He is the cause of sin. For the will of God is good and just, and He wills nothing but what is expedient, and not repugnant to nature, and to the word of God. Therefore the prophet cries: "The Lord is just in all his ways, and holy in all his works." Psa 145.

Thus, out of much that may be said, I have picked out a little, and laid it before your eyes, dearly beloved, for you to consider the cause of sin.

We have now come to demonstrate the first parts which were set down in the description of sin at the beginning of this sermon. They are two in number. The FIRST is, "Sin is the natural corruption of mankind;" the SECOND is, "And the action that rises from it, contrary to the law of God." Some truly, in setting down the kinds or differences of sins, very well and advisedly say, "Of sins, one is original, and another actual." I mean to speak of both in order, so far as God shall give me grace.

And first, I will speak of the natural corruption in mankind; that is, of original sin. Now, it is called original sin, because it comes from the first beginning, being derived from our first parents, into us, all by lineal descent and continual course from one to another. For we bring it with us into this life, in our nature, from our mother's womb. Psa 51.5

There are many definitions for this sin. Though they do not disagree among themselves, yet one is more full and evident than another. Some say, Original sin is the corruption of nature from the first perfectness. Others say, It is the corruption of man's nature, which makes it that we do not truly obey the law of God, and are not without sin. Again; some call it a want, or defect; others call it concupiscence; which might better seem the fruit of original sin, that is, of our corruption. Others call it an inordinateness of appetites, which is left in nature. [1739]

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Anselm, a late writer, says: "Original sin is the lack of original righteousness." [1740] But this is thought to have been said somewhat too briefly; for the force of sin does not seem to be sufficiently expressed. For our nature is not only void and barren of goodness, but it is also most abundant and fruitful in all evils and naughtiness. Therefore, the definition of Hugo is taken as the better, who says: "Original sin is ignorance in the mind, and concupiscence in the flesh." [1741] Yet this seems to be a far fuller and better definition: "Original sin is the vice or depravation of the whole man, whereby he cannot understand God and His will; but from a perverse judgment of things, perversely acts, and perverts all things." [1742]

And now, among all these definitions, I wish you, dearly beloved, to consider this also: Original sin is the inheritably descending naughtiness or corruption of our nature, which first makes us endangered to the wrath of God, and then brings forth in us those works which the scripture calls "the works of the flesh." Therefore, this original sin is neither a deed, nor a word, nor a thought; but it is a disease, a vice, a depravation, I say, of judgment and concupiscence; or a corruption of the whole man — that is, a corrup0tion of the understanding, will, and all the power of man — out of which, in the end, flow all evil thoughts, naughty words, and wicked deeds.

This sin takes its beginning from Adam; and for that reason, it is called the inheritably descending naughtiness and corruption of our nature. I have already spoken sufficiently concerning the corruption and sin of Adam, out of whom we are all born sinners. I treated the cause of sin;[1743] and later will follow somewhat more of the same argument. So I have no need to repeat anything here. I will therefore now pass on to the rest.

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The Pelagians denied that this evil of original sin was hereditary; for these are the very words of Pelagius himself: "As without virtue, so we are also born without vice; and before the action of our own will, that alone is in man which God created." [1744] These words of his are somewhat obscure; but Coelestius, the partner of Pelagius, more openly spewed out this poison, and said:

"We did not therefore say that infants are to be baptized into the remission of sins, to the end that we would seem thereby to affirm that sin is ex traduce, or hereditary; which is utterly contrary to the catholic sense: because sin is not born with man, but is afterward put in use by man, because it is declared to be, not the fault of the nature, but of the will." [1745]

Again, Pelagius said this: "That first sin did not hurt the first man only, but all mankind also, his issue and offspring:" but he immediately adds, "not by propagation, but by example;" that is to say, not that "those who came from him drew any vice from him, but because those who sinned afterward, in sinning themselves, imitated the one that sinned first and before them." [1746] This is to be seen in Aurelius Augustinus, De peccato originali contra Pelagium et Coelestium, Lib. ii. cap. 6, 13, and 15.

We therefore must prove by the testimonies of holy scripture, that the evil is hereditary in man; and that original sin is born together with us, that is, that all men are born sinners into the world. The prophet therefore plainly cries, Psalm 51.5, "Behold, I was born in wickedness, and in sin has my mother conceived me."

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Or as another translation out of the Hebrew says: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin my mother cherished or warmed me;" [1747] that is to say, sin then immediately clung to me, once I was conceived and nourished in my mother's womb. Now, that undoubtedly happened, not by any vice of matrimony (for the wedlock-bed is holy and undefiled;) but ex traduce,[1748] and by propagation. For Job, in his fourteenth chapter, says manifestly: "Who can make or bring forth a pure or clean thing from that which is unclean? [1749] Nobody undoubtedly is able to do it." Job 14.4 There are also many other sayings of that sort in the fifteenth and twenty-fifth chapters of the same book. And Paul, the holy apostle of Christ, in the fifth chapter to the Romans, most evidently says:

"As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; even so death entered into all men, insomuch as all have sinned. For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, over those also who had not sinned with like transgression as did Adam," etc. Rom 5.12-14

In these words, does the apostle not manifestly show the propagation of sin, by saying, "Sin entered by one man into the world; death entered into all men, insomuch as they have all sinned;" — namely, insomuch as they are all subject to corruption? And, showing that no men either before or after Moses might be excepted, he adds: "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, over those also who had not sinned with the like transgression as did Adam;" that is to say, over those who had not sinned of their own will, as Adam had, but drew original sin from him by propagation. St. Augustine more fully examines [1750] and handles this argument in his first book De peccatorum meritis et remissione, in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters, and the rest as they follow in order.[1751] Again, Paul in the seventh chapter to the Romans, calls this evil the sin that dwells in us,Rom 7.17 that is to say, the sin that is begotten and born with us.

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For he adds, "I am carnal, sold under sin;" and, "I know that in me (that is, my flesh) there dwells no good." And therefore the blessed apostle and evangelist John tells us, that "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1Joh 1.8 He says very significantly, 'we have,' and not 'we have had,' or 'we shall have;' for by our corrupt nature we have that proper to us. Therefore, it is manifest that the fiction of the Pelagians is false, whereby they affirm that we are born without vice. It is false that only the voluntary action is sin, and not the corruption or depravation which has not yet given birth to the deed. [1752]

And Augustine in one place calls even that voluntary sin, original sin; and that is in two different ways. First, not simply of itself, but in respect to Adam; because being committed by the naughty will of Adam, it is drawn and made hereditary in us. Secondly, because a naughty lust may be named a will.[1753] For Lib. Retract, i. cap. 15, he says: "If any man says that even the very lust is nothing but will, yet such a will as is vicious and subject to sin, he does not need to be challenged: for where the thing is manifest, we must not strive about terms and words. For so it is proved, that without will there is no sin either in deed or in propagation;" [1754] that is, neither actual nor original.[1755] This much from Augustine, who also alleges other sayings like this in his third book, Contra Julianum Pelagianum, chap. 5. [1756] It will be sufficient even without them, to learn by the testimonies of the holy scriptures, that sin is not only a voluntary action, but also a hereditary corruption or depravation that comes by inheritance.

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Not unlike all of this, is that sentence in Ezekiel, where the Lord says: "The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, but every man shall die in his own sin." Eze 18.20 For Adam's fall would do us no harm, if it were not that even from him, there is sprung up in us such a perverseness as is worthy of God's just judgment. But now, since all the inclination, disposition, and desire of our nature, even in a child that is but one day old, is repugnant to the pureness and will of God, which is only good. Therefore, no man is punished for his father, but every one is punished for his own iniquity; and calamities fall even on the youngest babes, whom we see are touched with many afflictions by the holy and just judgment of the most just God.

Neither is their objection any whit stronger, who say that the children of holy parents cannot draw or take any spot from their parents; for they have their lineal descent from the fleshly generation, and not from the spiritual regeneration. The apostle said, "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: otherwise your children would be unclean; but now they are clean;" 1Cor 7.14 yet this is not repugnant to our former allegations. For those children are called holy, not by the prerogative of their birth or generation, as though children were born [1757] holy without any spot or vice at all; but because, being born corrupt by nature, they are made pure by virtue of the covenant and grace, and uncleanness is not imputed to them for Christ's sake, or for the remission of sins which is pronounced in these words: "I will be your God, and the God of your seed after you." For of old, even those children of the seed of Abraham, who were holy and blessed, nonetheless received the sign of circumcision. Now, I pray you, what need did they have for circumcision or purging, if by their birth they had had no uncleanness in them?

Therefore, what you heard just now is utterly false, which Coelestius the Pelagian uttered in these words: "We did not therefore say that infants are to be baptized into the remission of sins, to the end that we should thereby seem to affirm that sin is ex traduce, or hereditary; which is utterly contrary to the catholic sense."

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For it is catholic and true doctrine, that the children of the Jews were circumcised, not so much because they were partakers of the divine covenant, as because all the antiquity of holy fathers so confessed that in infants, there was something which needed cutting — that is, which needed to be remitted by the grace of God, and not be imputed to them unto death. It is catholic and true doctrine, that the infants of Christians are baptized, not so much because they are the children of God and freely received into the covenant; as because there is in them, even from their birth, something which the Lord washes away by his grace, lest it bring death and damnation upon them. Yes, that cannot be catholic, which so manifestly repugns so many evident places of scripture, which prove that in infants, there is sin by propagation. To confirm this we may add, that St. Augustine in his first book Contra Julianum Pelagianum, cap. 2, gathers together the testimonies of the most excellent learned bishops and doctors in the primitive church, by which he proves that all the ministers of the churches, even from the apostles' time, both acknowledged and openly taught original sin. In that place he cites the testimonies of Irenaeus, Cyprian, Reticius, Olympius, Hilary,[1758] and Ambrose, his father and master in Christian doctrine,[1759] Innocent, Gregory, Basil, and John Chrysostom. And at length he infers this: "Will you now call so great a consent of catholic priests, a conspiracy of naughty men? Do you think that St. Jerome is to be contemned, because he was but a priest, and not a bishop? Being skilful in the Greek, Latin, and Hebrew tongues, and passing from the west to the east church, he lived in holy places and studied the sacred scripture, even to his crone [1760] and crooked age. He read all, or almost all, the works of those who in both parts of the world wrote about ecclesiastical doctrine. And yet, he neither held nor taught otherwise about this point of doctrine." [1761]

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And again, Augustine says in his third book, De Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione, cap. 6:

"Jerome, expounding the prophecy of Jonah, when he came to that place where mention is made that even the little children were chastened with fasting,Jon 3.5 says: 'It began with the eldest, and came even to the youngest. For there is none without sin; no, not even he which is but one day old, nor he whose grey head has seen many years. For if the stars are not clean in the sight of God, how much more unclean are dust [1762] and putrefying earth, and those who are subjected to the sin of Adam's transgression.'"

To these words of Jerome, Augustine himself annexes this that follows:

"If it were possible that we might easily ask this most learned man, how many teachers of the holy scriptures in both tongues, and how many writers of Christian treatises would he reckon up, since the time that Christ's church was first planted, who themselves have neither thought, nor learned from their predecessors, nor taught their successors, anything other than this doctrine touching original sin! Truly, though I have read nothing so much as he, I do not remember having read any other doctrine of Christians which admits or receives both the testaments, whether they were in the unity of the catholic church, or in schisms and heresies. I do not remember having read any other thing in them, whose writings I could come by touching this matter, if either they followed, or thought that they followed, or would have men believe that they followed, the canonical scriptures." [1763]

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Augustine teaches in the very beginning that all the saints, by a full consent and agreement in doctrine, most expressly granted and confessed that original sin is even in new-born infants. I think that St. Jerome, not only in Jonah, but also much more evidently in Ezekiel, confesses and affirms original sin. His words are to be seen in Comment. lib. xiv. in cap. 47, ad Ezekielem, and they are verbatim as follows:

"What man can boast that he has a chaste heart? Or to whose mind, by the windows of the eyes or (to use a milder term) the tickling of the mind, does the deadliness of concupiscence not enter in? For the world is set in wickedness; and even from his childhood the heart of man is set to naughtiness; so that not since the very first day of a man's nativity, is his nature free from sin and naughtiness. Whereupon David says in the Psalm: 'For behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me;' Psa 51.5 — not in the iniquities of my mother, or in my own sins; but in the iniquities of our mortal state. And therefore the apostle says, 'Death reigned from Adam to Moses, over those also who had not sinned with the like transgression as did Adam.'" [1764]

This much has Jerome. Up to here, we have alleged all these sayings, to the end that we might prove that original sin is the natural or hereditary corruption of man's nature.

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Let us now see what and how great the hereditary naughtiness or corruption of our nature is, and what power it has, to work in man. Our nature before the fall, as I showed you above, was truly most excellent and pure in our father Adam. But after the fall, by God's just judgment, it became corrupt and utterly nothing. And in that naughtiness, it is derived into all of us who are the posterity and offspring of Adam, by propagation or ex traduce — in sucklings or infants, as well as those of riper years — which both experience and the thing itself evidently declare. For even babes give manifest tokens of evident depravation as soon as they are able to do anything; yes, even before they can perfectly sound one syllable of a whole word.

All our UNDERSTANDING is dull, blunt, gross, and altogether blind in heavenly things. Our JUDGMENT in divine matters is perverse and frivolous. For there arise in us the most horrible and absurd thoughts and opinions touching God, his judgments, and wonderful works. Indeed, our whole MIND is apt and ready for errors, fables, and our own destruction. And when our judgments are nothing but mere folly, we still prefer them far above God's wisdom, which we esteem but foolishness in comparison to our own conceits and corrupt imaginations.

For Paul did not lie when he said: "The natural man does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1Cor 2.14 Now, Paul calls him the natural man, who lives naturally by the vital spirit, and is not regenerate by the Holy Ghost. And since we are all such, we are therefore wholly overcome and governed by philautia, that is, too great a self-love and delight in ourselves. By this, all things that we ourselves work, highly please us. We look very busily to ourselves and our own commodity, while in the meantime we neglect all others; indeed, we rather afflict them. Nor did Plato unadvisedly esteem that vice of self-love, as the very root of every evil.[1765]

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Furthermore, our whole WILL is led captive by concupiscence, which infects all that is in man, like a root envenomed with poison. It inclines, draws on, and drives men to things that are carnal, forbidden, and contrary to God, to the end that he may greedily pursue them, put all his delight in them, and content himself with them. Moreover, there is no power or ability in us to do any good: for we are slow, sluggish, and heavy to do good; but we are lively, quick, and ready enough to do any evil or naughtiness. And that I may at last conclude and briefly express the whole force and signification of our hereditary depravation and corruption, I say that this depravation of our nature is nothing else but the blotting of God's image in us. There was in our father Adam, before his fall, the very image and likeness of God. This image, as the apostle expounds it, was a conformity to and participation in God's wisdom, justice, holiness, truth, integrity, innocence, immortality, and eternal felicity. Therefore, what else can the blotting or wiping out of this image be, but original sin; that is, the hatred of God, the ignorance of God, foolishness, distrustfulness, desperation, self-love, unrighteousness, uncleanness, lying, hypocrisy, vanity, corruption, violent injury, wickedness, mortality, and eternal infelicity? This corrupt image and likeness is derived into us all by propagation, according to that saying in the fifth chapter of Genesis: "Adam begat a son in his own similitude and likeness." Gen 5.3 Therefore, as our father Adam was himself corrupted, depraved, and full of calamities, so he has begotten us his sons, likewise corrupt, depraved, and full of miseries. [1766] So that all of us who descend from his impure seed, are born infected with the contagious poison of sin. For from a rotten root, spring rotten branches, which in like manner push their rottenness into the little twigs that shoot out and grow upon them.

And this evil truly, this corruption and this sin, even though it lies hidden in infants, and because of their tender age, it does not break out into any evil deeds — yet notwithstanding, it is a sin. And it is such a sin that truly makes them endangered to God's wrath, and separates them from the fellowship of God. For with the most holy God, who "is a consuming fire," no man can abide, except the one who is unspotted and clean from the filthiness of sins. And Paul says: "All have sinned, and are destitute, or have need, of the glory of God." Rom 3.23

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This glory of God is the very image of God. And because they are destitute of it, being corrupted with original sin, they are worthily excluded from the fellowship of God. To this place belongs the whole treatise about concupiscence in the fourth sermon of this third Decade. There I taught you that bare concupiscence, which has not yet burst forth into the deed, is a sin; and that too is such a sin that it makes all men subject to the curse of God. For it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not abide in all things that are written in the book of this law." [1767] Therefore, the first effect of original sin is this: it brings wrath, death, and damnation upon even infants, and consequently upon all mankind. So that it may be more firmly settled in every man's mind, without any scruple of doubting, I will make manifest proof of this to you by some store of testimonies out of the scripture, not repeating those places which I have already cited in this sermon, and in the fourth sermon of this third Decade.

The Lord in the gospel says to Nicodemus: "Truly, I say to you, unless a man is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And again: "Unless a man is born of water and of the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Joh 3.3-6 In these words are comprehended two things worthy to be remembered, and very consonant to our present argument. First, none enter into the kingdom of heaven except those who are regenerate from above by the Holy Ghost. Therefore, our first birth tends to death, and not to life; for in our first nativity, we are born to death. The second is, "That which is born of flesh is flesh." Therefore, in our first nativity we are all born flesh. But touching the disposition of the flesh and the force of it, the apostle says: "The fleshly mind is enmity against God: for it is not obedient to the law of God, neither can be." Rom 8.7 Therefore, that fleshly birth engendered us, not the friends and sons of God, but His enemies; and consequently, it makes us endangered to the wrath of God.

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In his second chapter to the Ephesians, Paul says: "We were by nature the sons of wrath, even as other." Eph 2.3 In these words, he pronounces that all men are damned. For all those who are damned, or are worthy of eternal death, and all those with whom God has good cause to be offended, he calls the "sons of wrath," in the proper phrase of Hebrew speech. For the wrath of God signifies the punishment which is laid upon us by the just judgment of God. And the one who is adjudged or appointed to be killed, is called the child of death. So also is "the son of perdition," etc. Joh 17.12 Now, mark that he calls us all the sons of wrath, that is, the subjects of pain and damnation by nature, in birth from our mother's womb. But whatever is naturally in all men, is original. Therefore, original sin makes us the sons of wrath; that is, for our original corruption, we are all made subject to death and utter damnation. This place of Paul is worthy to be remembered for the proof of this argument.

The same apostle in the first chapter to the Colossians says: "God has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Col 1.13 Now if we are translated into the kingdom of the Son of God, then we were once in the kingdom of the devil. And to this place belong very many testimonies of the same apostle in the fifth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans: "By one man's sin, many are dead." Again; "By one that sinned came death; for judgment came by one unto condemnation." Again; "For the sin of one death reigned by the means of one." And again; "By the sin of one, sin came upon all men unto condemnation." Finally, original sin is expressly called sin by David and Paul. Therefore, death is due to original sin; for "the reward of sin is death." Rom 6.23

We therefore conclude that infants bring damnation with them into this world, even from their mothers' wombs, because they bring a corrupt nature with them. And therefore, they do not perish by any others' fault, but by their own fault and naughtiness. For although St. Augustine in one place seems to call this sin Peccatum alienum, that is, another's sin (so that he may thereby show how it is derived from another into us by propagation), yet he confesses that it is in very deed and truly proper to all and every one of us.[1768]

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And although it is so, that for lack of age in a newborn babe this disease has not already brought forth the fruit of his iniquity; yet notwithstanding, the whole nature of the babe is nothing but filthy corruption, and a certain seed of sin and wickedness, which cannot help but be abominable to the Lord: for God hates all manner of uncleanness.[1769]

This agrees with that sentence of Paul, where he says: "Where there is no law, there is no transgression." Rom 4.15 For the apostle does not absolutely say that the sin or transgression (which is indeed sin in the sight of God) is not sin; rather he refers to the estimation of men, how they repute it. For before sin appears and is opened to them by the law, men do not repute or think of sin as it should indeed be esteemed. In another place Paul says: "Sin without the law was once dead:" and, "I once lived without law; but when the law came, sin revived." Rom 7.8-9 If it is so, that sin is now revived, then it lived before the law, before it was stirred up by the law, even if it did not display its strength and force as living then, as it does now. To this also is to be added that saying of Paul: "Sin was in the world even to the law; but sin is not imputed when there is no law." Rom 5.13 Look here, sin was in the world before the law, but it was not imputed — not because God did not impute it, but because men do not impute it to themselves. Fire lies hidden under cinders; it is fire indeed, but because it does not cast a flame or light of itself, it is not thought to be fire.

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And for that reason, the learned and godly man of famous memory, Ulderick Zwingli,[1770] diligently distinguished between sin and disease or infirmity. He once had occasion to dispute about original sin, which he chose to call a disease rather than sin, because all men understand the term sin as the naughty act committed by our own consent and will against the law of God. But by the term disease or sickness they understand a certain corruption and depravation of the nature that was created good, and the miserable condition of bondage into which it is brought — even as we also read [1771] before, that Augustine called this original sin peccatum alienum, another's sin. Thereby he might give us to understand that it is hereditary, and that it descends from others into us; and yet he did not deny that it is proper to every one of us. In like manner, Zwingli did not deny original sin, as some falsely slandered him. He did not think that by itself it is unhurtful to infants; but it is made harmless to them so far as it is [healed] by the grace of God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, in the virtue of God's promise and covenant.[1772] His mind was to make a keen difference between actual and original sins.[1773]

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For in rendering an account of his faith in the council held at Augusta,[1774] the year of our Lord 1530, he said:

"I acknowledge that original sin is, by condition and contagion, born in and with all those who are begotten by the act of a man and a woman; and I know that we are the sons of wrath. Nor am I in any way against this disease and condition being called sin, as Paul terms it. Indeed, it is such a sin that all those who are born in it, are the enemies and adversaries of God Almighty. For the condition of their birth draws them to it, and not the committing of wickedness, except in so far as our first parent committed it. The very true cause of our disloyalty and death, therefore, is the crime and wickedness which Adam committed; and that in very deed is sin: and this sin which clings to us, is indeed a disease and condition, yes, it is a necessity of dying;" [1775]

And so forth as follows; for up to here I have repeated his very words.

There now remains the other effect of original sin for me to expound. It breaks out and produces in us those works that the scriptures call the works of the flesh; even like an oven set on fire casts out flames and sparks; or as a fountain that ever springs, pours out water in great abundance. There is no quietness in the nature of man: for covetousness with filthy lust arises in it; ambition clings to it; anger invades it; pride puffs it up and causes it to swell; drunkenness delights it; and envy torments both yourself and others. Therefore, the Lord says in the gospel: "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, whoredoms, thefts, false witness-bearings, and evil speakings." Mat 15.19

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Again, in the fifth chapter to the Galatians, Paul reckons up no small number of the works of the flesh; even as he does in the first and third chapters of his epistle to the Romans. In the fourth chapter to the Ephesians he very properly describes those works of the flesh, which spring out of the natural corruption of all those who are not regenerate by the Holy Ghost. "This I say and testify to you,[1776] that from now on, you no longer walk as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind; darkened in cogitation, being alienated from the life of God by the ignorance that is in them, by the blindness of their hearts: which being past feeling have given themselves over to wantonness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." Eph 4.17-19 Though it is only a little, this shall suffice for this place; for I will more largely prosecute it in the treatise about actual sin. I will shortly handle that, as soon as I have admonished you that, thus far, I have not without good cause spoken of the cause of original sin in many words — that is, about man's depravation and the corruption of all his strength.

For as the veins of pure doctrine are opened in these, so are placed in them the foundations of our faith and whole belief. For if there is no original sin, then is there no grace: or if there is any grace, it will have nothing to work in us. If our own strength is whole and sound, then we have no need for any physician. Therefore, the Son of God came into the world in vain;[1777] for then men would be saved by their own strength and ability: and the foundation of our faith would be quite turned upside down. Therefore, St. Augustine is very vehement in this cause. I will recite his golden words to you, dearly beloved, out of his second book, De Originali Peccato contra Pelagium et Coelestium. In the twenty-third and twenty-fourth chapters I find written as follows:

"There is a great difference between these questions which are thought to be beside the articles of faith, and those in which (keeping sound the faith by which we are Christians) it is either not known what is true, and so the definitive sentence is suspended; or else the truth is guessed at by human and unassured suspicion, and it is other than the thing is in fact. For example, when it is demanded what paradise is like, and where it is, and where God placed man whom he had made from the dust of the earth — when notwithstanding these questions, Christian faith does not doubt that there is a paradise."

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And after reciting a few more such questions, he says at last:

"Who may not perceive in these and similar varied and countless questions, both that many things are unknown without any peril to Christian faith, and also that men err in some points without any crime of heretical doctrine? Such questions pertain either to the most secret works of God, or to the darkest and most intricate places of the holy scriptures, which are hard to comprehend or define in any certain order.

But concerning the two men, mark this: by the one we are sold under sin, and by the other we are redeemed from sin; by the one we are cast headlong into death, and by the other we are made free unto life — because that first man in himself destroyed us by doing his own will and not the will of the One who made him; but this second man in himself has saved us by doing not his own will, but the will of the One who sent him. Therefore, Christian faith properly consists in the consideration of these two men. For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Man, the man Christ Jesus, because there is no other name under heaven given to men in which they must be saved; Act 4.12 and God has appointed all men to trust in him, raising him up from death to life. Therefore, Christian verity does not doubt that without this faith — that is, without faith in the only Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus; without belief, I say, in his resurrection which God has prescribed to men, which cannot truly be believed without belief in his incarnation and death; without faith, therefore, in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ — none of the ancient just men could be cleansed and justified by God from their sins. This is true whether they were in the number of those just men whom the holy scripture mentions; or in the number of those just men whom the scripture does not name, and yet are believed to have lived either before the deluge, or between the deluge and the law, or in the actual time of the law; not only among the children of Israel, as the prophets were, but also outside that people, as Job was. For their hearts were cleansed by the same faith in the Mediator; and charity was poured into them by the same Holy Spirit, who breathes where he wishes — Christ not chasing merits, but working the very merits themselves.

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For God's grace will not exist by any means, unless it is free by all means. Therefore, even though death reigned from Adam to Moses, the law given by Moses could not overcome it; for there was no such law given that could quicken, but such a law whose office was to show that the dead, for whom the quickening of grace was necessary, were not only overthrown by the propagation and dominion of sin, but they were also condemned by the hidden [1778] transgression of the law itself. It was not that everyone should perish who then understood grace in the mercy of God, but that everyone, being appointed to punishment through the dominion of death, and convinced of the transgression of the law, should seek the help of God; that where sin abounded, grace might more abound, which alone delivers us from the body of this death. Therefore, even though the law given by Moses could not rid any man from the kingdom of death, yet in the very time of the law, the men of God were not under the terrifying, convincing, and punishing law, but under the delectable, saving, and delivering grace. There were some among them who said, 'I was conceived in iniquity, and in sin my mother has fed me in her womb.'" [1779]

And so forth; for up to here I have cited the very words of St. Augustine.

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I have thus far spoken of original sin, of the native and hereditary corruption of our nature, which is the first part in the definition of sin. Here follows now the second part; namely, the very action which arises from that corruption, the actual sin, I say, which is called ab actu, that is, an act or deed. For that corruption which is born together with and is hereditary in us, does not always lie hidden; but it works outwardly and shows itself, and at last brings forth an imp [1780] of her own kind and nature. This imp is actual sin; therefore, we define actual sin to be an action, or work, or fruit, of our corrupt and naughty nature, expressing itself in thoughts, words, and works against the law of God, and thereby deserving the wrath of God.

iii.404

So then, the cause of actual sin is known to be the very corruption of mankind, which shows itself through concupiscence and evil affections.[1781] Affections entice the will; and the will, being helped by the other faculties in man that work together with it, finishes actual sin. And so that you may more clearly perceive what I say, I wish you to note that our mind has two parts: the UNDERSTANDING, i.e., the reason or judgment; and the WILL, or appetite. In the reason are the laws of nature, to which must be added the preaching, or reading, or knowledge of God's word. And now, there are two especial causes of good works in man; namely, sound judgment well-framed by the word of God, and a will that consents to and obeys it. And yet, notwithstanding, there is principally required the coming of the Holy Ghost from heaven, to illuminate the mind and move forward the will. Even so, we may properly say that actual sin is finished when anything is committed against the law of God, of a set purpose, with advised judgment and the consent of our will. And yet, other outward causes, both visible and invisible, many times happen to these. For evil spirits move men, and evil men [1782] move men, and there are other infinite examples of corruption that are in the world. Hope, fear, and weakness, also move men. Augustine says, Quaest. in Exodum xxix.: "The beginning of vice is in the will of man: but the hearts of men are moved by various accidental causes, now this, now that. Sometimes the causes are the same; the difference is in the manner and order, according to each one's proper qualities, which arise from each individual will." [1783] Again, of the seventy-ninth psalm he says:

"There are two things that work all sins in mortal men: desire and fear. Consider, examine, and ask your hearts, search your consciences, and see if any sins can occur except by desiring, or else by fearing. You are promised, if you sin, to be given such a reward as you delight in; and for your desire of that gift, you crack your conscience, and commit sin.

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And again, on the other side, though perhaps you would not be seduced with gifts, yet being terrified with threatenings, for dread of what you fear, you commit the iniquity that you otherwise would not. For example, some man or other would corrupt you with gifts to bear false witness. You quickly turned yourself to God, and said in your heart, What does it advantage a man, if he gains the whole world, and suffers the loss of his own soul? I will not be hired with gifts, to lose my soul for the gain of money. Thereupon, the one who enticed you before, now turns to terrifying you; and because his gifts failed to hire you, he begins to threaten you with damage, banishment, wounds, and death. In such a case, now, if greediness could not cause you to sin, yet fear perhaps might." [1784]

Augustine again, in his book De Sermone Domini in Monte, says:

"There are three things by which sin is accomplished: suggestion, desire, and consent. Suggestion is wrought by the memory, or the senses of the body; such as when we see, hear, smell, taste, or touch anything. Now, if we are delighted to have it, unlawful delight must be restrained. For example, when we fast, if our appetite arises at the sight of food, it is not done without desire; yet we must not give our consent to that desire, but suppress it with the power of reason. For if the consent is given, then the sin is accomplished. These three things correspond to the circumstances of the history written in Genesis. So that the suggestion was made by the serpent; the desire was in the carnal appetite in Eve; and full consent appeared in the reason, as it did in Adam — which, being finished, man was expelled out of paradise; that is, out of the blessed light of righteousness, into death and damnation." [1785]

This much says Augustine touching the cause of sin.

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But here we must especially note in the definition of actual sin, the very property or difference by which this action is discerned from all other actions, and by which the most proper note of sin is made manifest. This action, therefore, just as all other sins do, directly tends against God's law. But in my former sermons, I have declared at large what the law of God is. Truly, it is none other than the very will of God. Now the will of God is that man should be like His own image; that is, that he should be holy, innocent, and so consequently saved.

God expressed this will of his, first by the law of nature, then by the law which he wrote on two tablets of stone, and lastly by the preaching of the holy gospel. Now those three tend to one end: namely, that man should be holy, innocent, and so consequently saved. And whatever things are done by men, either in thought, word, or deed, against that holy law of God, they both are, and are called, actual sins. Therefore, in judging or esteeming men's sins, only the law of God must be looked to; for the things that are not contrary to God's law are not sins. Nor does any man have authority to make new laws, for the transgressing of which, men should be accounted sinners. That glory belongs to God alone, to whom David cries: "To you alone have I sinned, and against you have I wrought wickedness." Psa 51.4

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Nor is it any part of our office to take it upon ourselves, by our own judgments, to determine which are the smallest and which are the greatest sins. For which of us would think that it is sin to say to our brother, "You fool?" Mat 5.22 And yet in the gospel, the Lord pronounces it to be sin. In the same gospel he also affirms that we "shall give an account for every idle word at the latter day of judgment." Mat 12.36 Very rightly, therefore, St. Augustine says in his second book, De Bapt. contra Donatistas, capit. 6:

"In esteeming sins, let us not bring in deceitful balances in which to weigh both what we wish, and as we wish, according to our own mind and fantasy, saying, 'This is heavy, and that is light.' But let us bring in the weights of God's holy scriptures, as out of the secret treasuries of the Lord. And let us weigh by them what is heavy, and what is light — no, rather, let us not weigh them, but acknowledge and so accept them as they are weighed by the Lord." August. Opp. Tom. vii. fol. 80. col. 3. Par. 1531.

Though this might seem to sufficiently declare the nature of actual sin, yet we will consider more at large the sundry sorts or kinds and differences of sins. The Stoics were of the opinion that all sins were equal. Perhaps Jovinian [1786] was following them (as the patriarchs of heresies are said by Tertullian to be philosophers [1787]), of whom it is written that he affirmed this; as extant in St. Augustine's catalogue of heretics.[1788] The holy scripture teaches us that God is just. From this we conclude that all sins are not therefore equal; for we see that God, as he is a just judge, punishes some sins more sharply than others.

408

For in his gospel the Lord says: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees; hypocrites! who devour widows' houses under the pretence of long prayer: therefore you shall receive the greater damnation." Mat 23.14 And again; "It will be easier," says the Lord, "for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for the city" that rejects the preaching of the gospel. Mat 10.15 Likewise in the eleventh chapter of Matthew he says: "It shall be easier for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you." Mat 11.22 To Pilate also he said: "The man that delivered me to you has more sin." Joh 19.11 Again: "The servant that knew his master's will, and did not prepare himself, nor do according to his will, will be beaten with many stripes. But he that did not know, and committed things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes." Luk 12.47-48

To proceed now, sins arise by steps, and they increase by circumstances. For first, there is a hidden sin, contained in the very affection or desire of man. But I already told you that affections and desires are of two sorts: namely, natural affections, which are not repugnant to the law of God (of this sort are the love of children, parents, and wife, and the desire for food, drink, and sleep). Although I know and do not deny that sometimes those affections are denied with the original spot. Again, there are carnal desires or affections in men, which are directly contrary to the will of God. Those affections are nourished and increase by vain thoughts and carnal delights increasing in your bosom; and at last they break out into the sin of the mouth, and yes, after that, to the deed or the actual sin itself. For example: you lust after another man's wife, and settle the lust in the bottom of your heart, still delighting yourself with vain cogitations as you call to mind her surpassing beauty and the lines of her body. By your frequent and vehement imagination, you both delight and set yourself on fire; and not being content with this alone, you do not cease to solicit her, whom you love, with words and writings to spot her chastity. And if occasion serves you, you defile her by your deed, and you also repeat the sin which you once committed; and lastly, laying aside the fear of God's plague and the shame of the world, you frequent it daily, and openly use it. Do you see here, by this example, how one and the same sin increases by degrees, and requires a still sharper punishment, according to the greatness and enormity of the crime?

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Truly, the Lord confirms this in the gospel of St. Matthew, and says: "You have heard how it was said to them of old, you shall not kill: Whoever kills shall be in danger of judgment. But I say to you, That whoever is angry with his brother unadvisedly shall be in danger of judgment: and whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of a council: but whoever says, You fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire." Mat 5.21-22 In these words of the Lord, you hear first the differences between sins such as anger — the tokens of angry minds — and open scoldings, which for the most part end in open fights; and then you hear that as the sin increases, so the greatness and sharpness of the punishment is still augmented. It was not therefore an unapt or silly distinction that they made in actual sin, who said that there is one sin of the thought, another of the mouth, and another of the deed. These they again divided into certain kinds and sorts, reducing them again partly into Scelera, and partly into Delicta.

Scelera are those heinous crimes which are conceived and committed by set purpose and pretended malice. Of this sort are those especially which are called the crying sins, such as murder, usury, oppression of the fatherless and widows, sodomy, and withholding the hire of the needy labourer. For touching murder, the voice of the Lord in Genesis says: "The voice of your brother's blood cries to me." Gen 4.10 And in the twenty-second chapter of Exodus he says: "If you vex the fatherless and widows, and they cry to me, I will hear them and slay you." Exo 22.22-23 The word of God with bitter quips, bates usury and utterly condemns it. The sin of the Sodomites ascended up to heaven, requiring vengeance to light upon the villainous beasts. And James the apostle says: "Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cries out; and the cries of those who have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." Jas 5.4 To these sins, other men also annex those seven principal vices of pride or vain-glory, anger, envy, sloth, covetousness, gluttony, and lechery. Yes, they make these the seeds and first beginnings of all sins and wickedness; and therefore they call them the principal sins; as seen in the Sentences of Peter Lombard.[1789]

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Moreover they call those sins delicta, which are committed from infirmity or unwittingly; namely, when the good is forsaken, and duty to God or man is neglected, by a certain kind of sluggishness; perhaps to be numbered among these are the sin of ignorance, the sin called alienum, and the sin of unwillingness; although, even these are oftentimes made both heinous crimes and detestable offences.

Ignorance is said to be of two sorts: the one is natural and true ignorance, which springs from original sin; the other is affected or counterfeit, which rises from a set purpose and pretended malice. The natural ignorance is a disease, a fault, and a sin; because it springs from a poisoned origin, and it is a work of darkness, as it appeared above by the testimony of the apostle St. Paul.[1790] Truly St. Augustine in his third book De Libero Arbitrio, cap. 19, says:

"That which everyone by ignorance does not do rightly, and that which he cannot do though he wills rightly, are therefore called sins, because they have their beginning in the sin of free-will. For that precedent deserved to have such consequents. For we call the tongue, not only that member which moves in the mouth as we speak, but even that which follows upon the moving of that member: namely, the form and tenour of words which the tongue utters. According to this figure of speech, we say that there are diverse tongues in a man, meaning the Greek and Latin tongues. Even so, we not only call that sin, which is properly called sin (for it is committed wittingly of a free will), but also that which follows, upon its punishment." [1791] I have said somewhat about this before.

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Others cloak their ignorance with that saying of the Lord in the gospel: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have a cloak for their sin," Joh 15.22 or they would have had no sin. For from this they infer that those to whom nothing has been preached are therefore free from blame and accusation of sin. But the Lord did not say so. For first, he spoke of their pretended colour,[1792] and not of their innocence; and every pretence is not just and lawful. He said, I confess, "they would have had no sin:" but he adds immediately, "Now have they nothing to cloak their sin with." Secondly, he does not universally acquit the ignorant from all kinds of sin, but only from the sin of rebellion. For St. Augustine says upon John: "They do not have an excuse for every sin, but only for this: that they did not believe in Christ, because he did not come to them. For all who have neither heard nor do hear, may have this excuse; but they cannot escape condemnation. For those who have sinned without law, shall perish without law." [1793] And Paul also, in the first epistle to Timothy, first chapter, says: "I thank Him because he has counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry — who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and an oppressor. Yet I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief." 1Tim 1.13 Look, here the apostle says that he obtained mercy because he sinned through ignorance: this ignorance he derives of unbelief, and he attributes to it the most filthy fruits.

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Furthermore we call it false and counterfeit ignorance, when out of malice it is feigned by obstinate and stubborn people. It is as if, when a thing displeases you, you say that you do not understand it; or when you may understand it, you will not. Such is the ignorance that was in the Jews, the professed enemies of God's grace in Christ.[1794] For Paul says: "I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to set up their own, they were not subject to the righteousness of God." Rom 10.2-3 For the Lord said to the Pharisees in the gospel, when they demanded to know if they were blinded also; "If you were blind, you would have no sin: but now you say, We see; therefore your sin abides." Joh 9.40-41

The sins called aliena are not those which we ourselves commit, but those which other men commit, yet not without us; namely, while we allow, help forward, persuade, command, wink at, give occasion to, or do not resist or challenge them when we may. The apostle Paul forbids Timothy to lay hands on any man hastily, nor to share in other men's sins.1Tim 5.22 Therefore, to give an unfit man [church] orders, and place him in the ecclesiastical ministry, is that kind of sin which we call another's sin. For whatever unseemliness is committed against God and his church by the ignorance of the man whom you have so ordained, is worthily imputed to you. Those sin another's sin, who offer violence, and by torments and threats, compel men to deny the truth, or to commit some heinous offence. For the denial of the truth is peccatum alienum, another's sin, to the one who compels the denier to renounce it. And thus to that man, his own sin, in respect to himself, is impiety, tyranny, sacrilege, and murder, for causing the other to renounce the truth.

Here, by the way, we are well admonished that some sins are willful, and some are unwillful or enforced.[1795]

They call that an unwilful sin, which is committed either by another man's enforcing, or else by our own ignorance. Therefore, that which is done neither by compulsion, nor by ignorance, is concluded to be the voluntary or willful sin.

Again, they make two sorts of enforced sin; one of which they call absolute, the other conditional. Now they think that the absolute violent sin is when it does not lie in us either to do or not to do something, but when it comes from some other man, without the consent of the one to whom the violence is offered.

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It is as if the wind drove us to someplace unlooked for; or if the king's officers by force compel your hands to offer incense to idols, while you resist to your power, and deny it so far as you can. In such a case, they acquit the man so compelled, from all blame, punishment, and reproach.[1796] Now, touching the second kind of violent sin, which they call conditional, they think that it rises from sundry causes. But that we may not stick too long upon this point, we simply say that the unwilful or violent sin either has, or has not, the consent of the one who is compelled. If he gives his consent, as for example, either to renouncing the evangelical truth which he has previously professed, or to committing other grievous and horrible crimes, then the uncompelled man is not void of blame. For neither the fear of death, nor torments, can be an excuse for him. Choose death rather than deny the truth, commit any heinous crime, or be compelled to consent to a wicked and horrible sin.[1797] If you choose to die rather than do a filthy deed, the tyrant will not enforce or compel you against your will. He may indeed kill you; but he is not able to compel you to do evil against your will; for by dying, you confess the truth; and by dying, you declare that while you live, you will not do that which they exact from you. And by that means, they neither overcome nor compel you; but they are themselves overcome and compelled to see and test that which grieves them sorely. Antiochus Epiphanes did what he might to have polluted the holy bodies of the Maccabees with the use of unclean and forbidden meat. But choosing to die rather than be defiled by living, they overcame the tyrant by dying, and could not be compelled. And truly, it is a thing received and approved among all professors of sound religion, that death and all extremities whatever, must sooner be tasted than committing anything which by nature is filthy and repugnant to religion.

414

To proceed now; if consent is not given, but mere and unavoidable violence is offered to a godly man (here we distinguish between the one who yields to do wickedness upon compulsion, and the one who cannot be brought to it by compulsion), that violence does not spot his uncorrupt and holy mind. For example; if a godly man, having his feet bound and arms fast pinioned, is brought into an idol temple by force, and compelled to be present at their detestable sacrifice; or if an unspotted virgin or honest matron is villainously abused in the wars or barbarous broils, without consent to the deed, and has no leave to die untouched rather than be so indecently handled, assure yourselves, she is unspotted before the face of God. For St. Augustine very wisely said: "Not to suffer unjustly, but to do unjustly, is sin before God." [1798] Lib. de Libero Arbitrio, in. cap. 16. Again, De Mendacio ad Consentium, cap. 7, he says: "What the body violently suffers, where lust did not go before, should be called vexation rather than corruption. Or if all vexation is corruption, yet all corruption is not filthy; but only that corruption which lust has procured, or to which lust has consented." [1799] Again, in his first book De Civitate Dei, capit. 18, he says: "Where the purpose of the mind remains constant by which the body is sanctified, the offered violence of another's lust does not take the purposed holiness from the body, which the constant perseverance of the party's own chastity still retains." [1800] He has much more like this in the same place, and also in the sixteenth, nineteenth, and twenty-eighth chapters of the same book, etc.

So also, we must think the best of the unwilful death of men who are beside their wits, who kill themselves in their madness. For otherwise, it cannot be found in the canonical books of holy scripture that God either gave leave or commandment to us mortal men to kill ourselves, to thereby obtain immortality the sooner, or to avoid imminent evil.

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For it must be understood that we are forbidden to do so by the law which says, "You shall not kill:" namely, since he does not add, "your neighbour," as he did in another precept where he forbids us to bear false witness. [Because he does not name your neighbour in that precept, he includes yourself also.] [1801] Therefore, the doctrine of Seneca is to be utterly condemned, which counsels men in misery to despatch themselves, that their misery may be ended by death.[1802] And St. Augustine, disputing against those who therefore murder themselves because they will not be subject to other men's filthy lusts,[1803] says this:

"If it is a detestable crime and a damnable sin for a man to murder himself, as the truth manifestly cries that it is. Who is so mad as to say, Let us sin now, lest we happen to sin later; let us commit murder now, lest perhaps we fall into adultery later? If iniquity has the upper hand so far that, not innocence but mischief is most regarded, then is it not better by living, to hazard the chance of an uncertain defloration in the future, than by dying, to commit a certain murder in the present? Is it not far better in such extreme times of calamity to commit a fault that may be forgiven by repentance, than to do such a sin by which no time is left to repent? I have said this because of those willful men and women who, to avoid not another's sin but their own, lest under another's lust they might consent to their own lust being stirred up, think they should rid themselves of it by shortening their lives. But far be it from a Christian mind, which trusts in our God, and with a settled hope stays on Him as his surest aid; far be it, I say, from such a mind to yield to any pleasures of the flesh so as to consent to filthiness. But if the concupiscent disobedience which yet dwells in our mortal members, is stirred up or moved against the law of our will, by a law of her own, then how much more is it without blame in the body of one who does not consent, if it is without blame in the body of one who sleeps!" [1804] This much out of Augustine. We now return to our purpose.

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To proceed, therefore: they divide actual sins into hidden or private sins, and into manifest or public sins. Hidden sins are not those which are hidden from men, and known to none but God; hypocrisy and the depravation of man's disposition are of this sort. Rather, they are those which are not utterly without witnesses, even though they are not openly known and made manifest to all men. For on the other side, manifest and public sins are committed with the knowledge and offence of the whole church. And of the two, these public ones truly are the greater, and the others the lighter, because these touch the church and procure the offence of many men. The apostle touches upon these in the fifth chapter of first Timothy.

But the most vulgar and apt distinction of actual sin, which in a way contains in itself all the other kinds and parts of it, is that which is called either mortal or venial sin.[1805] They think that mortal sin is every sin which is committed by an unfaithful person; and that venial sin is every sin that is done by a faithful man.

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I simply and according to the scriptures suppose that all the sins of men are mortal; for they are done against the law or will of God. And death is due to sins, for the prophet cries: "The soul that sins shall die;" Eze 18.20 and the apostle says: "The reward of sin is death." Rom 6.23 Yes, and deadly sins take the name of death. To this, now, belong these testimonies of the apostle: "This you know, that every fornicator, or unclean person, covetous person, which is a worshipper of idols, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." [1806] The same sentence, being again repeated in the fifth chapter to the Ephesians, is again found in the fifth chapter to the Galatians, and the fifth and sixth chapters of first Corinthians.

But the sins which are mortal by their own nature, are made venial through grace in the faith of Jesus Christ; because they are forgiven through Christ by God's great favour and mercy. And therefore, the apostle in the sixth chapter to the Romans did not say, "Let not sin be in your mortal body; but, "Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it through its lusts." And again; "There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the spirit." And again; "Brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to walk after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." [1807] Therefore, there is always sin in our body so long as we live; but by grace it is not imputed unto death. And those to whom it is not imputed, by all means endeavour to walk after the spirit, and not after the flesh; and yet they very often slip and fall. These falls and slips are nevertheless counted sins, together with that infirmity of mortal men — I mean, they are pardonable sins, and not to be punished eternally.

Now, that sin which is called the sin against the Holy Ghost, Mat 12.31 is especially referred to mortal sins; some suppose, not without cause, that is it most properly called mortal sin. I will speak of this once I have somewhat briefly answered certain questions that depend on this argument.

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First of all, it is demanded here, Whether that sin or disease which remains in infants after baptism, is sin indeed? [1808] Now, it is manifest that concupiscence remains in those who are baptized; and that concupiscence is sin; and therefore that sin remains in those who are baptized. This sin, notwithstanding, is not imputed to them through the grace of God in the merit of Jesus Christ. So St. Augustine resolved this knot in the first book De Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione, cap. 39, where he says:

"In infants truly, it is so wrought by the grace of God, through the baptism of Him who came in the likeness of sinful flesh, that the flesh of sin should be made void. And yet it is not made void in such a way that the concupiscence which is spread and bred in the flesh while it lives, should suddenly be consumed, vanish away, and not be — but that it should not hurt the one, now being dead, in whom it existed even at his birth. For it is not given in baptism to those of more years,[1809] that the law of sin which is in their members, and which is contrary to the law of their mind, should be utterly extinguished and not exist at all — but that all the evil (whatever is said, done, or thought by man when he served that concupiscence with his captive mind) should be utterly wiped out, and so reputed as though it had never been done." [1810] This much has Augustine.

Another question is, Whether those works that the Gentiles do, which have a show of virtue and goodness, are sins, or good works? It is assuredly true, that God had his elect even among the Gentiles. Now, however many were among them, were not without the Holy Ghost and faith. Therefore, their works which were wrought by faith were good works, and not sins. For in the Acts of the Apostles, it is mentioned that the prayers and alms-deeds of Cornelius the centurion, were held in remembrance before God; and he is said to have been a devout man and God-fearing. Act 10.2, 4 From this, I infer that he was faithful; and afterward, his faith was made fully perfect, and the gift of the Holy Ghost was more plenteously bestowed on him.

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Moreover, the worthy deeds of the heathens are not to be despised nor utterly contemned. For as they were not altogether done without God, they much availed to preserving and restoring the tranquility of kingdoms and commonweals. And therefore, the most just Lord enriched certain excellent men and commonweals with many and ample temporal gifts; for he bestowed riches, victories, and abundant glory upon the Greeks and many Roman princes; and truly, civil justice and public tranquility was held in great estimation among many of them. Others received infinite rewards because they constantly and manfully executed the just judgments of God on the wicked rebels and enemies of God. Nor is it to be doubted that the Lord granted that invincible power to the Roman empire under Octavius Augustus and other Roman princes, to the end that by their strength He might break and bring down the invincible malice of the Jewish people, and so revenge by the Romans the blood of his Son, his holy prophets, and blessed apostles, which had been shed by those furious and blasphemous beasts. Note here, that immediately after the subversion of Jerusalem, the Roman empire began to decline. Now let us return to the matter again.

Lastly they demand, Whether the good works of the saints and faithful ones are sins or not? Truly, if you respect our corruption and infirmity, then all our works are sins, because they are the works of those who are not without filthy spots; and therefore the works which are wrought by us cannot be so perfect as otherwise they ought to be in the sight of God. And yet the very same works, for faith's sake in us, and because we are received into the grace of God, are wrought by us who are now the sons of God by grace; therefore, they both are indeed and are also called good. For to this end tends that saying of the apostle: "With the mind I, even I, serve the law of God; but with the flesh, the law of sin." Rom 7.25 Look here, one and the same apostle, being regenerate, retains in himself two differing dispositions; so that his very work, working in differing respects, is both sin and a good work also. For inasmuch as he serves God in his mind, he does a good work; but insomuch as he again serves the law of the flesh, his work is not without spot in that.

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For a little before in the seventh chapter, he said: "I find, when I would do good, that evil (Gr. parakeitai parakeitai) is present with, by, and in me." This evil undoubtedly, always making a show of itself in all our words, works, and thoughts, causes the work which is done by us when we are regenerate, to be not as pure as God's justice expects it should be. Only by the grace and mercy of God, therefore, is it reputed and esteemed as pure.

To this now belongs that sentence of our Lord in the gospel of St. John, where he says: "He that is washed has no need to wash, except his feet; but he is clean every whit." Joh 13.10 For if he is clean every whit, what need does he have to wash his feet? But if his feet must be washed, how then is he clean every whit? And yet these sayings are not contradictory — just as that saying is not contradictory, where we say that good works are sins. For, according to the plentifulness and imputation of God's grace and mercy, we are clean every whit, being thoroughly purged from all our sins, so that they shall not condemn us. And yet, because the law of sin is always in us, which shows itself in us so long as we live, our feet (that is, those evil motions and naughty lusts of ours) must therefore be resisted and repressed according to our power. Finally, we must acknowledge that we ourselves and our very works are never without an imperfection; and consequently, all our works and we ourselves stand in need of the grace of God. These questions being thus resolved, we have now come to expound the sin against the Holy Ghost.

The sin against the Holy Ghost is a perpetual blaspheming of the revealed and known truth; namely, when against our conscience, falsely revolting from the known truth without intermission, we both inveigh and rail against it. For blasphemy is the evil speech or spiteful taunts with which we inveigh against or slander any man, by broadcasting wicked and detestable statements against him, by which his credit and estimation is either cracked or utterly disgraced.

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We therefore blaspheme the magistrates, our elders, and other good men, when we not only withdraw our obedience and the honour due them, but we also bait them with reproachful words, not ceasing to call them tyrants, blood-suckers, wicked heads, and odious guides.[1811] But we especially blaspheme God when we detract from his glory, question his grace, and of a set purpose, stubbornly contemn and dispraise [1812] his truth revealed to us, and his evident works declared to the whole world.

Every sin truly is not blasphemy; but all blasphemy is sin. Because it tends against God and his will, it is sin. But this property of sin has more singularity: it also despises God and speaks reproachfully against his works. Many sin against the doctrine of the truth, because they either neglect and do not receive the truth; or else because, when they have received it, they do not reverence and promote it. Though they are sinners, this kind of men do not deserve to be called blasphemers. But once they begin with taunts and quips, to mock the doctrine which they neglect, calling it heretical, schismatic, seditious, and devilish, then they may rightly be termed blasphemers.

This is why the property of the sin against the Holy Ghost is, not only to revolt from the truth, but also, against all conscience, to speak against the truth, and with flouts, [1813] to incessantly overwhelm both the very work and most evident revelation of the Lord. For the conscience, being convinced by the evidence of the revelation or work of the Holy Ghost, suggests or tells them that they should not only temper themselves from reproachful statements, but that they should do another thing too: that is, that they should yield to the truth, and give to God his due honour and glory. But now, to exclude this inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to reject and overwhelm it with stubborn falsehood, flat apostasy, wicked contradiction, and perpetual contempt, is to flatly commit sin against the Holy Ghost. And this truly takes its beginning from original sin; it is nourished and set forward by devilish suggestions, by our perverse affections, by indignations, envy, hope or fear, by stubborn and self-wilful malice, and lastly by contumacy and rebellion.

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But now, the course of the matter requires us to hear what the Lord said in the gospel concerning this sin. In the twelfth chapter of Matthew, he says: "Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men; but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven men. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come." Mat 12.31-32 The same sentence of our Saviour is thus expressed in the third chapter of St. Mark's gospel: "All sins shall be forgiven to the children of men, and blasphemies with whatever they blaspheme: but he that speaks blasphemy against the Holy Ghost never has forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." Mar 3.28-29 In the twelfth chapter of St. Luke, these words are uttered in this way: "Whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but to him that blasphemes the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven." Luk 12.10 In these words of the Lord, we have mention made of blasphemy against the Son of man, and blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is utterly unpardonable, but against the Son of man it is altogether venial. Blasphemy against the Son of man is committed by the ignorant, who are not yet enlightened; and it tends against Christ, whom the blasphemer thinks to be a seducer because he does not know him. The word of the Lord manifestly testifies that Paul before his conversion, and a great part of the Jews, were such blasphemers; for upon the cross the Lord prayed, crying: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do;" Luk 23.34 and the apostle Paul says: "If they had known the Lord of glory, they would not have crucified him." 1Cor 2.8 Upon this, St. Peter says in the Acts, speaking to the Jews, "I know that you did it through ignorance; now therefore turn and repent, that your sins may be wiped out." Act 3.17-19 But blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is said to be a continual fault-finding or a reproach against the Holy Spirit of God; that is, against the inspiration, illumination, and works of the Spirit. For when he so evidently works in the minds of men that they can neither question it nor pretend ignorance, yet they resist, mock, despise, and continually snap at the truth,[1814] which in their consciences they know to be most wholesome and true.[1815]

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In so doing, they blaspheme the Holy Spirit and the power of God. For example: the Pharisees, being convinced in their own minds by most evident reasons and unreproveable miracles, could not deny that the doctrine and works of our Lord Jesus Christ were the truth and miracles of the true God. And yet, against the testimony of their own consciences, out of mere envy, rebellious doggedness, and false apostasy, they continually caviled that Christ did it all by the means and inspiration of Beelzebub,[1816] the devil. Mat 12.24 Little or no better than the Pharisees, are those in our day [1817] who, having understood that the very truth and assured salvation are most simply and purely set forth in Christ, notwithstanding forsake it, and allow contrary doctrine, condemning. and with mocks [1818] railing at the sound and manifest truth; yes, and what is more, they do not cease to clap their hands and hiss at it, as a damnable heresy.

As this sin is the filthiest of all others, it is not venial, but utterly unpardonable; for the Lord has expressly said in the gospel: "It shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come." This sentence is thus pronounced in St. Mark: "He never has forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." The cause is manifest. For without faith it is impossible to please God; without faith there is no remission of sins; without faith there is no entrance into the kingdom of God. And the sin against the Holy Ghost is mere apostasy and flat [1819] rebellion against the true faith which the Holy Ghost pours into our hearts by his illumination. These untoward apostates incessantly call this illumination darkness, a mere seduction, and openly blaspheme it with taunts. Therefore, this sin is never forgiven them; for they tread underfoot the grace of God, and despise and mock the way which leads to salvation.[1820]

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This is why St. Paul says in the tenth chapter to the Hebrews: "If we sin willingly after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and violent fire, which shall devour the adversaries." Heb 10.26 Now, I pray you, what is it to sin willingly? In truth, to sin willingly is not to sin through infirmity, or to fall into the same sin often. But to sin willingly, is to sin with a most stubborn contempt toward sin — as those usually do, who wittingly and willingly reject and spurn the grace of God, not ceasing to mock the cross and the death of Christ, as though it were foolish and not effectual to purge all our sins. For to such men, there is prepared no other sacrifice for sins. And the apostle calls them the adversaries, that is, the contemners and enemies of God. And therefore, the same apostle in the sixth chapter of Hebrews says: "It cannot be that those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and they fall away, that they should be renewed again into repentance, crucifying the Son of God afresh themselves, and making a mockery of him." Heb 6.4-6 He does not speak here of every fall of the faithful; but of willful and stubborn apostasy. For Peter fell and was restored again through repentance: which happens to more than Peter alone; for all sinners are daily restored through repentance. But unrepentant Judas is not restored, because he was a willful apostate. Mockers and blasphemers are not restored through repentance, because they obstinately stand against the known truth, and do not cease to blaspheme the way by which alone they are to be led to eternal life. Therefore, those places of St. Paul never do a whit for the Novatians;[1821] rather, they expound to us the nature and envenomed force of the sin against the Holy Ghost.

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St. John the apostle and evangelist, disputing about this sin in his canonical epistle, says: "If any man sees his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for those who do not sin unto death. There is a sin unto death; I do not say that you should pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that evil does not touch him." 1Joh 5.16-18

St. John mentions here two sorts of sins: the one unto death, that is, mortal and unpardonable, for which we must not pray — that is to say, prayers cannot obtain pardon for it. That sin is a contumely reproach against the Holy Ghost, revolting apostasy, and incessant mocking of the gospel of Christ. For in the gospel of St. John we read: "Truly, truly, I say to you, if a man keeps my sayings, he shall not see death forever;" and again: "If you do not believe that I am, you shall die in your sins." Joh 8.52, 24 And apostasy is indeed iniquity, and a purposed and perpetual sin; for what is more sinful or unjust than to strive against,[1822] and mock [1823] the known truth? The other sin is venial, not unto death. St. John declares what sort it is when he adds: "We know that every one who is born of God does not sin." 1Joh 3.9 Now that saying must not be so absolutely taken, as though he did not sin at all. Rather, we must understand that he did not sin unto death; for otherwise the very saints are sinners, as it is evident by the first chapter of this epistle. Furthermore, that which immediately follows in John makes manifest what went before: "He that is begotten of God," he says, "keeps himself;" that is, he stands steadfastly in the known truth, and takes heed to himself, that that evil does not touch him; that is, that it does not entrap him, stir him up against God, or retain him in rebellion. I have said this much up to here touching the sin against the Holy Ghost,[1824] which Augustine in one place called final impenitence, which follows upon apostasy, blasphemy, and contempt of the Holy Ghost, or contempt of the word of truth revealed by the Holy Ghost.

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And although I have already partly touched the effects of sin, in handling original sin and sin against the Holy Ghost, yet to conclude this treatise, I will briefly show you something touching the just and assured punishment that shall be laid upon sinners. For in the definition of sin, I said that sin brought upon us the wrath of God with death and sundry punishments. I mean to speak of this here. It is as manifest as what is most manifest by the scriptures: that God punishes the sins of men — yes, that he punishes sinners for their sins. For many places in the scriptures declare that God is angry and grievously offended at the sins of mortal men. David cries: "The Lord loves the just; as for the wicked and violent, his soul hates them. Upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest; this shall be their portion to drink. For the righteous Lord loves righteousness; with his countenance He beholds the thing that is just." Psa 11.5-7 In like manner, Paul says: "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and uncleanness of men, who withhold the truth in unrighteousness." Rom 1.18 And what may be thought of this, moreover: that the wrath of God would by no means be appeased for the sins of men, except by the death of the Son of God? In this, truly, the excellence of the great price of our redemption argues for the greatness and filthiness of our sin. To all of this, we may add that the good Lord, who loves mankind so well, would not have overwhelmed us with so many pains and exceeding calamities, if our sin had not been surpassing horrible in the sight of his eyes. For who can make a full catalog of all the calamities of miserable sinners? [1825] For our sins, the Lord absents himself from us. But if the sun has gone out of the earth, how great are the mists and cloudy darkness in it? If God is away from us, how great is the horror in minds of men? Here therefore, as punishments due to sinners, are reckoned the tyranny of Satan, a thousand torments of conscience, the death of the soul, dreadful fear, utter desperation, innumerable calamities of body and of our other faculties, which Moses the servant of God recites at large in the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus, and the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy. And now, since new sins are daily scourged with new kinds of punishments, what end is any man able to make, I pray, if he went about reckoning them all?

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It is not to be doubted, truly, that the Lord punishes sinners justly; for He is himself a most just Judge. And because it is a madman's part to doubt the justice, omnipotence, and wisdom of God, it therefore follows that all religious and godly men hold for a certainty that the punishments which God lays upon men, are laid upon them by most just judgment.

But how great and what kind of punishment is due to every fault and individual transgression, belongs to God's judgment to determine, rather than for mortal men to inquire too curiously. St. Augustine says upon this, Tracta. in Joan. 89: "There is as great a diversity of punishments, as of sins; how it is ordained, the wisdom of God more deeply declares than man's conjectures can possibly seek out, or utter in words." [1826] In his law given to men, He truly gave this for a rule: "According to the measure of the sin, so shall the measure of the punishment be;" [1827] being most equal and just himself, He does not exceed measure in His judgment. Abraham, in the notable communication he had with God, which is reported in the eighteenth chapter of Genesis, says among other things: "Will you destroy the just with the wicked? Far be it from you, that you should do such a thing, and slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked. That is not your part, who judge all the earth, to make such a judgment." [1828] To this also belongs that notable demonstration which the Lord uses toward [1829] Jonah, who was angry with the Lord because of his judgments.

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For He shows that he justly cares for the infants, yes, and even the cattle in Nineveh. The place is well-known in the fourth chapter of Jonah's prophecy. Let us therefore steadfastly hold that the Lord, when he punishes, does injury to no creature which he has made. Here, therefore, the disputations and questions come to an end, in which men are prone to demand, Why the Lord sometimes uses such sharp torments towards infants or sucklings? Or why he rewards temporal offences with eternal punishments? "For the Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works." Psa 114.17 As David most truly witnessed, where in another place he says: "You are just, Lord, and your judgment is right." Psa 119.137 Blessed is he that does not stumble here, and does not murmur against the Lord.

But if it so happens that the Lord at any time somewhat long defers the judgment and punishment, we must not therefore think that he is unjust, because he spares the wicked, and sharply corrects [1830] his friends and their vices. Let us rather lay before our eyes the evangelical parable of the rich glutton and poor silly Lazarus. For Lazarus, though he was the friend of God, notwithstanding died for lack of food; the other, though he was God's enemy, spent his life in dainty fare and pleasures, and felt no ill. But hearken what their judgment was, after this life. Abraham says to the rich glutton: "My son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good, and Lazarus likewise received evil; but now he rejoices, and you are tormented." Luk 16.25 Therefore, if the godly are at any time afflicted in this present life, they will be abundantly rewarded for it in the life to come. But if the wicked are spared in this world, they are more grievously punished in the world to come: for God is just, and He [1831] rewards every man according to his merit.

Therefore, if you chance to see the wicked living in prosperity, do not think later that God is unjust; do not suppose that His power is abated;[1832] and do not say that He sleeps and does not see them. For that saying of the prophet, which is also used by the apostle Peter, is assuredly true: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and his ears are open to their prayers."

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Again: "The eyes of the Lord are upon those who do wickedness." [1833] We must in such a case fortify our minds with the just examples of God's judgments, gathered together out of the holy scriptures. Let us consider that the world was destroyed with the general deluge, when God had looked a long time in vain for repentance. Let us remember that Sodom, Gomorrah, and the cities adjacent thereabout, were burnt with fire sent down from heaven. Let us think upon Egypt, how it was struck with diverse plagues,[1834] and the inhabitants drowned in the Red sea. Let us call to mind the things that happened by the holy and just judgment of God to the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Amalekites, and even the Israelites, first under their judges, then under their kings. Their measure was at last fully filled. Nor did they at any time despise God and his word, but were at last paid in full for their labour. They never sinned and went scot free for long.[1835] The history of Paulus Orosius, yes, the universal history of the whole world, provide us with countless examples like these, declaring the certainty of God's judgment.[1836] Let us think that God does not therefore allow sins because he is slack in punishing them; but let us persuade ourselves that by prolonging punishment, out of his unmeasurable goodness, He both looks and waits for the repentance and conversion of miserable sinners. For in the gospel, the Lord bids us not to cut down the barren fig-tree, because he looked to see if it would bring any fruit the next year. Luk 13.6-9 The apostle Paul says:

"Do you despise the riches of His goodness and patience and long-sufferance, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But after your stubbornness and a heart that cannot repent, you heap upon yourself wrath against the day of wrath, and declaration of the righteous judgment of God, which will reward every man according to his deeds: to those who by continuing in well-doing seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall come indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man who does evil." Rom 2.4-9

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This, I say, let us firmly hold, and with this let us content ourselves, not grudging to see [1837] the wicked live long in prosperity, without pain or punishment. The holy, just, wise, and mighty God knows best what to do, how to do it, and why and when to do everything conveniently. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

To this also belongs, that God afflicts the temporal as well as the bad. Touching this, I spoke at large in the third sermon of this Decade.[1838] Now here, there are some who therefore demand to know why God, with diverse punishments, persecutes those sins which he has already forgiven men? For he forgave Adam his sin, and yet he laid on him both death and innumerable calamities of this life beside. We read that the prophet Nathan said to David, "The Lord has taken away your sin." And yet, immediately after, the prophet adds: "The sword shall not depart from your house." 2Sam 12.13, 10 To this we answer simply that these plagues, which are laid on us before the remission of our sins, are the punishments due to our sins. But after the remission of our sins, they are conflicts and exercises with which the faithful do not make satisfaction for their sins — which are already remitted by grace in the death of the Son of God — but with which they are humbled and kept in their duty, having an occasion given for greater glory.

And here I will not hesitate to recite to you, dearly beloved, St. Augustine's judgment touching this matter, in his second book, De Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione, chap. 33 and 34, where he says: "God absolves or remits the guilt of things, to the end that after this life they should do no harm; and yet he allows them to abide for the contest of faith, that men may be instructed and exercised by them, profiting in the contest of righteousness," etc. [1839] And immediately after: "Before forgiveness, they are the punishments of sinners; but after remission, they are the contests and exercises of just men." And after a few more words, Augustine again says:

"The flesh which was first made was not the flesh of sin, in which man would not keep righteousness among the pleasures of paradise. This is why God ordained that after [Adam's] sin, the flesh of sin being increased, he should endeavour with pains and labours to recover righteousness again. Gen 3.19

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And for that cause, Adam being cast out of paradise, dwelt opposite Eden — that is, opposite the place of pleasures; which was a sign that with labours, which are contrary to pleasure, the flesh of sin was then to be inured.[1840] Having been in pleasures, it had not kept obedience before it was the flesh of sin. Therefore, even as our first parents, by living justly afterward, whereby they are rightly thought to be delivered from utter punishment by the blood of Christ, did not yet in that life deserve to be called back into paradise again. So also, the flesh of sin — even though when sins are forgiven, a man lives righteously in it — does not quickly deserve not to suffer that death which it drew from the propagation of sin. Such a thing is insinuated to us in the book of the Kings, concerning the patriarch David. The prophet was sent to him, and threatened the evils that would come upon him through the anger of God, because of the sin which he had committed. By the confession of his sin, David deserved forgiveness, according to the answer of the prophet who told him that his sin and crime was forgiven him. And yet those things happened to him, which God had threatened: namely, that he would be humbled by the incest of his son, etc. And for what reason do some not demand, If God threatened that scourge for sin, then why, when he had pardoned the sin, did he fulfil what he threatened? Unless it is because they know (if they demand that question) that they will rightly be answered, that the remission of the sin was granted to the end that the man would not be kept by his sin, from obtaining eternal life. But the effect of God's threatening followed after the remission of the sin, to the end that the godliness of the man might be tried and exercised in that humility. In like manner, God laid bodily death for sins as a punishment upon the body of man; and after the forgiveness of sins He has not taken it away, but left it in the body to be a means to exercise righteousness." [1841]

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Now, concerning the punishments of the wicked (if the most just God in this world touches them with any), let us know that they are the arguments [1842] for God's just judgment. In this world, He begins to punish them temporally, and in the world to come He does not cease to plague them everlastingly. The wicked, truly, perish through their own fault; for God begins to whip them in this life, to the end that, being chastened, they may begin to be wise, and turn to the Lord. [1843] But by his chastisement, they are more hardened, and murmur at the judgments of God, converting what was ordained for their health, to their own destruction. Just as all things work to the best for those who love God, so all things work to their utter destruction for those who hate the Lord. This argument might be extended still further; but because I have already spoken a great deal to this effect in the third sermon of this third Decade, what is left out here may be found there. And therefore, I refer you to looking at that.[1844] And so now, up to here touching sin.

I have with somewhat too long a sermon, dearly beloved,detained you here for more than the space of two whole hours. That I may now therefore make an end, let us humbly acknowledge our sins, and meekly cry with prayers to the Lord, who sits in the throne of grace, saying: Have mercy upon us, O Lord, for against you have we sinned, and we confess our offences. We are Your debtors; forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

THE END OF THE THIRD DECADE OF SERMONS.

THE

FOURTH DECADE OF SERMONS

WRITTEN BY

HENRY BULLINGER.

4-1. THE FIRST SERMON: OF THE GOSPEL.

OF THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD, WHO HAS GIVEN HIS SON TO THE WORLD, AND IN HIM ALL THINGS NECESSARY TO SALVATION,[1845] THAT WE, BELIEVING IN HIM, MIGHT OBTAIN ETERNAL LIFE.

AFTER the exposition of the law, and those points of doctrine that depend upon the law, I think it best now to come to handling the gospel, which has been often mentioned in the exposition of the law and other places. Now therefore, dearly beloved, as I have been helped up to here with your prayers to God, so here again I request your earnest supplications with me to the Father, that by his holy Spirit, I may speak the truth to your edification [1846] in this present argument.

Evangelium is a Greek word; but it is received by the Latins and Germans, and today it is used as a word of their own. It is compounded from eu, which signifies good, and aggellw to tell tidings. For it signifies the telling of good tidings, or happy news, as tends to be blown abroad when our enemies being foiled, we lay siege to their city, or obtain some notable victory over our foes. The word is attributed to any joyful and lucky news concerning any matter luckily accomplished.

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The apostles willingly used that term, not so much because the prophets had used it before them,[1847] as because it wonderfully contains, and lays before our eyes as it were, the manner and work of our salvation accomplished by Christ. To this work, they have applied the word Evangelium. The prophet Isaiah, as Luke interprets it, introduces Christ our Lord, speaking in this manner: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me euaggelisasqai (euaggelisasthai);" that is, He has sent me to preach the gospel, "to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to freely set at liberty those who are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." [1848] Look here, the Saviour of the world, in the prophet and in the evangelist, expounds to us what Evangelium is, and to what it tends: "The Father," he says, "has sent me to preach Evangelium, the gospel, to the poor." And immediately after, to show who those poor would be, he adds: "who are broken-hearted, or broken-minded;" namely, those who find no soundness or health in themselves; but utterly despairing of their own strength, they wholly depend upon the help of Christ, their skilled and willing physician.[1849] Now the gospel, or good tidings, which is shown to the afflicted, is this: that the Son of God has descended from heaven to heal the sick and diseased souls. He also adds another cause to this, to make it more evident,[1850] saying that the Son of God has come "to preach deliverance to captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind," etc. For all men are held captive in the bonds of damnation. They all serve a sorrowful slavery under their cruel enemy, Satan. They are all kept blind in the darkness of errors; and it is to them that redemption, deliverance, and the acceptable year of the Lord, is preached. Now, these joyful tidings are called Evangelium, the gospel.

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Therefore, the gospel is defined in this manner by all men: The gospel is a good and a sweet word, and an assured testimony of God's grace toward us, exhibited in Christ to all believers. Or else, the gospel is the most evident sentence of the eternal God, brought down from heaven, absolving all believers from all their sins, and that is freely too, for Christ's sake, with a promise of eternal life. These definitions are gathered out of the testimonies of the evangelists and apostles. For St. Luke brings in the angel of the Lord speaking to the amazed shepherds, saying: "Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all people: for to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord." Look here, he takes from the shepherds all manner of fear, by bringing good tidings — that is, by preaching health — which is a thing that is full of joy and always brings gladness with it. The tidings are, that there is born the Saviour of the world, even the Lord Jesus Christ. He is born to us and for us: that is, to the health and salvation of us mortal men. St. Paul says that "the gospel was promised before by God through the prophets in the holy scripture, of his Son who was made of the seed of David after the flesh. He has been declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit that sanctifies, by his resurrection from the dead." Rom 1.1-4 And again: "The gospel is the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation,[1851] which has been kept close from before the beginnings, but is now made manifest, and by the writings of the prophets, it is opened to all nations to the obedience of faith, according to the appointment of the eternal God." Rom 16.25-26 And yet again, he says more briefly: "The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe;" Rom 1.16 that is to say, the gospel is the preaching of God's power, by which all those who believe are saved. And Christ is the power of God: for he is said to be the arm, the glory, the virtue, and brightness of the Father. Now, Christ brings salvation to everyone who believes, for he is the Saviour of all.

iv.4

From all this we now gather this definition of the holy gospel:

The gospel is the heavenly preaching of God's grace toward us, in which it is declared to the whole world, which is set in the wrath and indignation of God, that God the Father of heaven is pleased in his only-begotten Son, our Lord Christ Jesus. He promised him to the holy fathers of old, and has now exhibited him to us in these latter times. And in him God has given us all things belonging to a blessed life and eternal salvation, as he that was made incarnate for us, dead, and raised from the dead again, was taken up into heaven, and is made our only Lord and Saviour, on the condition that, acknowledging our sins, we soundly and surely believe in him.

This definition, I confess, is somewhat long. Yet, with this I would have you think that the matter which is described in this definition is itself very large and ample. I have therefore, in this long definition or description, with as great a light as I could, endeavoured to make this manifest to all men. This is why I neither could nor should have expressed it more briefly. This definition consists of just parts. Once they are severally expounded and thoroughly opened, every man, I hope, will evidently perceive the nature, causes, effects, and whatever else is good to be known, concerning the gospel.

First of all, what most argues that the gospel is tidings come from heaven and was not begun on earth, is that God our heavenly Father first preached those tidings to our miserable parents after their fall in paradise. He promised his Son who, being incarnate, would crush the serpent's head. Then again, the apostle Paul in express words says: "God in time past, at sundry times, and in diverse manners, spoke to the fathers by the prophets, and has in these last days spoken to us by his Son." Heb 1.1-2 And John before him testified, saying: "No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared him." Joh 1.18 And again: "He that comes from on high is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of the earth: he that comes from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard, that he testifies." Joh 3.31-32

iv.5

To this belongs, that the prophets were believed to have prophesied by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Now in the holy scriptures, they foreshadowed the gospel: the especial or chief points of which were declared to men by angels descending from heaven. For the incarnation of the Son of God is first told to the holy virgin by the archangel Gabriel, and after that, again to Joseph, the supposed Father of Christ, and tutor [1852] of the unspotted virgin. The same angel preached to the shepherds, the birth of the Son of God. Moreover, the angels declared to the women who came to the grave, minding their country-manner to anoint the body of the Lord; that he was risen from the dead again. The same angels testified to the apostles at the Lord's ascension, whose eyes were turned and surely fixed into the clouds, that he was taken up into heaven, and that from there he would come again to judge the quick and the dead. And to all these testimonies may be added the voice of the eternal Father himself, uttered from heaven upon our Lord and Saviour, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am pleased; hear him." [1853] This testimony of the Father is repeated by the blessed apostle Peter, in the zeal of the Spirit, in the first chapter of his second epistle. Therefore, the preaching of the gospel is a divine speech, unreprovable, and brought down from heaven. Whoever believes it, believes the word of the eternal God; and those who do not believe it, despise and reject the word of God. For it does not cease to be the word of God because it is preached by the ministry of men. For we read that the Lord said of the apostles: "It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of my Father which is within you." Mat 10.20 And therefore, we read that they did not depart from Jerusalem until they were first instructed from above, and had received the Holy Ghost. Nor is there any reason why the word of God should be tied to the apostles only, as though no man preached the word of God after the apostles. For our Lord plainly says in St. John's gospel: "Truly I say to you, He that receives whomever I send, receives me; and he that receives me receives him that sent me." Joh 13.20 Now our Lord, the high priest and chief bishop of his catholic church, sends not only apostles, but also all those who are lawfully called, and who bring the word of Christ.

iv.6

Therefore, we understand it to be spoken concerning all the lawful ministers of the church, where the Lord says, "Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you retain, they are retained:" Joh 20.23 and again, "Whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven; and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven." Mat 18.18 For in another place the Lord says: "Truly I say to you, it shall be easier for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city that does not receive you, and does not hear your sayings." Mat 10.15 Now, who does not know how filthy and horrible the sin was with which the men of Sodom defiled themselves; and that the Lord rained fire, brimstone, and pitch from heaven, with which he burnt up both the city and her inhabitants? Therefore, who cannot gather from this, that rebels and blasphemers of the gospel of Christ sin more grievously than the Sodomites did; and that God, who is a sure revenger, will surely plague them for it with unspeakable miseries and endless torments, either in this life, or in the world to come, or else in both? Let us therefore believe the gospel of the Son of God, first preached to the world by God the Father, then by the patriarchs, after that by the prophets, and lastly by the only-begotten Son of God, Christ Jesus — and by his apostles, whose heavenly voice even today sounds to us in the mouths of the ministers, sincerely preaching the gospel to us.

Secondly, we have to consider what the heavenly preaching of the gospel shows to the world: namely, the grace of God our heavenly Father. For the apostle Paul, in the twentieth chapter of the Acts, says that he "received the ministry of the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God." Act 20.24 Therefore, I will at present say as much about the grace of God as is sufficient for this place.

The word "grace" is diversely used in the holy scriptures, even as it is used in profane writings also. For in the Bible it signifies thanksgiving, and also a benefit, and alms, as in 2Cor 8.1-2. Moreover, it signifies praise and recompense, as where the apostle says: "If, when you do well, you are afflicted, and yet bear it — that is praiseworthy before God." [1854]

iv.7

It also signifies faculty or licence; as when we say that one has gotten grace to teach and execute an office. For the apostle says that he received grace; and to expound his own meaning, he immediately adds, to execute the office of an apostle. Moreover, the gifts of God are called grace, because they are given gratis, and freely bestowed without looking for any recompense. And yet Paul, in the fifth chapter to the Romans, distinguishes a gift from grace: for grace signifies the favour and good-will of God toward us; but a gift is a thing which God gives us of that good-will, such as faith, constancy, and integrity. They are said to have found grace with God, whom God dearly loves and favours more than others. In that sense, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord; Joseph found grace in the eyes of the lord of the prison; and the holy virgin is read to have found grace with the Lord, because she was beloved by God, and very dear to the Lord, as the one whom he had singularly chosen from among all other women. But in this place and present argument, "grace" is the favour and goodness of the eternal Godhead, with which, according to his incomprehensible goodness, He gratis — freely, for Christ's sake — embraces, calls, justifies, and saves us mortal men.

Now here, before we go any further, I think it is not amiss to examine and search out the cause of God's love exhibited for us. For we see that there is a certain relation between the favour of God and men, to whom his favour is so bent. It is a matter neither hard nor tedious to be found out. For there is nothing in us with which God can be in love, or with which he may be moved or stirred up to embrace us. Yes, insomuch as we are all impure sinners, and God is holy, just, and a revenger of iniquities, he has enough to find in us for which he may be angry, and plague us with just revenge. So then, the cause of God's love towards us must of necessity not be in us, nor in any other thing beside God (considering that nothing is more excellent than man); but it must be in God himself.[1855] Moreover, the most true scripture teaches us that God, of his own inclination, is naturally good, gentle, and as Paul calls him, philanthropon,Tit 3.4 a lover of men, who has sent his own Son, of his own nature, into the world for our redemption.

iv.8

Upon this, it consequently follows that God freely, of himself and for his Son's sake, loves man, and not for any other cause. Whereby all the preparations, incitements, and merits of men, being dissolved by the fire of God's great love, fade and pass away like smoke. For the grace of God is altogether free; and unless it is so, I cannot see how it can be called grace. But it benefits us in a thing so weighty (to cite some evident testimonies of the holy scripture), to confirm our minds with against all sophistical trifles and temptations of the devil. Our Lord in the gospel said: "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son for the world, that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have life everlasting." Joh 3.16 Look here, this good-will of God, which is the favour and love with which God embraces us, is the cause of our salvation. For Christ, having suffered for us, is our salvation. Now God, [1856] out of very love, has given Christ both to us, and for us. Nor may we think that God was first moved by our love toward him, in order to show a like mutual love back to us, and to give his Son for us. For he had determined before the beginning of the world, to work our redemption through Christ his Son. And John the Evangelist says in his canonical epistle: "In this is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be an atonement for our sins." 1Joh 4.10

Though these testimonies are sufficiently plain and strong enough, I will yet add some proofs out of the apostle Paul, so that this argument may be more evident, and that the great agreement there is between the evangelists and apostles in this doctrine of grace, may appear. Paul therefore says, "All have sinned, and stand in need of the glory of God; but are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Rom 3.23-24 Again, he says to the Ephesians: "You are saved through grace by faith, and that not of your selves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph 2.8-9

iv.9

Again, to Titus: "The grace and love of God our Saviour towards all men has appeared, not of the works of our own righteousness which we did, but according to his mercy he has saved us." [1857] Likewise, in the second Epistle to Timothy, first chapter, he says: "God has saved us, and has called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus." I think, truly, that if a man had a set purpose to imagine anything for the defence of this matter, he could not have framed any sentence so fit and evident as these words. So now it is manifest that the grace of God is altogether free, as that which excludes all our works and merits; and this free love of God is the only cause and true beginning of the gospel, for which cause Paul calls the gospel the preaching of grace.

But now, although the grace of God does not depend on us or our works, yet it does not idly abide in God, as if it were utterly outside of us and altogether far from us, as a thing that is neither felt nor at work in us. For we understood by the cited testimonies, that grace is the favour of God with which He loves us; we understood that men are saved by grace. For since God loves men, he would not have them perish; and therefore he has, through grace, sent his Son to deliver them from destruction, and that in him the justice and mercy of God might be known to the whole world. But none are delivered save those who believe. Therefore grace has something by which to work in man.[1858] For, by pouring the Holy Ghost into our hearts, the understanding and will are instructed in the faith. To be short, grace (as I already told you) [1859] calls, justifies, saves, or glorifies the faithful. Thus, we must take account that the whole work of our salvation, and all the virtues of the godly, proceed from the grace of God alone, whose working we acknowledge and confess at all times.

iv.10

And that again is proved both by divine and human testimonies. Paul says to the Romans: "Those whom he knew before, he also predestined: and those whom he predestined, he also called: and those whom he called, he also justified: and those whom he justified, he also glorified. What shall we say then to these things? If God is on our side, who can be against us? Who did not spare his own Son, but gave him for us, how shall he not with him also give us all things?" Rom 8.29-32 Again, in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Ephesians, he has referred the whole work of election and salvation, with all the parts of it, to the grace of God. Moreover, the holy fathers in the council Mileventanum, [1860] among whom St. Augustine was also present, made this decree touching the grace of God:

"If any man says that mercy is without the grace of God bestowed upon us from above — believing, willing, desiring, endeavouring, studying, asking, seeking, and striving as of ourselves — and does not confess that even to believe, to will, and to be able to do all these things as we should do, is wrought by the pouring in and inspiration of the Holy Ghost — if he joins the humility or obedience of man as a help to grace — and if he does not consent that it is the very gift of grace even that we are humble and obedient — then he is directly contrary to the apostle, who says, 'For what do you have that you have not received?' 1Cor 4.7 and, 'By the grace of God, I am what I am.'" 1Cor 15.10 This much they had to say.

iv.11

Now these divine and human testimonies being thoroughly considered, there is none, I hope, who may not understand that the grace of God is the same as I told you: namely, the favour and good-will of the eternal Godhead, with which, according to his incomprehensible goodness, He embraces, calls, justifies, and saves men freely for Christ's sake, our Lord and Saviour.

The blessed man Aurelius Augustine had a sharp conflict with Pelagius the Briton, concerning the grace of God. For the heretic understood nothing by the term grace, except the benefit of the creation. Augustine did not deny this to be of grace, but he also vehemently urged that the apostle especially spoke of that free grace by which, without any merit of ours, we are freely saved for Christ's sake. He therefore urged this all the more earnestly, because he saw that [1861] the heretic affirmed that his own human nature was sufficient for him,[1862] not only to do, but also to do perfectly, the commandments of God by free-will. But St. Augustine very largely and religiously disputes about these matters in his ninety-fifth Epistle, Ad Innocentium.[1863]

Many of the late writers, for teaching's sake, have divided grace into grace that does acceptable things, and grace that is gratis or freely given. Again, they have divided it into working grace, and joint-working grace. Finally, they part it into grace that goes before, and grace that follows after. And the very same writers also reckon up the operations or effects of grace in this manner: grace heals the soul, and first, makes it to will well, and then to work effectually the thing that it wills. So it causes the soul to persevere in goodness, and at length to come to eternal glory.[1864]

iv.12

I will not take care to reckon up the sentences of writers, to show you each one's separate opinion (which would be both an excessive labour, and also more than my ability can do). But I am willing to cite the places of scripture (which is the one and only rule for how to think, and how to judge rightly) to show you thereby, what the scripture would have you think. I hope I have both briefly and evidently enough, declared the grace of God to you in my former treatise. And also the discourse about Christ, which follows after this (through whom the Father has poured the most excellent and heavenly grace into us) will help to make up that which seems to be lacking here.

But now, before I depart from this argument, I thought it good to admonish you, that the sentences of God's word do not conflict with themselves, when we read and hear in various places: first, that we are saved freely or by the grace of God; then, that we are saved by the love of God; thirdly, that we are saved through the mercy of God; fourthly, that we are saved through Christ; fifthly, that we are saved through the blood, or death, or incarnation of Christ; and lastly, that we are saved through faith in Christ, or in the mercy or grace of God. For all these statements tend to one and the same end, and they ascribe the whole glory and cause of man's salvation to the very mercy or grace of God. The pledge of grace, yes, and our only Saviour, is the only-begotten Son of God, betrayed unto death. Sincere faith lays hold on mere grace in Christ, and nothing else.

Now therefore, having thus expounded according to my small ability, that which I had to say in general about the grace of God, I descend here to handle that singular or particular work of God's grace, which is nothing else but this: that the merciful Father has exhibited to us his Son, in that manner and order which he promised in the old prophets; and that in him he has fully given us all things requisite to eternal life and absolute felicity. This is because he is the Lord and Messiah, or the only and true Saviour, who was incarnate, dead, raised to life, and taken up into heaven for us and our salvation.

iv.13

For Christ is both king and high priest, that is, our Saviour; he is the mark, the star, and the very sunlight of the preaching of the gospel. Now in expounding these things particularly, I will use the following course and order. First of all, I will recite to you out of the law and the prophets some evident promises of Christ made by God to the church; these will be especially those that the apostles themselves have already touched and expounded. Secondly, I will prove to you that God has now performed what he promised so long ago; namely, that he has already exhibited to us his only-begotten Son; and that he is that true and so long-looked-for Lord and Messiah, who would come to save the world. Lastly, I will show you how, the Father is pleased and reconciled to the world again, in this Son. In him he has also fully given us all things requisite to eternal life and absolute felicity. For us and for our salvation, he was incarnate, dead, raised to life again, and taken up into heaven, there to be a Mediator forever and advocate to his Father. And in these points lie the lively veins of the gospel, which flow with wholesome waters unto eternal life; for the sound consolation of the faithful, and the enduring tranquility of a quiet conscience, consist in them; and without them, there is no life or quiet rest.

The promises made by God concerning Christ, which are uttered in the holy scriptures, are threefold, or of three sorts. Therefore, to make them plainer to you, I will divide the promises of one and the same sort according to the times. The first promises were made to the patriarchs or ancient fathers before the giving of the law: and these again consist of two sorts; for one sort are plain, uttered evidently in simple words, without any types and figurative shadows; the other sort are figurative and couched under types.

The first and most evident promise of all was made by the very mouth of God to our first parents, Adam and Eve, being oppressed with death, calamities, and the horrible fear of God's revenging hand for their transgression.[1865] This promise is, as it were, the pillar and base of all Christian religion, upon which the preaching of the gospel is altogether founded, and out of which all the other promises in a way are derived.

iv.14

That promise is contained in these words of the Lord: "I will put enmity between you" (meaning the serpent, I say, the devil in the serpent) "and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; and it shall tread down your head, and you shall tread upon his heel." Gen 3.15 In these words, God promises seed; the seed, I say, not of man, but of woman; and that too, is of the most excellent woman, namely, that most holy virgin Mary, the woman that was blessed among all other women. For she conceived, not by any man, but by the Holy Ghost; and being a virgin still, she was delivered of Christ our Lord. By dying and rising again, he not only vexed or wounded, but also crushed and tread down, the head: that is, the kingdom of Satan — namely, sin, death, and damnation. He took away and made utterly void all the power and tyranny of our enemy and deceiver. Meanwhile, Satan trod on Christ's heel; that is to say, by his members — Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate, the Jews and Gentiles — with intense torments and death, he vexed and killed the flesh, which was the lowest part in Christ, even as the heel is lowest in the body. For in the Psalms, the Lord says: "I am a worm, and no man. They have brought my life into the dust." Psa 22.6, 15 But he rose again from the dead. For if he had not risen again, he would not have trodden down the serpent's head. But now, by his rising, he has become the Saviour of all who believe in him. Out of this promise is derived that singular and notorious one, which the angel of the Lord recites to our father Abraham in the following words: "In your seed all the nations of the world shall be blessed." Gen 22.18 But Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians (Gal 3.16), declares in express words that that blessed seed which was promised to Abraham, is ours.[1866] Now our Lord is called by the name of Seed because of the first promise made to Adam and Eve, and because he was made incarnate and true man for us.

iv.15

Nor is this promise repugnant to the first: for although Christ our Lord is here called the seed, or son, of Abraham; yet he is in no other way referred to Abraham than by the virgin, which was the daughter of Abraham and the mother of Christ. Now what good does the son of Abraham do to us by his incarnation? In truth, he blesses us. But a blessing is the contrary to a curse. Therefore, whatever curse we drew from the sin of Adam, Christ heals that in us, and he blesses us with all spiritual blessing. Nor does he bestow this benefit on a few alone, but upon all the nations of the world that believe in him.

The patriarch Jacob, being inspired with the Holy Ghost, foretold what would happen to his children; and at length, when he came to Judah among the rest, he says: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, and a law-giver from between his feet, till Shiloh comes; and to him shall be the gathering of the people." Gen 49.10 Look here, in these words the Messiah is not only promised, but the very time when he would be incarnate is also prescribed, with a declaration of both what and how far forth he would be. The kingdom, he says, shall remain under Judah until the coming of the Saviour: and even though the tribe of Judah will not always have kings to govern them, yet it will not lack nobles, captains, lawgivers, learned men and sages, to rule the people. And therefore, the evangelical history faithfully witnesses that Christ came at that time when all power, authority, and rule was translated to the Romans, to whose emperor, Octavius Augustus, the Jews were forced to pay taxes and tribute. Now, Shiloh signifies felicity, or the author of felicity; it signifies plenty, store, and abundance of all excellent things. For Christ is the treasury of all good things. And the Chaldee interpreter, where he finds Shiloh, translates it Christ. Finally, all people shall be gathered to him, as to their Saviour: as the prophets afterward most plainly declared, Isaiah in the second, and Micah in the fourth chapters of their books or prophecies.

iv.16

Furthermore, the types and figures of Christ are given in Noah preserved in the ark; for in Christ the faithful are saved; as St. Peter testifies.1Pet 3 Abraham offers up Isaac, his only-begotten son on top of the same mountain where many years after, the only-begotten Son of God was offered on the cross.[1867] Joseph is sold to the heathen by his brethren, and cast in prison; but being delivered, he becomes their Saviour, and is called by all the people, the preserver of the Egyptian kingdom. Christ our Lord was prefigured in all these things.

The later promises also are of two sorts; either openly uncovered, or hidden under a veil or figure as it were. They are contained in the law and the prophets even till the time of the captivity of Babylon. In the third chapter of the Acts, the blessed apostle Peter cites the prophecy of Moses touching the coming of the greatest of all prophets. The prefigured promises [1868] of Christ are the sacrifices which Paul briefly declares in a wonderful summary in his epistle to the Hebrews. In the fifth chapter of first Corinthians, he applies the paschal lamb to Jesus Christ. 1Cor 10.4 Peter does the same in his first epistle. Again, the stony rock that was struck and gushed with water,[1869] St. Paul calls Christ.1Cor 10.4 And in the gospel of St. John, Christ himself says that he was prefigured in the brazen serpent which was lifted up in the desert Joh 3.14-15 — I have more fully declared the mystery of this in another place.[1870] There are many more like these. I already touched a good part of them when I had occasion to treat the ceremonies and their signification;[1871] someone who is inclined may read of it at large there.

The unfigured and uncovered promises are almost without number in the Psalms and the prophets. Indeed, the Lord himself in the gospel of St. Luke testifies that the description of all his office and business is contained at large in the law, the prophets, and the Psalms.Luk 24.44 And when St. Peter had preached the gospel, in which he promised both Christ and the full remission of sins to all who believed, he immediately added this:

iv.17

"All the prophets from Samuel and those that followed in order, as many as have spoken, have likewise told you of these days." Act 3.24 David truly, in the second, twenty-second, and hundred and tenth Psalms, has notably set down the two natures of Christ: his Godhead and his manhood. Again, he has laid before all men's eyes his wholesome preaching, his eternal priesthood, his everlasting redemption, and his most bitter death and passion.[1872] What shall I say of the prophet Isaiah? By no small doctor of the church of Christ, [1873] he was very worthily called an evangelist rather than a prophet. So truly did he foretell the state of Christ, that it was as if he had written a story of things already past and done by Christ, and not of things that would be done. Now, he proposes Christ to be very God and very man, born after the flesh of the unspotted virgin, who had to preach the word of life. Like a good shepherd, he had to feed his fearful sheep, to be the light of the Gentiles to the utmost parts of the earth, to give sight to the blind, to heal the lame and diseased; to be betrayed by his own, to be spit upon, to be struck, to be hung between thieves, to be offered up as a sacrifice for sin, and finally to make intercession for transgressors — that he himself being just, he might justify all who believe in his name. Read Isaiah, the seventh, eighth, ninth, eleventh, twenty-eighth, fortieth, forty-ninth, fiftieth, and fifty-third chapters; and also the last chapters of all his prophecy, in which he most fully describes the church or congregation of Christ Immanuel.[1874] Jonah bore the most manifest type of the Lord's sharp death and joyful resurrection.[1875] Micah also names Bethlehem as the place in which Messiah would be born, whose beginning (namely, his divine nature) he regards as before all beginnings. Mic. 5.2 He also foretells that the preaching of the gospel would be sown abroad from Jerusalem through all the compass of the world. Mic 4.2

iv.18

Jeremiah says that God would raise up from David a true seed or branch, that is, the looked-for Messiah; Jer 23.5 and in that prophecy, he alluded to the law concerning the raising up of a seed for the deceased brother. For the virgin, conceiving by the Holy Ghost, brought forth a Son, whose name is Jehovah, being very God in very deed, whom Isaiah calls Immanuel, Isa 7.14 who is the true righteousness of all who believe in him; for by Christ the faithful are justified. In the thirty-first chapter, Isaiah promises in Christ full or absolute remission of sins and abundant grace of the Holy Ghost, Isa 31.33-34 which Joel also did not conceal. Joel 2.28-32 Thus, out of many testimonies I have picked out only these few in number; for the whole of the books of the prophets are occupied in the description of Christ and his offices.

The last promises concerning Christ were revealed to the prophets by God, and by them they were declared to the church of God, even in the very time of the captivity at Babylon, or else immediately upon their return to Jerusalem.[1876] Ezekiel prophesies of the shepherd David, and of the sheep receiving that shepherd. In St. John's gospel, the Lord himself expounds these prophecies. Joh 10 The same prophet treats very much about grace, and the frank and full remission of sins through the Saviour Christ, especially in the thirty-fourth, thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh chapters of his prophecy. Daniel, truly, has visions and many dreams; but in them he so sets out Christ to us, that it is impossible to have him better or more evidently and excellently described. In his second chapter, Daniel teaches us about his eternal kingdom, and tells us that Christ would come under the Roman monarchy, at which time the Roman princes, being allied by affinity, would destroy one another mutually in battle. This was fulfilled when Pompey and Julius Caesar, Antony and Octavius Augustus, maintained civil war. Moreover, Daniel's weeks [1877] are unknown to no man, in which, as it were, he points with his finger at Christ, the coming of Christ, and the reprobation of the Jews because of their disloyalty and unbelief.

iv.19

Haggai the prophet foretold the manner how the temple would be built, I mean, the true temple indeed: namely, the church of Christ.[1878] Zechariah excellently paints for us many mysteries of Christ; he lays before us the kingdom and priesthood of our Lord and Saviour; he commends to us that one and only eternal sacrifice, which is effectual enough to cleanse the sins of the whole world — Zech. third, ninth, and fourteenth chapters. Yes, he prophesies of nothing else but of Christ and his kingdom. Malachi foreshows the forerunner of the Lord, and handles no small number of mysteries concerning Christ. By these we perceive that Paul wrote most truly in the first chapter to the Romans, saying that God promised the gospel before by his prophets in the holy scriptures. Rom 1.1-2

Now by these holy promises we gather this also: that there are not many or different gospels (although we do not deny that the same gospel was penned by different evangelists); but that there is one gospel alone, and that too is eternal. For the very same gospel which is preached to us today, was preached to our first parents at the beginning of the world.[1879] For it is assuredly certain that Adam, Eve, Abel, all the patriarchs, prophets, and faithful people of the old Testament, were saved by the gospel, which we have declared at large in another place.[1880]

We now come to the second part, where we have to show you that God the Father has faithfully performed for us, that which he promised to our forefathers, in giving to us his only-begotten Son, who is that true and looked-for Messiah, who is blessed world without end. The evangelists and apostles of our Lord have taken great pains to make this matter manifest, and have set it forth so well and faithfully, that it cannot be bettered.

iv.20

They show that Christ comes from the stock of David, descending lineally from the seed of Abraham. They tell that his mother was the virgin, who conceived by the Holy Ghost, and still being a virgin, brought him into the world. They note the time in which Christ was revealed, corresponding in all points to the prophets' prophecies. They add that the place of his nativity corresponded to that which Micah foretold. In the East a star appears, which moves the princes, or wise men, to go and salute the newborn King. Therefore they come, and openly profess even in Jerusalem, [1881] that the Messiah is born, and that they have come out of the East to worship and honour him. According to their words, so were their deeds. For once they had found him by the leading of the star, they fall down before him, and by offering to Christ the gifts that they brought, they did not obscurely declare how joyful they were, and how much they regarded their Lord and Saviour.[1882] In the very city of Jerusalem, the most just man Simeon, with great joy of heart and godly congratulation, openly testifies in the temple that God, according to his eternal goodness [1883] and constancy, had given to the world his only-begotten Son, whom he had promised to the fathers; and with this, he attested that he was ready to die.[1884] He adds the cause; "For my eyes have seen your salvation," namely, that Shiloh, the Saviour, whom you, O God, have determined to "set before all people, a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of your people Israel;" Luk 2.30-32 that is, that shaking off all darkness, he would bring the light of truth and life unto the Gentiles, to enlighten them with; and that he would be the glory and life of the people of Israel. To this also belongs the testimony of that notable man Zechariah, the holy priest of God, saying: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began;" and so forth, as seen in the first chapter of Luke's gospel.

iv.21

Moreover, John the son of this Zechariah, surnamed the Baptist, of whom we read that none more holy was ever born of women, Luk 7.28 pointed at Christ Jesus with his finger, and openly declared that he is that looked-for Messiah whom all the prophets promised; and that by giving him to the world, God has done what he promised, and wholly poured himself with all his benefits into and upon all faithful believers. "And as the people waited" (says Luke), "and thought in their hearts of John, whether he was the Christ; John answered, saying to them all, Indeed I baptize you with water; but one stronger than I comes after me, whose shoelace I am not worthy to untie; he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Luk 3.15-16 And in the Gospel of St. John we read: "The next day John sees Jesus coming to him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is the one of whom I said, 'After me comes a man which is preferred before me, because he was before me;' and I did not know him — only that he would be declared to Israel. Therefore I have come baptizing with water. And immediately after he says: "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abided on him. And I did not know him. But the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bore record that this is the Son of God." Joh 1.29-34 Again, when the disciples of John envied the happy success of Christ, and it grieved them to see their master John neglected as it were, in comparison to Christ, John said to his disciples: "You yourselves are witnesses that I said, I am not Christ, but I was sent before him. He that has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices because of the bridegroom: therefore my joy is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. He that believes in the Son has life everlasting: he that does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." [1885]

iv.22

These testimonies are firm, clear, and evident enough, and might suffice for the confirmation of this cause. But let us yet pick out and add a few more from many which may declare that Christ is already exhibited to us. Therefore, our Lord himself, whom we believe to be Messiah, when he had a long while been greatly commended by the testimony of John, at length goes abroad and preaches the word of life. But it is not read that in any age, before or since, there was ever any who taught with so great a grace. And with this he showed almost incredible and wonderful miracles, which easily argue for who he was; and these were sufficient to win a man with whom no words might possibly prevail. He was loving and gentle to sinners, continually repeating and beating into their heads that he had come to save them, and call them to repentance. Therefore, when the disciples of John came to Christ once, and asked, "Are you the one that would come, or shall we look for another?" he answered, "Go and tell those things to John, which you see and hear: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the glad tidings of the gospel are preached to the poor." Mat 11.3-5 Now by these, — I mean by his doctrine, and his works or miracles — his mind was to show that he was exhibited to the world as the true Messiah, and no other is to be looked for. Moreover, in the synagogue at Nazareth, where he read and expounded Isaiah's prophecy of the coming of Messiah, he declared that this scripture was fulfilled in himself. And to this history is immediately annexed: "And all bore witness to him, and wondered at the gracious sayings that proceeded from his mouth." Luk 4.16-22 Again, in the tenth chapter of St. John's gospel: "The Jews came around the Lord and said, How long will you make us doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, bear witness of me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep." Joh 10.24-26 And shortly after he adds:

iv.23

"You say that I blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God. If I do not do the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do, and you do not believe me, believe my works — that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him." Joh 10.36-38

In the seventh chapter of John we read: "Those who believed in him said, Will Christ, when he comes, show more signs than this man has shown?" Joh 7.31 That is to say, Even if we were to grant that there is another Christ to be looked for, this is most sure: that the other Messiah cannot do more and greater miracles than this man does. Let us therefore believe that this is the true Messiah. Before Caiaphas, the high priest, and the whole council of the peers of Israel, and also before Pontius Pilate in the judgment-hall of the Roman empire, our Lord Christ openly, and in express words, confessed that he is that true and looked-for Messiah.

As the prophets foretold of him, he truly and of his own accord died for sinners; the third day after that, he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father. And the evangelists, reciting faithfully the words and deeds of Christ, always add to the most notable ones: "All this was done or said, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet." Thus it would not be worth the labour here to gather together the prophecies of the prophets, to examine the words and deeds of Christ by them, and by the manifest agreement between them, to conclude this: That God has performed for us that which he promised to our fathers, in giving to us his only-begotten Son Christ Jesus, who is the true and looked-for Messiah. For the evangelists have already done this, and with such great faith and diligence, that it cannot be bettered for its plainness. To this you may now refer all that I have said in my former sermons touching the signification, or mysteries, in the fulfilling and abrogating of the law.

And to content ourselves with a smaller number of testimonies, might not this one, in the fourth chapter of St. John, be used instead of several thousand confirmations? The woman of Samaria says to the Lord: "I know that the Messiah shall come, who is called Christ. Therefore, when he comes, he will tell us all things. Jesus answered her, I am he that speaks to you." Joh 4.25-26 Look, what could be said more plainly?

iv.24

"I am the Messiah," he says, even I, who even now speaks to you, and at first said, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have given you the water of life. For whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, shall never more thirst: but the water that I give him shall become a well of water in him, springing up into eternal life." Joh 4.10, 14

Those, therefore, are the most thirsty and unfortunate of all men, who long and look for another Messiah besides our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus. The apostle St. Peter in an appropriately long oration, well-grounded and confirmed with scripture and strong reasons, in the second chapter of the Acts, shows that our Lord Jesus is that true Messiah. For he closes his sermon with this sentence: "Therefore let all the house of Israel surely know, that God has made this Jesus both Lord and Christ, whom you have crucified." To the same mark tends that large and learned oration of the first martyr St. Stephen, which may be seen in the seventh chapter of the Acts.[1886] Out of Isaiah's prophecy, Philip declares to the eunuch of Ethiopia that Jesus is Christ. St. Paul, in all the Jewish synagogues, puts forth no other proposition to preach on but this: Jesus is Christ, that is, Jesus is the king, the bishop, and the Saviour of the faithful. And in the thirteenth chapter he at large declares and proves that proposition true.

So now, these most evident and clear testimonies of holy scripture cannot help but suffice for those heads who are not set to purposely cavil and wrangle. At present, I will not too busily and curiously dispute against the contrary Jews, who look for another Messiah, and deny that our Lord Jesus, the Son of God and the virgin Mary, is the true Messiah. The wretches feel it to be true, which the Lord foretold them in his gospel, saying: "When you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let him who reads this understand. Then let those who are in Jerusalem flee to the mountains. But woe to those who are with suckling child in those days; for the affliction shall be great." [1887]

iv.25

And again, speaking of the city of Jerusalem, he says: "The days shall come upon you, that your enemies shall compass you with a trench, and hem you in, and lay siege to you on every side, and make you even with the ground, and your sons that are within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone standing upon another; because you do know not the time of your visitation." Luk 19.43-44 And again; "There shall be wrath upon this people; and they shall fall with the edge of the sword, and shall be led captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." Luk 21.23-24 Now, since they feel these things are finished, [1888] as they were foretold in the gospel by Christ, why do the wretches not give God the glory, and believe the gospel in other things, acknowledging that Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the virgin Mary, our Lord and Saviour, is the true and looked-for Messiah? What do they have they to cloak their stubborn incredulity? Now for the span of more than a thousand and five hundred years, they have been without their country — I mean, the land of promise that flowed with milk and honey; they have lacked their prophets, and lacked their solemn service and ceremonial rites. For where is their temple? Where is the high priest? Where is the altar? Where are the holy instruments? Where are the sacrifices that ought to be offered according to the law?

All the glory of God's people is now translated to the Christians. They are the ones who now enjoy being called the sons of faithful Abraham; they enjoy the promises made to the fathers; they talk about and mention the fathers; they judge rightly about the law and covenant of the Lord; they have the holy scriptures, and have great dexterity in expounding them; they have the true temple, the true high priest, the true altar of incense and burnt-offerings, even Christ Jesus, the Lord and Saviour; they have the true worship which was only prefigured in those external ceremonies of old — as I have already declared to you in that place where I handled the Jewish ceremonies. The Gentiles are called out of every quarter of the world to Christ Jesus. All the promises touching the calling of the Gentiles have been most abundantly fulfilled up to now, even today.

iv.26

Now we are the chosen flock,[1889] according to the doctrine of St. Peter: "We are the royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; being called to it so that we should preach the power of Him who has called us out of darkness into his marvellous light." 1Pet 2.9 Therefore, let the unhappy Jews turn to Christ by faith, and together with us begin to worship him in whom their fathers hoped, and in whom alone is life and salvation — unless, perhaps, they would rather be entangled in greater errors, to be vexed daily with endless calamities, and so at last perish eternally.[1890] For, to conclude this place with the apostle's words, "God was made manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by the angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed in the world, and received in glory. 1Tim 3.16 And everyone who believes in him shall live eternally, and never be confounded." Rom 9.33

Now remaining, we have the last part to expound — the contents of which, are that God the Father, who before was angry with the world, is now pleased in his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

First of all, therefore, I have to show you that God was angry with the world, which is no hard matter to prove. For God is angry at sins. But the whole world is subject to sin; therefore, of necessity, it must be that the most just God is mightily angry with the whole world. Paul says: "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." Rom 1.18 Again, the apostle says that "all men are subject to sin." Rom 3.9 To confirm this, he cites these sentences from the holy scriptures, saying:

"There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understands, or seeks after God; they have all gone out of the way; they have all become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; they have used their tongues to deceive; the poison of asps is under their lips; their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Heart's grief and misery are in their ways; and they have not known the way of peace. There is no fear of God before their eyes." Rom 3.10-18

iv.27

Now, lest the Israelites answer that these things do not pertain to the people of God, but to the heathen and ungodly alone, he adds: "We know that whatever the law says, it says it to those who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and that the whole world may be endangered [1891] to God." Rom 3.19 No man is excepted here. For the apostle says to the Galatians: "He has shut up all under sin, that he may have mercy on all." Gal 3.22 It follows, therefore, that the whole world was subject to the wrath or indignation of the most just and righteous God, as proved at large in the second, fourth, and fifth chapters to the Ephesians.

But the heavenly Father is appeased, or reconciled to this wicked world, through the only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope I will abundantly prove this only by the testimony of God himself. For the Father sent down a voice from heaven to earth upon Christ — first, after his baptism, as he newly ascended out of the water; and then again, at his transfiguration in the sight of his disciples. He significantly says: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am delighted, pleased, or reconciled; hear him." Mat 17.5 This testimony was foreshown in the forty-second chapter of Isaiah's prophecy. And Peter the apostle repeats it in the first chapter of his second epistle. Paul also expounded this as it were, and said, "It pleased the Father that in the Son should dwell all fulness; and by him to reconcile all things to himself, since by him He has set at peace, through the blood of the cross, both the things on earth and the things in heaven." Col 1.19-20 In heaven is God, and we men are here upon earth. Now Christ is the Mediator, who goes between us, and reconciles us to his Father, so that now we are the beloved of the Father in his beloved Son. For in the epistle to the Ephesians the same apostle says: "He has made us accepted in the beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Eph 1.6-7 All this shall be more fully understood by what follows.

For now I must prove that God the Father has given us in his Son, all things that are necessary to a happy life and eternal salvation. I name here two things: a happy life, and everlasting salvation.

iv.28

By a happy life, I mean a holy and godly life, which we live and lead quietly and honestly in this present world. Eternal salvation is that felicity of the life to come, which with assured hope we truly look for.

Now, we have in Christ a most absolute doctrine of a happy life, taught to us by the gospel, in which we also comprehend the example of Christ, his own trade of life. Truly, our heavenly Father has made him our teacher in saying, "Hear him." And in the gospel of St. Matthew, he himself says: "Do not be called masters; for you have one master, even Christ;" Mat 23.8 In the gospel of St. John, he is called "The light of the world." Joh 8.12 In another place also, he testifies that his doctrine is contained in the holy scriptures, from which it comes that he refers his disciples to the diligent reading of the holy scriptures. Touching these scriptures, Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles and so the universal church of Christ, says: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction which is in righteousness — that the man of God may be perfect, instructed in all good works." 2Tim 3.16-17 This is why, even if the whole world were mad, and they were obstinate defenders of traditions rather than the scriptures, and they sharpen their teeth out of anger — yet, despite their heads, the word of the apostle abides most firm,[1892] in which he testifies that the doctrine of the scriptures, otherwise called Christian doctrine, is in all points most absolute and thoroughly perfect. Touching this matter, because I have already spoken of it in the first sermons of the first Decade, I may therefore be a great deal briefer here.

Now concerning the eternal salvation fully purchased for us by Christ, you must think thus: eternal salvation is seeing and enjoying the eternal God. Consequently, it is an inseparable joining or knitting to him. For David says, "There is fulness of joys in your sight; and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Psa 16.11

iv.29

And St. John says, "Now we are the sons of God, and yet it does not appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he appears, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 1Joh 3.2 Moreover, the Lord says in the gospel, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." Mat 5.8 But all men are endued with impure hearts: therefore no man shall see God; because no uncleanness abides in consuming fire (and God is a consuming fire [1893]). Therefore we cannot be partakers of salvation unless we are purely cleansed. But without the shedding of blood there is no cleansing or remission of sins: I do not mean the blood of rams or goats, but of the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord Christ Jesus. He [1894] therefore took on our flesh and blood; he came into the world, died willingly for us, and shed his blood for the remission of our sins; and by that means purged the faithful — so that now, being clean, they may be able to stand before the most holy God, who is a consuming fire. To this may be annexed the consideration of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, which I mentioned above in the definition of the gospel. For the whole mystery of our reconciliation consists in those points. Touching this, I will speak that much more briefly in this place, because in the exposition about the Apostles' Creed,[1895] I handled so much as concerns these points of doctrine. Whoever would know this, may look and find them there.

Now, that Christ alone is our most absolute life and salvation, it may be gathered from what has already been said. And yet, notwithstanding, I will here allege some further testimonies, to the end that the verity and sincerity of the evangelical truth may be firmer and more evident to all men. In Christ alone our life and salvation consists; so that without Christ, there is no life and salvation in any other creature. The Lord himself testifies of this [1896] saying: "Truly, truly, I say to you, He that does not enter by the door into the sheepfold, but goes in some other way, is a thief and a robber. Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep: as many as came before me are thieves and robbers." Joh 10.1, 7-8

iv.30

Look here, there is only one door through which the way to eternal life lies: and Christ is that door. Therefore, those who strive to come to life and salvation by other means than through Christ, are thieves and robbers; for they steal from Christ's honour and glory, considering that he both is and he abides as the only Saviour: and in so doing, they kill their own souls. The same Saviour in the gospel says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me." Joh 14.6 In these few words, has he not rejected and utterly excluded all other means of salvation, making himself alone our life and salvation? This certain phrase of speech, "No man comes to the Father but by me," is the same as this: "Through Christ alone we come to the Father." Moreover, the Lord's apostles have laid Christ alone before our eyes in such a way that no man can help but understand that without Christ Jesus, there is no life to be found in any other creature. The holy apostle St. Peter says in the Acts: "There is in no other any salvation: for there is no other name under heaven given among men in which we must be saved." Act 14.12 And St. Paul, in the fifth chapter to the Romans, repeats that "by the righteousness of one man, Jesus Christ, all the faithful are justified." Rom 5.17 Again, Paul says: "Through him is preached to you the remission of sins; and through him, everyone who believes is justified from all the things, from which you could not be justified by Moses' law." Act 13.3^8-39 He also has other testimonies like this in the second chapter of his epistle to the Galatians. Gal 2.16 It is manifest, therefore, that through Christ alone the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting are freely bestowed upon all the faithful. These gifts, just as they are not without Christ at all, so are they not bestowed by any other means than through Christ alone. Concerning the remission of sins, which is the chief tidings of the gospel, I have already discoursed at large in the ninth sermon of the first Decade, and in other places.

Now for the proof that our Lord fully absolves from sins, fully remits sins, and fully saves repentant sinners,[1897] so that nothing more can be desired or wished for; and consequently, the Lord himself is the most absolute fulness of all the faithful, without whom those who believe, neither do nor can wish for anything else unto life, salvation, and absolute felicity. In the gospel, He himself says again:

iv.31

"Everyone that drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water which I shall give him, he shall live eternally." Joh 4.13-14 And again: "I am the bread of life; he that comes to me shall not hunger, and he that believes in me shall never thirst." Joh 6.35 The apostles therefore, after they had eaten this celestial bread — that is, once they had believed in Christ, when many departed and forsook Christ — being questioned whether they also would leave him, answered this: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we believe and know that you are Christ, the Son of the living God." Joh 6.68-69 Look here, they neither will nor can forsake Christ, because there is no other to whom they may join themselves. For he alone is the life and salvation of those who believe; and that too, is so absolute and perfect, that in him alone they may content and stay themselves. The doctrine of the apostles fully agrees with the writings of the evangelists. For Paul says to the Colossians: "It pleased the Father that in the Son all fulness should dwell." Col 1.19 And again: "In the Son dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and you are fulfilled in him." Col 2.9-10 And in the Epistle to the Hebrews, he affirms that the faithful have full remission of sins, because sacrifices for sin cease to be offered; Heb 10.2 and God promises by the prophet Jeremiah, so absolute a remission of sins, that he will not so much as once remember or think on them afterward.[1898] To this place belongs the whole epistle written to the Hebrews, and the conclusion of the eighth sermon in the first Decade, in which I recounted to you the treasures that God the Father gives to us in Christ his Son, our Lord and Saviour.

Upon this it now consequently follows that those who attribute to Christ Jesus our Lord, the true Messiah, either not exclusively, or else not fully, all things requisite to life and salvation, have not yet rightly understood the gospel of Christ, nor sincerely preached it.

iv.32

It is a wicked and blasphemous thing to ascribe either to men, or to things inferior and worse than men, the glory and honour due to Christ. The principal exercises of Christian religion cannot, by derogating from the glory of Christ,[1899] claim anything for themselves. For sincere doctrine directly leads us to Christ. Prayer invocates, praises, and gives thanks in the name of Christ. The sacraments serve to seal and represent to us the mysteries of Christ. And the works of faith are done out of duty, although also of free accord; because we are created for good works. Yes, through Christ alone they please and are acceptable to God the Father; for Christ is the vine, we are the branches. So all glory is reserved untouched to Christ alone: which is the surest note to know the true gospel by.

Thus, up to here we have heard that God, the Father of mercies, according to his free mercy, taking pity upon mankind when it stuck fast and was drowned in the mire of hell, sent his only-begotten Son into the world, as he promised by the prophets, that he might draw us out of the mud, and fully give us all things requisite to life and salvation. For God the Father was reconciled to us in Christ, who for us and our salvation was incarnate, dead, raised from death to life, and taken up into heaven again.

By all this, it may be indifferently well gathered to whom that salvation belongs, and to whom that grace is rightly preached. And yet, the matter itself seems to require us to expressly show, in flat words, that Christ and the preaching of Christ's grace, declared in the gospel, belongs to all. For we must not imagine that two books are laid in heaven. In one of them, the names are written of those who are to be saved; and they will be saved of necessity, so that whatever they do against the word of Christ, and however committed to so heinous offences, they cannot possibly help but be saved. In the other book are contained the names of those who, whatever they can do, and however holily they live, they cannot avoid everlasting damnation.

iv.33

Let us rather hold, that the holy gospel of Christ preaches generally to the whole world, the grace of God, the remission of sins, and life everlasting. And in this belief, we must confirm our minds with the word of God, by gathering together some evident places of the holy scriptures, which manifestly prove that it is so. Of this sort are the following sayings: "In your Seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed," Gen 22.18 "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved," Joel 2.32 "We have all gone astray like sheep; and God has laid upon him the iniquity of us all," Isa 53.6 "Come to the waters, all you who thirst," Isa 55.1 There are countless places of this sort in the old Testament. Now, in the gospel the Lord says: "Everyone who asks receives; and he that seeks finds," etc. Mat 7.8 "Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will ease you of your burden," Mat 11.28 "Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father," etc. Mat 28.19 "Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to all creatures: whoever believes and is baptized, shall be saved," Mark 16.16 "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life," Joh 3.15 In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Peter says: "Of a truth, I perceive that there is no respect of persons with God; but in every nation, he that fears Him, and works righteousness, is acceptable to him," Act 10.35 Paul says in the third chapter to the Romans: "The righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ comes to all, and upon all those who believe." Rom 3.22 And in the tenth chapter he says: "The same Lord over all, is rich to all those who call upon him." Rom 10.12 In his Epistle to Titus he says: "There has appeared the grace of God, that is healthful to all men." Tit 2.11 And in first Timothy, the second chapter, he says: "God would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." 1Tim 2.4 These and similar are the manifest testimonies, upon which all the faithful firmly stay themselves.

But now. if you demand how it happens that all men are not saved, since the Lord would that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, the Lord himself answers you in the gospel, saying: "Many indeed are called, but few are chosen." Mat 20.16

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In the fourteenth chapter of St. Luke's gospel, he more plainly expounds this sentence, where he shows in a parable the reasons why most mortal men do not obtain eternal salvation, preferring earthly and transitory things, before celestial or heavenly matters. For everyone had a separate excuse to cloak his disobedience with: one had bought a farm; another had five yoke of oxen to test; the third had newly married a wife. Luk 14.18-20 And in the gospel of St. John, the Lord says: "This is condemnation, because the light came into the world, and men loved darkness more than the light." Joh 3.19 That saying of the apostle in 2Cor 4, agrees with this doctrine of the evangelists. And in first Timothy, the fourth chapter, he says: "God is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe." 1Tim 4.10 From this we gather that God, in the preaching of the gospel, requires faith in every one of us: and by faith it is manifest that we are made partakers of all the goodness and gifts of Christ. And truly there is a correlation between faith and the gospel; for in the gospel of St. Mark, the Lord annexed faith to the preaching of the gospel. Mark 16.15-16 And Paul says, that "to him was committed the preaching of the gospel, unto the obedience of faith." Rom 1.5-16 Again he says: "The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all those who believe." Rom 1.16 And in the tenth chapter to the Romans, he shows by gradation that the gospel is received by faith. Rom 10.9 But, that faith may be rightly planted in the hearts of men, it is needful that the preaching of repentance first goes before. For this reason, in the latter end of the definition of the gospel, I added, "So that we, acknowledging our sins, may believe in Christ." That is to say, the Lord will be our Saviour and give us life everlasting, if we acknowledge our sins, and believe in him. And therefore, here may now be annexed the treatises about faith and repentance. Touching faith, I have already spoken largely in the fourth, fifth, and sixth sermons of the first Decade. I will later speak concerning repentance, in a separate sermon by itself. In this place, I will only summarily touch on those points of repentance [1900] which seem to demonstrate the gospel.

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Our Lord Christ Jesus, in the preaching of the gospel, requires faith and repentance. Nor when he preached the gospel, did he himself proceed any other way. For Mark has: "Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe the gospel." Mark 1.14-15 Nor did he otherwise instruct his disciples when he sent them to preach the gospel to all nations. For St. Luke says: "Christ said to his disciples, So it is written, and so it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again the third day from the dead; and that in his name should be preached repentance and the forgiveness of sins to all nations." Luk 24.46-47 St. Paul, like a good scholar following his master, says in the Acts of the Apostles: "You know that I have held back nothing that was profitable to you, but I have shown you, and taught you openly and throughout every house, witnessing both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, the repentance that is toward God, and the faith that is toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Act 20.20-21 In his Epistle to the Romans, where he compendiously [1901] handles the gospel, he takes occasion to begin preaching it at sin, convincing both Jews and Gentiles to be subject to it. Now he begins at sin to this end and purpose: that every one, looking into himself, may see and acknowledge that he has no righteousness in himself, but that by nature [1902] he is the son of wrath, death, and damnation. It is not that such acknowledging of sins, of itself, makes us acceptable to God, or make us deserving of remission of sins and life everlasting; but in a way, it prepares a way in the minds of men to receive faith in Christ Jesus, and by that means, to embrace Christ Jesus himself, who is our only and absolute righteousness; for "the whole do not need the physician, but those who are sick and diseased." Mat 9.12 Therefore, those who think they are clear without sins, and are righteous of themselves, utterly reject Christ, and make his death of no effect.[1903]

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But on the other side, are those who feel the diseases of the mind, and from the bottom of their hearts confess that they are sinners and unrighteous, not putting any trust in their own strength and merits, who even pant from the haste that they make to Christ. And when they do, then Christ offers himself in the gospel, promising them remission of sins and life everlasting, as he that came to heal the sick and to save repentant sinners. But the promise is received by faith, and not by works: therefore the gospel, and Christ in the gospel, are received by faith. For we must diligently distinguish between the precepts and the promises. The promises are received by faith: the precepts are accomplished by works.

Upon which Paul said: "If the inheritance is of the law, then is it not now of promise: but God gave Abraham the inheritance by promise." Gal 3.18 The same apostle, comparing the law and the gospel, says to the Romans: "The righteousness which is of the law says, Whoever does these things shall live by them; but the righteousness of faith says, If you believe, you shall be saved." Rom 10.5,6 The law therefore is grounded upon works, to which it seems to attribute righteousness: but because no man fulfils the law in works, no man is justified by works, or by the law. The gospel is not grounded upon works: for sinners acknowledge nothing in themselves but sin and wickedness; for they feel in themselves that they are wholly corrupted. And therefore, they flee to the mercy of God, in whose promises they put their trust, hoping truly that they will freely obtain remission of their sins, and that for Christ's sake, they are received into the number of the sons of God.

I would speak more in this place concerning faith in Jesus Christ, the remission of sins, and the inheritance of life everlasting, if I had not already declared them at large in the first Decade. Here you have to remember, by the way, that the gospel is not sincerely preached when you are taught that we are made partakers of the life of Christ for our own deserts and meritorious works. For we are freely saved[1904] without respect to any works of ours, either first or last.

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Although I have more than once handled this argument in these sermons of mine. Yet, because it is the hook on which the hinge of evangelical doctrine hangs (which is the door to Christ), [1905] and this doctrine (namely, that Christ is received by faith, and not by works) is greatly resisted by many men — I will, for the declaration and confirmation of it, produce only two places here; but they are apparent and evident enough to prove and confirm it by. The one is out of the gospel of Christ our Lord, the other out of Paul's Epistles.

In the gospel of St. John, our Lord Jesus Christ was about to briefly teach Nicodemus the way to true salvation; that is, to preach the glad tidings of life. He first of all begins at repentance, and wholly takes Nicodemus away from himself, leaving him no merits of his own in which to put his trust. For utterly condemning the first birth of man, in which nothing is available to obtain eternal life, what does he leave Nicodemus, I beseech you, in which he may brag or make his boast? For he expressly says: "Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born from above,[1906] he cannot see the kingdom of God." If the first birth and its gifts [1907] were able to promote a man to the kingdom of God, then what need would he have to be born the second time? The second birth is wrought by the means of the Holy Ghost, which, being poured into our hearts from heaven, brings us to the knowledge of ourselves, so that we may easily perceive, assuredly know, and sensibly feel, that in our flesh there is no life, no integrity, nor righteousness at all; and consequently, no man is saved by his own strength or merits. What then? The Spirit in truth inwardly teaches us that which the sound of the gospel outwardly tells us: that we are saved by the merit of the Son of God.[1908] For the Lord says in the gospel: "No man ascends into heaven, except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of man that is in heaven." Joh 3.13 For in another place he more plainly says: "No man comes to the Father but by me." Joh 14.6 And again, he says to Nicodemus: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." Joh 3.14-15

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Now Moses hung up the brazen serpent for the health and recovery of those who were poisoned [1909] by the serpents' bites. For those who were stung by the serpents quickly died, unless they immediately looked up to the brazen serpent; for at the very sight of it, the poisoned sting lost all force, and the envenomed person was restored and cured again out of hand. Nor was there any other medicine in the host of Israel except that alone; and whoever despised it, died without remedy. For the force of the poison was not expelled, and the life of the infected was not preserved, either by the power of prayers, or the multitude of sacrifices, or medicinal herbs, or any kind of medicine, or other means of man's invention.[1910] If anyone would escape the peril of death, it behoved him to behold the brazen serpent aloft. Now, that brazen serpent was a type or figure of Christ our Lord, who being lifted up upon the cross, is ordained by God to be the only salvation. But now, to whom does that saving health befall? To those, in truth, who behold him being so lifted up. The Lord himself tells us what "to behold" signifies; and in its place he puts "to believe." Therefore, no works, no other means or merits of ours, save us from eternal death and from the force of sin — that is, from the poison with which we are all infected by the old serpent, our adversary Satan. Faith alone — by which we believe in Christ, who was lifted up for the remission of our sins, and in whom alone our life and sure salvation assuredly consists — is the only thing that quickens us, who are already dying by the envenomed sting of Satan, which is sin.[1911], Moreover, hear what the Lord adds, instructing Nicodemus yet more fully in the true faith, and making the only cause of our salvation to be the mere grace of God alone, which is received by faith in Christ.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that everyone who believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son [1912] to condemn the world; but that the world might be saved by him. He that believes in him is not condemned: but he that does not believe in him is already condemned, because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." Joh 3.16-18

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Look, what could be spoken more plainly? By faith we are made partakers of Christ. By repeating faith so often, his meaning was to beat it into our heads, that no man should hereafter even once doubt so manifest and evident a piece of doctrine. But if here, you now set little by the authority of Christ, then whose authority will you esteem? But you will not, I know, reject his testimony. Yet even if his warrant is sufficient, give ear to that disciple whom the Lord loved, who in his epistle expounding the words of the Lord, and by way of exposition, repeating and beating them into all men's minds, strongly cries out:

"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he testified of his Son. He that believes in the Son has the testimony in himself. He that does not believe God, makes Him a liar, because he did not believe the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that does not have the Son of God, does not have life." 1Joh 5.11-12

But what else does it mean to have the Son of God, than to believe in him? For this sense is gathered from what went before. It is so evident of itself, that for me to add anything to it, is to do nothing but, as it were, go about with a tallow-candle to help lighten the sun at its rising.

Now we have come to the place of St. Paul, which is seen in the third and fourth chapters of his epistle to the Romans. "The righteousness of God without the law," he says, "is made manifest, being witnessed by the testimony of the law and the prophets." Rom 3.21 Paul in this place preaches the gospel most evidently; for I do not know any other place in which he does it more plainly. He teaches here how we are justified before God, what is true righteousness and the salvation of mankind, and by what means it comes to us. He says, that the righteousness of God, that is to say, the righteousness which God bestows, or which prevails before God, is revealed without the law.

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That is to say, it comes to us without the help of the law, namely, without the aid and merits of the works of the law. For touching the testimony of the law and the prophets, they witness together that those who believe are justified by the righteousness of God. Now what that righteousness is, he immediately declares, saying: "The righteousness of God comes by the faith of Jesus Christ to all and upon all those who believe." Rom 3.22 He says the righteousness of which we speak,[1913] is not human or of mortal man, but altogether divine, or of God himself. For as God alone is just, so the righteousness of God is the true and only righteousness that saves us. God makes us partakers of this righteousness by that faith of Jesus Christ; namely, if we believe in Christ, and hope in him to be saved.[1914] Neither is there any man excluded here from righteousness and salvation; for Paul plainly says, "to all and upon all who believe." This is why God reputes and esteems all those to be righteous, who believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord and Saviour. Now he presently annexes the reason why he attributes salvation to the righteousness of God, and not of man, or why the gospel commends the righteousness of God to us, saying: "For there is no difference; all have sinned and have need of the glory of God;" Rom 3.22-23 This is because all men, of their own nature, are destitute of the glory of God; that is, they are without the true image of God, in whose likeness they were created in the beginning. Therefore, all men, truly, are unrighteous and sinners. From this it follows that there is no righteousness in them, and that they have nothing in which to boast before the righteous God. For what else, I beseech you, do sinners carry from the judgment-seat of God, but confusion and ignominy? And because all men are in that state, the apostle therefore wisely adds: "But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, or reconciliation, through faith in his blood." Rom 3.24-25

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This is the same as if he had said: Men are justified for Christ's sake by the mere grace or mercy of God, without any help or merit of their own, if they only believe that God has given his Son to the world, to shed his blood, and to reconcile the purified sinners to his Father in heaven. In these words, there are most fully and plainly declared the whole manner and order of sanctifying, purifying, and justifying sinners.

But it is good here to repeat the apostle's words, and to more closely examine and deeply consider them. "They are," he says, "freely justified." But why freely? Because, in truth, they are justified by the mere grace of God, without the help of their own works or merits. For all men are sinners; therefore, they have nothing of themselves to allege for their justification. It follows from this, that since some are justified, they are justified freely by the grace of God. For in the eleventh chapter to the Romans, the apostle says: "If we are saved by grace, then it is not now of works, for then grace is no longer grace: but if by works, then is it is not now grace." Rom 11.6

But there immediately follows in Paul, what makes that argument still more manifest, which is manifest already: "through the redemption," he says, "that is in Christ." Our righteousness and salvation is the work of mere grace, because we are redeemed. For in respect to ourselves, our works, and merits, we were the servants of death and the devil, insofar as we were sinners and subject to sin. But by sending his Son, God redeemed us when, still being his enemies, we were bound to the devil, his open adversary.[1915] Therefore, he freely redeemed us — as Isaiah the prophet, in his fifty-second chapter, plainly foretold that it would come to pass. And true salvation is not in any other, whatever he may be, save in Christ alone, our true Lord and Saviour. For the heavenly Father, by his eternal counsel, set forth his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be our propitiation; namely, that he might be our reconciliation, for whose sake alone the Father, being pacified, adopts us into the number of the sons of God. This is accomplished by no other way than through faith in his blood; that is, if we believe that the Son, being sent by the Father, shed his blood, to thereby set us before his heavenly Father, cleansed, justified, and sanctified. We see in this, again, that our salvation freely consists in faith in Jesus Christ.

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These points being thus unfolded, the apostle proceeds to show how far the benefit of redemption and justification stretches. He immediately adds: "To declare his righteousness by the forgiveness of the sins that are past, which God suffered, to show his righteousness at this time." Rom 3.25 God, he says, has set forth Christ to be the only propitiation, that he might show that there is but one and the same righteousness in all ages: Christ himself, I say, who is the righteousness of all who believe. Now here he mentions two separate times: that ancient age of the fathers, and this present time in which we now live. The ancient age is that which went before the coming of Christ; this latter age of ours, is what begins at Christ, is now at this present time, and shall be extended to the end of the world. And God truly, by his long sufferance, bore with and suffered the sins of that old age for Christ's sake, by whom, and for whom, he has forgiven them. Nor does he set before us today any other righteousness, save Christ alone, to be received and embraced by faith.

For the apostle does not obscurely add afterward: "That he might be just, and the justifier of those who believe on Jesus." As if he had said, Now the meaning of all this, is that we should understand that all men are unrighteous and altogether sinners; God alone is righteous, without whom there is no righteousness at all: and he communicates his righteousness to all those who believe in Christ: namely, those who believe that for Christ's sake, the Father is pleased and reconciled to us, and we are reputed both just and holy, for him.

Two very wicked and blasphemous errors of certain fellows are notably refuted by these words of the apostle. The one is by those who say that our fathers were justified, not by faith in Christ, but by the law and their own merits; they assert that Christ suffered not for the fathers, but only for those who lived when he was on earth, and those who followed after his death.

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The other error is by those who say that Christ offered up his body for the fathers, for original sin only, and not for us and all our sins; therefore, we must make satisfaction for our own sins. But the apostle Paul in this place condemns both these opinions. And the holy evangelist John, agreeing with Paul, says: "The blood of the Son of God cleanses us from all sin. For he is the propitiation for our sins; not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world." 1Joh 1.7; 2.2 Therefore, the merit of Christ's redemption extends to all the faithful of both the testaments.

The apostle Paul proceeds, and infers from what he said: "Where is the boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith." He gathers by the evangelical doctrine [1916] taught previously, that all the boasting of every man's own righteousness, and all the bragging of every one's merits, is utterly taken away, altogether exempted, and vanished. And this is not by the law of works — that is, not by the doctrine concerning works, which is prone for the most part to puff men up and make them swell — but by the law of faith, that is, by the doctrine concerning faith, which empties and leaves in us nothing but a humble confession and acknowledging of our own lack of merits, attributing all our help to grace in Christ Jesus. And at the last, gathering the chief proposition, he says: "We therefore hold that a man is justified [1917] without the works of the law."

This is the sum and breviary of the whole gospel: that we are justified — that is to say, we are absolved from sins, from the definitive sentence of death and damnation; and we are sanctified and adopted into the number of the sons of God — by faith, that is, by an assured confidence in the name of Christ, which is given by the Father to be our only Saviour. And here works are excluded, to the end that there should be given to us no occasion to entangle faith with works, or to attribute to works the glory and title due to faith alone — or rather to Christ, upon whom our faith is grounded and upheld.

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Once this proposition is put forth, he quickly confirms with arguments, showing that this salvation is common to both the Jews and Gentiles, saying: "Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, even also of the Gentiles: for it is one God who shall justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith." Rom 3.29-30 He fetches the confirmation of what he said, from the nature of God. There is but one God who, of his own nature, is both life and righteousness; and he is the God both of the Jews and the Gentiles; therefore he is the life and righteousness of both the people. He bestows this righteousness on them by faith: therefore faith justifies, or makes them both righteous.

This is declared by the example of Cornelius the centurion. For he is justified, or I should rather say, once being justified, he is declared acceptable to God, by sending down the Holy Ghost upon him in a visible form — when being neither circumcised, nor having kept the law, but having only heard the preaching of the gospel, he had believed in Jesus Christ. Now, God did not justify Cornelius alone this way, but He will also justify all other nations by faith; even as he will not justify the Jews by any other means than by faith alone.

It follows in Paul: "Do we then destroy the law through faith? God forbid! Rather, we maintain the law." Rom 3.31 For the defenders or the disputers in the defence of works, or rather justification by works, are prone to object: If faith alone in Christ justifies, then the law, or the doctrine of the law, is altogether unprofitable. For to what end are we commanded to do good works, if good works do not justify? The apostle answers that, The law is not abolished by faith, but rather it is maintained. For since faith directly tends to Christ, in whom alone it seeks and finds all fulness; and the law itself is the school-mistress for Christ, and shuts up all under sin, so that justification by faith is given to the faithful — it is most evident that the law is not destroyed or darkened, but confirmed and made light, by the doctrine of faith.

The apostle goes on in his confirmation, and says: "What then shall we say that Abraham our father found, as pertaining to the flesh? For if Abraham were justified by works, then he has something to boast in; but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Rom 4.1-3

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There are truly many examples of the holy fathers: but among all the rest, the apostle chose [1918] to handle this one at large, out of Abraham. For in the scriptures he is called the father of those who believe. Rom 4.16 From which it is assuredly certain that the children shall be justified in the same way that their father was; as the apostle taught in express words at the latter part of the fourth chapter. Moreover, Abraham was famous for good works above all the rest of the holy fathers. Therefore, if any other could have been justified by his good works or merits, then Abraham even more so, above all the rest. But because he was justified by faith and not by works, it is therefore manifest that all the saints also have been, and are, justified by faith and not by works. Furthermore, Abraham lived 430 years before the law was revealed by Moses.[1919] From this it follows that his works cannot be called the works of the law by those who deny justification by faith without the law. Therefore, the works that he did, he did by faith, and his works were the works of faith; and yet he was not justified by them, but by faith. Therefore, the glory of justification by faith remains sound, unspotted, and unmingled with anything else. "What shall we say that our father Abraham found concerning the flesh?" Namely, so far as he is a man, and we are also men from him? What, I say, shall we say that he deserved? [1920] To this demand, this answer must be added: He found nothing, and by his works he deserved nothing. For the proof follows: If he deserved anything by his works, or was justified by his merits, then he has something in which to boast. But he has nothing in which to boast; therefore, he is not justified by his works. For God alone is righteous, and keeps this his glory to himself alone, without any partner or joint-possessor with him, freely justifying those who are of the faith of Jesus Christ, to the end that his grace may always be praised.

But Paul himself, by bringing in a passage of scripture, shows that Abraham had nothing ion which to make his boast. "For what," he says, "does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Rom 4.3

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Look here, the scripture most plainly says that Abraham was justified by faith; or rather, that faith was imputed to him for righteousness; and therefore, for his faith, Abraham was counted righteous before the most just and righteous God.

But let us hear Paul, how he applies this passage of scripture to his purpose. It follows then: "To him that works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of duty. But to him that does not work, but believes in him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." These words, truly, may be briefly reduced into this kind of argument: whoever deserves anything with his works, the reward is given to him as a thing that is due out of duty, and not imputed freely as though it were not a debt. But faith is imputed to Abraham unto righteousness; therefore he received righteousness, not as a reward out of a duty owed to him, but as a gift that is not due, but is freely given to him. And again: "To him that does not work, but believes in him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness." But for Abraham, faith was imputed unto righteousness; therefore he obtained righteousness by faith, and not by works.

Now, there is an emphasis in what he says, "But believes in him that justifies the ungodly." For thereby is signified that the one who is to be justified, brings nothing with him except the acknowledgement of his own misery and ungodliness, to seek mercy at the hand of the Lord. For he understands that he is destitute of good [1921] works, and one who may abide the trial of God's just judgment. He therefore flees to the mercy of God, presuming certainly that the righteousness of faith is the aid or help of the sinner, who must be freely saved by the grace of God.

Here, by the way, you must note, that Christians' righteousness both is, and is said to be, imputative righteousness: this alone is able to break the neck of all our boasting; for imputation is the contrary to debt. God is not bound to us out of duty, either for our own sakes, or for our works' sakes; but only so far as he has bound himself to us by his free grace and goodness. And there are many things in us that hinder the perfection of righteousness in us.

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Whereupon David cried: "Do not enter into judgment with your servant: for in your sight no man living shall be justified." Psa 143.2 Therefore God freely imputes to us the righteousness of faith; that is, he reputes us as righteous because we believe Him through his Son. So the Lord said, as we read in the evangelical parable, "But when the debtors were not able to pay, he forgave them both the debt." Luk 7.42 For God also forgives us our debts or sins, not reputing them to us, but counting us as righteous for Christ's sake. For the same apostle, most evidently testifying the same thing in the second epistle to the Corinthians, says: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, by not imputing sins to men." 2Cor 5.19, 21 And after that, again: "Him who knew no sin, he made sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him." What can you require that is more evident than this: we are counted righteous before God, because our sins are so purged by Christ's sacrifice, that afterward we should no longer be held with the guilt of them?

We now proceed to reckon up the other arguments of St. Paul, as firm and manifest as these were that have already been recited.

In the same chapter, therefore, it follows: "Even as David describes the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose unrighteousnesses are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is that man, to whom the Lord will not impute sin." In the beginning, with clear and evident words, he expresses the thing that he intends to prove or confirm; namely, that God imputes righteousness to the saints without works. What could be said more plainly? And, to prove it is so, here he infers the testimony of David, which in a manner contains three different members or clauses: first, "Blessed," he says, "are those whose unrighteousnesses [1922] are forgiven;" then, "Blessed are those whose sins are covered;" and lastly, "Blessed is that man to whom the Lord will impute no sin." Rom 4.7-8

Now the force of the argument or demonstration consists in the words, Forgive, Cover, and Not impute. The creditor forgives the debtor what he has not paid him, whether he is able to pay it to him or not.

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In respect to our sins, which are our debts, we are able to pay nothing to God. Forgiveness of those debts or sins of ours is therefore the gift of God's mere grace and liberality. For the creditor cannot forgive the thing that is already paid to him; for when he gives back the thing that he has received, in so doing he does not forgive, but gives; and that deed in the scriptures is called Donum, a gift, not Remissio, a forgiving. Whereupon St. Paul says, "God gave the inheritance to Abraham:" therefore Abraham did not merit it with his works. Secondly, some filthy thing that offends the eyes of men is usually covered; and yet notwithstanding, the filthy thing abides filthy still,[1923] even though it does not appear outwardly to the eyes of men. And our merciful God has covered our sins, not that they should cease to be, but that they should not appear or come to judgment; which is the gift of grace, and not of merits. For the covering is nothing else than the blood of the Son of God — because for his blood's sake, we sinners are not damned. Lastly, God might by right and justice impute sin to us; but of his grace he does not impute it. And all these laid together, confirm and prove that righteousness is freely imputed to us by faith, without works.

This very same passage from St. Paul, taken out of David, discusses and makes plain to us other points of doctrine also, about which there is some controversy. For we learn that justification is nothing else but sanctification,[1924] forgiveness of sins, and adoption into the number of the children of God. We learn that St. Paul speaks not only of the ceremonial works of the law, but also of the saints' good works of every sort. Furthermore, we learn that both sins and iniquities, that is, all manner sins of the faithful, are freely pardoned and utterly forgiven. Moreover, we learn that sins are fully remitted — not only the fault, but also the punishment. This punishment, some say, is retained; but God does not impute sins. In another place He says that, " he will not have any remembrance of our sin at all." [1925] Lastly, we learn that man's invention of satisfactions for sin, is a most vain lie, and flatly opposite to the apostle's doctrine.

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Up to here I have alleged two most evident places: the one out of the gospel of Christ, the other out of St. Paul's epistle written to the Romans. By these I meant to prove that Christ, being preached to us by the gospel, is received not by works but by faith; and I hope that by divine testimonies, I have so declared this matter of importance, that no man will afterward need either to doubt, or to waver in it. To all this I now add this note, which is still most necessary to observe: that all good and holy men in the church of Christ, must endeavour with all their power [to ensure] that this doctrine of the gospel may abide sincere and utterly uncorrupted. For they must in no case admit that justification is partly attributed to faith and the mercy of God, and partly to the works of faith and our own merits: for if that is admitted, then the gospel loses all force and virtue. I therefore think that all men must solely and incessantly urge this: That the faithful are justified, saved, or sanctified [1926] by faith, without works, by the grace and mercy of God through Christ alone. And I suppose, truly, that this doctrine of the gospel must be kept sincere and uncorrupted in the church for very many reasons, but among all others, for these especially which follow.

First of all, the oft-repeated doctrine of the grace of God, which works justification in his only Son through faith alone, is manifest by so many divine testimonies, even from the beginning of the world, by so many demonstrations, and by so many determinations of unreproveable councils, and it is so plainly declared and thoroughly inculcated — that the very consent of all ages in the truth revealed from heaven, and the authority of the most holy men in the whole world, sufficiently invite us to retain, maintain, and keep that doctrine uncorrupted. We have the justification of our blessed father Abraham briefly [1927] expounded above by no obscure author, but by Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles and the elected vessel of God himself. We have the doctrine of justification that was taught by the most glorious king and prophet, [1928] David, a man after God's heart's desire — the great grandsire of Christ our Lord — declared and expounded by the same apostle Paul.

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Now Abraham and David were always men of chief account in the church of God. The whole company of the prophets wholly agree with these two. For the apostle Peter says, "All the prophets bore witness to Christ, that by his name everyone who believes in him should receive remission of his sins." Act 10.43 And even now, by the mouth of Paul, we heard it said that by the testimonies of the law and the prophets, it is proved that the righteousness of God is freely bestowed by faith, without the law.

We also have the very Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord, whose authority, far excelling the whole world's beside, may confirm us well enough in this piece of doctrine.[1929] For, as if it were in certain assembled councils, he determined and decreed what we in this place counsel all men to retain. For having gathered together his disciples at Caesarea Philippi, he demanded of them, what men thought of him. Now when they answered diversely, according to the diversity of the opinions that the common people had of him, he inquired what they themselves thought of him.[1930] Then Peter, in the name of all the rest, said this: "You are that Christ, the Son of the living God." To whom the Lord replied: "Happy are you, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven." Mat 16.16-17 In these words, he concludes two separate things: first, that true faith makes us happy. Nor is it to be doubted that "to make happy" is used here in that signification which you just heard from Paul, and in which David used it. Lastly, sanctifying [1931] faith is not the work of our own nature, but the heavenly gift of God. Then, upon that notable confession of true faith, Christ also takes occasion to give a new name to Simon Peter, to eternally commemorate it,[1932] and to imprint the signification of that mystery in all men's minds. Peter confessed that Christ was a stone, or rock; 1Pet 2.8 therefore Christ surnames Peter a Petra, that is, a stone. It is as if one were to call him a living stone laid upon a living stone, or of Christ a Christian.

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Yes, and lest any man tie the thing universally belonging to the whole church, to Peter alone, the Lord himself applies it to the whole church, and says: "And upon this stone will I build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." It is as if he had said, That which now is done in you, Peter, shall afterward be done in all the faithful. By faith you are laid upon me, the stone, and are made a member of the church. I therefore ordain that whoever confesses me to be the stone, shall be a member of the church, sanctified,[1933] justified, and delivered from the devil and the power of death. Your confession (that I am Christ, the Son of God) shall be the foundation of the church; whoever is laid [1934] upon this foundation, shall be justified [1935] and freely saved. For Paul also said: "Another foundation cannot be laid than what is already laid, which is Christ Jesus." 1Cor 3.11 And the apostle John says: "This is the victory that has overcome the world, even your faith." 1Joh 5.4 Now, lest Peter and his fellow-disciples not know the way by which other men should be admitted into the fellowship of the church and received into the communion of Christ, he adds immediately: "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven," etc., Mat 16.19 He gave the keys when he sent the apostles to preach the gospel. Therefore, by the preaching of the gospel (which is the key of the kingdom of heaven), heaven is opened, and the way is pointed out how we, being grafted into Christ and the church, may be made the heirs of eternal life; namely, through faith in Christ, which we are taught by the gospel of Christ. This much touching the council of which Christ himself was president, held at Caesarea Philippi.[1936]

There is found in John another council, held at Capernaum, Joh 6.59 both famous and full of people. For in a great multitude of his disciples and other men, Christ establishes that eternal life is gotten by faith in him; and that there is no other way for us to come to life than this: "to eat My flesh, and drink My blood;" Joh 6.54 that is, to believe in him. And when there was a schism among the audience because many revolted from Christ, he demanded of those who were his nearest disciples, whether they too would forsake him?

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Then Peter in the name of all the rest answered: Since in you, Christ, there is life and salvation, if we depart from you we cannot be partakers of life; and therefore by faith we will firmly stick and cling close to you forever. Joh 6.67-69

Moreover, here are to be reckoned two other councils that were held by the apostles: the one which no man can deny was general or universal; for in it there were devout men of every nation under heaven. In that council Peter the apostle teaches in express words, that Christ is the Saviour of the world; whoever believes in him, shall have life everlasting. The place is known in the Acts of the Apostles, second chapter. Before the chief of the Jews, that same apostle declares that there is salvation in no other than Christ alone. The place is found in the Acts of the Apostles, the third chapter. He says the same to the first-fruits of the Gentiles, Cornelius and his household, in the tenth chapter. The second council, which was also famous and surpassingly adorned with all good gifts, is described in the fifteenth chapter of Acts. In this council, this proposition was allowed: that faith without works justifies freely. Touching this matter, I have spoken at large in another place.[1937]

Now, by all this I would have it proved that the doctrine of Faith that justifies without works, ought to be retained unmingled and uncorrupted in the church because, if I may say so, it is most catholic and altogether unreproveable. The apostle adds this curse or anathematism for its breach, saying: "If we, or an angel from heaven, preaches to you any other gospel than that which we have preached, let him be accursed." Gal 1.8

The second cause why it is expedient that this doctrine be kept sincere in the church, is because once it is put out of joint, the glory of Christ will be in danger of wrack,[1938] and put in jeopardy. For the glory of Christ is darkened and corrupted in the minds of men (even though, of itself, it remains always sound and clear) if we begin to divide the righteousness by which we stand and appear before God, attributing it to our own merits and our own good works. For this is the glory of the Son of God, that "under heaven there is no other name given to men in which they must be saved." Act 4.12

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Upon this Paul says: "Christ is made of no effect to you, whoever are justified by the law; you have fallen from grace." Gal 5.4 Again: "I do not despise the grace of God; for if righteousness were of the law, then Christ died in vain." Gal 2.21 If he died in vain, then the glory of Christ's cross has perished.

The third cause is the certain and assured reason of our salvation. Our salvation would be utterly uncertain if it depended on our works and merits. Because of our natural corruption, unless we are beside ourselves, we say or ought to say with Job: "If I have any righteousness, I will not answer, but humbly beseech my judge." Job 9.15 Therefore Paul very rightly said: "If the inheritance is of the law, then faith is void, and the promise is made of no effect. Therefore, it is of faith, according to grace 3; that the promise may be firm to all the seed." Rom 4.14, 16

The fourth cause is because, by this doctrine especially, there is repaired in us the image of God, the likeness of which we were created in at the first. For by faith, Christ dwells and lives in us; he is also delighted in our humility. But then the image of the devil is stirred up in us, once we begin to be proud in ourselves, and to usurp the glory of God. Undoubtedly, this is done as often as we attribute our righteousness and salvation to ourselves, as though we had deserved the kingdom of God by our own works or merits. The devil swells with pride, and endeavours to rob [1939] God of his glory. The saints know and acknowledge that they are saved by the true grace and mercy of God; and therefore they attribute to him all honour and glory, and to themselves confusion and ignominy. To this undoubtedly belongs the parable in the gospel, of the Pharisee boasting in his good works, and of the publican praying and saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Luk 18.9-14 Of these two, the publican is said to have gone down to his house [1940] justified, rather than the other.

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The fifth cause is the value or estimation of the sin. For that seems to be no great fault, if it may be blotted out before God by men's works. But the holy scripture teaches that sins could be cleansed by no other means, than by the death and innocent blood of the Son of God. Now, every man that has any understanding, may easily gather by this, that sin in the sight of God is a most abominable and detestable thing. From this there arises in the faithful saints a careful and diligent watching against sin, and a continual bewailing of our miserable condition, with a surpassing humility and intense modesty.

I could yet add to these some more causes why all men ought to strive and endeavour to keep this doctrine sincere and uncorrupted in the church of Christ (e.g., that the catholic church is justified by the grace of God in his only-begotten Son, through faith, and not through works). But these I hope are sufficient for those who are not purposely set to quarrel against us. And yet, notwithstanding, there is no peril that good works would be neglected by this doctrine. I have spoken of this in a convenient place.[1941] But if there are any who do not cease to cavil on purpose against the manifest truth of the gospel, I use against them this saying of Paul: that neither we, nor the churches of God, stand to wrangle in so manifest a light. 1Cor 11.16

To conclude, the sum of all that I have said up to here touching the gospel is this: That all men in the world who, of their own nature, are the servants of sin, the devil, and eternal death, cannot be loosed or set at liberty by any other means than the free grace of God, and the redemption which is in the only-begotten Son of God our Lord Christ Jesus. Only those who believe and trust in him, are made partakers of this redemption. For whoever receives Christ Jesus by true faith, through the preaching of the gospel, are thereby justified; that is, they are acquitted from their sins, sanctified, and made heirs of eternal life. But those who do not receive Christ, by their unbelief and hardness of heart, are given over to the eternal pains and bonds of hell; for "the wrath of God abides on them." Joh 3.36

Let us therefore give hearty thanks to God our Redeemer, and humbly beseech him to keep and increase us in the true faith, and at the last, to bring us to life everlasting. Amen.

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4-2. THE SECOND SERMON: OF REPENTANCE.

OF REPENTANCE AND ITS CAUSES; OF CONFESSION AND REMISSION OF SINS; OF SATISFACTION AND INDULGENCES; OF THE OLD AND NEW MAN; OF THE POWER OR STRENGTH OF MEN, AND THE OTHER THINGS PERTAINING TO REPENTANCE.

I PROMISED in my last sermon about the gospel of Jesus Christ, to add a discourse about repentance; by the help of God and your good prayers I purpose to perform it in this sermon.

Among the Latins, those who are aggrieved at or ashamed by the thing that they have done, are said to repent. You have done a good turn, and think that the one for whom you have done it, is unworthy of it; and for that reason you are sorry to yourself. That sorrow of yours is repentance. We Germans call it Den reuen. The Greeks name it Metanaeam. Now, those who are skilful in that tongue say that metanoein signifies to think afterward: so that Metanaea is properly used where a man, once he has slipped by doing something foolish, at length comes to himself again, and truly purposes to correct his own error.[1942] It therefore refers not only to the thought of the mind, but also to the deed that is done. For he that perceives that he has offended, devises for himself how to amend it. Now the thing begins to displease you, which pleased you before; so now you eschew the thing that you pursued before.[1943] Moreover, the Hebrews call repentance Theschubah, that is, a conversion, or returning to the right way or right mind again.

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The metaphor seems to be taken from those who once strayed from the right path, but at length return again into the way: this word is related to the mind, manners, and deeds of men.

But now this word is diversely used; for repentance signifies the changing of the purpose, or of any other thing, once it is conceived. For the Lord says by Jeremiah: "If they turn from evil, I will also repent of the evil which I meant to lay upon them." Jer 18.8 Therefore, God repents when he changes his purpose: he does not repent when he does not alter it. Paul says: "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." Rom 11.29 And David said: "The Lord has sworn, and will not repent." Psa 110.4 Elsewhere, repentance is figuratively attributed to God, like the affection of mortal men; as when he says, "I repent that I have made man." Gen 6.7 For God of his own nature does not repent as men do, so that he should be touched with grief, and that he should now disapprove of that which he approved before; rather, he barely alters what he has done. Among ecclesiastical writers, those are said to repent who, according to a prescribed manner of punishment, do penance for the sins they have committed. In another place, the scripture uses it for the whole effect and matter of the gospel. For in the Acts we read that God granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life. Act 11.18 But, in this disputation of ours, we will use repentance for a converting or turning to the Lord; for acknowledging sins; for the grief conceived for sins committed; for mortification, and beginning to lead a new life; and finally, for the change, correction, and amendment of the life lived, from evil to better — that which we Germans call Bekeerung, Enderung oder Besseruny.[1944]

And repentance is defined just as diversely by the ecclesiastical writers. Nevertheless, all agree that it is a conversion or turning to the Lord, and an alteration of the former life and opinion. We therefore say that repentance is an unfeigned turning to God, by which, being of a sincere fear of God (once humbled), we acknowledge our sins; and so, by mortifying our old man, we are renewed afresh by the Spirit of God.

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This definition consists in its parts which, being somewhat more largely opened and diligently expounded, will declare to us and lay before our eyes the whole nature of repentance.

First, we say that repentance is an unfeigned turning to God. For I will afterward show you that there are two sorts of repentance; namely, feigned and unfeigned. And the apostle Peter says: "Repent, and turn, that your sins may be blotted out;" Act 3.19 — expounding, as it were, the first by the last, namely, repentance by returning; (he means) returning to Him from whom they had turned away. For there is a certain relation between turning to and turning fro. If you had never turned away, then you would have had no need to turn back again. But we have all turned away from the true, just, and good God, and from his holy will, to the devil and our own corrupt affections. And therefore, we must again turn from the devil, and from our old naughty life and will, to the living God and to his most holy will and pleasure. We say here, significantly, to God, and not to creatures or to any help of man. For the Lord says in Jeremiah, "If, Israel, you will return, return to me." Jer 4.1 Whoever therefore does not turn to God, nor make themselves conformable to his holy will, however they may turn to creatures and other means of man's invention, they are not [1945] esteemed or counted penitents.

Now, none is so blind as not to see that to stir us up to repentance, the preaching or doctrine of the truth is needful and requisite, to teach us what God is to whom we must be turned; what goodness and holiness are, to which we must be turned; who the devil is, and what the evil and wickedness are, from which we must be turned; and lastly, what the thing is that must be amended in our mind and life, and also how it must be altered and amended. Truly, the prophets and apostles of the Lord, in exhorting men to repentance, travail much and stay long in describing God's nature, goodness, righteousness, truth and mercy; in painting the laws and offices of the life of man; and in accusing and heaping up [1946] the sins of men.

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To this they add the grievous and horrible tokens of God's just judgments: as very rifely found in every place of the prophets' writings. And therefore, there are some who bid us even now to preach the law to those men whom we would draw to repentance. I do not question this, but very well like it, so I admonish them that the preaching of the gospel also confronts men with their sins, and grievously accuses them. For the Lord says in the gospel: "When the Holy Ghost comes, it shall convict the world of sin, because they did not believe in me." Joh 16.8 Whereupon St. Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, upbraiding the Jews for the sins they committed, and preaching Christ to them, and faith in Christ, he exhorts them to repentance. The places are very well known, Acts 2 and 3. St. Paul, preparing to draw the Athenians to repentance, says: "God, who has up to now winked at the times of this ignorance, now preaches to all men everywhere, that they should repent because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world with righteousness through Christ." Act 17.30-31 Let those, therefore, to whom charge is given to draw men [1947] to repentance, learn here to use much liberty and wisdom, so that all men may acknowledge their sin and the greatness of their iniquity. Moreover, God stirs men up to repentance, not by his word only, but also by diverse afflictions and various sorts of punishments. Yes, all the calamities that happen in the world are certain sermons, as it were, persuading and drawing us to repentance. That I may pass over in silence what is written in the prophets, did not our Lord himself in the gospel, when he heard tidings of the slaughter which Pontius Pilate had made upon the Galileans, and the death of the eighteen men upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, quickly say, "Do you think that they were greater sinners than the rest? No, truly; but unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish." Luk 13.1-5 It is assuredly certain, therefore, that war, famine, and plagues always invite us to repentance; that is, they premonish us to be converted to God, by laying sin aside, and to give ourselves wholly to sincere integrity.

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But repentance is preached to us in vain, unless by fear and trembling conceived in our minds, we reverently dread the wrath and judgment of Almighty God conceived against us because of our sins and wickednesses. Now, this fear is outwardly stirred in us by the external preaching or discipline of the minister,[1948] as I told you before; but that external doctrine avails nothing, unless inwardly, that is, in our hearts, we are moved by the Holy Spirit of our heavenly Father. And therefore Jeremiah in his Lamentations cries: "Turn us, O Lord, and we shall be turned." Lam 5.21 And in the thirty-first chapter: "Turn me, Lord, and I shall be turned; because you are the Lord my God. And after I was turned, it repented me of evil." Jer 31.18-19 We read that St. Peter, being provoked by the words of the damsel who kept the door, and by the soldiers, foully denied his master Christ. But being revoked [1949] at the cock's crowing, he repented his fault or folly from the bottom of his heart. And yet it was not the crowing of the cock of itself alone, that stirred that motion in him; but that and the word of Christ together, who had said to him: "Truly I say to you, the cock shall not crow till you have denied me three times." Upon which St. Matthew says; "And Peter remembered the words of the Lord, who had said to him, Before the cock crows, you shall deny me three times," etc. Mat 26.34, 75 With these is also joined a more secret touching of Peter's mind; for the good Lord touched the heart of Peter, as the evangelist testifies, saying: "And the Lord, turning himself about, looked upon Peter." Luk 22.61 That looking back of the Lord made Peter's heart melt, and drew it from the destruction into which it was about to fall. Therefore, if our ears are pierced with the word of God, and our hearts touched with his Holy Spirit, then like true penitents, we will unfeignedly reverence and dread the Lord.

And with this, being humbled before the most just and holy God, whom with our sins we so much offend and provoke to wrath and indignation, we confess his judgment to be just against us, and freely acknowledge all the sins and iniquities that in the word of God are objected against us, crying out and saying with the prophets:

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"You, truly, Lord, are righteous; you are true, and your judgments are just; but we are most unrighteous, liars, wicked, and wholly overwhelmed with detestable iniquities. There is nothing sound or sincere within us. All that we have is corrupt and miserable. We have sinned, we have been wicked, we have done unjustly, we have forsaken you. We have questioned your servants the prophets, we have not obeyed the words of your mouth. Righteousness belongs to you, therefore, God; and to us wretches, belong shame and confusion." [1950]

God requires of penitent sinners, this humiliation and free confession of sin. I will afterward say something more touching this; for now, I return to more fully expound the fear of the Lord.

At present I speak of the sincere fear of God: for we confess that the fear of God is of two sorts, sincere and insincere. The sincere fear of God is perceived in the faithful, and it is a godly reverence consisting in the love and honour of God. For the prophet brings in God saying: "The son honours the father, and the servant the master: therefore if I am a father, where is my honour? if a lord, where is my fear?" Mal 1.6 And Paul says: "You have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father." Rom 8.15 Therefore, the sincere fear of God in those who repent is not the servile dread of punishment, but a careful study mixed with the love and honour of God. An honest wife fears her husband, and a gracious daughter fears her father;[1951] and yet with that, each of them loves — the one her father, the other her husband; and each of them with a holy love endeavours to keep his favour, and fears lest at any time she should do anything to lose it. And therefore penitents, being taught by the Spirit of God, not only fear because they know they have committed sins for which they deserved to be forsaken by the Lord; but they also love Him as their merciful Father, and are therefore sorry with all their heart for the sins they have committed; and above all things, they most ardently require to be reconciled again to their merciful God and loving Father.

For with this sincere fear of God, is joined the grief or sorrow which is conceived by the Spirit of God for our sins that we commit. St. Paul mentions two sorts of sorrows. "The sorrow that is toward God," he says, " brings forth repentance, [1952] not to be repented of; but contrarily, the sorrow of the world brings death." 2Cor 7.10

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The king and prophet David sorrowed toward God, when he cried: "Your arrows stick fast in me, and your hand presses me sorely. No part in my flesh is whole because of your displeasure; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin;" Psa 38.2 and so forth, as seen in the thirty-eighth Psalm. Although it was written about his grievous disease or sickness, yet, as if it were in a shadow, it shows us the great grief that is found in the saints for offending their good and gracious Father with their continual [1953] sins. In St. Luke, the sinful woman was sorry toward God. Falling prostrate at the Lord's heels, she washed his feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair. Luk 7.38 St. Peter was sorry toward God, and bitterly wept (as we read) for his offence. Luk 22.62 The godly are greatly grieved because, so often, they so foully offend so good a God and gracious Father. No words, I think, can possibly express the grief and sorrow that they conceive. But the prophet Jeremiah, describing the contrary affection of impenitent sinners, says of them:

"Do men so fall, that they may not rise again? Does any man go so astray, that he may not turn back? How does it happen, then, that these people of Jerusalem are turned away so stubbornly? I gave ear and listened, but they did not speak rightly: none repented of his wickedness, so as to say, What have I done? Every one of them turned to his own course, like a fierce horse, headlong to the battle." Jer 8.4-6

Worldly grief is the sorrow of those men who do not know God, and are without faith and the true love of God; indeed, of those who yield under the burden of sorrow, adversities, and [1954] sins. Like this also, in a way, is the consideration of the insincere fear of God. For the wicked, with their head, the devil, do not fear God as a father whom they are sorry to offend, and to whom they desire to be reconciled as a father; rather, they fear God as a tormentor, because they know that he will revenge their evil deeds. And therefore, with Judas, [1955] they run [1956] to the rope. Mat 27.5 There is no love of God in them, no honour, no good-will, no reverence, but mere hatred,[1957] horror, and utter desperation.

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But John the apostle and evangelist, denied that such fear is found in charity, saying that "perfect charity casts out all fear." 1Joh 4.18 I do not mean the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, but that fear about which I have spoken all this while — the fear, I mean, that is in the devil, and wicked men who are his members. [1958]

And now, by this we gather that faith in God, and the merit of Christ, is most of all and especially needful for penitents. It is in this sense, I think, that many have made faith a part of repentance. I do not greatly deny this. Yet I see that St. Paul made a distinction between faith and repentance when, in the twentieth chapter of the Acts, he says that "he witnessed to both the Jews and Gentiles, the repentance that is toward God, and the faith that is in Jesus Christ." Therefore, repentance and faith seem to be diverse. It is not that true repentance can exist without faith; but they must be distinguished, and not confounded. We all know that true faith is not without works — that of necessity, it produces good works. Yet we differentiate between faith and works, without separating them or rending the one from the other. And in like manner, we acknowledge that true faith and true repentance are undividedly knit together, and closely fastened one to the other. I will not argue whether faith is a part of repentance, or by any other means depends upon it. It seems to me a notable point of folly to go about tying matters of divinity to precepts of logic, for we do not learn that from the Lord's apostles. I admonished you in a previous sermon about the gospel [1959] (which I repeat here), that acknowledging sins does not, of itself, obtain grace or forgiveness of sins; even as the bare acknowledging of a disease is not the remedy for it. For even damned men acknowledge their sins, and yet they are not thereby healed. Acknowledging sin is a certain preparative to faith; just as acknowledging a disease provides an occasion to think about a remedy.

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We add to this, at present, that it is not the very fear of God, however sincere it is; it is not the very sorrow conceived for our sins, however great it is; nor is it the very humiliation, however submissive it is, of themselves, that make us [1960] acceptable to God. Rather, they prepare an entrance and make a way for us to the knowledge of Christ, and consequently, they lead us to Christ himself, being incarnate and crucified for us and our redemption; and they lay us upon Christ alone, to be quickened and purely cleansed by him. For one who is truly converted to God is utterly turned from himself and from all hope of worldly aid. Whoever truly fears God and is sorry indeed from the bottom of his heart, fears and is sorry for sins that he committed; and not for that alone, but because he finds himself wholly corrupted, and to have no soundness or integrity in himself. Indeed, because he reverences God as his Father, he discloses his wounds to Him, as he would to a surgeon, desiring to be instantly reconciled to Him as to his loving Father. True godliness cries that no man can be reconciled to God the Father except by the only-begotten Son. And here, the penitent lays hold on the Son by faith, and so he seeks the means of his reconciliation.[1961] Faith is grounded on the only grace or mercy of God exhibited to us in Christ Jesus, and the penitent believes that he is accepted by God for Christ's sake alone. Therefore, he makes his supplications to God, committing himself wholly to His mercy, as we read that David did, and the prodigal son in the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke's gospel. To this place might be annexed the doctrine of the gospel, of faith in Jesus Christ, and of the remission of sins. I have already spoken touching these things.

And here, I think it is not amiss to say that the minds of penitents must by all means be confirmed with many and evident places of scripture, plainly uttered, concerning the full remission of sins. This is to the end that from then on, there is no scruple of conscience to cause us to despair or doubt in our temptations. Notwithstanding, I repeat again and again this note, which is to be thoroughly marked for the confirmation of the glory of the only-begotten Son of God, our Lord Christ Jesus: that penitent sinners have their sins remitted, not for their repentance, in the respect that it is their work or action; but in the respect that it comprehends the renewing of man by the Holy Ghost, and true faith which delivers us to Christ our physician, that he may heal all our diseases and bind up all our griefs.[1962]

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This treatise properly belongs in the common place of faith and the gospel, which I have already discussed as briefly as I could. Yet, notwithstanding, I will here recite some evident sentences touching the grace of God, and free remission of our sins. David says in the hundred and third psalm:

"Praise the Lord, my soul, and do not forget the things that he has done for you; who forgives all your sins, and heals all your infirmities; who saves your life from destruction, and crowns you with mercy and loving-kindness. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness. For look how high the heaven is in comparison to the earth; so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. And look how far the east is from the west; so far has he set our sins from us. Yes, like a father pities his own children, so the Lord is merciful to those who fear him. For he knows that we are frail (prone to sin), and He remembers that we are but dust." Psa 103.1-14

Isaiah in the first chapter of his prophecy says: "Thus says the Lord, Though your sins are red as scarlet, they shall be made whiter than snow; and though they are red as purple, they shall be made like undyed [1963] wool." Isa 1.18 Again, in the forty-third chapter he brings in the Lord saying: "I am He that blots out your transgressions — and that is for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins." Isa 43.25

The Lord says in the thirty-first chapter of Jeremiah,31.24 which is also alleged by Paul in the eighth and tenth chapters to the Hebrews: "This is my covenant that I will make with them after these days; I will be merciful to their iniquities, and not remember their sins any more." Heb 8.12

In the thirty-sixth chapter of Ezekiel, the Lord says: "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be cleansed from all your uncleanness. A new heart I will also give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; as for that stony heart, I will take it out of your flesh, and give you a fleshy heart. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness. But I will not do this for your sakes, says the Lord; be sure of that," etc. Eze 36.26f

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Daniel, in his ninth chapter, leaves us a manifest example of a confession of sins. He says in express words that by the Messiah, our sins are forgiven, our iniquity is purged, and instead of it, everlasting righteousness is brought in.[1964] So the prophet Zechariah affirms in his third chapter, that the iniquity of the earth is purged by the only sacrifice of Christ Jesus.

In the gospel of St. Matthew, The Lord says: "The healthy do not need the physician, but those who are sick. Nor did I come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Mat 9.12-13 And therefore he is called Jesus, that is, a Saviour: for the angel said, "He shall save his people from their sins." Mat 1.21 And St. Paul says to Timothy: "It is a sure saying, and by all means worthy to be received, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." 1Tim 1.15

In the same gospel, the Lord says: "Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men; but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven men. And whoever says a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whoever speaks a word against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come." Mat 12.31-32 Concerning sin against the Holy Ghost, I have already spoken in another place.[1965] Now to this place belong all the examples of that most liberal kind of forgiveness which is expressed in the gospel — for example, of the sinful woman, Luke 7.39f; also [the woman at the well], John 4.5f and [the demon-possessed man], Matthew 8.28f; of Zacchaeus, Luk 19.2f St. Peter, Luk 22.32f and the thief on the cross. Luk 23.39f But who is able to briefly reckon them all? To this also pertain the three parables in the gospel according to the evangelist, St. Luke.[1966]

In the gospel of St. John, the forerunner of the Lord cries out, saying: "Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world." Joh 1.29 And the Lord himself said to his disciples: "Whoever's sins you forgive, they are forgiven." Joh 20.23

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The apostle Peter cries out in Acts, saying: "All the prophets bear witness to Christ, that whoever believes in him, would receive remission of sins by his name." Act 10.43 The apostle says again in his Epistle: "Christ himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, that we, being dead to sin, might live to righteousness, by whose stripes you are healed." 1Pet 2.24

The apostle Paul, in the fifth chapter of his second epistle to the Corinthians says: "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their sins to them. For he that knew not sin, was made sin for us; that through him we might be made the righteousness of God." 2Cor 5.19 And in the tenth chapter to the Hebrews he has: "Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sin, has sat down at the right hand of God forever; from then tarrying till his foes are made his footstool. For with one offering has he made perfect forever those who are sanctified." Heb 10.12-14

Moreover, the blessed apostle and evangelist John testifies no less truly than evidently, saying: "The blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanses us from all sin." 1Joh 1.7 And again: "And he is the propitiation for our sins; not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1Joh 2.2

But now, the Novatians and Anabaptists are the most vain and the very messengers of Satan himself, who pretend that by baptism we are purged into an angelical life, which is not polluted with any spots at all. But if it is polluted, then the one who is so defiled can look for no pardon at all.[1967] For (passing over many other places of holy scripture), was not St. Peter consecrated to God in baptism? Had he not tasted of God's good grace? [1968] After that notable confession which he made, the Lord said to him: "Happy are you, Simon Bar-Jona; flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven." Mat 16.17 Again, when the Lord demanded of his disciples, saying, "Will you depart also?" then Peter in the name of them all answered; "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we believe and know that you are Christ, the Son of the living God." Joh 6.67

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And yet this very same Peter, after his baptism and tasting of the grace of God, sinned notwithstanding — and that too was not lightly,[1969] in denying and forswearing his Lord and Master. Now, was he altogether unpardonable for this sin of his? Was his return to God again stopped up by his stumbling? No, truly. For when he heard the cock crow, he quickly remembered the words of the Lord, descended into himself, considered what he had done, wept bitterly, and mourned lamentably. And yet he was not long tormented in that grief without consolation. For the third day after, the angels said to the women who came to the Lord's sepulchre, "Tell his disciples, and Peter, that he is risen, and goes before you into Galilee." Look here, the Lord would have it known to Peter, by name, that he was risen. And why to Peter by name? Because, in truth, he had sinned more grievously than the others. Not that the Lord liked Peter's sin; but because he would thereby declare to us, that penitents obtain forgiveness of their sins, so often as they turn to the heavenly grace of God again. Not many days after, he restored Peter to the ministry again, commending to him the charge of his sheep. Joh 21.15-17

Moreover, in Jeremiah the Lord speaks to the people of Israel, saying: "If any man puts away his wife, and she [1970] marries another man, will her first husband return to her? But is this land not defiled? Have you not committed fornication with many? Yet return to me, says the Lord." Jer 3.1 And the Galatians, having been rightly instructed by the apostle Paul, but afterward seduced by false apostles, revolted from the truth and the preaching of the gospel. Yet, notwithstanding, they obtained pardon. The Corinthians also, after they had received grace, wittingly and willingly sinned in many things. Yet, upon repentance, the apostle Paul promised them forgiveness of their sins at the hands of the Lord.

And what is more manifest than this, that all the saints pray daily, in earnest and truly, not hypocritically or falsely, saying, "Forgive us our trespasses?" Those who thus pray, plainly confess that they are sinners; and the Lord promises to hear those who pray with faith. Therefore, even those sins are forgiven at the prayers of penitents, which are committed after the grace of God is known and obtained.

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Now the places in the epistle to the Hebrews, which the Novatians allege to confirm their opinion, I have so thoroughly discussed in another place,[1971] that I need not busily stay here too long upon them.

But now, to gather a sum of those things which I have said up to here concerning repentance; let us hold, that repentance is a turning to God which, even though he stirs it up in us by his word and other means, is so wrought in us, notwithstanding, especially by the Holy Ghost, that with fear we love, and with love we fear our just God and merciful Lord, from whom we were turned back, being sorry now with all our hearts that with our sins, we ever offended so gracious a Father. For being humbled before his eternal and most sacred majesty, we acknowledge the sins that are objected against us by the word of God. Yes, we acknowledge that there is no integrity or soundness in us; but we heartily desire to be reconciled with God again: and since that reconciliation cannot be made otherwise than by the only Mediator, the Lord Christ Jesus, we lay hold on him by faith, by whom we, being acquitted from all our sins, are reputed by God to be righteous and holy. Whoever sincerely acknowledges this benefit, cannot help but hate sin, and mortify the old man.

I would therefore now add other members belonging to this treatise of repentance; namely, the mortification of the old man, and the renewing of the spirit, were it not that the very matter itself requires to have something said touching the confession of sins and satisfaction for it. For there are some who, when they speak of repentance, say some things that are contrary to the truth. Therefore, dearly beloved, to the end that you not be ignorant of what to think about these points according to the truth, I will not hesitate to stay awhile in the exposition of them. And I hope that, out of my words, you will gather such fruit that you will not afterwards repent of it.

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To confess, or a confession, is diversely used in the holy scriptures. For it signifies to praise the Lord, and to give him thanks for the benefits that we receive from his hands; and therefore confession is used for praise and thanksgiving. For the prophet says: "O praise the Lord; for he is good, and his mercy endures forever." Paul says in his epistle to Titus, speaking of hypocrites, "In words they confess that they know God, but in their deeds they deny him." Tit 1.16 Here, confess signifies to say, profess, or boast. In another place it is taken for trust, to stay upon God's goodness, and to testify of that confidence, by words as well as deeds. And St. John used it in that sense in the fourth chapter of his epistle, and Paul in the tenth chapter to the Romans. Moreover, to confess is to give glory to God, and freely acknowledge your sin and the judgment which is objected against you for your sin. Solomon in the twenty-eighth chapter of his Proverbs says: "Whoever hides his iniquities" (or as it were, defends them), "nothing shall go well with him: but whoever confesses and forsakes them, mercy shall be shown to him." Pro 28.13 The Hebrew tongue uses the word Jadah for what we call "confess." Now Jadah signifies to let slack, or loose, as when a bent bow is unbent again. And Modeh, which comes from Jadah,[1972] is as if one were to say, confessing, yielding, or granting to be vanquished.[1973] For God accuses us, and pleads us guilty of sin and endangered [1974] to punishment: which our flesh does not quickly acknowledge, but remains stiff like a bent bow, until at length, when that stiffness is unbent, it acknowledges everything that God objects against us. The acknowledging is called Modeh, that is, a confession.

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And we Germans say, Es hat gelassen, Er hat geschnellt,[1975] when we mean something has yielded, or a man has at last confessed what before he either flatly denied or else dissembled.

But now, confession of sins is of more than one sort; for the one is divine, the other human. I will first speak of the divine confession, then of the human.

We call it a divine confession, for which there are evident testimonies or examples in the holy scriptures, and which is instituted by God himself. It is a free acknowledging and flat confession of the sin which God objects against us, by which we attribute all glory to God, and all shame and confusion to ourselves; and with this, we crave pardon of God, and of our neighbour, against whom we have sinned. Now, sin is objected against us by God himself, who pleads us guilty of sin, and endangered to punishment, doing this outwardly by the word or the ministry of men, and sometimes by signs and wonders; and inwardly by the secret operation of his Holy Spirit — thus requiring from us a free and voluntary confession of our sins. For He likes a free and voluntary confession, not a feigned or extorted one.[1976] Truly, the citizens of Jerusalem and people of the Jewish religion of their own accord came to the baptism of John, confessing their sins, which John had objected against them in his preaching. And after the ascension of Christ into heaven, St. Peter accused of the Jews of their sins; and immediately upon the accusation it follows in the history: "When they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and said to Peter and the other apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" and so forth, as follows in the second chapter of the Acts. Likewise also, the keeper of the prison at Philippi,[1977] feeling the earthquake, sprang out, and being instructed with the apostle's words, confessed his sins and was baptized.[1978] And the men of Ephesus who were given to magical arts, when they heard the calamity which the devil brought upon the sons of Sceva, their fellows and practisers in magic and sorcery, exceedingly feared, and came and confessed their sins. The confession of sins especially arises upon these causes, for the most part.

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Again, there are two sorts of confession instituted by God, one of which is made to God, and the other to our neighbour. That which is made to God is either private or public.

We make our confession to GOD privately, when we disburden our hearts before God, open the secrets of our hearts to him alone, and, in acknowledging the sins that are in us, we earnestly beseech him to have mercy upon us. This confession is necessary to obtain pardon for our sins. For unless we acknowledge our own corruption and unrighteousness, we will never by true faith lay hold on Christ, by whom alone we are to be justified. Here we do not think that penitents must hasten to confess their sins to any other confessor but God alone; for He alone forgives and blots out the offences of penitents.[1979] He is the physician, to whom alone we must reveal and open our wounds. He is the one that is offended by us, and therefore we must desire forgiveness [1980] and reconciliation from Him. He alone looks into our hearts and searches our reins;[1981] to Him alone we must therefore disclose our hearts. He alone calls sinners to him. Let us therefore make haste to him, prostrate ourselves before him, confess our faults to him, and crave pardon from Him. This confession, if it is made of a zealous mind toward God, even if it cannot be made by word of mouth because of some impediment or lack of the tongue,[1982] it is notwithstanding acceptable to God,[1983] who does not so much respect the mouth, as the mind of man. On the other side, if we make confession with the mouth, and are not thoroughly bent in heart to it, even though we make that confession to God or to the high-priest, yet the Lord does not regard so vain a confession.

I have already spoken concerning that true confession to God, though in the definition of repentance, I said that penitents acknowledge their sins. The scripture in many places speaks of this substantially.

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David confesses in the Psalms, "Have mercy upon me, God, according to the greatness of your mercy. For I acknowledge my sins, and my sin is ever before me. To you alone have I sinned, and done evil in your sight." Psa 51.1 And so forth. And in another Psalm,32.5 "I have made my fault known to you, and I have not hidden my unrighteousness. I said, I will confess my unrighteousness to you [1984] against myself, and you have forgiven the wickedness of my sin." In the gospel, the Lord teaches us to pray, and to confess in prayer, saying, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." And, when we pray so, he bids us to go aside into our chamber, Mat 6.6 that our heart and the devotion of our hearts may there appear to our heavenly Father alone. The prodigal son in the field, where none but swine were to be seen, privately makes and offers the confession of his sin to his father.[1985] And the publican in the gospel, which is compared with the Pharisee, beats his breast, and confesses with a lamentable voice, "Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner." Luk 18.13 Let us now also hear John, the holy apostle and evangelist, comprehending all that may be truly spoken touching this confession, in this one saying: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity." 1Joh 1.8-9 To this private confession, which is made to God, is always joined that voluntary confession which is made before men. For penitents are humbled as often as the matter, the glory of God, and the safeguard of our neighbour requires, and they openly testify before men that they have sinned against God. For so David, when Nathan the prophet told him of his sin, cried out, saying: "I have sinned against the Lord." 2Sam 12.13 So also Zacchaeus, understanding that the Lord was upbraided for receiving him,[1986] openly confesses his sin, and promises amendment. Luk 19.8

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Truly, we publicly make our confession to God, as I told you a little earlier; but so much the better when, after the hearing the word of truth in that public or solemn manner, we either in the church, or otherwise in some congregation or holy assembly,[1987] recite our sins that we have committed, and cry to God for mercy and pardon of it. Truly, the Lord appointed in our forefathers' days, that the priest should lead the people with words premeditated for the purpose, and the whole people should follow him word for word, and openly confess their sins in the temple.[1988] From this, undoubtedly, it is received today in the church of the Christians, that with the pastor or doctor of the church leading in conceived words at the end of the exposition of the scriptures, and before the assembly is dismissed, all the people should openly in the temple confess all their sins against God, and heartily desire that He forgive them, of His mercy.[1989] The public confessions of sins are notably known, which were made by Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. And I say plainly [1990] that it was a public confession of sins, which St. Matthew in his third chapter says that the Jews made. For all Jewry came out to John, the forerunner of the Lord, "and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins." Mat 3.6 For when they publicly received baptism, they thereby declared and openly confessed their sins. For baptism is the sign of the cleansing of sins. Therefore, those who are baptized confess that they are sinners.

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Those who were not baptized, thought they were otherwise purged and did not need any sanctification. The Ephesians publicly confessed their sins when, gathering their books of witchcraft together, they burned them in the fire. For by burning those books, they confessed that they had committed wickedness that was to be purged with fire.

Now, the confession that is made to our NEIGHBOUR is of this sort: You have offended your brother, or perhaps he has done you injury, for which you are both at discord, and hate one another. In this case, truly, you must think of reconciliation. Let the one therefore go to the other and confess, and ask pardon for the fault committed; and let the one that is innocent in the matter [1991] freely forgive the one who confesses his fault, and so become his friend again. The apostle James spoke of this confession, saying: "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed." Jas 5.16 And our Lord and Saviour, before James taught us, said: "If you offer your gift at the altar" (for he speaks to those among whom at that time the sacrifices of the law were still in use), "and remember there that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then you may come and offer your gift." Mat 5.23-24 To this also belongs that parable which the Lord puts forth and expounds in the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew, about the one who was cast into perpetual prison because, when he had found favour at his Lord's hand, he was overly cruel to his fellow-servant, to whom he would not forgive so much as a farthing. For in the sixth chapter of St. Matthew, the Lord says: "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, no more will your Father forgive you your trespasses." Mat 6.14-15 It is not that by forgiving others, our sins are forgiven us; for then forgiveness of our sins would not be free, but would come by our merits, and as the recompense of our deserts. But when our sins are freely forgiven through faith, truly that unreconcilable and hard heart is an assured argument that there is no faith in a hard, stubborn, and unappeasable man.

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And where there is no faith, there is no remission. Therefore, voluntary forgiveness in a man towards his neighbour is not that for which we are forgiven by God our Father. Rather, it is an evident sign and natural fruit of true faith, and of the grace of God in us.

To these two kinds of confession some men add that consultation by which those who are oppressed in conscience with any grievous sin, consult or ask counsel either of the pastor of the Lord's flock, or else of some other who is expert and skilful in the laws of God. But that is rather to be termed a consultation than a confession; and it is not commanded or forbidden in any place [of Scripture], and therefore it is left free to every man's choice. Therefore, no man ought to be compelled to this consultation. But if any brother demands counsel either of the minister of the church, or of any other private brother, then charity commands you to satisfy him, if you can. Indeed, if he does not demand, and you see your brother in danger, charity again commands you to admonish the one who is thus in danger, and to handle him as a brother. For Paul says to the Galatians: "Brethren, if a man is prevented in any fault, you who are spiritual should restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burden, and so fulfil the law of Christ." Gal 6.1 But this does not belong to confession at all; therefore we return to our purpose again.

We have said this much up to here touching the confession of sins which God has instituted. Now we will annex something touching the confession of sins that men have ordained. That confession also is of two sorts: the one is public ritual or ceremonial, which for the most part they call exomologesis; the other is private or secret and is called auricular.

I call the public confession ritual, not so much because it is the acknowledging or confession of sin, as because it is the penitential action for the sin committed.

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For Isidore the bishop, in Libro Etymol. [1992] vi. cap. 18, says: Exomologesis "is the discipline of prostrating and humbling men in habit, in living, to lie in sack and ashes, to deface the body with filth, to mourn and lament with a sorrowful mind, and through sorrow to amend that in which they sinned before." [1993] I would not have recited these words of bishop Isidore to you, dearly beloved, who is not a very famous author, unless I had seen the same words in the book which Tertullian wrote about repentance;[1994] and unless I had found an example of it in Eusebius, who in the fifth book and last chapter of his Ecclesiastical History says:

"Natalis the martyr,[1995] being seduced by heretics, and at length understanding his error, rises up in the morning, and puts on a sack cloth, sprinkling himself with ashes, and with many tears bewailing his error. He casts himself prostrate at the feet of Zephyrinus the bishop and all others — not only clerics, but laymen also — with great lamentation and exceeding sorrow. He provoked all the congregation with earnest and continual prayers, to request of Christ Jesus, to pardon his offence." [1996]

I will speak later touching the rites of repentance. Now, this ritual or ceremonial repentance, as it was used among those of old, appears not to have been commanded by God, such that whoever today commits any sin, should be compelled to quickly confess it openly in this same way that they were in the habit of doing.

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For where is it read that such penance was enjoined of the sinful or adulterous woman that is mentioned in the gospel? [1997] Many other sinners are received by Christ into the grace of God without such outward penance. For it is very well known how Christ dealt with Matthew, with Zacchaeus, with Peter who denied him, and with many others. Therefore, we do not amiss believe that the old bishops and priests invented that public kind of penance for discipline's sake, and that of their times, they might have less liberty to sin. Truly Hermius Sozomenus Salaminius,[1998] that notable writer of the Ecclesiastical History, in his seventh book, sixteenth chapter, says: "In the beginning, it pleased the priests that, as if it were in a theatre, all the congregation might bear witness of the sins of offenders being openly punished." Look here, he says, "It pleased the priests." He also adds that there was a priest appointed, to whom those who sinned would come and confess their sins, and hear from him the penance, namely, what they should do, or how they should compensate [1999] for their transgression. Immediately after, he describes the manner of penance used in the Romish church. And to that, he again adds that,

"in the church at Constantinople, there was a priest appointed to hear penitents; this office remained till at length, a certain gentlewoman, who for the sins that she had confessed, was enjoined by such a penitentiary to fast, and to pray to God. Thereby, having occasion to be long in the church, she was at last exposed to have played the whore with a deacon. For this reason, the priests were spoken evil of. But Nectareus the bishop, devising how it would be best to deal with such a grievous crime, deprived the deacon who had committed the sin, of his deaconship. And because some persuaded them to leave it free to everyone, according to his own conscience and confidence, to come to the communion of the mysteries, he quite removed the office of that penitentiary priesthood. And ever since that time, that counsel given to Nectareus has prevailed, and endures even to this day." And so forth.

In the beginning of the chapter, [Hermias] says: "Nectareus, the bishop of Constantinople, first removed from the church the priest who was appointed to hear the confession of penitents, whom all the other bishops in a manner followed." [2000]

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But the bishop Nectareus would not have abrogated that exomologesis (being so holy a man as indeed he was), if he had understood that it had been instituted by God himself: nor would it have been lawful for him to have abrogated it. Therefore he knew, even as Sozomen also confesses, that by the counsel of the bishops, that order of penance was usurped in the church. Nor do we read that John Chrysostom, who succeeded Nectareus,[2001] and was a very diligent and severe bishop, ever restored that ritual penance which his predecessor had abrogated before him. For in the thirty-first homily on St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, he writes:

"I bid you not to betray yourself openly, nor yet accuse yourself to others; but I would have you obey the holy prophet, who says, Open your way to the Lord. Therefore confess your sins before God, the true and upright Judge, with prayers for the injury committed:[2002] not with your tongue, but with the memory of your conscience. And then at length believe that you may obtain mercy, if you have it [2003] in your mind continually," [2004] and so forth.

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Again, on the fiftieth Psalm: "If you are ashamed to tell your sins to any man because you have sinned, yet say them daily in your own heart. I bid you not to confess them to your fellow, that he should upbraid you: tell them to your God who regards them. If you do not tell them, God is not ignorant of them; for He was at hand when you did them." [2005] And again in another place he says: "I do not bring you forth into the theatre of your companions. I do not compel you to reveal your sins to mortal men. Repeat your conscience before God, and declare it to him. Show your wounds to the Lord, your best physician, and ask from him a salve for them." [2006] Again: "Take heed that you not tell a man of your sins, lest he betray you and upbraid you for them. For you need not confess them to your companion, that he should repeat them abroad, but to the Lord who has the care of you, who also is a gentle physician. Therefore, you shall show your wounds to him." [2007] Moreover, he brings in the Lord saying: "I do not compel you to come into the open theatre, and to make many privy to your sins: tell your sin privately to me alone, that I may heal your sore." [2008] This much out of Chrysostom. Now, all this manifestly argues that this ceremonial penance (as it was once used in the church), was not instituted by God; it was taken out of the church without any injury; and it was not restored again by the bishops who succeeded.

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They do not altogether in vain tell us that some relics of that ritual repentance still abided in the Roman church.[2009] But what have we to do with what every church has taken to itself, either to keep or else to lay away? Rather, we ought to inquire what Christ has delivered to us, and what his apostles have taught us — whose doctrine I think I have spoken enough about already.

The private or secret confession of sins was customarily made when none was nearby but the priests alone. For one goes secretly, and whispers his sins in the ear of the priest who was appointed to hear those secret confessions; and being absolved by him, the penitent thinks that by the recital of a few ordinary words, he is purged from all his sins. Therefore, I call it auricular confession. This was unknown in the apostles' times. And although it is now a good many years since it first took root, yet notwithstanding, it was free from the beginning. At last, we read that it was commanded and roughly extorted by the bishop of Rome, when the state of the church was most corrupted, about the year of grace 1215. And yet it was about eighty years or more in controversy, before it was laid upon all men's necks by decree, "whether it was enough for a man to confess himself to God alone, or else to a priest also, for the purging of his sins?" Hugo, in his book about the church's power to bind and loose, says: "I dare boldly say, if before the priest's absolution any man comes to the communion of the body and blood of the Lord, that he assuredly eats and drinks his own damnation, however much he repents, and ever so greatly laments his offences." [2010] Hugo said this boldly, without God's warrant, unless the word of God instructs us falsely.

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He lived about the year of our Lord 1130. A little while after him arose Peter Lombard, commonly called the Master of Sentences, because he gathered together the sentences of the fathers, and laid out their doctrine in summary form. I do not mean to give here my judgment about his work. It is thought that he flourished about the year of Christ 1150.[2011] He first shows by the authority of the fathers, Sententiarum, Lib. iv. Dist. 17, and 18, that it suffices to make the confession of sins to God alone. Then he annexes other sentences which teach the contrary; and lastly he concludes, of himself, "By these it is undoubtedly proved, that we must offer our confession first to God, then to the priest, and that otherwise we cannot enter into paradise, if we may [i.e., unless we have a priest]." Again: "It is certified that it is not sufficient to confess to God without a priest; nor is someone truly humble and penitent, who does not desire the judgment of a priest." [2012] Gratian, who gathered the decretals together,[2013] was somewhat more honest than Peter Lombard; he lived and flourished at the same time with Lombard. He determines nothing definitively; but showing sentences for either side — both that we must confess our sins to the priest, and not confess them — he leaves it indifferently to the reader's judgment.

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For thus he concludes: "We have briefly declared here, on what authority and reasons both the opinions of confession and satisfaction are grounded. But as to which of these we should rather stick, that is reserved for the reader to choose; for both parts have wise and religious men as their patrons and defenders." [2014] Gratian says this about the end of the first distinction of penance.

About fifty years later, followed Lotharius Levita,[2015] a doctor of Paris, the scholar and earnest follower of Peter Lombard. Once he had been made bishop of Rome and named Innocent the Third, he called together at Rome a general council called Lateranense,[2016] in which he made a law, which Gregory the Ninth recites in his decretal of penance and remission, Lib v. chap. 12, almost in these very words:

"Let every person of either sex, after they have come to the years of discretion, faithfully confess alone, at least once a year, their sins to their own proper priest, and endeavour with their own strength to do the penance that is enjoined of them; receiving reverently at Easter at least the sacrament of the Eucharist, unless perhaps by the counsel of their own priest, for some reasonable cause, they think it good to abstain for a time from receiving it. Otherwise, in this life let them be prohibited from entering into the church; and when they are dead, from being buried in Christian burial." [2017]

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This is that new law which contains many absurd and wicked blasphemies. And, to let pass many other absurdities, I will recite to you only one or two of the foulest of them. Is it not a wicked thing, to send a sinner to I know not what kind of priest of his own, when Christ has given only ministers and preachers to his church, still being himself the universal priest, and the proper priest to everyone in the church, even until the end of the world — to whom alone all the faithful ministers send sinners from themselves, to confess their sins to him? For John said: "I am not Christ, but have been sent before him to bear record of him." Joh 3.28 What may be said to this, moreover: that it is a detestable blasphemy to attribute the remission of sins to our own confession and the priest's absolution, as to the works of mortal men? And who, I pray you, is able to reckon up all his sins to the priest? Does not Jeremiah cry, "The heart of man is evil and unsearchable?" Jer 17.9 Does not David say, "Who knows his sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults." Psa 19.12 It is impossible for a man to confess all his sins. Therefore, while a man is compelled by the law, and he considers these reasons and ponders them in himself, he cannot help but be drowned in the bottomless depth of desperation. So great a burden is laid upon the free necks of Christ's faithful people, as a thing so necessary that without it, they cannot obtain eternal salvation — and yet it is directly contrary to the apostles' decree seen in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts. And lastly I ask, what is a sinner able to do by his own strength? What power, I ask, do we silly wretches [2018] have to do good, of ourselves?

It grieves me, and I am ashamed of these men's impudence, to see that they would have this auricular confession be instituted by God, and that they go around upholding and confirming it by the scriptures.

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They guilefully [2019] twist that place in the gospel where the Lord says to the leper, "Go your way, show yourself to the priest." Mat 8.4 Now they do not impudently twist this place alone, contrary to its true sense; but they also corrupt all the other testimonies of holy scriptures which they are prone to cite. Among all the rest, I will tell you of this one. Bonaventura,[2020] in his Commentaries, Ad Sententias Magistri, Lib. iv. Dist. xvii. Quaest. 3, imagines two things to be in confession: the one formal, namely, absolution, or the power to heal; and this he says was instituted by the Lord at giving the keys. The other is material, namely, disclosing the sin; and this he says the Lord himself did not institute, but only insinuated. For immediately after he adds these words:

"And therefore, confession was insinuated by the Lord, instituted by the apostles, and openly proclaimed by James the bishop of Jerusalem. For as he proclaimed the decree of not keeping the ceremonial laws, Acts 15; so he also published and laid upon all those who sin, the necessity of confession, saying, Confess your sins one to another."

This much Bonaventura has.[2021] Who would not wonder at the blindness of that age? This writer acknowledged that auricular confession was not instituted by the Lord, but says obscurely [2022] (as it were, by conjectures about the consequents), that the apostles expounded the mind of Christ and instituted it; and that St. James in the name of all the apostles, openly proclaimed it by a decree. He adds that the words of the proclamation were, "Confess your sins one to another." Jas 5.16 Now what else is it, to twist the scriptures, if this is not to twist them?

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Even the blindest easily sees that these champions are unweaponed in this combat. [2023] They produce a spear made of a wrapped-up wisp of hay,[2024] which they shake and make a noise with,[2025] as if it were the lance-staff of Hector or Achilles. It is most evident that the apostle does not speak not of secret and auricular confession, but of that confession which by a certain reciprocation is made by those who have mutually offended one another. And now, freely confessing to one to another, they are mutually reconciled, and pray for one another again. I already said something about this a little earlier. They do not see that there are two things in the apostle's words, which being diligently considered, make them mere laughing-stocks to those who perceive them. For first, the apostle uses the word allhlouv (allelous) in that place, which signifies mutually, one another, one for one, or reciprocally. Thus we may infer this: If according to the apostle's precept, we must confess ourselves to one another, and allelous signifies mutually or reciprocally — that is, that we must confess ourselves by turns, first I to him and then he to me, as it indeed signifies — then it must be that after the laymen have confessed themselves to the priests, the priests should confess themselves back to the laymen; for that is what it means to make confession one to another. For we say, filousin allhlous (philousin allelous) that is, they love one another mutually: he loves him, and that one loves him back. But if this troubles the priests,[2026] to have their confessions heard by laymen,[2027] then let them then acknowledge that this place of the apostle does nothing [to support] their secret and auricular confession, which they have devised for their own commodity. Then the apostle adds: "And pray for one another, that you may be healed." He therefore associates, and joins under one yoke as it were, both confession and prayer. And from that we again gather that, if we must confess to none but priests, then must we pray for none but priests.[2028] But we must not pray for priests alone; ergo, we must not confess to priests alone, but each one to one another.

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That place in James must not be understood to speak of secret and auricular confession, but of that open or public confession by which they return to charity again, by mutually confessing their faults which had previously offended each other, causing mutual injuries. And now being reconciled again, they pray for one another, that they may be saved. We therefore leave this as an undoubted truth: that those who argue for auricular confession have neither proved, nor can prove, that it was instituted and ordained by God.

But when they see that this confession will lead to wrack,[2029] they go around with weak props, God knows, to shore it up and say that such confession is to still be retained in the church, if for nothing else than discipline's sake, to make men blush when their sins come to light, as a reason for men to sin less often. And they also say that it is to be retained for private absolution, and for particular or singular consolation of the godly. But if auricular confession is so needful and profitable for the church as they would to have it, then how did it chance that for the span of a thousand years [2030] after the apostles' times, the church was utterly without it? It is marvel, then, that the apostles in no place either used it or commanded it. And again, it is manifest that in the times before the coming of Christ, this confession was not once dreamed of. Nor did the apostles leave the church of God destitute of anything necessary to salvation. Now, the abominable deeds and wicked acts that ensued after it was planted in the church of God, plainly declare what discipline this auricular confession is. For both he that confesses, and he that heard the confession, learned horrible wickedness by the examination and beating out of the circumstances of the sins committed. By that means, causes and occasions for whoredoms and adulteries were given and taken. Under the pretence of those confessions, the chastity of matrons and virgins has been assaulted and corrupted, more often and in more ways than it is decent to name. [2031]

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Those confessors fished out the secrets of every man's conscience, which availed greatly to establish their tyranny. By those confessions, the confessors could cunningly spoil and rob their shrift-children,[2032] as they called them, of their goods and substance — because they knew what riches each one had, and how he came by them. And when the peers [2033] of every commonwealth knew that the priests were privy to their faults, they could not help but fear the priests. And so it came to pass that they did not, as strongly as they might, set themselves against the extreme corruption and lust of the priests, which was otherwise not to be suffered. They have been heard to say: "I have learned by confessions, and know at my fingers' ends, what kind of men, women, and maidens are in this city. I know how to handle each one according to his disposition. They all fear and stand in awe of me, because they know that I am privy to their most secret deeds, and thoughts of their minds." The secrets told in confession are many times foolishly babbled abroad with the peril of the silly soul that first confessed them. By means of confessions, no small and many treasons are hatched and put in practice. And surely it is a weighty matter when, by means of one man (as some term him, our "spiritual father"), we cease to sin for fear or carnal blushing — rather than ceasing for the sincere fear that we have of God; when indeed, we do not blush at all to think that God shall be a witness against our conscience, nor fear the severity of his judgment that will alight upon us. What may be said to this moreover: that by this auricular confession, once established in the church, nothing else is wrought, but that the word of God would be the less regarded through our traditions, and we would be made all the more slack to confess our sins to Him, to whom we ought to confess them by right? For as often as we remember our sins, we earnestly [2034] put them away until the time of confession comes again. And when it has come, then who, I ask, goes to it with a cheerful mind? Let wise men therefore judge what kind of discipline this is, and how well it pleases God. [2035]

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That which they allege of private absolution is a mere device of man's invention, which has not in the sacred scriptures any precept or example to back itself with. For indeed, none absolves us from sin, blame, and punishment, but God alone, to whom alone that glory does belong. The minister, by the preaching and consolation of the gospel, pronounces and testifies to the faithful, that their sins are forgiven. Therefore, this preaching of forgiveness, being fetched from the mouth or word of God, is the absolution with which the minister absolves. Nor is that absolution made any whit more effectual, if the minister privately whispers it into the sinner's ear. The public preaching of the gospel, as it is instituted by Christ our Lord, satisfies a faithful mind, which does not so much respect the demeanour of the minister, as it regards the truth of Him in whose name the minister does it. But if a sinner, they say, privately hears said to him, "I absolve you from your sins," and that is by the virtue of the keys, then he far better understands that his sins are remitted than when forgiveness of sins is generally preached and publicly pronounced. But in this case, we set against them the apostle's example, whom when the men of Jerusalem had heard him preach, they were pricked in the heart, and said: "Men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter answered them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Christ Jesus for the remission of your sins, etc. And there were added to the church that same day about three thousand souls." Acts 2.37-41

Now, who does not understand that baptism was at once bestowed upon so great a multitude, and the remission of sins was universally preached to them all? Each one did not have this saying or the like whispered separately into his ear: Brother, your sins are forgiven you? And truly, a godly-minded man may learn true faith in Jesus Christ (through which his sins are forgiven) by the public preaching of the gospel, as well as by the private whisperings of privy penitentiaries and absolving confessors — since public preaching contains the commandments of God, while those whisperings do not.

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And finally, the public preaching of the gospel applies the grace of God to everyone, and the sacraments testify of the remission of sins and the heavenly gifts prepared for all those who [2036] believe in Jesus Christ. And yet, I do not say this because I think it amiss if the minister privately preaches the gospel of our Lord to one or two, when occasion serves to do so; or in the words of Christ, he promises remission of sins to someone who believes. But here I argue against those who suppose that public and general preaching, as it was used by the apostles — declaring to all and every man, the remission of sins — is not sufficient, unless the sinner, going to the priest, confesses his sins, and privately asks and receives private or particular absolution from him. For they think that, for private absolution's sake, this private or auricular confession must be retained in the church.

But we would not have, they say, that all and every peculiar sin with its circumstances should be reckoned up or repeated. What of that then? Who, I pray you, commanded us to whisper any sins at all into the priest's ear? The primitive church was used to confessing to the priests, neither few nor many sins, nor any sins at all. Bonaventura recorded that, before pope Innocent the Third, they were not considered heretics, who affirmed that confession made to God alone, without any priest, is sufficient for whose who faithfully believe. But after he published the decree that confession was to be made by every man to his own priest, they were judged heretics who taught men to confess to God only;[2037] as though it lay in pope Innocent to make a new article of faith, which the church had been without for more than twelve hundred years after Christ.

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Therefore, if all those who lived before Innocent were without suspicion of heresy in that point; and since we read that Nectarius and the church of Constantinople was not condemned for heresy by abrogating and casting out of the church their exomologesis (which seems to be far better than this auricular confession) — no godly man undoubtedly will condemn us, who maintain that the confession instituted by God, ought to be made to God and our neighbour; but only reject and hiss at that secret and auricular confession which brings more discommodity than honest profit to the church of God.

Because I have said this much up to here about secret or auricular confession, on which the treatise about satisfaction depends, of necessity I should say something here about satisfaction. But I have sufficiently spoken of it in my other sermons from this work — such as in the sixth and ninth sermons of the first Decade, and in the third Decade, where I treat the saints' affliction; in the tenth sermon of that Decade, and also in this fourth Decade, where I spoke about the gospel. The priests and monks teach that repentance of the sin committed, and faith in Christ, are not sufficient for purging sins without the satisfaction of our own works and merits; which they make to be the wearing of sackcloth, fasting, tears, prayers, alms-deeds,[2038] offerings, sundry afflictions of the body, pilgrimages, and many other odd knacks [2039] like these. For they affirm that by these means, the penalty due to sins (the guilt of which, they say, is only pardoned) is washed away, as with a shower of water poured down on it.[2040] But we have already taught out of the canonical scriptures, that God not only forgives freely the guilt, but also the penalty of our sins. We have already taught that men are not justified by their own works and merits, but by the mere grace of God through the faith of Christ Jesus. For otherwise, he would have taken our flesh upon himself in vain, and Christ would have given himself to the most bitter and reproachful death of the cross in vain. Now we add, If we are not justified by works, then we do not make satisfaction for our sins with our works.

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For in effect. both justification and satisfaction come to one end (although I acknowledge that there is a difference between them, and I do not confound them). By the justification of Christ we are absolved: by the satisfaction of Christ, or rather for his satisfaction's sake, we are also absolved. Christ is our righteousness, and therefore he is also our satisfaction. The price of our redemption is in Christ, not in ourselves. If we make satisfaction for ourselves, then the price of our redemption is in ourselves. And therefore are we both Christ and Saviour to ourselves: this flatly makes Christ of no effect, and therefore is it extreme blasphemy. Moses in his law, with little or no effort, dissolves all the arguments for satisfaction wrought by our works. For where he describes the manner of cleansing sins, he places no jot of it in the works of men, but shows that it all consists in the ceremonial sacrifices. Now, we all agree and jointly confess that in those sacrifices, the sole sacrifice of Christ was plainly prefigured. And to this is added, that the only preaching and promise of the new testament is this: "I will be appeased for their unrighteousness and sins, and I will remember their iniquities no more." Jer 31.34 Now, where there is such a remission, there is no oblation or satisfaction for sin. And in the creed, truly, we believe the forgiveness of sins. But if the debtor makes satisfaction to the creditor, then what, I ask, does the creditor forgive? Therefore, this article of our faith, the principal promise and preaching of the new testament, is utterly subverted if we admit the doctrine of the satisfaction of our works for sin.

We acknowledge that tears, fastings, wearing sack-cloth, alms-deeds, and the other works of piety, humiliation, and charity, have a place in repentance; and I will speak about them in a convenient place. But we deny that we make satisfaction for our sins with them, lest we make the price of Christ's redemption of no effect. We acknowledge that sometimes the Lord has whipped those whose sins he has forgiven, as he did to our parents, Adam and Eve, and to king David after his adultery, and his murder of Uriah.

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But I have already shown you [2041] that those afflictions were not satisfactions for the sins which God had pardoned, but exercises of God's discipline and humiliation. By those means, He keeps his servants in their dutiful obedience, and declares to all men how heartily He hates sins, even though he freely forgives and pardons them. Therefore, lest we be more inclined and prone to sin because of that free forgiveness, he punishes those whom he makes examples for us to take heed by.

Nor do we read that the saints simply attributed the benefit of justification or satisfaction to their afflictions. I confess that Daniel the prophet gave counsel to the most mighty king Nebuchadnezzar, and said: "Let your sins be redeemed in righteousness, and your iniquities in showing pity to the poor." [2042] But in these words, the king was taught how to lead the rest of his life that still remained, and how to rule the state of his kingdom. The king had up till then oppressed many nations, and sinned in merciless cruelty. Whereupon Daniel persuades him to change his old kind of life, to embrace justice, and to deal well with all men. Therefore, Daniel does not speak of the satisfaction of Nebuchadnezzar's sins before God, but before men. For there is salvation in no other than in Christ alone. But if any man stubbornly sticks to the letter, we say that the righteousness of Christians is faith, by which their sins are properly cleansed. And that faith is not without good works and charity, to which justification is improperly ascribed. I spoke of this matter in the treatise that I made about good works. [2043]

Therefore, when St. Peter cites that place in Solomon, "Charity covers a multitude of sins;" the word "covers" is not used there for purging; for only by the blood of Christ are all sins purged and wiped away. But it is taken for turning away. For just as self-love, in a way, is the root of all sins, so charity is thought to drive away all mischiefs; for "love does no ill to his neighbour." [2044]

Now, they object to that sentence of the gospel, where the Lord says, "Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much." [2045]

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But they miss in this, because they do not understand that the word oti, which is commonly rendered because, or, for that, is here a note inferring something; and no other sense is gathered than this: "Many sins are forgiven her, therefore she loved much; or, from which it comes, that she loves much." Nor do we twist here the words of the gospel, to maintain a wrong opinion. For in the history, there goes before, first, "When they were not able to pay, he forgave them both." If he forgave them, and if they were not able to pay, then he did not forgive them for their love; for if they had been able to pay, he would not have forgiven them. Secondly, there goes before it, Which of these will love him more?" Simon says, "He to whom he forgave more." Therefore, the Lord's answer could, in its effect, be nothing else but this: "I have forgiven her very much, therefore she has loved much." So then, I say, love is from forgiveness, and not forgiveness from love. And then it follows immediately: "And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you, go in peace." We therefore conclude that there is but one satisfaction alone for the sins of the whole world: namely, Christ once offered up for us who are made partakers of him, by faith.

But now, because we do not acknowledge or admit the satisfactions pushed on us in the doctrine of the priests and monks, so by all means we detest the indulgences of the bishops of Rome. They called these indulgences a beneficial pardoning of crimes, or a remission of the punishment, or of the guilt, or both; namely, by the power of the keys bestowed by the Lord; and for the merit of the martyrs' blood (so they say) granted or given to those who are rightly contrite in heart, and confess their sins. For these fathers of indulgences are prone with their indulgences, to remit the rigour and severity of the satisfaction, which lies in them to order at their discretion. Truly, as one said, "The fathers' gentle indulgence makes the children nothing;" [2046] so their indulgences have utterly corrupted true repentance.

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But nowhere can you read that such power [2047] was given to the popes, as they feigned. We read that the keys were given to the apostles by the Lord. But those keys were nothing more than the ministry of preaching the gospel, as I will show you in a convenient place. Now, the gospel promises us remission of both the guilt and the penalty, for Christ's sake, and faith in Christ. And it admonishes us that in the latter times, men will come who will say, We are Christs; Mat 24.5 that is, who attribute to themselves the things that properly belong to Christ alone, especially the forgiveness of sins. But it commands us to flee from them, and by all means to beware of them, as wicked seducers.

The same evangelical truth teaches that the faithful are cleansed by the only blood of the Son of God. Their indulgences promise men the cleansing of their sins through the blood of St. Peter, St. Paul, and other holy martyrs. And for that cause, they are the profanation of the blood of the Son of God. The saints wash their garments in the blood of the Lamb, not in the pardoning bull, or box of indulgences, nor in the martyrs' blood. Yes, Paul himself denies that either he, or Peter, or any other of the saints, was crucified for the church of God. Yet these indulgences were so presented, as though God were pleased with us for the blood of the martyrs. Therefore, their indulgences are flatly contrary to the apostles' doctrine. I admonished you in my sermon about good works [2048] in these words of Paul, "I fulfil that which remains of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church;" that fulfilling does not refer to the work of the purging or propitiation of Christ, which is finished; unless Christ testified falsely at his death, saying, "It is finished." Joh 19.30 Rather, it refers to those afflictions with which the members of Christ, that is, the faithful, are exercised by the cross, so long as they live in this frail flesh. Truly, the Lord takes account of the afflictions laid upon the faithful, as his own. For he said to Paul, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" Moreover, when he says, "For the church," he does not mean for the expiation of the church, but for the edification and profit of it.[2049]

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And Paul sustained grievous afflictions at the hands of the Jews, because he preached the gospel to the Gentiles. It was expedient that in him, the church would be shown an example of patience so rare that it could not lightly be found again. Yes, others have often objected against these indulgence-defenders. Take this godly saying of the holy man, pope Leo, in his eighty-first epistle: "Although the death of many saints is precious in the sight of the Lord, yet the slaughter of no man subject to sin, is the propitiation for the sins of the world." Again, "The righteous have received, not given, crowns of glory. And from the manful constancy of the martyrs have sprung examples of patience, not the gifts of righteousness. For their deaths were singular; nor did anyone by dying, pay the debt of another, since there is one Lord Jesus Christ, in whom they are all crucified, dead, buried and raised up again." [2050] This much out of pope Leo.

We have therefore, by divine and human testimonies, evidently proved that the indulgences given to sinners by the merit or treasure of the martyrs' blood, are mere blasphemies against God, and open injuries against his holy martyrs.

I have up to here spoken of those indulgences which were freely bestowed of old by the popes of Rome, although today they are few in number and also curtailed. Now, therefore, I will say something about their indulgences which, for the most part, they sell and traffic in. To sell indulgences in the church of God is a sin so detestable that it is hard to name any one more horrible. And yet it is and has been a common practice and merchandise [2051] these many years with the bishops of Rome and their factors,[2052] whom they call apostolics, not having any word in the scripture with which to cloak that wicked invention.

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And now, I slip past and will not show how indulgences are nothing but a bare name without any stuff or matter; and that under that vain name, miserable men and silly souls are foully deceived. Yet, note that Christ, the chief and only high priest of his catholic and holy church, in the days of his flesh drove the buyers and sellers (like impudent dogs) out of the church [2053] of God with a whip. He did this twice; once at the beginning of his preaching, and another time a little before his passion. The first time he added: "Away with these things from here, and do not make my Father's house a house of merchandise." Joh 2.13-16 The latter time he said: "It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves." Mat 21.12-13. And Simon Magus also, in the Acts of the Apostles, seeing that the Holy Ghost was given at the laying on of the apostles' hands, offered them money, saying: "Give me this power also, that on whomever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost." But note how Peter accepts his petition. "Your money (he said) perish with you; because you thought that the gift of God may be obtained with money. You have neither part nor fellowship in this business; for your heart is not right in the sight of God." Act 8.18-21 Look, the gifts of God are not gotten with money. Look, their heart is not right who make merchandise of religion. Look, they have no part or fellowship in the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, or in the preaching of the glad tidings. Therefore, what shall we now say about the indulgences which the pope's apostolics sell for money? What shall we say about the indulgence dealers, and the pope himself, whose hirelings they are? We must confess, truly, that they are the fellows of Simon Magus. For by the just sentence of God, Peter cursed such merchants: "Your money (he says) perish together with you." This is a heavy and terrible, yet a most just judgment of the most just God. Foreseeing that there would be many such merchants in the church, Peter says in his last epistle:

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"There were false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who secretly bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who has bought them, bringing upon themselves swift damnation. And many will follow their damnable ways, by whom the way of truth shall be spoken evil of. And with covetousness, through feigned words, they will make merchandise of you." 2Pet 2.1-3

For what is it, "with feigned words through covetousness, to make merchandise of the miserable idiots," if not this: saying they will give full remission of sins to all those who are contrite, and confess their sins? For if any man acknowledges his sins, and with a true faith converts himself to God through Christ, even without their indulgences he obtains plenary remission of all his sins. Those foxes therefore make money from smoke, deceiving simple souls,[2054] and selling for coin the thing which they never had, nor can possibly be purchased with money.

This much up to here about bought and sold indulgences, about which other writers have made very long discourses. I suppose that by this little, any man may easily understand how to judge them rightly.

We have now at length come past those rocks and shelves toward which we purposely sailed, so that when we had viewed the most perilous places, we might admonish the unskilful passengers to take heed lest they crash on them and make shipwreck of their souls, by thinking that in these indulgences lies the true force of sufficient repentance. There is nothing in this, but the utter displeasing of God's most holy majesty. Therefore, letting that alone as it is, we now return to declare the last members of repentance, by which we said that penitents mortify the old man, and are renewed spiritually.

First of all, therefore, it seems good to tell, What the old man is, What the new or regenerated man is, and What the power or strength of man is. For by demonstrating these, we will better understand what it means to mortify the old man, and to be renewed in the spirit.

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We say that the old man is all that which we have by nature, or from our first parents — namely, not only the body or the flesh (meaning the grosser and substantial part of the body); but even the very soul, with its strength, power, and faculties. Therefore, though in some places of the holy scriptures the flesh is put for man, we must not understand it as only the massy substance and grosser part of the body; but the very flesh together with the soul and all its faculties — that is, the whole man not yet regenerate. For the Lord says in the gospel: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." Joh 3.6 And this he says concerning regeneration, which is not according to the flesh (as Nicodemus falsely imagined), but according to the spirit. The word "flesh" therefore imports [2055] the natural power and faculties [2056] of man. I mean, all that which we have or take from our first grandsire, Adam. The new man is said to be one who is regenerate by the Spirit of God in Christ, or is renewed according to the image of Christ, with all the gifts and virtues of the Holy Ghost. And because the flesh is usually put for the old man, so the spirit, by an antithesis, is commonly used and taken for the new man.

Now, here the very place requires me to discourse somewhat about the power and virtues of man. Although I have discussed this elsewhere already, as in the sermon about freedom and bondage, and the one about sin,[2057] yet I will again touch those points which I think will suffice for this present argument.

There are two parts or faculties of our soul: UNDERSTANDING and WILL. Understanding discerns what to receive or what to refuse in objects. It is the light and guide of the soul as it were. The Will chooses, for in it lies both to will and to nill.[2058] These are again impelled by other powers and faculties. Now, the UNDERSTANDING is of two sorts; for we understand either earthly or heavenly things. I call those earthly things, which do not pertain to the life to come, but to the present life: this refers to all liberal arts and handicrafts, governing public weals, and ruling private houses.

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By heavenly things I understand God himself, eternal felicity, and life everlasting, the knowledge of God and all kinds of virtues: faith, hope, charity, righteousness, holiness, and innocence of life.

Now let us see what this UNDERSTANDING of man is able to do, and what power it has. The judgment and understanding of man about earthly things is not altogether nothing: yet, God knows, it is weak and very small. The understanding that is in man, therefore comes from God. But as it is small and weak, that comes from man's own fault and corruption. But the bountiful Lord augments in men those gifts of His, by which it comes that man's wit brings wonderful things to pass. For this cause, we read in the holy scriptures that the arts and wits of men are in the hands of God. But in the knowledge or understanding of heavenly matters, there is not one small spark of light in man. His wit, of itself, is nothing but darkness, which at the beginning was created by God to be most sharp and lightsome. But afterwards, by man's corruption, it was utterly rebated [2059] and darkened again. This is why Christ said in the gospel: "No man comes to me, unless my Father draws him." Joh 6.44 And it is written in the Prophets: "All shall be taught by God." And Paul says: "The natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know, because they are spiritually discerned." 1Cor 2.14 The natural man (that is, that old man which is not yet regenerate by the Holy Ghost) is not altogether a block, without any sense or feeling. For if he were utterly without any of the discourses of reason, then how would the preaching of the gospel seem foolishness to him? By the gift of God, he therefore hears and understands the words and sense of the holy scripture; but because of his natural corruption, he is not touched by them, and he does not rightly judge about them. They seem mere folly to him. Nor does he perceive that they must be discerned spiritually, because he is not regenerate; he is yet without the true light of God's most holy Spirit. For in another place the apostle says: "We are not able of ourselves to think any good, but all our ability is of God." 2Cor 3.5

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And thus it is, that we so often find in the scriptures, mention of enlightening or illumination. These would be expressed or named without cause, if man's understanding were clear, and of itself not dark and misty. There is therefore born with all men, a blindness of heart and mind, a doubting in the promises of God, and an unbelief and perverse judgment in all heavenly things. For even if man had received understanding at God's hand, yet because of his own corruption, ignorance is a particular and proper heritage belonging to man. For he is then in his kingdom, when he is blind, when he errs, when he doubts, when he does not believe, nor rightly use as he should the gifts that God has given him, that is, to his own salvation and the glory of his Maker.

Let us now see what the will of the old man is able to do. Therefore, since this will follows a blind guide (God knows), that is to say, a corrupt affection, it is unknown to no man what foolish choices it makes, and what it tends toward. And however true and good the understanding is, yet the will is like a ship tossed to and fro with stormy tempests, that is, by affections. For it wallows up and down with hope, fear, lust, sorrow, and anger, so that it chooses and follows nothing but evil. For the holy apostle, speaking of himself, says: "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but I find no means to perform what is good. For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not do, that do I do." Rom 7.18-19 But now, since the apostle said this about himself when he was regenerate, what, I ask, will we say about the will of the old man? The old man wills all things which God does not will, and breaking into all kind of wickedness, he foully fulfils his filthy lusts. That is to say, the old man gives his members as servants to uncleanness and wickedness, from one iniquity to another. We have very many examples of this exhibited to us, both by the holy scriptures and by daily experience.

Let us now oppose or set against this, the new man; that is, the man who is regenerate by the Spirit of God through the faith of Jesus Christ.

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Now regeneration is the renewing of the man, by which through the faith of [2060] Jesus Christ, we who were the sons of Adam and of wrath, are born again as the sons of God, and therefore put off [2061] the old man, and put on the new, which both in understanding and will, freely serves the Lord. This regeneration is the renewing of the mind, not of the body: as we heard in another place, out of the third chapter of St. John's gospel.[2062] The author of this regeneration is the Holy Ghost, who is given to man from heaven, I mean, given to a faithful man. For the gift of the Holy Ghost is given for Christ's sake, and to none but those who believe in Christ. This Spirit of God testifies with our spirit that we are the sons of God, and therefore the heirs of his kingdom. Rom 7.16-17 We are therefore a new creature, now repaired according to the image of God, and endued with a new nature or disposition. By this it comes to pass that we daily put off that old man, and put on the new. This is done when we walk, not in concupiscence according to the carnal inclination of the flesh, but in newness of sense, according to the working of the Holy Ghost by whom we are regenerate. The same substance and form of the body still abides; the mind is changed, the understanding and will are renewed. For by the Spirit of God, the understanding is illuminated, our faith and the understanding of God and heavenly things are plenteously bestowed, and by the Spirit, unbelief and ignorance, that is, the darkness of the old man, are utterly expelled. This is according to that saying of the apostle, "Through Christ you are made rich in all things, in all speech and knowledge." Again, "We have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, to know what things are given to us by Christ." And again, "We have (or know the spirit or) [2063] the mind of Christ." [2064] And again, "You have no need for any man to teach you: but as the very anointing instructs you about all things, and is true, abide in it." [2065]

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And in this regeneration of man the will also receives a heavenly virtue, to do the good which the understanding perceived by the Holy Ghost. So that it wills, chooses, and works the good that the Lord has shown it; and on the other side, it nills, hates, and repels the evil that the Lord has forbidden it. For Paul says: "I know how to be humble, and I know how to exceed. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." [2066] And again, he says to the Philippians: "To you it is given for Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him." And again he yet more plainly says: "It is God that works in you both to will and to perform, according to the good purpose of the mind." [2067] But now note this: that whatever they do, who are regenerate by the Spirit of God, they do it freely, not by compulsion, nor against their wills. For just as God requires a cheerful giver, so "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is free liberty and hearty good-will." [2068] And Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, said: "That we, being delivered from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life." Luk 1.74 Yes, and our Lord himself says in the gospel: "If you abide in my sayings, you shall be my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." And again: "If the Son sets you at liberty, or makes you free, then shall you be free indeed." Joh 8.31-36 Touching this liberty of the sons of God, I have already discoursed about it in the ninth sermon of my third Decade.

This liberty of the sons of God we willingly acknowledge and freely confess. But we utterly reject and flatly deny the arrogant disputations of some blasphemous praters [2069] concerning free-will, as though it were in our power of ourselves to do any heavenly thing. And yet we do not make man subject to fatal necessity, nor turn upon God the blame for iniquity, as we have elsewhere declared more at large.[2070] And St. Augustine in his controversy with the Pelagians so tempered his disputation, that he attributed the good to the grace of God, and the evil to our nature. So that, the sense being sound, uncorrupted, and well-weighed, he attributes free-will (which he grants is in us), to the grace that works in us, indeed, to the regeneration of the Spirit, rather than to ourselves or our own power.

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I will here recite and repeat to you, dearly beloved, only this one testimony out of all his writings, seen in the first chapter of his book, De Correptione et Gratia, where he says:

"We must confess that we have free-will to do both evil and good: but in doing evil, everyone is free from righteousness, and bound to sin; but no man can be free in doing good, unless he is made free by the one who said, 'If the Son makes you free, then shall you be free indeed.' And yet this is not so that, when everyone is set free from the condemnation of sin, he should then stand no more in need of his deliverer's aid. Rather, where he hears his deliverer say, 'Without me you can do nothing,' he should quickly say back to him, 'Be my helper; O do not forsake me.' And truly, I am glad that I found this faith in our brother Florus, which, without a doubt, is the true, prophetic, and apostolic faith. For here must be understood the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. By this grace alone, we men are delivered from evil; and without it, we do no good, either in thought, will, love, or deed. Not that by the showing or teaching of grace, men should know no more than what is to be done; but also that by the very working and performing of grace, they should with love do the thing that they know." [2071] And so forth.

Up to here I have repeated St. Augustine's opinion touching free-will. This is sufficient for an incidental note. Now I return to my purpose again.

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We have heard what the old man is, what the new man is, and how we are renewed by the Holy Spirit. Now therefore, when we say that penitents mortify the old man, and are renewed by the Spirit (or spiritually), we are only saying that to all penitents, the affections, senses, or lusts of the flesh (I mean, even the very understanding which we have from the old Adam, together with the will) are not only suspected, but also convicted of impiety. And therefore, in all their thoughts, words, and deeds, they never admit their affections into their counsel, but resist them by all means, and continually study to break the neck of them. And on the other side, in all our counsels, words, and deeds, we admit and receive — and yes, call to ourselves with prayers — that heavenly guide, the Spirit of Christ. By His conduct and leading, we may perceive, judge, speak, and work — that is to say, either omit or do — that which we have learned in our grand pattern, Christ. We must be reformed according to his likeness, that from now on we may apply ourselves to holiness, righteousness, and good works toward God.

But we will understand all this more rightly and plainly by the words of the apostle, where he says:

"This I say and testify in the Lord, that from now on, you walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds, darkened in cogitation, being alienated from the life of God by the ignorance that is in them, and by the blindness of their hearts. Being past feeling, they have given themselves over to wantonness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if you have heard him, and have been taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus: to lay down the old man, according to its former conversation, which is corrupt according to the lusts of error, and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and to put on that new man, which is shaped according to God, in righteousness and holiness of truth." Eph 4.17-24

And so forth, as it follows in the fourth chapter to the Ephesians.[2072]

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In the third chapter to the Colossians, the apostle says:

"Mortify your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,[2073] evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience, among whom you also walked once, when you lived in them. But now, also put off all these things: wrath, fierceness, maliciousness, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his works, and have put on the new man, which is renewed into the knowledge and image of Him that made him. Put on therefore — as the elect of God, holy and beloved — bowels of mercy, kindness, modesty, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another if any man has a quarrel against anyone; " and so forth. Col 3.5-13

If you add to this what the apostle has about the same matter in the sixth chapter to the Romans, every point will be more express and plain to the hearer.

Now these words of the apostle not only teach us what the old man is, what the new man is, what it means to mortify the old man, and how penitents are renewed in the newness of the spirit, or of the mind; but they also show what the fruits are that are worthy of repentance — namely, those recited virtues, or those offices of life, toward God and our neighbour. We owe God our fear and reverence, humbleness of mind, the knowledge of ourselves, faith, hope, the hatred of sin, the love of righteousness; charity towards our neighbour,[2074] well-doing towards all men,[2075] and innocence in all things. The holy man, John the Baptist, required these kinds of fruits from the Jewish nation, when he said: "Bring forth fruits that become repentance." Luk 3.16f For in St. Luke, being demanded by the people, by the publicans, and by the mercenary or garrison soldiers,[2076] what things they should do that are worthy of repentance, he prescribes none other than what we just now recited. For the Lord himself, by Isaiah in the fifth chapter of his prophecy, recited no other fruits than those.

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And in the revelation [2077] that was made to St. John, speaking to the minister of the church of Ephesus, he says: "Remember from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works." The words of St. Paul agree with this, speaking to Agrippa, and saying: "I have preached to the Jews and Gentiles, exhorting them to repent, and turn to God, and do those works which become those who repent." Act 26.20 And again, in the seventh chapter of second Corinthians, he says: "Sorrow toward God causes repentance unto salvation not to be repented of. For behold, this same thing that made you sorry toward God, how much carefulness it has wrought in you; indeed, what clearing of yourselves; indeed, what indignation; what fear; what vehement desire; what zeal; yes, what punishment!" Now this carefulness is an intentional diligence to correct what is amiss. Truly, out of careless looseness arises an inured habit to commit sin, and negligent security. Penitents do not stand in defence of their sins, but make their supplicant apology to God, to have them remitted. Hypocrites excuse themselves, and seek out shifts and loopholes, not confessing freely their sins and offences, nor praying to God to have them forgiven. He that repents truly and indeed, is angry with himself because of his wicked manners, and a life already lewdly spent. The punishment which he exercises on himself prevents and turns away the revenging and imminent wrath of God. Moreover, with fear he takes heed how he sins any more; for the contempt of God is the origin of mischiefs, and the bond of an impenitent life. Furthermore, he that truly repents, is ravished with the surpassing vehement desire or love of God and heavenly things. He burns with zeal by which it comes to pass that he neither foads [2078] off from day to day, nor coldly and slackly goes about what he has learned by the word of God, is required to be done and performed by his hand. Briefly, whatever he does, he does it with all his mind, even from the very bottom and root of his heart.

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For thus says the great prophet of God, the holy man Moses: "If you will turn to the Lord your God, and hearken to his voice with all your heart, and with all your soul; the Lord your God shall also return you from captivity, and show pity on you in the bowels of mercy." Deu 30.2-3 This much touching the fruits of repentance.

Now, from all these premises we infer this consequent: that repentance (whose only scope to which it tends, is the renovation by the Spirit of Christ, of the image of God, which was defiled by Adam's fall of old) is not a work of a day or two, or of a prescribed number of years, but a continual observance of our whole life; and so, consequently, it is a daily putting off and renewing of the old man forever. For those who are regenerate by the Holy Spirit of God, are never so purged that they feel no motions of the flesh, of sin, and of carnal affections. There is always objected to the eyes of the faithful, this sentence of St. Paul, that cannot by any means be plucked out of their minds: "I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but I find no means to perform that which is good. For the good, that I would do, I do not do; but the evil, that I would not do, that I do." Rom 7.18-19 For we bear about the relics of the flesh throughout our life. From this it comes that there is a perpetual and very sharp battle in the saints. For they partly obey the spirit, and are partly weakened by the flesh. By the spirit they are lifted up to the contemplation and desire of heavenly things; but by the flesh they are thrust down to earthly things, and troubled with the allurements of this naughty world. For even the apostle, feeling that combat in himself, said: "The flesh lusts contrary to the spirit, and the spirit contrary to the flesh. For they are so at enmity between themselves, that what you would, you cannot do." Gal 5.17 And in another place he says: "Even I, myself, serve the law of God in the mind, but in the flesh, I serve the law of sin." Rom 7.25 And to help the matter forward, there lacks no deceit, no craft, and a thousand temptations, by the subtle crafts-master, our enemy the devil. Therefore, the labour and peril of the true penitent, that is, of a Christian man, is far greater than our prayers are, comparable to it.

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But now, who does not perceive here how great the watching, what needful things abstinence, constancy, fortitude, and patience are in penitents, in those who repent? What great need they have of earnest and continual prayers? In this sharp conflict, let us lay before our eyes the instruction of that valiant champion, the apostle Paul; for what he says may be used instead of a large and ample commentary. For in few words, he will surpassingly instruct us how to behave ourselves in this troublesome combat, how to vanquish, and how to triumph when the victory is gotten. In his epistle to the Ephesians, he says thus:

"Brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on all the armour of God, that you may stand against the assaults of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood only, but against rulers, against powers, against worldly governors of the darkness of this world, against spiritual subtleties in heavenly things. Therefore take to yourself the whole armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having finished all things, to stand fast. Stand therefore, having your loins girded with the truth, and having on the breast-plate of righteousness, and your feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, take the shield of faith, with which you may quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always in all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching for this with all urgency." Eph 6.10-18 And so forth, as follows in the sixth chapter to the Ephesians.

Here also are to be repeated the outward exercises of repentance, or rites of penance, with which the saints exercise themselves, partly to tame and keep under the motions of the flesh, and partly to testify of their repentance to the congregation. Those exercises are carelessness for the flesh, tears, sighs, sackcloth, fastings, weeping, lamenting, neglecting and hatred of a diet of delicacies, trimming of the body and also of allowable pleasures. If these are done, and yet do not proceed from the very heart and from true faith, they will avail nothing for the one who uses them. But it is best here to learn, as if it were on a painted table, to behold them pictured in the word of God. The prophet Joel says:

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"Turn to me, says the Lord, with all your hearts, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. Rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great goodness, and he will repent of the evil. Who knows whether the Lord will turn and take compassion, and leave behind a blessing? Blow a trumpet in Zion, proclaim a fast, call an assembly, sanctify the congregation, gather the people, gather the elders, assemble the children and suckling babes. Let the bridegroom come out of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the Lord's ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say: Spare your people, O Lord, and do not give over your heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them. For which those among the heathen would say, Where is their God?" Joel 2.12-17

To these divine and evident precepts, let us annex that notable example of the truly repentant Ninevites out of the holy scriptures; of whom the holy prophet Jonah has left this in writing: "The men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least. And word came to the king of Nineveh, who arose from his throne, and put off his robe, and covered himself in sackcloth, and sat down in ashes." Jon 3.5-10 Moreover, by the king's commandment, a proclamation was made throughout the city, saying: "Let neither man nor beast taste anything; neither eat, nor yet drink water. But let both man and beast put on sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; indeed, let every man turn from his evil way, and from the wickedness that is in his hands. Who can tell whether God will turn, and be moved with repentance, and turn from his fierce wrath, so that we do not perish?" And now it is good to hear how effectual true repentance is in the sight of the Lord. Therefore, it follows in the same chapter: "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil ways, and He repented of the evil which he said he would do to them, and did not do it."

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And here also, dearly beloved, you must note that repentance is of two sorts: namely, private or secret, and public or manifest. Each one repents to himself privately, when he has sinned against God, descends into himself, and with the candle of God's word, searches all the corners of his heart, and confesses to God all his offences. Being grieved that he has offended Him, he yet turns to God, believing truly that he will be reconciled to him in Christ his Saviour; and for his sake he utterly hates sin, and entirely loves righteousness and innocence, in following them as near as he can. Public or solemn repentance is used in great calamities, in dearth, pestilence, and war. It is of that repentance that the prophet Joel speaks, whose words you heard a little before. And yet, private repentance is in many points the same as public. For Peter weeps bitterly; and private penitents fast privately, and abstain severely even from all allowed pleasures, much more then from the allurements and baits of the world.[2079] But those who truly repent, either publicly or privately, do hate and must specially hate, coloured hypocrisy and vain ostentation. Moreover, both kinds of repentance are free and voluntary, not extorted or coacted, but proceed from a willing mind. The pastor of the church and teacher of the truth, I confess, severely calls upon all sinners without delay to repent themselves truly for the sins they committed. Yet by express law, he lays upon no man's neck any precise order, prescribing the time, manner, place, or number to be confessed; but he leaves it free to each one's choice, so that they do the decent thing, according to the prescribed rule in the word of God. But public repentance is usually proclaimed for the most part, and openly received by the whole congregation, so often as piety requires it, and necessity compels it; and out of the word of God is declared what and how all things must be done and decently ordered.

Again, it is manifest that there are two sorts of repentance more: for there is true repentance and false repentance. True repentance is that which someone exercises who is regenerate by the Spirit of God;[2080] and is without any colour and craft, containing in it all those things that I previously told you about.

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The scriptures contained in the old and new Testaments, minister to us many examples of true repentance, which I have presented to you at large in what I have already spoken. Those examples are excellent, which we find of our parents Adam and Eve, of the people of Israel often repenting, in the thirty-third chapter of Exodus, in the book of Judges, and the books of Kings. Yet more excellent than the rest, is that of David in the twelfth chapter of second Samuel, 13, 16, and 21; and that of Manasseh, 2Chr 33, and Josiah, 2Chr 34. In the gospel, we also have the examples of Matthew, Zacchaeus, the sinful woman, and Peter, besides others that for shortness' sake, I wittingly pass over here.

But false or counterfeit repentance proceeds from a feigned heart: and though at a blush it seems to have the circumstances of true repentance, yet because it lacks a turning to God and a sound confidence in him, it is insincere and utterly false. For of all others, it is most certain that the repentance of Judas Iscariot was false and counterfeit: and yet he confessed his sin, he bore record to the truth, and with much anger and sorrow he restored to the priests the price which he took for the innocent blood. But because he did not wholly turn to Christ and put his whole confidence in his mercy and goodness, all his repentance was without any fruit. And without any profit, hypocrites and those who are without the faith of the gospel, torment themselves, and make a show of outward repentance.

But those are most happy and in a heavenly case, who with all their hearts truly repent with unfeigned faith. For they receive infinite goodness from their most bountiful and liberal God, who is at one again with penitents. He now loves those who, before, he most heartily and yet most justly hated and abhorred for their sins. The punishments also, which he determined to lay upon them, he turns into benefits. For he fills and loads penitents with all manner of good things, both temporal and eternal. Now, you understand, dearly beloved, by my former sermons, that God bestows such great benefits upon us, not for our works of repentance, but for Christ's sake, in whom alone the saints trust, not putting any confidence in their own works of repentance, however holy and commendable they may be.

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For insomuch as the Father loves Christ, and we are grafted into him by faith, God therefore loves us, and our works please him. These works of ours, when he recompenses, he does not crown our works as our own works, but crowns in us the grace which He himself has given us.

Again, it must be that unrepentants are most unhappy. They hear with what sins and transgressions they have offended God, and provoked his just vengeance against themselves. But with this, they do not think how to prevent the wrath of God being ready and imminent to take vengeance on them, nor how to obtain his favour again. Therefore, what else remains behind for them, but a most certain and just destruction of both body and soul, of all their goods, and whatever else they most esteem in this transitory life. It is good to call to mind here, that notable sentence of the Lord Jesus in the gospel, saying:

"Woe to you, Chorazin; woe to you, Bethsaida: for if the wonders that have been done in you had been done in the cities of Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long before this, in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it shall be easier for Tyre, Sidon, and Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you." Mat 11.21f

The parable of the unfruitful fig-tree is known to all men, mention of which is made in the gospel. It was withered by the judgment of God as an example to teach and terrify all impenitent sinners. Mat 21.19f What will fall on the men of these days, may we think, who so boldly despise the repentance so plainly preached to them for so many years now, and beaten into their heads? There are some who outwardly, and for show's sake, seem to be desirous of the evangelical truth. Others are utter enemies, contemners, and persecutors of the gospel. And you will find an infinite rabble of Lucianists,[2081] Epicures,[2082] Nullifidians,[2083] and Atheists.

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Now, since all these equally, in a way, sweetly deride or rather scoffingly mock at this hearty repentance, we cannot do otherwise than expect and look for the terrible judgment of God's mighty arm to fall upon such unrepentant sinners. Let those who wish well to themselves, speedily turn to the Lord, and consider continually and earnestly how great the damage is to keep the transitory joys of this present life, and thus lose the eternal joys of the kingdom of heaven. Let each one make haste to do what he perceives can be done that much better, and that much sooner, once it is taken in hand.

And yet I would not have any man despair in his sins, if he does not stubbornly despise the remedy of repentance; nor maliciously, by way of contempt, defer repentance till the very end, because of the facility and gentleness of his heavenly Father. Nor would I have any man fall into desperation if he is hindered by the flesh, the world, and the devil, so that repentance is late, or before he applies his mind to it.

Now, because I have drawn out this discourse about repentance somewhat longer than I had intended, and that at last I may make an end of my sermon here, instead of a conclusion I will recite to you these golden words of the holy martyr St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, where he writes against Demetrian to this effect which follows:

"Believe and live; and you who now persecute us for a time, will rejoice with us forever. Once you are out of this life, there is then no place for repentance, nor any effect of satisfaction. [Eternal] life is either won or lost in this world. In this world, eternal salvation is provided for by the unfeigned worshipping of God, and the fruits of true faith. Let no man, either by his sins or years, be held back from coming to lay hold of salvation. So long as a man is yet in this world, no late repentance comes out of season. The entry is open to God's indulgence, and the path to pardon is surpassingly plain to those who seek and understand the truth. Even at the very end and last gasp of this temporal life, ask pardon for your sins at the hands of Him who is the true and only God; call to Him for the confession and faith of His knowledge. Pardon is granted to him that confesses; and salvation is given to him that believes; and even he, upon his departure, immediately passes to immortality.

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Christ communicates this grace. He attributes this gift to his own mercy, by making death subject to the triumph of the cross, by redeeming the one who believes, with the price of his blood, by reconciling man to God the Father, by quickening the mortal by the heavenly regeneration. Let us all, if it is possible, follow him. Let us all profess his sign and sacrament. He opens the way of life to us. He brings us to paradise again. He leads us to the kingdom of heaven. We shall always live with him; and being made the sons of God by him, we shall always rejoice with him, being restored by the shedding of his blood. We shall be Christians glorified together with Christ, blessed in God, rejoicing with perpetual pleasure, always in the sight of God, and evermore giving thanks to God. For the one who was once in danger and in fear of death, is now made secure in immortality, and he cannot help but be merry always, and thankful." [2084]

THE OTHER EIGHT SERMONS

OF THE

FOURTH DECADE,

WRITTEN BY

HENRY BULLINGER.

4-3. THE THIRD SERMON: OF GOD AND THE TRINITY.

OF GOD; OF THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, AND OF THE DIVERSE WAYS HOW TO KNOW HIM;

THAT GOD IS ONE IN SUBSTANCE, AND THREE IN PERSONS.

I HAVE up to here, in thirty-two sermons, discoursed upon the word of God, and the lawful exposition of it; upon Christian faith, the love of God and our neighbour. I have also spoken of the law of nature, of man's law, and God's law, and of the parts of God's law, namely, the moral, the ceremonial, and the judicial laws; of the use of the law, and of the fulfilling and abrogation of it; of the likeness and difference between the two testaments and people, the old and the new; of Christian liberty; of offences; of the effect and merits of good works; of sin, and the various sorts of it: and also of the grace of God, or the gospel of Jesus Christ, in whom our heavenly Father has given us all things belonging to life and eternal salvation. Finally, I have treated repentance, and of the things that especially seem to belong to it. Our purpose is to argue discreetly upon the principal points of Christian religion.

And in the premises, we have often heard mention of God, of the knowledge and worship of God, of Jesus Christ, of the Holy Ghost, of good and evil spirits, of the church, of prayer, of the sacraments, and similar holy things. Since we have now come to an end of those former points, necessity itself requires that we now say something here about all and every one of these latter principles according to the holy scripture, so far as the Lord gives me grace and the ability to do that.

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Concerning God, there were many erroneous opinions of old, not only among the ruder sort of people, but even in the whole pack of philosophers, and the conventicles of false Christians. Touching philosophers, that ancient and learned writer, Tertullian, was prone to say that philosophers are the patriarchs of heretics.[2085] and touching false Christians, the apostle John said, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us." 1Joh 2.19 Nor do I see what gain you would get by it, if I were to proceed to reckon up for you all their opinions. It is good, perhaps, to know in what they erred, lest we also strike upon the same rock that they did. Therefore, if any that have a desire for it, wish to see the opinions of the heathens and heretics concerning God, let them search Plutarch in his Placitis Philoso. lib. i. chap. 7, or in other heathen writers; or in Cyril's first book Contra Julianum; and in the 4th chapter of Dogmatum vel definitionum Ecclesiast.[2086] I will not at this time trouble the attentive ears and minds of the godly hearers with that burden. That diversity of opinions is derived from no other fountain than from the boldness and unskilfulness of men who are not ashamed, out of their own device and brain, to add and apply to God the things from which he is furthest and free.

And now, that I may not stay long here in declaring the narrow straitness and misty darkness of man's wit, I ask you, Who is able with his understanding, to conceive the being of God, when indeed no man ever fully understood what fashion the soul of man is, of what sort many other things are that are in man's body, and what manner of substance the sun and moon are made of? There are many reasons given by natural philosophy; but the work of God still abides greater and more wonderful than the wit or speech of man is able to comprehend or express.

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Therefore, let no man who goes about to know any certainty about God, descend into himself to search Him out with thoughts of his own;[2087] nor let him ground his opinion on men's determinations and weak definitions. For otherwise he will always worship the invention of his own heart, mere folly, trifles, and foolish fantasies. But on the other side again, the man cannot help but think rightly, judge truly, and speak well of God, who attributes nothing to himself, devises nothing by his own brain, nor follows the toys of other men's inventing; but in all things, he gives ear to the word of God, and always follows His holy revelation. Therefore, let this stand as if it were for a continual rule: that God cannot be rightly known except by his word; and God is to be received and believed to be such a one as he reveals himself to us in his holy word. For truly, no creature can better tell what, and what kind of one God is, than God himself.

Now, since this God in his word, by the workmanship of the world, by the holy scriptures, and by his oracles, uttered by the mouth of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles — indeed, and the very minds and consciences of men — testifies that He exists, the kingly prophet David therefore says: "The fool has said in his heart, There is no God." Psa 14.1 For he must be an ass or a fool, who denies the thing that is evident to all men in the world, who are not out of their wits, namely, that there is a God. Consider that even Cicero, a heathen author, in his book de Natura Deorum, says, "It is bred and born together with men, and grafted in their hearts, to think that there is a God." [2088] Truly, those who deny God, deny the one they nevertheless fear; and therefore, they confess by that fear that he exists, and by that means they convict themselves of lying and falsehood.

Again, this is to be noted: that in demanding who and what God is, even though that question is made and arises by beating out and discussing the scriptures, yet a measure is to be kept, and in any case observed.

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To go about over-curiously inquiring after, searching out, and seeking the very eternal being of God, is both perilous and also flatly forbidden. Solomon cries, "As it is not good to eat much honey; so an over-curious [2089] searcher of God's majesty shall be confounded by His glory." [2090] Before that singular and notable communication, in which our God talked with the whole people of Israel at mount Sinai, it is said to Moses: "Set bounds for the people round about the mountain, and say to them, Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up into the mount, or touch the border of it. Whoever touches the mount, let him die the death," etc. Exo 19.12 Look here, it was quick death to pass the limits or bounds prescribed. Therefore our studies are and ought to be definite, not infinite.[2091] Truly, we read in many places of the holy scriptures that the most entire and excellent friends of God stood amazed and trembling, whenever God in any outward show of his own accord, offered himself to their eyes. I need not busy myself too much in reckoning up examples. You know how Abraham behaved himself in the talk which he had with God, in Genesis 18. You know what the parents of Gideon said in the book of Judges;[2092] and what Elijah spoke, in 1Kings 19. Peter, after the miraculous taking of the great draught of fishes, understood that Christ was more than a man. He cried out, saying: "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." Therefore, if this is so in any other matters belonging to God, then especially in this, the saints are to be humble, modest, and religious — understanding that His eternal and incomprehensible power and unspeakable majesty are altogether uncircumscriptible,[2093] and cannot be comprehended in any name whatsoever.

Tertullian, in his book De Trinitate, says very eloquently, truly, and godly:

"The proper name of God cannot be uttered, because it cannot be conceived. For what is called by a name, is conceived by the condition of its own nature.

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For a name is the significant noting of that thing which may be conceived by the name. But when the thing which is handled is of such a sort that it cannot be rightly conceived by our very senses and understanding, then how will it be rightly named by an apt term and fit nomination? While it is beyond understanding, it must also be above the significance of the term by which it is named. So that when God, for certain causes or occasions, annexes or declares His name to us in words, we may think and know that the actual property of the name is not expressed so much in words, as a certain significance is set down by it. Men may run to this name while in prayers, that they may be able to call upon God and obtain His mercy." [2094]

And again he says:

"Concerning God and those things that are of him and in him, the mind of man is not able to conceive what they are, how great they are, or of what fashion they are; nor does the eloquence of man's mouth utter in speech, words that in any point correlate to this majesty. As to thinking upon and uttering his majesty, all eloquence is mute and dumb, and the whole mind is too little, for it is greater than the mind; nor can it be conceived how great it is. This is because, if it could be conceived, then it must be less than man's mind in which it may be comprehended. It is also greater than all speech and cannot be spoken; because if it may be spoken, then it is less than man's speech by which, if it is spoken, it may be compassed and made to be understood. But whatever may be thought of Him, will still be less than he is. And whatever is shown of Him in speech, compared with Him, will be much less than He is.

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For in silence, to ourselves, we may partly perceive him. But to express him in words, as He is, is altogether impossible. For if you call him Light, then you name a creature of his rather than him, but him you do not express. Or if you call him Virtue, then you name his power rather than him, but him you do not declare. Or if you call him Majesty, then you name his honour rather than him, but him you do not describe. And why should I prolong the time, in running through every individual title? I will declare it all at once. Say everything you can about Him, whatever it is, and you still name some thing of his, rather than himself. For what can you fitly say or think of him, that is greater than all your words and senses? Unless it is in this one way: that as we can, and as our capacity will serve, and as our understanding will let us — we will conceive in our mind what God is, only if we think that he is that which cannot be understood, nor can possibly come into our thoughts, whatever kind of thing, and however great. For just as our eyes so dazzle and dim at seeing the brightness of the sun, that our sight cannot behold the very circle of it because it is overcome by the brightness of the beams that are opposed against it — even so, it fares with the sight of our mind in all our thoughts of God; and however much more she settles herself to consider God, by that much more she is blinded in the light of her cogitation. For (to repeat the same thing again) what can you fitly think about Him that is above all loftiness, higher than all height, deeper than all depth, lighter than all light, clearer than all clearness, brighter than all brightness, stronger than all strength, more virtuous than all virtue, fairer than all fairness, truer than all truth, greater than all greatness, mightier than all might, richer than all riches, wiser than all wisdom, more liberal than all liberality, better than all goodness, juster than all justice, and gentler than all gentleness? For all kinds of virtues must be less than He that is the Father and God of all virtues: so that God may truly be said to be such a being that nothing may be compared to Him. For he is above all that may be spoken." [2095]

Up to here I have cited the words of Tertullian.

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Now, although these things are so, and no tongue either of angels or of men can fully express what, who, and of what manner God is, seeing that his majesty is incomprehensible and unspeakable; yet the scripture, which is the word of God, tempering itself to our imbecility, ministers to us some means, forms, and phrases of speech, to bring us by them to some such knowledge of God as may at least suffice us while we live in this world.

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Yet notwithstanding, we should still think that the thing which is incomprehensible cannot be defined, but that by those phrases only an occasion is given by which we are brought to greater things through the illumination of the Spirit; and in this disputation we should still have before the eyes of our mind, that true and assured sentence of the eternal God to his servant Moses, saying: "You can not see my face; for no man shall see me and live." Exo 33.20 For once we have departed out of this life, and are unburdened of this mortality and mortal frailty, then we shall see the majesty of God; for the apostle St. John said: "We know that when he appears, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 1Joh 3.2 And let us annex to these, the words of the apostle Paul, where he says: "Now we see in a glass, even in a dark riddle;[2096] but then we shall see face to face." 1Cor 13.12 Therefore, let no man go beyond the limited bounds, or prevent the time appointed, nor yet presume by wicked boldness and curiosity in this life to behold the face, that is, the very essence or being of God. Let that revelation of God suffice everyone whom God himself grants in his word to open to us: namely, so much as of his goodness he thinks necessary and profitable for us to know. And I here with warrant say this: that wisdom is the true wisdom, which will not in this matter go about to know or savour more than the eternal wisdom teaches us to know.

The FIRST and chief way to know God is derived from the very names of God attributed to him in the holy scripture. Those names are many and of sundry sorts, because his virtue, his wisdom — by which I mean his goodness, justice, and power — are altogether infinite. I will reckon up and expound to you the most excellent and usual among the rest, according to my skill.

Among all the names of God, that is the most excellent which they call Tetragrammaton, that is (if we may so say), the four-lettered name: for it is compounded of the four spiritual letters, and is called JEHOVAH.

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It is derived from the verb-substantive, Hovah, before which they put Jod and make it Jehovah, that is to say, Being, or I am; as he that is autousia (autousia), a being of himself, having his life and being not from any other, but of himself; lacking nobody's aid to make him be, but giving being to all manner of things — namely, eternal God, without beginning and ending, in whom we live, we move, and have our being. Act 17.28 To this, those words especially belong which we find had passed between God and Moses in the third chapter of Exodus:

"And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, to whom you now send me, and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you; and they ask me, saying, What is his name? the what answer shall I make them? And God said to Moses, I am that I am; or, I will be that I will be: and he said, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, I am, or Being, or I will be, has sent me to you." Exo 3.13-14

That is, I am God that will be, and he has sent me who is himself Being, or Essence, and God everlasting. For their future tense contains three sundry times, He that is, He that was, and He that will be, has sent me. Truly, in his Revelation, the evangelist and apostle John seems to have had an eye to these words of the Lord, which he also went about interpreting, saying in the person of God: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, RSV's, or the first and the last, says the almighty Lord, which is, and which was, and which shall be."

There are some who observe this for a note, that in almost all tongues, even the barbarous sort, the name of God is written with four letters. Concerning his name in Hebrew it is assuredly so; and in the Greek, Latin, and German tongues it is also true. For God in Greek is called Qeov (Theos); in Latin Deus; and with us Germans he is called Gott. They add, moreover, that the Persians call him Surh (Surh), and the Egyptians Qwuq or Qeuq (Thuth or Theuth), and by contraction, Qwq (Thuuth). And in the four letters, the Cabalists say that there are wonderful mysteries contained. As others have written very diligently about this, I would rather not stand on them here, nor trouble your patience with them.

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Also like this are these names of God: Jah (or Yah), and Hu. The first is found in the Psalms more than once: for David says, "Hallelu-Jah" that is, "Praise you the Lord." The latter is also mentioned by David, saying, Hu, that is "he," I say, God, the Being and creator of all things, "spoke the word and it was done; Hu, he commanded and it was." In Isaiah the Lord says: "I am the Lord, Hu is my name, and I will give my glory to no other." Now, those words also are derived from being, and they teach us that God is always like himself, an essence which of itself is eternally, and which gives being to all things that are — as He by whom, in whom, and to whom all things are, being himself a perpetual and most absolute or perfect havingness.[2097] But the Hebrews do not read or express the four-lettered name of God by calling it Jehovah; instead they use the word Adonai. For they say that Jehovah must not be uttered. Now, all interpreters in their translations, where they turn it into Latin, call it Dominus, that is, Lord: for God is the Lord of all things, both visible and invisible. Nor is there any other Lord in the whole world, except this one (and he alone), to whom all things in the world are subject, and obey. For he has a most complete dominion and absolute monarchy over all his creatures. And therefore, for plainness' sake, the word Sabbaoth is sometimes annexed to the name of God;[2098] which some translate "the Lord of powers," and some "the Lord of hosts." For God, being almighty, displays by his power or strength, and declares in his host, what mighty things he is able to do, and how great a power and might he has. For since he is the God of all creatures, and he disposes and uses them as a captain uses his soldiers, to work mighty and marvellous things, he declares even by small things [2099] how great he himself is, and how great his power is. In the host of God are all the angels, of whom Daniel said, "A thousand thousands and hundreds of thousands ministered to him." One of these angels killed in the Assyrians' camp in one night, one hundred eighty-five thousand soldiers under the banner of the most powerful king Sennacherib.

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In the host of God are all the winds, all the stars, and all the fiery, airy, and watery impressions. In the host of God are all evil spirits, all men, kings and princes, all the warlike furnishings of every nation, and finally, all creatures, both visible and invisible. And all these He uses according to his own pleasure, yes, according to his own good and just will, when, how much, and how long he wishes, to finish and bring to pass his own will and judgments. In punishing the first world at the deluge, he used water. In destroying Sodom and the cities thereabout, he used fire. And in rooting out the Canaanites and Jews, he used the means of mortal men, or soldiers.

Sometimes there is ascribed to the Lord the word Eleon, and the Lord is called Eleon, that is to say, high. For in the one hundred-thirteenth psalm we read: "The Lord is higher than all nations, and his glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, who sets himself so high in his habitation?" Psa 113.4-5 And in the ninety-seventh psalm he says: "You, Lord, are higher than all that are in the earth; you are exalted far above all gods." Psa 97.9

Again, God is called El, because of his strength. For what he wills, that he can do, and therefore is he called a strong God, or a giant. For Jeremiah says: "The Lord is with me as a strong giant." Jer 20.11 Isaiah says: "The Lord shall come forth like a giant, he shall stir himself up [2100] like a man of war, he shall roar and overcome his enemies." Isa 42.13 And like this is the word Eloah, whose plural number is Elohim. That name betokens the presence of God, which never fails his workmanship and worshippers. Jeremiah brings in God speaking, and says: "Am I God, that sees only the thing that is near at hand, and not the thing that is far off? [2101] May any man hide himself, so that I shall not see him, says the Lord? Do I not fill heaven and earth?" Jer 23.24

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For before him, also David said: "Where shall I go from the breath of your mouth? And where shall I flee from your countenance? If I ascend into heaven, you are there: and if I descend into hell, you are there also. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall rule me, and your right hand shall hold me fast." Psa 139.6-10 Therefore the apostle Paul says: "God is not far from every one of us. For by him we live, we move, and have our being." Act 17.28 And for that reasons perhaps, God was called Qeov (Theos), namely, apo Qeein (apo Theein) by the Greeks, because of his readiness and immediate succour; because he never fails mortal men, but always and in all places aids and relieves them. Likewise, Plato in Cratylo, and his interpreter Proclus, think that Qeov (God) is derived apo tou Qeein, that is, running. But that course, or running, does not refer to the presence or help of God, but to another thing.[2102] For when men saw the sun, moon, stars, and heaven itself, still turned around by running, they thought that they were gods. There are some who will derive it apo tou deouv (apo tou deous), that is to say, of fear or dread: for fear of religion believes and persuades men that there is a God. The Latins perhaps framed their Deus (God) from the Greeks' Qeov. But some rather think that Deus is derived a dando, of giving, because he gives all things to all men. For so among the Hebrews he is called Qeov (as I will shortly declare), or Shaddai, because he is sufficient to himself; he lacks nothing, but gives to all men all good and necessary things.[2103] Some others would have God called in Latin, Deus, quod ipsi nihil deest, that is, "God, because there is nothing lacking in him."

But now, the scripture attributes the plural number, Elohim, not to God alone, but also to angels, to judges, and to men in authority: because God is always present with them while they labour in that office which he has appointed them to. And by their ministry, He works the things which he himself wills, and which are expedient for the welfare of mortal men.

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And although the word Elohim is plural in number, yet it is set before verbs in the singular number. In the first chapter of Genesis, we find, "In the beginning," Bara Elohim, Creavit Dii, "God created" (for Bara, created, is the singular number) heaven and earth. That phrase of speech shows to us the mystery of the reverend Trinity: for Moses seems to have said in effect, In the beginning, God in the Trinity created heaven and earth. In the seventh chapter of the second book of Samuel, verse 23, Elohim in the plural number is joined with verbs of the plural number, to declare that there is a difference of persons in the blessed Trinity.

Moreover, in the league which God makes with our father Abraham God gives himself another name. For he says: "I God am Shaddai" that is, sufficient, or sufficiency. Gen 17.1 Therefore, God is called Shaddai. Some in their translations turn it Vastator, a destroyer, as if God would name himself a just revenger. But Moses Egyptius [2104] says: "The noun Shaddai is compounded from the verb Daii (which signifies, he suffices) and the letter Shin, which has the same meaning that Ascher has, and signifies, he that. So that Shaddai is as the same as saying, "he that suffices to himself, and is the sufficiency or fulness of all things." Perhaps the heathen have on this occasion derived their Saturnus, which name they gave to those whom they wickedly took to be gods. For as Diurnus comes from Dies, a day; so Saturnus is derived a saturando, of satisfying or filling.[2105] Therefore, God is that One to whom nothing is lacking, who in all things and to all things is sufficient to himself; who needs no man's aid, yes, who alone has all things which pertain to the perfect felicity both of this life and of the world to come; and which he alone can fill and suffice all his people and other creatures. For this reason, the Germans call him Gott, as if to say Guot, good, or best;[2106] because, as He is full of all goodness, so he most liberally bestows upon men all manner of good things. The German word is not unlike the ancient name by which the Egyptians called God; for they called God Theuth, or Thoth: now if we put G for Th, then it is Goth, and we say, Gott.

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The Lord himself, in the sixth chapter of Exodus, puts these two names together, Shaddai and Jehovah, as two of the most excellent names that he has, and says: "I am Jehovah. And I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as God Shaddai: but in my name Jehovah I was not known to them;" Exo 6.3 — not that the patriarchs had not heard or known the name Jehovah. For that name began to be called upon in the time of Seth, immediately after the beginning of the world. Therefore, it seems that the Lord in effect meant this: "I opened myself to the patriarchs as God Shaddai, who is able in all things to sufficiently fill them with all goodness; and therefore I promised them a land that flows with milk and honey: but I was not yet known to them by my name Jehovah, that is, I did not perform unto them that which I promised." For we have heard already that he is called Jehovah, of that which he brings about; and therefore he brings his promise to performance. "Now therefore" (he says) "I will indeed fulfil my promise, and show myself to be, not only Deum Shaddai, an all-sufficient or almighty God, but also show myself to be Jehovah, an essence or eternal being, immutable, true, and in all things like myself, or standing to my promise." [2107]

Last of all, we read in the third chapter of Exodus, that God said to Moses: "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, The Lord God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial from one generation to another." Exo 3.15 So then, here we now have another name of God; for he would be called the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. "This," he says, "shall be my memorial from one generation unto another; namely, that in which I will keep in memory my benefits bestowed upon those patriarchs, so that by them the posterity may know and remember me." For when we hear the names of those patriarchs, they put us in mind of all the excellent and innumerable benefits which God bestowed on our forefathers.

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These are not in vain, and with such great diligence, particularly reckoned up by Moses in his first book called Genesis. For He will be our God, even as he was theirs, if we so believe in him as they did. For to us who believe, he will be both Shaddai and Jehovah, eternal and immutable truth, being, life, and heaped-up storehouse of all manner of good things.

And now, by the way, it is not without a mystery that, when he is also the God of other patriarchs, such as Adam, Seth, Enosh, and especially Enoch and Noah, yet out of the number of them, he picked those three: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And to every one of their names he severally prefixed his own name, saying: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." He evidently did this to teach the mystery of the Trinity in the unity of the divine substance, and that each one of the persons is of the same divinity, majesty and glory; that is, that the Father is very God, the Son is very God, and the Holy Ghost is very God; and these three are one God; for he says, "I am God," etc. I will speak of this in a convenient place.

This much up to here concerning the names of God, out of which a general knowledge of God may easily be gathered. I know that one Dionysius [2108] has made a busy commentary upon the names of God. But I know too, that the godly sort, and those who are studious of the apostles' doctrine, understand that the disciples of the apostles far more simply handled matters belonging to religion. I know that other take account of seventy-two names of God out of the scriptures and books of the Cabalists. As I have repeated these in another place, [2109] so I will hereafter repeat to you the chief of them, out of Exodus.

SECONDLY, God is exhibited to be seen in the word of God, to be beheld, and to be known by visions and divine mirrors, as though in a certain parable; while he is set before our eyes by Prosopography, Prosopopoeia, or mortal shapes.

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And yet we are warned not to stick on those visible things, but to lift up our minds from visible things, to invisible and spiritual things. For God is not bodily in his own substance, just because in visions he is exhibited to us in a bodily shape like a man. Nor did any of the old saints before the birth of Christ express God in the shape and picture of a mortal man, just because God had exhibited himself in that shape so as to be seen by the patriarchs and prophets. It is the doting [2110] error of the Anthropomorphites [2111] to say that God exists bodily, and that he has members like a mortal man. And so that no man in this case deceives himself by attributing falsely to God the thing that is against his honour, I will here, instead of a remedy against that poison, recite to you, dearly beloved, the words of ST. AUGUSTINE. Out of the pure understanding of the holy scriptures, and assured testimonies of catholic true doctors, he wrote to Fortunatus — De Videndo Deo, against the Anthropomorphites:

"Concerning the members of God, which the scripture mentions in every place, know this: lest any man believe that, according to the fashion and figure of this flesh, we are like God, that same scripture also said that God has wings, which it is manifest that we men do not have. Therefore, just as when we hear wings named, we understand God's protection and defence; so when we hear of hands, we must understand his operation; when we hear mention made of feet, we must understand his present readiness; when we hear the name eyes, we must understand his sight, by which he sees and knows all things: and when we hear of his face, we must understand his justice, by which he is known to the whole world: and whatever else like this that the same scripture mentions, I believe truly that it must be understood spiritually. Nor do I alone, nor am I the first that thinks this; but even all those who with a basic understanding of the scriptures, withstand the opinion of those who, for that reason, are called Anthropomorphites.

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I mean to allege here one testimony out of the writings of St. Jerome. I will not cite too much, so as not to cause too long a stay. For when that man, who was most excellently learned in the holy scriptures, expounded the Psalm, where it is said, "Understand, you unwise among the people; you fools, at length be wise. He that planted the ear, shall he not hear; or he that made the eye, shall he not see?" Psa 94.8-9 JEROME said among other things,

"This place most of all works against the Anthropomorphites, who say that God has members even as we have. For example, he is said to have eyes. 'The eyes of the Lord behold all things; the hand of the Lord makes all things.' And 'Adam heard the sound of the feet of the Lord walking in paradise.' They understand these places simply as the letter lies, and refer mortal weakness to the magnificent mightiness of the immortal God. But I say that God is all eye, all hand, and all foot. He is all eye, because he sees all things; all hand, because he works all things; all foot, because he is present everywhere. Therefore, mark what he says: 'He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? or he that made the eye, shall he not see?' He did not say, therefore He has no eyes. But he said, 'He that planted the ear, shall He not hear; or He that made the eye, shall He not see? He made the members, and gave them the efficient powers.'

And a little afterwards, ST. AUGUSTINE says:

In all this which I have cited out of the saints and doctors, Ambrose, Jerome, Athanasius, Gregory [Nazianzen], and whatever else like these from other men's works that I could ever read or come by (which I think would be too long to recite here individually), I find that God is not a body, nor does he have members like a man; neither is he divided by the distance of places, but by nature he is unchangeably invisible. And with the help of God, I believe without wavering, and so far as he gives me grace, I understand that when in the holy scriptures he is reported to have been seen with corporal eyes, he did not appear to those to whom he appeared, by that same invisible nature and substance, but by a visible shape taken to himself, as it pleased him."

This much out of Augustine. [2112]

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To these I will now also add the words of TERTULLIAN, a very ancient ecclesiastical writer, in his excellent book De Trinitate.

"By members, are meant the efficient powers of God, not the bodily fashion of God, or corporal lineaments. For when the eyes are described, it is set down because he sees all things; and when the ear is named, it is named because he hears all things; and when the finger is mentioned, then a certain signification of his mind is declared;

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and when the nostrils [2113] are spoken of, the receiving of prayers as sweet smells is thereby noted; and when the hand is talked of, it argues that He is the author of all creatures; and when the arm is specified, thereby is declared that no nature can withstand the power of God; and when the feet are named, that puts us in mind that God fills all things, and that there is no place where he is not present. For neither members nor the offices of members are necessary to Him, whose will alone all things obey and are ready at hand, without any words. For why should He require eyes, when he is himself the light? Or why should he seek feet, when he is himself present everywhere? Or why should he go in, since there is nowhere to go out from himself? Or why should he wish for a hand, whose will works all things without words? Nor does he need ears, who knows the most secret thoughts. Or why should he lack a tongue, whose thinking alone is a command? For these members were necessary to men, and not to God; because the counsel of men would have no effect, unless the body fulfilled the thoughts. But they are not needful to God, whose will the very works not only follow without any stirring business, but immediately proceed and go forward with his will. He is all eye, because he wholly sees. He is all ear, because he wholly hears. He is all hand, because he wholly works; and He is all foot, because he is wholly everywhere. For whatever is simple does not have in itself any diversity — not of itself. But whatever things are born to dissolution, those things fall into a diversity of members; but things that are not concrete, cannot feel diversity." [2114]

And as follows. For all these, up to here, are the words of Tertullian.

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Therefore, when we read that Moses saw God face to face, and that Jacob, Israel, and the prophets saw God plainly and not obscurely, what is meant is that a vision most manifest, effectual, and very familiar was exhibited to them. For truly, said Theodoret, the bishop of Cyrus: "We say that the fathers did not see the divine nature or substance — which cannot be circumscribed, comprehended, or perceived in the mind of man, but itself comprehends all things. But we say that they saw a certain glory and certain visions, which correlated to their capacity, and did not surpass the measure of it." [2115] For these assured sentences of the holy scripture always remain most true: "No man ever saw God at any time." Joh 1.18 "God dwells in the light that no man can attain unto, whom no man has seen nor can see;" 1Tim 6.16 and again, "No man shall see my face, and live;" Exo 33.20 that is, so long as he lives on this earth in the corruption and imperfection of his flesh no man shall behold the essence of God, which is eternal and light that cannot be looked upon. For once we are delivered from this corruption and are glorified, then we shall see him as he is. 1Joh 3.2

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Therefore, God is said to have been seen by the fathers, not according to the fulness of his divinity, but according to the capacity of men.

Tertullian thinks that all things in the old Testament were done of God the Father by the Son, who, taking upon with himself a competent shape, appeared to men and spoke to the fathers. In the beginning of his epistle to the Hebrews, 2.14 Paul significantly speaks of the Son of God incarnate, not absolutely denying that the Father ever did anything by the Son. Tertullian says:

"To the Son was given all power in heaven and on earth. But that power could not be of all things, unless it were of every time. Therefore, it was the Son who always descended to talk with men, from Adam to the patriarchs and prophets, in vision, in dream, in a mirror, and oracle. So it always pleased God to be familiar with men in the earth, being none other than the Word who afterward was to be made flesh. And it pleased him to so make a way for us to faith, that we might more easily perceive that the Son of God descended into the world, and that we might know that such a thing was done." [2116]

And so forth as follows; for all these are the words of Tertullian. After this introduction,[2117] we will now add the visions of God's majesty exhibited to holy men.

God exhibited to his servants many and sundry visions in which, in a way, he foreshadowed his majesty to them. It would be too long a labour for me to repeat and expound to you all of these visions. You shall find the most notable ones in Exodus 19, Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7, and in the Apocalypse of the blessed evangelist and apostle John. It is sufficient to put you in mind of them. But now, the most renowned and excellent one of all, I will recite here and handle at large. It is found in the thirty-third and thirty-fourth chapters of Exodus.

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Moses had trial of the facility and goodness of God, and that there was nothing which he obtained that was not at God's hand. Therefore he takes it upon himself to boldly ask this also of the Lord: to see God in his substance, glory, and majesty; which all the true wise men of every age only wished and longed for. For Moses says: "Because I understand that you, O God, wish me well, and that you can deny nothing, I beseech you, then: show me your glory." That is, allow me, I pray you, to see you as you are in your glorious substance and majesty. Now, in answering this request, which is the greatest of all others, God says to him: "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will cry the name of the Lord, or in the name of the Lord,[2118] before you." Exo 33.19 In these words, he promises two things to Moses. The one is, "All my goodness shall pass before you." But this chief good of God can be nothing else than the good and mighty God himself, or rather, the Word of God — I say, the very beloved Son of God, in whom we believe that all the treasures of wisdom, divinity, goodness, and perfection are placed and laid up. For he set before Moses' eyes his appearance in a human and visible shape, that same appearance he would have at the end of the world, incarnate. The other thing that he promised is this: "I will cry the name of the Lord, or in the name of the Lord, before you;" that is, I will proclaim the names of my glory, by which you may understand who I am, and see me in your mind.

But now, so that no man should attribute so excellent a vision to the merit of Moses, the Lord adds a subsequent sentence. This vision does not happen to you because of your own merit. For "without man's merits I reveal myself to whom I will, and without respect of persons I will have compassion on whom it pleases me." This consideration of the free grace and liberal goodness of God greatly belongs to the true knowledge of God.

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Then the Lord continues, and more significantly declares to Moses in what manner and order he will exhibit or show himself to him. "You may not in this life see my face;" that is, you may not fully see me in my substance; for that is reserved for the blessed spirits and glorified bodies in the world to come. I will therefore show myself to you in this fashion. You shall go up into the mountain; there in a rock I will show you a cleft, in which you shall place yourself: and I will lay my hand upon you, that is, a cloud, or some such thing, so that, as I come toward you, you may not look directly in my face. In that phrase of speech, the Lord imitates the fashion of men, whose order is to spread their hands over the eyes of the one whom they would not have narrowly behold anything. The Lord then adds: And in the meantime, I will pass by; that is, the image which I take, namely, the shape of a man, in which I will exhibit myself to be seen, shall pass by before you. And once I am past, so that you can not see my face, I will take away the hand with which I hid your eyes, and then you shall behold the back of the figure, or my hinder parts. Now the hinder parts of God are the words and deeds of God, which he leaves behind him, so that we may learn by them to know him. Again, beholding God's face is taken for the most exact and precise knowledge of God; but those who see the back only, do not know as well as those who see the face. And in the hinder or latter times of the world, God sent his Son into the world, born of a woman;[2119] whoever beholds him in faith, does not see the Godhead in his humanity, but by his words and deeds, they know who God is, and so they see the Father in the Son. For they learn that God is the chief good, and that the Son of God is God, being co-equal and of the same substance with the Father.

Now let us see how God (according to this promise he made) exhibited himself to be seen by Moses. Moses, rising up in good time, ascends up into the mountain cheerfully to the rock which the Lord had shown him, placing himself in the cleft. He looks greedily for the vision or revelation of God. At length, the Lord descended in a cloud, and came upon the mountain to the cleft of the rock in which Moses waited for him.

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And presently, when Moses' face was hidden, the figure of God passed by before him — that is, the shape of a man which God took upon himself. And when the back of the figure was toward Moses, so that he could no longer see its face, the Lord took his hand away, and Moses beheld the hinder parts of him. By this he gathered that God would one day, that is to say, in the hinder times of the world, be incarnate and revealed to the world. We will afterward say something more about this revelation. Once the Lord had gone past, he cried out as he promised, and as in a certain catalogue, he reckoned up his names by which, as in a shadow, he declared His nature. For he said, "Jehovah, Jehovah, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth; keeping mercy in store for thousands, forgiving wickedness, transgression, and sin: and yet not allowing the wicked to escape unpunished, visiting the wickedness of the fathers upon the children and children's children, to the third and fourth generation." Exo 34.6-7 What else is this, than if God had said,

'I am the uncreated essence, being of myself from before all beginning, who gives being to all things, and keeps all things in being; I am a strong and almighty God; I do not abuse my might, for I am gentle and merciful; I love my creatures, and man especially, on whom I wholly yearn in the bowels of love and mercy; I am rich and bountiful, and ready at all times to help my creatures; I freely, without recompense, give all that I bestow; I am long-suffering, and not irritable to anger or hasty to revenge, as mankind is; I am no niggard [2120] or envious, as wealthy men in the world usually are; I am most liberal and bountiful, rejoicing to be shared among my people, and to heap up benefits upon the faithful. Moreover, I am true and faithful; I deceive no man; I lie about nothing; what I promise, I stand to, and faithfully perform it. I neither can nor do so waste my riches that, at length, all is spent and I myself am drawn dry. For I keep good turns in store for a thousand generations, so that even if the former age never lived so wealthily with my riches, yet those who are still to come and be born, even till the end of the world, shall nevertheless find in me enough to suffice and satisfy their desire.

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For I am the well-spring of good that cannot be drawn dry; and if any man sins against me and afterward repents of it, I am not unappeasable. For of my own free-will I forgive errors, sins, and heinous crimes. And yet, let no man therefore think that I am delighted with sins, or that I am a patron of wicked-doers. For I, even I, punish wicked and impenitent men, and chasten even those who are my own, that thereby I may keep them in order and office. But let no man think that he may sin and escape unpunished, because he sees that his ancestors sinned and were not punished — that is, sinned and were not utterly cut off and wiped out. For I reserve revenge till a just and full time, and I so behave myself, that all are compelled to confess me to be a God of judgment.'

Now, when Moses the servant of God had heard and seen these things, he made haste, and fell down prostrate to the earth, and worshipped. Let us also do the same, being surely certified that the Lord will not grant, so long as we live in this transitory world, to reveal himself and his glory any whit more fully and publicly,[2121] than he was exhibited to us in Christ his Son. Therefore, let the things that sufficed Moses suffice us also: let the knowledge of Christ suffice and content us.

For THIRDLY, the most evident and excellent way and means to know God, is laid out before us in Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate and made man. For we just heard, even now, that the shadow of Christ was set before Moses, when it pleased God to most familiarly reveal himself to him. And the apostle Paul places the illumination or appearing of "the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ." 2Cor 4.6 And in another place, the same Paul calls Christ "the brightness of his Father's glory, and the living image of his substance." Heb 1.3 Truly, he most plainly says himself in the gospel, "No man knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." Mat 11.27 For he is the way to the Father, and the Father is seen and beheld in him. For we again read in the gospel, "No man has ever seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed Him to us." Joh 1.18

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But again the apostle says, "Since, in the wisdom of God the world through their wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe." 1Cor 1.21 That which he calls "the wisdom of God" in this place, is the very creation and workmanship of the world, and the wonderful works of God, in which God would be known to the world. And in beating out and considering this, all the wisdom of all the wise men till then, altogether lay. But because the consideration of those things did them no good, because man's wisdom for the most part referred the causes of things to something other than God, who is the true and only mark to which they should be referred. And while men thought themselves wise, as the same apostle [2122] teaches us, they became fools in their own reasonings. Thus, it pleased God to be known to the world by another way; namely, by the foolish preaching of the gospel, which indeed is the most absolute and perfect wisdom; but to the worldly wisdom of mortal men, it seems foolishness. For it seems a foolish thing to the men of this world, that the true and very God, being incarnate or made man, was resident with us here in the earth, in poverty, hungry, suffered, and died. And yet, even this is the way by which God is most evidently known to the world, together with His wisdom, goodness, truth, righteousness, and power. For the wisdom of God, which no tongue can utter, shines out very brightly in the whole ministry and wonderful dispensation of Christ — but far more publicly, if we discuss and beat out the causes (of which I spoke elsewhere), and thoroughly weigh the doctrine of Christ. In the incarnation of the Son of God, it appears how God wishes the world well, it being sunk and drowned in sin, as that to which he is bound by an indissoluble league. And through Christ He adopts the sons of death and the devil, into the sons and heirs of life everlasting. Now, Christ most exactly fulfils all those things which the prophets foretold of him by the revelation of God; and he most liberally performs the things which God the Father promised about him; and that declares how unchangeable and true the eternal God is.

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In the deeds or miracles of Christ our Lord — in his resurrection, in his glorious ascension into heaven, and the most plentiful outpouring of his holy Spirit upon his disciples, but especially in converting the whole world from paganism and Judaism to the evangelical truth — appear the power, long-suffering, majesty, and unspeakable goodness of God the Father. In the death of Christ, the Son of God, shines the great justice of God the Father, who having once been offended with our sins, could not be pacified except with such and so great a sacrifice. Finally, because He did not spare not his only-begotten Son, but gave him up for us who are his enemies and wicked rebels — even in this, is that mercy of His made known to the world, which is very rightly commended above all the works of God. Therefore, in the Son and by the Son, God most manifestly makes himself manifest to the world; so that whatever is needful to be known about God or his will, and whatever belongs to heavenly and healthful wisdom, that is wholly opened and thoroughly perceived and seen in the Son.

Therefore, when Philip said to Christ, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will suffice us;" we read in John that the Lord answered, "Have I been so long with you, and do you not yet know me? Philip, he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how can say you, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" Joh 14.8-10 Now, in this he calls back all the faithful from over-curious searching after God, laying before them the mystery of the dispensation in which he would have us rest and content ourselves, namely this: that God was made man. Therefore whoever desires to see and know God truly, let them cast the eyes of their mind upon Christ, and believe the mystery of him contained in words and deeds, learning by them what and who God is. For God is such a one as he exhibits himself to be known in Christ, and in that very knowledge, he appoints eternal life to be, where he says: "And this is eternal life, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Joh 17.3

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Let him that wishes himself well, take heed that he not go about to know any more than God himself teaches us in Christ. But whoever follows the rule and subtleties of man's wit, neglecting Christ, truly comes to nothing and perishes in his thoughts.

The FOURTH means by which to know God, is fetched out of the contemplation of His works. David says, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows forth the works of his hands." Psa 19.1 And the apostle Paul says, "His invisible things, being understood by his works through the creation of the world, are seen, that is, both his eternal power and Godhead." Rom 1.20 Look, the power and Godhead of God are these invisible things of God; and yet they are understood by the consideration of God's works. Therefore, even God himself is known by the works of God.

But now, the works of God are doubly considered, or are of two sorts. For either they are laid before us to be beheld in things created for the benefit of men, as in the heavens and earth themselves, and those things that are in heaven and on earth, and are governed and preserved by the providence of God. Of this sort are the stars and the motions or courses of the stars, the influence of heaven, the course [2123] of time, living creatures of all kinds (trees, plants, fruits of the earth), the sea and whatever is in it, stones, and whatever things are hidden within and dug out of the earth for the use of men. St. Basil and St. Ambrose have written about these very learnedly and godly in their books entitled, "The Work of Six Days," which they called Hexaëmeron.[2124] Here may be inserted that history of nature, which the glorious and worthy king David in the Psalms, especially the hundredth psalm, most fitly applies to our purpose. But lest we make the course of this present treatise entangled and intricate, I will hereafter speak of the creation of the world, and of God's government and providence, as the same. At present, it shall suffice to know [2125] that heaven and earth, and all that is in them, declare to us, and set before our eyes as it were, an evident argument that God, just as He is most wise, is also most mighty, wonderful, of an infinite majesty, of an incomprehensible glory, most just, most gracious, and most excellent.

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Isaiah therefore, a faithful teacher of the church, giving good counsel for the state of mortal men, says to them: "Lift up your eyes on high, and consider who has made these things that come forth by heaps,[2126] calling them all by their names; whose strength is so great, that none of them fails." Isa 40.26 For although, even from the beginning, the stars have shined to the world, and have performed in their course, that for which they were created — yet they are not worn by use, nor consumed away or darkened ought at all by their continuance; for they are preserved whole, by the power of their maker. Jeremiah also cries: "Lord, there is none like you. You are great, and great is your name with power. Who would not fear you, O king of the Gentiles? For yours is the glory: for among all the wise men of the heathen, and in all their kingdoms, there is none that may be likened to you." Jer 10.6-7 And immediately after, again:

"The Lord God is a true and living God and king. [2127] If he is angered, the earth shakes, nor can the Gentiles abide his indignation. He made the earth with his power; with his wisdom he orders the whole compass of the world; and with his discretion he has spread the heavens out. At his voice, the waters gathered together in the air; he draws up the clouds from the uttermost parts of the earth; he turns lightning to rain, and brings the winds out of their treasuries." Jer 10.10-13

Or else, the works of God are set forth for us to behold in man, the very lord and prince of all creatures, not so much in the workmanship or making of man — which Lactantius and Andreas Vesalius [2128] have surpassingly painted out for all men to see — as in the works which toward man, or in man, or by man, the Lord himself finishes and brings to pass.

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For God justly punishes some men; and by punishing them he declares that he knows the dealings of mortal men, and hates all wrong and injury. Upon others, he heaps up very large and ample benefits; and in being bountiful to them, he declares that He is rich, yes, that He is the fountain of goodness which cannot be drawn dry; and that he is bountiful, good, merciful, gentle, and long-suffering. There are innumerable examples of this in the history of the Bible. Cain, for the murder committed upon his brother, lived a miserable and wretched life here on earth. For the just Lord revenges the blood shed of the innocent. The first world was drowned in the deluge;[2129] a plague was laid on it for the contempt of God; but Noah and his were saved in the ark by the mercy of God. God brings Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, and places him in the land of Canaan, blessing and loading him with all manner of goods. He wonderfully keeps Jacob in all his troubles and infinite calamities. Through great afflictions, he lifts up Joseph from the prison [2130] to the throne of Egypt. He grievously plagues the Egyptians for the tyranny shown in oppressing Israel, and for the contempt of his commandment. But it would be too long and tedious to make a catalog of all the examples.

Now, by these and like works of God we learn who, and how great, our God is, how wise he is, how good, how mighty, how liberal, how just and rightful; and with this we learn that we must believe him, and obey him in all things. For Asaph says:

"The things that we have heard and known, and such as our fathers have told us, those we will not hide from our sons; but will show to the generations to come the praise of the Lord, his mighty and wonderful works which he has done: that the children which are born, when they come to age, may show their children the same; that they may put their trust in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments." Psa 78.3-7 And as follows in the seventy-eighth Psalm.

Another means to know God, FIFTHLY, is that which is gathered from comparisons. For the scripture compares all the most excellent things in the world with God, whom it prefers before them all; so that we may gather by this, that God is the chief good, and that his majesty is incomprehensible.

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This one place in Isaiah may take the place of many, where in the fortieth chapter he says:

"Who has measured the waters with his fist? Who has measured heaven with his span? Who has held the dust of the earth between three fingers, and weighed the mountains [2131] and hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? Who gave him counsel? Who taught him? Who is of his counsel, to instruct him? Behold, all people are in comparison to him are a drop in a bucket-full, and counted as the least thing that the balance weighs. Yes, he shall cast out the isles as the smallest crumb of dust. Lebanon is not sufficient to provide Him wood to burn, nor its beasts enough for one sacrifice to him. All people in comparison to him are reckoned as nothing; and if they are compared with him, they are counted as less than nothing... Do you not understand this? Has it not been preached to you since the beginning? Have you not been taught this by the foundation of the earth? It is he that sits upon the circle of the world, whose inhabiters are (in comparison to him) but as grasshoppers. He spreads out the heavens as a covering, and stretches them out as a tent to dwell in. He brings princes to nothing, and makes the judges of the earth as though they did not exist." Isa 40.12-17, 21-23 And so forth.

Now, to this place belong the Prosopopoeial [2132] statements of God. You may find many sundry examples of them, besides the visions we placed in the SECOND way or means of knowing God. But the most excellent are found in the eighteenth Psalm, and in the fifth chapter of Solomon's Ballad. [2133] I passed over both of these, untouched, because I did not mean to keep you too long; for we must descend to the other points.

Last of all, SIXTHLY, God is known by the sayings or sentences uttered by the mouths of the prophets and apostles. Of this sort is that notable speech of Jeremiah, where he says:

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"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the rich man in his riches: [2134] but let him that glories glory in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, and do mercy, judgment, and righteousness upon earth. Therefore I am delighted in such things alone, says the Lord." Jer 9.23-24 Now, by the mercy of God we are saved and adorned with sundry great benefits; by his judgment he punishes the wicked and disobedient according to their deserts, and with this he keeps equity: even as his righteousness also truly performs that which he promises. Therefore, we say that God is a Saviour, a liberal giver of all good things, an upright Judge, and assured truth in performing his promises.

And here, now, is to be referred the doctrine of the prophets and apostles, which teaches the true knowledge of God, acknowledging Him to be one in essence, and three in persons. Concerning the unity of the divine essence (by the allegation of which, the plurality of the heathen gods is utterly rejected and flatly condemned), I will cite those testimonies out of the holy scripture which seem to be more evident and excellent than all the others — which are so many in number, that a man can hardly count them all. The most notable is that which is grounded upon prophetic and evangelical authority. It is cited out of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, 6.4 and set down in these words in the twelfth chapter of Mark: "Jesus said, The first of all the commandments is, Hearken, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like this, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." Mar 12.29-31 It now follows in the gospel: "And the Scribe said, Well, Master, you have said the truth; that there is one God, and that there is no other but he; and that to love him with all the heart, with all the mind, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love a man's neighbour as himself, is greater than all the burnt-offerings and sacrifices." Mar 12.32-33 All the other notable testimonies in the law, agree with this one.

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For in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, we read that the Lord himself said with his own mouth at mount Sinai: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; have no other gods but me." [2135] Again, at the end of his song Moses brings in God saying: "See now, how I am God, and there is no other God but me. I kill, and make alive again. I wound, and I heal, nor is there any who can deliver out of my hand." Deu 32.39 The testimonies of the prophets also agree with those in the law. For in the eighteenth Psalm, David says: "The way of God is an undented way, the word of the Lord also is tried in the fire. He is the defender of all them that put their trust in him. For who is God but the Lord? or who has any strength [2136] except our God?" Psa 18.30-31 There are many of this sort in other places in the volume of the Psalms.

The Lord says in Isaiah, and cries by Isaiah, "I am the Lord, Hu [2137] is my name, and my glory I will not give to any other, nor my honour to graven images." Isa 42.8 "I am the first and the last, and beside me there is no God. And who is like me? (If any are), let him call forth and openly show what is past, and lay before me what has happened since I appointed the people of the world;[2138] and let him tell what will happen afterward, and come to pass." Isa 44.6-7 "I the Lord do all things; I alone spread out the heavens, and only I have laid out the earth by myself." Isa 42.5 "I make the tokens of witches of no effect, and make the soothsayers fools. As for the wise, I turn them backward, and make their wisdom foolishness. I set up the word of my servant, and fulfil the counsels of my messengers." Isa 4^4.25-26 "I am the Lord, and there is no other; who creates [2139] light and darkness, and makes peace and trouble: yes, even I the Lord do all these things." Isa 45.7

To these testimonies of the prophets we will now add one or two out of St. Paul, the great instructor and apostle of the Gentiles. In his epistle to Timothy he says: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1Tim 2.5

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And again he says: "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, which is above all, and through all, and in you all." Eph 4.5 Again, the same apostle says to the Corinthians: "There is no other God but one. And if others are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, (as there are many gods, and many lords) yet to us there is but one God, even the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." 1Cor 8.4-6 Now I suppose these divine testimonies are evident enough, and sufficiently prove that God is one in substance, of incomprehensible essence, eternal, and spiritual.

But under the one essence of the Godhead, the holy scripture shows us a distinction of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Now, note here that I call it a distinction, not a division or separation. For we adore and worship no more Gods than one; but we neither confound, nor yet deny or take away the three subsistences or persons of the divine essence, nor the properties of it. Noetus (indeed Anoetus) [2140] and Sabellius the Libyan, a godless, bold, and very rude ass, from whom sprang up the gross heresy of the Patripassians, [2141] taught that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost imported no distinction in God, but that they were diverse attributes of God. For they said that God is called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, in no other sense than when he is named good, just, gentle, omnipotent, wise, etc. They said the Father created the world; and only in the name of the Son, he took on flesh and suffered; and again, merely changing his name, he was the Holy Ghost who came upon the disciples. But the true, prophetic, and apostolic faith expressly teaches that the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost show us what God is in his own proper nature. For naturally and eternally, God is the Father, because from before beginnings, he unspeakably begot the Son. The same God is naturally the Son, because he was begotten of the Father from before beginnings. The same God is naturally the Holy Ghost, because he is the eternal Spirit of them both, proceeding from both, being one and the same God with them both.

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And when in the scriptures, he is called a gentle, good, wise, merciful, and just God, it is not so much expressed by this what he is in himself, as what a God he exhibits to us. The same scripture openly says, that the Father created all things by the Son; and that the Father did not descend into the earth, nor did he take our flesh upon himself, nor suffer for us. For the Son says, "I went out from the Father, and came into the world;" again, "I leave the world, and go to the Father." Joh 16.28 The same Son, falling prostrate in the mount of Olives prays, saying, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." Mat 26.39 Again, in the gospel he says, "I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter." Joh 14.16 Look, here he says the Father shall give you another Comforter. And yet again, lest we separate or divide the divine nature because of those persons and the properties of those persons, the Son says in the gospel, "I and the Father are one." Joh 8.16 For when he says "one," he overthrows those who separate or rend the divine substance or nature. And when he says, "We are," and not "I am," he refutes those who confound the subsistences or persons in the Trinity. Therefore, the apostolic and catholic doctrine teaches and confesses that they are three, distinguished in properties; and of those three, there is but one and the same nature or essence — the same omnipotence, majesty, goodness, and wisdom. For although there is an order in the Trinity, there is no inequality at all. None of them is before another in time, or worthier than another in dignity. But of the three, there is one Godhead, and these three are one and eternal God.

The primitive church, truly, under the apostles and in the times that came after them, believed so simply, despising and rejecting curious questions and needless disputations. And even then, overly pestilent men arose in the church of God, speaking perverse things, whom the apostle for good cause calls "grievous wolves, not sparing the flock." Act 20.29 They first brought in [2142] very strange and dangerous questions, and sharpened their blasphemous tongues against heaven itself. For they took the stance that three persons could not exist in one nature or essence; therefore, by naming the Trinity (they said), Christians worshipped many Gods, as the heathen do.

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Again, since there can be but one God, they consequently infer that the same God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost unto himself. It was thus agreeable that they should dote in folly, whom the word of God did not lead, but the gross imagination of mortal flesh. And by these means, God punished the giant-like boldness of those men, whose minds, being without any reverence and fear of God, wickedly strived to fasten the sight of the eyes of the flesh upon the very face of God. But the faithful and vigilant overseers and pastors of the churches were compelled to drive such wolves from the folds of Christ's sheep, and to valiantly fight for the sincere and catholic truth — that is, for the Unity and Trinity, for the monarchy and mystery of the dispensation. Such strife bred diverse words, with which it was necessary to hold and bind those slippery merchants.[2143] Therefore, immediately after the beginning, these terms sprang up: Unity, Trinity, essence, substance, and person. The Greeks for the most part used ousia, hypostasis, and prosopon, which we call essence, subsistence, and person.

From these again sprang up new and fresh contentions in the churches.[2144] They disputed sharply about the essence and subsistence, whether they are the same or different things. For Ruffinus Aquileiensis,[2145] in the twenty-ninth chapter and first book of his ecclesiastical history, says:

"There arose a controversy about the difference between substances and subsistences, which the Greeks call ousia and hypostasis. For some said that substance and subsistence seem to be the same; and because we do not say that there are three substances in God, we should not say that there are three subsistences in him. But on the other side, those who took substance for one thing, and subsistence for another, said that substance denotes the nature of a thing and the reason on which it stands; but that the subsistence of every person shows that very thing which subsists." [2146]

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Basilius Magnus wrote a learned epistle to his brother Gregory about the difference between essence and subsistence.[2147] And Hermius Sozomenus, in the twelfth chapter of his fifth book of Histories, says:

"The bishops of many cities, meeting together at Alexandria, together with Athanasius and Eusebius Vercellensis,[2148] confirm the decrees of Nicaea, and confess that the Holy Ghost is co-essential with the Father and the Son, and name them the Trinity. They teach that the man, which God the Word took upon himself, is to be accounted perfect man, not in body only, but in soul also; even as the ancient doctors of the church also thought. But because the question about Ousia and Hypostasis troubled the churches, and there were contentions and disputations concerning the difference between them, they seem to me to have determined very wisely, that those terms should not at the first presently be used in questions about God. That is, unless a man were compelled to use them to beat down the opinion of Sabellius, lest by lack of words, he seemed to call one and the same by three names — when he should understand each one particularly, in that three-fold distinction." [2149]

Socrates adds this in the seventh chapter and third book of his History: "But they did not bring into the church a certain new religion devised by themselves, but that which, from the beginning even till then, the ecclesiastical tradition taught, and prudent Christians evidently set forth." [2150] And so forth.

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Therefore, away with the pope's champions, to the place where they are worthy. For when we teach that all points of true godliness and salvation are fully contained and taught in the canonical scriptures, by way of objection, they demand to know in what passage of scripture we find the terms Trinity, person, essence, and substance; and finally, where do we find that Christ has a reasonable soul? For although those specific words, consisting in those syllables, are not to be found in the canonical books (which were written by the prophets and apostles in another tongue, and not in Latin), yet the things, matter, or substance which those words signify, are most manifestly contained and taught in those books. All and every nation may likewise express these things in their language, and speak and pronounce them for their commodity and necessity. Away also with all sophisters, who think it is a great point of learning to make the reverend mystery of the sacred Trinity, dark and intricate with their strange, curious, and pernicious questions. It is sufficient for the godly, according to the scriptures and the apostles' creed, to simply believe and confess that there is one divine nature or essence, in which are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Nor is it greatly material whether you call them substances, or subsistences, or persons, so long as you plainly express the distinction between them, and each one's individual properties — so confessing the unity, that you do not confound the Trinity, nor spoil the persons of their properties.

And here now, it will do very well [2151] to cite out of the scriptures evident testimonies that may evidently prove the mystery of the Trinity, with the distinction and several properties of the three persons. The Lord says in the Gospel of Matthew: "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth: go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatever I have commanded you." Mat 28.19-20

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Tertullian, alleging those words against Praxeas, says: "He last of all commanded his disciples to baptize into the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We are baptized not into one, nor once, but three times, at every name, into every several person." [2152] This much from Tertullian. Now as every several person is severally expressed, so the divinity of them all is singularly taught to be one and common to them all, because he bids us to baptize, not only into the name of the Father, but also of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The apostle and elected vessel, Paul, flatly denies that any man either ought to be, or ever was, baptized into the name of any man, who is nothing but a mere man. "Were you," he says, "baptized in the name of Paul?" 1Cor 1.13 So then, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, into whose name we are baptized.

The Lord says in the Gospel of St. John: "When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is, the Spirit of truth," Joh 15.26 "he will lead you into all truth. He shall not speak of himself: but whatever he hears, that he shall speak. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and show to you. All things that the Father has are mine: therefore said I to you that he shall take of mine, and show to you." Joh 16.13-15 In these words of the Lord's, you hear mention made of the person of the Father from whom the Spirit is sent, of the person of the Son who sends him, and of the person of the Holy Spirit who comes to us. You also hear of the mutual and equal communion of the divinity and all good things between the three persons. For the Holy Ghost speaks not of himself, but that which he hears. "He shall," says the Son, "take of mine." And again: "All things that the Father has are mine."

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And therefore, what things the Son has, those are the Father's: and the divinity, glory, and majesty of them all is co-equal.

Two manifest testimonies of John the Baptist agree with these most evident statements. First he says: "He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for God does not give the Spirit by measure to him. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. He that believes on the Son has everlasting life," etc. Joh 3.34 Look, here again, in the one Godhead you hear the three persons distinguished by their properties. For the Father loves and sends the Son, and gives all things into his hand; the Son is sent, and he receives all things; but the Holy Ghost is given by the Father, and received by the Son according to fulness. Then the Baptist cries out the second time, and says:

"I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode on him. And I did not know him; but He that sent me to baptize with water, said to me, Upon whomever you see the Spirit descending, and still tarrying upon him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." Joh 1.32-34

Here again are shown to us, as clear as daylight, the three persons distinguished and not confounded. For He that sends John is the Father. The Holy Ghost is neither the Father, nor the Son, but appears upon the head of Christ in the likeness of a dove. And the Son is the Son, not the Father, and the Son of the Father too, on whose head the Holy Ghost stayed. And now to this place belongs the testimony of the Father, uttered from heaven upon his Son Christ. For he says: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Mat 3.17 But one and the same cannot be both father and son to himself. The Father is one, and the Son is one: and yet they are not diverse, but one and the same God, of one and the same nature. For the Son in one place most plainly says: "I and the Father are one," etc. Joh 10.30

Moreover, what could be more clearly spoken for the proof of the express distinction and properties of the three persons in the reverend Trinity, than where the archangel Gabriel in St. Luke, declaring the sacrament [2153] of the Lord's incarnation.

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He evidently [2154] says the following to the virgin, the mother of God: "The Holy Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore also, that holy one who shall be born will be called the Son of God." Luk 1.35 What, I pray you, could have possibly been invented on purpose, to be more manifestly spoken for the proof of this matter, than these words of the angel? You have here the person of the Highest, that is, of the Father. For in the words of the angel, a little before, it is said: "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest." Luk 1.32 Now the Son is the Son of the Father. We also have the persons of the Son and of the Holy Ghost expressed, with their properties neither mingled nor confounded. The Father is not incarnate, nor the Holy Ghost, but only the Son. To the Father is born of the virgin, a Son, even he that was the Son by the eternal and unspeakable manner of begetting. But the Holy Ghost, which is the power of the Most Highest, overshadowed the virgin, and made her with child. And so, by this means you see here the persons distinguished, not divided; and how they differ in properties, not in essence of deity, or in nature.

Here now (although these places might seem to suffice any reasonable man [2155]) I will add yet other testimonies of the holy apostles, and the three most excellent among all the apostles. St. Peter, preaching the word of the Gospel before the church of Israel, as Luke testifies in the Acts of the Apostles, says among other things: "This Jesus God has raised up, and exalted him to his right hand; and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth what you now see and hear." Act 2.32-33 Look, God the Father raises up and exalts the Son; the Son is raised up, exalted, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and the Son, receiving the Holy Ghost from the Father, bestows it on the apostles. Therefore, the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, subsisting in his own person, but being one and the same Spirit of them both. Moreover, in the sermon made at Caesarea in the congregation of the Gentiles, that is, in the house and family of Cornelius the centurion, the same apostle just as plainly expresses the person of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and knits the Trinity together into one essence of the divine nature. Act 10

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St. Paul says in the beginning of his epistle to the Romans, that he was "appointed to preach the gospel of God, which he had promised beforehand by his prophets in the holy scriptures, about his Son; who was made of the seed of David after the flesh, and has been declared to be the Son of God with power after the Spirit that sanctifies." Rom 1.1-4 Again, he says to the Galatians: "God sent his Son, made of a woman, that by adoption we might receive the right of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Gal 4.4-6 And again, he says to Titus: "God, according to his mercy, has saved us by the fountain of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost,[2156] which he shed on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Tit 3.5 Therefore, St. Cyril, speaking very truly of the apostle Paul, Libro in Joan. ix. cap. 45, says: "That holy man rightly knew the enumeration of the sacred Trinity. And therefore he teaches that every person properly and distinctly subsists; and yet he preaches openly the immutable self-sameness of the Trinity." [2157] Concerning this matter, if any man would gather together and reckon up all the testimonies that Paul has for the proof of it, he must of necessity recite all his epistles.

In his evangelical history as well as in his epistle, the blessed apostle and evangelist John, more strongly and evidently than the others, affirms and sets forth the mystery of the Trinity and the distinction of the persons. Among many, this one will be sufficient at this time. In his canonical epistle, he says: "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is Christ? He is antichrist, who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son, does not have the Father... Therefore let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning." 1Joh 2.22-24

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And a little after, he says again: "You do not need that any man teach you, as the same anointing teaches you about all things, and it is true, and not lying." 1Joh 2.27 In these words, you hear the Father, you hear the Son, you hear the anointing, that is, the Holy Ghost. The Father is not the Son; the Son is not the Father; neither is the Holy Ghost the Father, or the Son: but the Father is the Father of the Son, the Son is the Son of the Father, and the Holy Ghost [2158] proceeds from them both. And yet, those persons are so joined and united, that he who denies one of them, has none of them in him. Indeed, whoever denies this Trinity is pronounced to be antichrist, for he denies God, who is one in Trinity and three in Unity. And consequently, by confounding or taking away the properties of God, he denies that God is such a one as He is indeed.

Now, I suppose that these many and so manifest testimonies will suffice the godly. For they believe the scriptures, and do not over-curiously pry into the majesty of God. They are content with those things alone in which it has pleased God of his goodness, to appear and shine to us mortal men. There are some who endeavour by certain parables or similitudes to shadow this matter; that is to say, to show how the three persons are said to be distinguished, and yet notwithstanding to be one God. But in all the things that God has made (as I admonished you in the beginning of this treatise), there is nothing which can properly be likened to the nature of God. Nor are there any words in the mouths of men that can properly be spoken about it. Nor are there any similitudes of man's invention that can rightly and squarely agree with the divine Essence. St. Basil, disputing in de Ousia et Hypostasi, says: "It cannot be that the comparisons of examples should in all points be like those things, the use of which the examples serve." [2159] You may say that injury is done to the majesty of God if it is compared with mortal things. But because the holy scripture greatly condescends and tempers itself to our infirmity, I will propose a similitude, although indeed it is much unlike that which is usually taken and commonly used.

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Behold the sun and the beams that come from it, and then the heat that proceeds from them both. Just as the sun is the headspring of the light and the heat, so the Father is the headspring of the Son, who is light of light. And just as the heat comes from the sun and the beams together, so the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son together. But now, imagine that the sun were such that it never had a beginning, nor will ever have an ending; I ask you, would not the beams of this everlasting sun then be everlasting too? And would not the heat, which proceeds from them both, be everlasting, as well as they? Finally, would not the sun still be one in essence or substance, and yet three by reason of the three subsistences or persons? TERTULLIAN used this parable of the sun. His words, which also contain other solitudes,[2160] I will not be grieved to recite to you:

"I would not doubt to call both the stalk of a root, the brook of a spring-head, and a beam of the sun, by the name son; for every original is a parent, and everything that issues from that original is a son. Much more, then, even the Word of God may properly have the name of Son. And yet, just as the stalk is not separated from the root, nor the brook from the spring-head, nor the beam from the sun — no more is the Word separated from God. Therefore, according to the fashion of these examples, I profess to say that there are two: God and his Word, the Father and his Son. For the root and the stalk are two things, but joined in one; and the spring-head and the brook are two kinds, but undivided; and the sun and its beams are two forms, but both clinging one to the other. Everything that comes from anything must be second to that out of which it comes; and yet it is not separated from that from which it proceeds. But where a second exists, there are two; and where a third exists, there are three. For the third is the Spirit of God and of the Son; even as the third from the root is the fruit of the stalk, the third from the spring-head is the river of the brook, and the third from the sun is the heat of the beam: yet none of these is alienated from the matrix from which they take the properties that they have.

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So too the Trinity, descending by annexed and linked degrees from the Father, does not work against the monarchy [or unity of the Godhead], and it defends the economical state — that is, the mystery of the dispensation. Understand that I profess this rule everywhere, in which I testify that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are unseparated from one another — and you shall know how everything is spoken." [2161]

And so forth; for all these are the words of Tertullian, who flourished in Africa, not long after the age of the apostles.

But letting pass the parables, similitudes, or comparisons of man's invention, let us steadfastly believe the evident word of God. What man's capacity cannot attain to, let faith hold that fast. What the sacred scriptures declare to us, what Christ in his flesh taught us, what was confirmed by so many miracles for our sakes,[2162] what the Spirit of God in the true church tells us, that must be thought more true and certain than what is proved by a thousand demonstrations, or what all your senses are able to conceive. Paul denies that he would listen to an angel, if it were to speak anything contrary to the gospel of Christ. Yes, surely it is a prank of arrogant foolishness, to doubt the things that are laid out and taught with such great authority in the scriptures. But it is a greater madness if a man will not believe the oracles of God, and for no other cause than that our understanding cannot attain to the knowledge of all things, when nevertheless we know that our understanding is naturally blind and hates God.

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Among philosophers, the one rejects the authority of any notable and approved writer, is considered an impudent fellow. It was enough to persuade the scholars of Pythagoras for a man to say to them, autov efh "he said it." Then would a Christian dare to seek loopholes, and jangle about, asking curious questions, when it is said to him, God said it, and taught you to believe it? No man doubts the king's letters patent,[2163] if its seal is acknowledged. Therefore, what a folly it is to doubt the divine testimonies, which are so evident, and firmly sealed with the Spirit of God!

Therefore, that I may here recapitulate and briefly express the principal sum of our exposition, I will recite to you, dearly beloved, the words of the holy father Cyril, which are to be found in Libra in Joan. ix. cap. 30, in the following sense:

"True faith is in God the Father, and in the Son, not simply, but incarnate, and in the Holy Ghost. For the holy and consubstantial Trinity is distinguished by the differences of names, that is, by the properties of the persons. For the Father is the Father, and not the Son: and the Son is the Son, and not the Father: and the Holy Ghost is the Holy Spirit proper to the Father and the Son. For the substance of the Deity is all one, or the same. Therefore we preach not three, but one God. Therefore we must believe in God; but distinctly and more fully expounding our faith, we must so believe, that we may refer the same glorification to every person. For there is no difference of faith. We should not have a greater faith in the Father than in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost; but the measure and manner of it must be one and the same, equally consisting in each of the three persons, so that by this means we may confess the unity of nature in the trinity of persons. This faith must be firmly grounded in our minds, which faith is in the Father, and in the Son, (and the Son, I say, even after he was made man), and in the Holy Ghost." [2164]

This much out of Cyril.

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Now, all these points shall be thoroughly confirmed with fuller testimonies, once we come to prove the divinity of the Son of God, and of the Holy Ghost; which I mean to reserve till a convenient time.

But let no [2165] man think that this belief of the unity and trinity of the Godhead was either invented by the fathers or bishops of the churches, or first of all preached by the apostles immediately upon Christ's death and ascension. For all the holy patriarchs, prophets, and elect people of God, even from the beginning of the world, believed and grounded their faith in this same way that I have declared to you up to here. Although I do not deny that the mystery of the Trinity was more clearly expounded to the world by Christ, yet it is evident by some undoubted testimonies (which I will add shortly), that the mystery of the Trinity was very well known to the patriarchs and the prophets. But first, I will admonish you by the way, that the holy patriarchs and prophets of God held themselves content with the bare revelation and word of God, not raising curious questions about the unity and trinity of God. They clearly understood that there is one God, the Father of all, the only Saviour and author of all goodness; and that without or beside him there is no other God at all. And they again evidently saw that the Son of God, that promised Seed, has all things in common with the Father. For they most plainly heard that he is called the Saviour, and is the Redeemer, from whom all good things proceed and are bestowed upon the faithful.

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By this it was now easy for them to gather that the Father and the Son are one God, although they differ in properties. For insomuch as they were assuredly certain that the damnable doctrine of the plurality of gods sprung from the devil, they did not worship many, but only one God, whom notwithstanding they believed to consist of a trinity of persons. For Moses, the undoubted servant of God, in the very first verse of his first book says: "In the beginning (creavit Dii) God created heaven and earth." He joins here a verb of the singular number to a noun of the plural number, not to make incongruity of speech, but to note the mystery of the Trinity. For the sense is as if he had said, That God which consists of three persons created heaven and earth. For a little after, consulting with himself about the making of man, God says, "Let us make in our image." Look, here he says, "Let us make," and not, "Let me make," or, "I will make." And again he says, "In our image," and not, "In my image." But lest any man think that this consultation was had with the angels, let him hear what God himself says in Isaiah: "I the Lord," he says, "make all things, and stretch out the heavens alone of myself," (that is, of my own power, without any help or fellow with me) "and set the earth fast." Isa 44.24 Therefore, the Father consulted with the Son, by whom also he created the world. And again, lest any man think (as the Jews object) that these things were according to the order and custom of men, spoken by God in the plural number for honour's sake and worship,[2166] you may hear what follows in the end of the third chapter: "Behold, this man has become as one of us, in knowing good and evil." Now here, by enallage [2167] he puts these words, "has become," for "shall become," or, "shall happen:" so that his meaning is as if he had said, "Behold, the same will happen to Adam that will come to one of us," that is, to the Son; namely: that he would have a trial of good and evil; that is, he would feel sundry fortunes — namely sickness, calamities, and death — and (as the proverb says) feel both sweet and sour; for that is the lot or condition of man.

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But the Son being incarnate for us, not the Father nor the Holy Ghost, was found in shape as a man, and had a trial of sundry fortunes and of death. This was foretold to Adam, as it is manifest, for consolation's sake, and not in the way of mocking. For the good Lord with a garment, strengthened the body of our first parent [2168] against the unseasonableness of the air, when for Adam's sin God purposed to banish him out of paradise; so he comforted and cheered up his sorrowful mind with a full example of the Son's incarnation and suffering. And when he had so armed him in body and soul, he casts him out of the garden of felicity, into a careful and miserable exile.

There are in every place, many examples of this matter like this. For Abraham saw three; but with those three, he talked as with one, and he worshipped one. Gen 18 And "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and overthrew those cities." Gen 19.24 But lest any man interpret it and say, The Lord rained from the Lord, that is, from heaven; he presently adds, "From heaven." For as the Father created all things by the Son, so he preserves all things by him, and even still, works all things by him.

Next after Moses, the most notable prophet, David, says in his Psalm: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth." Psa 33.6 So here you hear that there is one Lord, in whom is the Word and the Spirit, both distinguished but not separated. For the Lord made the heavens, but by the "Word; and the whole furniture of heaven stands by the breath of the mouth of the Lord. The same David says: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool." Psa 110.1 Note that in another place, David flatly says that beside the Lord there is no other. And yet here again he just as plainly says, "The Lord said to my Lord;" meaning the Father, who had placed the Son, who was David's Lord, at His right hand in heaven.

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Out of Isaiah may be gathered very many testimonies. But the most notable of all is that which Matthew the apostle cites in these words: "Behold, my Son whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him," etc. Isa 42.1 With this agrees that which Luke cites,4.18 saying: "The Spirit of the Lord upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has he sent me," etc. Isa 61.1 In these testimonies here, you have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. A few out of many; for I do not wish to turn over the entire scriptures of the old Testament.

So then, this faith with which we believe in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, we have received from God himself, being delivered to us by the prophets and patriarchs, but most evidently of all, declared by the Son of God himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, and his holy apostles. From this we now easily gather why it is that all the sincere bishops or ministers of the churches, together with the whole church of Christ, have ever since the apostles' time, maintained and held this faith in honour, with so firm a consent. It would be truly a detestable impiety to leave this catholic and true rule of faith, and to choose and follow one newly invented. There are extant even today, most godly and learned books of ecclesiastical writers, in which they have declared and defended this catholic faith by the holy scriptures, against all wicked and blasphemous heretics. There are extant sundry symbols of faith, but all tending to one end, set forth and published in many synodal assemblies of bishops and fathers. There is extant today, that creed commonly called the Apostles' Creed, learned and repeated by the universal Church and all its members, both learned and unlearned, and by every sex and age. In it, we profess nothing else than what we have declared up to here: namely, that we believe in one God — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And because this consent of all the saints concerning this true faith has been so sure and firm ever since the beginning of the world, it was very well and godly provided by ancient kings and princes, that no man should once dare be so bold as to either call into doubt, or with curious questions and disputations, to deface or make intricate, this belief concerning the unity and trinity of the almighty God. [2169]

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Of old among the Israelites, the man was struck through and slain, who passed beyond the limited bounds that the Lord had set. And we also have certain appointed bounds about the knowledge of God; to pass them is hurtful to us; indeed, it is punished with assured death.

God grant that we may truly know, and religiously worship, the high, excellent, and mighty God, even so, and even such, as He himself is. For up to here I have, as simply, sincerely, and briefly as I could, discoursed about the ways and means to know God, who is one in substance, and three in persons. And yet we acknowledge and freely confess, that in this entire treatise up to here, there is nothing spoken that is worthy of or comparable to His unspeakable majesty. For the eternal, excellent, and mighty God is greater than all majesty, and than all the eloquence of all men; so far am I from thinking that by my words I, in one jot, come near to his excellency. But I humbly beseech the most merciful Lord, that he will grant of his inestimable goodness and liberality, to enlighten in us all the understanding of our minds with sufficient knowledge of his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

4-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: OF GOD AS CREATOR & GOVERNOR.

THAT GOD IS THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS, AND GOVERNS ALL THINGS BY HIS PROVIDENCE:

WHERE MENTION IS ALSO MADE OF THE GOODWILL OF GOD TOWARD US, AND OF PREDESTINATION.

DEARLY beloved, it now remains for me in this day's sermon, to briefly add for a conclusion to what I have said up to here concerning God, something about that creation or work of God, by which, being the maker of all things, he has to mankind's commodity, wholesomely created all things, both visible and invisible, and now as always most wisely governs and orders them.

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For by doing this, we will obtain no small knowledge of God; and many things will be more openly laid out for us, which we but touched in our last treatise. In searching out, considering, and setting forth the creation of the whole and its parts, all the diligence of all wise men [2170] has been set to work, and labours, and will be troubled so long as this world endures. For even if he were the wisest, most cunning, and most diligent writer of natural history, who does not leave many things untouched for the posterity to labour in, and to beat their brains about? Or who is he today, even if he uses the aid and industry of the most learned writers, that is not compelled to wonder at more and greater things than they ever could, or he ever will, attain for you? The most wise Lord will always have witty men who are enriched with heavenly gifts, to always be occupied and evermore exercised in searching out and setting forth the secrets of nature and of the creation. But we simply conceive by faith, that the worlds were made by God through the Word of God, out of nothing, with no heap of matter; and that it persists by the power of the Holy Ghost, or Spirit of God. For so king David, and Paul, the teacher of the Gentiles, both believed and taught. But even though the order of the whole, and the manner of the creation, cannot be knit up or declared in few words, yet I will endeavour to utter something by which the sum of things may partly appear to the diligent considerer.

And here I choose to use another man's words rather than my own; especially because I suppose this matter cannot be expressed more lively than Tertullian sets it forth in his book De Trinitate, as follows:

"God has hung up heaven in a lofty height; he has made the earth massive, with a low and pressed-down weight; he has poured out the seas with a loose and thin liquor; and has planted all these, being decked and full with their proper and fit instruments.

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For in the firmament of heaven he has stirred up the dawn risings of the sun; he has filled the circle of the glittering moon for the comfort of the night, with monthly increasings of the world; and he enlightens the beams of the stars with sundry gleams of twinkling light; and he would that all these should by appointed courses go about the compass of the world, to make for mankind days, months, years, signs, times, and commodities.

In the earth also, he has lifted high hills aloft, depressed the valleys below, laid the fields out evenly, and profitably ordained flocks of beasts for sundry services and uses of men. He has made the massive oaks of the woods for the benefit of man; he has brought forth fruits to feed them with; [2171] he has unlocked the mouths of springs, and poured them into running rivers. After all of these necessary commodities, because he would also procure something for the delight of the eyes, he clad them all with sundry colours of goodly flowers, to the pleasure and delight of those who beheld them.

In the sea also, although it was very wonderful for the greatness and profit of it, he framed many sorts of living creatures — some of a mean, and some of a monstrous bigness. By the variety of the workmanship, these give special notes of the workman's wit. And yet, not being content with this, lest the rage and course of the waters should, with the damage of the earth's inhabitants, break out and occupy another element, he closed up the water's limits within the shores. Thereby, when the raging waves and foaming water rose up from the depth and channel, the sea might turn into itself again, and not pass beyond the bounds appointed, keeping still the prescribed course; to the end also that man might be that much more ready to keep God's laws, when he perceived that even the very elements observe and keep them. Last of all, God sets man to be lord over the world — the one he made in the likeness and image of God; the one to whom he gave reason, wit, and wisdom, that he might imitate God; the one whose body, although it was made of earth, was yet notwithstanding inspired with the substance of the heavenly breath and Spirit of God; the one to whom, when he had put all things in subjection, He would have him alone be free, without subjection.

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And lest that liberty, being let loose at random, might come into peril again, God gave a commandment by means of which it could not be said that evil was out of hand, or was later present in the fruit, but should be in it, once He perceived in the will of man the contempt of that commandment. For he ought to be free, lest the image of God seem bound indecently; and also a law was to be given, lest at any time that unbridled liberty should break out to the contempt of Him who gave the liberty. This was so that man might consequently receive either due rewards of obedience, or merits of punishment for disobedience, having it given to him, which part he was willing to incline toward by the motion of the mind. By this, the envy of mortality returns to him who might have escaped it by obedience; yet he ran headlong into it, as he made too much haste to become a god," etc.

He adds:

"In the parts above the firmament which are not now to be beheld by our mortal eyes, at first there were ordained angels; then there were ordained spiritual virtues; then there were placed thrones and powers, and many other unmeasurable spaces of the heavens; and many works of holy things were created there," etc. [2172] This much from Tertullian.

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Now the sum of it all is this: God by his power created heaven, earth, and the sea, out of nothing; he immediately adorned and enriched them with all kinds of good things. And into this world, which takes the name of furniture for what is in it, as in a most sumptuous palace well-furnished with all sorts of excellent necessaries, it pleased God to bring man, to whom he put all things in subjection. David sets it forth in Psalm 8 with wondering and marvelling, where he says:

"Lord, our governor, how excellent is your name in the whole world! For your glory is lifted up above the heavens. Out of the mouths of very babes and sucklings you have ordained strength, because of your enemies; that you may destroy the enemy and the avenger. For I will consider the heavens, even the works of your fingers; the moon and the stars, which you have ordained. What is man, that you are so mindful of him; or the son of man, that you take care over him? You made him somewhat lower than the angels [or, than God]; you crown him with glory and honour, you made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet; sheep and oxen, and the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea, which walk through the paths of the sea. O Lord, our governor, how excellent is your name in the whole world!"

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Again, in another place he says: "The heavens are yours, God, and the earth is yours; you have laid the foundation of the round world, and all that is in it." Psa 89.11 "The day is yours, and the night is yours; you have ordained the lights and the sun: you laid all the borders of the earth; you have made both summer and winter." Psa 74.16-17 Now, who is so much of a sot that he does not easily gather by these proofs, how great our God is; how great the power of God is; how good, rich, and liberal our God is to man, who never deserved any such thing from His hand? He has created for man alone, such great riches, such exquisite delights, and such furniture, that it cannot be sufficiently praised, and has made them all subject to him, and would have them all obey man, as their lord and master.

But here, by the way, in the creation of the world, we have to consider the preservation and government of the whole, by the same God. For the world neither stands and endures by any power of its own, nor do those things move and stir of their own accord, or (as we say) "happen," however moved or stirred. For the Lord in the gospel says: "My Father works up to now, and I work." And Paul says: "God by his Son has made the worlds, and does rule and uphold them with the word of his power." And again: "By God we live, and move, and have our being." And again: "God left not himself without witness, in that he showed his benefits from heaven, giving us rain and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." And Theodoret, in De Providentia, says: "It is a most absurd thing to say, that God has created all things, but that he has no care of the things which he has made; and that his creature, like a boat destitute of a steersman, is tossed to and fro with contrary winds, and knocked and cracked upon shelves and rocks." [2173]

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Therefore, in this place we have to say something about God's providence and government, which all the wicked, together with the Epicures, deny today, saying in their hearts: "Is it likely, that He that dwells in heaven should regard the things on earth? And does the Almighty observe and mark the very smallest of words and works? He has given to all creatures a certain inclination and nature, which he has made their own; and so He leaves them now in the hand of their own counsel, that they may of their own nature, move, increase, perish, and do even what they lust. Tosh, God neither knows, nor does He greatly trouble himself about these toys." Thus the wicked reason very wickedly. But the scripture expressly pronounces and proves in many places, that by his providence, God cares for and regards the state of mortal men, and of all the things that he has made for the use of mortal men. And therefore, here it is profitable and necessary to cite some testimonies out of the holy scriptures for the proof of this argument.

David in his Psalms says: "The Lord shall reign forever, and his kingdom is a kingdom of all ages, and his dominion from generation to generation." [2174] Look, the kingdom of God (he says) is a kingdom of all ages, and his dominion throughout all generations. Therefore, God has not only created the world and all things that are in the world, but He also governs and preserves them today, and shall govern and preserve them even till the end. For the same kingly prophet, celebrating the providence of God about man and his estate, says: "You, Lord, know my sitting down and my rising up; you spy out all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but that you, O Lord, know it altogether. You have fashioned me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me;" Psa 139.2-5 and so forth, as follows in the hundred thirty-ninth psalm, which wholly serves this purpose. The testimony of Solomon agrees with this doctrine of David, where he says: "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; like with the rivers of water, he may turn it wherever he wills. Every man's way seems right in his own eyes; but the Lord drives, or rules, the heart." Pro 21.1-2

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And in the gospel, the Lord said: "Are not two little sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not light on the ground without your Father. Yes, even all the hairs of your head are numbered." Mat 10.28

Besides these, there are other evident testimonies of the providence of God. Daniel, the wisest man of all the east, and the most excellent prophet of God, says this: "Wisdom and strength are the Lord's. It is he that changes the times and seasons; he takes away kings, and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise, and understanding to those who understand; he reveals the deep and secret things; he knows the thing that lies in darkness; for the light dwells in Him." Dan 2.20-22 Moreover, Ethan the Ezrachite says: "You, Lord, rule the raging of the sea; you still its waves when they arise. You have an almighty arm; you strengthen your hand, and set up your right hand. In justice and equity your royal throne is established; goodness and faith go before your face." Psa 89.9-14 And David says: "With the fruit of your works, God, shall the earth be filled. And He brings forth grass for cattle, and herb for the use of man; and bread to strengthen the heart of man, and wine to make him merry." Psa 104.13-15 And immediately after in the same psalm: "All things wait upon you, that you may give them their food in due season. When you give it, they gather it; and when you open your hand, they are filled with good. If you hide your face, they are troubled; and if you take away their breath, they die, and are turned into their dust." Psa 104.27-29 Again: "The Lord upholds all those who fall, and lifts up all those who are down. The Lord looses men from their fetters; the Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord keeps the stranger; he defends the fatherless and widow; and the way of the wicked he turns upside down." [2175]

"Great is our Lord, and great is his power; and of his wisdom there is no end. He tells the number of the stars, and calls them all by their names. He covers the heavens with clouds, and prepares rain for the earth. He gives fodder to the cattle, and meat to the young ravens that call upon him. He gives snow like wool, and scatters the hoar frost like ashes. He tosses his ice like morsels: who shall abide before the face of his cold? He shall send out his word, and melt them; he shall blow with his wind, and the waters shall flow." Psa 147.4-18

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And again: "I know that the Lord is great; and that he is above all gods. What pleased him, that has he done in heaven and earth, and in the sea, and in all deep places. He lifts up the clouds from the ends of the world, and turns lightning unto rain, and brings the winds out of their treasuries." Psa 135.5-7 There are many testimonies like these to be seen in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of the book of Job; and frequently in the Psalms, and in the books of the holy prophets. But these that I have recited up to here are sufficient enough, testifying abundantly that, by his providence, God governs this world and all things that are in it, and especially man himself, the possessor of the world, for whom all things were made.

We attribute nothing here to destiny, either stoical or astrological; nor do we have anything to do with that ethnic fortune,[2176] either good or ill. We utterly detest philosophical disputations in this case, which are contrary to the truth of the prophets' writings and the doctrine of the apostles. We content ourselves in the only word of God; and therefore we simply believe and teach that God governs all things by his providence, and that too is according to his own good will, just judgment, and decent order, by means that are most just and equal. This means that whoever despises, and makes his boast only on the bare name of God's providence, it cannot be that he rightly understands the effect of God's providence. They make this objection: "Because all things in the world are done by God's providence, therefore we need not put our oar [in the water]. We may snort idly and take our ease. It is sufficient for us to expect the working or impelling of God; for if he needs our aid, then whether we will or not, he will impel us to the work which he would have wrought by us." [2177] But the saints in the scripture are laid before us and shown to have thought, spoken, and judged more sincerely of God's providence. The angel in express words says to Lot: "Hasten to Zoar, and save yourself there: for I can do nothing until you have come there." Gen 19.22

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Look, Lot with his are saved here by God's providence; the citizens of Sodom are destroyed, and all the cities thereabout. And yet, even in the very work of his preservation, Lot's labour is required, and he is bid to do his good-will to save himself. Indeed, "I cannot," says the Lord, "do anything till you have come into Zoar." The king and prophet David plainly says, "I have hoped in you, O Lord; I have said, you are my God: my days are in your hand." Psa 31.14-15 And yet even he, who wholly took himself to the providence of God, earnestly considered with himself, how with his diligence and industry he might deceive and escape from Saul, his father-in-law, who laid in wait for him. Nor does he despise the aid and shifts [2178] of his wife Michal. He does not reply back to her and say, "All things are done by the providence of God; therefore no wiles need to be wrought. The Almighty is able to take me out of the hands of our father's soldiers, or otherwise save me by some miraculous means. Let us content ourselves, and allow God to work his will in us." He did not argue thus; but understood that, just as God's providence proceeds in a certain order by middle (secondary) means, so it is his part to apply himself to means, in the fear of God, and by all assays [2179] to do his best for his own defence.[2180] St. Paul hears the Lord flatly saying: "As you have borne witness of me at Jerusalem, so must you bear record of me at Rome." Although he did not doubt the truth of God's promises, and was not ignorant of the power of God's providence; yet notwithstanding, he secretly sent his sister's son — who had told him that the Jews had conspired to kill him — to the tribune, to ask of him that Paul might not be brought out at the Jews' request. Nor did he show himself discourteous or unthankful to the soldiers who carried him to Antipatridis, nor to the horsemen who went with him to Caesarea. Again, as he sailed in the Adriatic Sea, when he was in peril of dangerous shipwreck, and all his company were struck with fear, he said: "Sirs, I exhort you to be of good cheer; for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but only of the ship.

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For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul: you must be brought before Caesar; and behold, God has given you all those who sail with you. Therefore, sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told to me." Act 27.22-24 But a while after, when the mariners were about to abandon the ship, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers: "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved." Act 27.31

Therefore, means belong to the providence of God, by which he works; and therefore they are not to be neglected. Truly, it is by God's government or providence, that we have all these impressions of whatever sort, either fiery, or airy, or watery.[2181] For by the power of God, and not by any power of their own,[2182] the air makes the earth fruitful, the water flows and ebbs again, and the earth brings forth her increase. And the saints think truly, that none of all this is done for any sake of theirs,[2183] because the Saviour himself says in the gospel, "The Father sends rain upon the just and unjust." Mat 5.45 Yet, for all that, they never forget the words of the prophet, where he says, "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land: but if you are obstinate and rebellious, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." Isa 1.19-20 For the great prophet Moses had said, long before Isaiah: "If you hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe and do all his commandments, all these blessings shall come upon you. You shall be blessed in the city, and blessed in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and blessed shall be the fruit of the ground. The Lord shall open heaven to you, and give rain to your land in due season. But if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe and do his commandments, then all these curses shall come upon you. You shall be Cursed in the city, and cursed in the field. The heaven above your head shall be brass; and the Lord shall strike you with many plagues," etc. And histories bear record that all these things happened to the people of God, even as they are foretold here; and that too, was not without the providence of the Lord their God.

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All good successes and prosperity are the good blessings of God; and on the other side, all calamities and adversities are the curses of God. Therefore, the saints gather from this, that men's affairs and estate are wholly governed by God's providence. Yet, they must not therefore sit idly (as we say) with their hands in their bosoms, and neglect good means. Rather, they should watchfully and diligently walk by the grace of God in the ways and means, or in the precepts and ordinances, of the Lord. For the providence of God does not disturb the order of things; it does not abrogate the offices of life, nor our labour and industry; it does not take [away] a just dispensation and obedience. But by these things, it works the health of those men who, through the help of God, religiously apply themselves to the decrees, purpose, or working of the Lord. They rightly ascribe to these whatever good happens to them; imputing to man's corruption, to our own unskilfulness, and to our sins, whatever evil happens to us. Therefore, the saints acknowledge that, by God's providence, wars, plagues, and diverse other calamities afflict mortal men; yet notwithstanding, the causes of these arise from nothing else than the sins of man. For God is good, who wishes us good rather than evil. Indeed, oftentimes of his goodness, he turns our evil purposes to good ends, as seen by the history of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Gen 50.20

Truly, upon the earnest consideration of God's providence, all the godly sort gather that their good God wishes all to be well to man. For he has a great care over us, not only in great things, but also in the smallest. He knows the number of the days of our life. In his sight are all our members, within as well as without. For the Lord in the gospel says, that "all the hairs of our head are numbered." Mat 10.30 By his providence He defends us from all manner of diseases and imminent perils. He feeds, refreshes, and preserves us. For just as he made all creatures for man's health and benefit, so he preserves and applies them to man's good and commodity.

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The doctrine of the FOREKNOWLEDGE and PREDESTINATION of God, which has a certain likeness to his providence, no less comforts the godly worshippers of God. They call foreknowledge that knowledge in God, by which he knows all things before they come to pass, and sees even present all things that are, have been, and shall be. For to the knowledge of God, all things are present; nothing is past, nothing is to come. And the predestination of God is the eternal decree of God, by which he has ordained either to save or destroy men — a most certain end of life and death being appointed for them. Thus it is elsewhere called a fore-appointment. Touching these points, some have diversely disputed, and many truly, have disputed curiously and contentiously enough. In such disputes, surely, not only the salvation of souls, but also the glory of God is endangered with the simple sort. The religious searchers or interpreters of the scriptures confess that here nothing is to be permitted to man's wit; but that we must simply and wholly hang on whatever the scripture has pronounced.[2184] And therefore, these words of St. Paul are continually before their eyes and in their minds: "the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable (or incomprehensible) are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who was his counsellor? Or who has given to him first, and he shall be recompensed?" Rom 11.33-35 They never forget the admonition of the most wise man, Jesus Sirach,[2185] saying: "Do not seek the things that are too hard for you; nor search after things which are too mighty for you: but what God has commanded you, always think thereupon that, and do not be too curious in many of his works; for it is not needful for you to see with your eyes the things that are secret." Wis 3.22-23 In the meantime, truly, they do not contemn or neglect those things which it has pleased God by the open scriptures to reveal to his servants touching this matter.

There are many testimonies of God's foreknowledge, especially in the prophecy of Isaiah, chap. forty-one, and in the chapters following, by which the Lord declares that he is the true God.

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Furthermore, by his eternal and unchangeable counsel, God has fore-appointed who are [2186] to be saved, and who are to be condemned. Now, the end or the decree of life and death is short and manifest to all the godly. The end of predestination, or fore-appointment, is Christ, the Son of God the Father. For God has ordained and decreed to save all, however many have communion and fellowship with Christ, his only-begotten Son; and to destroy or condemn all, however many have no part in the communion or fellowship of Christ, his only Son. Now, the faithful truly have fellowship with Christ, and the unfaithful are strangers from Christ. For Paul says in his Epistle to the Ephesians: "God has chosen us in Christ, before the foundations of the world were laid, that we should be holy and without blame before him through love. He has predestined us into his adopted sons through Jesus Christ into himself, according to the good pleasure of his will; that the glory of his grace may be praised, with which he is pleased with us [2187] in his beloved." Eph 1.4-6 Look, God has chosen us; and he has chosen us before the foundations of the world were laid; indeed, he has chosen us that we should be without blame, that is, to be heirs of eternal life: yet, in Christ — he has chosen us by and through Christ. [2188] And yet again, even plainer: he has "predestined us," he says, "to adopt us into his sons," but by Christ; and that too he has done freely, with the intent that glory might be given to his divine grace. Therefore. whoever are in Christ are chosen and elected. For John the apostle says: "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God, does not have life." 1Joh 5.12 The doctrine of the apostles agrees with that of the gospel also. For in the gospel the Lord says: "This is the will of him that sent me, the Father; that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." Joh 6.40

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Look, this is the will or eternal decree of God, he says: that we should be saved by faith in the Son. Again, on the contrary, touching those who are predestined to death, the Lord says: "He that does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation: that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness more than light." Joh 3.18-19 Therefore, if you ask me whether you are elected to life, or predestined to death; that is, whether you are of the number of those who are to be damned, or of those who are to be saved; I answer simply out of the scripture, both from the evangelists and the apostles: If you have communion or fellowship with Christ, then you are predestined to life, and you are of the number of the elect and chosen. But if you are a stranger from Christ, however otherwise you seem to flourish in virtues, you are predestined to death, and foreknowledged, as they say, to damnation. I will not creep higher and deeper into the seat of God's counsel. And here I repeat again the former testimonies of scripture: "God has predestined us, to adopt us into his sons through Jesus Christ. This is the will of God, that whoever believes in the Son should live; and whoever does not believe should die." Faith, therefore, is a most assured sign that you are elected; and while you are called to the communion of Christ, and are taught faith, the most loving God declares his election and good-will towards you.

The simpler sort, truly, are greatly tempted and exceedingly troubled with the question of election. For the devil sets about putting the hate of God into their minds, as though he envied us our salvation, and God had appointed and ordained us to death. That he may more easily persuade us of this, the devil labours tooth and nail to wickedly enfeeble and overthrow our faith; as though our salvation were doubtful. His labours lean upon and are stayed upon the uncertainty of our election by God. Against these fiery weapons, the servants of God arm their hearts with thoughts and comforts of this sort, fetched out of the scripture:

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God's predestination is not stayed or stirred with any worthiness or unworthiness of ours, but it respects Christ alone, of the mere grace and mercy of God the Father. And because our salvation stays only upon him, it cannot help but be most certain. For those are wrong, who think that the ones saved to life are predestined by God for their merit's sake, or good works, which God foresaw in them. For the apostle Paul says notably: "He has chosen us in Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, that the glory of his grace might be praised." Eph 1.4-6 And again: "It is not in him that wills, nor in him that runs, but in God who shows mercy." Rom 9.16 Again: "God has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us through Christ Jesus before the world existed, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2Tim 1.9,16 Freely, therefore, of his mere mercy, not for our deserts but for Christ's sake, and only in Christ, has He chosen us, and for Christ's sake He embraces us, because he is our Father and a lover of men. The prophet David also speaks of this: "The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, and of great kindness... As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him: for he knows what we are made of, and He remembers that we are but dust." Psa 103.8, 13-14

Moreover, in the prophet Isaiah we read: "Can a woman forget her child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb? Though she may forget, yet I will not forget you." Isa 49.15 Truly, in Christ, the only-begotten Son of God exhibited to us, God the Father has declared what great store he sets by us. From this, the apostle gathers: "He who did not spare his Son, but gave him for us all, how can it be that he should not also with him give us all things?" What thing, therefore, should we not count on and promise ourselves from so beneficial a Father? For you can not complain that he will not give you his Son, or that he is not yours, who, as the apostle says, was given for us all.

Moreover, the Lord himself says, crying out in the gospel: "Come to me, all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." Mat 11.28 And again to his disciples: "Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes, and is baptized, shall be saved." Mar 16.15-16

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Whereupon Paul also says: "God our Saviour wills that all men shall be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." 1Tim 2.4 In olden times, long ago, it was said to Abraham: "In your Seed all the tribes (or nations) of the earth shall be blessed." Gen 22.18 And Joel says: "And it shall be, that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Joe 2.32 Peter also repeated this in the Acts, chapter 2; and Paul to the Romans, chapter 10. Isaiah also says: "We have all gone astray like sheep; we have turned every one to his own way: and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquities of us all." Isa 53.6 And therefore St. Paul dares to say: "As by the offence of one the fault came on all men to condemnation; even so also by the justification of one, the benefit abounded [2189] towards all men, to the justification of life." Rom 5.18 Therefore, the Lord is read in the gospel to have received sinners and publicans with outstretched arms and embracings, adding these words, moreover: "I came to seek that which was lost. Neither did I come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Luk 19.10

All these sayings belong to this: that being more narrowly weighed, they might confirm and establish us concerning God's good-will towards us, who in Christ has chosen us to salvation. This salvation, truly, cannot help but be most certain, and by all means undoubted, especially since the Lord himself says in the gospel: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish, nor shall anyone pluck them out of my hand," etc. Joh 10.27-28

Here again, I know what stings and grieves the minds of many. They say, "The chosen sheep of Christ know Christ's voice; and being endued with a steadfast faith, they inseparably stick in Christ, since they have felt that drawing of which the Lord speaks in the gospel. 'No man comes to me, unless my Father draws him.' Joh 6.44 As for me, I feel no such drawing, so I do not stick in the Son of God with a full and perfect faith." First of all, true faith is required of the elect: for the elect are called; and being called, they receive their calling by faith, and frame themselves like him that called them. "He that does not believe is already condemned." Joh 3.18

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Whereupon also Paul says: "God is the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful." 1Tim 4.10 Furthermore, unless we are drawn by the heavenly Father, we cannot believe. And we must be very careful lest, conceiving vain opinions of that divine drawing, we neglect the drawing itself. God truly drew Paul violently, but he does not draw all to him by the hair. There are also other ways by which God draws man to himself; but he does not draw him like stock or a block. The apostle Paul says: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom 10.17 God therefore draws you, then, when he preaches the gospel to you by his servants; when he touches your heart; when he stirs you to prayer, by which you may call out and cry for his grace and assistance, his enlightening and drawing. When you feel these things in your mind, I would not wish you to look for another drawing. Do not despise the grace offered, but use it while present time serves, and pray for the increase of grace. For you aspire in a godly way to greater and more perfect things afterwards; in the meantime, there is no reason why you should despise the lesser. In the gospel of St. Matthew, 25.14f, those receive larger riches who, having received but a few talents, invested them faithfully. But the one who despised the talent which he was credited, and cloaked his slothfulness with I know not what care, is greatly accused. Indeed, he is relieved of the money which had been given to him, and is thrown into everlasting torments, being bound with bonds of condemnation. For the Lord pronounces generally: "Whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but whoever does not have, from him shall be taken away even what he has." The one who has, is the one who acknowledges, magnifies, and reverences the grace of God; to this heap of graces, more is added, so that it is made more abundant. The one who does not have, is the one who does not acknowledge the gifts of God, and imagines others, I cannot tell of what kind. Meanwhile, he does not put to use the grace he received, and which is present. Such men are prone to use excuses: that God's drawing has not yet come to them; and that it is a very dangerous matter to invest or "make merchandise of" the gifts of God.

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But St. Paul, judging far otherwise, says: "So we as workers together beseech you, that you not receive the grace of God in vain." 2Cor 6.1 And to Timothy: "I put you in remembrance, so that you stir up the gift of God which is in you." 2Tim 1.6 Not that without God we are able to do anything of ourselves, but that the Lord requires our endeavour which, notwithstanding, is not without his assistance and grace. For truly, the same apostle says: "God works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure." Phi 2.13 Again: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think anything of ourselves; but all our sufficiency is of God." 2Cor 3.5

Furthermore, I do not wish any man to despair if, by and by, he does not feel and experience in his mind, a most ripe and perfect faith. The gospel says: "Of her own accord, the earth brings forth fruit; first the blade, then the ear, and afterwards full corn in the ear." Mar 4.28 For so likewise, faith has her increasings. And therefore, the apostles of the Lord prayed: "Lord, increase our faith." Luk 17.5 Furthermore, in Mark a truly woeful man cries out to our Saviour: "If you can do anything, Lord, have compassion on us, and help us." But he heard the Lord immediately saying to him: "If you can believe it, all things are possible for him that believes." And this silly soul cried out: "I believe, Lord; help my unbelief." Mark 9.22f Look, this woeful wretch believed, feeling in his mind faith given to him by God, which notwithstanding, he perceived to be so weak that he stood in need of God's help and aid. He therefore prays, "help my unbelief," that is, help my faith which, if it is compared with an absolute and perfect faith, may seem like unbelief. But hear, I beseech you, what this faith, however little it was, wrought and brought to pass — what a humble mind was able to do, hanging only on the mercy of God. For immediately, Christ healed the child of the woeful father; and being restored to health, and raised up from the dead as it were, gives him back to his faithful father. If anyone therefore feels faith in his mind, let him not despair, even though he knows, and God knows, that it is weak and feeble. Let him cast himself wholly upon God's mercy; let him presume very little of his own strength, or nothing at all: let him pray incessantly for the increase of faith.

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To this purpose, truly, the words of our Saviour out of the gospel, which are very full of comfort, may confirm and strengthen any man most wholesomely:

"Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For whoever asks, receives: and whoever seeks, finds: and to him that knocks, it shall be opened. Is there any man among you who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? or, if he asks for fish, will give him a serpent? If you therefore, who are evil, can give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things, even the Holy Ghost itself, if you ask it of him?" Mat 7.7-11

These and like sayings, presented to us in the holy gospel for our consolation, should more move and establish our minds of the good, indeed, of the right good-will of God towards us, than the eggings of the devil. He goes about with those, not only to overwhelm the hope of our election, but to make us suspect and doubt God, as though He hated his creature, whom he would rather have destroyed than saved. But the devil is well-enough known to the saints by his subtleties and trains; for so he deceived our first parents. Let us keep it deeply printed in our breasts, that God has chosen us in Christ, and for Christ's sake he has predestined us to life; and therefore, he gives and increases faith toward Christ in those who ask for it; and he is the one who puts it in our hearts.[2190] For all things that tend to our salvation come from the grace of God; nothing is ours but reproach and shame.

I have thus far laid these things before you, brethren, concerning the marvellous and wonderful work of the creation wrought by the eternal, true, and living God, without any trouble or pains-taking. "For he spoke the word, and they were made. He commanded, and they were created." Psa 33.9 We added a little touching the most wise and excellent governing of all things by God's divine providence, which is always just and most righteous; likewise of God's good-will towards us; of predestination;[2191] and certain other points belonging to these.

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All these things have we recited, truly, to beautify the glory and knowledge of God our creator, to whom both the perpetual and universal course of nature, as well things invisible and visible, bear witness; whom the angels worship, the stars wonder at, the seas bless, the earth reverences, and all infernal things behold; whom the mind of every man feels, even if it does not express him; at whose beck [2192] all things are moved, the springs pour out their streams, rivers decrease, the waves arise aloft, all things bring forth their increase, the winds are forced to blow, showers to fall, seas to rage, all things in all places deliver abroad their fruitfulness; who planted a unique garden of felicity for our first parents, gave them a commandment, and pronounced sentence against their sin; delivered righteous Noah from the dangers of the deluge; translated Enoch into the fellowship of his friendship; chose Abraham to himself; defended Isaac; increased Jacob; appointed Moses the captain over his people; set free from the yoke of bondage the groaning children of Israel; wrote a law; brought the offspring of the fathers into the land of promise; instructed his prophets with his Spirit, and by all these, promised his only-begotten Son again — and at the same instant that he had promised to give him, He has sent him; through whom he would also be acquainted and come in knowledge with us; and has poured out upon us all his heavenly graces. And because, of himself, he is liberal and bountiful, lest this whole world wax dry, being turned away from the rivers of his grace, he would have apostles be sent by his Son as teachers throughout the whole world, that the state of mankind might acknowledge their Maker;[2193] and if they followed him, they might have instead of a God, one whom they might call Father in their petitions and prayers; whose providence has not only extended itself, and is now extended, not only severally to men, but also to towns and cities, the ends of which he foretold by the voices of his prophets, yes, throughout the whole world — whose ends, plagues, decays, and punishments for unbelief he has described. And lest any should think that this infatigable providence of God does not extend to everything, however small, the Lord says:

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"Of two sparrows, not one of them falls to the ground without the will of the Father;" and, "the hairs of your head are all numbered." His care and also His providence did not let the garments of the Israelites grow old, nor the simple shoes on their feet become worn and torn. And not without good reason. For if this God comprehends that which contains all things, and the whole consists of parts and particulars — then his care shall consequently reach even to every part and particular, whose providence has already reached to the very whole, whatever it is. To this God, be all glory.

4-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: OF WORSHIPPING GOD IN TRUTH.

OF ADORING OR WORSHIPPING, OF INVOCATING OR CALLING UPON, AND OF SERVING THE ONLY, LIVING, TRUE, AND EVERLASTING GOD: ALSO OF TRUE AND FALSE RELIGION.

TOUCHING God, what he is in person, quality, and substance, I have told you already; not as I should, but as I was able. I have likewise outlned how good and ready his will is towards man, whom he has ordained to life everlasting in his only-begotten Son; whom he has also made Lord of all things in this present world, all things being brought in subjection to him.

Now, so that man should not be ignorant of what he owes to so mighty a God, and to a Father so loving and liberal, I will shortly engage in a disputation touching this living, true, and everlasting God, to be adored, called upon, and worshipped by man. For man is neither created nor born to behold and gaze upon the stars, as the philosopher doted;[2194] but he was created to be the image and temple of God, in whom God might dwell and reign. And he should therefore acknowledge God, reverence, adore, call upon, and worship Him, and also [2195] be joined to God, and live with him eternally.

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First of all, I will speak of ADORING God; next of CALLING UPON God; and lastly, of SERVING God. Upon doing so, we will perceive without any trouble at all, which is the true religion, or which is the false. The places truly expounded are plentiful. But I will comprehend in few words what the scripture teaches us concerning these things — not every one particularly, but the chief ones, and as much as seems sufficient for our salvation and sound knowledge.

To ADORE or WORSHIP, in the holy scriptures, signifies for honour's sake to uncover the head, bend the body, incline or bow the knee, or to lie prostrate with the whole body on the ground, falling flat on the face at someone's feet in the fashion of suppliants or petitioners, as a token of humility, submission and obedience. It refers chiefly to the posture or habit of the body. The Hebrews use one only word Schahah,[2196] which all interpreters have expounded by the word adorare, to adore — to bend, bow, and lie along the ground with the face downward. The Grecians have expounded it by the word proskunew (proskuneo), that is, I bow the knees, I uncover or make bare the head, I humbly beseech or adore. And proskunhsiv (proskunesis), adoration, is so called either for kissing, or removing the hat; for kunew (kuneo) signifies, I kiss. That a kiss was sometimes a sign of worshipping, reverencing, or adoring, is gathered out of the thirty-first chapter of Job.31.27 What, and is it not a fashion that is very much used even today, for honour and reverence' sake to kiss the hand? Again, kuuh (kuue) signifies a hat, a bonnet, or a cap; so that, to adore, is to make bare and uncover the head for reverence' sake. The Latinists also, perhaps, had an eye to the habit of the body; for orare, to pray, signifies both to crave as well as to say something. He therefore adores who, casting his countenance on a man, craves something suppliantly. It is likely that the Germans also regarded this: for they turn adorare, to adore, by the word anbatten; which moreover might have been turned to Zu fussen fallen.[2197]

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In the ninth chapter of Matthew you read: "Behold, a certain ruler came to Jesus, and worshipped (or adored) him." Mat 9.18 But Mark, writing the same history, says "And behold, there came one of the princes of the synagogue, whose name was Jairus; and when he saw him, he fell down at his feet, and besought him instantly (or much);" Mar 5.22 thus expounding to us what adore is: namely, to fall down at one's feet, and to submit and beseech like a suppliant. For so we read in the old Testament about Jacob Israel, our father: "And, going before them, he bowed himself to the ground seven times, until his brother Esau approached and drew near." Gen 33.3 Thus we read of David and Abigail in Samuel: "When Abigail saw David, she hastened, and alighted off her donkey, and fell before David on her face, and worshipped on the ground, and she fell at his feet, saying: Let that iniquity be counted mine, my lord," etc. 1Sam 25.18 Likewise of Nathan the prophet, it is thus written: "And when he had come in to the king, he worshipped" (or made obeisance) "with his face on the ground." 1Kng 1.23 For God, communicating this honour, allows it for men, either for their old age, their authority, or for worthiness' sake: for man is the living image of God. And it pleases God himself to call men who excel others in authority, gods. Whereupon the apostles of Christ, Peter and Paul, instructing the people of God, taught them, truly, "Fear God, honour the king;" 1Pet 2.17 and this, "The magistrate is God's minister: give therefore to all men, honour to whom honour belongs; fear to whom fear is due." Rom 13.6-7 In the law, the Lord says: "In the presence of a hoary (grey) head, rise up;" Lev 19.32 and "Honour your parents." Exo 20.12 In consideration of this commandment of God, the godly reverence the aged, their parents, and magistrates; and also please God with faithful obedience.

But to adore, worship, or honour images, whatever representation or likeness they bear, the Lord nowhere likes or allows; for he says in the law: "You shall not bow down nor worship them." [2198] And by his prophet Isaiah, "None (he says) considers within himself about this matter, and says, I have burnt one piece of the wood in the fire, I have baked bread with its coals, I have roasted flesh with it, and eaten it; and should I now make from the residue an abominable idol, and fall down and worship a rotten piece of wood?" Isa 44.19

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In the same prophet, you read with much pronounced indignation: "Their land is full of vain gods (or idols); before the work of their hands they have bowed themselves and adored it; yes, even before the thing that their own fingers have made. There kneels the man, there the man falls down (before them): therefore do not forgive them." Isa 2.8-9 Therefore that ancient writer, Lactantius, inspired with a prophetic spirit, disputing against the Gentiles, has left it thus written:

"The images themselves which are worshipped are representations or counterfeits of dead men. And it is a perverse and an absurd thing, that the image of a man should be worshipped by the image of God, namely, by a man; for he worships the thing that is worse and weaker. Besides that, the very images of saints, which most vain men serve, are void of all sense and feeling, because they are earth. And where is he that does not understand that it is a wicked and sinful act for an upright and straight creature to be bowed down, and to adore and worship earth — which is under our feet to the end that it should be trodden upon, and not adored by us. We are therefore made to go upright and look upward, that we should not lie grovelling downward, that we should not cast this heavenly countenance to the earth; but instead we look there and direct our eyes, to where the condition of their nature has guided them? Whoever therefore endeavours to maintain the mystery of man's creation, and to hold the reason for his nature, let him raise himself up from the ground, and with a raised mind, bend his eyes to heaven. Let him not seek a god under his feet, nor dig from under his footsteps, that which he may adore or worship; because whatever lies under or is subject to man, must be inferior to man. Rather, let him seek aloft, let him seek in the highest place; because nothing can be greater than man, but that which is above man. And God is greater than man: he is therefore above, and not beneath; nor is he to be sought in the lowest, but rather in the highest region or place. This is why there is no doubt that wherever an image exists, there is no religion. For if religion consists in divine things, and nothing is divine unless it is among heavenly things, then images lack religion — because there can be no heavenly thing in that which is made of earth.

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This matter, even by the very name itself, may be apparent and manifest to a wise man. For whatever is counterfeit, must be false. Nor can that which is a representation or a gloss of the truth, at any time take to itself the name of truth. If then, not every representation or counterfeit is made in earnest, but is a toy and a sport as it were, then religion is not found in images; but there is less religion where they are found. Therefore, that which is true is to be preferred before all things that are false. Earthly things must be trodden underfoot, that we may get or obtain heavenly things." [2199]

We have not unadvisedly recited these words up to here out of Lactantius. We now return to our purpose.

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The outward posture or habit of the body is commonly framed according to the inward quality of the mind; and the outward habit of the body of someone who adores, shows that it submits, yields, and subjects him who worships, to him who is worshipped. Therefore, adoration is likewise translated to the inner man. So that, to adore is to reverence and respect God, to bequeath ourselves wholly to him, to cling inseparably to him, and in all things to hang upon him only and alone, and to have recourse to him in all our necessities whatsoever. Furthermore, outward adoration immediately, when it is needful and ability is granted, follows a mind rightly endued with true faith and a holy fear of God. For adoration is two-fold, or of two sorts: one of the mind or spirit, which is inward, sound, sincere and true; and another of the body, which is outward, unsound, counterfeit, and false, and which may proceed from someone in whom there is no sparkle of religion. True adoration is the fruit of true faith and a holy fear of God; namely, a lowly or suppliant yielding and humble consecrating, whereby we bequeath ourselves, yield and submit ourselves to our God, whom we understand to be our best and most merciful Father, and also to be our most high and almighty God. Therefore, upon Him alone we wholly depend, and to Him only we have respect; which also, as soon as occasion is ministered to us, we quickly express and testify by outward adoration. We will better understand all this by the following testimonies from the scripture. David says:

"Come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us heartily rejoice in God our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and show ourselves joyful in him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great king above all gods: because in his hand are the corners of the earth, and the height of the hills are his. For the sea is his and he made it, and his hands fastened the dry land. O come let us adore (or worship) and fall down, and kneel before the Lord that has made us: because he is the Lord our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hands."

You perceive, therefore, that we must adore or worship God, and that we must cling to him, and sing praises to his name, because he is the most mighty God, Creator of all things, yes, our Creator, our Father, and our Shepherd. Likewise, in the gospel according to Matthew, adoration follows faith; it grows out of it and is nourished by it, as it were.

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For after the disciples, being taught by miracles, believed that Jesus was Christ, they came (says Matthew) and adored (or worshipped) him, saying: "You are truly the Son of God." Mat 14.33 Again, you read in John that the Lord asked the blind man that was excommunicated or cast out of the synagogue, to whom he restored his sight, "Do you believe in the Son of God?" The blind man responded, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe in him?" Jesus answered and said: "You have both seen him, and it is he that talks with you." Moreover, it follows upon this in the history: "But he said, I believe, Lord; and he worshipped him." Joh 9.35-38 Now, up to here belongs that which the Lord said to the Samaritan in the gospel: "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." Joh 4.23 For the Lord allows spiritual and inward adoration or worshipping — not outward, counterfeit, or hypocritical worshipping, but that which proceeds from a mind regenerated by faith through the Holy Ghost, and that tends sincerely towards one God. For we read in the history of the old Testament, that those princes worshipped in truth, who consecrated and made themselves holy to one God with their whole heart, and depended on him only Again, that those who did not worship the Lord with their whole heart, who being destitute and void of sincere faith, depended also upon creatures. Now a reason for this adoration or worshipping the Lord adjoins in the gospel. Worship (he says) should in all points agree with Him that is worshipped. But God who is worshipped, is spirit and truth, and He is delighted with spiritual worship and unfeigned faith. He must therefore be worshipped in spirit and truth.

Therefore, the saints have a special care and regard that the inward worship of the mind is sound, and that first of all they worship in heart, and truly, with a sincere faith and a reverence for God's majesty. And while they are so occupied inwardly, they no less outwardly, falling on their faces with humility, worship in God's presence. For the outward worship is a companion of the inward, and follows it. Hypocrites also worship God in body, suppliantly and lowly enough; but because their minds go wool-gathering, and neither with faith nor reverence cling to the Lord, they hear this spoken of the Lord by the prophet:

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"This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." Mat 15.8-9 And this truly is the counterfeit and false worshipping. And that worshipping also is false, indeed, it is most wicked and abominable, with which the creatures are worshipped, either with God, or for God, or without God. And, to say it truthfully, they do not worship God at all, who neither fear God, nor believe in God, nor yet depend or hang only upon God.

All men confess truly that God must be worshipped, but not everyone sincerely acknowledges and confesses that God only and alone is to be worshipped. It therefore remains to be declared, that God only and alone is to be worshipped by men. Adoration or worshipping is joined with true faith and perfect or sincere reverence of God's majesty. Seeing that these are due to God alone, it follows that God alone is to be worshipped. And therefore this saying is so often cited and beaten upon in the law and the prophets: "You shall worship the Lord your God, and a strange god you shall not worship." Now, a strange god is whatever you choose to worship for yourself, that is outside and beside the only, living, true, and everlasting God.[2200] Therefore, the only and alone true, living, and everlasting God is to be worshipped. In the history of the gospel, we read that the devil tempted our Lord Christ; and having led him up into a high mountain, showed him from there all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said: "All these I will give to you, if you, falling down, will worship me." And the Lord answered: "Away Satan; for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." Mat 4.8-10 And surely, worshipping and serving are mutually linked, one with the other, so that they cannot be severed or put asunder. From this it follows, seeing that the Lord requires the He only and alone is to be served, that doubtless in like manner He only and alone is to be worshipped. Elijah, the great prophet of God, teaching that God can in no case abide having another joined to him in worship, cries out to the people worshipping God and with him their god Baal: "How long will you halt between the two? If the Lord is God, follow him; if Baal is god, go after him." 1Kng 18.21

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It is as if he said, You cannot worship God and Baal at once. "No man can serve two masters." For the Lord our God requires, not a piece, but our whole heart, our whole mind and soul. He therefore leaves nothing for us to bestow on any other. In the epistle to the Hebrews, Paul shows that Christ is more excellent than angels, because angels adore or worship Christ; but they are not to be worshipped in turn. If the angels are not to be worshipped, then whom shall we grant deserves to be worshipped, beside the living, true, and everlasting God? Therefore, God only and alone is to be worshipped. For in the revelation of Jesus Christ, made to the blessed apostle and evangelist John, we read this: "And I saw another angel flying through the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, and to all nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and people, saying with a loud voice: Fear God and give him honour, because the hour of his judgment has come; and worship Him that has made heaven and earth, the sea, and fountains of waters." Rev 14.6-7

And again, in the same book we read: "And I fell down before the feet of the angel, to worship him. And he said to me: See that you do not do this; I am your fellow-servant and of your brethren having the testimony of Jesus; worship God." Rev 19.10 Again, in the end of the same book you read: "And after I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And he said to me, See that you do not do it; for I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book." Rev 22.8-9

When Cornelius the centurion fell down and worshipped at his feet, what St. Peter said and did does not greatly disagree with this. Peter said, "Arise, I myself am also a man;" Act 10.26 and with that, laying his hand on him, which lay along, lifted him up, and set him on his feet. Right religiously, therefore, Augustine wrote in his book [2201] touching true religion:

"Do not let religion be for us the worshipping of man's handiwork, for better are the workmen themselves who make them, whom notwithstanding we should not worship. Do not let religion be for us the worshipping of mortal men, because if they have lived godly, they are not to be esteemed as those who would seek such honours; but it is their will that [Christ] should be worshipped by us, who enlightening them, they rejoice that we are made fellow-partakers of his merit. They are therefore to be honoured for imitation's sake, not worshipped for religion's sake. And if they have lived badly, they are not to be worshipped, wherever they are." [2202]

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Augustine in his first book, De consensu Evangelistarum, the eighteenth chapter, wrote about the consent of the evangelists, reasoning why the Romans never accepted both the God of the Hebrews, and the worship of their God, considering that they accepted almost all the other gods of the Gentiles for worship. He answers that it came to pass by no other occasion, than because the God of the Hebrews would be worshipped only and alone, without a mate or partner. If anyone requires his words, they are these:

"There remains nothing for them to say, as to why they have not received the holy rites and worship of this God, save only because he would be worshipped alone; and He has forbidden them to worship the gods of the Gentiles, whom nevertheless these people did worship. For the sentence or opinion of Socrates (who, as ratified by oracle, was the wisest of all men) is that every god should be worshipped as he himself has commanded. Therefore, the Romans were of necessity forced not to worship the God of the Hebrews; because if they worshipped him in a fashion other than He himself said He would be worshipped, they would not then worship him, except in manner that they themselves had devised and made. And if they worshipped him in that manner which He himself prescribed, then they saw that they were debarred from worshipping other gods, which He forbade to be worshipped. Upon this, they refused the worship of the only true God, with the intent they might not offend many counterfeit and false gods — thinking that the anger of them would be more to their disprofit than the good-will of Him would be to their benefit." [2203] Thus says Augustine.

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Although these things are written concerning the worship and service of God, and we dispute about adoring God's majesty, yet notwithstanding, they are not impertinent or beside our purpose; for worshipping and serving God are inseparably linked and knit together. We will say more afterward about serving God. But by the words cited before, we gather that the true, living, and everlasting God is to be worshipped only and alone, according to that commonly known sentence of the law: "You shall worship the Lord your God; you shall fear him; you shall serve him only; you shall cling to him; and you shall swear in his name." Deu 10.20

Furthermore, God has promised and performed from the beginning — yes, and will perform while this world stands — great rewards to his true worshippers. Contrariwise, we believe that great mischiefs or punishments are prepared for those who either do not worship God at all, or else worship strange gods instead of the true God. The Lord says in his Revelation shown to John the apostle: "The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their portion in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Rev 21.8

We have spoken these things up to here about worshipping God. We will now, in the second place, speak about invocation, or calling upon God, which we promised to speak about.

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To call upon, and calling upon, is diversely taken in the scriptures. For it signifies bringing forth a witness, or calling to witness. So Moses calls heaven and earth to witness against the children of Israel, Deu 30.19 by the figure Prosopopoeia. Again, the name of anyone to be called upon or over another, is to be called by, or after, his name. "Let my name" (Jacob says) "be called upon them," Gen 48.16 that is, upon Ephraim and Manasseh — let them be named by my name, as if they were my children; and let them be called, not the sons of Joseph, but the sons of Jacob Israel. So the wives say to their husbands,[2204] "Let your name be called upon us;" that is, allow or give leave, that we may be named by your name, and that we may be made your wives: for those women, through the knot of wedlock, take for themselves their husbands' names. In the same manner, we oftentimes read in the prophets and holy history of the Bible, "The house upon which your name is called;" Jer 7.10 that is, the house which is called after your name, and is named the Lord's house. Likewise Joab, general of the king's army, says to David: "Take the city" (Rabbah, the chief city or royal seat of the Ammonites), "lest I take it, and my name be called upon it;" 2Sam 12.28 that is, lest I be called the conqueror of Rabbah. Therefore, they are most ignorant and unskilful of the scriptures and the phrases of speech used in the scripture, who cite that saying of Jacob, which we just now declared, in defence and maintenance of the invocation of saints, as though Jacob would have his name be called upon his posterity and offspring. In Daniel you read, "A people upon whom the name of God is called:" Dan 9.19 which signifies nothing else than a people who are called God's people.

Here is no mention of invocation, by which we ask for or desire anything. Furthermore, invocation, or calling upon, is taken for religion. For Luke says in the Acts: "Saul had power (or authority) to bind all those who called upon the name of the Lord." Act 9.14 And Paul says: "Let everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord depart from iniquity." 2Tim 2.19 Also, "Seek after peace with all those who call upon the name of the Lord," 2Tim 2.22 that is, who are of the true Christian religion. Lastly, to invoke or call upon, signifies to cry or call for help, and to crave something with continual outcries.

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Therefore, that invocation or calling upon God which we are treating at this time, is a lifting up of man's mind to God in great necessity or in some desire, and a most ardent craving for counsel and assistance by faith; and it is also bequeathing or committing ourselves into the protection of God, taking ourselves to his sanctuary and only safeguard as it were. Therefore, in true invocation, first of all, a faithful mind is required, which acknowledges God as the author and only giver of all good gifts; who is willing to hear those who call upon him, and is able to grant us all our requests and desires whatever. An incessant and ardent petition or beseeching is also required. But more will be said about these points, when God gives us leave, in our sermon about the prayer of the faithful — for invocation is a kind of prayer.

Now, truly, I will show that in all our desires, God is to be called upon — yes, and to be called upon only and alone. There are surely express commandments of God, charging us to call upon the name of the Lord, who promises that for the good will and love which he bears us, he will hear our requests and suits, and largely give to us those things tending to our health and benefit. Out of many testimonies, I will cite one or two. Solomon, the wisest of all men, teaches us to call upon God in all and every one of our necessities, making particular mention of men's special desires.1Kng 8.30 ff Solomon's father, that most holy king David, handles the same argument throughout the whole hundred and seventh Psalm. He therefore reckons up the diverse casualties, chances, and miseries of men, their affliction or oppression, their wanderings and dangers in their journey, their bonds and imprisonments, their diseases, and the fear of death (which is sometimes more terrible and hideous than death itself), their jeopardies on the sea and rough waters, barrenness, scarcity, calamities, contempt, shame, and ignominy. 'Those crosses,' he says [in effect], 'if they light on any man, let him not ascribe them either to his [false] god to whose defence he has committed himself, or to fortune, or to his constellation and destiny; but to that God who knows all things, and can do all things, and let him call upon that God earnestly by faith.'

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For the prophet often repeats these words: "And when they cried to the Lord in their tribulation, he delivered them out of their distress." Psa 120.1 And for that cause, he so often reiterated those words, to the end that, having conceived a perfect trust in our hearts and sure belief, we might learn in all circumstances to call upon the name of the Lord. For Solomon says yet again in his Proverbs (18.10): "The name of the Lord is a most strong tower; the righteous man runs to it, and he shall be advanced," [2205] or, he shall be set free from danger. Asaph also says in his holy songs: "Sacrifice to the Lord a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High." Psa 50.14 And, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." Psa 50.15 And he brings in the Lord himself speaking, and requiring sacrifices, not of beasts, not of gold or silver, but of praise and invocation. With this, He promises help; and He witnesses that he is honoured (or glorified) by invocation and praising. Upon which David said: "In my trouble I will call upon the Lord, and I will cry unto my God; and he shall hear my voice out of his holy temple, and my cry shall enter into his ears." Psa 18.6 Joel also said: "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be safe." Joe 2.32 And the Lord by the prophet Jeremiah says: "You shall call upon me, and you shall live:[2206] you shall pray to me, and I will hear you; you shall seek me, and you shall find me, if you seek me with your whole heart." Jer 29.11-13 Furthermore, we do not read that our holy and blessed fathers in their petitions and requests, whether they were small or great, called upon any other than that God who lives everlastingly, world without end. For the Lord himself says by Asaph: "In your extremities and troubles, Israel, you called upon me, and I delivered you." Psa 81.7 Also David says: "Our fathers hoped in you, and you delivered them. To you they cried, and were delivered; in You they trusted, and were not confounded." Psa 22.4-5

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Now add to all these, the commandment of Christ our Lord: "When you pray, say, Our Father," etc. Add also the words which follow in Luke 11.9, and Matthew 7.7. "Ask, and it shall be given to you;" and so forth. We conclude, therefore, that the true, living, and everlasting God should be called upon by all men in all their necessities.

But perhaps it is to no purpose that I take pains in this point, seeing that there are but a few, or none at all, who would deny that God is to be called upon. This seems to require a more diligent declaration, that God only and alone is to be called upon. For many doubtless call upon God, but certain chosen patrons are called upon together with God, or for God; from which it follows that they do not call upon God only and alone. Now, we declare that He alone is to be called upon in this way. By invocation, or calling upon, we require help or succour, either that good things may be given to us, or that evil things may be turned away from us. This needs no further proof, seeing that it cannot be denied by anyone who is ruled by his right wits. Now, God only and alone is our helper, who only gives good things, and takes away evil things. For the Lord says in the gospel: "There is none good but one," Mar 10.18 namely, God; where one is taken for one only and alone. Again in the law, by the mouth of Moses, the Lord says: "Behold, that I am God alone, and that there is no other God beside me." Deu 32.39 And again by Isaiah: "Am not I the Lord? and there is no other God beside me: a just God and a Saviour; there is none other beside me." Isa 45.21 And David: "Who," he says, "is God, besides the Lord? and who is mighty (or a rock), save our God?" 2Sam 22.32 In very evil part therefore the worshippers of God took it, so often as men asked of them those things which are in the Lord's hands only to give. Rachel said to Jacob: "Give me children, or else I die." Gen 30.1 But the scripture then adds: "And Jacob being angry said, Am I in God's stead, who has denied you" (or withheld from you) "the fruit of the womb?" Gen 30.2 So when the king of Syria desired and sought Joram, the king of Israel (I know, a not so godly king), that he would heal Naaman who was infected with the leprosy, Joram says: "Am I a God, that I should be able to kill and to give life? For he sends to me, that I should heal a man from his leprosy." 2Kng 5.7

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Therefore, it is most certain that it belongs to God only to give good things, and to turn away evil things. It consequently follows that God only and alone must be called upon. For if those patrons who are called upon as helpers and succourers, are able either to give those things that are good, or to turn away those things that are evil, then certainly there is not one God only; for those would likewise be gods. But they are not gods, because there is but one God, who only and alone gives (or bestows) good things, and takes away (or removes) evil things. God only and alone, therefore, is to be called upon. Patrons are not to be called upon, as they are unable to do us either good or harm. Touching that, some object here (of their own heads), that patrons do us good and harm, not of themselves, but of God. But this is doubtful — indeed, it is most false. For the Lord himself says by the prophet: "I am the Lord: Hu (this or being) [2207] is my name; and I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to a graven image." Isa 42.8 So that all glory belongs to God, because He only [2208] and alone, is not only the well-spring of all good graces, which is never drawn dry, but also a most just and equal distributer of them; and for that cause he is called upon, worshipped, and served by men. Psalm 1.

Furthermore, insofar as we should sacrifice only to one God, it is certain that we must worship only one God. The Lord cries in the law: "He that offers to gods other than to the only God, let him be rooted out." Exo 22.20 And therefore, when the people of Lystra were preparing sacrifices to offer to the apostles, Paul and Barnabas tore their clothes at it, as an intolerable blasphemy. For in the law of the Lord we read again: "Whoever makes for himself a composition (or perfume) of incense, to smell like it, he shall be cut off from among his people." And the sacrifices of the godly are prayers, thanksgivings, and invocations upon God's name.

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For David says: "To you I will sacrifice a sacrifice of praise, and I will call upon the name of the Lord." Psa 116.17 And again: "Let my prayer be directed in your sight as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice." Psa 141.2 Paul likewise says: "By Christ we offer the sacrifice of praise always unto God, that is, the fruit of lips which confess his name." Heb 13.15 For the prophet Hosea bids us "offer the calves of our lips." Hos 14.2 Therefore, as only one God is to be sacrificed to, only one God is to be called upon. Nor is possible for those who do not call upon the only God, but upon heavenly patrons, if those patrons are saints, to require this manner of invocations by men. No indeed! These invocations rather offend both God and the saints, ascribing to the saints, that which no blessed spirits acknowledge. St. Augustine says that they are not the angels of the good God, but wicked devils, who would not have the only and most high God, but themselves, be worshipped and served with sacrifices.[2209] Besides that, the blessed spirits (or saints) during the time that they lived in their mortal bodies, prayed "Your will be done, as in heaven so on earth." Mat 6.10 Therefore, now being delivered and set free from all corruption, they much more fully, indeed, most perfectly agree with the will of God, which commands all men to worship and call upon the only God.

Again, the One who looks into and sees the hearts of those who call upon him, hears their petitions or requests, and is able to fulfil the desires of all men living, [is the only One who] is lawfully and fruitfully called upon. And surely it is requisite and necessary that He know all things, that he be almighty, and the searcher of hearts. Therefore, seeing that he is the only God, without further question, the only God should be called upon. Solomon testifies that only God is the searcher of hearts, that he is comprehended in no place but present everywhere, and that He is omnipotent, saying so in these words:

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"Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens are not able to contain you. How much more unable, then, is this house that I have built! You therefore shall hear in heaven, in the place of your habitation (or, in your dwelling-place), and shall have mercy. For only you know the hearts of the sons of men. You shall do (and give) to each one according to all his ways, Who know his very heart." 1Kng 8.27 ff

As for the "heavenly patrons," as these men call them, they neither know the thoughts of men; nor is their power spread throughout the heaven, the earth, and the seas; nor do they know all things; nor yet are they everywhere present, or omnipotent. For if it were so with them, then they would be transformed and changed into a divine nature, and would cease to be creatures anymore. But although they enjoy everlasting blessedness by Christ, yet notwithstanding, they remain creatures still; nor do they know all things, nor are they almighty. And therefore they are to be called upon at no one's hand. In one prick and moment of time, truly innumerable thousands of mortal men offer up their vows, and make their petitions: so that he truly who hears, must at a pinch, and in a single moment (not at sundry seasons or degrees of time) know and be able to do all things — indeed, and in a moment also reach out his helping hand to all. No creature, however excellent, can do this. Thus, the only God alone, who knows all, and is omnipotent, can do all things. And therefore, He only and alone is to be called upon.

I know well what the defenders of heavenly patrons (or saints) object against what I have spoken; namely, that of their own nature, they neither see nor hear what is done by us on earth; but in the face of God, as in a well-lit mirror, they see all things, whatever God grants to reveal to them, so that they have an under-knowledge of all our affairs, and also help us.[2210] But this imagination or forgery (in all points doubtful) can be proved by no authority out of the holy scriptures. But touching the celestial saints, the scripture rather affirms the flat contrary. For in Isaiah, the people of God cry out: "You, God, are our Father. Though Abraham is ignorant of us, and Israel does not know us; You, O Lord, are our Father, and our Redeemer." Isa 63.16

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If, then, the patriarchs — so studious and careful for their people — did not know what they did, which of the saints (I ask you) would we grant or point out, who knows what we do, and intermeddles with the affairs of the living? Doubtless, it is true what that holy psalm sounds: "Because my father and my mother have left (or forsaken) me, the Lord has taken me up." Psa 27.10 If our parents forsake and leave us, then how (I ask you) can they tell, or do they care, how it fares with us? Let that suffice us, with which David held himself thoroughly content, saying: "The Lord has taken charge over me." We read that Josiah was translated out of this life into another, to the end he would not see the mischiefs (or plagues and punishments,) which the Lord determined to bring upon the Israelite people for their most wicked and naughty life. 2Kng 22.20 The blessed souls, therefore, enjoy the sight of God, and thereby partake of light and endless joy or gladness. They know none of our affairs, nor is it needful that they should know them, considering that the Lord alone has all things in his government.

Now, that is also most certain, that invocation springs from faith, just as the fruit springs from the root. For Paul, using that saying from the prophet, "Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be safe," Joe 2.32 then adds: "But how will they call upon him, in whom they have not believed?" Rom 10.13-14 See how the apostle brings in one upon another: He is not called upon, who is not believed. This is why the one in whom we believe, we also call upon. But we believe in God only and alone; therefore, on we call upon him only. For wherever true faith is found, there likewise is the gift of the Holy Ghost.

For the apostle says: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Rom 8.9 And again: "You have not received again the spirit of bondage unto fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption, by which we cry, Abba, Father." Rom 8.15 Those, therefore, who are endued with a true belief in God, call upon God, whom they acknowledge and confess to be the only Father of all. Eph 4.6 Nor might so much as the least part in that solemn form and order of invocation, delivered to us by the Son of God, Mat 6.9 be attributed by any means to patrons, or saints. The only God is therefore to be called upon.

The heart of sinful man trembles and quakes to approach near to so great a majesty. For who may seem worthy in himself to appear and come before the presence of the most holy, the most just, and the most terrible [2211] God?

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Here, therefore, some supply and make up the matter with the patronship or intercession of celestial saints, by whose mediation and making way before us, passage lies open for us to God. But they produce this without the warrant of the scripture. The scripture has laid calling upon God before us as a law, as it were, and to this has been annexed the most ample or large promises. So the commandment sets before us, by and through whom we should call upon God, adding to it a most excellent promise, and opening for us the only ready way to the Father, through Christ Jesus. For in the gospel, the Lord says: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he shall give it to you. Up to now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be perfect," (or full). Joh 16.24 And, "Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it; that the Father may be glorified by the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it." Joh 14.12 What could be spoken more fully and clearly than these words? Christ bids us by (or in) his name to call upon God the Father, and he promises that he will give the faithful whatever they ask in Christ's name. Who doubts, now, any whit at all of the truth and constancy of the one who promises? Therefore, why do we henceforth need the intercession of saints? We have no testimony of scripture, we have no promise, of calling upon them, or of coming to God by their mediation. To this I add that, whoever seeks to come to the Father by any other than by Christ and his intercession, contemns the commandment and precept of God. He that obeys the commandment of Christ, and makes invocation in his name, does not need the mediation of saints at all. Does he not have all things plentifully in Christ? We therefore say and affirm that only Christ is the mediator, intercessor, and advocate with the Father in heaven, of all men who are on earth, and the only one of that sort — that after him, it is needless to have other advocates.

Many grant that Christ is given to us an intercessor with God; but because they join many others with him, they do not surely send all to him alone, nor preach only one mediator.

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They imagine that Christ is the mediator of redemption, yes, and the only mediator; yet he is not the only mediator of intercession, but together with him, there are many more. But as the scripture sets forth Christ as the only mediator of redemption, so it also sets him forth as the only mediator of intercession. The office of a mediator touching redemption and intercession, is one and the same office. A mediator puts himself in the middle between those who are at variance or disagreement; and he is joined to each in disposition and nature. An intercessor puts himself in the middle between those who are at strife and dissension; and unless he is indifferent to either side, he cannot be an intercessor. On both parts, reconciliation [2212] (or atonement) is required and looked for. There must therefore be a certain cause of discord; which being taken away, the discord or debate also ceases. The cause of discord is sin. It is therefore the duty of a mediator or intercessor to quite erase sin, that disagreement may no longer remain. For this, there are no amends or satisfaction to be made with words or with prayers, but with blood and death. Heb 9.22 From this we necessarily gather that only Christ is the mediator or intercessor with the Father. For only Christ [2213] may set himself in the middle between God and men, because only he is partaker of both natures. The saints have but one nature; for they are men; but Christ is both God and man. Furthermore, he that is an intercessor must also be a reconciler, or an atonement-maker. For the end at which the intercessor shoots, is reconciliation. But Christ is the only reconciler of men, and therefore he is also the only intercessor. For it belongs to an intercessor to dissolve the cause of contention and discord, that is to say, to abolish and take away sin. But Christ alone takes away sin, and no creature. It therefore remains that Christ is the only intercessor. Up to here now, pertain the testimonies of scripture. Paul says: "There is one God, and one reconciler (or mediator) of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as the price (or ransom) for the redemption of all." 1Tim 2.5-6

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And although the apostle speaks expressly of redemption, yet notwithstanding, these words are placed in the middle between the disputation and the invocation of God, which is done by Christ, who is the only-mediator of redemption and intercession. For just as he alone redeemed us, so being redeemed, he alone even now commends us to the Father. Touching this, let the apostle be heard once again, saying to the Romans: "Christ, when as yet we were sinners, died for us: much more therefore now being justified (or made righteous) by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." Rom 5.9 And yet again, somewhat plainer: "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Rom 5.10 For in another place the same apostle says: "Christ ever lives" for this end, "to make intercession for us." Heb 7.25 And again: "It is God that justifies: who is he that can condemn? It is Christ that died; indeed, that is raised up; who is also at the right hand of God, and makes intercession for us." Rom 8.33-34 The same Christ opens the way, or makes access for us to the Father.[2214] Hebrews, chapter 4. and Ephesians, chapter 2. For in the gospel the Lord Jesus himself does not show us many doors, but one only door. "I am the door," he says. Joh 10.7 And again: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. None comes to the Father but by me." Joh 14.6 The one who says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," indeed, says it in such a way, that there is access to the Father by none other than by me, that is, by me only and alone. Does that not exclude all other means, all other ways, and all other patrons or advocates whatsoever? Also, in another place of the gospel, in his own person, he plainly and lovingly calls all to him and to the benefit of his defence, cries: "Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Mat 11.28 He does this lest anyone be hindered from calling upon God in the name of Christ, and committing themselves to Christ's defence of them – hindered through shame, knowledge of their own unworthiness, and guiltiness of sins, or the majesty and glory of Christ the Son of God.

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Out of the epistle to the Hebrews may be gathered no less evident testimonies than these, and in good supply. Among others, this one is excellent: "Christ, because he endures forever," says the apostle, "has an everlasting priesthood. Therefore he is able to perfectly save those who come to God by him, seeing that he ever lives (for this end) to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, (who is) holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens," etc. Heb 7.24-26 Mark how many arguments we have in this testimony of Paul, to prove that Christ, of all the faithful in heaven, is the only intercessor with the Father. The proper or particular office of the priest is to make intercession. But only Christ is priest in the presence of God. Therefore, he is the only intercessor. Now, the priesthood of Christ is also everlasting, or unchangeable. Therefore, he has redeemed us not only by once offering himself up for us (being made the only and alone Mediator of redemption), but he is also the everlasting and perpetual Mediator of intercession, making intercession for us even till the end of the world. For even though our Lord is a judge, yet notwithstanding, he is a judge of the unfaithful, a defender and upholder of the faithful, and at length, when the world is at an end, a judge of all. And if he has an everlasting priesthood, and (aparabaton) it is not conveyable, or removeable, — that is, if it cannot pass over to any other, either by succession, resignation,[2215] or part-taking — then certainly Christ only and alone remains intercessor of the faithful. Moreover, there is no cause why we should choose and take other intercessors for ourselves, either after Christ, or with Christ. For he is able to work our salvation to the full, by himself alone; this leaves nothing at all to others with which to busy themselves. Let us also, first of all, [2216] note what he expressly adds, "That come to God by him;" — "by him," that is, by our mediator, priest, and intercessor, Christ. For the way lies open for us to go to the Father, by him only and alone. To this also is annexed, "That he lives; and (for this end) he lives to make intercession for us." The heavenly saints also live in the kingdom of God with Christ. But they live for themselves (or for their own benefit), and not for us (or our advantage). Christ lives for us, and he makes intercession for us: therefore he alone makes intercession. Saints do not make intercession.

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These reasons prove to us most manifestly, I think, that the apostle speaks of the mediation of intercession, and not of redemption. Last of all, he requires those marks (or properties) in an intercessor, which cannot be found in anyone except Christ the Lord, only and alone. For although the angels are innocent and harmless, yet they are not higher than the heavens. The heavenly saints, although they are now purged and made clean from sins, yet for all that, they are not separated from sinners by nature, nor are they made higher than the heavens, as being lords over angels and over every creature. Only the Son is such a one, and this glory is reserved and kept for him. Therefore, He alone is the intercessor of the faithful with the Father.

To these testimonies of Paul, we will join yet another from St. Peter, and another from the most blessed apostle and evangelist John. St. Peter teaches that the saints, that is, we who are faithful in this world, are laid as living stones upon Christ the living stone, by faith; and we are made a spiritual building (or house), and a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Look, we are laid, not upon saints, but upon Christ, the living stone; by whom we are both quickened and preserved in the building. We are made a spiritual house, and a holy priesthood, for this end; that we should offer, not sacrifices beasts, but spiritual sacrifices, namely, ourselves and our prayers, unto God by Jesus Christ, not by saints. For they also are the spiritual house with us, the living stones, laid upon Christ, and living through Christ.

Furthermore, John writes: "My babes, these things write I to you, that you do not sin; but if any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the just (or the righteous). And he is the propitiation (or reconciliation) for our sins; and not for ours only, but also (for the sins) of the whole world." 1Joh 2.1 I do not think anything could be devised or spoken [2217] that is more agreeable to our purpose, more evident, stronger, or better than this. We hear that Christ is appointed by God and made unto us not only a mediator of redemption, once to redeem, but to be an everlasting mediator, indeed, of intercession.

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He stands as an advocate before God the Father, so often as sinful man offends and needs his help and defence; to whom the guilty may also boldly have access, and commit their cause to him, to be pleaded before God. "If any man sins," says John, "we have an advocate with the Father." Look, John calls him an advocate, whom the defenders (or maintainers) of the patronship of saints call a mediator of intercession. For advocatus, παράκλητος (parakletos) an advocate, signifies a tutor, a defender, a favourer, a comforter, a patron, or a proctor, who pleads, or handles our cause. But mark whom he defines and sets forth to be our advocate: not the holy virgin, not Peter or Paul, not himself or Stephen, but Jesus Christ. If he had thought or believed that the patronship of heavenly saints had been additionally necessary and wholesome for men, then he would have joined them with Christ the Lord. But now, here he sets forth unto us Christ alone. He adds, "the just" (or the righteous); as if he had said, there is no cause why any should distrust or stand in doubt of his patronship, or think him a patron who is not in his Father's favour and love. He is the Son, he is Christ, he is the just or righteous: therefore he is highly in his Father's favour, and most acceptable; who in the presence of the most just God, may appear for us who are unjust. Such righteousness is not found in any one of Adam's children, but it is required in an intercessor. Indeed, he communicates his righteousness to the saints by faith; but that righteousness is imputed to the saints, and it is imputative.[2218] In Christ, righteousness is natural and born in him as it were; indeed, it is properly his own. For Christ Jesus is the only righteous in heaven and on earth; who does not need either to pray or to offer sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the offences of the people; for only he has no sin, and is the righteousness of all. Therefore, only he can make intercession with the Father, because no one naturally and properly is righteous but Christ alone. And it is not amiss in this place, first of all [2219] to mark that Christ is called a propitiation, or satisfaction, not for sinners or people of one or two ages, but for all sinners and all faithful people throughout the whole world.

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One Christ is therefore sufficient for all: one intercessor with the Father is set forth for all. For however often you sin, that often you have ready a righteous intercessor with the Father. Not that we should imagine in heaven, as in a court, the Father upon his throne to sit as a judge; and the Son our patron, as often as we sin and offend, to fall down on his knees, and plead or entreat for us. But we understand with the apostle, that Christ is the advocate and the universal priest of the church, and that only he appears in the presence of the Father. This is because, just as the power and force of his death is always effectual (he does not die daily), so the virtue of his intercession is always effectual. Let us therefore draw near and come to God by Christ, the only mediator of our redemption and intercession, our only intercessor and advocate. We cannot help being acceptable to God the Father, if we are commended to him by his only-begotten Son.

Furthermore, the arguments are weak with which the maintainers of the heavenly patrons go about establishing their patronship or intercession. The Spirit, they say, makes intercession for us according to the doctrine of the apostle; [2220] therefore Christ alone does not make intercession. I answer that Paul does not speak of another intercessor in heaven, but of the spirit of man praying in this world; being enlightened and kindled with the Spirit of God, he groans and makes intercession for the saints. The words of the apostle are plain.

Yet these men add this: We read in scripture of the prayers of angels, and that they offer the prayers of the faithful in God's presence. Rev 8.4 Therefore, it is not Christ alone who prays or makes intercession for us in heaven, but also the saints. We deny that this follows, because the scripture teaches that angels are ministering spirits; and according to their office, they offer prayers only as ministers in the presence of God, but not to make intercession. Nor are men heard for angels' sakes, but for Christ's sake, who makes intercession, and for whose sake the prayer which is brought and offered to God is acceptable to Him. Now, if they bring forth the same thing touching the blessed souls of the saints, and reason a simili, from that which is alike, then let them first teach that souls are appointed and made ministering spirits.

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But they cannot. And if they could, they would still not have proved that the heavenly saints are intercessors. For doubtless, the angels themselves are not intercessors, just because they offer the prayers of men to God.

[Heavenly saints] agree to us, they say, and are knit to us in the same knot of charity and love. And because the spirits of the blessed who live in heaven love us here on earth, therefore, according to the nature and disposition of this love, they also pray for us. We answer that they gather this from scripture without warrant. For we may grant them this without wrangling: that the saints in heaven are not without the love of their neighbour. And yet, notwithstanding, we add that this love in the heavenly saints no longer has that nature or disposition, and those offices, which it had on earth in times past. Otherwise, we would attribute many more absurdities to the saints; as though they either did or suffered those things which they neither did nor suffered. While they lived on earth, according to the disposition and nature of love, they were sorry, and they were glad, and they prayed with us; yes, they also made intercession for us. But now that they have put off this corruption and have left us, leading their lives in heaven with the Lord, they neither know our affairs, nor are moved with any earthly affections. They understand that it is surpassing well with us [2221] without their help. They likewise understand that the work of our salvation is already wrought and accomplished,[2222] so that they may quiet themselves, and rest from their labours, and rejoice in Christ. Doubtless, he is the only intercessor with the Father of all men living in their misery, because he knows all, and can do all. Nor is he moved at, wearied or tired with, nor yet ignorant of anything. But whatever things are incident or belong to an intercessor, he takes upon himself most absolutely, and dispatches all these things. The [heavenly saints] understand that this glory agrees to the only Son of God; and therefore they do not go busily about it, that in Christ's stead they might appoint or make themselves intercessors. For here the love that they bear to God surpasses the love of their neighbour.

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But these men object, that the saints do not pray in heaven in the rite and fashion of that only intercessor, but in the same manner that they prayed for their fellow-brethren while on earth. Just now we said that it did not follow: they did this on earth, therefore they do the same in heaven. Nor can it be proved by manifest scriptures that the saints in heaven pray for us. Why then do they set forth doubtful opinions as certain? For we may grant that the saints pray in heaven, (which not a few of the fathers have written [2223]); yet it does not follow that the heavenly saints are to be called upon. For that sentence from St. Augustine is very well known, which is written in his book De civitate Dei, xxii. chap. 10:

"The Gentiles built temples, made altars, ordained priests, and offered sacrifices to their gods. But we do not erect temples to our martyrs, as to gods, but only as remembrances to dead men, whose spirits live with God. Nor do we set up altars there, on which we might sacrifice to martyrs; but we sacrifice to one God, who is the sacrifice both of the martyrs, and also our sacrifice — according to which sacrifice, as men of God who have overcome the world in confessing Him, these things have their place and order. Even so, they are not called upon by the priest who sacrifices, because he is God's priest, and not theirs. Now the sacrifice itself is the body of Christ, which is not offered to the [heavenly saints]; because they themselves are also the same." [2224]

Thus he says, testifying plainly enough, that the saints are not called upon, nor to be called upon, because sacrifice belongs to God, and not to the saints.

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The adversaries add that for many years the church called upon the saints, and that the church did not err; therefore, those who now call upon the saints do not err. We answer that the church does not err when she hears the voice of her Bridegroom and Shepherd. But she does err when, neglecting the voice of her Shepherd, she follows her own decrees. The whole church of Israel erred, together with their high priest Aaron and the elders of the people, when — transgressing the law of God — they worshipped God represented by an image, with singing and dancing, otherwise than God himself had appointed. Nor are the Israelites absolved from error and sin, when for many years they did not pull down their high places.

They add again, that the saints have helped when they have been called upon; therefore, they are to be called upon. Oftentimes, that which is instituted against the word of God turns out well. But who can gather from this that what is instituted against the word of God, is good? It is as though the innocent and harmless were therefore to be destroyed with war, because we see that merciless soldiers grow rich by war. The gods of the Gentiles likewise seemed to hear the petitions of their suppliants; but are the gods of the Gentiles therefore to be called upon?

But we do not mean to answer every one of their arguments, because we have already done that elsewhere, according to our talent.[2225] We conclude, therefore, that the word of truth, uttered out of the mouth of God, teaches us the invocation of God's name by the mediation of Jesus Christ. Nor do we read that any holy man, either in the old or new Testaments (of whom the scripture has undoubtedly mentioned), called upon any patriarch or prophet who had departed this life, however excellent, nor upon any apostle, or apostle's disciple — other than by the name of Jesus Christ. Let us therefore hold fast to this doctrine which is most perfect and most safe, which bids us all to call upon God alone by his only Son, which is what God himself requires of every one of us, and by which, when we obey, we please God.

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The last place remains, touching the serving of God. This word colere is of large signification in Latin. For we say, colere amicitiam, to maintain friendship, colere literarum studia, to love learning, colere arva, to till or husband our lands, and colere senes, to reverence old men. In this place, we use colere for servire, that is, to be dutiful in all points like a servant, and to show ourselves obedient to reverence or to venerate, and to worship. The Hebricians use their word abad, which the Latin interpreter translated servivit, coluit, or sacrificavit;[2226] that is, he served, worshipped, or sacrificed. In the book of Kings you read: "And Ahab served Baal, and worshipped him." 1Kng 1^6.3^1 The Grecians call this service either latreia (latreia) or douleia (douleia). The one is taken for the other, though indeed, servire, to serve, is more than colere, to worship. For you can abide without much ado in worshipping some man; but to serve him, you cannot so well get away with much. We therefore say that the service of God is a service by which men submit themselves reverently to God, and obey him, and worship him according to his will. Therefore, those who serve[2227] God earnestly, behave themselves dutifully in obeying him — serving him inwardly and outwardly, as he has appointed.

For the service of God is twofold, or of two sorts; the true and the false. The true is called true religion, true faith, and godliness. The false is called superstition, idolatry, and ungodliness. For the true service of God springs from the true fear of God, from a sincere faith, which submits itself in all things to the will of God.[2228] The false service consists in the contrary: touching which we will say more when we come to speak of superstition.

The true service of God is divided again, for perspicuity or plainness' sake, into the inward service of God, and the outward. The inward service is known to God alone, who is the searcher of hearts. For it is occupied in the fear of God, and perfect obedience, in faith, hope, and charity, from which spring the worship of God, calling upon him, thanksgiving, patience, perseverance, chastity, innocence, well-doing, and the rest of the fruits of the Spirit.

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For God, who is a Spirit, is truly served with these gifts of God and spiritual things. Without these, no service is allowed by God, however gay, glorious and pure it may seem in the sight of men. This service of God has testimonies both divine and human; but first of all from the law, the prophets, and the apostles. For Moses says in the law:

"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but that you should fear the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways, that you should love him, and that you should serve the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you should keep the commandments of the Lord, and his ordinances, which I command you this day for your wealth?" Deu 10.12-13

Micah the prophet Mic 6.8 brings in someone asking questions concerning the true service of God, in what it consists of, and Micah answers: "I will show you,[2229] O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: surely to do justly (or judgment), to love mercy, and to humble yourself to walk with your God." [2230] St. Paul the apostle says: "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you give your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God (which is) your reasonable serving of God. And do not fashion yourselves like this world, but be changed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, and what is good and acceptable and perfect." Rom 12.1 The same apostle says, comprehending in a few words the true service of God, which is turning from idols to God and the faith of Jesus Christ: "Those of Macedonia and other nations (or quarters), show how you have turned to God from idols, that you might serve the living and true God, and look for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come." 1Th 1.9-10 Moreover, St. James the apostle Jas 1.27 says: "Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit the fatherless (or orphans) and widows in their adversity, and to keep himself unspotted by the world." [2231]

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These divine and evident testimonies of holy scripture declare plentifully enough, dearly beloved, which is the true inward service of God. Nevertheless, there are many human testimonies, in no way disagreeing with the divine, found everywhere in ecclesiastical writers. Lactantius says: "Therefore the knowledge of God and his service is all in all. In this consists all the hope and salvation of man. This is the first step (or degree) of wisdom: that we should know who our true Father is, that we should reverence him alone with due godliness, that we should obey him, and most devoutly serve him; and to obtain his favour, let all labour, care, and industry be bestowed." [2232] The same author cites six other manifest testimonies of this kind, also largely in the tenth chapter of the same book, and in the first chapter of his book, de vero Dei Cultu.[2233] But instead of many, we like citing that one testimony, touching the true service of God, freely uttered by the mouth of a Roman martyr [2234] before judge Asclepiades, at the Roman consistory. For after he had both courageously and religiously told what God is in His person and in His substance, he adds this:

You know God: now understand as well

The form and manner how he served is;

What kind of church it is where he does dwell;

What gifts to give he thought it not amiss;

What vows he asks: whom he (beside all this)

Will have his priests, and in his church likewise

What he commands to bring for sacrifice.

Unto himself, even in the mind of man,

A church he has vouchsafed up to rear;

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A lively, feeling, breathing church, which can

Not sundred be, fair, beautiful, and clear,

And never like destruction's dint to fear,

With lofty top, and painted pleasantly

With colours fresh of great diversity. God's priest.

At th' holy porch a priest is standing there,

And keeps the doors before the church which been.

Faith is her name, a virgin chaste and clear,

Her hair tied up with fillets like a queen.

For sacrifices simple, pure, and clean,

And which she knows are pleasing, bids this priest

Offer to God, and to his dear Son Christ;

A shamefac'd look, a meek and harmless heart,

The rest of peace, a body pure and chaste,

The fear of God, which sinners does convert:

The rule likewise of knowledge truly plac'd,

A sober fast from all excessive waste

Of gluttony, a hope which does not faint,

A liberal hand which gives without restraint.

From these oblations a vapour does arise,

Which savours sweet by virtue's force compels:

It does ascend and pierce the azure skies;

The scent of balm and saffron it excels,

Yea frankincense, and Persian spices smells:

From earth to heaven it mounts up aloft,

And pleases God therewith delighted oft. [2235]

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And so forth as follows to this purpose. These things I think are sufficient, concerning the inward service of God. I confess, in the meanwhile, that they may also be somewhat referred to the outward service of God.

The outward service of God springs from the inward. Nor is it known to God alone, as this other is, but it is open to the judgment of man. And it is keeping or executing the rites instituted by God himself, by which we both testify to men that inward service and also practise these rites to the glory of God and our profit. Among the ancient people, this kind included the temple, the priesthood, and all the ceremonies instituted by God, which are very often called the service of God. And this service had its appointed limits; for it was not lawful for everyone to feign service of God according to their own pleasure, as shown at large in the law and the holy history.

Now, I declared when I was in hand with the Jewish [2236] ceremonies, that outward service to the glory of God and the profit of the faithful. Furthermore, just as Christ abrogated those old rites, so he placed again a very few in their stead. For he instituted a holy assembly, in which His will is that his word should be preached and expounded out of the holy scripture to his own glory and to our profit; common prayer is to be made; and the sacraments are to be ministered and received. A convenient place, fit time, due order, and holy instruments are necessary to these things. In these things, again, the godly follow their own wills in none of it; for they fetch the whole manner and order of serving from the word of that God whom they serve. Something is said of this in the fourth commandment of the first tablet, and more will be said at large, in its due place and order.

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To be short, God is served outwardly by those who, by faith and obedience, gather themselves into the holy assembly at fixed times; who keep the ecclesiastical discipline derived from the word of God; who hear the word of God, or the holy exposition of the sacred scriptures; who pray publicly with the church; who religiously participate in the sacraments; and who observe other lawful and wholesome rites or ceremonies. By their service they glorify God among men, and receive from God no small reward,[2237] namely, his blessing, and increase of heavenly gifts.

I think there is no need in this place, from testimonies of scripture, to confirm these things that we have said up to here touching the outward service of God. For very many are to be found everywhere in the history of the Gospel, in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles. For the Lord Jesus everywhere gathers holy assemblies together, to whom he preaches the gospel, and commends prayer. He says of Mary sitting at his feet and hearing his preaching: "This one thing is necessary; Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her." And in another place: "Blessed are they," he says, "who hear the word of God, and keep it." Surely the Lord himself instituted and put in use the sacraments. For when John did not consent to baptize Jesus at his request, John said, "I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?" Jesus answered, "Let it be so now: for it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness." The apostle Paul, diligently commending ecclesiastical discipline to the churches, likewise most decently ordained holy assemblies for it. The places are very well known to all; 1Cor 11.14, 16; 1Tim 2.1, 8-12; and elsewhere.

But before I conclude this place, I will show that only God is to be served. And surely the service itself, which we have treated up to here, cannot be bestowed upon any creature, nor upon angels or celestial saints; it is for God alone. Therefore, none is so blind as not to see that God alone must be served with these. And when God requires his service or duty from us, he requires our whole heart: nothing therefore is left for us to bestow upon others.

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Moses, full of the Spirit of God, says in his law: "You shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him; his commandments you shall keep; and you shall hearken to his voice, and him you shall serve, and cling to him." Nor does it matter that here the word "alone" is not added, seeing that the words are uttered with an emphasis or force. For when he says, "him you shall serve, and to him you shall cling," what else do we understand, than it is to him and not to any other, and thus to him alone? Furthermore, in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy, you do not read, "You shall fear the Lord your God, and you shall serve him alone, and you shall swear by his name;" Rather, "You shall fear the Lord your God, and him (emphatically) you shall serve, and you shall swear by his name." Furthermore, in the gospel the Lord, brings these words of the law against the tempter, making the emphasis plain, "It is written," (he says), "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." Doubtless, this testimony only, being most effectual and pithy, is sufficient for our demonstration, that God alone is to be served.

I will add to this, moreover, the testimony of a man, yet established by divine authority, which we also set down elsewhere in our books. St. Augustine, de Quantitate Animae, shows that God alone is to be served in this way:

"Whatever the soul serves as God, it is needful that she thinks it better than herself. But we must believe that neither the earth, nor the sea, nor the stars, nor the moon, nor the sun, nor anything at all that may be felt, or seen with these eyes — to be short, not heaven itself, which cannot be seen by us — is better than the nature of the soul. Indeed, assured reason convinces that all these are far worse than any soul." [2238]

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And shortly after;

"Therefore, if there are any other things that God has created, some are worse, and some are as good as the soul — worse, such as the soul of a beast; and equal, such as the angels; but nothing is better. And if some of these happen to be better, this comes to pass by sin and not by nature. Notwithstanding, if it is made less bad by sin, the soul of a beast is still not to be preferred before it, nor is it to be compared with it. Therefore, God alone is to be worshipped by the soul, for He alone is the author of it. And as for any other man, however wise and perfect, or any soul that is endued with reason and most blessed, these are to be loved and followed only according to merit and order. Only that which agrees with and is fitting for them is to be exhibited to them. For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." [2239]

These are St. Augustine's words. And this far we have treated one God only that is to be served — living, true, and everlasting.

Moreover, those who cling to God with a sincere faith, and worship, call upon, and serve one God lawfully, are rightly named religious. Their study and actions are true religion. Some would have religion derived a relinquendo,[2240] because thereby we leave or forsake false gods, all errors and earthly desires, and seek after the true God, after truth and heavenly things. Massurius Sabinus says: "That is religious for which we severally set aside some things for holiness' sake. The word 'religion' has its name a relinquendo, as Ceremonies a carendo." [2241] But M. Cicero supposes that Religio is so-called a relegendo (from selecting or putting apart), because those who are religious carefully choose all things which seem to belong to the service of the gods.

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But he is confuted, in many words, by Lactantius Firmianus, an ancient writer of the church, Lib. Instit. iv. cap. 28. Among other things, he says:

"We are born on this condition: that being born, we might do just and due service to God, that we should know him alone, and that we should follow him. We are strictly bound and tied to God with this bond of godliness, from which religion itself took her name... We said that the name of religion was derived from the bond of godliness, because God has tied and bound man to himself in godliness: for it is needful that we serve Him as a lord, and obey Him as a father." [2242]

Also other ecclesiastical writers such as Jerome and Augustine, following Lactantius, derived religion a religando, i.e., from tying or binding. For Jerome says in his commentary on the ninth chapter of Amos: "This bundle of the Lord, who is one, is tied up with religion. Religion therefore took her name a religando, from tying together, and binding into the Lord's bundle." [2243] And Augustine in his book de Quantitate Animae, chapter 36, says: "True religion is where the soul ties herself through reconciliation to one God, from whom she had broken away, as it were, through sin." [2244] The same Augustine says in his book, de Vera religione, last chapter: "Let religion tie us to one God Almighty, from which it is believed to be named religion." [2245]

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We say, therefore, that true religion is none other than a friendship, a knitting, and a unity (or a league) with the true, living, and everlasting God — to whom being linked by a true faith, we worship, call upon, and serve him alone. We wholly depend upon him, living in all things according to his will, or according to the prescript, rule, and law of his word. Therefore, the whole matter of salvation and faith is most rightly comprised in this one word, religion. Elsewhere in scripture it is called a league or covenant; and again, a marriage or wedlock. For just as those who are confederate are united and made one by a league, so God and man are knit together by religion: and just as the husband and wife are made one body by marriage, so we are knit into a spiritual body with God by religion, as with a husband; Isa 54.5 and with the very Son of God as our bridegroom Mat 9.15 and head. Eph 5.23 Therefore, to this belongs whatever things are said in the scriptures about keeping a league or covenant, and about the faithfulness of marriage. Whoever is not knit to one God by faith, and does not worship him alone, call upon him through Christ, and serve him as He himself said in his word he would be served, are truce-breakers, disloyal, and infamous through their adultery.

They are also called superstitious. For superstition is false religion, which does not serve God but something else for God, or not God alone, or not rightly or lawfully. This word superstition stretches itself even to old wives' tales and doting errors: for in Dutch we call superstition, aberglauben, mis-glauben, und mis-bruch. But Lactantius reasoned most exactly about this word. In his fourth book, Institutions, twenty-eighth chapter, he writes in this way:

"Religion is the service of the true God; superstition is the service of the false god. Those who wish their children to outlive them are not said to be superstitious (for we all wish that); but those are called superstitious who either reverence the memory of the dead; or else those who — while their parents were alive — worshipped their images within their houses, like household gods. For those who took for themselves new rites, with the intent they might, instead of gods, honour the dead, whom they thought were taken from among men and received into heaven — those (I say) were called superstitious.

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But those who worshipped and served public and ancient gods, they called religious, upon which Virgil says:

Vain superstition, ignorant

Of the old and ancient gods.

But seeing that our ancients, in a similar manner, have been consecrated gods after their death, those who serve such false gods are therefore superstitious. But we are religious, who pray and make our supplications to one God, being the true God," etc. [2246]

Superstition consists chiefly in these points: (1) when the Lord is not served, but other gods are served in his stead, with the only one, true, and living God being left and forsaken; or (2) when the Lord is served, but not alone; other strange gods are served together with him; or (3) when he is served, it is not with his lawful service.

The Gentiles offended in the first kind of superstition. [2247] They did not know the true God; and so, instead of Him, they worshipped false, imagined, or strange gods. And the holy prophet Jeremiah is a witness that the Israelites, God's people, were also sick with the same madness. Expostulating and reasoning the matter with the people, he says:

"Hear the word of the Lord, house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain? For did they not say, Where is the Lord that brought us out of the land of Egypt; that led us through the wilderness, through a desert and wasteland, through a dry land, and by the shadow of death, by a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

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And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit and commodities of it. But when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? And those who should minister the law, did not know me. The pastors also offended against me; and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and went after things that did not profit (or they followed idols). Therefore I will yet plead with you, says the Lord; and I will plead with your children's children. For go to the isles of Chittim [2248] and behold; and send to Kedar, and take diligent heed; and see whether there are such things. Has any nation exchanged their gods, which yet are no gods? But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit (or for an idol). O you heavens, be astonished at this; be afraid, and utterly confounded, says the Lord. For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and they have dug themselves pits,[2249] even broken pits, that can hold no water." Jer 2.4-13

You hear that the people of Israel forsook God, the living spring, by a heinous offence, and for which no amends might be made; and they dug broken pits for themselves. The "waters" signify the perfect good, with which the desire of both the soul and body may be satisfied. Such a plentiful spring is God alone, the highest, most excellent, and most perfect good. This being forsaken, they dug — that is, with very great pains and costs, they provided themselves pits. They turned to creatures, things that are not gods, and are unable to satisfy their desires. This mischief is also common even today. Many, having forsaken God, have turned to celestial saints, from whom they desire that which was to be desired from God — things that cannot be given except by God alone.

Here idolatry is found — that is, in worshipping images. For not only are those superstitious who imagine false gods for themselves (having forsaken the true God), or that put their trust in things that are nothing; but also those who worship and reverence the images either of God, or of gods. For images or counterfeits are set up either to the true God himself, or else to false gods — they are set up to creatures (I say).

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But it is not lawful to represent, by any image or counterfeit, the exceeding great, everlasting, and living God, world without end. Nor is it lawful to worship or serve him, expressing it by an image or likeness. Much less, therefore, is it lawful to consecrate images or counterfeits to creatures, to worship and serve them. There are very many testimonies of scripture against idolatry, as in Exo 20.4-5; Isa 40.18-19; 44.9-17; Psa 115.4-8; 1Cor 6.9, 10.7; Rom 1.22-24; Gal 5.19-20; 1Th 1.9; 1Pet 4.3; 1Joh 5.21; Jer 10.1-5; etc. Furthermore, I diligently admonish the simpler sort here, that they not allow themselves to be deceived. For none can avoid being called an idolater, who worships, reverences, and fears images; who puts some part of his confidence in them; who lies down before them; who offers them gifts; who keeps them in a place of solemnity and honour; who sticks up tapers and burns incense to them; who loves, beautifies, maintains, enriches, and serves them with any kind of sacrifice or holy service whatsoever. But concerning idolatry, we have spoken very largely elsewhere. [2250]

Furthermore, they served the God of Israel (who doubts it?); yet not the true God alone, but with other gods also. We read of this in the history of the kings: "And yet they served (or feared) the Lord: and they appointed priests (even of the basest) for themselves for the high places, who prepared for them sacrifices in the houses of the high places. And when they served the Lord, they served their own gods also, in the manner of the nations from which they were brought into Samaria." And again: "So these nations feared the Lord, but served their images also; so did their children, and their children's children: as their fathers did, so they do to this day." This mischief, in like manner, is altogether common today. For a man may find worshippers and servers of God who will not be persuaded by anyone that God alone is to be served — even boldly affirming that it is flat and damnable heresy to deny that saints are to be worshipped, called upon, and served together with God. We have sufficiently argued against them elsewhere,[2251] and in our present sermon also.

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Next to be likewise marked here, comes the diverse manner and sundry fashion of serving God superstitiously. For someone serves God superstitiously, first, who pretends or imagines a god in his mind, and then expresses that same god by an image or counterfeit. He later offers sacrifices and incense to this image; and lying prostrate on the ground, he worships in its presence, and suppliantly serves it with all reverence. This is not the only way, but someone also principally serves God superstitiously, by communicating the incommunicable properties of God to creatures, even if he does not express God by a representation, likeness, or counterfeit. Or he serves superstitiously, if he thinks that the gifts which he has received from heaven at the hands of God, are given and bestowed on him by celestial saints. Furthermore, the incommunicable properties of God are to do all things, know all things, be present in every place, hear all things, help, succour, or assist, and being loving, bountiful, just, righteous, and merciful.

Truly Isaiah, the best learned of the prophets and of singular authority, proves and convinces by the strongest and most substantial arguments or reasons, that the gods of the Babylonians and Gentiles, are not gods: "Because they cannot foretell or know things that are to come later, nor can they do good or evil." For being able to enrich and store with all manner of benefits, and to chastise with due deserved punishments — also, to know all things, and have the power to compass and do all things — these are the properties of God alone, communicable to no creature. Someone is superstitious, therefore, who attributes these properties to celestial saints, and for that cause serves and calls upon them. Hosea the prophet very sorely inveighs against the Jews, who gave and attributed the gifts of God to strange gods, insomuch that he says their synagogues are of a strumpet or harlot. "I will have no pity on her children (God says), for they are the children of fornications. For their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has done shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink." Hos 2.4-5 And shortly after: "Now she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil; and multiplied (or gave her much) her silver and gold, which they bestowed even upon Baal." Hos 2.8

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And it is still done much today, to ascribe to celestial saints and not to the only God, the increase of the earth, and the temperate or sharp seasons of the year, as though they came from them. But that is superstition, not godliness or religion.

Furthermore, God is superstitiously served, when indeed he is served alone, yet not in a lawful manner. Unlawful service proceeds from the will and imagination of men; and it is contrary to the word and ordinance of God. For God is lawfully served, when he is served according to his own will and word. In the law, the Lord commanded has thus: "Beware that you do not seek after the gods of the Gentiles, saying, How did these nations serve their gods, that I may do likewise? You shall not do so to the Lord your God, etc. (Therefore) whatever I command you, take heed that you do it. You shall add nothing to it, nor take anything from it." Deu 12.30-3^2 Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire to the Lord: therefore they are burned up in the presence of the Lord with fire from heaven. Num 3.4 Uzzah also perished, because he handled the ark of God otherwise than the Lord had commanded in his law. 2Sam 6.6-7 In the book of Judges, Micah instituted an image, an altar, a chapel, and a service to the true God, whose name is Jehovah. Jdg 17.5 But it is reproved in the sacred scripture, because it was not only not fetched outside of the holy scripture, but in all respects it was quite contrary and utterly against the law of God. Jeroboam also ordained a surpassing sumptuous service; he instituted cathedral churches, and set up golden images, all to the God of Israel. 1Kng 12.27-33 But because they were not agreeable to the word of the Lord, they are altogether utterly condemned for execrable and accursed sacrileges. Indeed, what are we to think in general about all the services which are neither instituted by God, nor agreeable with the word of God, but conceived with a good intent and meaning of our own? That unique testimony of the most excellent prophet Samuel declares it to us, when he pronounced it against Saul and his sacrifices in these words: "Has the Lord as great a pleasure in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as when the voice of the Lord is obeyed? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, and transgression is wickedness and idolatry." 1Sam 15.22

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This supports what we read in Isaiah: "He that kills a bullock is as if he slayed a man; he that sacrifices a sheep, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offers an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that remembers incense, as if he blessed an idol. They have chosen all these things in their own ways, and their soul is delighted in their own abominations." Isa 66.3 Vain and abominable, therefore, are those services which are not kept and framed to the pure word of God. For the same prophet says, "In vain they serve me, teaching doctrines of men." Isa 29.13

May the living, true, and everlasting God, who would and should only and alone be worshipped, called upon, and served, give true religion to all men, and deliver them from all vain superstition, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Son Is begotten of the Father, unspeakably, from everlasting.

4-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: OF THE SON AS TRUE GOD AND MAN.

THAT THE SON OF GOD IS UNSPEAKABLY BEGOTTEN

OF THE FATHER; THAT HE IS CONSUBSTANTIAL WITH

THE FATHER, AND THEREFORE TRUE GOD. THAT

THE SELF-SAME SON IS TRUE MAN; CONSUB-

STANTIAL WITH US: AND THEREFORE

TRUE GOD AND MAN, ABIDING IN

TWO UNCONFOUNDED NATURES,

AND IN ONE UNDIVIDED

PERSON.

THE things themselves and their order require, that after I have spoken generally about God, of his unity, and of his trinity, I further treat particularly the persons of the reverend Trinity. First of all, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man; then the Holy Ghost. If our minds are endued with these, then whatever things we speak and hear will tend to the glory of God's name, and to the salvation of our souls. Let us therefore pray, etc.

The everlasting Father, the origin and author of all things, begot the Son by an everlasting and unspeakable begetting. For the whole scripture with one agreement calls God a Father — yes truly, an eternal or everlasting Father. But none is a father of himself, but a father of his son.

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And because he is the everlasting Father, he must necessarily have an everlasting Son, equal to himself in all respects, co-eternal, and consubstantial with him. St. Paul undoubtedly, to confirm this catholic verity, alleges two testimonies Heb 1.5 out of the old Testament: "To which of his angels did God say at any time, you are my Son, this day have I begotten you?" Psa 2.7 And again, "I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son." 2Sam 7.14 All these words he applies to Christ Jesus, the Son of God. Micah also bears witness of him, saying: "And you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, are little to be among the thousands of Judah; yet out of you he shall come forth to me, who shall be the ruler in Israel: whose goings forth" (or spreadings abroad) "have been from the beginning and from everlasting." Mic 5.2 Upon which, the Son of God himself says in the Gospel according to John: "Truly I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am." Joh 8.58 And John says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word." Joh 1.1 But what he means by "The Word," is not the word which is spoken and so vanishes, and not the counsel of God, but the person of the Son. For later he adds, "And the Word became" (or was made) "flesh." And we know that the Son of God, not the determination or purpose of God (as heretics vainly imagine), was incarnate. And he that was incarnate in time, was with the Father from everlasting and before all beginnings; and therefore he is also true God with the true God. For "The Word," he says, "was with God, and God was the Word:" because in the beginning — namely, from everlasting — he was with God.

These simple and plain testimonies concerning the everlasting begetting of the Son by the Father, delivered to us out of the scriptures (and therefore most true), are sufficient I think, for those who are not curious.[2252] For the scripture here does not fulfil the vain desires of curious men, nor reason subtly about these points; but rather, it delivers and sets down only a few things which it is our part to believe. But what the scripture either does not set down, or else foreshadows in few words, we are either ignorant of to our health, or else, sticking to what is set down, we do not seek further.

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The holy father Cyril says this, expounding that saying of the evangelist John, "In the beginning was the Word":

"Seeking infinite things which cannot be contained within bounds, let us not busy our brains about a consideration that cannot be expressed, and can never have an end. For we will not grant a beginning of beginning; nor will we yield that the Son was begotten by the Father in time. But we will confess that he is with the Father from everlasting. For if he was in the beginning, what mind may ever be able to climb beyond that word "was"? Or when will we so comprehend "was" in our mind, that it does not go before or overreach our thoughts? It was for good and worthy reasons, therefore, that the prophet Isaiah, being astonished, cries out, "And who will declare his generation [or age]? For surpassing all capacity of minds, and being far above and beyond all reason of man, He is unspeakable."

And shortly after he says:

"Because the Son is before all worlds, he cannot be begotten in time: but he is evermore in the Father as in a fountain. As he says of himself, 'I went out and came from the Father.' For we understand the Father as a fountain, in whom the Word is his wisdom, his power, the engraved form of his person, his brightness, and his image. This is why, if there was never any time in which the Father was without his wisdom, his power, the engraved form of his person, his brightness, and finally his image, then we must of necessity and force confess that the Son is co-eternal and everlasting with him, since the Son is the wisdom, power, etc. of the Father everlasting. For how is he the engraved form of his Father's person, or how is he the most perfect image of his Father, unless he has perfectly obtained and possesses the beauty of the one whose image he is? And it is not absurd that we said the Son is to be understood in the Father, as in a fountain. For the term fountain signifies nothing else than that from which [something flows]. And the Son is in the Father, and from the Father — not flowing abroad, but either as brightness flows from the sun, or as heat from the fire with which it is endued. For in these examples, we see that one is brought forth from the other, and both are so co-everlasting, that one cannot be without the other, nor can they keep and retain the quality of their nature.

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For how would it be the sun if it is deprived of its brightness; or how would brightness be, unless there is a sun from which it comes? And how would it be a fire if it lacks heat? Or where would heat come from if not from the fire, or from something else perhaps not far distant from the substantial quality of fire? Therefore, as the qualities which proceed from these bodies are together with the ones from which they proceed, and evermore declare where they come from; so it is to be understood in the only-begotten Son. For he is understood to be from the Father, and likewise believed to be in the Father: not differing from the nature of his Father, nor second in nature to his Father, but always in the Father himself, and with him, and from him, according to the manner of his unspeakable begetting." [2253]

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And these points surely concerning the Father, and the unspeakable begetting of the Son of God, are to be steadfastly believed according to the scriptures.

Furthermore, touching the Son of God, let us firmly hold and undoubtedly believe that he is consubstantial (or, of the same substance) with his Father, and therefore he is true God. The self-same Son, being incarnate for us and made man, subsists in either nature, God as well as man — nonetheless, these natures are neither confounded between themselves, nor divided. For we believe that the one and self-same Lord Jesus Christ is true God and true man. We will plainly declare to you, all and every one of these points, throughout their parts, according to the measure of grace that God gives us.

The ecclesiastical history testifies that there has been a long and great altercation among the ancient writers about the word homoousius, which the Latinists have agreeably translated consubstantiale, consubstantial. What it signifies, and how it was taken by that most famous and solemn synod of Nicaea, the most learned and godly Eusebius Pamphili, bishop of Caesarea, briefly and pithily expounded in this way:

"In that the Son is said to be consubstantial with the Father, it has an express signification, because the Son of God has no similitude or likeness with creatures that were made, but is resembled and likened to the Father alone who begat him; nor is he of any other substance, essence, or being, than that of the Father."

And shortly after he says:

"To this statement and opinion, expounded in this manner, it appears we may well subscribe — seeing that we know the best learned and famous bishops and interpreters among the ancients used this word homoousius, reasoning about the Godhead of the Father and the Son." These are Socrates' words in his first book of histories, the eighth chapter.[2254]

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Surely the godly governors of churches, being constrained by the hypocrisy, craftiness, and malice of heretics, used and caused others also to use, words that were most pithy and as little doubtful as possible. Thereby partly they might manifestly express the sound truth, and partly discover and reprove — yes, and also thrust out — the deceits and malicious practices of heretics. Arius confessed that the Son of God was God; but meanwhile he denied that the Son was consubstantial with his Father. Thus, he declared that he did not sincerely confess the true Godhead of the Son. Nor is it any great matter that some apt and fit word is not expressed in the holy scripture, to set out and declare the thing in so many letters as it is written in another tongue — for what we read manifestly expressed in the scriptures, is what that word signifies. Therefore, if we show that the Son is of the same substance or nature with the Father, and thus is equal with and like God, and one with him, then we have made a sufficient and plentiful demonstration that the Son is homoousius, or consubstantial with the Father. The prophet Zechariah says, bringing in the person of God speaking: "Arise, O you sword, upon my shepherd, and upon the man that is my fellow (or my co-equal): strike the shepherd, and the sheep (of the flock) shall be scattered abroad." Zec 13.7 Look, God calls the shepherd; that is, He struck his fellow or co-equal. And the history of the gospel declares who that shepherd was who was struck — pointing out to us the very Son of God himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor does it hinder but furthers our cause, that Jerome does not read it, "The man who is co-equal with me," but "The man clinging to me." For he does not deny that Amiyth [2255] signifies co-equal, but he sets down another word that is no less effectual.

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For when he translates it, "The man clinging to me," he would express the inward and very substantial (if I may so term it) inherence or co-equality of the Father and the Son. For he adds in his commentaries: "And the man who clings to God — who is it but even he that says, I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" [2256]

Again we read in the gospel of John: "The Jews therefore sought to kill Jesus, not only because he had broken the sabbath-day, but also because — ἀλλὰ καὶ πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεγε τὸν Θεόν — he said that God was his Father (even his proper, or very own), thus making himself (ison, ison) equal to God." Joh 5:18 Furthermore, the Grecians expound isov (isos) that is to say, equal, by this word, omoiov (omoios) that is to say, like. Nor can that equality be found anywhere else than in the substance. For the Jews understand that of which the Arians would be ignorant: that the Lord calls God his Father in a certain unique and special manner; namely, idion (idion), his proper or very own Father, by nature or by birth, of whom the Son, being naturally begotten, is natural and consubstantial with his Father. For it follows: "Making himself equal to (or with) God," Joh 5.18 namely in virtue or power, in everlastingness, and in essence. For the same Lord says in the same evangelist: "I proceeded and came from God." Joh 8.42 He did not say only, "I came," but "I proceeded." He proceeded from the Father, such a one in substance as the Father is — surely, "Light of light, very God of very God." For he says again to the Jews: "Truly I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am." Joh 8.58 He does not say, "I have been," or "I will be;" but "I am;" alluding to the name of the Lord Jehovah, Exo 3.14 and declaring that the substance of his Godhead is the very same as the substance of the Father; and he is therefore consubstantial with the Father. For yet again he says more plainly: "I and the Father are one:" Joh 10.30 one, I say, not in concord or agreement, but in self-sameness [2257] and in being; for the power and majesty of God are handled in that place.

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And when the Jews would without further delay stone the Lord to death, having spoken these words, they declared plainly enough what they understood his words to mean: for they stoned blasphemers to death, who with revilings either impaired God's glory, or else usurped and took it for themselves.

To this belongs what Paul said concerning the Son of God: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creatures, because all things were created by him." Col 1.15-16 For if he is the image of the invisible God, then he must be a fellow (or co-equal) with God. For in another place Paul calls the same Christ, "the engraved form of God, and his express image," Heb 1.3 and corresponding in all respects most truly to His pattern or first figure. Truly, an image and likeness is of something that is not unequal or unlike, but equal and alike. And he is called "the first born," because he is Prince and Lord, [2258] not reckoned among creatures. For all things that were made, were made by him. Therefore, he is not a creature, but true God — namely, of the nature and substance of God, and one with the Father.

The same apostle says to the Philippians, that the Son is "in the form (or shape) of God." Phi 2.6 But to be in the form (or shape) of God is nothing else than to be a fellow (or equal) with God in all respects, to be consubstantial with him, and so indeed, to be God himself. For what it is to be in the form or shape of God, is manifestly declared by the contrary clause. For it follows: "He took upon himself the form of a servant." Phi 2.6-8 This is again expounded by what follows: "Being made in the likeness of men;" that is to say, being made very man, like all other men in everything but sin (which is plainly expressed in another place). Heb 4.15 And here he adds again, "And found in figure as a man." Phi 2.8 Therefore, to be in the form of God is to be co-equal and consubstantial with God — for he adds, "He thought it no robbery to be equal with God." Phi 2.6 For robbery is taking away that which another owns; for it is possessed by injury. The Son, therefore, is co-equal with the Father, and true God by nature and in the most proper manner.

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And this is the meaning of St. Paul' words: even though the Son was of the same glory and majesty as the Father, and could have remained in his glory without humiliation or debasement, yet he would rather abase himself — that is to say, take to himself the nature of a man, and cast himself into dangers, yes, even into death itself. For otherwise, he suffered no change according to his Godhead; for God is unchangeable and without variableness.

Since the case so stands, what St. Ambrose says in his book against the Arians, de Fide, fifth chapter, is a godly saying: "Seeing, therefore, that you know this unity of substance in the Father and the Son, not only by the authority of the prophets, but also by the gospel, how can you say that Homoousius, consubstantial, is not found in the sacred scriptures? It is as though Homoousius were something else than what he says here: 'I went out from God the Father,' and 'I and the Father are one,'" etc. [2259] The scholar St. Augustine in his controversy with Pascentius, follows his master Ambrose, and confirms Homoousius by places in scripture, and declares that this is holily used in our faith and religion.[2260] He also does the same in his third book against Maximinus, bishop of the Arians, fourteenth chapter.[2261] But what need is there to heap up more words? For I trust it is plainly enough declared by evident places of holy scripture, that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, and that it must be so believed. We also hope that in the treatise following, this self-same point will be made not a little manifest by testimonies of scriptures.

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Arius with his accomplices denied that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God. But the most true scripture so evidently proves and confirms it, that none who loves the truth from his heart can doubt anything at all about it. We will presently cite some testimonies and arguments that are most plain and apparent, whereby our faith may be established, and the catholic and sound truth itself be made manifest, through the assistance of the Holy Ghost.

In the third chapter of Matthew, the heavens are opened to our Lord as he was baptized by John the Baptist, and the Holy Ghost came down in the likeness of a dove, and alighted upon the head of our Lord Jesus Christ. And immediately a voice was heard out of the clouds, pronounced by the glorious God in this way: "This is my beloved Son, in whom my soul is well pleased." Mat 3.17 And John says in his gospel: "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven in the likeness of a dove, and it abode upon him; and I did not know him, but He that sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and abiding upon him, this is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bare witness that this is the Son of God." Joh 1.32-34 To this belongs what Peter said, being asked by the Lord, "But whom do you say that I am?" He answered in the name of all the disciples; "You are that Christ, the Son of the living God." Mat 16.15-16 And again, the Lord questions him, "Will you also be gone?" Peter again answered in the name of them all; "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of everlasting life. And we believe and have known that you are Christ, the Son of the living God." Joh 6.67-69 We too are truly called the sons of God, yet by adoption: but Christ is not by adoption, nor by imputation, but he is of God — by nature. For in the fourteenth chapter of Mark, the high priest says to our Lord: "Are you Christ, the Son of the blessed?" Mar 14.61 In Matthew also, the same high priest says: "I adjure (or charge) you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Son of the living God. Jesus answered, I am. For you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Mat 26.63-64

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This appears to be repeated out of the seventh chapter of Daniel. 7.13 Furthermore, they bring this confession of the Lord before Pilate as blasphemous, and not to be satisfied except with death, crying: "We have a law, and according to our law he ought to die; because he made himself the Son of God." Joh 19.7 But they themselves in the history of the gospel, thunder out these words against the Lord: "We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God." Joh 8.41 It is certain, therefore, that the Jews accused our Saviour for no other cause of high treason committed against God's majesty, than for naming himself the natural and not the adopted Son of God; for the last did not deserve death, but the first was worthy of death. For we also read in the fifth chapter of John: "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, not only because he had broken the sabbath-day, but also because he said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God," (or God's fellow). Joh 5.18

Look, you have the manner of how he called himself the Son of God, not by adoption, or reputation, but by nature and substance. For yet again the Lord himself questions those who would have stoned him: "Many good works have I shown you from my Father: for which of these good works do you stone me? The Jews answered again, saying, For your good works" (or well-doing) "we do not stone you, but for blasphemy; namely, because you, being a man, make yourself God." Joh 10.32-33 Look, what could be spoken more plainly? "You make yourself God." And what, I ask you, had he spoken from which they gathered these things? "I give my sheep everlasting life, nor shall they perish forever, nor shall anyone pluck them out of my hand. My Father who gave them to me is greater than all: and none can pull them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." Joh 10.27-30 To give life everlasting belongs to the power of God — to preserve, and to so preserve that none may be able to pluck them out of his hands, belongs to the same power.

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Now the Lord proves this statement with this argument or reason: None is able to pull the sheep out of my Father's hands: therefore none can pull them out of my hands. The proof of his antecedent is this: Because the Father is greater than all; that is to say, He is the greatest of all, whose divine power is above all. The proof of his consequent is this: Because I and my Father are one; namely, equal not only in will and agreement, but also in majesty and power (which is what we treat at present) — not equality of concord or agreement, but of power to make alive and to preserve. Touching this, the Lord himself most plentifully discourses throughout the whole fifth chapter of St. John's gospel, showing that he forgives sins, and that by his power, he makes alive and raises up from the dead, even as his Father does — therefore, that he is of one and the same divine power and majesty with God the Father. These things are so evident, plain, and manifest, that even if we had no other testimony, these may abundantly suffice to prove the assertion of the true divinity or very Godhead of the Son of God, that the Son indeed is true and very God.

Again, with great liberty of speech and plainness of words, without any manner of riddle, dark sentence, and obscurity of words, our Lord and Saviour openly and expressly says to his disciples: "Let not your heart be troubled (or vexed). You believe in God, believe also in me. I am the way, the truth, and the life. He that has seen me has seen the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" Joh 14.1,6,10 And it is certain that Christ our Lord is the heavenly doctor or teacher, the most constant defender of the truth, who has neither seduced nor could seduce and lead us out of the way, no, not so much as one. But [he] bids us to believe in him as true and very God. Therefore, our Lord and Saviour is true and very God. For in another place he says most plainly: "I am the living bread (or the bread of life) that came down from heaven: he that believes in me has life everlasting." Joh 6.51

Again in the gospel, he plainly pronounces and says: "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you, as you have given him power of all flesh, that he might give life everlasting to as many as you have given him. And this is everlasting life: that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you have sent, Jesus Christ." John 17.1-3

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By these words, he has expressly proved both the unity of God (that is to say, that there is but one God), against the ethnics who worshipped many gods; and he notably touched the distinction of the persons, meanwhile declaring himself to be very God with the Father. For he then adds: "Glorify me, O Father, with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before this world was." Joh 17.5

Here I think the argument of Tertullian must not be over-looked by me, which I will recite to you, dearly beloved, out of his book, De Trinitate, in which he gathers together many of the soundest and strongest reasons for Christ's divinity or Godhead.

"If Christ is only man, then why has he appointed and set down such a rule to believe, in which he says, 'And this is life everlasting, that they might know you the only true (or very) God, and the one whom you have sent, Jesus Christ?' If he would not be known to be God, then why does he add, 'And whom you have sent, Jesus Christ,' if not that he would also be taken for God? Because if he would not be known to be God, he would have added, And whom you have sent, the man Jesus Christ. But now, Christ has neither added, nor has he delivered to us in doctrine, that he is man only; but he has joined himself to God, to the end that he would be known by this conjunction or joining together, that he is God also, as indeed he is. Therefore, according to the prescribed rule, we must believe in one Lord, true and very God; and consequently, in the one whom He has sent, Jesus Christ. He would by no means have joined himself to the Father, unless he would be known to be God also. For if he would not have been known to be God, then he would have separated himself from the Father. And if he had known that he was man only, he would have placed himself among men only. Nor would he have joined himself with God, if he had not also known himself to be God. Now, he also says nothing touching that he is man, because no man doubts that he is man. And not without good cause, he joins himself to God, that he might set down a form of his divinity or Godhead for those who would believe. If Christ is only man, how is it that he says, 'And now glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was?'

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If he had glory with God before the world was, and possessed glory with the Father, then he was before the world. Nor would he have had glory if he had not been before, that he might possess such glory — for none can have a thing, unless the one who possesses it, exists beforehand. But Christ had glory before the creation of the world; therefore, he was before the creation of the world. For if he had not been before the creation of the world, then he could not have had glory before the creation of the world, when he himself did not exist. He could not have glory as a man before the creation of the world, if he did not exist when the world was made. But Christ had glory; therefore, he was before the world was made. He was therefore not man only, for he was before the world was made. Therefore he is God, because he was before the world was made, and he possessed glory before the world was made." [2262]

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After these words, Tertullian shows that these things are not meant of the predestination of Christ, but about his substance. But this far about this.

St. Paul the apostle in his epistle to the Romans, declares in plain words, not once or twice, that our Lord Jesus Christ is true and very God. For speaking of Christ in his ninth chapter, he says: "Who is God in all things to be praised forever." Rom 9.5 The words are very well known which the same apostle writes in his first epistle to the Corinthians, the eighth chapter.1Cor 8.6 St. John the apostle and evangelist, so manifestly declares the divinity or Godhead of the Son in his canonical epistle, that someone who does not see and perceive it, is blind both in body and mind. In the end of the epistle he says: "We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us a mind, that we should know him who is true: and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This same one is true (or very) God, and eternal (or everlasting) life." 1Joh 5.20

Now it is God by "whom we live, move, and have our being," Act 17.28 as Paul witnesses. But it is by Christ our Lord that we live, move, and have our being, as he himself expressly taught in the gospel according to John. Joh 14.6-7 Christ, therefore, is true and very God.

In the forty-third and forty-fifth chapters of Isaiah, the Lord says: "I am, I am the Lord; and there is no Saviour without me." Isa 43.11 "A just God and a Saviour, there is none beside me." Isa 45.21 But Jeremiah in his twenty-third chapter calls Christ the son of David, Jehovah, and our Righteousness. Jer 23.5-6 Likewise in Isaiah, speaking of his Son, the Father says: "I have given (or made) you the light of the Gentiles, that you may be my health [or salvation] to the end of the world." Isa 49.6 Moreover, seeing that there is no other God but one, no other salvation and righteousness save that divine righteousness only, it consequently follows, doubtless, that Christ is true and very God, and in all respects co-equal with his Father.

In the same Isaiah, the Lord says: "I have sworn by myself, the word of righteousness shall go out of my mouth, and it shall not be drawn back again: because every knee shall bow to me, and all tongues shall swear (by my name [2263])." Isa 45.23

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And Paul says: "There is a name given to Christ which is above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth, and of things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that the Lord is Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father." Phi 2.9-11 It must therefore be that Christ is true and very God. For seeing that he is worshipped and also served, seeing that we confess him to be Lord — that surely turns not to the reproach and ignominy, but to the honour and glory, of God the Father. For in the gospel according to John, thus says the Lord: "The Father has given all judgment (namely, all jurisdiction, and all government, all glory, power, and authority) to the Son; that all might honour the Son as they honour the Father. He that honours not the Son, honours not the Father that sent him." Joh 5.22-23 To this therefore belongs what we read in the prophet Isaiah: "I the Lord, Hu is my name,[2264] and my glory I will not give to another," Isa 42.8 (or to a stranger, etc.) But he gives his glory to the Son. Therefore, in his substance, according to his divinity or Godhead, he is not a stranger or severed from the Father, though he is acknowledged to be another individual person. What does the Lord say in the gospel according to John? "And now, Father, glorify you me with yourself, with the glory which you gave me with you before this world was?" No, but instead, "which I had with you before the world was." "I had," he says, not "I received;" though the scripture often uses this word for the mystery of dispensation.

In Micah, the Christians say: "All people (one with another) walk in the name of their God. As for us, we will walk in the name of our God." Mic 4.5 Furthermore, they walk in the name and the way of Jesus Christ, saying in the gospel, "I am the way," Joh 14.6 and "the door:" Joh 10.9 "I am the light of the world; he that follows me does not walk in darkness." Joh 8.12 Who can be ignorant that Christ is therefore God? For the Lord says in Ezekiel, "I will feed my flock, myself alone;" Eze 34.15 and shortly he adds, "My servant David shall feed it;" Eze 34.23 meaning Christ, the son of David, that unique universal pastor or shepherd of the church, and therefore true God.

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For the universal pastor or shepherd must be a king and a priest;[2265] he must be everlasting; he must know all things; he must be omnipotent; he must be present with all men in all places. The Son of God therefore is true and very God, because he is the Messiah.

Furthermore, what is more manifest and less called into controversy than that only God forgives sins? It must be, therefore, that nothing is more evident and less doubtful than that we believe Christ to be true and very God, because "He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Joh 1.29

Again, though Paul truly calls Christ "our hope" 1Tim 1.1 (for Isaiah foretold, "In him the Gentiles will trust" Isa 11.10) and though Jeremiah cries, "Cursed be the man who puts his trust in man, but blessed is the man who puts his trust in God;" Jer 17.5, 7 we must necessarily confess that Christ is God. For in John he often repeats: "Truly I say to you, he that believes in me has everlasting life." Joh 11.26

I could bring innumerable examples of this kind out of the scriptures, which witness that the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is of one and the same nature as the Father, and therefore is very God of very God. But I trust that to holy hearers who are not given to contention, those which I have already cited will suffice.

It remains that we declare to you, that the Son of God was incarnate for us, and was born very man of the virgin Mary, consubstantial, or of the same substance as us in all points, sin excepted. The law, the prophets, and the apostles, show us most manifest arguments of the true flesh or humanity of the Son of God.

For in the law, the Lord says: "The Seed of the woman shall crush the serpent's head." Gen 3.15 But who does not know that the head of the serpent is the kingdom, force, or power of the devil? And the whole scripture witnesses that Jesus Christ broke this power. And here he is called the Seed of the woman. Truly, he is called seed to verify his true human nature. And he is termed the seed of the woman, not of the man, because of his conception by the Holy Ghost, and his birth by the virgin Mary.

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And because she was the daughter of David, of Abraham, and Adam, it follows that the son of Mary was very man. For as we have heard it said to Adam, "The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head; "so also we read that the same promise was renewed and repeated to Abraham in these words: "In your seed shall all the nations of the world be blessed." And Paul manifestly says to the Galatians that this Seed of Abraham, in which we have obtained blessing, is Christ Jesus. Gal 3.16 The same apostle says, "For in no way did he take the angels, but he took the seed of Abraham" — by angels doubtless excluding all manner of spiritual substances: by the seed of Abraham intending the very substance itself of the flesh of man. For he adds: "Therefore in all things it became him to be made like his brethren. And because they are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part with them (of the same)." Heb 2.17 Truly, the scripture draws the lineal descent of Christ most diligently from the loins of Abraham to Jacob, and from him again to Judas, and from him in like sort to David. To him again the promises of the incarnation of the Son of God are renewed. For Nathan says to David: "Thus says the Lord, When your days are fulfilled, you shall sleep with your fathers, and I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever." 2Sam 7.12-13 Nor is there any cause why any man should interpret this of Solomon. For he was born while his father David lived, and his kingdom quickly decayed. But Nathan speaks of a son who would be born to David after his death: "When you shall sleep with your fathers," he says, "I will set up your seed after you." And he most evidently declares what manner of seed this would be, and says, "which shall proceed out of your body." For in the 132nd Psalm we read; "Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your seat." Psa 132.12

Furthermore, Mary the virgin descended lineally from the seed of David, of whom Christ our Lord was begotten and born. The angel, speaking and expounding those old and ancient prophecies about him, says to the virgin: "And the Lord God shall give him the seat of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Luk 1.32-33

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To this also belongs what Elizabeth says to the virgin who came out of Galilee into the hill-country of Judah: "And why is this, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." Luk 1.42 Truly Matthew and Luke draw the lineal descent of Christ from the loins, as it were, of David even to the virgin Mary, who conceives by the Holy Ghost — that is, the Holy Ghost makes her fruitful. When the months were fulfilled that she should be delivered, she brought forth a son. And the one who is born appears in all respects to be true and very man. He is laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes; he grew in stature, and increased in years, according to the manner of a man's body; he is wearied, he is refreshed, he is glad, he is sad, he is hungry, he is thirsty, he eats, he drinks, he fears, and to be short, he dies. The history of the gospel declares this truth in many words.

Nor is the scripture itself ashamed to call Mary the mother of our Lord, not the putative or supposed mother, but the true and natural mother who, from the substance of her own body, gave true flesh and the substance of man to the Son of God. The angel of God so witnessed to Isaiah, and said, "A virgin shall conceive in her womb, and shall bring forth a son." Look, he says, "in her womb." And again, in Matthew the self-same angel says, "That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." Mat 1.20 Upon this, the apostle says to the Galatians that "the Son of God is made of a woman," namely, according to man's nature. For Christ is the fruit of the body of David, and of the virgin Mary, begotten and born of the loins of David. And John also, the apostle and evangelist, says, "The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." In calling God flesh, doubtless he calls him very man. For the same apostle says in another place: "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit which confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God." 1Joh 4.2-3

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Therefore we freely pronounce that Valentinus, Marcion, Apelles, and Manichaeus, denying the true and very flesh of Christ, are of the devil; and therefore that they are to be avoided by all means, together with all their disciples and sectaries. We knit up this treatise about the true flesh of Christ with these most plain words of Paul: "When Christ was in the form of God, he made himself of no reputation, taking on himself the form of a servant, and made in the likeness of men, and found in figure as a man. He humbled himself, being made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Phi 2.7 Therefore, it is without doubt that the Son of God took on true and human flesh, and is consubstantial or of the self-same substance with us in all points, sin excepted.

Nor did our Lord, after he was risen from the dead (though he was glorified), put off or lay aside his true body once he had taken and put it on; and his glorification does not take away the truth of his nature. For he says to his disciples, "A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me have." Luk 24.39 Therefore, he carried his true and very flesh into heaven with him; in his true flesh, he appears always for us in the sight of God the Father; in his true flesh he will come again to judge the quick and the dead; and those who crucified [2266] him will see him in his true flesh. Christ is a creature according to this nature (who in respect to his Godhead he is no creature, but a Creator); for the flesh of Christ has a beginning, and he lineally descended from Adam, who is the creature of the living God. And though these things are sufficiently fenced with the force of the scriptures, yet it will not seem irksome to you, dearly beloved, for me to repeat the opinion of the blessed father Cyril, concerning the same matter. He left these words written in his epistle to Successus, bishop of Isauria diocese [2267]:

"Because I found something in your publication, as though the holy flesh of Christ, the Saviour of us all, had returned into the nature of his deity after his resurrection, so that now he would seem to be wholly and solely God, we also thought it good to answer this..."

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"After the resurrection, it was certainly the self-same body which had suffered, yet not now having man's infirmities in it. For we do not affirm that it abides in hunger, labour, or any such thing, but we confess that it is now incorruptible. And not only this, but also that it quickens and gives life. For it is a body that both has and gives life — that is to say, of the only-begotten Son of God; and it is glorified with the most worthy brightness of God; and it is known and taken to be the body of God. Therefore, if any man says that it is God's body, as the body of a man is man's body, he does not swerve from allowable reason. It is upon this, I think, that most blessed Paul also said, 'Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet from now on, we know him no more.' For being, as I said, the proper body of God, it far surpasses all human bodies. But a body made of earth could not abide to be turned into the nature of the deity or Godhead. For this is impossible. Otherwise we abase the Godhead, as if it were made, and as if it had taken something into itself which does not properly belong to its nature. Hereby it is proved to be as much folly to say that the body is turned into the nature of the Godhead, as to say that the Word is changed into the substance of flesh. For as this is impossible, because it is proved to be a body that is not able to be turned and changed; so also it is not possible that any creature can be turned into the essence or nature of the Godhead. And flesh is also created; therefore we say that the body of Christ is divine, because it is the body of God, and beautified with unspeakable glory. And now, let us confess that it is incorruptible, holy, and life-giving. But none of the holy fathers thought or taught that it is changed into the nature of the Godhead; nor do we." [2268] This far from Cyril.

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And Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, Dialog, ii. Eranist. says:

"I will show that the body of the Lord, even after the ascension, was called a body. Hear Paul therefore saying, 'Our conversation is in heaven, from where we look for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like his glorious body.' Phi 3.20-21 Therefore it is not changed into another nature, but it remains indeed a true and very body, replenished with divine glory, and casting forth beams of light. But if it is changed into another nature, their bodies also shall be likewise changed; for they shall be fashioned like him. But if the bodies of saints keep the substance of their nature, the body of the Lord likewise has his substance unchangeable." [2269]

Furthermore, when we profess that Christ has true and actual flesh, we do not mean flesh without a soul. For we must confess that Christ has a reasonable or human soul, not void of a mind.

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Arius taught that the Son of God took on flesh only, without a soul, and that the Word was in place of the soul. And Apollinarius attributed a soul to Christ, but he took away the mind, denying that it was reasonable.[2270] The scripture attributes a soul to Christ, and it does not take the mind away from the soul. The Lord himself says in the gospel: "The Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give his soul a redemption for many." Mat 20.28 The same Matthew has left written of him: "He began to be sorrowful and heavy. And Jesus said, My soul is heavy, even unto death." Mat 26.38 And in another place the Lord himself says: "Now my soul is troubled." Joh 12.27 If this soul of Christ lacks the mind, which is the chief part of the soul, then how does he have a soul? How could he be sorrowful, and understand, desire, and remember? "With hearty desire (says the Lord) I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Luk 22.15 But this desire came not from his Godhead, nor from his flesh only, nor from his soul lacking a mind, but from his perfect manhood of body and mind. Moreover we read in the gospel that the Lord said: "The Son of Man did not come to destroy men's souls, but to save them." Luk 9.56 Therefore, he not only took on flesh, but a reasonable soul also. For man had perished, both soul and body. Therefore, that he might be saved, both body and soul, our Saviour Christ took on a very man's body and a reasonable soul; that is to say, a most perfect man. Therefore blessed Athanasius said, teaching us the confession of true faith according to the scriptures: "Christ is God of the substance of his Father, begotten before all worlds; and man of the substance of his mother, born in the world: perfect God, and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting." [2271]

Thus far in these words we have shown that Jesus Christ our Lord is very God and very man; he is consubstantial or of the same substance with the Father according to his Godhead, and he is consubstantial or of the same substance with us according to his manhood. For he has a reasonable soul and human flesh in very deed. We will speak further about the conjunction or uniting of these natures into one person; for histories declare that certain ancient writers in olden times foully erred in this matter.

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Eutyches [2272] admitted only one nature in Christ, and that muddled or confused together his divine and human nature. The Monothelites were not far beyond him, acknowledging only one will in Christ. Nestorius, willing to avoid a coal-pit, fell into a lime-kiln.[2273] For by confessing two natures, he seems to affirm that there are two persons, teaching that the Word is not united to the flesh in the self-same person, but that only dwells in it. Thus he forbade the holy virgin to be called God's mother. Against him, the common assertion of the whole church (holding an opinion according to the scripture) has taught that we are to confess two natures in Christ, and also the properties of those natures. These are so coupled together into one undivided person, that the divine nature is not changed into the human, nor is the human changed into the divine, but each of them retains or keeps its own nature, and both of them subsist in the unity of one person. For Christ, [2274] according to the disposition of his divine nature, is one and the same, immortal. And according to the disposition of his human nature, he is mortal. And the self-same immortal God and mortal man is the only Saviour of the world. We will speak of this shortly, by God's grace, somewhat more largely and plainly.

Touching the very conjunction or uniting of the true Godhead and manhood in Christ, the prophets and apostles have not irritably nor craftily disputed. For speaking simply, they said, "God was made man;" or, God took on man. For John the apostle and evangelist says: "The Word was made flesh," Joh 1.14 that is, God was made man, or the Word of God became flesh. St. Paul says: "God was made manifest in the flesh." 1Tim 3.16 And again: "The Son of God in no way took on himself the angels, but he took on the seed of Abraham." Heb 2.16 Therefore, we say that according to the doctrine of the apostles, expounding the mystery of the conjunction of the divine and human nature in Christ, God was incarnate or made man; God took on himself man; God appeared or was made manifest in human flesh. He that sifts out deeper matters than these, casts himself into great dangers.

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There are some who, in expounding these points more fully, use the words of society or fellowship, participation, and communion, or part-taking; and that is not without the authority of the scriptures. Paul says, "Since then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part with them." Heb 2.14

Nevertheless we must first of all take heed here, that we do not muddle or confound the two natures joined together in one person, nor rob them of their properties. For God of his own nature is everlasting and unchangeable. God therefore, remaining always one and the same, is not changed into a human or into any other nature, but he joins, couples, takes, yes, and unites to himself, the human nature. Again, unless he remains a creature in his human nature, and is the same which he is said to be, it is not a human nature. Therefore, this remaining in its own substance, is taken to the divine nature. And therefore, two natures remain in the one person of Christ: the divine and the human. And either of them retains its own disposition and its own property: which we will now declare by some places of scripture.

Isaiah in his seventh chapter says: "A virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a Son; and his name shall be called Immanuel." Isa 7.14 He acknowledges both natures in Christ: for according to his divine nature he is called "Immanuel," that is to say, "God with us;" and according to his human nature, he is conceived and born. The same prophet says: "A child is born to us, and a son is given to us," etc. For the one who is given, is from everlasting; and the one that is born has his beginning and being in the world. Therefore, one and the same person retains both the divine and the human nature.

For Micah also says: "And you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, are little indeed among the thousands of Judah. Out of you he shall come forth unto me, who shall be the governor in Israel, whose outgoings have been from the beginning, and from everlasting." Mic 5.2 Look, what could be spoken more plainly? One and the self-same person has two offspring: for inasmuch as he is God, his generation is from everlasting; and as he is man, he is born in Bethlehem. Therefore, one and the self-same Christ is very God and very man.

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Again, in the gospel of St. Matthew, the Lord asks the Pharisees, saying:" What do you think of Christ? Whose Son is he? They said to him, The Son of David. He says to them, How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool? If David call him Lord, how then is he his Son?" Mat 22.43-45 It is as if he had said: Since Christ without doubt is the Son of David, and David calls him Lord (not by human affection, but by the Holy Ghost), that is to say, very God of the self-same power with the Father, the sequel [2275] is that Christ is very man and very God. The angel Gabriel, noting no less plainly both these natures, says to the virgin Mary: "That holy thing which will be born shall be called the Son of God." Luk 1.35 For he is born of the virgin, very man of very man: and this is the Son of God. For Elizabeth also calls the virgin the mother of the Lord; namely, of God. Moreover, in the gospel of John you may read very many sayings of this sort, which point out, as if with the finger, both natures in the self-same Christ. "You believe in God," says the Lord, " believe also in me." Joh 14.1 And again, "The Father is greater than I." Joh 14.28 Also, "I went out from the Father, and came into the world. Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." Joh 16.28 And again in another place: "The poor shall you have always with you, but me always you shall not have." Mat 26.11 And again: "Behold, I am always with you, even unto the end of the world." Mat 28.20 These sentences truly are contrary, and cannot be all true at once, unless we acknowledge that Christ retains the properties of (both) natures unconfounded or unmingled.

Paul manifestly says to the Romans, that "he was called to be an apostle to preach the gospel of God, which he had promised beforehand by his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared mightily to be the Son of God, touching the Spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection from the dead." Rom 1.1-3 The apostle therefore acknowledges both natures in Christ. For according to the flesh (he says) Christ is the Son of David. But if we behold the power of his miracles, his resurrection from the dead which gives us life, and the fact that Christ sends the Holy Ghost and sanctifies all the faithful, then it appears that the one who is the Son of David after the flesh, is also the Son of God according to his divine power.

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The same apostle, in the second chapter to the Philippians, no less plainly and evidently affirms both natures in Christ. But because that place has often been alleged already, I pass over it to cite others.

St. Augustine, expounding not only the confession of his own faith, but of the whole church which flourished in his time, has thus left this, written in his epistle to Dardanus, lvii.:

"Do not doubt that the man Christ Jesus is there now, from where he shall come; and have in ready remembrance and faithfully hold to the Christian confession. Because he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, he shall not come from somewhere else than from there, to judge the quick and the dead. And he shall come in the same way as he was seen going into heaven, as the voice of the angel witnessed. That is to say, he will come in the self-same shape and substance of flesh to which indeed he gave immortality, but without taking that nature away. He is not to be thought of as present everywhere in this shape. For we must beware, lest we so fortify the divinity of the man, that we clean take away the truth of his body. For it does not consequently follow that what is in God, should be everywhere as God. For the scripture, which cannot lie, says even of us, that in him we live, move, and have our being, even though we are not everywhere as he is. But he is man-in-God in another sort, because he is also God-in-man, in a certain proper and singular manner. For one person is God and man; and both are one Jesus Christ — he is everywhere in that he is God, but he is in heaven in that he is man."

And the same author says a little after:

"Take the bodies from the places they are in, and they will be nowhere; and because they will be nowhere, they will not be bodies. Take the bodies from the qualities of the bodies, and there will be no place for them to exist; and therefore, it must be that they have no being."

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And at the end of the Epistle, Augustine says: "Do not doubt that Christ our Lord, the only-begotten Son of God, co-equal with the Father, is also the Son of man, whom the Father exceeds in greatness; and that both are present everywhere as he is God, and are also in the same temple of God, as God dwelling there; and yet, both are in some certain place of heaven, according to the manner of his true body." [2276]

The same author expounds the same thing more at large in his fiftieth treatise upon John;[2277] and Contra Felicianum Arianum, cap. 9, 10, and 11;[2278] also in his treatise De Agone Christi, cap. 24 to cap. 27.[2279]

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To this we will also join the testimony of the holy martyr Vigilius, bishop of Trident. For disputing against Eutyches in the defence of both natures in Christ, he says:

"If the nature of the Word and flesh are one, how is it that since the Word is everywhere, the flesh also is not found everywhere? For when the flesh was on earth, surely it was not in heaven; and because it is now in heaven, surely it is not on earth. And it is so far from being on the earth, that we look for Christ to come from heaven according to the flesh, whom according to the Word, we believe to be with us on earth. Therefore, according to your opinion, either the Word is contained with his flesh in one place, or else the flesh with the Word is in every place — even though one nature does not receive into itself anything contrary to and unlike itself. But it is contrary and far unlike itself to be limited to a place, and also to be everywhere. And because the Word is in every place, but his flesh is not in every place, it is evident that one and the self-same Christ is of both natures; and that he is everywhere according to the nature of his Godhead; and he is contained in one place according to the nature of his manhood; that he is both created, and also without beginning; that he is subject to death, and also cannot die. One of these is agreeable to him by the nature of the Word, whereby he is God; the other is agreeable by the nature of the flesh, whereby the self-same God is man. Therefore, one and the self-same Son of God, being also made the Son of man, has a beginning by the nature of the flesh, and he has no beginning by the nature of his divinity. By the nature of his flesh, he is created; and by the nature of his divinity, he is not created; by the nature of his flesh, he is limited in place; and by the nature of his divinity, he is not contained in place; by the nature of his flesh, he is inferior to angels; and according to his divinity, he is equal to the Father; by the nature of his flesh, he died; but by the nature of his divinity, he did not die. This is the catholic faith and the Christian confession, which the apostles delivered, the martyrs confirmed, and the faithful even to this day, observe and keep." [2280]

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Up to here we have repeated the words of Vigilius, martyr and bishop, to this end: that the most notable agreement of the holy scripture in this principle — as it is understood by the universal church, and by the most godly and learned fathers — in which we confess that the properties of both natures in Christ remain unconfounded.

Again, we must by all means take heed, lest through defending and retaining the properties of the two natures, we divide and pull asunder the unity of the person — as though there were two Christs, of which one is subject to suffering and is mortal, and the other is not subject to suffering and is immortal. For there is but one and the same Christ, who is acknowledged to be immortal according to his Godhead, and mortal according to his manhood. Nestorius denied that the blessed virgin Mary was the mother of God; for he said that God was unchangeable, and therefore he could not be born, and had no mother. From this sprang a suspicion that he would say the Lord was merely a man, and that he would maintain the heretical opinion of Paulus Samosatenus and Photinus. Socrates handles this at large in Historiarum, Lib. vii. cap. 32. [2281]

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But Nestorius was injurious to the scripture and to true faith. For Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah and the mother of St. John the Baptist, being full of the Holy Ghost, salutes the holy virgin Mary in express words, and calls her the mother of the Lord — that is, the mother of God. And even though his heavenly nature is without generation and corruption, yet notwithstanding, it is most certain that the one whom Mary brought forth, was true God indeed. For "that which is born of her," says the angel, "is the Son of God." Mat 1.20-23 Therefore, she brought forth God, and she is worthily called the mother of God. For if she did not bear God, she brought forth a mere man; nor has the Son of God coupled man inseparably to himself. In like manner, since God is immortal of his own nature, truly he cannot die. But if any man for that reason should absolutely deny that God was crucified and offered up — yes, and died for us — he would challenge Paul who said, "Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." 1Cor 2.8

But who is ignorant that the God of glory, or glorious God, cannot be crucified? Meanwhile, since the one who according to the flesh suffered and was nailed on the cross was God, and not merely man, we rightly say that God suffered and was nailed on the cross for us; though he who suffered, suffered only according to that which could suffer. For Peter the apostle says, "Christ has suffered for us in the flesh." 1Pet 4.1 The first Toletan [2282] council, following him, decreed these words:

"If anyone says or believes that the Godhead may be born, let him be accursed. If anyone says or believes that the deity of Christ may be turned, changed, or subject to suffering, let him be accursed. If anyone says or believes that the nature of the Godhead and the manhood is one in Christ, let him be accursed." [2283]

And Damasus, bishop of Rome, says: "If anyone says that in suffering on the cross, the Son of God and God suffered pain, and not the flesh with the soul which he put on in the form of a servant, which he took upon himself as the scripture says, let him be accursed." [2284]

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Therefore, though Paul says, that "God has purchased for himself a church with his own blood," Act 20.28 who is so mad as to believe that the divine nature has or ever had blood? Meanwhile, who is such a dor-head [2285] that he does not understand that the flesh which God took upon himself, has blood? And since God does not account that which he took to himself as another's, but as his own, we most truly say that God redeemed the world with his own blood. Thus Theodoret also, bishop of Cyrus, Dialog. Eran. 3, says a little before the end:

"If Christ is both God and man, as both the holy scripture teaches, and as the most blessed fathers have always preached, then he suffered as man; but as God, he was not subject to suffering. But when we say the body, or flesh, or humanity suffered, we do not separate the divine nature. For as it was united to his human nature — which was hungry, and thirsty, and weary, yes, and also slept, yes, and was vexed with sorrow and heaviness for the passion [2286] he would suffer — indeed, it endured none of those, yet allowed that human nature to endure its affections and passions. Even so, this nature was joined to him when he was crucified, and permitted his passion to thoroughly come to an end, so that by his passion he might suffer death; yet [his divinity] did not feel grief truly by his passion. Rather, he made his passion agreeable and convenient for himself, as the passion of his temple or dwelling-place, and of his flesh which was joined to him. By this also, those who believe are called the members of Christ; and he himself is called the head of those who believe." [2287]

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Some call this figure of speech alloiwsiv (alloioosis, or alloying), i.e., alteration or changing. John Damascenus [2288] calls it antidosiv (antidosis), a mutual giving or an interchanging of properties. It is usually called a communicating of properties, [2289] when that property is given to one nature, which is proper to another. For example, "No man has ascended up into heaven (says the Lord) except he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man who is in heaven." Joh 3.13 Truly, his human nature was not then in heaven when the Lord spoke this, but it was on earth. Yet notwithstanding, because flesh is taken into the fellowship of his Godhead, what is proper to the Godhead, is attributed to his manhood. Bishop Fulgentius, recognizing this interpretation in his second book to king Thrasimundus, has written this:

"He said this, not that the human substance of Christ is present in every place; but because one and the self-same Son of God and Son of man, very God of the Father just as he is very man of man, even though he was then locally on earth according to his true humanity, yet according to his divinity (which by no means can be contained in one place) he wholly filled heaven and earth."[2290] Thus Fulgentius says.

This is why these sentences, bearing witness of Christ in the writings of the evangelists and apostles, are to be diligently marked. For some properties are particularly referred to his divine nature, such as these: "I and the Father are one." Joh 10.30 "Before Abraham was, I am." Joh 8.58 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was that Word." Joh 1.1 "He is before all things, the image of the invisible God, by whom all things are made." Col 1.15

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And some are particularly referred to his human nature, or to the mystery of his embassage or ministration. [2291] Of this sort are these: "The Father is greater than I." Joh 14.28 "You made him a little inferior to the angels." Heb 2.7 "My soul is heavy even to the death." Mat 26.38 Again, there are testimonies which respect both natures, but do not sufficiently agree to either of them separately. Such are these: "My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." Joh 6.55 "I have power to forgive sins," Mat 9.6 "to raise to life whom I will," Joh 5.21 and to give righteousness and holiness. "I am the shepherd, Joh 10.11 the door, Joh 10.9 the light," Joh 8.12 etc. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me." Joh 14.6 For these set forth and commend to us the very substance of Christ, the person, I mean, of our true Saviour and Mediator, God and man. For no man forgives sins, but God only. Again, they are not forgiven without death and the shedding of blood, as the apostle witnesses in the ninth chapter to the Hebrews. Heb 9.7 Again, there are testimonies which cannot aptly be declared except by figurative words.[2292] Touching this, I hope this is sufficient.

Again, for the sake of the unity of his natures, if we do not extend his humanity so far as his divinity, we do not divide the person of our Mediator, God and man. For in the gospel of St. Matthew, the Lord does not bodily go into the house of the centurion; notwithstanding, there is no doubt that his Godhead being present and not absent, the servant of the centurion was cured of this disease. And who would therefore say that the person if Christ is divided by St. Matthew? For he has not extended the humanity of Christ even to his divinity? The angels speak to the women concerning the body of Christ risen from the dead and now glorified. They say: "He is not here; he is risen." Mar 16.6 We are not ignorant that his divinity is in every place. And yet the angels did not divide his inseparable person, in that they did not make the human body of Christ equal in all respects with his Godhead. The angels did not divide the person of Christ when his body was taken up from mount Olivet into heaven: standing on the earth, they testified that he will come again in the same manner as they saw him depart. Act 1.11 But who dares to deny that the Lord was then also present with them?

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Therefore, in the manner of his very body, our Lord is in heaven and not on earth. But according to his infinite Godhead, he is everywhere, in heaven and on earth. Man consists of soul and body; and these are most contrary in natures. But between them, they make one person, not two; and whoever attributed and defends that which is proper to either of them, does not divide the person. The body sleeps, the soul does not sleep: these properties of each part do not make two persons. What Theodoret has written in his third Dialogue, seems to belong to this. He says: "

We do not divide the natural unity of the soul and the body, nor do we separate the souls from their own proper bodies: but we consider those things which properly belong to their natures. Therefore, when the scripture says, "And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him;" Act 8.2 would you say that his soul was buried with his body? I think not. And when you hear Jacob the patriarch saying, "Bury me with my fathers," Gen 49.29 you understand that to be spoken about his body, not his soul. Again you read, "There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife," etc. Gen 49.31 In this statement, scripture does not mention the body, but in all points it signifies the soul and body together. But we rightly divide them, and say that the souls are immortal, and that only the bodies of the patriarchs are buried in the double cave. Even so, we also are prone to say that a man was buried in this or that place. We do not say, this or that man's body, but this or that man; for whoever has his wits, knows that we speak of the body. Even though the evangelists often mention Christ's body being buried, at length they set down the name of the person, and say that Jesus was buried and laid in the grave," etc. [2293]

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It is without controversy, that this faith and doctrine has flourished in the holy church of God, from Christ's time even to our own age, and it has remained most steadfast against innumerable assaults by Satan and heretics. And the self-same faith and doctrine is delivered and confirmed by testimonies of scripture and by the consents [2294] of holy councils. I therefore exhort you, dearly beloved, that calling on the name of Christ, you may persevere and continue in the same doctrine, and being joined by true faith and obedience to Christ, very God and man, you may give continual thanks, worshipping Him who reigns forever.

4-7. THE SEVENTH SERMON: OF CHRIST AS KING AND PRIEST.

OF CHRIST, KING AND PRIEST; OF HIS ONLY AND EVERLASTING KINGDOM AND PRIESTHOOD;

AND OF THE NAME OF A CHRISTIAN.

I HAVE declared to you, dearly beloved, that Christ Jesus our Lord is very God and man. This will bring more plentiful profit, if we understand what the fruit of that thing is, which is chiefly known by the OFFICES of Christ our Lord. He is king and priest of the people of God; therefore he has a kingdom and a priesthood. If we somewhat more diligently consider these, they will declare to us the exceeding great benefit of the divinity and humanity of Christ.

Christ Jesus is a KING. Therefore he is Lord of all, ruler and governor of all things which are in heaven and on earth, and especially of the catholic church itself, which is the communion of saints. And insofar as he is King and Lord, truly by his royal or kingly office, he is the deliverer or preserver, the revenger and defender, and finally, the law-giver of his elect.

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For he crushed the serpent's head, the strong and most cruel enemy of God's people; and when he had conquered him, he bound and stripped him. He delivered the elect out of the power of darkness, and set them into the liberty of the sons of God; that we might be his peculiar people, 1Pet 2.9 sanctified through the blood of our king — a purchased people, to serve him in righteousness and holiness. He is humble, loving, and gentle; which the history of the gospel recites about him, also out of Zechariah. Mat 21.5; Zec 9.9 He watches for us, he defends and guards us, he enriches us with all manner of good things, and furnishes us against our enemies with spiritual armour, and gives us abundantly power to resist and to overcome. He has purged the temple of God, casting out the Canaanites;[2295] he has cancelled unrighteous laws, he has delivered us from them; and now he rules and governs us with the sceptre of his mouth, proclaiming exceedingly good and most just laws. For he is God and man; therefore he is the only monarch, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. Rev 19.16 For he has all the kings and rulers in the world subject to him; some truly of their own accord being obedient through faith; and others, though striving and rebelling against him, are made subject by his power. And therefore the prophet David says: "Be wise, you kings, be learned, you who are judges of the earth; serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto him with reverence. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and so you perish from the right way." Psa 2.12 For in another place the same prophet says: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord will send forth the rod of his power out of Zion; be you ruler even in the midst among your enemies." Psa 110.1-2 Isaiah also, bringing in the Lord speaking, says: "I will lift up my hands to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring you their sons upon their shoulders: for kings shall be your nursing fathers, and queens shall be your nursing mothers." Isa 49.22-23 Ecclesiastical histories declare these things more largely. Of this king Christ, the prophets prophesied, saying: "And in mercy the seat shall be prepared; and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment, and making haste unto righteousness." Isa 16.5

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And again: "Behold, the time comes, says the Lord, that I will raise up the righteous Branch of David, which king shall bear rule; and he shall prosper with wisdom, and shall set up equity and righteousness again in the earth. In this time 4 shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell without fear: and this is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our Righteousness." Jer 33.15-16

And because our Lord is a king, he must therefore have a kingdom. The realm and dominion subject to a king is called a kingdom, as well as principality, empire, power, and the manner of government itself. Therefore the church, the communion or fellowship of saints, being obedient and subject to their king Christ, is called the kingdom of God. For Micah says, "And the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion." Mic 4.7 Therefore Zion (which signifies the church) is the kingdom of God. And God is said to reign, when in the church he rules, governs, keeps, and defends those that are his, and endues and makes them fruitful with diverse graces. For Paul says, "The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom 14.17 Moreover, the kingdom of God is that eternal glory and felicity which God communicates to his elect. For the Lord says in the gospel, "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom which is prepared for you from the beginning of the world." Mat 25.34 And the thief, making his prayer to the Lord even at the point of death, who was ready to die on the cross, and desiring to be a partaker of this kingdom, says, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Luk 23.42 Again, since the gospel teaches us how God reigns in us in this world, to translate us to himself in time into that other world — that is, since the gospel is that thing by which the Lord raises up his dominion — it is not unadvisedly called the kingdom of God by Matthew, in his thirteenth chapter.[2296] In another place, for the same cause it is called "the word of the kingdom." In short, at present we understand the kingdom of God to be the congregation of saints itself (the catholic church, I mean); and the power or administration of God reigning in it — that is, preserving, governing, and glorifying it.

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And there is truly but one kingdom of God only; for there is but one God only, one king Christ only, one church and life everlasting. But this one kingdom of God is considered in two ways, according to its dispensation. First, according to the omnipotence of God; for since he is the highest and omnipotent, he has and executes most just rule and equal power over all creatures, visible and invisible, whether they will be obedient or not. Secondly, according to his Spirit, by which he reigns in his elect.

And so the kingdom of God is again considered two ways. For either it is earthly, and called the kingdom of grace; or else it is heavenly, and called the kingdom of glory.

The earthly kingdom of grace is not therefore called earthly, as though it were carnal and earthly, like the kingdom of Babylon, Persia, Alexandria, or Rome; but because it is on earth. For a good part of the holy church of God is familiar on this earth, being partaker of flesh and blood while it lives on the earth, though it does not live an earthly life according to the flesh; for according to the Spirit, by which it is ruled, it lives a heavenly life. Not that the partakers of the kingdom of God do not sin: for "the just man falls and rises seven times in a day." Pro 24.16 Thus it is also called the kingdom of grace: for as long as we live in this world, our king and Lord never denies his grace and mercy to us who crave pardon. And the faithful wholly hang upon the grace of their king: they embrace continual repentance, and endeavour to things of greater perfection; for they frame all that they do according to the laws of their king and prince. For he reigns in his elect by the word of truth, and by the Holy Ghost. By the word of truth, he teaches what the saints should do, and what they should avoid: by his Holy Spirit he moves their hearts, and gives strength to flee evil and follow what is good. For truly, our king reigns not so much for himself as for us: for he makes us also kings, so that being delivered from the devil, damnation, sin, and the curse, we may be lords over the devil, damnation, sin, and the curse — indeed, over all things — and joint-heirs with the Son of God himself.

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For these reasons, the kingdom of God is called a spiritual kingdom. For the partakers of the kingdom of God, endued with the Spirit of God, bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, not the works of the flesh; and in short, they are governed by the Spirit of God. Nor truly does our Lord reign in the manner of the kings of this world, saying to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world." Joh 18.36 Some abuse this statement, gathering that there is no outward government in the church of God. Under this name they also remove the office of a magistrate; and speak so subtly about the kingdom of God, that a man cannot tell where the kingdom of God is, or who are partakers of this kingdom. They do not understand that the meaning must be gathered on the occasion of that saying. The Jews, accusing the Lord before Pilate, laid to his charge that he ambitiously sought after a kingdom. The Lord, clearing himself of this crime, shows Pilate that his kingdom will not be such a one that, after he had cast out Tiberius Caesar, would be gotten and kept with arms, and be governed in the manner of this world. Declaring this, he adds: "If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would surely fight, so that I would not be delivered to the Jews." Therefore he infers, "But now, my kingdom is not from here:" and therefore they do not fight for me, to place me in the throne of the kingdom, Tiberius being cast out. And shortly he says: "For this cause was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth: and all that are of the truth hear my voice." Joh 18.37 Therefore, by truth (and not by lying, deceits, and crafty practices, like the princes of this world) Christ prepares a kingdom for himself; so too by truth he both retains and governs his kingdom. And whoever embraces truth is a partaker of Christ's kingdom, whether they are princes or of the commonalty. All these obey the voice of their King, and serve their highest Prince.

Nevertheless, we expressly add here that kings can serve their Lord and King in no other way than as kings — that is, in doing those things which kings ought to do; namely, to execute judgment and justice.

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For even though they are in the world, they do not rule after the world, because they are now governed by the Spirit of their King Christ. And they direct all their doings to the prescribed rules of God's word, and in all things yield themselves to be guided by the Spirit of God. And to that extent, surely their kingdom is not of this world. About these things, I have elsewhere cited much out of St. Augustine according to the scripture.[2297] And our King Christ defends his church and his ministers. Sometimes it is by the aid of princes; and sometimes he preserves and spreads them abroad — lying open to persecutions through infirmity and weakness. [2298] For the church is pressed down, but not oppressed, or still kept under. [2299] Christ, the mightiest prince, always reigns and overcomes in those who are his.

Now the bounds of this earthly kingdom of Christ reach to the uttermost parts of the earth; for all the kingdoms of the world and all nations relate to the kingdom of Christ. To this belong all the testimonies of the prophets touching the calling of the Gentiles. You may find many of them in Isaiah and Zechariah, who excellently describe the kingdom of Christ on earth. From these the Jews took occasion to pretend I know not how great and glorious things about the majesty and victories of the Messiah, which nevertheless were long since abundantly fulfilled in Christ — but more spiritually than carnally. But while they dream of and look for carnal things, they loathe the spiritual, and thus they lose both. But the faithful, through the bountifulness and liberality of Christ their King, most abundantly obtain those good things which the prophets promised: namely, plentiful peace with both God and men, and all kinds of felicity — always to be blessed, always to be safe from all enemies, visible as well as invisible (though they fight continually), and to enjoy everlasting salvation.

The prophets have presented these things in their writings in a very grand kind of style, yet understanding nothing more than what we just said: that the faithful shall be most happy, and shall possess in Christ all good gifts of both soul and body; indeed, as much as is necessary and healthful for the saints. And this is that kingdom (meaning that of grace as well as glory) which Joseph of Arimathea, just Simeon, and Anna the prophetess, with all the other saints, awaited and looked for. Philip the deacon preached this same kingdom to those of Samaria; and St. Paul the apostle preached it to those of Rome. This is what Luke testifies about in the Acts of the Apostles, chapters 8 and 28.

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But the seat, or throne and [2300] palace of our king, is heaven. For he ascended a conqueror into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there, as the sun of righteousness, he shines to all who live in his church, or in his kingdom; yes, and he chooses for himself the hearts of the faithful in whom he may dwell.[2301] Furthermore, so that we may understand our king, though he is not corporally present on earth but ascended into heaven, he is not therefore absent from his kingdom. In his word, he truly compares himself to the head and us to the body or the members. Now therefore, just as the body is never without the head, so the kingdom of God is never without Christ the prince. Just as the vital spirit from the heart, and the power or virtue of feeling and moving is poured from the head into the body, so too we are quickened or made alive by our prince Christ — justifying, preserving, comforting, confirming, and defending us from all evil. Just as all the members are ruled by the head, so all the faithful in the kingdom of Christ are governed by their king Christ. Paul therefore says:

"God raised Christ from the dead, and set him on his right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule, and power, and might, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come; and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that fills all in all." Eph 1.20-23

There are very many others of this kind to be found in the writings of the apostles. Especially that "Christ is the head of the church, and it is he who gives salvation to the body; for he gave himself for the church, to sanctify it when he had cleansed it in the fountain of water in the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church," etc. Eph 5.23-27 This much up to here about the kingdom of Christ on earth, which is called both the Kingdom of Grace, and the CHURCH MILITANT.

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Moreover, the kingdom of God is called the Kingdom of Heaven and of Glory for this occasion: because those whom our Lord and king has sanctified on earth and guided with his Spirit — yes, and also justified — being delivered from the flesh and taken out of this world, he glorifies in heaven, and he receives them into joy and into the fellowship both of himself and of all the saints. For the souls of the faithful, as soon as they depart out of their bodies, are immediately received into heaven, to reign with Christ the everlasting King, and to forever rejoice with all the saints. But in the last judgment, at which we believe the quick and the dead shall be judged by Christ our king, the bodies of the saints will be raised up, glorified, and coupled again to their souls. And however many have clung to Christ their king, since the beginning of the world, shall live forever and reign in glory together with Christ their king and prince. The prophets and apostles have spoken much about this kingdom of the saints, and chiefly the apostle St. John in his Revelation. [2302] Some have called this kingdom the CHURCH TRIUMPHANT.

The kingdom of God, or of Christ, is an everlasting kingdom. For just as the church shall be on earth even to the world's end — however this world and the prince of the world may rage — so after the judgment, the faithful shall live and reign with Christ, happy forever in both body and soul.

For the Lord says in the gospel: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church." Mat 16.18 Also, the last times will be like the days of Noah. Though the wicked far exceeded in number the church of the faithful, yet Noah and his [family] were saved in the ark, but the wicked were destroyed with the flood. In such a way, iniquity will by all means surely prevail to the end of the world; but meanwhile, those who are elected into the kingdom of Christ will be saved by Christ, whom they will look for to be their judge; and they will see their Redeemer coming in the clouds of heaven. Mat 24.30

Also Daniel describes in his prophecy the rising and falling of all kingdoms and of antichrist too; but he attributes no end to the kingdom of the saints or holy people, but witnesses that it will be everlasting. Dan 7.26-27

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The prophet Zechariah does the same in his twelfth chapter. For the saints reign on the earth by Christ; and being translated from the earth into heaven, they will reign together with their king Christ forever. And the scripture often speaks of only one of these kingdoms. But we understand many places in scripture speaking of both these kingdoms. First of all, is that which is spoken by our Saviour: "When you pray, say, Our Father, which are in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come." Mat 6.9-10 For we pray that he would reign in us while we live on earth, that we may also reign over the world and the prince of the world; and that we not be ruled by Satan, nor have sin reign in us; but rather, that being governed by him here, we may in the time to come, reign with Christ in heaven.

Contrariwise, what manner of kingdom the kingdom of the world is, appears by considering the head or the king and prince of it, who is the devil — the author of sin, of uncleanness, and of death. He reigns in the world, doubtless the prince of the kingdom of darkness. Not that God's Christ is not king of all things; but because unfaithful apostates, through their own proper malice, revolting from God to the devil, appoint him as their prince. He is the one to whom, of their own accord, they submit and yield themselves to be governed, living in all ungodliness, wickedness, and uncleanness; framing themselves like their head, the devil; with whom they shall be punished everlastingly in the world to come, because in this world, they have allowed themselves to be governed by him, doing his will.

Christ, the true king and monarch of the world, has overcome the "prince of this world," Joh 12.31 who is elsewhere also called "The god of this world." 2Cor 4.4 And Christ has destroyed his kingdom — not that he should not exist as long as this world endures, but that he should not hurt the elect. Satan lives and shall live forever, yet in misery (which life indeed is death); but he has no power against those who are redeemed by Christ the prince. He has and shall have a kingdom even to the end of the world, but only in the children of unbelief.

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This kingdom that is also in this world, is decaying; it is momentary and for a short time — for the world passes away, and all worldly things perish. But all the elect of God are true strangers from this kingdom; indeed, they are sworn enemies of this kingdom. Nor can the prince of darkness, by his power, pull away the partakers of the kingdom of Christ, into his kingdom of iniquity. Truly, he goes about this diligently, and he vexes the elect with diverse temptations — but they overcome through Him who in time past vanquished that false king and prince of thieves. He taught us that, despising this filthy prince and the world and the lusts of the world — giving our minds to innocence — we should yield ourselves to that good Spirit, to be governed by Him.

I have thus far declared these things, as briefly as I could, touching the KING Christ and his only and everlasting kingdom.

And now, Christ our Lord is a PRIEST. Yes, he is that chief, only, and everlasting priest, whom the high priests of the olden people prefigured and foreshadowed. For in his song that is altogether divine, David says: "The Lord swore, and will not repent him, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." Psa 110.4 The blessed apostle, alleging and expounding these words in his epistle to the Hebrews, has written these words:

"The forerunner has entered into heaven for us, made a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham coming from the slaughter of kings, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth of all things; who first indeed is called by interpretation the 'king of righteousness,' then also 'king of Salem,' which is 'king of peace;' of an unknown father, of an unknown mother, of an unknown kin, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but likened to the Son of God, remains a priest forever." Heb 6.20-7.3

Surely our Lord Jesus Christ is both a righteous and peaceable king, and the righteousness and peace of the faithful. And he is that everlasting priest who according to his humanity, is believed to be born of the virgin without seed of man, and therefore of an unknown father; and according to his divinity, he is begotten of the Father, and therefore of an unknown mother; and he is unspeakably begotten from everlasting, and therefore of unknown kin, having neither beginning nor end of life.

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For even though he was dead and buried according to his humanity, yet according to his divinity, he remains God immortal and everlasting. The self-same who is a king, is also acknowledged to be a priest, not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek. For as the scripture remembers this one as a priest, so one Christ remains priest forever, having an everlasting priesthood. But high priests in time past were called and anointed; they did not thrust themselves into such an office by force or deceit. Thus the apostle said:

"No man takes the honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ did not take glory to himself to be made high priest, but is made and confirmed by Him who said to him, 'You are my Son, this day have I begotten you.' As he also says in another place: 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." Heb 5.4-6

But nowhere do you read that our priest was anointed with visible oil: for he was anointed with invisible oil — namely, with the fulness of the Holy Ghost. As the prophet witnesses: "Your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows." Heb 1.9 And again: "The Spirit of the Lord upon me: for the Lord has anointed me, and sent me to preach good tidings to the poor." Luk 4.18; Isa 61.1

Furthermore, we read that the office of priests in times past, was to serve in the tabernacle, to teach the people, to make intercession between God and men, to pray for the people and to bless them, to sacrifice also, and to consecrate or sanctify. And now, it is manifest that Jesus Christ is the lawful priest; and it is certain that he is tied not only to these self-same offices, but indeed to so much more excellent offices than these, by how much more he has obtained an excellent priesthood. Those priests, according to the order of Aaron, served in the corruptible and figurative tabernacle. But our Lord, being taken up into the true tabernacle, heaven itself, ministers to all the saints of God. For heaven and the church of saints is the true tabernacle and temple of our high priest. Christ our priest is the only and everlasting teacher and master of his universal church. For not only has he so taught that age which lived in the days of his flesh, but the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, by whom also he now rules all the seats of his catholic church. [2303]

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Christ himself still speaks to us, and will speak even to the end of the world, by the mouth or writings of the holy apostles, and all teachers preaching the doctrine of the apostles. And this doctrine is sufficient for the catholic church; for it fully comprehends all those things of Christ which pertain to a holy and happy life. Christ our high priest makes intercession for all the saints in his own temple. For being the only advocate and patron of all the faithful, he prays to the Father for us on the right hand of God; for he ascended to the right hand of God the Father, that he should always appear there in the presence of God, to faithfully follow all our suits. [2304] I have spoken of this more at large in my last sermon,[2305] where I treated invocation and intercession. The same Lord only blesses us. For he was made a malediction and curse for us, that we might be blessed in him, according to that notable and ancient prophecy: "In your seed shall all the nations of the world be blessed." Gen 22.18 Moreover, Christ our Lord sacrifices for us: for he offers incense when he makes supplication for us, and appears on the right hand of God. And he offers a sacrifice for sins to the living God — not a sacrifice of a beast, but of himself, always an effectual sacrifice, to make satisfaction for all the sins of the people. Since I have abundantly treated this in the treatise about ceremonies,[2306] I am being purposely briefer here. Again, since our Lord Jesus Christ is the holy of holiest, doubtless he sanctifies and consecrates his catholic church, anointing it with the oil of the Holy Ghost, that we may be made both holy and priests, to offer spiritual sacrifices to God. For we read that that holy ointment, poured on Aaron's head, ran down to his beard, and even to the skirts of his clothing. For Christ, the high priest of his universal church, pours his Spirit upon those who are very far off, as well as upon those who are near at hand. For he cries in the gospel: "If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He that believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of the water of life." Joh 7.37-38 And again: "For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified in the truth." Joh 17.19

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To be short, when we say and confess that Jesus Christ is the priest or bishop [2307] of the faithful people, we say this: that Christ is our chosen and appointed teacher and master, to govern and teach his universal church, to make intercession for us, and to plead all our suits faithfully before the Father in heaven. He is the only patron, mediator, and advocate of the faithful with God — who by the sacrifice of his body, is the perpetual and only satisfaction, absolution, and justification of all sinners throughout the whole world. [2308] He consecrates as priests those who believe, that they also might offer to God the Father through Jesus Christ acceptable sacrifices, and might be the house and tabernacle of God.

Out of this, it will be easy to judge what manner of priesthood Christ's is, who is our high priest and bishop. His priesthood is the very office or very function and working of the priest, by which Christ, himself the priest, executes all things in heaven and in the catholic church, which belong to his priestly office. Therefore, it must be that this priesthood of Christ our high bishop, is not visible and corporal, but altogether spiritual. For Paul says very well, "Christ would be no priest if he were on the earth:" Heb 8.4 where those who are of the tribe of Levi minister in the tabernacle or temple; where there is a temple or tabernacle with manifold holy garments and vessels. But Christ our Lord is of the tribe of Judah, born, of a royal tribe, I say. Yet we are not ignorant, meanwhile, that the royal tribe, that is, the tribe of Judah, and the priestly tribe, that is, the tribe of Levi, were mingled together. For we read that Elizabeth, who was of the daughters of Aaron, was cousin to the Virgin, who was the mother of God, and of the line of David. Nor is our Lord at any time said to have used the temple or the holy vessels in his ministry. For although he sometimes taught in the temple, he did not teach only in the temple. He never sacrificed in the temple at the holy altars, either of incense or of burnt-offerings. He never used priestly garments, which were figurative — of which I spoke when I expounded the ceremonial laws.[2309]

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Therefore, when he would sacrifice for the satisfaction of the sins of the whole world, he suffered outside the gate, and offered himself a living and most holy sacrifice, according to the shadows or types, prophecies and figures foreshown in the law of Moses. In like manner, I treated this in the discourse about the ceremonial laws. And when he had offered the sacrifice of his body, he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, that from there he may give light to his church, and always appear there for us, in the presence of God the Father. And therefore he does not now corporally execute his priestly office on earth, teaching us in a like way as he taught the men of his age, in the days of his flesh. For now he illuminates with his Spirit the minds of his people, and he daily repairs or renews the evangelical doctrine of the apostles. And yet, for all that, he himself speaks by the mouth of those who teach and preach the gospel. He blesses us from heaven, that is to say, he enriches us with all heavenly blessings. Speaking of him, the apostle says: "And the anointing, which you have received of him, dwells in you: and you do not need any man to teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you about all things, and it is true and not lying, and as it has taught you, you shall abide in it." 1Joh 2.27 Speaking about him, the divine prophet says: "I will pour water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your stock (or buds). They will grow together as the grass, and as the willows by the water's side." Isa 44.3-4 By these words we learn that Christ our high priest has no need of a bishop, suffragan, [2310] or vicar in his church; for he himself is present with his church, and governs it by his Spirit. The self-same Christ, at the right hand of the Father in heaven, does not humbly fall on his knees and make intercession for us, as often as we sin. For, "In the days of his flesh, when he offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears, he was heard once Heb 7.27 in that which he feared." Heb 5.7

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For now he always appears for us in the presence of God. All our matters are manifest in his sight; and the Father beholds the face of his Christ, for whose sake he is pleased with all his members, hearing them and giving them whatever healthful things they require, according to that saying of our Saviour: "Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he shall give it you." Joh 15.16 Therefore, here we must imagine no turmoils, no molestation, no labour with which he should be wearied who is the intercessor, advocate, and priest of all before God the Father in heaven. I also put you in mind of this in my last sermon, where I treated invocation and intercession.[2311] Therefore, in executing his office before God in heaven, our priest needs no altar of incense, no censer, no holy vessels or garments, much less the altar of burnt-offerings; for on the cross, which was his altar, he offered himself up but once for all. Nor was there any mortal man worthy to offer the living Son of God, to the living God. And that solitary sacrifice is ever effectual to make satisfaction for all the sins of all men in the whole world.

And though I alleged in the discourse about the ceremonial laws, many testimonies touching these things, I cannot stay myself here, but must cite to you some that are notable. For this matter, in which the fruit of Christ's divinity and humanity — to be short, in which all our salvation consists — cannot worthily and diligently enough be imprinted in men's hearts. Paul says to the Hebrews, speaking of the priests of the old Testament, and comparing Christ our high priest with them — indeed, by all means preferring him:

"And among them many were made priests, because they were not allowed to endure because of death. But Christ, because he endures forever, has an everlasting, (or unchangeable) priesthood; for it does not pass over to another by succession. Therefore he is able also perfectly to save those who come to God by him, seeing that he ever lives to make intercession for them. For such a high priest it became us to have, (who is) holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sins, and made higher than the heavens. He did not need daily, as those high priests did, to offer up a sacrifice first for his own sins, and then for the people's; for he did that once, when he offered up himself." Heb 7.23-27

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And again he says:

"Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the likenesses of the true sanctuary, but into heaven itself, to appear now in the sight of God for us: not that he should offer himself often, as the high priests entered into the holy places every year in strange (or with other) blood; for then he must have often suffered since the foundation of the world. But now at the end of the world he has appeared once, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed to men that they shall once die, and after that comes the judgment, even so Christ, once offered to take away the sins of many, shall be seen the second time without sin by those who wait for him unto salvation." Heb 9.24-28

And again the same Paul says:

"Every priest appears daily ministering, and often offers one manner of offering, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, sits forever at the right hand of God, and from then on waits till his enemies are made his footstool. For with one offering he has made perfect (or consecrated) forever those who are sanctified." Heb 10.11-14

All these sayings up to here are the apostle Paul's. And I think that these testimonies are not to be made manifest and agreeable to our purpose by a larger interpretation; for they are all most evident, even without any exposition of ours, and very aptly apply to the matter which we have in hand. For they plainly set forth and lay before our eyes the whole priesthood of Christ, especially that which belongs to the intercession and the only and everlasting sacrifice or satisfaction for sins. It also belongs to the same priesthood to consecrate all the faithful as priests unto God. Not that we should offer for the satisfaction of sins, but that we should offer our prayers, thanksgivings, and ourselves, and the duties of godliness, every moment. For St. John the apostle and evangelist says: "Jesus Christ, prince of the kings of the earth, loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and his Father." Rev 1.6 We may find the same sentence in the epistle of St. Peter also. 1Pet 2.5, 9

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So that in these we may see what fruit rises and flows to us from the divinity and humanity of Christ our king and high priest. For he could not be prince of kings and high priest, unless he were God and man.

Here this place requires us to say something about the name of a Christian, and of the duties of a Christian man.

We have the name of Christians from Christ, to whom, being inseparably knit, we are members of that body of which he is head. And Christ is not his proper name (for he is called Jesus), but a name of office, derived from the Greek word chrisma, which signifies anointing; [2312] thus Christ signifies anointed. Therefore, Tertullian says, it is not a proper name, but an attributed name. And he adds, "Anointed is no more a name than clothed or apparelled, which are incidental to the name." [2313] But the kings and high-priests were anointed with oil; and therefore Christ signifies to us the one who is king, high-priest, or bishop. And because we are named Christians from Christ, who has anointed us with the Holy Ghost, we are also truly kings and priests. Here you may see how great a benefit we received from Christ, God and Man; for he has made us kings and priests.

We see what the duty of Christians is: namely, to maintain this dignity even to the last gasp, lest it be taken from us again by Satan. Rev 2.10 Furthermore, if we are kings, we are lords over things, and are free and ruling, not ruled or in subjection. We are free, I say, from sin and everlasting death, and from all uncleanness; lords over Satan, prince of this world, and over the world itself. For we rule the world and the flesh: we are not ruled by them. To this belong those words of the apostle: "Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey the lusts of it. Neither give your members as instruments (or weapons) of unrighteousness to sin. But give yourselves to God, as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments (or weapons) of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have power (or dominion) over you." Rom 6.12-14

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And therefore, when the prince of this world — yes, and the world itself, and the flesh, and sin, and the wicked affection of it — do what they can to draw us out of freedom into bondage again, we must (because we are kings) valiantly resist them, and continuing in conflict, we must vanquish and overcome them by the virtue of Christ reigning in us. For St. John the apostle says: "All who are born of God overcome the world; and this is the victory which has overcome the world: even your faith." 1Joh 5.4 To this belongs the doctrine of freedom and bondage, which I treated in the former Decade.[2314] By all these we gather that the principal duty of Christians is always to stand in battle array, and to keep their place, to watch and endeavour by all force and means, lest at any time being overcome by their enemy Satan, they are robbed of their royal or kingly dignity, and hauled down into the bondage of hell. Truly, if we overcome in Christ and with Christ, we will reign together with him; that is, we will live with him and all the saints in glory for ever and ever. And thus we are kings in Christ; thus we are Christians.

Again, because we are Christians, that is to say, anointed, surely we are priests also. And therefore, according to our priestly office, we teach, admonish, exhort, and comfort all our brethren, and all men committed to our charge. Notwithstanding, we necessarily distinguish between the Christian priesthood and the ecclesiastical ministry. All Christians truly, men as well as women, are priests; but we are not all ministers of the church. For we cannot all, one with another, preach publicly, administer the sacraments, and execute other duties of pastors, unless we are lawfully called and ordained to it. Our priesthood, common to all, is spiritual; and it is occupied in the common duties of godliness, not in the public and lawful ministries of the church. Thus, one may and ought to instruct and admonish another privately; and while he does so, he executes a priestly office — as when the good man of the house [2315] instructs his children at home in godliness; or when the good wife of the house teaches and corrects her daughters; to be short, when every one of us exhorts every neighbour of ours to the desire and study of godliness.

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For the apostle Paul says: "Exhort one another daily, while it is called today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Heb 3.13 Moreover, since we are priests, we must offer sacrifices worthy of our God. And we have sufficiently testified that besides Christ, our high and only priest or bishop in all ages and in the whole world, none offers a satisfactory sacrifice to take away sin. For when he offered up himself, he offered a sacrifice but once, yet ever effectual to cleanse the sins of all. Therefore, we offer him thanksgiving and praise, celebrating the memory of that one and only sacrifice: we offer prayers: we offer ourselves, that is to say, our bodies, a living and a reasonable sacrifice to God, Rom 12.1 together with all kinds of godliness and well-doing. For Paul says: "By Christ we offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing his name. Do not forget to do good and to distribute; for with such sacrifice God is well pleased." Heb 13.15-16 But touching these sacrifices, I have spoken more in my former sermon,[2316] in which I treated what true service of God is. But since all sanctification is and rises from one high priest, Christ Jesus, we can sanctify ourselves in no other way than with honest and pure conduct of life. This is required at our hands: namely, that we be holy, and that we sanctify the name of our God with an innocent life, that it is not spoken evil of through us by men, but that they may see the good works of the faithful, and glorify the Father which is in heaven. Mat 5.16 There is none who may not see that all the duties of a Christian man are comprehended in these points; unless we exercise ourselves earnestly in them, I do not see that we are worthy of so excellent a name.

Luke is witness that this most holy name was first given to the faithful at Antioch in Syria. Yet, let no man so understand this, as if previously that name had been altogether unknown to all men. For now it has become most common; but in times past, it was the name only of the most excellent and holy men, those who were so indeed rather than so accounted; though they were also in some manner acknowledged as such by this name. For in his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius mentions that the ancient fathers Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, and others like these, were all Christians; and therefore Christian religion is the very purest, most perfect, and most ancient [of religions].

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The words of Eusebius, if any require them, are these:

"The nation of the Hebrews is not new, but famous to all men in antiquity, and known to all. Their books and writings contain ancient fathers, whom they report about before the flood, rare indeed and few in number, yet most excellent in godliness and righteousness and in all kinds of virtues; and after the flood, they report about others of the sons and nephews of Noah, such as of Terah and Abraham, of whom the posterity of the Hebrews boast as their captain and progenitor. So that if any man says that all those were Christians from Abraham himself even to the first man, were beautified with the testimony of righteousness through their works, though not in name, truly he would not stray from the truth. For "Christian" signifies a man who excels others in the knowledge and doctrine of Christ — with moderation of mind, and righteousness and continence of life, and through fortitude of virtue, and confession of godliness toward the one and only God of all creatures. And those ancient fathers no less esteemed this name than we do. Nor did they take care about the corporal circumcision, as we also have not; nor of keeping the Sabbath-day, as we also have not; nor of abstaining from meats, nor other differences. Moses first ordained these things afterwards, and figuratively delivered them to be performed. Such things even today do not pertain to Christians. But they plainly saw the Christ, the anointed of God. Also, as it was already declared before, he appeared to Abraham, and answered Isaac and Israel, and spoke to Moses, and to the prophets after him. Whereby you will find that these godly men also obtained the name of Christ, according to that saying spoken of them — namely, 'Do not touch my Christs (or my anointed ones), and do my prophets no harm.' 1Chr 16.22 Therefore it is manifest that this godly invention of those men who lived holily in the time of Abraham, which is preached to all nations of late by the doctrine of Christ, is the first, most ancient, and eldest of all." [2317] This much from Eusebius.

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Furthermore, if we behold ourselves in this mirror of a Christian name, we will see that very few today are worthy of this name. Truly, all of us are commonly so called, and we would be named Christians; but few of us live a life worthy of our profession. We are named Christians by a holy anointing. The holy anointing is the Holy Ghost himself. "Upon whom shall my Spirit rest?" says the Lord; "even upon him that is poor, and of a lowly troubled spirit, and stands in awe of my words." But we set lightly by the word of God; we have very troublesome heads; we are corrupt with evil affections and lewd lusts; we swell with pride; and therefore we lack the ointment of holy oil, or are void of the Holy Ghost. Who therefore can say that we are Christians? We are all of us in manner, ruled by wicked desires, by the flesh, the world, and the prince of this world; few of us rule the world, and the flesh, and those things which are in them. Therefore, it is not the Spirit of God that bears rule in us, but the spirit of the world and the flesh.

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The devil, the world, and the flesh have dominion over us; for in them we live, and them we obey. Thus being estranged and let loose from all righteousness and holiness, we have become slaves, serving a most vile and filthy slavery. For not desiring to be delivered, we neither seek a redeemer; nor do we rise and rebel against them, being impatient of their tyranny. But like faint hearted cowards, we yield ourselves to be brought in subjection, and to be kept under their tyranny. Indeed, these irk us and turn us from our labours, watchings, prayers, and from all our duties of godliness; and being careless, we lie lurking in a place of voluptuousness. But who would grant such swine the most holy name of a Christian, except someone who is both exceedingly foolish and wicked? It is no marvel then if such are thrust down into hell, there to burn eternally, and there to be yoked eternally to the one whom they have most wickedly chosen for themselves to follow.

And now, which one of us is there who teaches, admonishes, and exhorts those who boast and brag of this Christian name? I say nothing here concerning the doctors or teachers of the church; but my talk touches the office and duty of a Christian man. Truly, most of us are slow in instructing our families and fellow-brethren. For either it grieves us to take the pain, or else we fear danger. Therefore we turn the office of admonishing and instructing upon the public ministers of the church, as though nothing at all of this matter were required of us. For this reason, statements are heard uttered by men, in a manner that is unseemly to be spoken: "I do not have the office of a minister, I am no (pfaff) priest. Therefore, why should I instruct? Why should I admonish?" And these do not care how blasphemous and filthy things are spoken either at home or abroad; for they live to themselves, and think that the glory of God and the soul's health of their neighbour does not belong to them at all. But what sacrifices do we offer that are worthy of God and of our name? Where are prayers and thanksgivings? Where is the mortification of our flesh, and the denials of this world? Where is compassion, or well-doing? Where is a holy and harmless life? The contrary (if the need were so required) I could reckon up in a long catalog. But to what end would it be to make a large discourse about those things that are manifest to all men?

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For who, I ask you, denies that the life of this present age (of those men, I mean, who brag and boast of their Christian name) is filthy, stinking, and pestilent? Since these things are too true and evident, I have done nothing amiss in saying a little earlier, that today there are few Christians. Those who are wise and desire to live according to their name, let them hear our Saviour speaking in the gospel of Matthew: "Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in there. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Mat 7.13-14

Furthermore (this should have been said first of all), those who commit those things which by all means obscure and darken the kingdom and priesthood of Christ, very greatly offend against religion and Christian profession — because, just as they do not sincerely acknowledge the priesthood and kingdom of Christ, so they boast that they are to be chiefly praiseworthy, commendable, and catholic. Christians, being content only with this title and name, do not ambitiously seek or admit to another name. But these men, as though "Christian" were but a light and trifling name, never rest until they are also called by other names; as though they were baptized into the name of Brion,[2318] Benet,[2319] Robert,[2320] or Francis.[2321] Christians, clinging only to their law giver, master, and teacher Christ, do not acknowledge the voice of strangers, nor do they go a straw's breadth from the divine scriptures. But these other men charge you with heresy unless you receive and worship as heavenly oracles, all kinds of constitutions of the Romish church, even though they are flat contrary to the words and teaching of Christ. Christians acknowledge themselves to have one king, one deliverer, one Saviour, and one head in heaven. But these men worship his vicar on earth, and attribute salvation not only to trifling things, but to very stinking and loathsome things.

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Christians put all their trust in God, to whom they offer all their vows and prayers by Jesus Christ, whom they believe to be the only high priest and most faithful patron and advocate of all who believe. But these others make their prayers to creatures and men's imaginations, and choose for themselves as many patrons and intercessors as there live saints in heaven. Christians know that the sacrifice of Christ once offered, is always effectual to make satisfaction for all the sins of all men in the whole world, and of all men of all ages. But these men, with frequent complaints, say that it is flat heresy not to confess that Christ is daily offered by sacrificing priests, who are consecrated to that purpose. Therefore, the name of a Christian is common to all; but the thing signified and meant by the name is common only to the faithful who cling to one Christ.

Now, I conclude my whole discourse about Christ, a king and a priest, with these words of St. Augustine:

"The Son of God who made us, is made among us; and being our king, he rules us. And therefore we are Christians, because he is Christ. He is called Christ a Chrismate — that is to say, by anointing. Kings and priests were also anointed; and he was anointed king and priest. Being a king, he fought for us; being a priest, he offered himself for us. When he fought for us, he was overcome, as it were; and yet, by right he has overcome indeed. For he was crucified; and on the cross on which he was nailed, he slew the devil — and then he was our king. But why is he a priest? Because he has offered himself for us. Let a priest have something to offer. What could man find to give? A clean sacrifice? What sacrifice would that be? What clean thing can a sinner offer? Wicked sinner! O ungodly wretch! Whatever you bring, it is unclean. Seek within yourself what to offer: you will find nothing. Seek outside of yourself what to offer: he is not delighted in rams or goats or bullocks; they are all his, though you do not offer them. He found nothing clean among men, which he might offer for men. Therefore, he offered himself: a clean offering, an undefiled sacrifice. Therefore he did not offer that which we gave to him, but that which he took of us; and that he offered pure and clean. He took flesh in the womb of the virgin, that he might offer pure and clean flesh for us who were unclean. He is a KING; he is a PRIEST. Let us rejoice in him." [2322]

To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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4-8. THE EIGHTH SERMON: OF THE HOLY GHOST.

OF THE HOLY GHOST, THE THIRD PERSON IN TRINITY TO BE WORSHIPPED,

AND OF HIS DIVINE POWER.

It remains that, after we have expounded the mysteries of the Son of God our Lord Jesus Christ, we consequently speak of the Holy Ghost and of his divine power and operation. For unless he inspires our minds and rules our tongue, we will never be able to either worthily or profitably speak or hear anything concerning him. For just as no man knows those things which are of God, but the Spirit of God, so men fetch their understanding of heavenly things and their knowledge of the Holy Ghost, from nowhere else than from the same Spirit of God. Let us therefore pray and beseech God the Father, that by his Son Jesus Christ he would grant to enlighten our dark and misty minds, by sending his holy Spirit into our hearts, and to direct us in the sincere way of truth according to the holy scriptures.

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And first of all, it seems not unprofitable to expound the word spirit, because in the scripture it is variously taken and often used — so that one who is ignorant of the force of that word, will not seldom greatly err. Properly, spirit is the signification of an element — it signifies air, wind, breath. In that signification, we read this spoken by our Saviour: "The wind blows where it lusts, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from, and where it goes." Joh 3.8 And Paul says: "If I pray with an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is made unfruitful." 1Cor 14.14 Look, the apostle uses spirit for the breath or voice; for he joins it to the tongue, and he contrasts it with the mind. By a metaphor, it is translated to every bodiless substance, and used in contrast to the body. Therefore, spirit signifies an angel, either good or bad. For the prophet (whose words Paul has repeated) says: "Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire." Psa 104.4 And again: "Are they not all ministering spirits?" Heb 1.14 These testimonies are understood about good angels. When the scripture speaks of evil angels, commonly it adds something, such as an evil spirit, or an unclean spirit. We also call spirits or ghosts, which have taken some shape that cannot be well-discerned, spirits. So when the apostles saw Christ, not believing that the Lord was risen again with his true body, they thought they had seen a spirit. Showing his feet and his hands to them, he says, "A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me have." Luk 24.39 Again, spirit is taken for the breath of life; as with the Latins, to breathe is to live, to stop breathing is to die. David says: "When you give it to them, they gather it; when you open your hand, they are filled with good. When you hide your face, they are troubled; when you take away their breath, they die, and are returned again to their dust." Psa 104.28-29 And the Lord in Moses [2323] says: "I will destroy all flesh in which there is breath of life." Gen 6.17 Also, the reasonable soul of man is specifically called spirit, insomuch that spirit is often taken in the holy scripture for the reasonable soul of man.

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For in the gospel you read, "Jesus, when he had bowed down his head, gave up the ghost" (or the spirit). Joh 19.30 And you read of the holy martyr Stephen, "They stoned Stephen, calling on and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Act 7.59 Solomon said previously: "The dust will be returned to the earth from where it came, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." Ecc 12.7

And sometimes spirit signifies the affection and motion, the readiness and provocation of the mind. For Solomon says: "A man who does not refrain his appetite" or spirit, "is like a city which is broken down." Pro 25.28 You may often find in the scriptures the spirit of pride, anger, lust, or envy, taken for a proud, angry, lustful, or envious affection. Also in Luke 13.11, the very sore disease, or source of sickness, is called the spirit of infirmity. The spirit also signifies those spiritual motions which the Holy Ghost stirs up in the hearts of the saints, yes, and the very gifts that are poured into the hearts of men by the Spirit; which is to be seen everywhere in Paul. Elsewhere, spirit is opposed to the letter, body, figure, type, or shadow. And it is used for a higher or mystical meaning, and for the very pith of the thing; as when Paul says: "The circumcision of the heart is the circumcision which consists in the spirit, not in the letter." Rom 2.29 And again: "The Lord has made us able ministers of the new Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life." 2Cor 3.6 Therefore, you may find spirit taken for inspiration, revelation, and doctrine. For John says, "Do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God or not." 1Joh 4.1 And again: "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies." 1The 5.19-20 Last of all, God is called that unmeasurable and unspeakable power of the Spirit. "God," says our Lord, "is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." Joh 4.24 By this means, the word spirit is common to all the persons of the reverend Trinity — though it is particularly applied to the third person in the Trinity, about whom we make this sermon.

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And though the Holy Ghost, as he is God, cannot be compassed within limits (for by his own nature he is unspeakable, immeasurable, incomprehensible, and everlasting), yet notwithstanding — that I may say something in a certain order concerning him — if it will not be otherwise, I will at least shadow out that which the scripture, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost himself, very largely declares about him.

The Holy Ghost is the third person in Trinity, to be worshipped, very God, proceeding from the Father and the Son. He enlightens, regenerates, sanctifies, and fulfills the faithful with all good graces. But I think it is sufficiently declared at large in the third sermon of this Decade, that the Holy Ghost is the third person in the holy Trinity. Surely this single sentence of our Saviour, "Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," Mat 28.20 abundantly confirms to godly minds, that the Holy Ghost is the third person in Trinity.

Moreover, that he is very God — of the same power, glory, majesty, and being with the Father and the Son — that verse especially proves, because he is the third person in the holy Trinity. Nor must we think that he is lesser than the other two, just because he is counted in the third place. For though the blessed Trinity is remembered by us in order, yet notwithstanding, there is no degree, time, place, or number in the blessed Trinity. For blessed Athanasius made his confession according to the scripture,[2324] and said:

"The catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost: but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is one; the glory is equal, the majesty co-eternal. As the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal — and yet are they not three eternals, but one eternal," etc.

And Augustine too, in his fifteenth book, de Trinitate, cap. 26, says: "In that high Trinity which is God, there are no intervals of time by which it may be shown or at least demanded, whether the Son was first born of the Father, and afterward the Holy Ghost proceeding from them both," etc. [2325]

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Truly, we confess that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one God, and that the same is eternal. Therefore let it trouble no man, that the Spirit is put in the last place. For when the apostle framed his blessing in his epistle to the Corinthians, he said: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." 2Cor 13.14 He mentions the Holy Ghost in the last place. But the same Paul says, "There are diversities of gifts, but it is the self-same Spirit: and there are differences of administrations, but it is the self-same Lord: and there are diverse manners of operations, but it is the self-same God, who works all in all:" 1Cor 12.4-6 This sets the Spirit in the first place, teaching that the order of names does not make any difference in their dignities. In this manner also, in the previous testimony (2Cor 13.14), he placed the Son before the Father; this did not overthrow the order which the Lord set down in Matthew, but it shows the equality of the Trinity in honour.[2326] For what can you say more plainly than what the scripture says: that the Holy Ghost sanctifies, renews, regenerates, gives life, and saves? And these are operations agreeable to God only. By operations, therefore, we manifestly acknowledge that the Holy Ghost is God; he is of the same essence and power with the Father and the Son. For the Holy Ghost, from the beginning — before all creatures, visible and invisible, — is a Creator, not a creature, as Job witnesses: "His Spirit has garnished the heavens." Job 26.13 Again: "The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life." Job 33.4 Zacharias, the priest and father of St. John the Baptist, says: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has redeemed his people: as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have been since the world began." Luk 1.68, 70

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And [2327] St. Peter says: "For the prophecy did not come in olden times by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2Pet 1.21 I ask you, who cannot gather from this, that the Holy Ghost is God? For God spoke by the mouth of the prophets; and the Holy Ghost spoke by the mouth of the prophets: therefore the Holy Ghost is God. In express words, the same Peter has also called the Holy Ghost God, when he accused Ananias of theft, yes, and also of sacrilege. For when he had said, "How is it that Satan has filled [2328] your heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" Act 5.3 He then adds, "You have not lied to men, but to God." Act 5.4 Those things which St. Paul taught, the doctor of the Gentiles, agree in all points to the doctrine of St. Peter. For he called believers, the temples of God. "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1Cor 3.16 And again: "Do you not know not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" 1Cor 6.19 To be the temple of God, and to be the temple of the Holy Ghost, Paul takes to be one and the self-same thing. It follows, therefore, that the Holy Ghost is God. For in his epistle to the Corinthians, he expressly names the Holy Ghost "God." For after he had said, "There are diversities of gifts, but it is the self-same Spirit," 1Cor 12.4 and had reckoned up the kinds of gifts, he then adds, "And all these things, one and the self-same Spirit works, distributing to every man severally even as he wills." 1Cor 12.11 And he himself said a little before, "There are diverse manners of operations; but it is the self-same God, who works all in all." 1Cor 12.6

But Didymus Alexandrinus,[2329] a man of excellent learning, knits up a most evident argument of the Godhead of the Holy Ghost, also declaring that his nature altogether differs from the nature of angels. For in Lib. i. de Spiritu Sancto, he has written this (St. Jerome translating):

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"If the Holy Ghost were a creature, he would have at least a limitable substance, which all things have which are made. For although invisible creatures are not limited within place and bounds, yet they are limited in the property of substance. But the Holy Ghost, since he is in many places, does not have a limitable substance. For in sending out the preachers of his gospel, Jesus filled them with the Holy Ghost. But all the apostles did not go to all the nations together, but some went into Asia, some into Scythia, and others dispersed into other nations, according to the dispensation of the Holy Ghost which they had with them. This was even as they heard the Lord saying, 'I am with you always, even to the end of the world.' Mat 28.20 This agrees with it: 'You shall be witnesses to me, even to the utter most parts of the world.' Act 1.8 Being sent into the furthest parts of the earth to bear witness of the Lord, they were therefore severed from one another by a very great distance; and yet they had the Holy Ghost present with them, dwelling within them, whose substance is not limitable. Therefore, it is manifest that the power of angels far differs from this power of the Spirit. For example, the angel which was present with the apostle when he prayed in Asia, could not at the same time be present with others who were abiding in other parts of the world. But the Holy Ghost is not only present with men who are severed from one another, but he is also a continual dweller in every angel, principality, throne, and dominion," etc. [2330]

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Now, who cannot gather by this, that the Holy Ghost is true and very God? The same author has gathered many [2331] arguments for the true Godhead of the Holy Ghost; and next to him is the holy father Cyril;[2332] and holy Athanasius has absolutely discoursed to Theophilus on that matter, Lib. de Trinitate ii..[2333] These few testimonies, thus far recited, we think will suffice those who obey and love the truth.

Those who steadfastly believe these things, are not moved by any strange opinions and questions, curiously (indeed, wickedly) brought in about this matter by ill-occupied persons. For some are reported to have denied that the Holy Ghost is Lord; for they have taught that he is a minister, and as it were, a certain instrument of the Father and the Son.[2334] But Christ our Lord joined the Holy Ghost to himself and to the Father, when he delivered the form of baptism; for he says, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Mat 28.19 And yet it is manifest that a creature is not joined to the Creator in baptism, nor that there is any servile condition in the Godhead. Therefore, the council of Constantinople in their creed [2335] use certain terms for the Holy Ghost, by which they might destroy certain errors, calling him "Lord, and Giver of life." For when it calls him Lord, it makes him equal to the Son, and excludes the condition of a servant or minister. Beside that, it denies that he is their instrument; for there is one Lord: there are not many lords; and the Son is not lord of the Holy Ghost; but the lordship is common to the three persons, who are only one Lord. And seeing that the Holy Ghost is the Lord, surely he is not appointed to a servile ministry, but is endued with lordly authority; nor is he an under-servant to do the work, but a joint worker with the Father and the Son; yes, and he himself works as Lord.

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Again, certain others are reported to have taught that the Holy Ghost is not a substance or a person, but an accident as it were; [2336] that is say, a stirring up, a provocation, or a motion of a godly and renewed mind. And indeed, our mind being illuminated with the Holy Ghost is often called spirit; but we must wisely distinguish the creature from the Creator, and the accident from the substance. The blessed apostle distinguished our spirit from the holy Spirit of God, when he said; "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The Spirit itself bears witness to our spirit, that we are the sons of God." Rom 8.14, 16 And the same apostle says: "The flesh lusts contrary to the spirit, and the spirit contrary to the flesh." Gal 5.17 And who does not understand that the mind of man, instructed by the Holy Ghost, is here called the spirit; and not the third person himself in the reverend Trinity? And that mind, as touching illumination, is not of itself, but it proceeds from the Holy Ghost illuminating it. Nor does it come from any other than him who is the third person in Trinity. That mind is not the very person of the Holy Ghost — imagination proceeds from the soul, and yet it is not the soul itself. That stirring of the spirit in us is an accident, but God is not an accident, nor is he mingled with the accident. We must therefore confess, according to the scriptures, that the Holy Ghost is a person subsisting — co-equal in nature or essence — with the Father and the Son. And therefore he is to be worshipped and glorified by us as very God and Creator. Again, a godly and holy motion stirred up in the minds of holy men by the Spirit, is the effect and working [2337] of this Holy Spirit, and is called a holy spirit, but in a way proper to it. Otherwise, we do not deny that the Holy Ghost himself, being promised, is communicated to us, but according to our capacity, and as He wills. For who is the one among men, who is able to comprehend the fulness of the everlasting and incomprehensible God?

Furthermore, touching the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, the divines have disputed curiously, subtly, and busily. For the question is asked, Whether he proceeds from the Father alone, or from the Son also?

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In this question, the Latinists seem to disagree very much from the Grecians. The question is also asked, What manner of proceeding this is? Omitting many curious questions, we will briefly declare those things to you which are wholesome and agreeable with the holy scriptures. For who would be able to canvass all the questions of curious men, and all the bold and unclean thoughts of idle heads, without offence to good men, and especially of the simple hearers?

The scripture manifestly teaches that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and from the Son, which most plainly shows that he is the Spirit of either or both of them. For he is the one of whom the apostle says: "Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts." Gal 4.6 And the Son says, speaking of the same Spirit: "For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." Mat 10.20 Again, the same Son says of the Holy Ghost, "Whom I will send to you from the Father." Joh 15.26 And again, he says elsewhere, "Whom the Father will send in my name." Joh 14.26 Therefore, he proceeds from both — from the Father as well as from the Son. For although this is said about the Holy Ghost, "Which proceeded from the Father;" Joh 15.26 yet it is not denied that he proceeds from the substance of the Son also. But what is more, Cyril, a Greek writer expounding the gospel of St. John, and interpreting this same place, says:

"When he had called the Comforter the Spirit of truth, that is to say, his Spirit (for he is the truth), Joh 14.6 he adds that he proceeds from the Father. For as he is the Spirit of the Son naturally in his abiding, and proceeding through him, so also he is surely the Spirit of the Father. But to whom the Spirit is common, surely they cannot by any means be dissevered in substance." [2338]

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Again, St. Augustine in his fifteenth book, De Trinitate, cap. 26, says:

"The Son says, 'as the Father has life in himself, he gave that life to the Son.' Joh 5.26 Who may understand by this, that the son was then without life? Rather, the Father so begat the Son outside of time, that the life which the Father gave to the Son in begetting him, is co-eternal with the life of the Father who gave it to him. Let him understand that, just as the Father has power in himself that the Holy Ghost might proceed from him, so he has given power to the Son that the same Holy Ghost may proceed from him, both without beginning. Thus it is said that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, that what proceeds from the Son might be understood to be from the Father and the Son. For if the Son has anything, he has it from the Father: and surely he has it from the Father, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from him." [2339]

By all this, we gather that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father as well as from the Son.

Now, concerning the manner of proceeding, we say,[2340] that the proceeding of the Holy Ghost is two-fold or of two sorts: temporal and eternal. Temporal proceeding is that by which the Holy Ghost proceeds to sanctify men; eternal proceeding is that by which from everlasting he proceeds from God. The Spirit proceeds from both these ways, and from the Father as well as the Son. Nor does he proceed from the Father into the Son separately, and from the Son into creatures: for I say the nature and substance of the Father and the Son is one and the self-same, inseparable, and co-everlasting too.

Temporal proceeding is commonly called sending and a gift. For the Holy Ghost is sent to men in two ways. He is sent visibly, that is to say, in some visible form, such as a dove, or fiery tongues. It says in the gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, that he was given to Christ and the apostles this way. And he is sent invisibly; he is daily and every moment, as it were, given to the faithful — the Spirit of Christ waters us with his grace, and gives us faith, hope, and charity.

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Moreover, the eternal proceeding of the Holy Ghost, by which he proceeds out of the substance of the Father and the Son, is unspeakable, such as the begetting of the Son by the Father. For this reason, it is not said in the gospel that he has proceeded, or, shall proceed, but he "proceeds." For so the Lord declares his eternity of proceeding, and that the substance of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is co-eternal, and unseparable, and not differing at all. St. Augustine says in his fifteenth book De Trinitate, twenty-sixth chapter: "He that is able to understand the begetting of the Son by the Father outside of time, let him also understand the proceeding of the Holy Ghost from them both outside of time." [2341] And if anyone asks this question, Since the Holy Ghost proceeds from the substance of the Father and the Son, how does it come to pass that he is not called the Son? I answer, that the scripture calls the second person the Son, and testifies that he is the only-begotten of the Father; and that nowhere is there any mention that the Holy Ghost is begotten, or that he is called the Son. Nor have the ancient fathers given any other answer to this question.

I like the similitude which is expressed here: if one stream were to flow from two springs, it might well be said to flow from them both, and yet it could not be said to be the son of either of them. It will not seem unfruitful or beside the purpose to add to this, the disputations of Didymus concerning this sending — so is to avoid anyone understanding perversely, and according to the flesh, what is to be spiritually interpreted by faith:

"The Holy Ghost the Comforter is sent by the Son, not according to the ministry of angels, or prophets, or apostles, but as it becomes the Spirit of God to be sent by the wisdom and truth of God, having an unseparable nature with the self-same wisdom and truth. For the Son, being sent by the Father, abiding in the Father, and having the Father in himself, is not separated nor sundered from the Father.

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And the Spirit of truth also, being sent by the Son in the aforesaid manner, proceeds from the Father, not from elsewhere leaving toward other things; for this is likewise impossible and blasphemous.[2342] For if this Spirit of truth is limited within a certain space, according to the nature of bodies, then leaving one place he goes to another. But even as the Father is far above and beyond the nature of all bodies, not consisting in any one place, so also the Spirit of truth is not limited to a place, seeing that he is bodiless, and as I may more truly say, excelling all and every reasonable creature. Therefore, because it is impossible and wicked to believe of him these things which I have said are true of bodily creatures, we must understand that the Holy Ghost so went out and came from the Father, as our Saviour bears witness that he himself went out and came from the Father, saying, 'I went out and came from God.' And just as we distinguish places and changing places, from bodiless things, so also we distinguish these statements inwardly and outwardly, from the nature of intellectual things. For these two words pertain to bodies that may be touched and have bigness. Therefore, we must believe the unspeakable word, which faith only and alone makes known to us: that our Saviour is said to come out from God, and the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father," etc. [2343]

I pass over other questions that are both scrupulous, and very many untouched. In these things I require a religious mind, and not a curious one; a faithful mind, and not a subtle one.

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Now, there is but one Holy Ghost, because he is always one and the self-same God. It is the same Spirit, therefore, who spoke to the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, and who today speaks to us in the church. Therefore, the council of Constantinople is said to have confessed their faith thus: "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord;" and shortly after: "Who spoke by the prophets. And I believe one catholic and apostolic church." [2344] These sayings are taken out of the holy scripture. For St. Peter testifies in express words, that the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, and there was no other spirit in the apostles than the Spirit of Christ. 1Pet 1.11 And Paul the apostle says: "Seeing then that we have the same Spirit — as it is written, 'I believed, and therefore I have spoken,' — we also believe, and therefore speak." 2Cor 4.13

From this testimony Tertullian infers, and (no doubt) soundly: "It is one and the self-same Spirit therefore, who was in the prophets and the apostles." [2345] He promises that the self-same Spirit will be always in the church. They erred therefore, yes, they erred foully, whoever among those of old feigned one God and Spirit of the old Testament, and another of the new Testament. [2346] Didymus Alexandrinus, the bright light in his age of all the Grecian churches, in his first book entitled De Spiritu Sancto, says this:

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"Neither should we think that the Holy Ghost is divided according to substances, because he is called by a multitude of good graces.[2347] For he cannot suffer, he cannot be divided, nor yet be changed; but according to his various workings and understandings, he is called by many names of good graces, because he does not endue his partakers with his communion, in one and the self-same power," [2348] etc.

Furthermore, the Holy Ghost in man increases or fills, and diminishes or departs: not that there is any change to be found in God (who, as commonly and truly said, neither receives more or less); but because man, according to his capacity, either receives the Spirit plentifully and liberally, or else measurably and sparingly, even as it pleases the Holy Ghost.1Cor 12.11 The portion of the Spirit of Elijah was given double to Elisha from heaven. 2Kng 2.9 And it is said of our Saviour, that "the Father gave him the Spirit not by measure." Joh 3.34 For the Lord himself elsewhere says: "Whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whoever does not have, from him shall be taken even what he has." Mat 13.12 Saul had received excellent graces; but because he did not use and exercise them, the good Spirit of God departed from him, and the evil spirit succeeded and tormented him. 1Sam 16.14 And the Spirit of God departs even as it comes, in an instant. For when we are forsaken by the Lord, the Spirit of God departs from us. Thus David prayed: "Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy Spirit from me." And again: "Establish me with your principal Spirit." [2349]

After these things, it seems that next we must diligently search out what the effect and what the power of the Holy Ghost is. The power of the almighty and everlasting God is unspeakable; therefore, no man can fully declare what the power of the Holy Ghost is. Yet I will say something, making those things manifest which he works chiefly in men.

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For the Father works all things by the Spirit. By him God creates, sustains, moves, gives life, strengthens, and preserves all things. By the self-same Spirit, he regenerates his faithful people, sanctifies them, and endues them with diverse kinds of graces. Thus, in the description of him mentioned above, his principal powers and effects which show themselves by their working in men, are comprised in four members. I said that he illuminates, regenerates, sanctifies, and fulfils the faithful with all good graces. That these things may be better understood, it will be good, first of all, to declare (as well as we can) the appellations or names of the Holy Ghost, which the holy scripture gives him; and then to recite one or two places from the old and new Testaments, to set forth and declare the power of the Holy Ghost.

First, he is called the Holy Spirit of God, because those creatures which are sanctified, are sanctified by Him. The heavenly Father sanctifies with his grace, but through the blood of his beloved Son; and sanctification is derived to us and sealed by the Spirit. Therefore, the holy Trinity, being one God, sanctifies us. It is a wicked thing to therefore attribute sanctification to strange and foreign things. It is a wicked thing to translate purification and justification from the Creator to the creature. Moreover, the Spirit is called holy, to differentiate him from other spirits. For we read in the scriptures, that there was and is a spirit of the world, a spirit of infirmity,[2350] a spirit of fornication and uncleanness, and a spirit of pride. The Holy Ghost is separated from all these, which inspires into us the contempt of this world; which opens the scriptures to us, and confirms us in truth; which purifies our hearts, and makes our minds chaste, and thus preserves them; finally, which makes us lowly and gentle, and drives away from us all maliciousness.

The same Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of God, and of the Son of God, to distinguish it from the spirit of Satan; and it is called the Spirit of the Son, because it is the proper and natural Spirit of the Son, which he also communicates to us, so that we also might be the sons of God.

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For Paul says: "You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you." 1Cor 3.16 Again: "If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Rom 8.9 And again: "Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Gal 4.6

Moreover, our Lord himself, in the history of the gospel, calls the Holy Ghost a Comforter, saying: "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because the world does not see him, nor know him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you." Joh 14.16-17 For paraklhtov (paracletos) signifies a comforter, a stirrer up or provoker, an exhorter, an advocate or patron who pleads the cause of his client. For the Holy Ghost is the mouth, the eye, the heart, the counsel, the hand, and the foot of all the faithful. Didymus, in his work entitled De Spiritu Sancto, says:

(Christ), "giving the Holy Ghost a name corresponding to his working, calls him the Comforter. This is because he not only comforts those whom he finds worthy of him, and sets them free from all heaviness and trouble of mind, but He gives them a certain incredible joy and gladness, insomuch that a man, giving God thanks because he is counted worthy of such a guest, may say, 'You have given me gladness in my heart.' For everlasting joy and gladness is in the heart of those in whom the Holy Ghost dwells." [2351]

Truly, the Holy Ghost alone makes the consciences of men void of care — quiet and at peace before God in the matter of justification and in all temptations of the world. Paul says: "This only I desire to learn of you, whether you have received the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the preaching of faith." Gal 3.2 The apostles being beaten with rods, when they were endued with the Holy Ghost and had that Comforter present in their minds, went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were counted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Christ. [2352]

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So we read in the ecclesiastical history, that the martyrs of Christ, being full of the Holy Ghost, even in extreme torments and the most bitter deaths, were most patient, and sang praises and gave thanks to God.

Furthermore, we have heard that the Holy Ghost is called by the Lord, the Spirit of truth. For in another place also, he beautifies him with that name. For he says, "When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness of me." Joh 15.26 And he is called the Spirit of truth, because there is another hypocritical spirit, [2353] an erroneous and lying spirit in the mouth of all false prophets. Our Spirit works in his worshippers sincerity, gentleness of mind, and integrity. He teaches them all truth. For our Lord elsewhere in the gospel says: "That Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you." Joh 14.26 Therefore, the Spirit of truth has taught the apostles all truth that is to be believed, and all godliness; and they have fully delivered the same to the church. For the Holy Ghost drives away all errors, destroys all heresies, confounds all idolatry and ungodliness, and pours true faith into our hearts, and establishes true religion in the church. The Acts of the Apostles afford us very many examples. By this Spirit of God, the apostles foretold things to come, shadowing out among other things the antichrist and the corruption of this our last age, and admonishing the church lest the elect be entangled in errors and blasphemous wickedness.

Now, he is called the Spirit of promise, for he was promised of God by the prophets through Christ to the fathers, to the apostles, and to all who believe the apostles' doctrine, [2354] and at length was fully given and performed through Christ.

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This word puts the godly in mind, that they should not ascribe having so great and healthful a gift to their merits, but to the mere grace of God, And the Holy Ghost is granted, yes, given to us, by the promise of God. From this it follows that all the gifts of God are freely given — which the apostle Paul principally proves, and earnestly beats into our heads, in his epistles; especially those to the Romans and the Galatians.

In Luke, the Lord says: "If with the finger of God I cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God has come upon you." Luk 11.20 St. Matthew, repeating the same words, says: "If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come upon you." Mat 12.28 Therefore, the Holy Ghost is called the finger of God, namely, the might and power of God. Men of occupations [2355] work with their fingers. God works his works by his divine power, I mean, by his Spirit — whose power is so great, that even his little finger (give me leave to speak this way) surpasses all the power and strength in the world. That appeared in those sorcerers of Egypt. [2356] Didymus repeats a parable touching the unity of the divine substance, and admonishes diligently and conveniently, so that we would not from corporal things, forge and feign for ourselves a corporal meaning for spiritual things. For he says:

"But beware lest, being cast down to base things, you imagine in your mind diversities or corporal actions, and begin to forge for yourself magnitudes, and distinctions, and other members of the body, greater and lesser. Or saying that the finger is apart from the hand, and the hand apart from him whose hand it is, and that it differs by many inequalities, just because the scripture now speaks of bodiless things — it is purposing to show the unity only, and not the measure of substance also. For just as the hand is not divided from the body by which it works and brings all things to an end, and is in him whose hand it is, so also the finger is not separated from the hand whose finger it is. Therefore, away with such distinctions and measurings when you think of God; and understand the unity of the finger, of the hand, and of the whole substance, by which finger the law was written in tablets of stone." [2357] This far from Didymus.

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Now the Holy Ghost in the writings of the prophets as well as that of the apostles, is shadowed by water, and a living or continual running fountain. The Lord says by Isaiah, "I will pour out waters upon the thirsty, and rivers upon the dry ground." Isa 44.3 And by interpretation, he immediately adds: "I will pour my Spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your stock." And in the gospel, the Lord says: "If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He that believes in me, as says the scripture, out of his belly shall flow rivers of water of life." Joh 7.37-38 To which the holy evangelist [2358] adds by way of exposition: "But this he spoke of the Spirit, which those who believe in him would receive." Joh 7.39

Surely water makes barren grounds fruitful, cleanses defiled things, gives drink to those who are thirsty, and cools those who are in a heat. So the grace of the Holy Spirit makes barren minds fruitful, to bring forth fruit to the living God. And by that self-same grace, our hearts are cleansed from all uncleanness; it quenches the thirst of the soul, comforts it when afflicted, and fulfills all its desires.

Fire is simple and pure. It consumes some bodies, and purges others, making them finer and cleaner. It also warms, and has many profitable and necessary operations in man. Therefore, the Holy Ghost is rightly shadowed to us by fire. For he is pure and simple; he consumes the ungodly, cleanses the faithful from the filthiness of sins, and makes them burn with the love of God and of their neighbour — doubtless setting them on fire with the fire of his love.

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When he was given to the apostles on the day of Pentecost, a sound was heard as if it had come with the force of a mighty wind. What was signified by this, was that the doctrine of godliness would be spread throughout the whole world by the power of God with wonderful success, despite [2359] the might of the whole world setting its shoulder against it in vain. For the wind (no man staying it) blows through the whole world, pierces all places, and no man can keep it out; it also has wonderful effects on bodies to change them. And the Holy Ghost pierces all things, softens men's hearts; and makes froward, stubborn, and rebellious men, into the most lowly, modest, and obedient of men.

Fiery tongues appear on the heads of the apostles and disciples endued with the Holy Ghost; doubtless this signified the operation or working of the Holy Ghost, of which these were signs and assurances. For he instructs, exhorts, and comforts the faithful. Nor does he arm his faithful apostles with cold tongues, but fiery tongues. When they preached the gospel, the apostles seemed not to speak, but to sound like lightning and thunder, for which two of them were called "the sons of thunder" by our Saviour. Mar 3.17

Furthermore, the Holy Ghost appears in the likeness of a dove upon the Son of God, when he was baptized by John the Baptist. Joh 1.32 For a dove is mild and gentle, without malice or harm: from which sprung the proverb, "manners like a dove, dove-like simplicity;" and "gentler than a dove." For a dove among birds is like a sheep among four-footed beasts, which thinks no hurt to any living creature — thus Christ is also called a sheep or a lamb. Therefore, the wise man says very well about the Spirit of God:

"The spirit of wisdom is holy, one only, manifold, subtle, quick, moving,[2360] clear,[2361] undefiled, plain,[2362] sweet, loving what is good, sharp, cannot be limited, doing good, kind to man, steadfast, sure, free from care, having all power, circumspect in all things, and passing through all understanding, pure, yes, and the most subtle, spirits." Wis 7.22-23

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Again, those who are endued with the Holy Ghost are called the anointed of the Lord, for the Holy Ghost is called both oil and anointing. Unless we are watered by the Holy Ghost, we grow barren and waste away — for we are void of living and heavenly moisture, and of our own nature, we always wither and grow dry. There was a notable figure of this anointing, in the ceremonial anointing of kings and priests. St. John says:

"And the anointing which you have received from him dwells in you, and you do not need any man to teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and it is true, and not lying, and as it taught you, abide in it." [2363]

For the Lord also says in Jeremiah 31.33-34:

"This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days: I will plant my law in their inward parts, [2364] and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And from then on, no man will teach his neighbour or his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they will all know me, from the lowest to the highest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their misdeeds, and never remember their sins any more."

But we showed a little earlier that the Holy Ghost is the universal teacher of all truth. What St. Paul says seems to belong to this: "It is God who has anointed us, who has also sealed us, and has given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 2Cor 1.21-22 For now the Holy Ghost is not only called anointing, but also the sealing up or earnest of our salvation: for arra (arra), or arrabwn (arraboon), is a part of payment, which assures that the whole sum will be paid; namely, a pledge. And surely the Holy Ghost now testifies, yes, it seals and assures us, that we are the sons of God, and that when the time comes, we will be received into the everlasting inheritance. Paul again says: "You are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." Eph 1.13-14 That assurance marvellously confirms and comforts the minds of the faithful in temptations; it encourages them (besides that) to patience in adversity, and to holiness of life. For St. John said of this, "Little children, you are of God, and have overcome them; for greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." 1Joh 4.4

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And again: "Now we are the sons of God, and yet it does not appear what we shall be: but we know that when he appears, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him, purges himself, even as He also is pure." 1Joh 3.2

And just as the Holy Ghost is an unspeakable knitting together, by which the three persons are inseparably coupled with one another in everlasting love and concord — even so, he couples the spouse of Christ with her spouse, with a knot that cannot be loosed; and he joins together all the members of his mystical body in an everlasting covenant between them. For just as the members of our body are joined together whole and sound by the benefit and enjoying of life,[2365] so the mystical body of Christ is united together by the Holy Ghost. Therefore, it is no marvel that he is called by the name of love, who pours love into our hearts. Rom 5.5

And even though the operation of the Holy Ghost may be understood by these names, I will add certain testimonies of scripture, out of which his power or effect, especially in us, may be more fully understood. Isaiah almost in the beginning of his prophecy, describing the person of the King our Messiah, says among other things: "The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of deep judgment in the fear of God." Isa 11.2-3 Though he declared many of the powers of the Spirit, he has not reckoned up all of them. Therefore, it is not for us to bring the powers of the Spirit into a strait, and with the common sort, to limit them to seven in number. For we have heard up to here that there is the spirit of promise, of doctrine, of humility, and gentleness, etc. Beside these, there are reckoned up many others with them; for he is the spirit of wisdom. But how great this is, and how far it reaches, is manifest even in the words [2366] of Solomon. To wisdom is joined understanding, which is said to be the action and application of wisdom, ordered or standing. framed to things, places, times, and persons. Counsel is required and given in doubtful matters, and shows what we may most conveniently do.

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Strength ministers sufficient force and constancy to execute and perform — yes, and to patiently bear — whatever we have learned by counsel, either to be done or to be suffered. And now, knowledge is an experience obtained and gotten by long time and use. Fear is added to these, that is to say, godliness and true religion. Unless we refer all our sayings and doings to this — that is, to wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength and knowledge — nothing will profit us. To be short, whoever is endued with the Spirit of God, whatever he either does or says, will savour of the fear of God; finally, he will say and do all things to the glory of God. And all these things truly are freely and fully drawn out of the only fountain of the Holy Ghost.

Paul the apostle says in his epistle to the Romans, describing the wonderful force of the Holy Ghost working in us after being new-born:

"Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life for righteousness' sake. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, even he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, because that his Spirit dwells in you." Rom 8.8-11

The same apostle teaches in his epistle to the Corinthians, that by the revelation of the Holy Ghost, the mystery of the kingdom of God is manifestly opened to us.

"God has revealed them to us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, no man knows things of God, but the Spirit of God. And we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are given to us by Christ." 1Cor 2.10-12

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To this pertain these words of our Lord and Saviour out of the holy gospel:

"I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, that Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will rebuke the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in him: of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you see me no more: of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged already." Joh 16.7-11

And it is evident that in all these clauses, the whole sum of religion is contained, which the Holy Ghost has most plentifully delivered to the church. We also touched of these in the exposition of the names of the Holy Ghost. It follows in the gospel:

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he has come, who is the Spirit of truth, he will lead you into all truth. He will not speak of himself; but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will show you things to come." Joh 16.12-13

And since it is certain that the Holy Ghost has come, it is evident that he led the apostles into all truth — insomuch that whatever does not agree with their writings is worthily suspected of a lie. Otherwise, I do not doubt that he speaks today in the church, by those who are his. But it is without controversy that the Holy Ghost does not contradict himself. And in the exposition of the names of the Holy Ghost, we touched that things to come were revealed to the apostles by the Spirit. Nor is it doubtful that today he reveals many things to the saints in the church, even those things which pertain to the preservation of the gospel of Christ, and the saints.

Again, we read in the epistle of Paul to the Corinthians:

"The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with: for to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another is given faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another power to do miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another diverse kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the self-same Spirit works all these, distributing to every man individually, even as he will." 1Cor 12.7-11

All these things are manifest, and do not need any further exposition.

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These are great and evident gifts of the Holy Spirit. If we also add to these, those words which the same apostle set down concerning the Spirit of God, we will make an end: "The fruit of the Spirit," he says, "is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." These I say, and all other virtues, the Holy Ghost (who works all good things in all men) grafts, plants, preserves, defends, and brings to full ripeness in the minds of the faithful.

To all these we will now add, instead of a conclusion, the most notable treatise of Tertullian touching the Holy Ghost. It is this:

"Because the Lord was departing into heaven, he necessarily gave his disciples a comforter, lest he leave them orphans in a way (which was not convenient), and forsake them without a certain advocate and tutor. He is the one who strengthened their minds and understandings; who distinguished [2367] the sacraments of the gospel; who was in the disciples the giver of light in heavenly things; by whom — being strengthened and established — they neither feared imprisonments nor chains for the name of the Lord; but rather treated the very powers and torments of this world as nothing, now being armed and emboldened through him. They have in themselves the gifts which this self-same Spirit distributes and directs certain ornaments to the church, which is the spouse of Christ. For it is he that appoints prophets in the church, instructs the teachers, guides tongues, works miracles, and gives health, brings to pass wonderful works, shows the discerning of spirits, establishes governments, endues with counsel, ministers and orders and disposes all other spiritual gifts. And therefore, he makes the church of God perfect and absolute, on all sides and in all things. It is he, in the likeness of a dove, who descended and remained on the Lord after he was baptized, dwelling fully and wholly only in Christ, not maimed or diminished in any measure or portion, but plentifully received into him with his whole abundance — that others might obtain from him a certain distribution of gifts, as the fountain of the fulness of the Holy Ghost wholly remaining in Christ — that from him might be derived veins of gifts and miracles, the Holy Ghost most abundantly dwelling in Christ. For Isaiah said the same thing, prophesying: 'And the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, rests upon him. And the spirit of the fear of the Lord filled him.' Isa 11.2

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The Lord himself in another place also says the self-same thing: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; to preach the gospel to the poor has he sent me.' Isa 61.1 Likewise David says, 'Wherefore your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.' Psa 45.7 The apostle Paul speaks of this Spirit: 'For he that does not have the Spirit of Christ, is none of his.' Rom 8.9 'And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' 2Cor 3.17 He is the one who works by water the second birth of regeneration, being a certain seed of heavenly generation; and the one who consecrates the heavenly nativity, being a pledge of the promised inheritance; and as it were, a certain handwriting of everlasting salvation; who makes us the temple of God, and brings to pass that we should be his dwelling-house; who performs the office of an advocate, making intercession for us in the hearing of God, with sighs that cannot be uttered; and pouring forth his gifts of defence, he is given to be a dweller in our hearts and a worker of holiness; exercising that in us, he brings our bodies into everlastingness and to the resurrection of immortality, while he accustoms the disciples to be partakers in him of his heavenly power, and to be coupled with the heavenly eternity of the Holy Ghost.

For our bodies are trained up in him, and by him to proceed to immortality, while they learned to behave themselves moderately according to his ordinances. For it is he that lusts contrary to the flesh, because the flesh fights against him. Gal 5.17 It is he that bridles insatiable lusts; who tames immoderate concupiscences; who quenches unlawful desires; who vanquishes flaming affections; who abhors drunkenness, who banishes covetousness; who abandons riotous banquetings; who knits the knot of love and charity; who subdues the affections, drives away sects, shows the rule of truth, convinces heretics, casts out the wicked, and is a defence to the gospel. The apostle also says of him: 'For we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God.' 1Cor 2.12 Of this Spirit he triumphs, and says: 'And I think truly that I have the Spirit of God.' 1Cor 7.40 He says of him: 'And the Spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.' 1Cor 14.32

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He says again of him: 'Now the Spirit speaks evidently, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devils, which speak false in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.' 1Tim 4.1-2 'No man being guided by this Spirit calls Jesus execrable;' [2368] — no man denies that Christ is the Son of God, or forsakes God the Creator; no man utters any of his own words against the scriptures; nor does any man establish other wicked decrees; no man commands contrary laws.

'Whoever blasphemes against this Spirit shall never have forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.' Mat 12.31-32 It is he that, in the apostles, bears witness to Christ, that shows constant faith of religion in martyrs, that plants marvellous continence of assured love in virgins, that keeps the laws of the Lord's doctrine uncorrupted and undefiled in others, that confounds heretics, reforms the froward, reproves the unfaithful, reveals dissemblers and punishes the wicked, and preserves the church chaste and unstained in pureness of perpetual virginity and holiness of truth." [2369] This much from Tertullian.

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Thus far, and not without trembling, we have treated the most holy mystery of the reverend Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, which we have learned out of the scriptures. And now, here we will stay, humbly worshipping this Unity-in-trinity and Trinity-in-unity.

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Let us keep in mind and acknowledge this distinction or division most manifestly declared in the scriptures, and the unity also commended to us with exceeding great diligence. For in the scripture, the beginning of doing, and the flowing fountain and well-spring of all things, is attributed to the Father. Wisdom, counsel, and the very dispensation in doing things, is ascribed to the Son. And the force and effectual power of working, is assigned to the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless, let us take heed lest through the distinction, we separate the unity of the substance of God; for there is but one God in whom those properties exist. It is but one fire, even though there are three things seen in it: light, brightness, and heat. For these rise together, and cease all at once. The light does not go before the brightness, nor the brightness before the heat. And though one thing is attributed to the light, another to the brightness, and a third to the heat; yet they work inseparably. Therefore, when we read that God created the world, we understand that the Father from whom are all things, by the Son by whom are all things, in the Holy Ghost in whom are all things, created the world. And when we read that the Son became flesh, suffered, died, and rose again for our salvation, we believe that the Father and the Holy Ghost, though they were not partakers of his incarnation and passion, yet notwithstanding, they wrought our salvation by the Son, whom we believe never to have been separated from them. And when sins are said to be forgiven in the Holy Ghost, we believe that this benefit and all other benefits of our blessedness, are inseparably given and bestowed upon us from one, only, true, living, and everlasting God, who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. To whom be praise and thanksgiving for ever and ever. Amen.

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4-9. THE NINTH SERMON: OF ANGELS AND DEVILS.

OF GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS; THAT IS, OF THE HOLY ANGELS OF GOD,

AND OF DEVILS OR EVIL SPIRITS; AND OF THEIR OPERATIONS.

NEXT, to this sermon of the Holy Ghost I will add a treatise about good and evil spirits; that is, about the holy angels of God, and about devils or wicked spirits, and about their operations. Since the holy scripture delivers to us an assured doctrine about them, and it is profitable in all points, it seems that we should not lightly regard it, but bring it to light with as much faith and diligence as we can. It would be a foul fault in someone who studies after godliness, to be ignorant of the dispositions of good and evil angels, of whom mention is made so often in the holy scriptures; yes, it would be a most dangerous thing, not to know what manner of creatures the devils are, which under that name might easily deceive and spoil us. But first we will speak of holy angels, and then of devils or spirits.[2370]

The word angel some say is a name of office,[2371] not of nature. This is common to the Latins and Greeks, from whom it is borrowed; and it signifies an ambassador or legate, and therefore it has a larger signification. For the preachers of the truth are called angels, as in Malachi, Mal 2.7 and in the apostle Paul;[2372] for they are the ambassadors or "messengers of the Lord of hosts." 2Cor 5.20 St. Peter also calls evil spirits angels;2Pet 2.4 as Paul also does, saying that the faithful shall one day judge the angels;[2373] and that the angel or messenger of Satan was sent to him.2Cor 12.7 Nonetheless, the scripture particularly calls angels the blessed spirits of God, ministers, and messengers, and heavenly armies.[2374]

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But the Sadducees denied that there are angels; for Luke in the Acts of the Apostles says: "The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both." Act 23.8 And indeed, the whole scripture testifies that there are angels, mentioning in many places that they have appeared to men, and revealed to them the will of God, or otherwise accomplished His work. Truly, the Lord Jesus reasoning against the Sadducees in the gospel says: "You err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." Mat 22.29-30 Let us therefore believe that there are angels. For the authority of the Son of God, and the irrevocable truth of the holy scriptures, should worthily win more credit with us than the toys of all the Sadducees and wicked men. What, have not the heathenish poets and philosophers confessed that there are angels, whom they call gods? [2375] For pretending that gods in the likeness of men were lodged and entertained by righteous men, they seemed to all learned men to have meant nothing else than what the holy scriptures mention: how Abraham and Lot received angels into their houses resembling strangers. But however the case stands, it is most certain, both by the holy scripture and by manifold experience, that there are blessed spirits of God — that is to say, good angels.

Now, what the nature of angels is, cannot be thoroughly declared by any man. For there are many things in the order of creatures, whose nature cannot be directly and perfectly expounded. They may nevertheless, in a way, and according to our capacity, be shadowed out. There are some, therefore, who say that angels are good spirits, ministers, of a fiery nature, created for the ministry or service of God and good men. Others say angels are heavenly spirits, whose ministry and service God uses to execute all things which he has determined. Therefore, we will not seem to miss the mark much, if we say that angels are good spirits, heavenly substances (I mean incorruptible), created for the ministry or service of God and men.

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The writings of the prophets and apostles witness that angels are created by God. For Paul cites that saying of David, "Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." Psa 104.4 The same apostle says: "By Christ all things are created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they are majesties [2376] or lordships, either rules or powers." Col 1.16 This is why heretics have set forth toys, saying that angels are workers in the creation of all things and co-eternal with God: for in time, God by the Son created angels as well as all other creatures.

Now, touching the time when angels were created, whether with the light before man, or after man, and after all the works of God, let him who can, tell us. The holy scripture passes it over with silence, and pronounces no certainty of it. Epiphanius [2377] and Augustinus,[2378] ancient interpreters of the scriptures, learnedly and truly confess that there is nothing delivered in the scriptures about that matter: and that which is not delivered in the scriptures cannot without danger be inquired after; but without danger, we may be ignorant of it. It is sufficient to acknowledge that angels were created, at whatever time it seems they were created. Let us rather give God thanks that he has created for mankind such excellent ministers. Let us live a holy and angel-like life in the sight of God's holy angels. Let us watch lest he deceive us, who transfigures and turns himself into an angel of light, under a good show and likeness.

Now we must further see what manner of creatures angels are: they are heavenly spirits, and incorruptible and most swift substances. We say expressly that angels are substances — that is to say, creatures having essence or being. For some deny that they are substances subsisting in their proper essence or being; for they imagine that angels are nothing other than qualities, motions, or inspirations of good minds. But the canonical scripture calls them ministers. Our Saviour says that those who rise again, will be like the angels of God. Mat 22.30

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St. Paul declares that the Son of God is more excellent than the angels, for they worship him as God their creator. Heb 1.6 The self-same apostle says: "For you read in no place that the Son takes on himself the angels, but he takes on himself the seed of Abraham." Heb 2.16 These testimonies most manifestly teach that angels are substances, not qualities or motions in men's minds — I say nothing now about how they have often appeared to men in the likeness or shape of men. Let us therefore hold and confess that angels are substances.

Furthermore, others have perhaps better declared what substances angels are, for which I begrudge no man. I confess that there are good spirits, to differentiate them from those that are evil; this will be spoken of later. I confess that they are good, not so much for the goodness of their nature in which they continued, as for their operation or working; for they always stir up and further us to that which is good. I also confess that angels are spirits, that is to say, spiritual, heavenly, incorruptible, and exceedingly swift substances. For the scripture says and witnesses, "Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." Psa 104.4 The scripture, I say, terms angels spirits and a flame of fire — not that angels are corporal fire of their own nature and substance, but because fire in a way resembles those which in clearness, beauty, and incorruptibleness, and also in swiftness, quickness, and brightness, are the most beautiful and excellent creatures. The schoolmen's definitions say generally enough that the angels are bodily substances, but of their own kind; for God only is without body. In these words, they have thus set it down:

"Every creature is bodily; angels and all heavenly powers are bodily, even if they do not consist of flesh. Now, we believe that they are bodily by this: because they are limited in place, just as the soul also is, being clothed with flesh. (Angels perhaps today are more aptly said to be local or in place, not circumscriptively, but definitively [2379]). We must believe that nothing is bodiless and invisible by nature, except God; that is to say, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. God therefore is rightly believed to be bodiless, because he is in every place, and he fulfills and conserves all things; and therefore he is invisible to all creatures, because he is without body." [2380] This much from the schoolmen.

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But those bodies either of young men or old men, in which angels oftentimes appeared to the fathers, were not their proper or natural bodies, but were taken upon themselves, borrowed from elsewhere as it were — for a time and for the weakness of our capacity. And what manner of bodies those very same bodies were which they took, or where they were taken from, or where they were bestowed when they had ended their business, it is very hard to declare. St. Augustine, in his Enchiridion ad Laurent, cap. 59, says this:

"Who can declare with what manner bodies they have appeared to men, that they might not only be seen but touched, and again, convey certain visions — not with sound substance of flesh, but by spiritual power; not to the bodily eyes, but to the eyes of the spirit or mind; or to tell something, not outwardly in the ear, but inwardly in the mind of man. They may even be inward, as it is written in the book of the prophets, 'And the angel said to me, who spoke in me' (for he not only says who spoke to me, but in me;). Or they may appear even in one's sleep, and talk together with us in the manner of dreams. For we have in the gospel, 'Behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying,' etc. Mat 1.20 For by these means, angels declare as it were, that they do not have bodies which can be handled. And they raise a very hard question: how the fathers washed their feet; [2381] how Jacob by laying fast hold on him, wrestled with the angel.[2382] When these things come into question, and everyone gives his conjecture as he is able, their heads are not unfruitfully occupied, if a moderate disputation is taken in hand, and the error is removed of those who think they know what indeed they do not know. For what need is there, that these and similar things be affirmed or denied, or defined with danger, since without blame we may be ignorant of them?" [2383]

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In these and similar causes let us acknowledge his omnipotence and wonderful dispensation, who does what he will — to whom truly it is not hard to create substances fit and agreeable for his purpose and appointment, since he made all visible and invisible creatures out of nothing.

Moreover, we affirm that angels, through the grace and power of God, are incorruptible substances; yes, and unchangeable in their felicity, without burden and hindrances. For also St. Augustine says, ad Pet Diac. de Fide, cap. 23, "that unchangeableness was not by nature grafted into angels, but freely given by the grace of God." [2384] The same Augustine, De Vera Religione, cap. 13, says:

"We must confess that, if only God is unchangeable, then angels are changeable by nature; but in that will, with which they love God rather than themselves, they remain steadfast and stable in him, and they enjoy his majesty, being subject most willingly to him alone." [2385]

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These words agree with those in Augustine's Definit. Eccles., cap. 61, thus:

"The angelical powers, which continued steadfast in the love of God when the proud angels fell, received this by way of recompense: that from then on, they would never feel the fretting bite of the tooth of sin to seize them, and they would continually enjoy the sight of their Creator without an end of felicity — so created in him, that they would continue in everlasting steadfastness." [2386]

Truly the scripture, showing the incorruptibleness of angels, affirms that in the resurrection we will be like the angels; for we will rise incorruptible: therefore, angels are incorruptible. For thus says our Saviour:

"The children of this world marry wives, and are married: but those who will be counted worthy to enjoy that world, and the resurrection from the dead, do not marry wives, nor are they married, nor can they die anymore; for they are equal with the angels, and are the sons of God, insomuch as they are the children of the resurrection." Luk 20.34-36

Theodoret, In Divinis Decretis, has thus inferred from this:

"We do not therefore count the angels among the number of gods, as the poets and philosophers of the Grecians do; nor do we divide the natures of those who are without bodies, into male and female. For to an immortal nature that cannot die, division by kind is superfluous: for they have no need of increasing, since they feel no diminishing," etc. [2387]

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The scripture in many places declares that the angels are most free and swift, and without impediment, burden, and hindrance. Thus, in the Acts of the Apostles we read:

"The priests put the apostles in the common prison; but the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison-doors, and brought them out, and said, Go and stand and speak to the people in the temple, all the words of this life. But when the officers came, and found they were not in the prison, they returned and told, saying, Truly, we found the prison shut with all diligence, and the keepers standing outside, before the doors." Act 5.18-23

In the same book, we again read thus:

"Herod put Peter in prison; and Peter slept between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And behold the angel of the Lord was present there," or stood by him, "and a light shined in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side, and stirred him up, saying, Arise quickly; and his chains fell from his hands. And shortly, when they were past the first and second watch, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord." Act 12.6-10

Behold, no impediments or obstructions, however strong and mighty they were, hindered or stayed the angel of the Lord, that he might not execute most speedily the commission which he had from God. All things give place and make way to the Lord's ambassador. The iron chains fell from Peter's hands of their own accord; he walks safely through the thick troops of soldiers, the angel going before him; the lock of the prison-door, no man opening it, is unlocked; and when the servants of God had gone out, it is shut again. These angels, that is to say, these heavenly ambassadors, being of their own nature most swift and speedy spirits, are now resident in heaven, the power of God so willing and working. But as soon as it pleases the Lord of all, they are later present with men on earth, to whom they are sent by God from heaven. And they are present on earth, sometimes with one, and sometimes with another — not that they are not contained in their proper place. For when the angel told the women about Christ's resurrection, he was not at the same instant both in heaven and by the grave or sepulchre. For only God is not contained in place, for He is present in every place. But angels do not go forward fair and softly, nor are they moved by labour or toiling, in the manner of corruptible bodies.

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Yet in the scriptures they are expressly said to ascend into heaven, and from there to descend to us. Gen 28.12 We very rightly believe that our souls, as soon as they depart out of the bodies, immediately enter into the kingdom [2388] of heaven. For the Lord has said in the gospel, "But has escaped from death to life;" Joh 5.24 and, "Today you shall be with me in paradise." Luk 23.43 And you read of Lazarus the beggar: "And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." Luk 16.22 Now, to this also that saying of Daniel seems to belong: "As I was still speaking, making supplication, and confessing my own sin and the sin of my people Israel, and pouring forth my prayers before the Lord my God for the holy hill of my God; yes, while I was still speaking in my prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen before in the vision, came flying hastily to me." Dan 9.20-21 Look, our souls are carried up into heaven by the angels, which notwithstanding, are elsewhere said to be taken up into heaven in an instant. Afterward, as soon as Daniel had prayed to the Lord, the angel, without any further delay, flying speedily (for so the scripture says for our capacity,) is present with him, and shows him that he is heard by God. Angels therefore are swift and surpassing speedy, being kept down with no weight, nor hindered or stayed from performing those things for which they are sent from heaven; even though they are contained in place as creatures (though not limited), and are moved with a certain order and manner agreeable to that spiritual nature.

This treatise requires perhaps that something also be spoken about the might, power, and strength of the angels. But what need is there for many words in such a manifest matter? For since the Lord, who sends forth his angels, is almighty, there is nothing that angels cannot do in their embassages [2389] and ministries. There is nothing in the whole course of nature, that is able to withstand the ministers of the almighty God. For angels are not called powers and virtues for nothing. I will show one example among many, and yet not the chief. One angel in one night, without any furnishings or much ado, slew in the tents of the Assyrians, at the walls of Jerusalem, a hundred eighty-five thousand of the most valiant soldiers.2Kng 19.35

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In Daniel we have such a description of an angel, by which both the power and excellence of angels may be gathered. "His body," he says, "was like the Turkish or jasper stone, his face to look upon was like lightning, his eyes as lamps of fire, his arms and feet were like polished brass in colour, and the voice of his words was like the voice of a multitude." Dan 10.6 So that, it is not necessary to make a long discourse about the knowledge and wisdom of angels; for this is not a thing that surpasses our capacity, seeing that angels are creatures. But in what pertains to their embassages and ministries, surely they are most wise, in all points furnished, and in no part diminished. For He that sends them is everlasting wisdom itself, and he furnishes his ambassadors most perfectly.

Furthermore, touching the multitude and order of angels, certain divines have wittily and wisely enough disputed. The Scripture simply affirms that angels are innumerable. For Daniel says: "A thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand thousands stood before him." Dan 7.10 It is also read that Christ said to Peter: "Do you think that I cannot pray to my Father, and he shall send to me more than twelve legions of angels?" Mat 26.53 Paul also says: "You have come into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels." Heb 12.22 Many distinguish that innumerable multitude into nine companies; and these again they bring into three hierarchies or holy principalities, of which they affirm that each of them has three orders: the first, seraphim, cherubim, and thrones; the second, lordships, virtues, and powers; the third, principalities, archangels, and angels. They add how they differ between themselves, and what is proper to every one of them. But St. Augustine, in his Enchir. cap. 58, says: "Where lordships, principalities, and powers differ between themselves, let those who can, tell us — if they are yet able to prove what they say. I confess myself to be ignorant of these matters." [2390]

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And the same Augustine says, Ad Orosium contra Luscillianistas:

"Truly the apostle says, 'whether seats (thrones), whether lordships, whether principalities, whether powers...' Col 1.16 And therefore I steadfastly believe that there are seats, lordships, principalities, and powers in the hosts of heaven; and I hold it as an undoubted truth, that they differ somewhat between themselves. But what they are, and how they differ between themselves, I do not know. Nor truly do I think myself endangered for my ignorance of it, as I am for disobedience if I neglect the Lord's commandments." [2391]

And shortly after, in the same place, he shows that we must not busily and curiously search after these things. We willingly obey his counsel, perceiving that the scriptures, which minister to us all things necessary and healthful, have set down nothing concerning them.

Yet this we cannot deny: that those terms (or if you will so call them, orders of angels) are expressed in the holy scriptures. For this reason, and for our weakness, it is fitting in a way, to expound them as we may. These blessed spirits of heaven seem generally and simply to be called angels, because they are the messengers and ambassadors of the most high God. It appears they are called archangels, when they are sent with a message in God's greatest matters, to show or do things that are altogether hard and heavenly. For so we read in Paul, that "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God." 1The 4.16 That we may compare small things with great, we see that kings and princes in weighty affairs appoint none but noblemen to be their ambassadors. It appears that they are called thrones, because they always stand at the throne of God; or else, as we read in the prophets, it is because God had made and placed his own seat with angels, to be carried by them as if it were in the coach of a king.

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As David says: "He bowed the heavens and came down, and there was darkness under his feet. He rode upon the cherubims," or was carried upon the cherubims, "and flew: he came flying upon the wings of the wind." Psa 18.9-10 Furthermore, the description of the chariot and throne of God in Ezekiel is known. Eze 10 They seem to be called lordships, principalities, and powers, because God executes his government, and exercises his own power in the world, by the ministry of angels. For so too they are called powers and armies, or the host of heaven: for they encompass the Lord as his guard; and he who is called the God of Sabaoth, or of hosts, the Lord, I say, of all angels, spirits, and creatures, whose ministry he uses when, where, how, and as much as it pleases him, also uses them as his soldiers. St. Jerome thinks they are called cherubims, from their exceeding knowledge.[2392] Others expound them from swift. Seraphims have their name from ferventness; or because they are compared to most pure and clear fire; or because they are burning in the love of God.

By these names, in the meanwhile, are shadowed the manifold offices and diverse operations of angels; being desirous to comprehend these in few words, we have said that angels are created by God for the ministry of God himself and men. For David said: "Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." Psa 104.4 And again in another place: "praise the Lord, all you angels of his; you that excel in strength, you that fulfil his commandments, and hearken to the voice of his words. O praise you the Lord, all you hosts; you servants of his, that do his pleasure." Psa 103.20 And Paul also says of angels: "Are they not all ministering spirits, who are sent out into the ministry for the sakes of those who will be heirs of salvation?" Heb 1.14 But God uses the ministry of angels out of no necessity, but of his own good-will.

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For he might be without them, since by his own word [2393] he brings to pass what he will: "For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created;" Psa 33.9 not one of all the angels jointly working with him. So today also, he is able without the help of angels, to bring to pass what he will. But because of his special goodness, he created them to partake of everlasting life and salvation. He uses their ministry toward us, as he also uses the service of other creatures, to whom they declare their faith and obedience toward God. And God exercises his unspeakable good-will both toward those whom by grace he has made partakers of everlasting joy, and also toward us, whom he has granted to honour with the service of so excellent a company. For among other countless benefits, and the greatest benefits of God, at which we are astonished (not without cause), this is not to be accounted the least: that he has given us angels to be our servants. Truly this is an exceeding great token of his fatherly care and regard toward us; especially because he frames himself so sweetly to our capacities and dispositions.

In times past, the Lord spoke with his own mouth at mount Sinai, to the church or congregation of the Israelites. But when he understood that they would rather He speak by their interpreter Moses, he took their wish and offer, and afterward spoke by Moses, using his ministry toward them. [2394] Truly, God is able to pour most perfect faith into our minds by his Holy Spirit without any joint working of men. But because he knew it was profitable for us that it should be so, he instituted the ministry of his word; and he implants the faith of the apostles by the preaching of the gospel. And once that ordinance is made, he so precisely observes it that, when he might have done the same thing by angels, yet (by the angels) he sends those who are to be instructed in the faith, to the apostles. For it is manifest what the angel of the Lord did with Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles. He sent him to the preaching of Peter. [2395] Therefore, when God sees that the ministry of angels is convenient for us, out of His good-will, and upon no necessity, He uses their ministry toward men.

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And doubtless angels love men exceedingly; and what they do, they do of their own accord, not under constraint or unwillingly. For they cannot but exceedingly love those whom they see to be so dear to their Creator, and that for their sakes he did not spare his only-begotten Son, but delivered him up into most bitter death for them. I make no mention here of the most ready obedience which they perform to their God, who wills and commands them to serve him and men. The Lord in the gospel witnesses that "the angels in heaven rejoice at the conversion and turning of men who are sinners." Luk 15.10

In Zechariah, the angel of the Lord is brought in very sorrowful for the misery of the captives in Babylon, and full of care for their deliverance from their captivity. All these things commend to us the love and affection of angels toward mankind. For otherwise, those blessed spirits are not moved with affections, care or sorrow, as we are in the flesh; but they are glad, and they rejoice as blessed spirits can rejoice, in whom there is no human affection. Such affections nevertheless are not only attributed to them, but to God himself, tropically [2396] or by a figure, and as they say anqrwpopaqwv (anthropo-pathos), that is, according to the affection of man, to the end that our minds may better understand and more easily conceive spiritual and heavenly things by parables. Even so, let us not think that parables always contain all things: therefore our minds must be lifted up to higher things, and spiritual things must be spiritually judged.

The ministry of angels extends very far; which I will declare by reciting certain kinds of them as briefly and as plainly as I can.

First, they do service to God himself in all things; which I think is sufficiently declared in what was said before. They all magnify God together, with everlasting praises, worshipping, glorifying, and rejoicing in him. For Theodoret, repeating certain testimonies of scriptures concerning this matter, says:

"The ministry or service of angels is the praising of God, and the singing of hymns or songs. For the holy prophet Isaiah says of the seraphim, that they cried and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of his glory.' Isa 6.2-3 And of the cherubim, the heavenly prophet Ezekiel says that he heard them saying, 'Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place.' " [2397]

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The whole host of heaven also sings a birth-song to Christ their prince, when he was born, as seen in St. Luke, saying: "Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, and among men good-will." Luk 2.14 So they go before them, with an example for men to follow, teaching what they too should do; that is, offer praise and thanksgiving to God on high, whom the angels also reverence and worship with us.

Moreover, the angels love the truth, and desire to have it spread abroad, and the glory of God furthered by all means; and therefore they lay blocks in the way of false prophets, hating them with their accursed doctrine and antichrist. For St. Peter testifies that the angels desire to behold the gospel of the Son of God.[2398] In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, made to John the apostle, the angel of the Lord binds Satan; Rev 20.2 and the angels, furthering the gospel of Christ,[2399] set themselves everywhere against false Christians and false teachers. For even at the end of the world, "the Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into a furnace of fire." Mat 13.41-42 They themselves stand in the presence of the Almighty God, awaiting his commandment. As soon as he commands them to go and execute his commandments, they make speed. Therefore, they come to men to declare the will and commandments of God. So the angel Gabriel came first to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist; afterward he came to the blessed virgin, to show her the incarnation of the Son of God. Innumerable examples of this kind are found everywhere in the holy scriptures.

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They watch for our safety, being careful for us, and yet without molestation — which I told you about before. They notify the faithful in convenient time, foreshowing dangers to come; and they also comfort the afflicted. For the wise men, being warned by the angel that they should not return to Jerusalem and to Herod, avoid great peril. Joseph also being commanded by the angel, flees into Egypt, delivering the Christ or anointed of the Lord [2400] out of the bloody hands of Herod. Christ also, at the mount of Olivet, being in a bloody sweat, is comforted by the angel. Luk 22.43-44 And Hagar, the handmaid of Sarah, being in extreme danger, is refreshed by the consolation of an angel. Gen 21.17 Also the apostle St. Paul, being very near shipwreck, hears this voice of the angel of the Lord: "Fear not, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar: and look, God has given you all those who sail with you." Act 27.24

Again, angels are sent for revenge on mischievous persons; I mean, to punishment those who are wicked and impenitent. For the first-born of the Egyptians are struck by the angel. Exo 12.23, 29 In the Acts of the Apostles, the angel of the Lord strikes Herod Agrippa. Act 12.23 It is said that, in the camp of the Assyrians, many were struck and slain by one angel. And David saw an angel with a sword drawn hovering between heaven and earth, afflicting the people with a most grievous plague. 1Chr 21.16 So we believe that the holy angels will come with the Son of man to judgment; as Paul witnesses and says: "Our Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven, with the angels of his power, in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to those who do not know God, and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2The 1.7-8 For in the Revelation of Jesus Christ also, the angels pour out vials full of the wrath of God Rev 16.1 upon the heads of false Christians.[2401]

Moreover, they take upon themselves the charge and defence of us, God so commanding. They are our keepers, ready at hand, watching over us so that no adversity happens to us, and guide our ways. For to this belong the testimonies of the Psalms, and very many examples of the scripture. David says: "This poor (or afflicted) man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord pitches his tents round about those who fear him, and delivers them." Psa 34.6-7

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And in another psalm he says:

"No evil shall come to you, nor shall any plague come near your tabernacle (or dwelling). For he will give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. They will bear you in their hands, that you not hurt your foot against a stone. You shall go (or walk) on the lion and adder (or asp); you shall tread the young lion and the dragon under your feet." Psa 91.10

And the Lord plainly says in the gospel, that without doubt, little children have angels as their keepers. Mat 18.10 Jacob the patriarch, greatly fearing his brother Esau, sees angels coming to meet him; and understands that angels were given to him as guides and to keep him on his way against the fierceness of his brother. Gen 32.1 In the affairs of Elisha we read that the king of Syria besieged the city Dothan with a great host, in which Elisha led his life at that time, whom the king had purposed to take. When the servant of Elisha perceived that, and was troubled in mind, and lamented his master's case, Elisha said, "Do not fear; for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." The prophet also prayed and said, "Lord, I beseech you, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he looked, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and fiery chariots;" 2Kng 6.12-17 that is to say, he was armed and defended with the guard of a host of angels. Abraham also says to his servant: "The Lord God of heaven, who said to me, I will give this land to your seed, he shall send his angel before you," Gen 24.7 namely, to direct your way, to defend you, and bring it to pass, that you may obtain your desire. For the Lord himself said to Moses in Exodus: "Behold, I will send my angel before you, to keep you in the way, and to lead you to the place that I have prepared." Exo 23.20 In the Acts of the Apostles you often read that angels served the apostles, furthered their purpose, and defended them against their adversaries.

In Daniel, angels are introduced for princes, and presidents or governors of kingdoms: such as Michael with Gabriel, princes of the Israelite kingdom; another of the Persian kingdom; another of the Grecian kingdom; and each of them debate the matter touching his own kingdom, and fight for it. Dan 10.5 ff Not that there is any variance or disagreement in heaven, where doubtless there is plentiful peace, everlasting concord and quietness.

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Nor that there are conflicts or battles fought between the angels, as there are between those gods whom the poet Homer describes. But by parable and allusion, heaven is compared to the court of some powerful and renowned prince, where ambassadors of various countries debate their diverse causes. This is done in consideration of our weak wit and slender capacity. For thus we ought to conceive in our mind: that God, who is the only Lord of all kingdoms, hears all men's suits, and takes in hand all men's matters; and that angels, at the word and will of God, minister to and serve God, when it pleases him to use their ministry and service. For so Nebuchadnezzar, also in a vision, saw a watchman coming down from heaven, and foretelling the destiny of the tree that was to be cut down.

Nevertheless we must take heed here lest, contrary to the nature of true religion, we attribute too much to angels. We must take heed that we not worship them; that we not call upon them, nor serve them. Indeed, when men hear that angels are given to them by God as ministers, and that God does good to us by them, they later think that some honour is to be ascribed and given to them. But sincere religion teaches us to acknowledge God as the author of all good things; that the angels are the ministers of God, and instruments as it were, by whom God works — just as we see the sun, the moon, and the stars, the patriarchs, the prophets, and the apostles, to be and to have been. But who in his right mind has worshipped, called upon, or served, the sun or the stars, even though they are very excellent creatures, and beneficial to men? And I ask you, what partaker of true faith and belief has worshipped, called upon, or served the patriarchs, the prophets, and the apostles, even though they were endued with most precious gifts, and wonderful in working miracles? We all worship, call upon, and serve God; and we confess that God — who works by his saints, together with the holy angels of God — requires nothing less than to be worshipped, called upon, and served by us. For Lactantius truly said:

"Angels, since they are immortal, neither allow nor yet are willing to be called gods: whose only office is to attend upon God with their service, to be at his beckoning, and to do nothing at all but at his commandment.

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For we say that God so governs the world, as a king rules his kingdom — whose officers no man would say are fellows with him in ruling his kingdom, even though his affairs are dispatched by their ministry and service." [2402]

And thus we read that St. Augustine also said: "When the angels of God hear, he himself hears in them, as in his true temple not made with hands." [2403] Truly, if we look more narrowly into and weigh the holy scripture, we will find in more than one or two places that the name of God and angels are set down without difference. For angels are more distant causes, yet they are instrumental, as they term them; but God is the nearest and most principal cause. For in the Acts of the Apostles we read that Stephen said, "And when forty years had expired, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai." Act 7.30 And then he adds, "And the voice of the Lord came to him saying, I am the God of your father," etc. Act 7.32 He calls the self-same Lord, whom he had called an angel a little before: namely, because he believed that an angel both says and does all things at God's commandment; that the word and the work is proper to God, and the angels are like instruments. Likewise in the book of Judges, chapter 6, he is called Lord, who just now had been called an angel. Jdg 6.11-13 Hagar, the hand-maid of Sarah, received a great benefit in the desert by the angel of the Lord; yet she does not account it as received from the angel, but from the Lord: she does not give thanks to the angel, nor does she consecrate the memory of it to the angel; much less does she worship and call upon the angel; no, she rather refers her speech to God. For so the holy scripture witnesses: "And she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, you God look on me," etc. Gen 16.13 The children of Israel, before whom the angel of the Lord went in the wilderness, never offered sacrifice to their guide or captain, never worshipped or served him.

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So too, the servant of Abraham, being committed to the angel, does not make supplication to him, desiring him to prosper his purpose; but he prays to God, and asks him to reveal and test his mercy toward his master Abraham. Gen 24.10-14 In Daniel, the angel of the Lord appears walking among Daniel's fellows who were cast into the burning oven; but when they were delivered from the violence of the flame, they do not praise the angel, nor do they account the benefit of their delivery as received from him, but from God only: for they sing, "Blessed are you, O Lord God of our fathers; right worthy to be praised and honoured in that name of yours forevermore.[2404] In like manner, Paul confesses in express words, that it is God to whom he belongs, and whom he worships; though meanwhile he had mentioned an angel. For so he says in the Acts: "There stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve," that is to say, God. For in another place, John wanted to worship at the angel's feet, but the angel cries, "See that you do not do it; for I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book." Rev 22.9 These plain and manifest testimonies of holy scripture evidently teach us that although God uses the ministry of angels toward us, yet they are to be acknowledged and confessed by us to be ministers of God and fellow-servants; and therefore they are not to be worshipped or called upon, but God only must be worshipped, called upon, and served.

From this holy doctrine of scripture, certain ministers and ecclesiastical writers of the ancient church have not swerved. For in that book which we cited a little earlier, Lactantius says: "Angels will have no honour given to them, whose honour is in God. But those who revolted and fell from the ministry of God, because they are enemies of the truth and offenders, they go about claiming for themselves the name of God and the worship of gods." [2405]

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And now, St. Augustine, being of the same judgment in this matter, has left this written:

"Whom might I find" (he says, speaking to God) "to reconcile me to you? What, should I go to angels? With what prayer, with what vows? Many endeavouring to return to you, and not being able to do that by themselves, have assayed [2406] (as I hear) these ways, and have fallen into a desire and longing after curious visions, and are counted worthy to be deceived." [2407]

These things are extant in Lib. x. Confess, cap. 42. After this, he shows at large that Jesus Christ is the only Mediator and Intercessor for all the faithful. The same Augustine, in his tenth book de Civitate Dei, cap. 16, declares in many words, that the good angels of God do not require sacrifices for themselves but for God. [2408] In the last chapter of his book de Vera Religione, he says:

"Let us believe that the best angels will that God be served with the best and most excellent ministry; that together with them, we should worship one God, in the contemplation and beholding of whom they are blessed. For we are not blessed by seeing the angels, but by seeing the truth — by which we also love the angels, and rejoice together with them. This is why we honour them — for love, and not out of duty. Nor do we build temples to them; for they are unwilling to be honoured by us in such a way: because they know that we ourselves, if we are good, are the temples of the most high God. It is well written, therefore, that an angel forbade a man to worship him, but wanted him to worship one God only, under whom he also was a fellow-servant with him." [2409]

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The same Augustine, in his catalogue of heretics, therefore reckons worshippers of angels among heretics, naming them angelici, angel-worshippers. [2410] For in his disputation against Maximinus, bishop of the Arians, Lib. i., proving the Holy Ghost to be God, he manifestly calls worshippers of angels "sacrilegious persons," cursed by Christ and his church. The words of the author, if anyone requires them, are these:

"If we were to make a temple of wood and stone to the holy angel, [2411] that is most excellent, would we not be accursed by the truth of Christ and the church of God, because we do that service to a creature, which is due only to one God? If therefore, by building a temple to any kind of creature, we rob God of his honour, how is He not the true God to whom we do not build a temple, but we ourselves are his temple?" [2412] Thus says Augustine.

Up to here I have briefly said these things about the holy or good angels of God. Now I pass on to discourse about evil spirits, I mean wicked and revolting angels — that is to say, of evil spirits, or devils. I will briefly and plainly say of this, what the holy scriptures minister to me.

The Sadducees in times past denied that there are devils; and today, some who are scarcely religious, no indeed, rather epicures, also deny this. [2413] Unless they repent, they will one day feel to their exceeding great pain and smart, both that there are devils, and that they are tormentors and executioners of all wicked men and epicures. For the whole scripture, and all godly and wise men — as many as have lived from the beginning of the world even to this day — have confessed that there are evil spirits or devils.

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Now, what devils are, is no less hard and doubtful to exactly define by reason, than I said it was difficult to fully describe the nature of angels. However, I will shadow them by one kind of description or another, to the end that I may treat them in a certain order. Evil angels are corrupt and wicked spirits; and for their revolting or falling away, they are everlastingly condemned. They are indeed to subject God, yet they are nevertheless adversaries to God and men, for they turn all their travails and studies toward the contempt and despising of God, and to the deceiving and destruction of men.

First, it is manifest that the devil is a creature, because there is but one creator only, namely, God in Trinity and Unity. He created all spirits; and the devil is also reckoned among spirits. We said before [2414] that the time of their creation is not set down in the scripture, when we showed that it was nowhere expressed at what time angels were created, whether before man or after man. To this we now add that evil angels became evil, not by creation, but by their own revolting and falling away. For all things which God created were and are exceeding good; all angels were therefore, in like manner as men, naturally created good. But they did not continue steadfast in this goodness granted, given, and grafted in them by God. Rather, they fell from heaven, being corrupt with their own malice, as men also are; and by the most just God, they were thrown out of heaven, and out of the felicity or happiness which was given to them. Now when or at what time this was done, again the scripture does not express. However, it seems to have been done before the fall of man; for the devil egged our parents to sin by the serpent, and he drew them into misery and death. Gen 3.1 Neither does the scripture particularly define what manner of sin the devil's was; nor does it expressly and particularly show how they were cast out of heaven. It says generally, that there was folly or wickedness found in the angels, and they were therefore thrown down headlong into hell. For we read in the book of Job: "Behold, He found no truth in his servants, [2415] and there was folly (or wickedness) in his angels. Job 4.18

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St. Peter, not disagreeing with this, said, "God did not spare the angels which sinned, but cast them down into hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be kept until judgment." 2Pet 2.4 And Jude also, the brother of James, the apostle of the Lord (surnamed Thaddeus), recited the same sentence in a way: "The angels which did not keep their first estate (namely, the nature in which they were created), but left their own habitation (namely, their station, their office, and their faith) the Lord has reserved in everlasting chains unto darkness, [2416] until the judgment of the great day." Look, our Lord and Saviour Christ, speaking of the devil, says this: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not abide in the truth." Joh 8.44 From this we may gather that the devil at some time abided or was in the truth; but he shrunk back and forsook it by faithlessly falling away.

Those testimonies, which witness that an angel sinned by revolting, and was thrown down headlong into hell, are sufficient for godly minds and those are not given to doubt. Furthermore, there are testimonies recited by others, from Isaiah [2417] and Ezekiel, [2418] which support the same thing. We do not reject these, and we do not doubt that by allegory, they may be applied to these of ours. What is alleged out of Luke, "I saw Satan as it had been lightning falling down from heaven," Luk 10.8 is not so properly expounded about the first fall of angels. For there is another fall of the devil — namely, that by which he fell from his own tyranny (whereby he had possessed the minds of men, and ensnared them with wickedness and sin). This fall came through Christ's coming into the world, and through the sincere preaching of the gospel. Now there is no doubt that all angels were created good, and that the evil ones fell through their own fault and folly, and not through God's.

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I also spoke of this somewhat in the tenth sermon of the third decade, where I treated the beginning of sin.[2419] To this I will now add the most notable and evident declaration of Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, taken out of the secrets of the scriptures, who says in his Epitome Divin. Decret.:

"Let us consider whether the devils justly suffer punishment, since they received it from Him who made them a nature like his. And how can he which is good be called the creator of wickedness? And how is he righteous and just, who punishes the nature, who can do nothing that is good, but is tied and bound with fetters of wickedness and vice? But we know that the God of all things, and the fountain of justice and righteousness, is righteous and just. Therefore he would not punish the devils unjustly. And we know that God was their guide and captain, and that the good angels are his workmanship, and that he is called good, by all who are right-minded. He therefore did not make that nature which could do nothing that is good, travailing and bringing forth only wickedness, and doing things contrary to His will and mind. If God therefore neither made the evil nature (for he is the maker and worker of all good things, as he himself is good), then not so much as once does he think to punish unjustly. For he is just and the lawgiver of justice or righteousness, and He will punish the devil and all those who serve and are under him. Therefore, the devil is evil of his own will and accord, and also those who take his part. For God made man good in the beginning, and with free will of mind, these doubtless (namely, good angels) kept their nature which they received pure and uncorrupt; but those (namely, men) declined and fell into the worse, and corrupted their heavenly shapes; and those who were like God made themselves brutish. So too, the devil and rout of devils, with other bodiless creatures, did not follow the good will of the good angels toward the Lord God; but being puffed up with the disease of haughtiness and pride, they took themselves to what was worse, and fell from their former state and condition." [2420] This far from Theodoret.

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St. Augustine agrees with Theodoret, in his book entitled de Vera Rel. cap. xiii. saying: "The devil is not evil inasmuch as he is an angel, but inasmuch as he is perverse and wicked of his will. For setting more by himself than by God, he would not be in subjection to Him, but, swelling through pride, he fell from his chief essence and excellent being." [2421] And again, in his treatise upon Job 42: "Do you demand to know where the devil is from? From where the other angels are also from. But the other angels continued constantly in their obedience; and by disobedience and pride, he fell from being an angel and became a devil." [2422]

Now, what I affirmed touching those wicked spirits who for their revolting and falling away are adjudged to damnation, I see it denied by some. They promise condemned spirits will be redeemed from their punishments a little before the judgment-day. But very many doctors of the church have disputed against these, all and every one of them condemning with one voice an opinion which the scriptures long ago condemned.

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For the judge at the end of the world, pronouncing definitive sentence against Satan and all the wicked, will say: "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels." Mat 25.41 And shortly, the apostle and holy evangelist, a witness of the truth, adds this: "And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life everlasting." Mat 25.46 For in Mark the Lord also said: "In hell their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched." Mar 9.46 And John says in more plain and pithy words: "Those who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation." Joh 5.29 He does not say they will go either into life or into condemnation, but into the resurrection either of life or condemnation — that is, to remain everlastingly in life or death. For Daniel, from whom the Lord borrowed these words, has said: "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting life, and some to shame and perpetual contempt." Dan 12.2 For John the apostle says that the smoke of those that are condemned and thrown headlong into hell forevermore shall ascend up. Rev 14.11 It is certain, therefore, that the condemnation of the wicked will be altogether without end and everlasting.

Furthermore, in calling the revolting angels spirits, we do not understand by "spirit" the wicked affection of the heart, or the quality or passion of the mind, or corruption and sin. For the world is not without some who think the devil is nothing more than a mischievous man, or a mischievous and sinful commotion or outrage of the mind. [2423] By spirits we therefore understand spiritual substances, endued with feeling and understanding. For in the first chapter of Job, Satan came and showed himself among the children (or servants) of God, speaking with the Lord. The gospel also reports to us, that devils, being cast out of a man, entered into the herd of swine, and drowned them in the depth of the sea or lake of Gadarene. [2424] Moreover, the gospel records that the devil sinned from the beginning, that he did not continue in the truth, that he is a liar and a murderer. Joh 8.44 Jude mentions that the angel fought with the devil. Jud 1.9 In Mark, the devils cry out and say: "What have we to do with you, you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?" Mar 1.24

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Yet for all that, our Saviour, being already appointed and made judge, will say to the devils: "Go into the everlasting fire." All these testimonies agree to substances subsisting by themselves, and not to qualities. Devils are therefore spiritual substances. But what bodies they often take, and in which they appear to men, I think no man can perfectly tell. We told also told you this a little earlier, when we treated the bodies which good angels took. For truly, the history of Samuel being raised by a witch, manifestly proves that devils put on bodies and shapes differing from their own. 1Sam 28.8 It was not Samuel that was raised from the dead, but the chief-coiner of lies; counterfeiting Samuel, he deceived king Saul. [2425] And Paul witnesses that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. 2Cor 11.4 Histories also declare that the devil is a marvellous juggling [2426] deceiver, in taking on diverse forms and shapes.

And as I said about good angels, that they are speedy in their ministry, without burden or hindrances; so there is no doubt that devils in their kind and work, are well-prepared. For the scriptures declare that they have a thousand shifts, wonderful craftiness and subtlety, and that their knowledge is surpassing quick and reaches very far; finally, that they are very ready and never weary to attempt and perform all things. They pass through the whole world with exceeding swiftness, they handle all their matters very craftily; and therefore marvellous names are allotted to them, shadowing out their force and power. For he is called "Satan the old serpent, a deceiver, the prince of this world, the prince of darkness, who has power over the air, a roaring lion." [2427] Of these and others not unlike it, I will speak more at large shortly, when I have first told you this: that there are an infinite throng of devils. For seven devils are cast out of Mary Magdalen. Mar 16.9 That devil, of whom Matthew speaks, no sooner being cast out, muses and consults how he may be wholly restored again, taking with him seven other spirits worse than himself. Mat 12.45 Moreover, in Mark's gospel mention is made of a legion — for the unclean spirit, being asked by the Lord what his name was, answered, "My name is legion, because we are many." Mar 5.9

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Therefore, when mention is made of Satan elsewhere in holy scripture, it is not to be taken as though there were but one substance or person of the devil; for they are comprehended as the members under the head, and as particularities under generalities. Elsewhere the scripture truly mentions the prince of the devils; for the enemies of Christ often cry out: "He casts out devils by the prince of devils." Mat 9.34 DRA Yet that saying does not express what manner of principality that is, and whether those evil spirits are distinguished orderly among themselves. And it is certain that all the ungodly are under one head, as all the godly are under one Christ the Lord. It is certain that all the devils are of the self-same corrupt will, bending all their force only to this end: to be adversaries of God and hurtful enemies of men. But I will speak of the operations, works, or effects of devils where I expound, by the way, their names or attributes.

Corrupt and wicked spirits generally are called devils, which is the same as saying slanderers or false accusers. For diabolh (diabole) with the Greeks signifies slander, etc.; and the word devil is fetched from the Grecians. [2428] For he sows slanders by accusing men to God, and in setting men at variance between themselves. Now, I say nothing about how he goes about bringing God and his works into suspicion among men. Therefore, he is elsewhere called a liar, and the author of lies, and the father of all hypocrites; and thus the spring of all errors, heresies, and wickednesses. And because Judas was a hypocrite, a liar, a false accuser, and traitor, the Lord rightly gave him the name of a devil. Joh 6.70

The apostle Peter called the devil an adversary. 1Pet 5.8 For the Lord himself also called him, "The envious man," [2429] who sowed tares in the Lord's field. Mat 13.25f For he is the enemy of God and men, setting himself against the will of God, whose glory also he labours to take away, and hinders the salvation of men, and sows infinite offences in the Church of God. And truly the Hebrews call him Satan, whom we call an adversary. Mat 4.10 That word is translated to men. For in Peter setting himself against the counsel and purpose of God, he hears this voice of the Lord: "Get behind me, Satan." Mat 16.23 And David also said to his nephew [2430] Abishai, the son of Zeruia: "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruia, that today you should be adversaries to me?" 2Sam 19.22 For Abishai challenged the counsel and decree of David.

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The devil is called daemon, meaning knowing, crafty, and cunning in many things — apo tou daiw (apo tou daioo), which signifies, I know. Plato in Cratylo, according to the opinion of Hesiodus, thinks that devils, whom we commonly call daemons, were named dahmonav (daemonas), to signify wise, prudent, and knowing.[2431] The word serpent must be referred to this. "The serpent," says the scripture, "was subtler than all the beasts of the field." Therefore the devil chose the serpent to be his dwelling-place, by whom he might put his guileful devises into practice and deceive our first parents. For he is called the deceiver, the beguiler, and seducer of the world, the old serpent and dragon. For whatever seducing there is in the world, whatever wicked devices and deceitful practices, they flow from this one fountain: from all his mischief. In secular writers, this word is used in a far contrary signification. For in Plato, Socrates says: "I affirm that every man is daemon, that is to say, wise; and whoever is good, he is daemoniacus, that is to say, wise and happy, both alive and dead." [2432] Therefore it is used often and very much by Homer, to adorn noble personages with this name.[2433] But in the history of the gospel, daemoniaci are those who are possessed with a devil. In his first Epistle to Timothy, Paul reduces and draws to this head, the whole body of deceits and doctrines that are coloured with a show of false wisdom. 1Tim 4.1

St. Peter says: "Be sober and watch, for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist steadfastly in faith." 1Pet 5.8 By the lion, he shadows to us the nature or disposition of the devil; for the devil has exceeding great strength; he is full of greedy ravening and most cruel fierceness, for which he is also called by some a cruel beast. The Lord calls him a murderer: Joh 8.44 for he inspired into Cain and all manslayers, horrible murders; and today too he sounds the alarm to all wars, to all broiling battles, to all slaughters and seditions.

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To be short, he kindles wrath, he sows hatred, and nourishes envy. He is named "a tempter," for he is always egging men to mischief, sparing nothing whatever that he thinks can entice and draw us to things that are most wicked.

In the history of the gospel, and in the writings of the apostles, the devil has well-nigh [2434] the name of an unclean spirit, of a mischievous or malignant, of a filthy and wicked spirit. For he did not fall from his pureness only through his own fault, in which he was first created by the most pure God; but even now also, he is delighted with impureness, and allures all men to uncleanness. From this master of mischief proceed all filthy lusts, all whoredoms, adulteries, all excess, drunkenness and surfeiting, all beastliness and vanity, pride and arrogance, etc.

Now the devil is also called Beelzebub in the gospel, because sometimes those of Ekron in Palestine, thinking they worshipped God, worshipped indeed the devil. St. Paul says: "What agreement has Christ with Belial?" 2Cor 6.15 He sets Belial against Christ, namely, the devil against God. But Moses put cogitation about Belial as a wicked and evil thought. [2435] Therefore the devil is wicked and ungodly, rebellious and obstinate against God. For they say that Belial signifies the same as lawless, without yoke and without discipline. There are also some who think that in the Book of Job, the devil is figured or signified by Behemoth and Leviathan. Job chapters 40 and 41.

St. Paul gives the devils diverse names, saying, that the godly battles "against principalities and powers, against worldly governors of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly (places), against the governor that rules in the air, against the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience." [2436] In another place, he also calls him "the god of this world." 2Cor 4.4

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God exercises his power in the world and in the good, for the most part by good angels; and for that reason, I said, they are called principalities and powers. And the same God, of his just judgment, allows the devil to rule over the wicked; and for that reason, those devils are also rightly called principalities and powers. It is not that God delivers to the devil the bare and chief rule (for all power belongs to God only), but because He allows him to execute his tyranny. For He plainly says that the devil is the "prince of the world," namely, of the wicked. For by interpretation it follows, "He is the prince of the darkness of this world;" Eph 6.12 and who does not know that in the scriptures, darkness signifies ignorance, blindness, unbelief, ungodliness, and wickedness — to be short, ungodly men who are drowned in these vices? And again, there is added that which declares the true meaning: "Which works in the children of disobedience." Eph 2.2 Therefore, the faithful and obedient, who are in the kingdom of Christ and not in the kingdom of the devil, are exempted from this rule and government.

Nor is Satan called "god" on any other consideration; for there is added, "of this world." 2Cor 4.4 Indeed, the devil is not a god; but because certain madmen are found in the world, who take him for god, he has the name of God. The blessed father Augustine expounded this in no other way; for in his treatise on John 12 he says: "God forbid that we should think the devil is called the prince of the world, that we might believe he is able to rule over heaven and earth. But 'the world' (for he is called the prince of this world) is said to be in wicked men, who are dispersed throughout the whole compass of the earth." [2437] And again, the same Augustine says in his first chapter of de Agone Christiano:

"The prince of this world is cast out; Joh 12.31 not that he is cast out of the world, but out of the minds of those who cling to the word of God, and do not love the world of which he is prince; because he has dominion over those who love temporal goods which are contained in this visible world. It is not that he is lord of this world, but prince of those concupiscences by which everything that is transitory is coveted. By this concupiscence, the devil reigns in man, and holds man's heart in possession." [2438]

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The same doctor, in his treatise on John 12, asks the question, "Whether Satan was not cast out of the minds of the prophets and patriarchs, since it is reported in the gospel that he is cast out by Christ?" And Augustine answers:

"Truly, he is quite cast out. How is it therefore said that he shall now be cast out? How, we think, is because that which came to pass in very few men, is now foretold that it will shortly come to pass in many and mighty people. This is like that statement, 'But the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.' May it not have a similar question and answer? For the abundance of spiritual grace was not yet given, which afterward was indeed given." [2439]

Furthermore, when the apostle says, that "we fight against spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places," Eph 6.12 by "heavenly" he does not mean heavenly joys, placing the devils in heaven again; but the air, that is, the lower part of the world, yes, and the world itself. For he says elsewhere: "According to the spirit that rules in the air." Eph 2.2 And truly, the princes of this world are in the air — above, beneath, and about us — assaulting us on every side.

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Otherwise, neither heaven nor the lower region of the air is subject to the rule of devils, that they may do what they will in it, or abuse it as they wish; but only so far as God permits, of his just judgment. For in this disputation we must always hold for a confessed and undoubted truth: that our Lord God is king and governor of all creatures, and that he still keeps his dominion over all creatures, and exercises it in a most just and equal manner.

And although it might be gathered out of all these things, how great the devil's rule is and what manner of operation it is, I will add something more to this, lest anything seem to be lacking in this matter. In the description of the devil, I drew into two heads all of his effects, works, or operations. For devils are adversaries to God and enemies to men — whose whole endeavours and drifts, tend to the despising of God, and to the deceiving and destruction of men. The sum is therefore this: They bend all their force to the contempt of God and the destruction of men. And we have heard once or twice already, that their power to hurt is not small, and their understanding is also quick to bring all their purposes to effect. There is no reason why any man should doubt that they have a will to do hurt. For the Lord said to his disciples in the gospel: "Behold, Satan has earnestly desired to sift you like wheat." Luk 22.31 And again: Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation." Mat 26.41 And St. Peter says: "Your adversary, as a roaring lion, ranges up and down, seeking whom he may devour." 1Pet 5.8 And the scripture everywhere testifies that he stands against God, and questions God with continual labour, and stirs up all creatures to hate and despise God. He wickedly instilled into the minds of our first parents, an opinion that was altogether unworthy of God, as though he maliciously envied their blessed state. For the devil said by the serpent: "Has God said you shall not eat of that tree?" Gen 3.1 And immediately: "You will not die the death. For God knows that the same day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be as gods, knowing good and evil." Gen 3.4-5 When they gave credit to these deceitful words, they themselves perished, and drew with them the whole world into ruin and destruction. Nor today, truly, does the devil cease to slander and speak evil of God himself, as well as his works, with the intent that he might draw us together with him into hating God, into distrust and desperation, and to everlasting destruction; for he envies us our salvation to which we are ordained by Christ. But it is better to speak somewhat more distinctly about this thing.

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Satan hurts men in their minds, in their bodies, and in their goods. For he entices and provokes our minds to sin. Furthermore, he also troubles the minds of men, and drives them into an outrage; and being out of quiet in their outrage, he miserably vexes, torments, and dispatches [2440] them. You may have read that some physicians call this madness or outrage, an evil spirit or a wicked devil. But he diversely plagues their bodies too, chiefly with diseases. We have the most holy man Job for an example. And in the gospel of St. Luke, it is said that the woman who was bowed together, was bound by Satan eighteen years. Luk 13.11 Again, in the gospel of St. Mark we read of a child which had a dumb spirit: "And whenever he takes him, he tears him, and he foams, and gnashes with his teeth, and pines away;" Mar 9.18 and throwing himself on the ground, he lies grovelling. This self-same evil spirit takes away from men their goods; he wastes and diminishes their substance and worldly wealth. This again is manifest in the history of Job and of the gospel: for Job is robbed of all his substance, Satan so ordering the matter by soldiers and robbers. The herd of swine also, being drowned and strangled in the sea, wrought great loss to the Gergesites; being violently carried away by the devils, they tumbled headlong into the sea. Furthermore, this mischievous miscreant accomplishes these things somewhat by himself and his fellow wicked angels, and somewhat by other creatures. He works outwardly and inwardly, by tempting and provoking men. For he casts before our eyes counterfeit and deceitful shapes. Changing himself into an angel of light, he winds himself into the minds of men. He speaks to us, setting before us happy promises and most grievous threatenings, and yet all of them are coloured with deceits and lies. For oftentimes he brings reasons that are indeed probable and apparent; and yes, places of scripture that are very agreeable at a blush, and yet maliciously twisted to his own purpose.

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And by this means, the devil either hinders and maims true faith in the minds of men; or else he takes it away and utterly overthrows it, and later possesses them wholly, and then drives them into most certain perdition. So it is said that when he had entered into Judas' heart, he cast him wholly headlong into everlasting destruction. [2441] The heart of man is open to God only, for he only is the searcher of the heart and reins. But the devil, by circumventing men with his guileful practices, and by putting wicked persuasions into their hearts, is said to enter into men's hearts. And he works against man by other creatures also, such as by elements, when he raises fire, winds, waters, hail, and similar calamities against us. Furthermore, he stirs up men against us: our friends to vex and betray us, and our enemies to consume and bring us to our end with persecutions, battles, and bloodsheds. The history of Job yet again bears witness of these things. From this you may reckon the persecutions that are laid upon the worshippers of God. Now, the devil also eggs false prophets and enchanters against us. To this belong deceitful jugglings and all kinds of sorcery and witchcraft. The works of the sorcerers of Egypt, and of Simon the Magician, and the passage from Moses in Deu 13, testify these are most effectual. To this chiefly belong false miracles and corrupt answers or oracles. Truly, in times past the devil did much hurt to the church of God by these, as histories testify, nor does he cease to do hurt today. Experience itself teaches and verifies this.

For though it is certain that Satan is not cast out by the power of Satan; Mat 12.26 yet one gives way to another for a time, to this end: that they may deceive men more easily, and obtain a kingdom. Christ and the apostle Paul foretold truly that the last times would be wonderfully bewitched with deceitful signs and powers. Most evident places touching this are found in Matthew 24 and 2Thess. chapter 2. More might be said at large, dearly beloved, concerning the operations or workings of the devil; but I trust that these things are sufficient, being gathered together in brevity, and they give occasion to muse about higher things.

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But let no man so understand these things, as if the devil were able to do all things, and that whatever he wills, he can also do later. For his power is definite, or limited and restrained, so that he cannot do as much as he would: otherwise all things would have been overthrown and perished long ago. Therefore, not without consideration, I added in describing the devil, that he is subject to God; for he can do nothing without God's permission. Now God permits him either to exercise and try the patience of those who are God's, and to hasten their salvation. This is manifest in the history of Job 1.10-11; and in the words of Paul to the Corinthians, saying, "Lest I be exalted out of measure through the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, the messenger of Satan to buffet me." 2Cor 12.7 Nor is it doubtful that he exalts many notable martyrs in the most grievous torments of persecutions; yes, today and in times past, he has exalted them to glory and everlasting rest. Or else he gives the devil leave to execute violence and cruelty upon men, and by that means to chastise their wickedness or to punish their unbelief. For truly the devils are the instruments of God's wrath, to execute his vengeance. For Paul says:

"The coming of antichrist is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and wonders of lying, and in all unrighteous deception in those who perish; because they did not receive the love of truth, that they might be saved. And therefore, God will send them a strong delusion, that they should believe lies; that they might all be damned who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness." 2The 2.9-12

And this, in a way, is the strength and power of sorcery and enchanting, though this power is feeble in the faithful.

This is why there is no reason why any man should miserably fear the devil: "But rather sanctify the Lord of hosts (says Isaiah); let him be your fear and your reverence." Isa 8.13 Some say that certain nations of the East worshipped the devil for this reason: that he would not hurt them.[2442] But these are stark staring mad. For if it is not God's will, which I just began to tell you, or if he gives no leave, then Satan cannot touch so much as a hair of yours. For he could not enter into the herd of swine which were feeding near lake Gennesaret at Gadara,[2443] and destroy them, except by the Lord's permission.

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Also St. Augustine, expounding the Psalm 32, alleges in these words the history of Job:

"What could the devil do? Dare he take away one silly sheep from the holy man Job before he said to God, Lay your hand on me, that is to say, give me power? He was willing, but God did not allow him. Once God gave him leave, then he was able: therefore the devil was not able unless God gave him leave. Therefore, being well instructed, Job did not say, as we now are prone to say, The Lord gave, and the devil has taken away; but, The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away." [2444]

And these things exceedingly comfort the godly in temptations, who understand that nothing can happen to them without God's permission, and that He permits nothing but that which makes for our amendment and salvation. And therefore we are always preserved by the providence and bountifulness of God. For whatever has been said up to here concerning the power and workings of the devils, it was not meant to discourage us or cast us down — but to make us more vigilant or watchful. The Lord, who overcame the devil and shows us the way to overcome him, commands us to watch. For he encountered Satan the first, second, and third time, to instruct us how we should fight against the enemy of mankind. He overcame him for us, that we should not despair of having the ability and power to easily overcome him, since he is already weakened and wounded. Doubtless, by faith we will overcome him: for by faith we are knit to Christ, and by faith we draw the Spirit of Christ — by the force and virtue of which we shall triumph. Truly, for that reason St. Peter wills us "to resist by faith." 1Pet 5.9

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St. Paul, exhorting us to this conflict, and furnishing us with excellent complete armour, says:

"Take on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having finished all things, to stand fast. Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with the truth, and having on the breast-plate of righteousness, and your feet shod that you may be prepared to the gospel of peace; above all things taking the shield of faith, with which you may quench all the fiery darts of that wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always in all prayers and supplication in the spirit," etc. Eph 6.13-18

To this also belongs what the apostle witnesses here: "God does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, but with the temptation he will make a way to escape." 1Cor 10.13 Let us therefore reverence this God; let us beseech him, that through his power and might, we may overcome. Amen.

4-10. THE TENTH SERMON: OF MAN'S SOUL AND SALVATION.

OF THE REASONABLE SOUL OF MAN; AND OF HIS MOST CERTAIN SALVATION

AFTER THE DEATH OF HIS BODY.

ALL men confess that the reasonable soul of man has an affinity or likeness to spirits; nor is there any wise man, I think, who denies that the knowledge of the reasonable soul of man (about which the scripture teaches so many things, and does so diligently) is most wholesome and necessary to all the godly. The order therefore, the profit, and also the very necessity of things, [2445] requires that I likewise say something about the reasonable soul of man. In this, I will follow the plainness of the scripture and of its interpreters, leaving physical or natural points to be expounded by those to whom it belongs by duty and profession — except that we will deal with them so far as we cannot ignore them in this discourse. The holy scripture and its interpreters neither ask curious questions about the soul of man, nor satisfy curious heads when they desire to know those things which cannot be declared; or if they could, it would always seem to them that nothing was more aptly spoken to them.

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For they always stagger; they are always learning and yet they doubt; they never come to the knowledge of the truth with a quiet mind; 2Tim 3.7 they never abide in the plain truth when it is found; they search after many other more subtle matters than they can understand. But we know that all things which are necessary for our salvation are simply and plainly delivered in the holy scriptures, and that we must simply, reverently, and religiously rest in them. Therefore, those things that are not delivered in the scriptures touching the matter of our salvation, we know are not to be sought after by us, and that they do not hinder our salvation if we are ignorant of them.

The word anima, which we call soul, is diversely taken in the holy scripture. First of all anima, the soul, is taken for every living thing; for the Lord says, "Let the earth bring forth living creature after its kind, cattle, worm, and beast of the earth after its kind." Gen 1.24 For who does not know that there are three kinds or parts (allow me to speak this way for instruction's sake) or three principal powers of the soul? For there is the vegetative soul which works in plants; there is the sensitive soul, which is not without the vegetative soul — it gives life to brute beasts and other creatures that are endued with life and feeling; and there is also the reasonable soul with which men are endued, which is furnished with many powers or abilities, and comprehends both the others. Of this, anima, the soul, is taken in the scripture for breath which men draw in and let go out again, and also for the life of man, or of a living creature. Thus we read, Anima ejus etc., "His life is in him:" and, "I will do you no more harm (says Saul to David), because (anima mea) my life was precious in your eyes this day." [2446] The Grecians call anima, or the soul, pseuche, or ana pseuchen, because it refreshes by drawing breath.

The Hebricians call it Nephesh, of comforting. Again, anima, the soul, is taken in the scriptures for the thing itself that has life — for any, or rather, for the whole man. For it is said in the law: "The soul that works with a spirit, or that is a soothsayer, shall die." Lev 20.6

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Likewise in Paul we read: "Let every soul be subject to the higher power." Rom 13.1 And again, in Genesis, the king of Sodom says to Abraham: "Give me the souls, and take the substance or goods to yourself." Gen 14.21 For the scripture usually names the whole by a part: for by the soul he means the whole man, repeating the nobler part; so also, by flesh he signifies the whole baser part. Moreover, since man and also other living creatures have an appetitive or desiring soul, soul is used in the scripture for affection, will, desire, or lust. For Ezekiel says, "They shall not satisfy their souls" (in Dutch, Sy werden iren glust nit bussen), "nor shall their bellies be filled." Eze 7.19 Lastly, anima, the soul, signifies the reasonable soul of man, which we will treat at present (God assisting). Yet here I cannot dissemble, that there is controversy among very famous writers, about the soul and the mind, de anima, et animo, whether they are one and the self-same thing, or different — and there are reasons on both sides. Those who distinguish between them say that we live by the soul, and we understand with the mind, as Lactantius says in his 18th chapter, de Opificio Dei.[2447] I know that all the best and most approved writers use them both indifferently, and take the one for the other.

For we must not think that there are two souls in man. For the school definitions [2448] have very well defined these words in the fifteenth chapter: "We do not say that there are two souls in one man, as Jacobus and certain of the Syrians write — one natural, by which the body has life and is mingled with blood; and the other spiritual, which ministers reason. Rather, we say there is one and the self-same soul in man, which both quickens the body with his fellowship, and orders himself by his own reason." [2449]

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Therefore we do not think that any consideration should be given to those who altogether deny that there is a soul; for these are as mad as those who deny that the sun shines. For all of us see and feel the sun, just as we also live by the benefit of the soul.

Furthermore, the wise heads of this world cannot yet define with one accord what the reasonable soul of man is. They so differ that a man will hardly find two who say the same thing; and the opinions of not a few, contradict each other. What, do the old interpreters of the scriptures not doubtingly proceed in defining the soul? Lactantius, in his book de Opificio Dei, denies that man can attain to the reason and nature of the soul. [2450] Therefore, those who thought that the soul could not be comprehended in any absolute definition in which his nature might be expressed thoroughly and in full, did not at all err from the truth; yet the nature or disposition of it might be shadowed out in a way, by its works or actions, and by such qualities as the scripture attributes to it.

There are some, therefore, who have said that the soul is the spirit of life, created after the image of God, and breathed into the body of man. There is one who describes it thus: The soul is a spirit, by which the body which is coupled to it lives, made apt for the knowledge of God through love, and hereby fit to be joined with Him to everlasting blessedness. Another defines it this way: A reasonable soul is an understanding spirit, one part of the substance of man; nor does it die when it departs the body, but is immortal. Cassiodore defines it thus: The soul of man is created by God to be a spiritual and unique substance, reasonable indeed and immortal, which quickens the body of the one who owns it.[2451] We will set down a description fetched from the scripture, to be weighed and considered by the godly, and to direct and rule our whole discourse. The soul is a spiritual substance, poured by God into man's body, that being joined to it, it might quicken and direct it; but being dissevered from the body, it would not die but live immortal forever.

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Some deny that the soul is a substance; for they contend that it is nothing else than the power of life in man, and indeed a certain quality. But the holy scripture acknowledges that the soul is a subsisting substance. For the Lord witnesses in the gospel, that a soul may be tormented in hell. And by the self-same authority of the gospel, it is immediately shown that it may be viewed with our eyes, as in the soul of the rich glutton. Luk 16.23 The same Lord, who cannot lie, said to the thief, "Today you will be with me in Paradise." Luk 23.43 These words cannot be expounded about any other part in the thief, than his soul; for his body was nailed and hung on the cross. Also, the apostle and evangelist saw "under the altar, the souls of those who were slain for the word of God." He heard them "crying with a loud voice, and saying: How long will you tarry O Lord, who are holy and true, to judge, and to avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" Rev 6.9-10

The same John saw long white garments given to every one of the souls, these words being spoken by the Lord: "Rest yet a little while, until the number your fellow-servants, and your brethren, who will be killed as you are, is fulfilled." Rev 6.11 All of this truly does not agree to qualities, but to substances which have their being: therefore the souls of men are substances. That they might plainly and pithily express this, certain ecclesiastical writers, I think, have set down that the souls of men are bodily souls — that is, they are substances of their own kind, having their own proper being. Nor do I think, dearly beloved, I will be tedious if I recite word for word what St. Augustine reasoned about this matter (on both parts) in his epistle to St. Jerome, twenty-eighth in order:

"The soul is bodiless, though it is hard to persuade the duller sort of it; yet I confess that I am so persuaded. But that I may not create a controversy about a word to no purpose, I would willingly be silent; because where there is no doubt about the thing, there is no need to strive about the term we use for it. If every substance or essence is a body, or if that which is in some way, in itself, more aptly called some thing, then the soul is a body.

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But if you would call that which is altogether unchangeable, and is wholly everywhere, only a "bodiless nature," then the soul is a body — because the soul is no such thing. Furthermore, if nothing is a body except that which, having some length, breadth, and height, is at rest, or may be moved in space, and the greater part of it takes up greater space, and the lesser part takes up less space, and the soul is less than the whole, then the soul is not a body. For that which gives the power of life to the body is extended through the whole body, not by the local spreading of itself, but by a certain living extension of itself. For the whole soul is present in all and every part of the body at once, and not the lesser in the lesser parts, nor the greater in the greater parts. But in some places, the soul is more vehement and lively, in some more remiss and faint; and yet it is the whole in all, and it is the whole in every part. For that which the whole soul feels in some parts of the body, and which it feels in some other parts, it feels wholly in itself, and not only in some part of itself. For where any part of the living flesh is pricked with a sharp thing, even though that place is not the whole body, not even most of the body, the whole soul feels that pricking. And yet the pain that is felt, is not dispersed over all the parts of the body, but is only felt where it is pricked.

How then does that which was not felt except in one place of the body, by and by happen to the whole soul, unless the whole soul is there where the pain is felt? And yet the soul does not leave the other parts of the body, so that it might be there wholly, and all in all. For those other parts of the body also live by the presence of the soul, where no such pricking is done. If the pain were in more places than one at the same time, then it would be felt by the whole soul in each place. Therefore, the whole soul could not be in all and also in every part of the body (which is its own body) all at once — not if it were so spread through those parts as we see bodies are spread in places, their smaller parts taking less space, and their larger parts taking greater space. Therefore, if the soul is to be termed a body, then surely it is not such a body in substance as the earth, or the water, or the air, or the celestial bodies. For all such bodies, if they are larger, are in larger places, and if smaller, in smaller places; and their entirety is not in any one part of theirs. Rather, each part of their bodies fills its own part of a place.

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Thus the soul is perceived to have a certain proper nature, whether it is a body or whether it is called bodiless; it is created of a more excellent substance than all the elements of the earthly mould. This cannot be conceived of by any phantasy or imagination about bodily shapes, which we get by our fleshly senses. Rather, it is understood in the mind and felt in the life." [2452] This far I have repeated Augustine's words.

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The scripture also aims chiefly at this mark: to teach that the soul is bodiless; for it advisedly and expressly calls the soul a spirit. For the Lord says in the gospel according to John: "I will put my life from me, and I will take it up again. No man takes it from me, but I put it away of myself." Joh 10.18 And in the same evangelist you read: "And Jesus said, It is finished: and when he had bowed his head, he gave up the ghost." Joh 19.30 For he cries out in another evangelist: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Luk 23.46 And Matthew says: "And Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost." Mat 15.37 To this doubtless may be referred that which we read in the Acts of the Apostles about the first martyr, Stephen: "And they stoned Stephen, calling on and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Act 7.59

I cannot more plainly and pithily express [2453] what manner of substance the soul of man is, than by these things. I believe it to be a spirit, having indeed a substance created by God proper, and unique to itself. For Augustine, whose words I alleged a little before, says yet again, 1 cap. de Quantitate Animae:

"I cannot name the substance of the soul, for I do not think it is one of the usual and known natures which we touch with the senses of our body. For I think that the soul does not consist of earth, nor of water, air, nor fire, nor yet of all these joined together, nor of any one of them. The nature of the soul may be called simple, because it does not consist of other natures." [2454]

Cassiodore was willing to recite and express these words of Augustine by imitation: "The soul of man created by God is a spiritual and unique substance." [2455]

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Therefore, I simply affirm that the soul has a singular substance; indeed, it is a certain and more excellent one, differing from other spirits, having its true being and working always from its Creator;[2456] but we are not able to utter what we cannot compass in our speech.

Meanwhile, we do not agree with those who say that the soul is God, or else surely a part or portion of God, intending to express what manner of substance the soul is. [2457] For the scripture reproves both of these. Truly the soul is a creature, and it is drowned in variableness and sins — but of itself, it is not a creator. And because God the Creator is immutable and indivisible, the soul cannot be a portion of God. Therefore, elegantly and truly, Aurelius Prudentius [2458] in his Apotheosis, after he had confuted these filthy errors in many words, gathered at length all the meaning of the truth:

To say the soul is GOD, or part of him,

'Tis folly great, and too absurd a thing:

Since chief and heavenly joys it tastes, which swim

From always fresh and everlasting spring.

Now it obeys, shortly it falls to sin;

One while in joy, another while in pain:

For due desert such guerdon it does win:

Now punish'd 'tis, shortly 'tis free again.[2459]

To the end that we might overthrow this error, and discern the soul from other spirits and spiritual substances, we added in our description that " the soul of man is poured into the body of man by God:" by which every man understands without any ado, that the soul is created, and is also a spirit — not angelic but human; that is, breathed into man's body by God, of his own essence and nature.

Here again a new question touching the origin of souls offers itself to us to be expounded. For it is usually asked, Where do souls come from? When or how do they enter into their bodies?

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St. Jerome is the author that said in time past, that there were many opinions touching the origin of souls, and most of those were contrary to themselves. For writing to Marcellinus and Anapsychias, he says:

"I remember your question — no, rather in truth, the question of the church — touching the state of the soul: whether it fell from heaven, as Pythagoras the philosopher, and all Platonists and Origen think; or whether it is of the proper substance of God, as the Stoics, Manicheaus, and the heresies of Priscillianus of Spain suppose; whether they are counted in God's treasury, long since laid up there, as certain church men think (who are foolishly persuaded); whether they are daily made by God and sent into bodies, according to what is written in the gospel, 'My Father works up to now, and I work'; whether they are ex traduce (that is, by the generation of the parents), as Tertullian, Apollinarius, and most of the western churches conjecture — that just as a body is born of a body, so a soul is born of a soul, and has its being as brute beasts have theirs." [2460]

But all those opinions are confuted by ecclesiastical writers with sound arguments. That opinion is received and avouched to be the truest, which holds that the soul is created out of nothing, and poured by God into the body when the child is made in the womb of his mother, perfect in shape and in every part of his body. For thus the ecclesiastical definitions declare: "We say that the Creator of all things alone knows the creation of the soul; and that the body only is sown by (carnal) copulation in marriage; that by the true appointment of God, it thickens in the womb, [2461] becomes a substance and receives shape; and that when the body is fashioned, the soul is created and poured into it." [2462]

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About which St. Jerome says — also to Pammachius, disputing against the errors of John, bishop of Jerusalem, after he had recited various opinions touching the origin of the soul:

"Whether truly God creates souls daily, in whom his will is his work, and never ceases to be a creator of them? This is an ecclesiastical opinion, according to the opinion of our Saviour, that the Father works up to now, and I work; and according to that saying of Isaiah, Who forms the spirit of man in him. And in the Psalms, Who fashions their hearts in every one of them." [2463]

The scripture truly in express words teaches that the soul does not originate out of the earth, nor was it created before the body; but it proceeds out of the mouth of the Creator, namely, from the secret power of God, and it is poured into the body when it is fashioned. For Moses, describing the creation of God our Father,[2464] first mentions that the body of Adam was fashioned and made, and that afterwards the spirit of life was breathed into his body being perfectly made and fashioned. "The Lord God," he says, "made man of the clay of the earth, and breathed upon his face or into his nostrils the breath of life, and man was made a living soul." Gen 2.7 For the breath of life signifies the living and reasonable soul, that is to say, the soul of man, which is breathed or poured into the body when it is fashioned. And when the same Lord created the woman from Adam's rib, he did not take life from Adam, or out of his soul, and put it into Eve, but of his goodness and power, God poured it into her body when it was perfectly made.

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And Job is a sufficient witness that we are not otherwise created by the Lord today, the soul being poured into the body when it is fashioned. He says: "Your hands, O God, have made me and fashioned me round about. Have you not poured me like milk, and turned me to curds like cheese? You covered me with skin and flesh, and joined me together with bones and sinews." Job 10.8-11 Look, you have most excellently described here in these words, both the conception and also the fashioning of man's body in his mother's womb. And touching the soul, it immediately follows in Job: "You have given me life and grace, and your visitation has preserved my spirit." Job 10.12Behold, "life," that is, the soul, is poured into the body by God after it is shaped. "You have given me life," he says, "and grace." He adds grace or mercy, to life, for it is a marvel that the child should live in the mother's womb, seeing that it is wrapped within so many coverings. Therefore, a singular benefit of the mercy of God shows itself in this. But it follows by way of interpretation: "And your visitation," that is, your providence and preservation, "has kept or preserved my spirit." For what he first called "life," that is to say, the soul, he now calls "spirit." Therefore we rightly hold and according to the scriptures, that the souls of men are created by God, and poured into the bodies when they are already fashioned in the womb; though we do not touch every point and particular matter of this cause and (as the saying goes) hit the nail on the head.

Now it remains to see what the soul works in the body of man. We comprehended that briefly in the description, saying that being joined to the body, it gives life to man and directs him. For the reasonable soul comprehends the vegetative and sensitive powers, and thereby it gives life to the body. Moreover, the soul has two parts, distinguished in offices, not in substance — namely, Understanding and Will; and thereby it directs man. For by the understanding (which is called both the mind and reason), it conceives, judges, and knows things that are to be understood, and discerns what to follow and what to avoid. But by the will or appetite, man chooses what he knows, following one thing and refusing another. These things, again, stretch very far. Therefore, I will handle each part more largely.

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Out of the 13th chapter of Augustine, de Quantitate Animae:

First of all "the soul by its presence gives life to this mortal and earthly body; it knits it together, and keeps it with a wonderful embracing, and does not allow it to grow out of order or pine away; it equally distributes the food throughout the members, giving sufficient to every one; it preserves a handsome form and measure in this, not only in beauty, but also in making and growth. But all these things may seem common to plants, as well as to man. For we see and confess that they also live; and that every one of them is preserved in its kind, nourished, increased, and engendered. Therefore, let us see what the soul is able to do, and what it works in the senses, where a more perfect view of life is perceived. The soul shows itself in the sense of feeling, and thereby it knows and discerns the things that are hot, cold, rough, smooth, hard, soft, light, and heavy. Moreover, the soul determines the innumerable differences between tastes, savours, sounds, and shapes, by the senses of tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing. And among all the things that it chooses and covets, are those which are according to the nature of the body to which it is joined; and it refuses and shuns the contrary; and it also consents not only to the procreation of children, but to their cherishing, defending, nourishing, and preserving.

But again, no man denies that the life which is in beasts may also have all these things. Let us therefore consider what is the proper force of the soul of man. And here weigh with me the wonderful power of understanding and reasoning, and not a common memory, as exists in brute beasts, but a remembrance of innumerable things commended to us, and kept in mind by signs and deep consideration. Consider with me so many devices of craftsmen, tilling lands, building cities, manifold wonders of various buildings and devices; the inventions of so many forms in letters, words, gesture, sound, pictures, and feigned shows; so many tongues of nations, so many ordained things, so many new things, so many reformed things; such a number of books, and of similar monuments for the maintenance of memory, as having a care for those who will come after; the orders of offices, powers, honours and dignities, either in families, or in the commonweal, in peace or in war, either in secular or holy matters.

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Weigh with me the marvellous force and virtue of devising the rivers of eloquence, the variety of verses in poetry, a thousand-fold devices and merriments to motivate pleasure and pastime, skilfulness in playing on instruments and in singing, skill in measuring, readiness in numbering, conjecturing about things in the past and things to come, by things that are present." [2465]

These truly are great powers or operations in the soul of man, but they are common to both the good and the bad. Therefore, the true goodness and praise which rise from the powers of the soul unto man, and which are found only in the godly, follow. The soul is bold to prefer itself before the whole body, and to think the goods of the body are not his, but rather to despise them; and by however much he delights himself, by that much more he withdraws from filthiness, and wholly cleanses himself by faith and the Holy Ghost.

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Being strengthened against all things which strive to put him away from his good intent, he gives great account of fellowship or society, loves men tenderly, and wishes nothing to another which he would not have happen to himself. For he follows the word or doctrine of God, and he believes that God speaks to him by this word. He is joined by the Holy Ghost and faith, with God himself, in whom he delights and lives in true felicity, bringing forth all kind of virtues. In so excellent a study of the soul as this, there is still great labour. For the soul fights fiercely with the world and the flesh, and it is never safe and at rest from the assaults or invasions of Satan: but being strengthened by the Lord, it goes away with notable victories and triumphs. Therefore, the souls (i.e., of saints and holy men) work all manner of holy works; for the souls of the wicked commit heinous sins of all sorts. There are many other operations of souls, which I cease to recite, lest I be longer than fitting.

Up to here I have treated the soul of man as yet joined to the body. In this discourse, the wonderful goodness of God appears, the most bountiful Creator of the soul, indeed, Creator of the whole man. Whatever praise is given to the soul, we worthily account it received from his grace. Now I will speak of the soul separated from the body.

The soul, being separated from the body, does not cease to be what it was; but the body being dead, the soul abides alive in its own essence, altogether immortal, and void of all corruption. For the death of man is not the extinguishing or destruction of the soul, but only a separation or departure from the body. If you take a candle out of a lantern, you have taken the light from the lantern, but you have not put out the candle. Truly, because the candle is taken away, the lantern remains full of darkness; but the candle feels so little hurt by removing it, that being taken away from the lantern, it then shines more clearly, and casts forth the beams of its light more at large. So truly, being separated from its earthly or slimy body, the soul feels so little discommodity, that being delivered from the trouble and burden of the body, it lives more at liberty, and works more effectually. But the common sort do not understand this.

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They see the body only among the dead, robbed of the soul; and because this lacks all feeling and moving, yes, and it rots away, they think that the whole man perishes. Nor is the world without some shameless and ungodly wretches who have in their mouth, that no man ever returned from death or from below, who by his return proved that the souls remain alive when the body is dead. But they lie maliciously, dissembling that they do not know what certainly they know. For who does not know that Christ the Son of God died, and was buried, and the third day was raised again from the dead, the very self-same soul returning into his body, and which gave his body life and ruled it before death? Who does not know that Christ ascended into heaven with his true body and with his reasonable and natural soul, and sits at the right hand of the Father, that laying down a most assured pledge as it were, he might testify to the whole world that both our own proper souls and our own proper bodies will one day be translated there? Who does not know that as many were dead, being raised from death to life, did not receive new souls, but their old souls? This would not have come to pass if the souls of men were extinguished by the death of the body.

They object that the scripture itself mentions the death of the soul. I no less confess that indeed. For the soul of man is both mortal and immortal, in a certain manner of its own. For the soul is not in all ways immortal as God is, of whom it is said 1Tim 1.17 that only he has immortality. And truly, the death of the soul in the holy scripture is to be remembered; but it refers to the state and condition, not to the substance, of the soul. For if God is the life of the soul, then surely the death of the soul is to be forsaken by God, and to be left to yourself. But nevertheless, the reasonable soul lives in its proper essence or being, so that, when it lives miserably, a miserable life is indeed called death. 1Joh 3.14 But desperation also is the very death of the soul; for we live by hope. And Paul says, "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." Gal 2.20 Therefore they that are destitute of faith are dead, and they that have faith live. St. Augustine says, cap. 10, De Fide et Symbolo:

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"The soul, just as it may be called corruptible because of sin and wickedness, so it may be called mortal. For the death of the soul is revolting or falling from God; this was the first sin of the soul, committed in paradise, as declared in the holy scriptures." [2466] And Augustine again says, Lib. de Trinitate, 14, cap. 4: "The soul also has its death when it lacks a blessed life, which should be called the true life of the soul. But it is called immortal for this reason: for whatever life it lives — yes, even though it is most miserable — it never ceases to live." [2467] We therefore freely confess that the souls of men, separated or taken out of their bodies, do not die, but live immortal forever — the faithful in everlasting joy and felicity, but the unbelievers in eternal damnation.

I will now go on to confirm this by some substantial testimonies of scripture. But first, take this with you: that testimonies of scripture in this case are far more lively than man's reasons framed out of philosophy. For these testimonies are fetched from the very mouth of the living God himself, who preserves us in life; who (since he is true) cannot lie, and who (since he gives life and is life itself) is most certainly able to testify of life, above all others. Nor is it doubtful that the Spirit of God works jointly with the word of God; once the hearts of men are touched by Him, the reasons of philosophy, however manifest they may be, will not at all prevail, especially in danger of death and other temptations. Therefore, those who are not ashamed to say that they cannot be persuaded or brought to believe the immortality of souls, by the scriptures alone, are fleshly and altogether brutish. Indeed! And what is more, they will never be steadfast and stable in temptations, which proceed from flesh and blood. We will therefore add some certain testimonies, and those too are most manifest.

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David, the most powerful and happiest king in the world, comprising in one verse both the immortality of souls and the resurrection of bodies, says this: "You, O Lord, shall not leave my soul in hell: nor shall you allow your Holy one to see corruption." Psa 16.10 Man consists of body and soul. The body rots away when it is dead, and is turned into dust; but it will not therefore perish. For as the body of Christ which was buried did not rot, but rose again the third day, so our bodies shall be raised up in the day of judgment, and be delivered by Christ from corruption. And our soul does not go into hell to remain there. [2468] But as the soul of Christ returned from the nether parts to his body, and ascended into heaven in his body which he had taken up again; Eph 4.9-10 even so, our souls shall also live by Christ — they shall not die.

Solomon, the son of David, excelling all kings and mortal men in wisdom, likewise expounds in one verse upon the providence of God touching the soul and the body. He says: "The dust shall be turned again to earth, from whence it came; and the spirit shall return to God, who gave it." Ecc 12.7 Solomon calls man's body dust, because it is said in Moses that God made it of the dust of the earth. Therefore, the body returns again to dust; for it putrefies and is resolved into what it first was, even until the judgment-day. As the Lord says: "For dust you are, and into dust you shall be returned again." Gen 3.19 But the spirit, that is to say, the reasonable soul, does not die with the body. It is not resolved into dust, because it is not taken out of the dust; nor is it scattered into the air, because it does not consist of air; but it returns alive from death, to God. And therefore it returns to God, because God gave the soul, and in a singular way, made man in His own likeness and image, breathing into his face the spirit of life — of life I say; that is, of living power, not the spirit of death. Therefore, the soul cannot perish, because it receives immortality from God who, since he is life, is able to preserve that breath of life which he has made.

The Lord Jesus, the true and very Son of God, the life and resurrection of the faithful, says plainly in the gospel: "Do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." Mat 10.28

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If the soul is not killed when the body is slain by tyrants, then it remains alive after the body is destroyed. And so it assuredly remains, so that, having put off the body, it would be cast into hell by the most just God, to burn there everlastingly for its unfaithfulness. For in the same gospel, the Lord says again, "Whoever would save his life shall lose it." Again, "whoever would lose his life for my sake, shall find it." Mat 16.25 For not only is it the one who bridles himself from the pleasures of the world, and lives most temperately, that loses his life or soul; but also the one who offers himself into the bloody hands of tyrants to be slain for the confession of his Christian faith. But then he finds his life or soul which he lost. Therefore, the souls of men, even after the death of the body, remain alive and immortal.

In the gospel of St. John, the Lord says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but has escaped from death unto life." Joh 5.24 You have in these words of the Lord, the death of the body. But immediately afterward he witnesses that we "escape unto life." Therefore, men's souls remain alive after death. For he says nothing of the raising again or of the salvation of the body, but of the life of the soul after death. In the same gospel, the Lord says again: "Truly, truly, I say to you, If a man keeps my word, he shall never see death." Joh 8.51 But it is evident that all men are ordained once to die, Heb 9.27 namely, with bodily death. Therefore, the soul lives after the death of the body. For it must be that a faithful man will never see or feel death, unless he told a lie, affirming what he said with an oath. For in every other place, he adds an oath, saying, "Truly, I say to you," so that we should not doubt the immortality of souls. There are very many testimonies, and those of Christ the Son of God in the same gospel, are most evident — as in the sixth and eleventh chapters. [2469] To these we will join one or two out of the writings of the blessed apostles of Christ.

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St. Peter, speaking of the souls of the fathers which were dead a great while ago, says that "the gospel was preached also to the dead, that they should be judged like other men in the flesh, but should live before God in the spirit." 1Pet 4.6 Spirits are souls of the blessed fathers whose bodies, buried a great while ago, wait for the universal sentence of that general and last judgment — that is, their flesh may be raised up again and judged with other men in the last day; but meanwhile, their souls live with God. Thus men's souls are alive, even though their bodies were rotten a great while ago.

In his epistle to Timothy, St. Paul says that life and immortality are made manifest and brought by Christ. 2Tim 1.1, 10 Everywhere, Paul so plainly avouches the immortality of souls, that one must be blind not to see it.

St. John, the apostle and evangelist, saw under the altar in heaven (that is, under the protection of Christ who is the sacrifice and propitiation for the sins of the world) living souls lying there and crying: "How long will you wait, Lord, to revenge our blood?" Rev 6.9-10 He saw them clothed with white garments, and enjoying everlasting rest. But these souls were the souls of the martyrs of Christ, whose bodies died, having been murdered on the earth under tyrants and persecutors of the Christian faith. Therefore, the souls of men are immortal.

Therefore, — yes, and undoubted — those words are most true which are written in the book of Wisdom, uttered in this way:

"The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them there. In the sight of the unwise they appeared to die, and their end is taken as a misery, and their departing from us considered utter destruction; but they are at rest. For though they suffer pain before men, yet their hope of immortality is full. They are punished but in few things; nevertheless, they shall be well-rewarded in many things. For God approves them, and finds them fit for himself. He tries them as gold in the furnace, and receives them as a burnt-offering; and when the time comes, they will be looked at. They will shine and run through, like sparkles among the stubble. They will judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign forever." Wis 3.1-8

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Thus most truly, according to the canonical scripture, the ecclesiastical definitions pronounce this, cap. 16:

"We believe that man alone has a substantial soul which, having put off the body, lives and keeps his senses and disposition living. It does not die with the body, as Aratus affirms; nor die a short while later, as Zenon says, because it lives substantially. But the souls of beasts and other mortal creatures are not substantial, but are born with their flesh through the life of their flesh, and with the death of their flesh, they are at an end and die." [2470]

Furthermore, that truth touching the immortality of souls, by the law of nature as it were, is written and imprinted in the minds of all men. Thus it is no marvel that all the wise men among the Gentiles could never abide that the soul should be called mortal. For the consent of all (especially the chief ones), which is thought to be the voice of nature, declares that souls are immortal. And M. Tully [2471] also affirms it, saying: "As by nature we think there are Gods, and by reason we know what they are, so we hold the opinion with the consent of all nations, that souls still continue." [2472] All the ancient writers, therefore, and all that followed them, have said that souls are everlasting or immortal — such as Trismegistus, Museus, Orpheus, Homerus, Pindarus, and Pherecydes the Syrian, the master of Pythagoras,[2473] and his scholar Socrates. Plato himself, who sailed into Italy to learn the opinions of Pythagoras,[2474] was not only of the same opinion as Pythagoras, touching the immortality of souls, but also brought reasons to confirm it. These reasons, as Tully witnesses, are so many that, someone who reads his book could seemingly not desire anything further.[2475] Seneca so plainly affirms and proves the immortality of souls, that nothing can be more plain.[2476]

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And Epictetus, a famous philosopher, who lived in the time of Seneca, has done no less.[2477] If there are still any light-headed men to whom the immortality of the soul seems doubtful, or who utterly deny it, these truly are unworthy to be called men; for they are plagues of the commonwealth, and very beasts, worthy to be hissed and driven out of the company of men. For he lacks a bridle to restrain himself, and has cast away all honesty and shame. Whoever believes the soul of man is mortal, is in all points prepared to commit any mischief.

I showed that souls being separated by death from their bodies, do not die, but remain alive. It now remains that I teach you where souls lead their life and are resident, when they are destitute of their dwelling-place, their bodies.

While they were coupled to their bodies, they used them as their dwelling-houses; so that, although they are said not to be limited in place, yet they do not wander outside of their bodies, but are shut up in in them as in prisons, until they are dissolved and set at liberty. Therefore, being dissevered from their bodies, those same souls retain their sound senses, their nature or disposition, and their whole substance in a living manner. Even though they are said, even then, not to be limited in place, yet are they not let loose and run astray, having their abiding in no place. Rather, being compact and set fast in their own essence or being, they are in some place again, yet not having new bodies (for the souls are free of them till the judgment-day, when they will be joined again to their bodies). Even so, certain abiding-places are prepared for them by God, in which they may live. Although others [2478] very subtly and wittily reason how spirits are contained or not contained in place, I simply affirm with the scripture, that souls separated from bodies are taken up either into heaven itself, or else they are drowned in the depths of hell; and their being and abiding there is such that, when they are there, they are not elsewhere. For the Lord most plainly and pithily says in the gospel, that the soul of beggarly Lazarus was carried into Abraham's bosom, and the soul of the rich glutton was cast down into hell. Luk 16.23

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But what is more, it immediately follows in the history: "Between us and you" (for the blessed and cursed souls talk together) "there is a great gulf steadfastly set; so that those who would go from here to you cannot, neither can those who would come from there to us." Luk 16.26 And Paul also desires "to be dissolved, [2479] and to be with Christ." Phi 1.23 We are dissolved by death. For when the soul departs, the body is dissolved and dies; the soul flies to Christ. But the scripture shows us that Christ is in heaven at the right hand of the Father. Now where heaven is, none can tell; and we have largely treated that matter elsewhere.[2480]

In the gospel of St. John, the Lord himself calls the conversation of souls, [2481] which is prepared for them they are separated from the bodies, both a place and mansion, a habitation or dwelling, adding these words about it: "I will receive you (even) to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." Joh 14.3 And thus St. John saw souls in heaven, abiding and taking their rest under the altar or protection of Christ. Rev 6.9-10 For he had gathered them to himself there, when they departed from their bodies. To this belongs that notable place of the apostle Paul, marvellously fit for this purpose, written in second Corinthians in these words: "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were destroyed, we have a building of God, even a habitation not made with hands, but eternal in heaven," etc. 2Cor 5.1 Look, while our souls were joined to our bodies, they inhabited and dwelt in them as in their houses. But after our corruptible house is destroyed, God has built another better and longer-lasting one, I mean heaven itself, into which he lovingly receives our souls departing out of our bodies. For that type of body which we now have, he calls the house of this tent or tabernacle. For just as tents are made of temporary light stuff, and pitched without any strong foundation, and pulled down after a while, or fall of their own accord — so too, a mortal body is given to men as a ruinous cottage, which they inhabit a few days, and immediately pack away again. St. Peter used a similar allegory. [2482] Against this tent, Paul opposes a building of everlasting continuance — I mean heaven itself.

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For when he said we have "a building of God," he adds by interpretation, (even) a "habitation not made with hands;" and yet more plainly, "eternal in heaven." Nor does what later follows hinder this, or import another meaning: "for therefore we sigh, desiring (speaking of our clothing) to be further clothed with our house which is from heaven." For "from heaven" signifies the same as saying "heavenly." Therefore, the house of the soul is heavenly or heaven itself, a place, I say, appointed for blessed spirits. For truly, the faithful soul shall dwell in heaven even to that day, judgment, in which the Lord shall judge the world with His general judgment. Then at the length the soul will return to the body raised up again, so that after judgment the whole man, both soul and body, may live forever with God. For thus witnesses the apostle St. Paul: "The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who live, who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will ever be with the Lord," 1The 4.15-17 namely, in the heavens which are above us, where the clouds are seen. Therefore, omitting vain speculations and curious disputations, let us believe that there is a house prepared by the Lord in heaven for souls being separated from their bodies, into which the faithful may be received; and again, that there is everlasting fire prepared, into which all the souls of all infidels or unbelievers may be cast.

We have taught that heaven is the seat or habitation prepared by God to receive souls being separated from their bodies. It remains to show in what manner, and at what time, they should be translated there after death. Touching the manner of it, I can say nothing but that it is fully known to God; and what is shadowed in the scriptures, seems sufficient for us: namely, it is brought to pass by angels carrying up our souls with a most swift flight or moving. For the Lord says in the gospel, that the soul of Lazarus was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom: we spoke of this before when we preached about God's angels.[2483]

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But I do not intend to search out what manner of moving this is, whether it is natural or supernatural. I believe that what God promises, he performs and accomplishes; and promising he says, "He has passed from death to life." Joh 5.24 Again, he said to the thief, "Today you shall be with me in paradise," Luk 23.43 comprehending that his passage was as in a moment. We also necessarily add to this, that it must be attributed to the merits of Christ that we are taken up into heaven; for he is the door and the way.

But at what time souls should be carried up into heaven, or cast down into hell, seems to be a question at present that is not only profitable, but by all means necessary to be discussed; for in our age there are persons disposed to evil, who have corrupted the pure simplicity of this matter. For you will find some who say that the souls departing from their bodies do not afterward go the right and ready way to heaven; rather, as if taken with a slumbering lethargy, they sleep until the last day of judgment.[2484] You will find others contending that souls cannot come into heaven unless they are perfectly purified with cleansing fire, which they call purgatory; as though they were intercepted by pirates and robbers in the midst of their journey, and cast into torments, until either they themselves make satisfaction, or others have paid for them the debt which they borrowed elsewhere.[2485] But both of these things I deny, and utterly deny: and I affirm that souls do not sleep, nor are they purged by any torments after the death of their body; but are waking and alive, and are immediately after the death of the body, and even in a moment, either carried into heaven, being freed from all kinds of torments, or else cast down into hell.

These sleepy-heads [2486] have nothing to allege for their lethargy or imagination about the sleep of the soul; but the scripture, describing the death of the saints, often mentions sleeping and laying to sleep; such as, "he fell asleep, and was gathered to (or laid by) his fathers."

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And Paul says, speaking of those who die, "I would not have you ignorant concerning those who are asleep." 1The 4.13 But even as souls never slept, nor could sleep, when they were joined to these frail bodies, being delivered from the burden of the body, they are much less to be thought to sleep. Sleep is therefore to be referred to the body. For whoever dies in true faith, sleeps in the Lord. And just as those who sleep, once their limbs are refreshed, immediately awake, rise, and labour; even so, the body is not altogether extinguished by death, that it should not live anymore, but now truly it is received into rest, and at the day of judgment it rises again and lives. And for this reason, holy men are said in the scriptures to sleep, not to die, so that thereby the mystery of the resurrection of our flesh may be signified. These gross-headed men do not understand this. And thus they attribute to the soul what is proper to the body. Other arguments which they bring to confirm their madness, are unworthy to be repeated. For either they violently twist the scripture from the natural sense of it; or else by their corrupt reasoning, they gather falsehood out of those things that are false.

But they err and are no less deceived than these sleeping doctors, who think that souls departing from their bodies do not later go the right and ready way into heaven. Instead, they say, souls are caught in the midst of their journey, and carried into that purgatory fire, in which they may be purged from the filthy spots of sins which they got in the flesh; and after they are purged, they are carried by angels into the presence of the most holy God. Look, either the souls are purged by that purgatory fire from the filth of their sins, or else they are washed and cleansed through the pain and grief of torments which they suffer there. If sins are purged by virtue of that fire, then it follows that sinners are not sanctified by the only blood of the Son of God. But by what scriptures have they proved to us that this power of purging is given to the fire? Has God altered his mind and purpose, and put this fire in place of Christ to work our sanctification? For shame! But if sins are forgiven for our sufferings and for torments' sake, then it follows that we are not purged by the cross and passion of Christ alone. Let them teach us out of the scripture, that such worthiness is attributed by God to our sufferings.

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But rather, by the only blood and passion of Christ, all those are sanctified who are sanctified, whoever they may be. Therefore, purgatory is a wicked device of the devil, which darkens, yes, and makes void, the cross and merits of Christ. For what other thing do they account purgatory but a satisfaction for sins made by the souls that are separated from their bodies? In the gospel of John, there is a question asked by the disciples of John the Baptist, touching the purifying of souls; and John the Baptist declares that the faithful are purified through Christ by faith; this thing he is also believed to have testified by the holy baptism. Moreover, the most excellent apostles expressly witness that all the faithful are cleansed by the only blood of Christ, and by his only passion and most sufficient merits. For Peter, who says in the Acts, "Nor is there salvation in any other: for among men there is given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved." Act 4.12 He has written in his first canonical epistle: "You know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the immaculate Lamb." 1Pet 1.18 John the apostle also says: "The blood of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin." 1Joh 1.7 And again he says: "Christ loved us, and washed us from our sins by his own blood." Rev 1.5 And Paul, both to the Ephesians (5.26), and to Titus (2.14), shows that we are purified by the only blood of the Son of God. To the Hebrews he says: "By himself has he purged our sins, and sits on the right hand of God in the highest places." Heb 1.3 It was not without meaning that he said, "By himself," that he might thereby exclude all other means. For elsewhere he says this: "If righteousness comes by the law, then Christ died in vain." Gal 2.21 And we also reason in the same way: If we are cleansed by purgatory fire, then in vain Christ shed his blood to purge us; for what need did he have to suffer most grievous punishment, if we could have been cleansed by purgatory fire? Moreover, the whole scripture teaches us that Christ is our only satisfaction and propitiation. We have shown this at large in other places. [2487] And therefore, souls make no satisfaction in purgatory, unless we would confess that men have no need of Christ.

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These men further pretend that the power to purge is given to the fire of purgatory by grace, or by the blood and merits of Christ, and that this fire does not purge by its own virtue, but by the power of the Son of God.[2488] But they have also forged this most wickedly. For the scripture in every place (as we just now said) sends us back to the Son of God and the price of his blood and cleansing, by which it teaches that we are made partakers, while we live in this world, by faith and the Holy Ghost. But it does not say a word about purgatory in any place; nor does it say in any place that we are purged in another world by the grace of God. Therefore, they steal the glory which is proper to the Son of God, and give it to a fire, which is altogether forged and blasphemous. Furthermore, they appoint another time of grace outside of this world, which is altogether foreign to the scriptures. For our Lord cries in the gospel: "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night comes, when no man can work." Joh 9.4 And St. Paul says: "Let us do good," that is to say, let us be bountiful and liberal towards the poor, "while we have time." Gal 6.10 He seems to have taken this saying out of Solomon's book about the Preacher, saying: "When the clouds are full, they pour rain upon the earth: and when the tree falls, whether it is toward the south or north, in whatever place it falls, there it remains." Ecc 11 3 He uses two allegories or dark statements, by which he teaches the rich to be liberal. The first is taken from clouds. The clouds gather vapours from the earth, which being thickened, are immediately poured upon the earth to water it, as if squeezed out of a sponge. Let rich men do the same, distributing again among men those riches which they have gotten among men. The second is taken from trees, which being felled, lie in the same places in which they fall. The wise man therefore warns us to do what we ought to do, in due season. For one we have departed from here, there is no place of repentance. And in the gospel, a tree often put for a man; also, the right hand is put for heaven or the place of blessedness, just as the left hand is put for hell or the place of damnation. Therefore, this is his meaning: When you are dead, you will forever remain either in damnation or blessedness.

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Men's testimonies agree with the heavenly ones. For St. Cyprian says against Demetrianus:

"When we have departed from here, there is then no place of repentance; satisfaction is of no value. Here life is either lost or gotten. Here provision is made for eternal salvation, by serving God and by the fruit of faith." [2489]

They object again, that when souls depart from the body, they are indeed purged by the blood of the Son of God, but not fully; for some filth remains to be washed away in purgatory. [2490] For they depart out of this world not having a full and perfect faith; and therefore, they are not altogether good. And again, since they have some faith, they are not altogether evil. And yet, because they are not perfectly good, they cannot enter into heaven. Again, since they are not altogether evil, they cannot be damned. And therefore a middle place remains in which they may be fully tried. [2491] And at length, being purified, they may be presented into the sight of God. In their manner, these men pretend what they wish. But we have shown by the holy scriptures, that the souls of the faithful are purged by the only blood of the Son of God through faith, and not by purgatory.

Now I will also show in what follows, that the sins of all men are fully purified, that is to say, most absolutely, by the only sacrifice of Christ. And further, that by the grace of God in the blood of Christ, whatever infirmity and remnants of sin are left behind in the souls of the faithful departing from the body — these are forgiven at the very instant of death. For the Lord says in the gospel, "He that is washed, does not need to wash anything but his feet, but he is completely clean." Joh 13.10 Behold he says, "He is completely clean;" that is, he is washed by the grace of Christ, so that the foulness of the feet, that is to say, the infirmity and imperfection which remains after regeneration, cannot bring him again into the number of those who are unclean. For the Lord says again in the gospel, "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." Joh 17.19 The Lord gave himself up to be a sacrifice for our sins, to the end that we might be sanctified — that is, truly purged from our sins, fully and most perfectly.

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For Paul says, "For with one offering he has made perfect forever those who are sanctified." Heb 10.14 I ask you to mark the apostle's words: "Christ with one oblation" (look, he says, with one) "has perfectly sanctified all who are sanctified," and are made heirs of eternal life. From this we gather that, if souls are purified by the one sacrifice of Christ, once offered for us all, and are indeed perfectly purified, so that there is nothing lacking as to their purifying — then what, I ask you, does purgatory find to purify? Therefore, it is a shameless forgery and horrible blasphemy against the merit of the purifying of Jesus Christ the Son of God. If anything seems diminished or lacking for the soul now departing, Christ by his grace performs and makes it up while that soul is yet in the world. It is a wicked saying and unworthy to be heard among Christian people, that by our sufferings in purgatory, something is fulfilled which was not as yet fully satisfied [2492] with the blood and passion of Christ — as if our sufferings were better and more effectual than the passion of the Son of God.

These men object to us the weakness of faith in those who die. And on the other side, we object to them the mercy of God, fully pardoning His faithful people. The father of the lunatic mentioned in the gospel, requiring help from the Lord, hears this: "If you can believe" (namely, that I am able to heal your son), "all things are possible to him that believes." And even though he felt his faith was not altogether perfect, but there remained much weakness in it, yet the help of God was not hindered by its weakness, because he humbly submitted himself to the mercy of the Lord, beseeching and saying, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief;" the Lord then consoled him, and without delay healed his son. Mar 9.20-27 So there is no doubt possible, that the most merciful Lord will somehow fail his faithful people to whom he promised most full forgiveness, who acknowledge their weakness in the hour of death, and therefore call for the mercy of God. Rather, at the instant the soul departs, God immediately and perfectly sanctifies it with his Spirit for Christ's sake, and beautifies it with all kinds of graces — so that being truly purged from all the filth of sins, it may flee upward, and deserve to appear in the presence of God. And this should be beaten into the heads of those who are dying. For there remain most large promises of God; and there are examples to be found of many holy men dying and calling upon God.

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Furthermore, it is certain by those things which we have already alleged, that the death of Christ has made full satisfaction for sins; so that now there remains nothing further to be cleansed with the fire of purgatory. Souls, after the death of the body, flee the right and ready way into heaven, taking nothing away with them which needs purging. Therefore, that fire of purgatory is indeed nothing else than a traffic or merchandise of most covetous men, by which they craftily and cunningly purge the purses, not the souls, of both rich and poor.[2493]

These men later undergird their purgatory building, which is a falling down, with two posts. The first is this: Those of old (they say) prayed for the salvation of souls separated from the body; therefore, there is a purgatory. For since they have no need of prayers in heaven; and prayers do no good in hell, since there is no redemption in hell, truly there is a middle place left in which souls are kept, for whom the prayers of the living do good; and that place is purgatory.[2494] Thus they reason, imagining all these things from their own heads, without the authority of the scriptures. But this is what they have to say: that those of old prayed for the dead. I know what Augustine wrote, that famous doctor of the church; and what Chrysostom wrote, that golden-mouthed man; and what other ancient and notable men have left written touching this matter. But I ask the question, Whether what they did was well done? For not all things which the holy fathers said and did are absolutely to be allowed or followed (for they often allowed some things of man's invention). Those things which are set down by them, against the decrees of the scripture, are not to be allowed and followed (they themselves unfeignedly confess this [2495]). But only those things are to be followed which are uttered and confirmed by the authority of holy scriptures, which largely and plainly contain whatever is necessary to be known in the doctrine of godliness.

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But you can find nothing in them about prayer for the dead. For what some allege out of the second book of Maccabees proves nothing; for that book is not canonical: which it behoved them to have learned long since, even from Jerome. [2496]

They add that prayer for the dead is an unwritten tradition of the apostles. [2497] I hear them; but I know well enough that the unwritten traditions of the apostles are not contrary to their written doctrines. I know well enough that the written doctrines of the apostles nowhere command prayers for the dead, and in no place allow them. When Paul the apostle exhorted the Thessalonians to moderation in lamenting for the dead, [2498] that was then a very fit and most convenient time to give a commandment concerning offering prayers for the souls of the dead — if he had thought them at all profitable and necessary. And yet, notwithstanding, he makes no manner mention of them. Rather, he simply teaches what they should believe about the souls of the faithful who were separated from their bodies: namely, that they live in everlasting blessedness with Christ, waiting and looking for the resurrection of their bodies.[2499] But who cannot see that this certainty and plainness of the apostle's doctrine is entangled and perilously shaken with this feigned apostolic tradition? For if we believe in Christ, then let us believe his words and promises. He himself said that he is the resurrection and life of the faithful, and that the souls of the believing, immediately upon the death of the body, escape and pass into life. If we believe these most true words of the Lord, then why do we, still caring for the salvation of the souls of the dead, pray and make supplication for them, as though they had not yet obtained salvation?

iv.397

By such prayers, truly, we give manifest proof that we doubt our faith concerning the salvation of our souls, and do not hope in what we profess with our tongue, and which also the words of Christ and the apostles command us to hope in. The steadfast faith and assured hope of those who believe and stay themselves upon the promises of Christ. forbid us here to take and wear black mourning-garments in offerings for the dead, whose souls we believe to have already put on white garments. They forbid us to give an occasion either to unbelievers, or to weaklings in the faith, of worthily reprehending us because we mourn and lament for those whom we say live with God — as if they were cast into hell-fire, and we busily set ourselves to work making humble prayers to God to deliver these miserable souls out of their torments. That is to say, the faith which we profess with tongue and voice, we condemn by the testimony of our heart and mind, yes, and by our outward works. If we go on after this sort, truly we are double-dealers in our hope and in our faith. The things which we say seem to be dissembled, false, and feigned. For it avails nothing if we vaunt virtue in words, and destroy the truth with deeds. Therefore, let those who would, receive this tradition of the apostles (as they call it), touching offering prayers for the departed faithful. As for me, I mean to receive nothing repugnant to true faith, nor that which disagrees with the apostles' doctrine. Nor do I persuade any man to receive such vanity.

I also cannot help but tell you that what they call the tradition of the apostles, St. Augustine calls the tradition of the fathers received by the church. For in his sermon, de verbis Apostoli, 32, he says,

"This which the fathers delivered, the whole church observes; namely, that prayers should be made for those in the communion of the body and blood of Christ, when they are recited in their own place at the very sacrifice; and it is said to be offered for them also." [2500]

iv.398

And again, de Cura pro Mortuis gerenda, cap. 4, Augustine says:

"Supplications or prayers for the souls of the dead are not to be neglected, which the church has received to be made for all who are departed in the Christian brotherhood — not repeating them by name, but in a general remembrance of them altogether." [2501]

In some places, he stretches the traditions of the apostles very far. Yet, by these words this more expressly seems to be his meaning: that this rite or order of praying for the dead was delivered to the church by the fathers, and doubtless was received by the church many years after the apostles' time. The same Augustine defends in more places than one, that receiving the eucharist, or the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is as necessary to attain salvation for newborn infants from their mother's womb, as the sacrament of baptism. The chief and notable places in which he handles that matter, are in his first book against Julianus Pelagianus, etc., and in his first book de Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione, against the Pelagians.[2502] Nor does he urge that opinion with less earnestness than the tradition, because that was received and very usual in the church in that age. But who today receives that ceremony as apostolic? Who does not see that those good fathers, otherwise most faithful pastors, allowed some invention of man in that thing? The written doctrine of St. Paul deserves to be more esteemed today, than that ancient tradition of the church. Paul writes: "Let every man examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup." 1Cor 11.28 By this, all men understand that the eucharist, or sacrament of the Lord's Supper, is to be received by those who are of mature age, and not for infants. For that reason, it was lawful for our elders to forsake that tradition and to draw nearer to the scripture. Therefore, in this matter let them give us leave also, to depart from the uncertain tradition of the fathers, and to cling to the most assured faith and doctrine of the apostles.

iv.399

But Erius (they say) was condemned for this reason: he believed prayers were unprofitable for the dead.[2503] I know indeed that Erius was condemned; nor do I take it upon myself to defend him, whom Phylastrius, Epiphanius, and Augustine mention was an Arian, and a man polluted with other foul errors.[2504] But touching prayers for the dead, whether they are profitable or unprofitable, there is no doubt that those who believe what is delivered and set down in the Apostles' Creed, are catholics and not heretics,. For according to the tradition of this creed, we believe the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of this flesh, and life everlasting. Those who believe these things undoubtedly obtain whatever they believe. For the Lord said to the Centurion: "Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done to you." Mat 8.13 Therefore, whoever believes forgiveness of sins and life everlasting has obtained forgiveness of sins, and surely he will live in everlasting life. If what is delivered to us in the Apostles' creed is true, and it cannot be false, then what place, I ask you, should prayers have for the dead? For the dead have their sins forgiven them: therefore all hindrances and delays to life are taken away, and so they live with God. But those who have not believed, have still retained and kept their sins, and being cast down into the bottomless lake, they stick fast in the mire of hell.

Since these things are so certain, truly there is no use praying for the dead — neither before God, nor among the faithful. To this are annexed many examples of the saints in both Testaments, which are to be preferred above the traditions and condemnations of men. I ask you, which of the holy fathers ever prayed for their dead? Did Adam pray for Abel? Did the sons pray for their father Adam? What prayers did Abraham offer to God for the soul of his father Terah, or for his most dear wife Sara? What prayers did Esau and Jacob pour out for their father Isaac when he died? Or the twelve sons of Israel for Jacob? Or Solomon for David?

iv.400

In the new Testament, John the Baptist is beheaded by Herod, Stephen is stoned by the Jews, James' head is cut off at the shoulders at the command of Agrippa; their disciples bury their bodies, and do all those things that religiously belong to their burials. But in so many funerals, no mention is made of prayer for the souls of the dead; for they believed that after death, they were immediately carried into everlasting life. Who then, after so many notable examples, and after such a clear profession of the catholic and sincere faith, can tie us to the necessity of praying for the souls of the dead? Who can then say that we are heretics, who fulfil in work what we profess by faith or confess by the mouth? Indeed, we do nothing except what the most excellent worshippers of God of both Testaments have done before us.

The second post by which they prop up their purgatory, lest it fall, is the appearance of spirits.[2505] For Rabanus,[2506] a bishop, shows from the testimonies of pope Gregory and reverend Bede, that the souls of dead men have very often appeared, and said that oblations and prayers profit them very much. [2507] But I wonder that men of learning would ground their work upon such rotten and ruinous foundations; for in the law, the Lord forbids us to ask the truth of the spirits or souls of the dead. In the Prophets, we are sent from such oracles, "to the law and to the testimony." Isa 8.20 In Luke, the rich glutton cries in torments, and says: "I beg you, father Abraham, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brethren, that he may witness to them, lest they also come into this place of torment." But he hears: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." And when the rich glutton answered, "No, father Abraham; but if one comes to them from the dead, they will believe and repent;" he hears again, "If they will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe if one rises from death." Luk 16.27-31

iv.401

Therefore, it is most certain and confirmed by the authority of the gospel, that blessed souls [2508] are not sent to us by God to teach us anything. Who, I pray you, would give ear to wicked and condemned souls? The gospel of Christ sends us all to the canonical scripture. From this it follows that the testimonies which are fetched from oracles, or from appearances of the spirits of the dead, are of no weight, but are most deceivable and full of lying.

Man's testimonies are agreeable with God's, which also teach us that souls being separated from their bodies cannot wander or stray in these regions. The words are too long to repeat, which Tertullian learnedly disputes about this matter, almost at the end of his book De Anima; yet they are all levelled at this mark: to show that souls separated from their bodies, and appointed to their places, do not return again into this world. To the objection of some who boast of artful magic, and also that by the power of God, many have returned from the dead into this life, Tertullian answers:

"But even if the power of God had called some souls back again into their bodies to give us instruction about His might and right, that would not be communicated with the credit and boldness of magicians, and the deceitfulness of dreams, and the licentiousness of poets. But rather, in the examples of the resurrection, when God's power — either by prophets, or by Christ, or by apostles — brings souls into bodies, it is manifestly declared by sound, evident, and full truth, that it is the shape of a true body, so that you might judge all appearings of dead men without bodies, to be delusions." [2509]

Therefore Chrysostom demands, in his twenty-ninth Homily on Matthew,

"What then shall we answer to the question, Am I such a soul?" He answers, "It is not the soul of that dead body which speaks these things, but the devil, who devises these things to deceive those who hear him."

iv.402

And shortly he says: "That is why these are to be accounted the words of old wives and of dotards, [2510] and children's stories and fantasies." And again:

"A soul separated from the body cannot wander in these regions. For the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God, and the souls of infants likewise: for they have not sinned. And the souls of the wicked after this life are later carried away. This is made apparent by Lazarus and the rich glutton. But in another place, the Lord also says: 'This night they shall require your soul again from you.' Luk 12.20 Therefore the soul, when it departs from the body, cannot wander here with us: and that is not without cause. For if those who go on a journey, chancing into unknown countries, do not know where they are likely to go, unless they have a guide — then how much more shall the soul be ignorant where it should go after it has left the body and enters altogether into a new life and a strange way, unless it has a guide! Out of many places of the scripture it may be proved that the souls of just and righteous men do not go astray [2511] after death. For Stephen says, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.' Act 7.59 And Paul desired to be loosed and to be with Christ. Phi 1.23 The scripture also says of the patriarch, 'He died in a quiet (or good) age, and was gathered to (or laid by) his fathers.' Gen 25.8 And that the souls of the wicked cannot delay or have their abiding here, give ear to what the rich glutton says, and consider what he craves and does not obtain. For if the souls of men might be resident here, he would have come himself, as he desired, and would have certified to his brethren about the torments of hell. Out of this place of scripture, this also plainly appears: that after leaving the body, souls are carried into some certain appointed place, from where they cannot return of their own accord when they want to return, but they wait and look for that terrible day of judgment." [2512] This much up to here out of Chrysostom.

iv.403

Against these things they oppose the appearing of Samuel, 1Sam 28.5-19 fetched from the holy scriptures. By this they set about to prove that souls return again after death, to instruct men touching the things which they demand. We answer in a few words that this disguised masker, which seemed to be Samuel, was called Samuel by a trope or figure, but indeed he was not Samuel. For of a certainty it was a spirit, a juggling and a delusion of Satan. For sorcery is strictly forbidden in the law of the Lord. Therefore, blessed spirits do not obey forbidden ways and unlawful practices. When they were still joined with their fleshly bodies, they by all means abhorred and resisted them in their assaults. As for damned spirits, they exercise themselves in this. But who would believe their oracles? Samuel (they say) foretold what happened the day after. And what about that? That was no hard matter for the devil, since the true and living Samuel foretold many things a little while before they happened. But this crafty fox might foreknow the judgment of God which was to come, even by present things, and by the fear and quaking of the hosts. In his book, De Anima, Tertullian says:

"God forbid that we should believe that the soul of any saint, much less the soul of a prophet, can be fetched up by the devil. For we have learned that Satan is transformed into an angel of light, and more than that, into a man of light — yes, that he would pretend that he is God, and show wonderful signs to overthrow even the elect, if it were possible," etc. [2513]

St. Augustine is of the same judgment concerning that appearing.[2514]

iv.404

I trust it is abundantly declared by these testimonies, that souls of men separated from bodies do not wander or appear after death in these regions; for they remain until judgment in the places appointed for them by the determination and providence of God. Therefore they are neither sent by God, nor can they come to men to instruct and warn them either of things present or of things to come. From this it follows that the appearing of souls, that revelations and oracles, are mere delusions of Satan, ordained contrary to the sincerity and pureness of true religion. And because those who want to prove to us that there is a purgatory, use the defence and safeguard of these vanities; it is undoubtedly true that they prove a falsehood by deceit, and they prove an uncertain thing by something much more uncertain. Furthermore, it remains undoubtedly true that purgatory — in which souls that have put off their bodies are purged unto everlasting life — cannot be shown out of the scriptures.

And because we have removed and set aside the obstacles which were thrown in the way to hinder our most speedy journey, we return to our purpose. We intended to declare that the souls of the faithful, separated from the body by death, immediately after the death of the body, pass the right and ready way into heaven; and so they are most certainly and suddenly saved. Likewise, we understand that the souls of the unfaithful are thrown down the right and ready way into hell; and that after the death of the body, they perish with most certain and sudden damnation.

iv.405

For the Lord expressly says in the gospel: "He that believes in the Son of God is not condemned (or judged); but he that does not believe is condemned (or judged) already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Joh 3.18 Again: "He that believes in the Son of God has eternal life; but he that believes not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." Joh 3.36 And yet again: "This is the will of him that sent me, that every one who sees the Son, and believes on him, has everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." Joh 6.40 Now the last day of man is the point of death. In that day, Christ saves us by his power, lest our soul either perish or feel any torments — that it might live and enjoy everlasting blessedness. Moreover,[2515] the last day is that last day of judgment, in which Christ will raise again and judge all flesh, glorifying the bodies of his faithful people unto life everlasting.

Again the Lord says in the gospel: "Truly, truly, I say to you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment (or damnation); but has escaped from death to life." Joh 5.24 These words alone of our Lord, are able (without any question) to set forth, declare, prove, and sufficiently confirm our opinion concerning the most certain and sudden salvation of souls. For first of all, lest any man doubt the most assured truth touching the matter which he was setting forth, immediately at the beginning, he most holily swears ("Truly, truly I say") — that is to say, he confirms the truth by giving witness to it with an oath. Afterwards, he annexes the whole manner of our salvation, which consists in hearing the word of God, and in true faith which receives the truth of God's word. For it is not enough to have heard the word of the gospel, unless we cling to it by true faith. But now, mark with what assurance Christ promises life and salvation to those who believe in him: "He has life everlasting," he says. He said, "he has," not he shall have. Therefore, he left no room either as to doubt, or as to time. Still more plainly, by expounding when and how the faithful have or obtain life, he says: "He shall not come into judgment (or damnation), but has escaped from death to life."

iv.406

Those come into judgment who will have their cause examined and discussed before the judge. Those come also into judgment who, by the sentence of the judge, are punished for their evil deeds. But the faithful have no cause to be tried and discussed before the judge; for their sins are fully forgiven them. "It is God who justifies and forgives. Who is he that condemns?" Rom 8.33 Therefore, they are not subject to any punishments; for Christ bore the punishment of the cross, that his faithful people might be delivered and saved harmless from all torments. But lest any man rather think there is a delay or space of time between the death of the body and the life of the world to come, he says: "But has escaped from death to life." Look, he says, "He has escaped," not He shall escape. By using the verb in the past tense, he signified the certainty of the time being past,[2516] and might show that the souls of those who believe are right then, after the death of the body, caught up into life everlasting. And I know well enough that the adversaries have no sound argument here to set against so manifest and invincible a truth. Indeed, with their wrangling words and their sophistry, they may wrestle with the truth; but they are never able to overthrow the truth. For the souls of the faithful, even out of the very mouth (as is commonly said, "Von mund auf zu himmel faren"), [2517] all of a sudden enter into their blessed seats, and by faith enjoy everlasting felicity.

Again, we read in the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ made to John the apostle, that it was said: "And I heard a voice from heaven, saying to me, Write, Blessed are the dead who hereafter die in the Lord.[2518] Even so, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works follow them." Rev 14.13 In these words, a heavenly and undoubted oracle touching the blessednesses of all those who die in faith, is knit up. And St. John is commanded to write the oracle from heaven, that it may remain to all times, and be read by all people.

iv.407

The sum of the oracle is this, "Blessed are the dead, who hereafter die in the Lord." But whoever departs out of this life in the faith of Jesus Christ, dies in the Lord; for the apostle uses this kind of speech in 1Cor. 15. and 1Thess. 4. Furthermore, those who depart out of this life in the faith of Jesus Christ, are simply and truly pronounced blessed — namely, happy and free from all misery. Indeed, a note is added about the time when they will obtain this blessedness — namely, Hereafter (aparti), that is to say, immediately, in an instant, [2519] then, out of hand, namely (as the Lord says in the gospel), immediately after the death of the body. There is also added another testimony by which the certainty of felicity is again expressed, and perfection is not delayed till the morrow: "Even so, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours." The Spirit, I mean, the Spirit of truth, which cannot lie, says, nai, that is to say, Amen — "so it is." Truly, the faithful are blessed indeed; and they are blessed in an instant; and they are so blessed, that "they rest from their labours." The labours of the faithful are miseries, calamities, afflictions, sorrow, fear, or dread, and other evils of this sort, with which they are vexed in this world, or rather, exercised in their faith. From these things, the souls of the faithful, departing from their bodies, are delivered.

Therefore, they are not plagued by torments and vexations, they are not scorched in the midst of their journey; but being happy and blessed, they are immediately delivered from all anguish and trouble. And if they suffered anything while they were still living in the body, if they did any good works in faith, these "follow them." Let no man think that those works, just because they now cease, were and are in vain; for they receive their reward in that blessed life. That is why "their works follow them." And let us mark that he does not say, the works of others follow them, to deliver them out of purgatory; but their own works follow them. For in the gospel also, the wise virgins who had oil ready in their lamps, went in with the bridegroom to the marriage. The foolish virgins who had [2520] prepared no oil for themselves, but hoped to have it from elsewhere to serve their needs, are excluded and shut out from joy.

iv.408

To the omnipotent God therefore, our most merciful Father, and continual running fountain of all good graces and which is never drawn dry, who fashioned our body in our mother's womb, and breathed or poured into it a reasonable soul, which might, while it is joined to the body, quicken and direct us, and when it is separated from the body might forthwith after the death of the body, be translated into heaven, there to live in joy and happiness until it returns again to the body being raised from the dead in the last judgment, with which it may rejoice and be glad forever and without end; to that God, I say, through Jesus Christ, for whose sake we are made partakers of so great a benefit, be glory, praise, and thanksgiving forevermore. Amen.

THE

FIFTH DECADE OF SERMONS

WRITTEN BY

HENRY BULLINGER.

5-1. THE FIRST SERMON: OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

OF THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH; WHAT IT IS, HOW FAR IT EXTENDS, BY WHAT MARKS IT IS KNOWN, FROM WHERE IT SPRINGS, HOW IT IS MAINTAINED AND PRESERVED, WHETHER IT MAY ERR.

ALSO OF THE POWER AND STUDIES OF THE CHURCH.

The order and course of things [2521] lead us next, after God — the workman and author of all things — to speak of His most excellent work: namely, the CHURCH. For so great is the goodness of our good God and most loving Father, that he is not desirous to live happily and blessedly alone, but moreover to bestow and pour all kinds of blessedness upon us, his beloved creatures, that we should enjoy his goods by all means possible. And with that intent, he chooses men for himself who live in this world, that he may translate them to himself, in whom also he may dwell (even while they live here on earth), whom he may enrich with all his goods, and in whom he may reign. He chooses that they should be called by his name — namely, a people, a house, a kingdom, an inheritance, a flock, a congregation, or a church, of the living God. I will speak of this church (aided with your prayers) those things which the Lord of the church grants to me to utter.

v.4

This word Ecclesia, which signifies a church or congregation, is a Greek word used and received among the Latins. It signifies, as I said, a congregation, communion, or assembly (in the Dutch tongue, Ein Gemeind), or a people called together to hear about matters of the commonwealth. For St. Luke so used this word in the nineteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. But it was translated to a holy use, and began to be called a congregation, assembly, or company of the faithful, calling upon the name of the Lord. St. Paul says that he persecuted the congregation or church of God. 1Cor 15.9 In another place he says, "I received authority from the high priests to bind all those who call upon the name of Christ;" [2522] for now he refers to them as those who call upon the name of Christ, or Christians, whom he previously called the church. Or else this word Ecclesia, the church or congregation, is used for calling together: for in the Greek tongue ekkalew (ekkaleoo) signifies to call forth [to summon]. For God calls forth all believers from all parts of the wide world, and from the whole congregation of men, together with their seed,[2523] that they may be his peculiar people, and that he again may be their God; that is to say, that they may be the church of the living God. In times past, the congregation or assembly of the Jewish people, being God's flock, was called a synagogue; for this word synagogue signifies the same as Ecclesia, the congregation. But because of the stubbornness of the Jews, and the unappeasable hatred which they bear towards Christian religion, this word synagogue is not esteemed, but has almost grown out of use. But we will not dispute by due and right order about the churches either of the Jews or the Turks, or of other foreign churches of the Gentiles,[2524] of which we know there are many sorts and kinds. We will speak of the Christian church and congregation of the faithful: which the Germans call Die kirch, alluding perhaps to the Greek word kuriakh (kuriake). For they call kuriakhn (kuriaken) anything belonging to the Lord, namely, a house or a people — just as the Germans call Die kirchen both the people of God themselves, and also the place in which they assemble together to worship God. But first of all, we will describe a little more plainly what the church or congregation is.

v.5

The church is the whole company and multitude of the faithful, partly now in heaven, and partly still remaining here on earth where it agrees plainly in unity of faith or true doctrine, and in the lawful partaking of the sacraments. Nor is the church divided, but joined and united together in one house and fellowship as it were.

This church was usually called catholic, that is to say, universal. For she produces her branches in all the places of the world, in all times of all ages, and generally comprehends all the faithful of the whole world. For the church of God is not tied to any one region, nation, or kindred; to condition, age, sex, or kind. All the faithful generally, and each one specially, wherever they may be, are citizens and members of this church. St. Paul the Apostle says: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither bondman nor free, neither man nor woman; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal 3.28

The church is distinguished into the TRIUMPHANT and the MILITANT. The triumphant is that great company of holy spirits in heaven, triumphing for the victory gotten against the world, sin, and the devil, still enjoying the sight of God, in which consists all fulness of all kinds of joy and pleasure. Upon this they set forth God's glory, and praise his goodness forever. St. John the Apostle sets forth this church very notably in his Revelation, saying: "After this I saw, and, behold, a great company which no man was able to number, of all nations, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in the sight of the Lamb, clothed in white raiments, and palms in their hands: and they cried out with a loud voice, saying: Salvation belongs to him that sits on the throne of our God, and to the Lamb." Rev 7.9-10 A little after this he says:

v.6

"And one of the elders answered and said to me: These who are clothed in white garments, who are they? Or where do they come from? And I said to him, you know, Lord. And he said to me, These are the ones who have come out of great affliction, and have spread abroad [2525] their garments, and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve day and night in his holy temple. And he that sits on the throne shall dwell over them. They shall neither hunger nor thirst anymore; nor shall the sun shine on them, nor any heat; because the Lamb, who sits in the midst of the throne, shall govern them, and bring them to the springs of the water of life. And the Lord shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." Rev 7.13-17

Brethren, you have heard a notable [2526] description of the triumphant church in heaven, and triumphing truly through the blood of Jesus Christ, by whom they conquered and now reign. For Christ is that "Lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world;" 1Joh 1.29 by whom all who are sanctified are sanctified, and shall be sanctified, and live, from the first creation of the world to the end of all times. St. Paul, in a certain place, also giving us a notable description of this church, tells us that we who are as yet busied in the militant church, shall sometime be translated to the triumphant church, and be made fellows with the angels of God, received among the orders of the patriarchs, and placed in the company of the blessed spirits, with the most high God himself, and the mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ. Preaching the greatness of God's grace brought to us by the gospel, and exhorting us to receive it with a true faith, he says:

v.7

"You did not come to mount Sinai, to a fire, to a whirlwind, a stormy tempest, and darkness; ...but to mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable company of angels, and to the church or congregation of the first-begotten which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the perfect just, and to the mediator of the new Testament, Jesus Christ,[2527] speaking better things than the blood of Abel spoke." Heb 12.18, 22-24

And therefore, all the saints in heaven belong to our company; or rather, we belong to their fellowship; for we are companions and fellow-heirs with the saints from Adam to the end of all worlds, and God's household. This contains the greatest comfort of all man's life, and moves us most of all to the study of virtue. For what more worthy thing is there, than to be of God's household? Or what may be thought more sweet to us, than to think ourselves fellows with the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, of all angels and blessed spirits? This benefit, I say, Christ has bestowed on us. To him, therefore, be praise, glory, and thanks for ever and ever. Amen.

The militant church is a congregation of men on earth, professing the name and religion of Christ, continually fighting in the world against the devil, sin, flesh, and the world, in the camp and tents, and under the banner, of our Lord Christ. This church is to be considered two ways. For either it is to be taken strictly, comprehending only those who are not only called but are indeed the church: the faithful and elect of God, living members, knit to Christ — not only with bands and other outward marks and signs,[2528] but in spirit and faith — and oftentimes by these means without the others. We will speak of this matter afterward. This inward and invisible church of God may be well named the elect spouse of Christ, known only to God, who alone knows who are his. When we are first taught to know this church, we confess her with the Apostles' creed, saying:[2529] "I believe the holy catholic church, the communion of saints."

v.8

And in these few words we comprehend that there is a church, also what the church is, and what manner of church it is. For first we confess that there has been, and is, a church of God, and that it shall continue forever. Then, professing what it is, we add this, "The communion of saints." That is to say, we believe the church to be nothing else but the company of all those saints who are, have been, and shall be, in this present age as well as in the world to come, who enjoy all good things in common granted to them by God. Also, we express what manner of thing the church is, namely, holy — even the spouse of Christ, cleansed and blessed. For St. Paul calls those holy, who are cleansed with the Spirit and blood of our God, a great part of whom have received crowns of glory; the remainder labour here on earth, hoping to receive them in heaven. And truly, in consideration of the church, the chief matter is that through the grace of God we are made the members of Christ's body, and partakers of all heavenly gifts with the angels;[2530] for we confess none to be more holy than ourselves.[2531]

The church more largely considered, comprehends not only those who are the very faithful and holy indeed, but also those who — although they do not believe truly or sincerely, nor are clean or holy in the conduct of their life — yet they acknowledge and profess true religion with the true believers and the holy men of God. Indeed, they speak well of and approve virtues, and reprove evil, and they do not sever themselves [2532] from the unity of this militant holy church. In consideration of this, no more than the wicked and hypocrites (such as we read were in the church in the time of Christ and the apostles, such as Judas, Ananias and Sapphira, Simon Magus, also Demas, Hymenaeus, Alexander, and many others) are excluded and put from the church. Such a church may well be called the outward and visible church.

v.9

But this church of which we speak, is to be reasonably considered both in part, and as the whole; for it is to be considered particularly and generally. And the particular church is that which is comprised of a certain number, and is known by some sure and certain place. For takes its name from the place, being called by the names of cities, such as the churches of Zurich and Berne, etc. The Greeks called those particular churches paroikiav (paroikias) which we commonly call parishes. And we call a parish, that which has dwelling-houses and streets joined together in neighbourhood. But in cities and towns, [2533] to certain portions are usually ascribed both churches and parish priests to serve them, and that whole circuit is called a parish [2534] — in the Dutch tongue, Ein barchi,[2535] oder pfarkirch, oder ein kirchhory. And in olden times, the parish priest was a provider. For the Parish and he provided for and gave necessaries to strangers, chiefly salt and wood.[2536] Some called him the maker of the feast; others call him a preparer of virgins.[2537] And the pastors of churches are, as it were, preparers of virgins for the Redeemer and head of the church, who is Christ; they bring him a chaste and undefiled virgin. In short, because they themselves provided things that were most necessary for the people of God, and also prepared heavenly meats and banquets, the pastors of the Lord's flock are very well called parish priests, or the curates of souls.[2538] The Lord in the gospel, speaking of the particular church, says: "If he that offends the church will not heed when he is warned, complain to the church." Mat 18.17

v.10

But it is not possible for the universal church, throughout the whole world, to assemble and come together so that the rebellious and obstinate might be brought before it. Therefore, judgment to be given on the stubborn is referred to the particular churches. To conclude, the universal church consists of all the particular churches throughout the whole world, and of all the visible parts and members of it. This is the same thing we outlined recently, when we spoke more at large about it. [2539]

But the catholic church of God (as we began to say a little earlier) abides with us continually from age to age, from the beginning; and it is at this time dispersed throughout the whole world, both visibly and invisibly. The Lord's people and God's house will continue on earth to the world's end. For there was never yet any world, nor shall there be any age, in which God has not sanctified or will not sanctify some for himself, in whom he will dwell. And they shall be his flock and holy house: for the testimonies of ancient prophets record that the church is perpetual. For thus we find it written in the 132nd psalm: "The Lord has chosen Zion, he has chosen her for a habitation for himself. This is my resting-place for ever and ever; here I will dwell, because I have chosen her." Psa 132.13-14 And again: "I have sworn to David in my holiness, his seed shall remain for ever, and his seat shall continue before me as the sun." Psa 89.35-36 But who does not know that all this is to be understood about Christ, the Son of David, and about his throne and spiritual Zion, which is the church? He also says in the gospel, signifying the continuance of the church: "I will remain with you continually to the end of the world." Mat 28.20 And again: "I will ask of my Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth, that he may abide with you forever." Joh 14.16 To this also belongs that saying in the gospel: "And the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church." Mat 16.18 This saying truly is a great comfort to the faithful in so many and such great persecutions intended to utterly destroy and overthrow the church.

v.11

But just as Christ has always had, now has, and shall forever have his church here on earth, so likewise the devil, as long as the world continues, will never lack his people in whom he may reign. This church of the devil took her first beginning from Cain, and will continue to the last wicked person, comprehending all those evil peoples that live between the beginning and the end. But living here on earth, they have society and share in common with those who are tormented in hell. For just as all who are godly, make one body under one head who is Christ, so all the wicked, under one head Satan, are one corporate body. This may worthily be called the wicked church,[2540] Sodom and Gomorrah, Babylon, the congregation of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, a synagogue, a school, and a stew of the devil, the kingdom of antichrist, or any other similar names. In this church are reckoned up all those who are wicked and infidels, separating themselves from the society of our holy mother the church, or forsaking its communion; and especially those who are mockers of God and his holy word, blasphemers and persecutors of Christ and his church. These days, such are the heathen, Turks, Jews, heretics, schismatics, and generally all those who are professed enemies to Christian religion.

And to these we may also add hypocrites; for hypocrisy is no small offence that the Lord himself so earnestly persecutes and blames in every part of the gospel. Among other things he says: "The Lord of that servant will come on the day in which he does not look for him, and in an hour he will not know of, and will divide him, and will give him his portion with hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Mat 24.50-51 Beyond all doubt, he signified the greatness of the offence by the sharpness of the punishment. This church follows the motivations of the devil, and the devices or imaginations of her own heart. And she is busied and exercised in all kinds of blasphemy and wickedness, in which she excels herself; and at last sinks down to hell, so that she is not in any place separated from that head to whom she has so diligently, or rather obstinately, joined herself.

I know right well that you will object that I have reckoned hypocrites to be in the outward communion and fellowship of the militant church, and now I again account them to be of the company of the devil's church.

v.12

Moreover, you will say that it is impossible that the same hypocrites may take part in both churches, which differ between themselves. For the Lord says: "Either make the tree good and the fruit good, or else the tree nothing and the fruit nothing." And St. Paul also says that there is no "fellowship between Christ and Belial, between light and darkness, between truth and lying;" 2Cor 6.14-15 and that hypocrisy is lying and darkness.

Therefore, I perceive that here is a fit place to show by what means and how far I may account hypocrites to be among the congregation of the church. First, we will make a distinction or difference between hypocrites. For there are certain hypocrites who put their confidence in their human justice and equity, doing all their works openly so that they may be seen by men, firmly trusting to and stiffly standing in men's traditions. It is a custom and property of these men not only to flee from the church which teaches the righteousness of Christ, but also to curse, detest, and persecute it with all cruelty. Such people were the Jews and Jewish Pharisees with whom our Lord Jesus Christ had much contention, and with whom the church contends and makes wars even today. These are the plain and visible members of the devil's church, and they are not to be counted among the outward [2541] church, yes, they are not even once worthy to be named in the church of Christ. Again, there are some kinds of hypocrites that are dissemblers, who neither give any confidence to their own righteousness and justice, nor yet greatly regard the traditions of men. These kinds of people neither hate the church, nor flee from it, nor persecute it; but outwardly they agree with it, professing the same faith, and participating in the same sacraments. But inwardly and in mind, they neither believe unfeignedly and sincerely, nor do they live holily. Some of this sort will cling to the fellowship and company of the church for a season; and having any occasion given to them, they will fall from it, as heretics and schismatics are prone to do; those who were friends, become enemies. There are still others who never fall from the church, but keep themselves in the fellowship of the church all their lifetime, outwardly pretending and feigning religion; but inwardly giving themselves up to their own errors, faults, and wickedness. For these, without a doubt, the outward behaviour and fellowship does not profit at all.

v.13

For we ought to live forever and participate in all heavenly gifts with those who desire them, to join in fellowship [2542] with the church of God — not only by outward and visible society, but by inward communion and fellowship, in which consists life and salvation. We will speak of this matter in a convenient place. Such hypocrites or dissemblers, hanging on the ecclesiastical body, are called members of the body, and are said to be of the church. So that it may be better understood by you all, we will set forth this matter by certain parables.

We say that the wicked or hypocrites are of a sort in the church, as chaff is in the corn; which indeed is of another nature, and is not corn at all. Therefore, just as the members of men's bodies may be either dry, or rotten, or feeble, these hypocrites, even though they have no society and take no part with the living members in the vital spirit, by coupling together and by tying certain strings, they cling fast to the living members. By this means, they too are called members and parts of the body. But lest [diseased limbs in a body] infect the others, men cut them off — though sometimes they leave them alone, lest by cutting them off, the life of the whole body be endangered. Even in the same way, we say that hypocrites are in the church of Christ, even though they are not united to the church either by the bond of the Spirit, or by faith and love. Nor are they to be taken as living members; yet they are allowed, lest some worse mischief happen to the whole body of the church; and often they are cut off, by which better health may come to the ecclesiastical body.

But let us hear what the evangelical and apostolic testimony says. The Lord says plainly in the gospel, that in the Lord's field tares [2543] grow up, sown by a wicked man; which the Lord forbids to be plucked up, lest the corn be plucked up with it. Mat 13.25 Behold, tares sown by an evil man (I say the devil himself) which is not corn; yet it increases, and it is in the Lord's field. Again, the Lord says in the gospel: "The kingdom of heaven is like a net, which, being cast into the sea, draws all manner of things with it; and when it is filled, it is brought to the shore; and there men sit, reserving what is good in a vessel, and what is evil they cast away." Mat 13.47-48

v.14

Again, behold how you may see both good and bad drawn in the self-same net; and therefore, in the self-same kingdom, both good and evil are to be reckoned. Also in another parable, someone enters in among the guests, who does not have on his wedding-garment. He is allowed for a time, but at last he is cast out of doors by the lord of the feast. Mat 22.1-13 In another place, it is said that he has a fan in his hand, and he cleanses the floor, and burns the chaff with unquenchable fire. Mat 3.12 In his epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul differentiates between the professed and open enemies of Christ's church, and the impure sort of men who as yet are not quite repugnant, nor adversaries of the church and the name of Christ.[2544] "If any man who is called a brother is a thief, or a whore-monger, or a covetous person, etc. see that you do not eat with such a man. For what is it to me to judge those who are outside? For God judges them." 1Cor 5.12-13 Outside (that is to say, outside the bounds of the church) he places those who are not called brethren — namely, those who do not acknowledge the name of Christ or of the church. Inside, that is, inside the society of the church (the outward church), he counts those who yet acknowledge the name of Christians, and withstand ecclesiastical discipline, though in the meantime they are defiled and spotted with much mischief.[2545] St. John the apostle spoke plainly about all such men, saying: "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have stayed with us." 1Joh 2.19 This seems to be a new kind of speech. For if those who go out of the church had not been in the society of the church, then how could they go out of the church? Can a man come out of a place, to which he never came, or in which he never was?

v.15

Therefore, if hypocrites and evil men have gone out of the church, then surely they were in the church at sometime; thus, when they had not yet gone out of it, they plainly showed what kind of Christians they were indeed. Again, because they went out of the church, they manifestly showed that they were never indeed the true and living members of Christ and the church; and yet for a while they were numbered among the members of the church. The apostle gives the reason: it is the disposition of Christ's true members never to forsake Christ and his church, but to continue and also to prosper and increase daily, more and more. The saints and holy men truly offend or fall [at times], but they do not utterly forsake Christ. David, having committed adultery and manslaughter, cries out, saying: "Make me a clean heart, Lord, and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. O give me the comfort of your help again, and establish me with your free Spirit." [2546] St. Peter denies the Lord, and the weak flesh overcame a good spirit. But he repented immediately (the Lord stirring up his heart), and departing from evil company, he adjoins himself to the good fellowship of the Lord, who foretold him of this great fall, and added these words to it: "I prayed for you that your faith should not fail; and you, when you have turned back,[2547] confirm your brethren." Luk 22.32 The same Peter, also in another place, what time many fell from Christ, being demanded whether he also provided to depart, answered: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the word of eternal life. And we believe and know, that you are Christ, the Son of the living God." Joh 6.68-69 This is why St. John said very truly: "They went out from us, but they were not of us." He adds the reason: "If they had been of us, they would have stayed with us." Therefore, because they did not continue with us in the society of Christ and the church, they showed by their defection and falling away, which sort they were. We considered them to be members of the church, but by falling away, they declared that they were chaff in the Lord's corn.

v.16

For chaff, not being [2548] stirred or fanned, seems to be heavy with a grain of wheat in it, but once fanned, it appears empty and light, and is separated from the corn. So too, hypocrites, being light because of their defection,[2549] manifestly prove that they were never heavy with the seed of God's word, and that they were never of the true corn of Christ.

From this, a general and ancient [2550] opinion is gathered that all who are said to be the church, and who beautify themselves with the title of the church, are later found not to be the church. For St. John plainly adds: "But that it may be evident, that all are not of us." We read how St. Paul says to the Romans: "They are not all Israelites who came from Israel; nor are they all children directly, just because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called." Rom 9.6-7 Therefore, the faithful are the true and living members of Christ and of the saints. Meantime, so long as hypocrites or wicked persons (not yet putting off their visors [2551]) declare they are Christians by their sayings and doings, they may not lawfully be cut from the church. They do not yet break away of their own accord; they do not yet forsake Christ in the open field, and flee to the tents of antichrist or the devil. And so they are known and taken to be the true inhabitants of the church, and are called the church and the members of the church, even though God, who beholds the hearts of all men, well enough discerns them.[2552]

I will again make this matter plain by an example. As long as Judas, the betrayer of Christ and a manslayer, did not utter his crafty or rather most wicked device, either by open deed or word, and did not forsake the company of Christ and the apostles, but preached and provided necessary things for the household of Christ, he was accounted an apostle and the steward of Christ — yes, and as a member of the apostolic church.

v.17

Yet the self-same Judas was called a devil by the Lord; and when He spoke of the elect and of his true and living members, Judas was most plainly excluded. Yet there is no occasion to doubt that Judas was not a member of the inward and holy church of God, even though he was a member of the outward church, being counted in the number of the holy men. And therefore, those who said of God's church, that there is one visible and outward, and another invisible and inward, do not speak without great advice. The visible and outward church is that which is outwardly known by men as a church, by hearing God's word and partaking of his sacraments, and by the public confession of their faith. The invisible and inward church is so called, not because men are invisible, but because it is not to be seen with man's eye, and yet it appears before God's eyes, which member believes truly, and which feignedly. For the true believers are the true and living members of this inward church, which I previously called the militant church, more strictly considered. But the other visible church, comprehending both good and bad, is more largely considered.

Now, since we have said that the church militant on earth is marked by God with certain tokens and marks by which it may be known in this world, it next follows that we speak about those outward marks of the church of God. And there are two special and principal marks of it: the sincere preaching of the word of God, and the lawful partaking of the sacraments of Christ. Some would add to these the study of godliness and unity, patience in affliction, and calling on the name of God by Christ; but we include them in these two that we have set down.

Writing to the Ephesians, St. Paul says: "Christ gave himself for the congregation, that he might sanctify it, and cleanse it in the fountain of water, through the word." Eph 5.25-26 We have in this testimony of the apostle, the marks of the church: namely, the word and the sacrament by which Christ makes himself a church. For with his grace he calls, and with his blood he purifies, what he shows [2553] by his word is to be received by faith. He seals them with sacraments, so that the faithful should not doubt anything touching their salvation obtained through Christ. And truly, these things properly belong to the faithful and holy members.

v.18

Though hypocrites are not purified, the fault lies in themselves, and not in God or his holy ministry. They are surely sanctified visibly, for which they are counted holy among men; and these things do improperly belong to them. St. Peter does not differ in this point one whit from St. Paul. When Peter preached the word of God to the people of Jerusalem, and they demanded what they should do, Peter answers: "Repent, and every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." Act 2.38 St. Peter therefore joined baptism with doctrine, the sacrament with the word. He had learned this from our Saviour himself in the gospel written by St. Matthew, saying: "Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Mat 28.19 Thus you read in the Acts no other mysteries about the word and sacraments of the church, than are recounted [2554] in these words: "They continued in the doctrine of the apostles, and in doing almsdeeds,[2555] and in breaking of bread, and prayer." Act 2.42 Here you may see the supper of the Lord, another sacrament, adjoined to the sacrament of baptism — also, the desire for and study of unity and love, and calling upon the name of God.

Notwithstanding that these things are sufficiently plain and firm enough, I will add still other testimonies out of the holy scriptures. Concerning the token of God's word, or the preaching of his gospel, the Lord himself speaks by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "I will make this covenant with them, My Spirit that has come upon you (the church), and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall never go out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your children's children, says the Lord, from this time forth forevermore." Isa 59.21 For also in the gospel, the Lord Jesus says: "He that is of God hears the word of God." Joh 8.47 Again, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and I give to them everlasting life; and they shall not perish forever." Joh 10.27-28 And again, "He that loves me will keep my commandments; he that does not love me will not keep my commandments." Joh 14.23-24

v.19

Again, "Whoever is of the truth, will hear my voice." Joh 18.37 Now, touching the marks and tokens of the sacraments, St. Paul says about holy baptism: "Through one Spirit we are all baptized in one body." 1Cor 12.13 And also, speaking of the Lord's Supper, he says: "Though we are many, yet we are one bread and one body; for we are all partakers of the same bread. Is not the cup of blessing which we bless, partaking of the blood of Christ?" 1Cor 10.16-17 It is most certain therefore (for it is approved by testimonies from the holy scriptures), that the outward marks and tokens of the church are the word and the sacrament. For these bring us into the society of one ecclesiastical body, and they keep us in it.

All these testimonies properly (as I said a little earlier) belong to the elect members of God, being endued with faith and true obedience. But they do not belong to the hypocrites at all, who are devoid of faith and due obedience. Notwithstanding, because they also hear the voice of the shepherd outwardly, and they pursue virtue, and they are openly or outwardly annexed to the elect and true believers in partaking of the sacraments, they are indeed annexed to the true body of Christ. For the sake of those outward signs, they are considered to be in the church, so long as they do not depart from it. In this point, for perspicuity's sake, having treated the marks of the church, we must add this to it: that by common order, these marks declare and denote the members of the church. For there are certain special members who, although they lack these marks, yet they are not excluded from the society and communion of the true church of Christ. For it is most evident that there are many in the world who do not hear the ordinary preaching of God's word, nor do they come into the congregation and the company of those who call upon God, nor receive the sacraments. It is not that they despise them, or that it is a delight to them to be apart from sermons and the preaching of God's word; but through necessity, such as imprisonment, sickness, or being constrained by some other urgent cause,[2556] they cannot attain what they earnestly desire. And yet, despite all that, they are the true and living members of Christ and of the catholic church.

v.20

In times past, the Lord instituted or appointed to the people of Israel a visible church, which he established by a certain law, and set it forth by visible signs. If any man had despised this church, or refused, when he might, to hear the doctrine of the church, and to enter in among the holy company, and to sacrifice — or else, if he had railed against it; or instead of the order of worshipping God that was appointed, he had embraced any other kind of order — then truly, he was not at all considered to be of the order and number of the people of God. And yet it is certain that there were an innumerable company of men dispersed throughout the whole world among the gentiles, who never did, nor could, communicate with this visible company and congregation of God's people; and yet, notwithstanding they were holy members of this society and communion, and the friends of almighty God. There were a great many of the children of God, along with Jehoiakim and Coniah, [2557] who were taken prisoners by Nebuchadnezzar and brought captive into Babylon. This was no prejudice to them, nor did these things hurt those who were separated from the people of God, from the church, and from worshipping God, which was then being visibly upheld by Zedekiah at Jerusalem. Indeed, it little availed a great many, to be in the visible assemblies and congregations with the people of God in God's temple, when their minds and hearts were not sound and perfect.

We may today find a great many of the faithful dispersed on the seas, condemned to the galleys for their confession of the true faith.[2558] We may find many who are held in captivity under antichrist, which we will speak about in the next sermon. We may also find a surprising number in Grascia, Natolia, Persia, Arabia, or in Africa — servants of Jesus Christ and worthy members of the catholic church of Christ — who are being excluded and barred from the holy mysteries of the Christians, through the impiety and cruelty of Mahomet.

v.21

Nevertheless, we will find them most nearly joined together in one spirit and one faith with all the true members of the church, and also marked [2559] with the visible signs. Therefore, the word and the sacraments, by common decree, are the marks of the church — not separating or distinguishing the faithful from the communion and society of other believers who, by some necessity, are being shut out from the visible company of the faithful.[2560]

But to perfectly understand the marks of the church, this too (and most principally) applies: that it is not enough to brag about the word of God, or the scripture, unless we also embrace, retain, and determine the true sense of it, and what agrees with the articles of faith. For if we corrupt the sense of the scripture, and urge it in the church, then you do not bring forth the sincere scripture itself, but your own opinion and fancies which you have devised from your own mind. The church of the Arians did not refuse the word of the Lord, but rather laboured to beautify and defend their own blasphemous errors with the testimonies of holy scripture. That church denied that our Lord Jesus Christ is of one substance with God the Father, saying that the sense of the scriptures, and of the ancient [2561] faith, both affirm and urge this heresy among the principal points of our faith. Truly, that church did not allege the sincere and pure word of God (however it may have boasted of it), but an adulterated word was substituted for the true and perfect meaning of the holy scripture, to defend its heretical opinion. And therefore, it did not have the true mark of the church, nor was it the true church of God. We may judge all other churches of heretics by this one unhappy example. Though seemingly they are not devoid of the testimony of God's word, yet for all that, they indeed have no purity of God's word in them.

What we said concerning the word of God, is also necessarily to be understood about the use of the sacraments: For unless they are used in an orderly and lawful fashion — in that order in which the Lord himself instituted them, they are not marks or signs of the church of God.

v.22

Jeroboam truly sacrificed, yes, he sacrificed to God; but because he did not sacrifice lawfully, he was accounted a stranger, and fallen from the true church of God. Indeed, David himself brought the ark of the Lord of hosts with great devotion, and with much joy and melody. But because he did not carry it lawfully on the shoulders of the priests, instead of great joy, the exceeding sorrow which followed later, declared that it is not enough to use the sacraments and ordinances of God, unless you use them lawfully. If you do this, God will acknowledge you as his. Moreover, those of old, who were baptized by heretics, were not for that reason baptized again by the ancient catholics. This was because the heretics did not baptize into the name of any man, or into the society of their errors [2562] or heresies, but they baptized "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Ghost." Nor did they invoke their own name, or the name of arch-heretics, but of Jesus Christ. Therefore, it was not the baptism of heretics, but the baptism of the church, though ministered by heretics. Though not refusing it, they did not allow the churches of heretics to be known as true, by true signs. Yet they acknowledged that heretics used things properly belonging to the true church. Nor does it at all derogate, or take away from a good thing, if any wicked or evil man administers it. We do not acknowledge today the upstart Romish church of the pope as the true church of Christ (we do not speak of that old apostolic church). Yet we do not rebaptize those who were baptized by the priests imbrued [2563] with popish corruption. For we know that they are baptized with the baptism of Christ's church, and not of the pope, in the name of the holy Trinity, according to the articles of the catholic faith, not according to errors, superstitions, and papistic impieties. Finally, we confess that today, the unworthiness of the minister cannot derogate anything from the service of God. In the same way, we also do not refuse the Lord's prayer, or the Apostles' Creed, or the canonical scriptures themselves, just because the Romish church also uses them. For she does not have them of herself, but she received them from the true church of God.

v.23

This is why we use them in common with her; it is not for the Romish church's sake, but because they came from the true church of Christ.

Beside those outward marks of the church which the true believers have common with hypocrites, there are certain inward marks that specially belong only to the godly; or if you prefer, call them bonds or proper gifts. These make the outward marks fruitful; and even without the outward marks (which may be absent by some necessity), they make men worthy or acceptable in the sight of God. For without these inward marks, no one can please God. In these, therefore, is found the true mark of God's children. And those are the fellowship of God's Spirit, a sincere faith, and double charity.[2564] For by these the faithful, being the true and living members of Christ, are united and knit together, first to their head Christ, then to all the members of the ecclesiastical body. And the consideration of this chiefly belongs to the knowledge of the true church of God, which even though she suffers rotten members, yet she is not defiled by them through their outward conjunction; for with continual study, she labours by all means to keep herself undefiled to God.

And first of all, the evangelical and apostolic doctrine teaches us that Christ is joined to us by his Spirit, and that we are tied to him in mind or spirit by faith, that he may live in us and we in him. For the Lord cries out in the gospel, saying: "If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He that believes in me, as the scripture says, 'shall have streams of living water flowing out of his belly.''' Joh 7.37-38 To this saying, the evangelist then adds this: "But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, which those who believed in him would receive." Joh 7.39 Again in his gospel, promising his Spirit to his disciples, yes, even to all his faithful who would abide with them forever, he says: "In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you;" Joh 14.20 namely, by the Holy Ghost. John the apostle, expounding it, says, "By this we know that he dwells in us, by the Spirit that he gave to us;" 1Joh 3.24 and again: "By this we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he has given of his Spirit to us." 1Joh 4.13

v.24

St. Paul, the vessel of election, does not differ from St. John, writing and saying to the Romans: "If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Rom 8.9 And "whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God." Rom 8.14 Now, touching true faith, which ties us to the Lord, St. Paul says: "I live now; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. But the life which I now live in the flesh, I yet live through the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Gal 2.20 And again he says: "Christ dwells in our hearts through faith." Eph 3.17 St. John the apostle says, again agreeing with these statements: "Whoever confesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in God." 1Joh 4.15 For the Lord himself, before that, said in the gospel: "He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, dwells in me, and I in him." Joh 6.56 And whoever believes, eats Christ's flesh and drinks Christ's blood. Therefore, Christ our Lord is joined to us in spirit, and we are tied to him in mind and faith, like the body to the head. Therefore, those who lack this knot and bond, that is, who do not have the Spirit of Christ, nor true faith in Christ, are not the true and living members of Christ; the Lord himself witnessing to this in the gospel, says: "If a man does not abide not in me, he is cast out as a branch and withers; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they burn." Joh 15.6 The apostle, imitating these words of our Saviour (as we just said) said: "He that has not the Spirit of Christ is none of his." Rom 8.9 But those who are not destitute of the Spirit of Christ, are inflamed with the love of God. Nor do we separate love from faith — the same St. John, so teaching us, says: "God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. For the Lord says in the gospel: "If a man loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will dwell with him." 1Joh 4.16

But although, properly speaking, faith joins us to our head Christ, yet the same faith also knits us to all Christ's members on earth. For though there is but one faith for them all, and therefore the same Spirit, there cannot help but be the same mouth, the same mind, and the same statements among them all. Although faith, now, is not understood only as a confidence in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, but also as an outward confession of faith.

v.25

For by confessing one faith, and one and the self-same head, with one spirit and mouth, we profess together that we are all members of one and the self-same body. Nor is there anything else in the world that more unappeasably dissevers the minds of men, than the differences of faith or religion. And therefore, there is nothing that may more nearly join us together, than unity of faith.

We now come to speak of love, which I said joins together the members of the ecclesiastical body mutually among themselves. The Lord says in the gospel: "A new commandment give I to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." Joh 13.34-35 It is therefore beyond doubt that next after faith, the only mark of the church is love, a bond most firmly knitting together all the members. This grows from the communion of Christ and unity of the Spirit. For insomuch as Christ is the king, the head and high bishop, of the catholic church, enduing us all with one and the same Spirit, he has made us all his members. We are the sons of God, brethren and fellow-heirs, whom he undoubtedly loves tenderly. Every faithful man cannot choose but to embrace with fervent love, the members and fellow-heirs of their king, their head, and their high bishop. For John the apostle says: "Every one who loves him who begot, also loves him who is born of him." 1Joh 5.1 "If any man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for how can he that does not love his brother whom he has seen, love God whom he has not seen?" 1Joh 4.20 To the end that he might properly express this unity and agreement of the members before our eyes as it were, that we might view and behold it, Paul uses a parable taken from the members of a man's body. He says: "For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have one function; so being many, we are one body in Christ, and every one, one another's members." Rom 12.4-5 He speaks more largely and plainly in the twelfth chapter of first Corinthians, expounding the joining together of the heads and members, chiefly by the metaphor of the members of a man's body, publishing it very eloquently. He witnesses that, between the highest members of the church and the lowest members of the church, there is a very great and apt consent; and moreover, there is a diligent care and help that is both continual and most faithful.

v.26

From all of this, it appears that the marks of the true and living church of Christ are the communion of the Spirit of Christ, sincere faith, and Christian charity; without these things, no man is partaker of this spiritual body. By these things it will also be easy to judge whether you are in the fellowship of the church, or not.

Moreover, out of those things which we have argued up to here touching the marks of Christ's church, we gather her origin, and also how the church is planted, spread abroad, and preserved. Her origin is heavenly; for St. Paul, speaking of the church, says: "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." Gal 4.26 Therefore, he calls the church heavenly, not that it dwells altogether in heaven, but that, being here on earth, she has a heavenly beginning. For the children of God are not born of flesh and blood, but from heaven, by the renewing of the Holy Spirit, who through the preaching of God's word, plants faith in our hearts; by this faith we are made the true members of Christ and his church. For Peter says: "You are born anew, not of mortal seed, but of immortal, by the word of God, which lives and lasts forever." 1Pet 1.23 And Paul says: "I begat you in Christ Jesus through the gospel." 1Cor 4.15 And the same apostle says in an-other place: "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God." Rom 10.17

Since therefore faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, and that specially by the word of God, the church truly can by no means spring or be built by the decrees and doctrines of men. Therefore, we affirm that only the word of God is apt for building up the church of God. Men's doctrines set up men's churches, but Christ's word builds the Christian church. For the doctrines of men proceed from flesh and blood. But Peter, confessing Christ with a pure faith, and therefore grounded upon Christ who is the foundation of the church, heard these words of Christ himself: "Flesh and blood has not revealed these things to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Mat 16.17 And therefore Paul says: "When it pleased God that I should preach his Son among the gentiles, I did not confer about the matter with flesh and blood," etc. Gal 1.16

v.27

Also, most manifestly abolishing all doctrines of men from setting up and building faith and the church, and commending only the word of God, he says to the Corinthians: "My words and preaching did not stand in the enticing speech of man's wisdom, but in plain evidence of the Spirit, and of power;[2565] so that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 1Cor 2.4-5 To this now pertains these testimonies of Christ. "He that is of God hears God's word." Joh 8.47 Again, "He that is of the truth will hear my voice." Joh 18.37 And again, more plainly he says, "The sheep will follow the shepherd, because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." Joh 10.4-5 But under the voice of strangers, we include all traditions and decrees of men differing from the doctrine of Christ. The apostle St. Paul attributes the shape of wisdom to these traditions, but the truth he denies them, and calls them superstitious. For our Lord himself in the gospel brings forth from the prophet Isaiah that immutable saying: "They worship me in vain, teaching for doctrines men's precepts." Mat 15.9 Let us therefore hold that the true church is not built by man's decrees, but that she is founded, planted, gathered together, and built only by the word of Christ.

We add that it is beyond doubt that the church of God is preserved by the same word of God, lest at any time it be seduced, or slip and perish; and that it cannot at any time be preserved by any other means. Paul, again witnessing, says:

"Christ has given some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the gathering together of the saints, for the work of the ministry (that is to say, to teach and preach the word), and for the edification of the body of Christ; till we all fit together in the unity of faith, and knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, and to the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ; that we no longer be children, wavering and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the deceit of men (mark, I beg, how men's doctrines are condemned again with great and inviolable authority), and with craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive.

v.23

But let us follow the truth in love, and in all things grow up into him who is the head, who is Christ; by whom the whole body, being coupled and knit together by every joint, for the equipping of it (according to the effectual power which is in the measure of every part), receives the increase of the body to edifying itself in love (increases the body to edifying itself through love.)" Eph 4.11-16

These words of the apostle are so plain, that they need no better exposition than they have of themselves.

In this place also, the order and manner of the church by the preaching of God's word, should of right be set down, which many term and call "the ministry of the word," or of the church. But we will speak of that (God willing) in the third sermon. It will be sufficient here, to defend that our Lord God, having given doctors (teachers) to the church, founds, builds, maintains, and enlarges the church by his word — indeed, by his word only.

Two things now come to be considered.

First, the church of God, for the continual and constant study of the word of God, is called prophetic and apostolic, yes, and also orthodox. For it is called prophetic or apostolic, because it was first built by the travail of the prophets and apostles, and it is preserved by their doctrine even at this time, and shall be spread abroad by it, even to the end of the world. It is called orthodox, because it is sound of judgment, opinion, and faith. For without the church, there is no true faith, nor any perfect doctrine touching true virtue and felicity. The faith and doctrine of the church was revealed from God himself [2566] by Adam and the patriarchs, by Moses and the prophets, and by Christ and the apostles. For this reason, she is elsewhere called a mother, which we will speak of in the next sermon.

v.29

Secondly, the succession of doctors or pastors of the church proves nothing by itself, without the word of God. The champions and defenders of the papistic church boast that they have a most certain mark of the apostolic church, namely, in the continual succession of bishops coming from St. Peter by Clement the first, and so to Clement the seventh, and to Paul the third who died recently, and so continuing to Julius the third, not long ago created.[2567] Moreover, they add that all those members are cut off, who separate themselves from that church in which only that apostolic succession is found. And we do not deny that the right succession of pastors in the primitive church was of great weight. For those who were then called pastors, were pastors indeed, and they executed the office of pastors. But what manner of pastors they have been for a great many years — the parade of cardinals, mitred bishops, and sophisters that have been called pastors [2568] — none is ignorant, except those who are altogether without any understanding.

The prophet Zechariah heard these words spoken to him from the Lord: "Take for yourself the instruments of a foolish shepherd; for look, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not look for the thing that is lost, nor seek the tender lambs, nor heal what is hurt, nor feed what stands up: but he will eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their hoofs in pieces. Woe to the idle [2569] shepherd, who forsakes the flock," etc. Zec 11.15-17 Therefore, these men who do not teach the word of God sincerely, nor execute the office and duty of pastors, prove nothing more by their continual succession of bishops, than if they were to set a company of idols before the eyes of the world. For who dares to deny that a great part, yes, the most part of the bishops of Rome, since Gregory the Great, were such idols, and such wolves and devourers, as those described by the prophet Zechariah? What then, I ask you, can the continual succession of such false pastors prove? Yes, and those of recent times, did they not fill almost the universal church with the traditions of men, and partly oppress the word of God, and partly persecute it? [2570]

v.30

In the ancient church of the Israelites there was a continual order of succession of bishops, [2571] without any interruption of it, even from Aaron to Uriah [2572] who lived under Ahaz, and to other wicked bishops also falling from the word of God to the traditions of men, yes, and also idolatry. But for all that, this succession did not prove the idolatrous bishops, with the church that clung to them, to be the true bishops of God, and the true church of God. Truly, the true prophets of God, the sound and catholic fathers, preaching only the word of God without men's traditions, yes, clean against all traditions, were not able to reckon up any continual succession of their predecessor priests to whom they themselves should succeed. And yet, notwithstanding, they were most excellent lights, and worthy members of the church of God; and those who believed their doctrine were neither schismatics nor heretics, but even to this day are acknowledged to be the true church of Christ. When Christ our Lord, the blessed Son of God, taught here on earth, and gathered together his church, the succession of bishops was on his adversaries' part. But they were not, for that reason, rulers of the true church of God, and Christ of the heretical church. The apostles of our Lord could not allege for themselves and their doctrine an uninterrupted succession of bishops. For they were ordained by the Lord, who was himself called by God the High Priest forever, according to the new order of Melchizedek, Heb 5.10 outside the succession of the order of Levi. Heb 7.11 And yet the church that was gathered by them is acknowledged by all men to be the true and holy church. The apostles themselves would have no others accounted as their true fellows and successors, except those who walked upright in the doctrine and way of Christ; for notable and manifest is this saying of Paul: "Be the followers of me, even as I am of Christ." 1Cor 11.1 And though he speaks these words to all the faithful, and not only to the ministers of God's word, yet those he would chiefly have follow him, were the remainder of common Christians; that is to say, every man in his vocation and calling.

v.31

The same apostle, speaking at Miletum with the bishops of Asia, says among other things: "I know this, that after my departing, grievous wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Moreover, men will arise from among yourselves, speaking perverse things, to draw disciples after themselves." Act 20.29-30 Paul the apostle fetches the wolves and devourers of the church, from no other place than the apostolic church itself — yes, out of the company or assembly of apostolic bishops and pastors. But could not these (do you think) allege the apostolic succession for themselves and for their most corrupt cause; that is, that they are descended from apostolic pastors? But because they have forsaken the truth, and fallen from the faith and doctrine of the apostles, the offspring and apostolic succession does nothing at all to help their case. Therefore, we conclude that the continual succession of bishops, by itself, proves nothing; rather, that which lacks the purity of the doctrine of the scriptures and of the apostles, is no lawful succession.

And therefore Tertullian, though greatly esteeming (worthily) the continual succession of pastors in the church, still requires them to be approved by the sincerity of their apostolic doctrine. And so he acknowledged that those churches which are instructed with pure doctrine, and yet have no succession of bishops, are apostolic churches. If any man requires the words of the author, they are these:

"But if there are any churches that dare presume to plant themselves in the very age of the apostles, so that they may therefore seem to have been planted by the apostles, because they were under the apostles, we may say this: Let them present the first beginning of their churches; let them turn over the order of succession of their bishops, so that by successions from the beginning, their first bishop is found to have had for his author and predecessor, one of the apostles and apostolic sort of men, and continued with the apostles. For by this means, the apostolic churches give their judgment: for example, the church of Smyrna testifies that they had Polycarp placed there by St. John; and the church of Rome shows that Clemens was appointed by St. Peter; and in like manner, others show for themselves, that they are offspring of apostolic seed, placed in their bishoprics by the apostles. Let heretics feign some such thing. For after their blasphemies, what is unlawful for them? But even if they do feign it, they shall not prevail.

v.32

For their own doctrine being compared with the doctrine of the apostles, the diversity and contrariety of it will show that it had neither apostle nor apostolic man for the author; because, as the apostles taught nothing that was contrary among themselves, even so, apostolic men set forth nothing contrary to the apostles. Only those who fell away from the apostles, taught other doctrine." [2573]

Therefore, those churches may appeal in this manner, which even though they can present as their founder, none of the apostles or apostolic men (as those of a far later time are only now being erected daily) — yet, agreeing in one faith, they are nevertheless counted apostolic, for the likeness of their doctrine.

The self-same author, speaking of the ancient church of church of Rome, and gathering the sum of what it either taught or learned, said:

"Happy is that church to which the apostles have uttered all their doctrine with their blood: where Peter in suffering is made like the Lord; where Paul is crowned with the same end that John had; where the apostle John, after he was plunged in hot scalding oil, felt no pain, and was banished to the isle. Let us see what it learned, and what it taught, and how it agrees with the churches of Africa. It acknowledged one God, the maker of all things, and Jesus Christ the Son of God, the creator, born of the virgin Mary; and the resurrection of the flesh.

v.33

It joins the law and the prophets with the doctrine of the evangelists and apostles, and drinks from them that faith; baptizes with water, clothes with the Holy Ghost, feeds with the Lord's Supper, exhorts with martyrdom; and contrary to this institution, it receives no man. This is the institution." [2574] Thus far Tertullian in his book entitled, Of the Prescription of Heretics.

The last thing that is to be noted is this: that the Lord God, not only of old and up to this time, but also in these days, gives doctors and pastors to the church: doctors, I say, and not leaders [2575] and captains of hosts and armies of men,[2576] not princes, not soldiers, not crafty men, using deceitful means which in these days they call "practices." For by no other means or manner, nor by any other instrument than by the doctrine of truth and sound and simple godliness,[2577] is that holy and catholic church of God built up, fenced, and preserved. At the beginning, simple men and Christ's apostles laid the foundation of it by preaching the gospel. Paul therefore removes all worldly wisdom, and says: "I was among you, Corinths, in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling; nor did my word and my preaching stand in the enticing speech of man's wisdom, but in plain evidence of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 1Cor 2.3-5

v.34

The same apostle also banishes all crafty counsel with all sorts of deceit. When writing to the Thessalonians, he says: "Our exhortation was not by deceit, nor by uncleanness, nor by guile. But as we were allowed by God, that the gospel should be committed to us, even so we speak — not as those who please men, but God, who tries our hearts. Nor did we ever use flattering words, as you know; nor coloured covetousness, as God is our record; neither did we seek the praise of men," etc. 1Thes 2.3-6 Therefore, he is greatly deceived and mad, who thinks the church can either be gathered together, or once gathered, can be maintained and preserved with such practices, that is to say, with crafty counsels and subtle deceits of men. It is truly said among the common people, that "those things are overthrown by man's wisdom, which were first built by man's wisdom." Besides this, the Lord himself removes force and arms from the building of the church, since he forbids his disciples the use of the sword. And to Peter, ready to fight, he says, "Put your sword into the scabbard." Nor do we ever read that any were sent by the Lord as soldiers, who would bring the world in subjection with armed force; but rather the scripture witnesses that the great enemy of God, Antichrist, will be destroyed with the breath of God's mouth.

Therefore, there is no doubt that all those things which are read in various places of the prophets, and chiefly in the twelfth chapter of Zechariah, concerning wars that are to be made against all nations by the apostles and apostolic men, ought to be figuratively expounded. For the apostles, according to their manner, fight as apostles — not with the spear, sword, and bow of carnal warfare, but spiritually. The apostolic sword is the word of God. Yet in the mean time, no man denies that the weapons of carnal or corporal warfare have been profitable sometimes to apostolic men and to the church, and they do good even today. No man denies that God often uses the help of soldiers and magistrates in defending the church against the wicked, and tyrants. Indeed, all men will rather confess that a good and godly magistrate owes a duty toward the church of God. For it is not without great cause that the worthy prophet of God, Isaiah, calls "kings nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers." Isa 49.23

v.35

Paul, being oppressed by the Jews in the temple of Jerusalem for preaching the gospel among the gentiles, is taken away and rescued by the army of Claudius Lysias, the Roman tribune. And not long after, no small company of soldiers was sent with the apostle by the same tribune, namely, a troop of horsemen and certain companies of footmen, by whom he was brought safely to Antipatris and Caesarea, before Felix the proconsul of Judea. This is remembered at large by Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, not rashly, and with great diligence. Act 23.15f The ecclesiastical history recites many examples of holy princes who have defended and succoured the church. But I have treated these things in some manner in another place, in the seventh and eighth sermons (as I remember) of the Second Decade. And we have spoken this far about the origin of the church of God, and of its increase and preservation.

It seems to me that the famous question, whether the church of God may err, may not unfitly be handled or briefly expounded at this point. So that it may more plainly be understood, I will briefly discuss the parts of this question. I have taught that the catholic church of God comprehends, first, the blessed spirits in heaven, and then all faithful Christians here on earth. I said that the wicked, or hypocrites, clung to them, feigning faith for a season. Now therefore, if we understand the church to be the blessed spirits in heaven, the church can never err. But if we understand that the wicked or hypocrites are joined and mingled with the good, and the wicked alone by themselves can do nothing else but err, then as they are joined to the good and faithful, and follow them, they either err, or do not err. For the church of the good and faithful here on earth errs, and does not err. We will declare this once we have weighed the diversities of errors, and gathered the number of them together in a whole bundle. Some errors are about doctrine and faith, and some are about life and manners: and what manner either one of them are, I think no man knows. Let us see then, whether the church of the faithful on earth errs or not; and if it errs, in what point or how far it errs. Concerning the manners and life of the church, it cannot wholly and clearly acquit itself from errors; that is to say, from sin.

v.36

For so long as it is living here on earth, it always prays heartily: "And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." And for his mercy's sake, God always purges all dregs and infirmities in his saints, as long as they live in this world, continually renewing and refining the elect. I am not ignorant what may hinder you, faithful hearer. If the church (you say) is not holy and pure, then how can the apostle call it holy, without spot and wrinkle? Eph 5.27 I answer, If you acknowledge no church on earth except that which is altogether without blemish, you will be forced to acknowledge none at all. For there will never be any such church remaining on earth, where the most righteous God, as the scripture witnesses, "has shut up all things under sin, that he might have mercy on all men." Gal 3.22 St. Paul therefore calls the church pure, without spot or wrinkle, through the benefit of Christ's sanctification. It is not that by herself, while she is in the flesh, the church is without spot; but that those spots, indeed otherwise clinging to her through the innocence of Christ, are not imputed to those who embrace Christ by faith. Finally, because the self-same church will be without spot or wrinkle in the world to come. For having put off the flesh and cast off all miseries, it will at length be brought to pass that she will lack nothing. Besides this, it is said that the church is without spot because of the continual study of the church, by which she labours and travails by all means, so that as far as possible, she may have as few spots as possible. And by that means, and chiefly by the benefit of imputation, the church does not err, but is most pure and without sin.[2578]

Moreover, as touching doctrine and faith the church of Christ does not err. For it hears the voice of the shepherd only, but the voice of strangers she knows not: for she follows her only shepherd Christ, saying: "I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." Paul also says to Timothy: "These things I have written to you up to here, that you may know how you ought to behave yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth." 1Tim 3.14-15

v.37

But the church is the pillar and ground of truth for being established on the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Christ himself. He is the everlasting truth of God and the only strength of the church. She receives this by fellowship which she has with him, so that she also might be the pillar and foundation of the truth. For the truth of God is in the church; and through the ministry of the church, that truth is spread abroad. And being assaulted and warred against by the enemies, but abiding sure, she is not overcome. So far as being made one body with Christ, she perseveres in the fellowship of Christ, without whom she can do nothing. Again, the same church errs in doctrine and faith as often as, turning from Christ and his word, she goes after men and the councils and decrees of the flesh; for she then forsakes the word of God and Christ, which is what stayed her up to here, so that she did not err. I think no man would deny that the great congregation of the people of Israel in the desert, was an excellent church of God, with which the Lord made a covenant, and to which He bound himself by sacraments and ordinances. And yet, how shamefully she erred while neglecting God's word. No man is ignorant that Aaron, the high priest of religion, not constantly and earnestly resisting, she made a molten calf, and worshipped it as a god.

Here, surely, it will also be necessary to look more diligently into, and mark the whole number of the church. For because many in the church err, it follows that no church is free from error. For in the church of Israel, the Lord reserved for himself a remnant who never worshipped the calf (I mean Moses, Joshua, and undoubtedly many more), both in that congregation and outside. Thus, there is no doubt that, even though many err in the church, the Lord preserves a certain number for himself through his mercy, who both rightly understand, and by whose faithful diligence, errors are destroyed — and the wandering flock of the Lord is brought back again into the holy fold.

v.38

The church is therefore said to err when a part of it errs, having lost God's word. And it does not err wholly and altogether, in as much as certain remnants (through the grace of God) are reserved, by whom the truth may again flourish, and again be spread abroad in every place. St. Paul called the churches of the Corinthians and Galatians "the holy churches of God." Yet they erred greatly in doctrine, faith, and practices. And yet, who doubts that there were many among them who were most sincere followers of the pure doctrine preached by St. Paul? That holy church erred, therefore, so far as it did not continue steadfastly in true doctrine. And it did not err, so far as it did not depart from the truth delivered by the apostles. From this it plainly appears to the whole world, that they are most vain liars who commend to us churches that are not built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles, but on the decrees of men. And they are not ashamed to commend these churches to us as most true churches which cannot err. Paul [2579] cries out: "Only God is true, and every man a liar." [2580] Jeremiah also cries: "They have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?" Jer 8.9 Therefore, such churches err, nor are they the true churches of God. The true church grounds itself upon Christ Jesus, and is governed by his word alone.

Similar to this treatise about the word of God — which is the only rule by which all things are done in the church — is the disputation about the power of the church of God on earth, and about its studies, which also are directed according to the word of God. But before I present my judgment, that is to say, the judgment delivered by the scriptures, I will briefly repeat the sum of those things which the papists have left in writing concerning this matter, and which they undoubtedly maintain as sound doctrine. John Gerson (who is not much amiss, unless he has an evil interpreter) has defined ecclesiastical authority to be "a power supernaturally and spiritually given by the Lord to his disciples and to their lawful successors, to the end of the world, for the edification of the church militant according to the laws of the gospel, for obtaining eternal felicity." [2581]

v.39

But cardinal Peter de Aliaco says that this authority is six-fold: namely, consecration; administering the sacraments; appointing ministers of the church; preaching; judicial correction; and receiving things necessary to this life. [2582]

They call the power of consecration, that by which a priest, being rightly ordered, may consecrate the body and blood of Christ on the altar. This power, they say, was given to the disciples of the Lord by these words: "Do this in remembrance of me." But the priests these days, think it is given by the bishop in giving the chalice with the bread, and saying: "Receive power to offer up and consecrate Christ's body, both for the quick and the dead." Moreover, they call it the POWER OF ORDERS, and say it is a mark or character that cannot be wiped out. The power of administering the sacraments, and chiefly the sacrament of penance, they call the POWER OF THE KEYS. They make out the keys to be of two sorts: the keys of knowledge — that is to say, the authority of knowledge in the cause of a sinner making his confession — and the keys of giving sentence and judgment, of opening and shutting heaven, or forgiving or retaining sins. They say that this power was promised to Peter in Matthew, where the Lord says, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Mat 16.19 But in John, that was given to all the disciples, Christ saying, "Whoever's sins you forgive, they are forgiven them." Joh 20.23 These days it is given to the priests by the bishops, in their consecration, laying their hands on the priests at giving them their holy orders. [2583] They say, "Receive the Holy Ghost; whoever's sins you forgive, they are forgiven them." They call the power of placing ministers of the church ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION, consisting in a certain prelacy; and the fulness of it rests only in the pope, having respect to the whole universal church.

v.40

For it belongs only to the pope to appoint rulers and prelates in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, because it was said to him, "Feed my sheep." Moreover, they say, all ecclesiastical jurisdiction comes from the pope to the inferior rulers, either mediately or immediately. [2584] Authority in these things is at the pleasure of the one who has the fulness of power; for a bishop has authority only in his diocese, and a curate only in his parish, etc. Power of apostleship or preaching the word of God, they call the AUTHORITY OF PREACHING, which the Lord had given to his disciples, saying: "Go into the whole world, preaching the gospel to all creatures." But doctors these days affirm that none should be sent to preach except by Peter, that is, by his successor, mediately or immediately, etc. They say that the power of JUDICIAL CORRECTION was given to Peter by God, to whom he said, "If your brother offends or trespasses against you," etc. for the words of the Lord are known well enough in St. Matthew, chap. 18.15-17. Thus, they say, God gave authority to priests not only to excommunicate, but also to determine, judge, and establish commandments, laws, and canons; because it is said in that passage, "Whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven." Mat 18.18

To conclude; they say that the power and authority to RECEIVE THINGS NECESSARY FOR THIS LIFE, in reward for their spiritual labours, was given by these words of the Lord: "Eating and drinking whatever they have." Luk 10.7

These men teach these things concerning ecclesiastical power, not only foolishly, but also falsely. We have often said in other places, how vain and foolish the power of consecration and sacrificing is; [2585] and perhaps we will say more (if God grants life) in a convenient place and time. We will dispute about the power of the keys (God willing) at the end of the next sermon; and we brought something about it to bear when we disputed about penance and auricular confession.[2586] But these are foolish and shameless trifles which they babble of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, of the fulness of the high power — that is to say, the power of the bishop of Rome. I do not doubt these were known well enough to the whole world, long ago.

v.41

And some arguments about that matter will follow afterwards in our sermons, to confute it. Though they usurp for themselves the office of teaching, and cry that no man can lawfully preach except those who are ordained by them, they thereby seek the overthrow of God's word, and the defence and assertion of their own errors. This will also be treated in its due place. They have so filthily and shamefully abused the power of excommunicating, that the church (through their negligence and wicked presumption) has not only lost true discipline, but excommunication itself has been for a great many years, nothing else than fire and sword with the bishops of Rome — with which they widely raged against the true professors of God's word, and persecuted the innocent worshippers of Christ. Moreover, we will show in a convenient place, that there is no power given by God to the ministers of the church, to make new laws. The authority and power to receive things with which to live, they have executed to the uttermost: but in recompense for their temporal harvest, they have not sown spiritual things. Rather, being asleep, they have allowed our enemy to sow tares in the Lord's field, and that was not by any other means than their own. For not being contented with things that are necessary for this life, have they not under that colour, subtly invaded kingdoms, and most shamefully and cruelly possessed them? Therefore, if someone does not see that the ecclesiastical authority, as affirmed and put into practice by these men, is but a mere tyranny over simple souls, it is plain that he sees nothing at all.

We will now join to this a true, simple, plain, and manifest doctrine concerning ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Power is defined to be a right which men have to do something. It is called in Greek 'Exousia (Exousia), and Dunamis (Dunamis): of which the first word signifies right and power; and the second signifies the ability to execute that power or authority. For it often comes to pass that a man has the authority to do a thing, but he is destitute of the ability to perform it. But God can do both; and has given them both to the apostles, against those who were possessed with devils, as Luke witnesses: ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς δύναμιν καὶ ἐξουσίαν (edooken autois dunamin kai exousian): "He gave them power and authority over all devils," etc. Luk 9.1

v.42

And there is also one sort of power, which is free and absolute; and another sort of power which is limited, which is also called ministerial. Absolute power is that which is altogether free, and is neither governed nor restrained by the law or the will of any other. Of this sort is the power of Christ, which he speaks of in the gospel, saying: "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them," etc. Mat 28.18 Speaking again of this power, in the Revelation shown to St. John the apostle, He says: "Fear not; I am the first and the last; and I am alive, but was dead; and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of hell and of death." Rev 1.17-18 And again: "These things he says who is holy and true; who has the key of David, which opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens." Rev 3.7 The power which is limited is not free, but is subject to an absolute or greater power of another. It cannot of itself do everything, but only what the absolute power or greater authority allows to be done, and allows under certain conditions. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction is surely of this sort, and it may rightly be called ministerial power. For the church of God, by her ministers, uses the authority committed to her for this purpose.

St. Augustine says, acknowledging this distinction, and speaking of baptism in his fifth treatise on John:

"Paul baptized as a minister, but not as someone who had that power of himself; but the Lord baptized as the one who had the power of himself. Behold, if it had pleased him, he could have given this power to his servants, but he would not. For if he had given this power to his servants, so that what was the Lord's would also have been theirs, then there would have been as many sundry baptisms as servants," etc. [2587]

In the church, Christ reserves that absolute power to himself; for he continues as the head, king, and bishop of the church forever. Nor is that head, who gives life, separated from his body at any time. But he has given limited power to the church.

v.43

The church should acknowledge this: namely, an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, hemmed in with certain laws, which proceeds from God. And it is effectual for that reason; and therefore, it should have chief regard to God in all things; and that ecclesiastical jurisdiction is given to the church for this purpose: that it might be put into practice for the profit of the church. For St. Paul says: "The Lord has given us power, with the intent we should edify, and not for the destruction of the church.'" 2Cor 10.8; 13.9 And therefore, that power which tends to the hindrance and destruction of the church, is a devilish tyranny, and not an ecclesiastical power proceeding from God. It behoves us to diligently mark and retain that this is the end of ecclesiastical power.

But the limited power of the church consists very near in these points: namely, in ordaining the ministers of the church, in doctrine, in discerning between doctrines, and finally, in the ordering of ecclesiastical matters. We will speak a little about every one of these points, in order — declaring what manner of authority the church has, and how far it is limited in every part of it.

The Lord himself appointed the chief doctors of the church, who were the apostles, so that all men might understand that the ecclesiastical ministry is the divine institution of God himself, and not a tradition devised by men. And therefore, after the Lord had ascended into heaven, St. Peter, calling the church together, speaks out of the scriptures, about placing another apostle in the place of the traitor Judas; by that very fact, he shows that power was given to the church, by God, to elect ministers or teachers. The same church, not long after, by the persuasion of Peter and the apostles (who undoubtedly persuaded by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost), chose seven deacons. The church of Antioch, being manifestly instructed by the Holy Ghost, ordains and sends Paul and Barnabas, even though they were assigned to the ministry long before that time. It is also read in the Acts of the Apostles, that by the commandment of the apostles, the churches ordained doctors for the holy ministry, as often as need required. And yet, notwithstanding, they did not ordain everyone without choice, but only those who were fit for that office.

v.44

That is to say, those whom they described afterward by express laws; namely, "If any man is faultless, the husband of one wife, watchful, sober," etc. 1Tim 3.2 The rule set down by the apostle is sufficiently known, as it appears in 1Timothy, chap. 3. But touching the ordaining of ministers (God willing), we will speak in the third sermon of this decade. But if the church has received power to appoint fit ministers for the church, I think no man will deny that the church has the authority to depose unworthy and wicked deceivers; and also to correct and amend those things which, being lacking, may seem necessary for this order.

And because ministers are chosen chiefly to teach, it must follow that the church has the power to teach, exhort, comfort, and the like, by her lawful ministers. And yet, she has no power to teach everything, except what she received, being delivered to her from the Lord by the doctrine of the prophets and apostles. "Teach them," says the Lord, "that which I commanded you." Mat 28.20 "Go, and preach the gospel to all creatures." Mat 28.19 And St. Paul says: "I have been set apart to preach the gospel of God, which he promised before by his prophets in the holy scriptures." Rom 1.1-2 But this ministry and office of preaching is nothing else but the power of the keys which the church has received; the office (I say) of binding and loosing, of opening and shutting heaven. In another place, also, the apostles received power from the Lord over all — over all, I say — not absolutely, but over all devils, and not over all angels and men. And yet, that authority and power they received over devils, they did not receive it absolutely; for it is added that they should expel and cast them out. Luk 9.1

And therefore, they could not deal with devils according to their own fancy, but only and so far as He would have them do, who has absolute power over all devils — that they might cast devils out of men, but not send them into men, however much they might have desired it. And also, touching diseases, they could not do whatever they would. Otherwise Paul would not have left Trophimus sick at Miletum,2Tim 4.20 who might have been greatly profitable to him in the holy ministry. If they had been able to do whatever they would, the two disciples would have commanded fire from heaven to fall upon Samaria, and would have taken vengeance on the discourteous and barbarous people of Samaria, for they refused to harbour the Lord Christ. Luk 9.54

v.45

In like manner, the apostles received keys, that is to say, power to bind and to loose, to open and shut heaven, to forgive and to retain sins; but it was fitly limited. For they could not loose what was bound in hell, nor bind those who were living in heaven. For he did not say, whatever you bind in heaven, but "Whatever you bind on earth;" nor did he say, whatever you loose in hell, but "Whatever you loose on earth." Again, they were not able either to bind or loose whomever they would, not even those on earth. For they were not able to loose, that is to say, to pronounce a man free from sin, who was without faith. Again, they could not bind, that is to say, pronounce condemned, someone who was lightened with faith, and was truly penitent. And surely those who teach other doctrine than this, touching the power of the keys, deceive the whole world. We will more largely treat this in a convenient place. Likewise, the church has received power from Christ to administer the sacraments by ministers, but not according to the church's own will and pleasure, but only according to God's will and the form and manner set down by the Lord himself. The church cannot institute sacraments, nor alter the ends and use of the sacraments.

Finally, it appears that the church has power to give judgment about doctrines, as shown by this one sentence of the apostle Paul: "Let the prophets speak two or three at a time, and let the others judge." 1Cor 14.29 And in another place he says: "Prove all things, and keep what is good." 1The 5.21 And St. John says: "Dearly beloved, do not believe every spirit; but test the spirits, whether they are from God." 1Joh 4.1 But there is also a certain order to this kind of power to judge. For the church does not judge at her own pleasure, but according to the sentence of the Holy Ghost, and according to the order and rule of the holy scriptures. And here also order, moderation, and charity, are observed. Therefore, if at any time the church of God, according to that authority which she has received from the Lord, calls a council together for some weighty matter, as we read that the apostles of the Lord did in the Acts of the Apostles, she does not lean to her own fleshly judgment, but gives herself over to be guided by the Spirit, and examines all her doings by the rule of the word of God and by the twofold charity.[2588]

v.46

This is why the church makes no new laws. As the church of Jerusalem says, or rather the apostolic church: "It seems good both to the Holy Ghost and to the church, that no other burden should be laid upon" faithful Christians, but only a few and very necessary things, neither beside nor contrary to the holy scriptures. Now, ecclesiastical matters are of diverse sorts, the good ordering and well-disposing of them is in the power of the church, for the commodity of men. Of this sort, are those things which concern outward worship as to place and in time; such are prophesying, or the interpretation of tongues, and schools. Also, the church has to judge in causes of matrimony; and chiefly it has the correction of practices, admonitions, punishments, and also excommunicating, or cutting off from the body of the church. For the apostle also says that this power is given to him, and yet with the intent that he should edify with it, and not destroy. For all these things which we have remembered, and similar things, are limited with the rule of the word and of love, also with holy examples and reasons that may be deduced out of the holy scriptures. We will perhaps speak more largely about these things in their place.

I have said this much up to here concerning ecclesiastical power. I have also declared with how open a mouth our adversaries publish the contrary of it. Yet, they handle these matters so grossly, that it may appear even to children, what they seek or what they would defend; namely, not ecclesiastical power, but their own covetousness, lust, and tyranny. The canonical truth teaches us that Christ himself holds and exercises absolute or full power in the church; and that he has given ministerial power to the church, which executes it for the most part by ministers, and religiously executes it according to the rule of God's word.

These things being considered in this way, it will not be greatly laboursome to know the studies of the holy church of God. For it most carefully and faithfully executes that power which it has received from God (as I just said), to the end that it may serve God, that it may be holy, and that it may please Him.

v.47

And now I may reckon up some of her studies specially. First of all, it worships, calls upon, loves and serves one God in Trinity; and it takes nothing in hand, without first having consulted the word of this true God. For she [2589] orders all her doings according to the rule of God's word. She judges by the word of God. And by that same word, she frames all her buildings; and being built, she maintains them; and being fallen down, she repairs or restores them again. She fervently furthers and loves the assemblies and congregations of saints on earth. In these things, the church hearkens diligently to the preaching of the word of God. She partakes of the sacraments devoutly, and with great joy, and with a desire for heavenly things. The church prays to God by the intercession of our only mediator Christ, with a strong faith, fervently, continually, and most attentively. It praises the majesty of God forever, and with great joy gives thanks for all his heavenly benefits. It highly esteems all and every institution of Christ, nor does it neglect any of them. But chiefly it acknowledges that it receives all things belonging either to life, salvation, righteousness, or felicity, from the only Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone chose her, and then by his Spirit and blood, he sanctified her, and made her a church, that is, a chosen people, whose only king, redeemer, high priest, and defender he is, and without whom, there is no salvation. Therefore, she rests only in God alone by our Lord Jesus Christ; she desires and loves Him only; and for his sake she rejoices to lose all things that pertain to this world, yes, even to spend her blood and her life. And therefore, the church inseparably clings to Christ by faith; nor does it hate anything more bitterly than falling away from Christ, or separation. For without Christ, nothing in this whole life seems pleasant. With Satan, as with a deadly enemy, she has unappeasable enmity. It strives both constantly and wisely against heresies and errors. It most diligently keeps the simplicity of the Christian faith, and the sincerity of the doctrine of the apostles. As much as it lies in her, she keeps herself unspotted from the world and from the flesh, and from all carnal and spiritual infection.

v.48

And therefore, she flees from and by all means detests all unlawful congregations and profane religions, with all wicked men; and she willingly and openly confesses Christ both by word and deed, even with the damage of her life. The church is exercised with afflictions, yet never overcome. It keeps unity and concord carefully. She most tenderly loves all and every member of her body. It does good to all men, as much as power and ability will allow. It hurts no man. It forgives willingly. It bears with the weak brothers, till they are brought forth into perfection. She is not puffed up with pride, but through humility is kept in obedience, in modesty,[2590] and in all the duties of godliness. But who (I ask you) is able to recite all and every one of the studies of the church [2591] in a very large discourse, much less in this short recital? And who would not desire to be a member of so divine and heavenly a congregation?

I would by and by join to this, that which remains touching the unity of the catholic church, of the division of it, and of other things belonging to the consideration of this, but I perceive that you, being already weary of hearing, earnestly look for an end to this sermon. There-fore, we will put off the residue till tomorrow. And now, lifting up our minds into heaven, let us give thanks to the Lord our God, who through his beloved Son has purified us and gathered us together, to be a chosen people for himself, and to be heirs of all his heavenly treasures. To him, therefore, be all praise and glory, world without end, Amen.

v.49

5-2. THE SECOND SERMON: THERE IS ONE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

THERE IS ONE CATHOLIC CHURCH: WITHOUT THE CHURCH THERE IS NO LIGHT OR SALVATION. AGAINST SCHISMATICS. WHY WE DEPART FROM THE UPSTART CHURCH OF ROME.

THE CHURCH OF GOD IS THE HOUSE, VINEYARD, AND KINGDOM OF GOD; AND

THE BODY, SHEEPFOLD, AND SPOUSE OF CHRIST; A MOTHER AND A VIRGIN.

I see you are assembled, brethren, with attentive minds to the exposition of those things which remain to be spoken about the catholic church of God; which we affirm to be one and unseparable, according to the holy oracles of the sacred scripture. Solomon in his Canticles says: "One is my dove and my beloved." Sol 5.2 The doctor of the Gentiles doubtless had respect to this, when he said: "There is one body, and one spirit; even as you are called in one hope of your vocation. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, which is above all, and through all, and in you all." Eph 4.4-5 To these heavenly testimonies agree the testimonies of men. For Cyprian, the bishop and martyr, in his book De Simplicitate Clericorum, says:

"The church is one, which is spread further and further abroad by fertile increase: even as there are many beams of the sun and but one light, and many boughs of a tree, yet but one oak grounded on a steadfast root; and though many brooks issue out of one spring, though the number seem to be increased by the abundance of the store, yet is it but one spring at the head. Pluck a beam of the sun from the globe; that one beam, once separated, is void of light. Break a bough from the tree, and it can produce no fruit. Cut a brook off from the spring, and being cut off, it dries up. Even so, the church, enlightened with God's light, spreads abroad the beams of her light through the whole world; yet it is but one light which is spread everywhere, nor is the unity of the body separated. She extends her branches with plenteous increase throughout all the earth, she sends out her plentiful rivers all abroad; yet there is but one head, and one spring, and one mother, plentiful with fertile succession." [2592] And so forth.

v.50

Moreover, where we read that diverse names are given to the church, we must not imagine that there are many-churches in the world, nor is that body to be separated which can bear or suffer no kind of division. Writers call the church catholic, which undoubtedly signifies universal, because it is but one; nor can there be any more. For even if this is distinguished into the church triumphant and militant; into the church of the old fathers, and the congregation of people of the latter time; yet all these members remain perpetually knit together in one body under one head, Christ. And even as the several conditions of bond and freemen does not separate a kingdom or commonwealth into parts, neither does the quiet rest or felicity of the blessed spirits triumphing in heaven, and the labours and sorrows with which we still war in this world under Christ's ensigns, make two churches. The holy angel says to St. John in the Apocalypse: "I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren the prophets." Rev 22.9 He therefore acknowledges that both the prophets and the apostles are the sons and servants of one God. We read of this in the gospel, that only one vineyard was let out to husbandmen, not two or different ones, even though they were divers. Even so, there is but one church of the old fathers who lived before the coming of Christ, and ours, or the new people since Christ's coming, taken out of the Gentiles.

v.51

But in what they differ from us, or we from them, has been said in the eighth Sermon of our third Decade. Again, evil men and hypocrites are mingled with the holy church; but the church is not separated for evil men. For even as undiscovered traitors mingled with citizens do not make two commonwealths; so too, even though evil men cling to good ones, yet they are both gathered into one church. And when hypocrites depart from the unity of the church, the church is not torn in pieces, but it becomes purer. For St. Augustine excellently [2593] says that evil men or hypocrites in the church, are like chaff among wheat, cockle [2594] in standing corn, traitors in a city, and runagates [2595] among soldiers. But it is plain, that wheat is the cleaner, standing corn the lustier, citizens the safer, and soldiers the stronger, when renegades, traitors, cockle and chaff, are separated from them. Yes, and unless rotten members of the church are sometimes cut off from the ecclesiastical body, the church cannot be in safety. And particular or several churches are like towns or cities in a kingdom: the multitude of cities does not divide a kingdom. Particular churches — dispersed throughout the whole world as with a body of many members — are gathered and compacted together in the catholic and universal church, which is the fellowship of all the saints. Therefore, it is most certain that there is only one church of God, not many, of which the only monarch is Jesus Christ; to whom be glory.

The unity and united society of this church of God is so great, that no people found outside of her fellowship are acceptable to God; nor is there any true salvation or safety, any light or truth; for no wholesome pastures are found outside the pale of God's church; all are infected with poison. No religion pleases God outside of the church of God. If in olden times any man had sacrificed to God in the high places, outside the tabernacle or temple, he was considered to have sacrificed to devils, and esteemed to have shed innocent blood. Therefore Cyprian, the blessed martyr and bishop of Carthage, rightly wrote this:

"Whoever, separated from the church, is joined to an adulterous church, is separated from the promises of the church. Nor does one who has left the church of Christ, retain Christ's merits. He is a stranger: he is unclean; he is an enemy.

v.52

He cannot now have God his father, if he does not have the church as his mother. If someone might escape who was outside the ark of Noah, he may also escape what is abroad outside the church. He must be a most wicked man, whoever he is, who leaves his own country and the fellowship of very good men, and falls in with the enemies." [2596]

Lactantius therefore most truly says: "It is only the catholic church that retains true religion. Here is the fountain of truth: this is the household of faith: this is the temple of God; into which if anyone does not enter, or out of which if anyone departs, he is excluded from the hope of salvation and life everlasting." [2597] For our Saviour first said that life is not found outside of the sheepfold. Joh 10.7-10

Therefore, I cannot marvel enough at the corrupt and schismatic manners of certain men, who separate themselves for every light cause, from the most wholesome and pleasant company or society of the church. For these days you will find not a few captious [2598] and ludicrous men, who for many years have had fellowship with no church, nor ever had fellowship with any; for they find some kind of fault in every man; it is only in themselves that they find nothing worthy of reprehension. Therefore, they conceive with themselves a wonderful fashion of the church, which unless they see it established somewhere, in that fashion which they themselves have devised, they contend (with shame enough) that there is as yet no true church of Christ in the world. They are surely worthy to be master-builders in Utopia or Cyribiria,[2599] where they might set up a building fit for themselves.

v.53

But it seems to them they have just cause for schism. For they will not communicate [2600] with our church; it seems the doctrine of the ministers in the church is not yet sufficiently cleansed and polished for them, nor lofty (as they themselves term it, Hoch gnug gericht), subtle, and spiritual enough. Elsewhere they complain that diverse customs are used in our churches. Furthermore, they desire the rigour and severity of discipline; and finally, an exact pureness of life; for they fear they will be defiled with the unclean company of certain men. Because of the faults and vices of certain ministers, many either forsake or flee the congregation of the church. Today, the anabaptists are of this sort. [2601] But there is as yet no sufficient cause alleged by these men, for which, of right, they should not either be joined to us, or for which they may be separated from us. We acknowledge that there are just causes for which the godly both may and should separate themselves from wicked congregations. These are ones in which not only the lawful use of the sacraments is altogether corrupted and turned into idolatry, but sound doctrine is altogether adulterated; their preachers or pastors are not prophets, but false prophets, who persecute God's truth; and finally, they minister poison to those who sit to receive the food of life. But they cannot object any of these things against us (God be thanked!).

For concerning doctrine, it consists partly in sure opinions, and those are numbered, firm, and immutable. Of this kind are the articles of faith, those which are without addition and corruption, lawfully and sincerely understood. And of that sort are also these principles: That all men are sinners, conceived and born in sin; That none but those who are regenerate can enter into the kingdom of God; That men are justified by faith, not by their own deserts, but through the grace of God, by the merits of Christ alone; That once sacrificed for sin, Christ is no more sacrificed; That he is the only and perpetual priest; That good works are done by those who are justified; and those are good works indeed, which the Lord has prepared for us to walk in; That the sacraments of the Lord and of the church are to be received, and not to be despised; That we must pray continually, and that is to be done in that manner which the Lord has appointed us; And any more of the same sort.

v.54

But it suffices if these and other similar grounds are uniformly, purely, and simply taught in the church according to the scriptures, though no rhetorical figures or painted eloquence should be heard. For the blessed martyr Irenaeus aptly says, according to the rule of faith set out in his first book against heresies, "Since there is but one faith only, the one who can say much about it, says no more than he should; nor can the one who says little about it, thereby diminish it." [2602] Therefore, when the doctrine of ministers expounds those things in the church, which are agreeable to the true and sincere faith, and which also are not corrupted, then what do these captious smatterers of rhetoric and self-learned [2603] need to require, though eloquence and plentiful learning are lacking in the teachers? "Was not the doctrine of the apostles and prophets most simple and most free from all subtlety, so that it might rightly be said, the simpler it seemed, the safer it was? But in the meantime, I do not despise true eloquence (as a singular gift of God), as I have often witnessed elsewhere.

And partly, doctrine consists in the daily expounding of the scriptures, and in applying them to our time, place, and affairs. There has ever been great variety and diversity in that kind, for which, notwithstanding, no wise man ever yet separated himself from the fellowship of the church. For it comes to pass very often, that two or three, or even more, may expound the same passage not in one manner only, but in most diverse ways. One may expound it very darkly, and another more plainly; this man hits the mark, the other does not come near it; this man applies a passage very fitly, another does not have a similar simplicity of application — and yet, notwithstanding, he says nothing contrary to the soundness of faith and the love of God and of our neighbour; and he uses all things for edification. I say that, from this diversity, no man has just occasion to depart from the church. For all godly men prove all things, and keep what is good; and in all sermons and holy exercises, they refer their whole study only to edifying.

v.55

And moreover, the preachers agree well among themselves, and direct all things to this: that both themselves and their hearers may become better — not that they may seem more learned, nor to have uttered what no man saw before. And so, the most learned do not loathe sermons which are not so learned. For even if they do not seem to have altogether hit the mark, yet so far as they taught wholesome things, they are praised and not condemned (though in a fit time and place, they may sometimes be admonished in a friendly manner). Again, those who are unskilful do not envy the gifts of the learned, nor do they refuse to labour for more perfection; nor do they loathe or condemn the learned sermons of those who are better learned. Rather, they praise God, and being warned, they strive to more perfection. For St. Aurelius Augustine said wisely in his first book of Christian doctrine, the thirty-sixth chapter:

"Whoever seems to himself to have understood the holy scriptures or any part of them, and he does not gather from that understanding, the twofold love of God and of his neighbour, he understands nothing. But whoever gathers a sense of it that is profitable to him for the increase of love, and yet he does not gather that sense which was probably meant in that place, he is not perniciously deceived, nor does he lie at all." [2604]

And shortly after, he says:

"Notwithstanding, he is to be corrected and he must have it shown to him how much more profitable it would be for him not to leave the highway, lest by habitually straying, he is forced either to go cross-wise or crooked." [2605]

Therefore, where an ecclesiastical interpreter errs grossly, it is lawful for a better-learned brother to admonish him; but it is not lawful to make a schism. Those who lightly create a schism, are somewhat proud and arrogant, and swelled with envy; and therefore they are void of all charity and modesty. [2606] They allow nothing but what they themselves produce, nor will they hold anything in common with others.

v.56

They are always musing about some higher matter, and nothing that is common or simple., The saying of the apostle Paul well applies to these men: "Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies." 1Cor 8.1 Therefore, godly teachers in the church, and also godly hearers, should not leave or forsake the fellowship of the church for doctrine which is not altogether foolish, even though it may be somewhat gross — so long as it is godly and tends to edification. Neither should they strive or contend about it, but rather use charity in all things.

If the ministers' lives are attached to grievous vices, and yet they are faithful in teaching, admonishing, exhorting, rebuking and comforting, and if they lawfully distribute the lawful sacraments, then no man has just occasion to forsake the church. The Lord expressly says in the gospel: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore, whatever they bid you to observe, observe and do that; but do not follow their works; for they say, and do not do." Mat 23.2-3 Behold, the Lord says that they say, and do not do; therefore, the teachers' lives were not agreeable to their doctrine. Yet because they stood in Moses' seat — that is to say, because they taught the word of God lawfully and sincerely — he bids them to receive their sincere doctrine; but because their life is not agreeable to their doctrine, he bids them to refuse it. And therefore, the Lord forbids is to make a schism for the sake of the preachers' evil lives. He surely commands us to flee from false prophets; what makes a false prophet is not an evil life, but false doctrine. The holy father St. Augustine had a great conflict with the Donatists about this matter, who contended that the ministry has less power through the imperfection of the ministers: this case is to be considered in another way.

But now, what cause do they have to leave [2607] and forsake our churches, for the unlikeness or variety of ceremonies? In the baptism of children, they say, you do not observe one order: and so too in the celebration of the supper. Some sitting, take the bread of the Lord in their hands; some come and take it from the hands of the ministers, who also put it in the mouths of the receivers.

v.57

Some celebrate the communion often; some seldom, and only on set days. And you do not use one form of prayer. Nor do all your assemblies have one manner, nor do they meet at one time. How will we believe that the spirit of unity and peace is in you, in whom such great diversity is found? Therefore, we do not communicate with you for just causes. We will speak more fitly about these customs, in their proper place. But it is marvel that men who are not altogether rude and ignorant of ecclesiastical matters, bring no other arguments to defend their wicked schism. Are the poor wretches ignorant of how great a diversity there has always been in our ceremonies? Notwithstanding, unity always remained undivided in the catholic church. Socrates, the famous writer of the ecclesiastical history, in the fifth book of his history, twenty-second chapter, sets out at large the diversity of ceremonies in the church of God. Among other things he says: "No religion," he says, "keeps all ceremonies of one kind, even though it agrees in doctrine about them. For whose who agree in faith, differ in ceremonies." And again: "It would be both laboursome and troublesome, indeed impossible, to describe all the ceremonies of all the churches in each city and region.'' [2608] The blessed martyr Irenaeus, writing to Victor, bishop of Rome, recites the great diversity of the churches in their fastings and keeping the feast of Easter; and then he adds:

"And yet notwithstanding all these, even when they varied in their observations, they were both peaceable among themselves and with us, and still are; nor does the disagreement about fasting break the agreement of faith." [2609]

And again:

"Blessed Polycarp when he came to Rome under Anicete,[2610] and had some small controversy about certain other matters, they were later reconciled; but they did not contend a whit about this kind of matter.

v.58

For Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp that he should not observe those things which he had always observed with John, the disciple of our Lord, and with the rest of the apostles with whom he had been familiar. Nor did Polycarp persuade Anicetus not to keep that custom which he said he was to keep by the tradition of those elders to whom he succeeded. And, these matters thus standing, they had fellowship one with another." [2611]

Moreover, the ancient church used great liberty in the observation of ceremonies, yet always so as not to break the bond of unity. Yes, and St. Austin, prescribing to Januarius what he should either do or follow in this diversity of ceremonies, does not bid him to make a schism. But judging moderately and wisely, he says, "No rule in these things is better than a grave and wise Christian, who does what he sees every church do to which he comes by chance. For what is not contrary either to faith or good manners, is commanded to be considered indifferent, and is to be observed according to their society among whom we live." Again, lest under the pretence of this rule and counsel, anyone might force on every man whatever ceremonies he would, he adds: "The church of God, placed amidst much chaff and cockle, suffers many things; and yet, whatever is contrary either to faith or good life, she does not allow, nor does she hold her peace, nor does she do it." [2612]

v.59

Last of all, these men think that there is no true church where faulty manners are still to be seen, and they are in fear of being polluted unless either they do not come to the church, or else they quickly forsake it. They fall into the madness of the heretics called Catharoi, [2613] who deceived with the false imagination of exact holiness, and using sharp cruelty, fled from those churches in which the fruits of the doctrine of the gospel did not plainly appear. We set against these, both the prophetic and apostolic churches; namely, the most holy churches. For Isaiah and Jeremiah, rebuking the manners of their time, greatly inveigh against the corruption of doctrine and manners; nor do they charge them with light and common faults, but heinous ones. Isaiah cries that "from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there is no wholesome place;" Isa 1.6 and yet he did not depart from the church, nor did he plant himself a new one,[2614] even though he kept himself very diligently from all ungodliness and corruption. How many faults — no, how many errors — were among the apostles of Christ themselves! "What, did our Lord depart from them? The church of Corinth was corrupted, not only in manners but also in doctrine. There were contentions in it, factions and brawlings, undoubtedly whoredom and breaking wedlock was common among them. What do you think of that: that many of them were present at profane sacrifices? Surely it was no small error that they esteemed baptism according to the worthiness of the minister. They had defiled the Lord's Supper with their private and prodigal banquets; yes, and they did not think rightly about the resurrection of the dead.1Cor 15.12 But for that cause, did the apostle either depart from them himself, or command others to depart? Indeed, he rather calls them a holy church; 1Cor 3.17 and greatly rebuking their contentions, he exhorts all men to observe [2615] the unity of the church in the sincerity of truth. It is not to be doubted, therefore, that those who abstain from the fellowship of our church, or rather the catholic church, greatly sin. Even though there is great corruption of life in it, yet the doctrine is sincere and the sacraments are purely ministered.

v.60

But these men object this: "You admit all men without exception to receiving the Lord's Supper — wicked men, drunkards, covetous men, soldiers, and those men with whom the holy apostle forbids us to eat common bread. This is how far off it is, from what he grants regarding those with whom we are to be partakers at the Lord's table. Therefore, unless we like to be defiled with the fellowship of the wicked, it is needful either not to join with this society, or else to flee from it altogether." But, if I live, I will speak of the Lord's Supper and receiving it, in another place that is apt for it. At this time, we bring only this against them: that Paul, the most faithful servant of Jesus Christ, was not sharper than his master. But it is manifest that Jesus admitted Judas to the holy table, whom he knew, as it is usually said, intus et in cute, that is to say, thoroughly within and without; and yet he did not put him aside. But surely he would have rejected him, if he had known the rest of his disciples would have been polluted by his company. Judas himself was polluted, for his mind and conscience were corrupt; but the rest of the apostles, whose minds were pure through perfect faith, could not be defiled by another man's treachery. Therefore, Paul the apostle says: "Let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup." He bids every man to prove himself, not to judge another man's servant, who stands to his Lord or falls. If you are endued with faith, and lawfully participate at the Lord's table, you are not defiled with another man's wickedness. Therefore, to avoid pollution, there is no reason why you should be separated from the church in which you see the bad mingled with the good to be partakers of the Lord's Supper. But if you are separate, you plainly declare yourself, being hardened with arrogance, to partake with those whom St. Augustine in his third book against Parmenian, the first chapter, paints with these proper and lively colours:

v.61.

"They are evil children who, not for the hatred of other men's iniquities, but through the study of their own contentions, go about either to wholly allure or at least to divide the simple people, provoked with the bragging titles of their names, puffed up with pride, foolish with frowardness, subtle with slanders, troublesome with seditions. Lest they be detected to lack the light of truth, they pretend the shadow of sharp severity. And those things which are commanded in the holy scriptures for the correction of the faults of their brethren — saving the sincerity of love and keeping the unity of peace Eph 4.2-3 — in which moderation should also be used, they usurp for the sacrilege of schism, and an occasion for cutting off."

The same author, among other things, reverently and wisely disputes in the two chapters following, giving this counsel to modest wits:

"They should quietly correct what they may; and what they cannot mend, they should patiently suffer and lovingly mourn, till God himself either amends it, or in the day of judgment, fans away the chaff." [2616]

Furthermore, concluding this place, I will recite to you the words of the blessed martyr Cyprian. In his third book, third epistle, he has written this:

"If cockle appears to be in the church, yet neither our faith nor our charity should be abated, such that we ourselves depart from the church because we see cockle in the church. We must rather labour to be good corn, so that when the corn is laid up in the Lord's barn, we may receive the fruit of our labour and travail. The apostle says in his epistle: 'But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth; some vessels of honour, and some of dishonour.' 2Tim 2.20

v.62

Let us endeavour and labour what we may, so that we may be a vessel either of gold or of silver: but only the Lord has liberty to break in pieces the earthen vessels, the one to whom also is given an iron rod. The servant cannot be greater than his Lord. Neither let any man think it is lawful for him to claim for himself, that which the Father has given only to his Son, that he might now be able to purge the floor, or fan the chaff, or by all the wit that man has, to separate all the chaff from the corn. This is a proud obstinacy and a wicked presumption, which lewd fury takes to himself. And while some men always take to themselves a further dominion than peaceable justice requires, they perish from the church: and while they proudly lift themselves up, blinded with their own presumption, they are bereft of the light of the truth." [2617]

The Lord Jesus reduces the wandering sheep into the unity of the catholic church, and living in unity, he keeps and upholds them. Amen.

These adversaries of ours being overcome, there arise new and cruel enemies, that is to say, the defenders of the Roman monarchy and of the apostolic see, as they call it, and the most ancient church. For they cry until they are hoarse, that we are guilty of the same crime of which we condemned the anabaptists and certain other ludicrous fellows.

v.63

For they say that we, with wicked schism forced by no necessity, have forsaken the old Romish church, and have set up new and heretical synagogues for ourselves. And they allege that the holy scripture still has her authority in the church of Rome, that it is still read in all the churches,[2618] and that they fetch their disputations out of it in all their schools — indeed, and also that the sacraments have their right place and use. And therefore, we are wicked schismatics, who without any necessary cause, have departed from the catholic church, most of all, for the faults of some of the clergy and of the bishops. I must therefore digress a little, and contend with these defenders of the popish church, and show that we never departed from the catholic church of Christ.

And because in this matter it chiefly behoves us to know who is truly said to be a heretic or who is a schismatic, I will first of all say these few words about these matters. St. Augustine thinks that there is this difference between a heretic and a schismatic: a heretic corrupts the sincerity of faith and the doctrine of the apostles with his wicked doctrine; and a schismatic, although he does not sin at all against pure doctrine and sincere faith, yet he rashly separates himself from the church, breaking the bond of unity.[2619] And surely, someone is properly a heretic, whoever he may be, that contrary to the scripture, which is the word of God, against the articles of faith, or against the sound opinions of the church which are grounded on the word of God, through hope of some temporal commodity, of his own brain and fleshly choice — chooses, receives, teaches, and follows strange things; and stiffly retaining these, he both defends them and spreads them abroad. By the imperial edict of Augustus Caesar Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius,[2620] catholics or Christians are defined to be those who continue in that religion which St. Peter taught the church of Rome, and which blessed Damasus and St. Peter, bishop of Alexandria, taught. That is to say, those who confess — according to the teaching [2621] of the apostles and the doctrine of the gospel — the only Godhead of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity.

v.64

And again, those are declared by them to be heretics, who follow contrary opinions, whom they account both mad and infamous and worthy of punishment.[2622] And he is a schismatic, whoever he may be, that separates himself from the unity of the true church of God, and either gathers together new assemblies, or joins himself to congregations gathered by others, even if he errs little or not at all in doctrine. And I think no man can either desire or challenge anything in these descriptions.

And therefore, the defenders of the Romish monarchy greatly offend against us, evermore having in their mouths against us, the most heinous crimes of heresy and schism. For we teach nothing against the sincerity and truth of the holy scriptures, nor against the articles of faith, nor against the opinions of the catholic church, which are sound and established by the canonical scriptures. If we wanted to seek earthly commodity, we would surely have continued in the popish doctrine, in which all things are gainful; but because we have received the doctrine of Christ, we are open to every man's reproach. We were not ignorant of this when we departed from the doctrine of the pope. Therefore, it is not for any hope of temporal commodity that we embrace the doctrine of Christ; nor do we affirm anything presumptuously [2623] — for if any man can teach us any better out of God's word, we will not refuse to embrace what is better. And moreover, with open voice and with all our hearts, we condemn all heresies and heretics, whoever they may be, which the ancient church, either in general councils or outside of councils, has killed with the sword of God's word. But we strive against the false doctrine of the pope, his new decrees which fight against the word of God, and against the most filthy abuses and corruptions in the church. The bishops of Rome, with their conspirators, have taken to themselves a tyranny over the church, playing the part of veritable antichrists in the temple of God.

v.65

We therefore flee and refuse their tyranny and anti-Christianism — we do not refuse Christ and his yoke; we do not flee the fellowship of saints. Indeed, rather to the end that we may remain in that society, and become the true members of Christ and of his saints, we have fled from the popish church, and have gathered together again into one holy catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge this church to be the very house of God, and the proper sheepfold of Christ our Lord, of which he is the shepherd.

For we freely confess, and with great joy, giving thanks to God who has delivered us, we publish abroad that we have departed from the Romish church, and that at this day, we also abhor that church. But first of all, we distinguish and differentiate between the old church of Rome, and the recent upstart church. For at one time there was a holy and faithful church at Rome, which apostolic men and the apostles of Christ themselves established and preserved by the word of God. This ancient church was not only without the ceremonies used and received there today, but if she had but seen them, she would surely have cursed them. That ancient church lacked the decrees upon which the church of Rome today altogether stays herself; she was ignorant of that monarchy and all that stately court. Therefore, we never departed, nor will we ever depart, from that ancient and apostolic church of Rome. We acknowledge, moreover, all who are at Rome today, who worship Christ and keep themselves from all popish pollution, as our beloved brethren — we do not doubt that Rome has a great many of this sort. Finally, we do not acknowledge as the true church of Christ, that upstart church of Rome which acknowledges and worships the pope as Christ's vicar on earth, and is obedient to his laws. Therefore, we cannot be schismatics who, leaving the church of Rome, have not departed from the true church of God.

For the holy catholic church clings to her only shepherd Christ, believes his word, and lives holily. But you will find that all things are quite contrary in the church of Rome, so that it cannot come within the compass either of the outward and visible church, nor of the inward and invisible church of God.

v.66

The godly bear with many things in the church, that is to say, in the members of the church, and in the ministers (as I recently showed when I spoke against schismatics). But in that upstart church of Rome, you will not find small and tolerable faults, either of doctrine or of life or of errors: for all these faults in her are heinous, desperate, and abominable. What manner of charity would it be, therefore, that could hope for better from the most untoward and lamentable things? Hypocrites and evil men are accounted to be part of the outward and visible church of God, and are suffered in it. But these Romanists are neither evil men nor hypocrites; rather, they are the very worst and most cruel enemies of Christ's truth, openly blaspheming the gospel, and persecuting those who believe in Christ. And therefore, they have neither the outward nor the inward marks of the church. The Spirit of the Lord rests upon those who tremble at the word of God. Isa 66.5 But these men fret and fume if any man unfeignedly reverences the word of God. True faith attributes only to Christ, all the means by which it comes to everlasting life. These men persecute the faithful, because they attribute to Christ Jesus alone, all the means by which they attain everlasting life, and will not part stakes in the means of salvation, with popish fancies. Instead of charity, they exercise cruelty against their brethren and against their neighbours. What should a man say about those who abuse the public goods of the church, and spend them according to their own private lusts? For that which the faithful from olden times, have given by charity for the use of the church, and to sustain the poor, these men have wasted, living most lecherously and filthily upon it. Concerning these things, the elect apostles of the Lord, Peter and Thaddeus, foretold the church of God. 2Pet 2.1-3; Jude

And touching the outward marks of the church, what shall I say? These men say that the canonical scripture has authority in the church of Rome, and that the same word is read both in their churches and in their schools, and that the sacraments have force and are effectual among them. But I can show the contrary. First of all, they will subject the interpretation of the holy and sacred scriptures to their see; and they give the right of judgment in all cases to their idol, the pope of Rome.

v.67

For every man knows this canon: "Whatever [the pope] decrees, whatever he establishes, is to be observed by all men forever, inviolably." [2624] And again: "The whole church throughout the universal world knows that the holy church of Rome has authority to give judgment about all things; nor is it lawful for anyone to give judgment about her judgments." [2625] Therefore, she also judges the scriptures and expounds them, and turns and winds them whichever way she inclines. I will not now recite how, by manifest words, the standard-bearers of that see write that the canonical scripture takes her authority from the church,[2626] abusing this sentence of the ancient father St. Augustine, "I would not have believed the gospel, if the authority of the holy church had not moved me," etc. [2627] I will affirm this, which can only be manifest to all men, that the Romish church, or the rulers of that church, take away the natural sense and true meaning of the holy scriptures, and have set down a strange sense in its place. To the end it may be better liked by men, they call this sense the sense of the holy mother the church; they also urge this sense with such great wickedness, that if you set against it the native sense, you will receive for your labour, the reproachful name of a heretic. To put it in a few words: unless you bring out the whole scripture twisted according to their mind and gain, that is to say, tempered with their devilish decrees as with poison, it will be said that you have not brought out the holy scriptures, but that you have taught heresy. The matter will be made plainer by examples. The scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is the only head of the church: Col 1.18 but unless you also join the pope as the head of the church militant on earth, you will be called a heretic.

v.68

The scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is the only intercessor or mediator, priest, and only propitiatory sacrifice of the faithful. But they say, unless you join to this, that Christ is indeed the mediator of redemption, but that the saints together with Christ are the mediators of intercession, and that the priests daily offer an unbloody sacrifice, so that the saints may be acknowledged as intercessors together with Christ in heaven, and that the priests on earth daily offer in their mass a sacrifice for the quick and for the dead, you will be called a heretic. The scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is the righteousness of the faithful, and that we receive this righteousness by faith. But they say, unless you part stakes between this righteousness of Christ and works or men's merits, you will be called a heretic. The scripture teaches that Christ ascended into heaven, and has established [2628] a vicegerent power, namely, the Holy Ghost; and also that he will not come again into the world bodily, but only at the day of judgment. But they say, unless you acknowledge the same Christ to be corporally present in the bread of the sacrament, and also worship him there, you will be called a heretic. Christ our Lord said at his last supper, extending the cup to his disciples, "Drink you all of this;" but if you contend that both kinds of the sacrament should be given to all the faithful, you will be called a heretic. God said in his law, you shall not make an image, you shall not worship it, you shall not serve it. But they say, unless you understand an image to mean the idols of the gentiles, such as Saturn or Mercury, but not an image of the true God or any saint, you will be called a heretic.

I could bring forth many more things of this sort, if I were speaking to those who are ignorant. What authority therefore, or what place, would we say the word of God had in that see of Rome? Who does not see that these filthy beasts tread underfoot as a captive, the most holy word of God; that they establish and re-establish laws of God according to their own giant-like boldness? It is therefore as clear as anything may be clear, that the Romish church is destitute of the holy word of God. I have shown plainly in the first sermon of this decade,[2629] that it is not enough to boast of the words of the holy scripture, unless along with that, the natural sense is retained uncorrupted.

v.69

The church of Rome has corrupted the sense and meaning of the holy scriptures, and thrust upon the simple people, opinions that are contrary to the scriptures: and therefore, the church of Rome is not the true church of Christ.

We do not reiterate the sacrament of baptism ministered by popish priests, for they baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost (as I have shown in the first sermon of this decade [2630]). Yet, as to the breaking of bread, or distribution of the Lord's Supper, they have so defiled and corrupted it with doctrines contrary to the sound faith, and turned it into such a filthy merchandise, that no man of sound judgment can, with a safe conscience and without corruption of his religion, communicate [2631] with them. I will say nothing at this time about the most filthy life and wicked manners of the priests of the Romish church. For I do not doubt that it already appears to those who are not willfully blind,[2632] that the see of Rome does not have the outward marks of the true church of God, joined with the pure word of God,[2633] and sound preaching of the gospel. It lacks (I say) a heavenly ministry, and lawful ministers of the church, and also the wholesome use of the Lord's Supper. And therefore, it is not the true church of God from which no man may depart without being guilty of schism.

By this means, someone will say, Christ will have no church left in the earth; for those who are the governors of the church, if they err and corrupt and forsake the word of God, what hope (I ask you) remains for the church? Or where the marks of the church do not appear, where (I pray you) is the church? I answer that Almighty God — in such calamities of the church, in which the governors fall away from the word and the true worship of God, and embrace and introduce new laws and new ordinances into the church, the true outward marks of the church being for a time either darkened or fallen out of use — notwithstanding these, God reserves for himself a church on the earth. This church He also furnishes [2634] and repairs with true teachers whom he sends into it, even though they are not acknowledged as true ministers and teachers of God's church by those who would seem to be the true and ordinary governors of the church; rather, they are condemned as seditious disturbers of the church, and execrable heretics.

v.70

The matter will be made more manifest by examples taken out of the scriptures. In the time of Ahaz king of Judah (Uriah the high priest winking at it, and the princes of the land and priests not resisting it) the king shut up the temple of the Lord, and took away the holy altar. The scripture expressly witnesses to this. And therefore, both the ministry of the word and the lawful or ordinary ministration of the sacraments ceased. Yet, notwithstanding, there was a holy church in the kingdom of Judah, in which extraordinarily (if I may say so), no man doubts the prophet Isaiah with certain others preached. Under Manasseh, the nephew [2635] of king Ahaz, true doctrine and administration of the sacraments was banished, except for circumcision. And that falling away continued until the church was reformed by that most godly king Josiah. And yet, prophets were sent in the meantime, and God had his church in Judah, even though most people, along with their governors, both followed and defended the wickedness and defection of Manasseh.

In the kingdom of Israel, king Jeroboam thrust from their offices, the teachers and preachers of the law of the Lord and of the sound truth. And in their place, he gave the people profane and unlearned priests and rulers; and moreover, he built new temples, yes, and those were cathedral churches; and he set up new idols or calves, a new religion, new altars, and new feasts; and by this means, he abrogated the true religion of God to the end that no outward marks of the church of God might appear in Israel at all. And yet, there is no doubt that God had a notable church in Israel, for which from time to time God sent his prophets for the preservation and repairing of it, even though they were not acknowledged to be the true prophets of God, at the hands of the false church and of the false prophets. Under Jeroboam, the second of that name, Amos the prophet, a shepherd or neatherd of Tekoa, taught and preached the true word of God.

v.71

But he heard from Amaziah, the high priest of the kingdom, "Get here quickly, and go into the land of Judah, and prophesy or preach there; but prophesy no more at Bethel, for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." Furthermore, when Ahab had surpassed all the kings before him in wickedness, and moreover added the abominable religion of Baal to the ungodliness and falling away of Jeroboam, 1Kng 12.27-33 he filled the whole kingdom of Israel with superstitions, idolatries, enchantments, and sacrileges — yes, and most cruelly persecuted the pure word [2636] of God in his prophets — there was yet found in Israel a most famous church of God. Elijah, that great and most excellent prophet of God — because of that horrible falling away from God, and the loathsomeness of that most miserable people, in whom there appeared not one token of the true church of God — fled into the wilderness, and hid himself in the corners. And being asked by the Lord, what he was doing there, he answered: "I have been very jealous for the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, cast down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and only I am left, and they seek my life, to take it away." 1Kng 19.10 But immediately he is sent back into the land of Israel from which he had fled; and moreover, he heard these words: "I have left myself seven thousand men in Israel, who have neither bowed their knees to Baal, nor kissed him." 1Kng 19.18 Behold, this mighty prophet thought that only he himself had been left of all the number of the faithful in Israel: but he heard that God had reserved seven thousand holy men who had not bowed their knees; that is to say, who had never served Baal so much as with outward reverence. But who does not know that the prophet understood by the number "seven," an exceedingly great number of the true servants of God, who undoubtedly were not circumcised into the covenant of Baal, but into the covenant of the eternal God? These men did not lack faith. And therefore, they were not without doctrine, though it was not so common, nor did it seem to the Baalites to be either ordinary or catholic. But undoubtedly, they wanted the use of the sacrifices. For seeing that they were not lawfully offered, they would not partake of those which were unlawful; but meanwhile, they were not destitute of the things which were signified by the outward signs or sacraments, being partakers through faith, of all the gifts of God.

v.72

In the same way, the bishop of Rome, in the manner of king Jeroboam, has forsaken the sound preaching of the gospel, and corrupted the first and simple institution of the Lord's Supper, and depraved and twisted to his own profit, other commandments [2637] of God. And he has placed himself in the throne or temple of God, or in the church of God, bragging that he is a God on earth. Surely then, the church of God, oppressed with grievous tyranny, could hardly be discerned by outward marks. For instead of the sincere preaching of the gospel, a certain kind of doctrine was set forth, mixed and corrupted with men's decrees; and instead of the Lord's Supper, the popish mass was celebrated; and instead of other ordinances of God, a high heap of foolish and superstitious ceremonies came in, to which a great number of men yielded, making themselves subject to the see of Rome. In the meantime, notwithstanding, the church of God was not utterly extinguished throughout the whole world, nor was the holy ministry of the word of God and the true worship of God utterly decayed among all men. For not a few men were found spread abroad in every place, who neither allowed the pope and his conspirators, nor his corruption in matters of the church. But they worshipped the Lord Christ, whom they acknowledged to be the only author of salvation; and therefore, they kept themselves free from popish filthiness. And God also sent in almost every age since the beginning of popedom, men who were grave, godly, and learned, who grievously accused the pope's kingdom and tyranny (even as the prophets of old, in the days of Jeroboam, accused that idolatrous corruption), constantly requiring the reformation of the church from popish corruptions — and also teaching the true doctrine of salvation, and the true use of the sacraments. Even though a pure reformation could not be obtained because of antichrist's tyranny, a continual study of purity was found, and a godly desire for the lawful use of the sacraments.

v.73

As I just said, this was found in the elect members of the true church of God even in the days of Jeroboam, Ahab, Manasseh, and in the time of the captivity of Babylon. But even as in those times, the true prophets of God were not acknowledged as true prophets by the priests of Baal, but were condemned as schismatics and heretics; even so in certain ages past, the bishops of Rome along with their conspirators, excommunicated and persecuted godly and learned men who preached the word of God and called for the reformation of the church. They put many of them to death with fire and sword. Our Lord and Master himself, with the prophets and apostles, foreshowed that this would come to pass.

Moreover, God could undoubtedly reserve to himself a mighty church even under the papism; even as we have no doubt that he has reserved a great many under Mohammedanism: for who would think that no members of the church of God remain in all of Asia and Africa? Could not our merciful God with his mighty power, in that last calamity and ruin of God's church, reserve again (as he once did) seven thousand men, none of whom had ever worshipped the beast or received his mark? What has been done in Turkey, or what is being done today, let those declare who can do it best and most rightly. No man can deny what has been done among us in these last ages. Through the great goodness of God, we see it has come to pass that even as circumcision, the sign of God's covenant of old, was given to the people of God even in the midst of falling from God; so also today, in the greatest darkness of antichrist, most holy baptism was given to the Christians to be a seal of the forgiveness of sins and inheritance of the children of God. Surely the pureness of doctrine was profaned with infinitely gross traditions by the pope's sworn friends; and yet, in the meantime, it was not altogether abolished. For — not repeating anything which I have said about godly and learned men sent by God, crying for reformation of the church, and greatly profiting with the children of God — was it not received with certain universal consent, as most certain and undoubted, that in the decalogue, or Ten Commandments, a short and most absolute sum of all the commandments of God was set down?

v.74

And that in the Lord's prayer, a most ample form of prayer to God was taught to us? And that the Apostles' Creed contained a most perfect rule of faith, or that which was to be believed? Surely the custom was to recite the creed to almost everyone departing out of this world, and at their last gasp, as a most perfect rule of that faith which brings salvation.[2638] Nor do we doubt that the merciful God and Father of mercies (who granted to save the thief on the cross even at giving up his life) had mercy on those who were oppressed with the tyranny of antichrist. And through His unmeasurable grace, he touched the hearts of men, both living and ready to die, and taught them by his Holy Spirit. He has sanctified those who confess [2639] one God the Father and Maker of all things, and one Jesus Christ the Son of God, redeemer of the world, who suffered and rose again, and one Holy Ghost, and finally the holy catholic church, forgiving them all their sins. And he has translated the souls of such faithful men into life everlasting (as they believed); we believe our flesh (being raised again) will also be carried into this place at the end of the world. Therefore, they have their answer here also, who ask whether all our elders who died before these last times in which the gospel is revealed, are damned? Therefore, let those who are alive rather look to this, lest for their contempt of the word of God and their contentions raised against the word of God, they come to a worse end than their forefathers. Therefore, though we do not acknowledge the popish church to be the true church, yet it does not follow from this that there neither is nor was any church of God in the earth. For we say that the true church of God is that which believes in Christ and does not forsake his word, which we have plentifully enough described. We know moreover that we ourselves, who today believe in Christ, are the true church of Christ our Lord. For as we cling by faith to our only head Christ, and to all the members of the catholic church, so we are not destitute of the true marks of the true church of God.

v.75

But they say, we do not read that under the bishops, priests, and kings of the church of the Jews, either the prophets (i.e., the guides of the faithful), or the faithful themselves, departed from the high priest, from the king, and from their universal church, and ordained for themselves new particular sacrifices, as you do today. For, departing from the bishop of Rome, from kings and governors, and from the universal church, you congregate for yourselves a church far unlike the universal church, both in preaching and ministering the sacraments. To this I answer that the old fathers, before the coming of our master Christ, for a certain prescribed cause, did not seek places in which to offer new sacrifices, though the temple was abused [2640] and defiled with idolatry. For it was unlawful to offer sacrifice outside the bounds of the temple, as seen in the seventeen chapter of Leviticus and the twelfth chapter of Deuteronomy. Nor was there any other reason why the people offered no sacrifices, being kept in bondage for the span of seventy years in the captivity of Babylon. Yet notwithstanding, it is most certain that both the prophets of God, and the holy and true worshippers of God, separated themselves from the worship and sacrifices used there, being contrary to the word of God.

Surely we read in all the sermons of the prophets, that both those sacrifices and that church were condemned. For this cause, they themselves were also condemned by the high priest and other priests of Baal, as most abominable heretics and schismatics; even as now-a-days we too are thrust through with the darts of your curses, for we will not communicate with the popish church and her holy service, and we reject their holy service itself. To this it may be added that the sacrifices of the law now being fulfilled and abrogated by the Lord,[2641] the apostles with manifest defection, departed not only from the high priests and the church of Jerusalem, but moreover, they gathered to Christ a new church by the preaching of the gospel and the badge of the sacraments. We have described this church in the Acts of the Apostles; and all churches should of right be reformed according to its pattern, even as many as would be called apostolic churches.

v.76

Therefore, how have we offended now-a-days, by reforming churches in the likeness of the apostolic church? For those churches were of old profaned by that see of Rome and its members. We read that the church of God, before the coming of Christ in the flesh, was often defiled with filthy pollutions of corrupt men, and that it was purged again and renewed in the likeness of the old church, according to the word of God. And why should we not take the same course in our own age, in the very same cause?

Moreover, there remain prophecies of our Saviour Christ and of the holy apostles and prophets, lively depicting this grievous oppression of the church of Christ under the fury of antichrist's tyranny, in this our last age. There remain most weighty commandments, to flee from anti-Christ, from idolatry and false prophets. For the Lord says in St. Matthew's gospel: "There shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you beforehand. Therefore, if they say to you, Behold, he is in the desert, do not go; if they say behold, he is in the secret places, do not believe it." Mat 24.24-26 And again: "Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." Mat 7.15 Also: "Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?" Mat 15.14 St. Peter also says very gravely: "Save yourselves from this froward generation." Act 2.40 And also in his second and third chapters of his second Epistle, he treats this matter largely. And also St. Paul, agreeing in all things with the holy gospel and with St. Peter, depicting antichrist and those last times of antichrist and corrupt men, not just lights but firebrands of the church, commands the saints to depart from them, and to gather themselves together unto Christ and his sincere truth. If any man asks for the places, he will find them here: 2Thess. 2; 1Tim 4; 1Cor 10; 2Tim 3 and 4. The same apostle says in another place, even as the apostle John say: "Flee from idolatry." 1Cor 10.14 And in the sixth chapter of second Corinthians, by express words and most manifest opposition, he shows that there can be no agreement between Christ and Belial, light and darkness, and between idols and the temple of God. 2Cor 6.14-15

v.77

And thus he adds shortly after: "Therefore, come out from among them, and separate yourselves (says the Lord), and touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." 2Cor 6.17 To this pertains what the blessed apostle John in his Revelation was shown by the Lord Christ. Seeing the works of Babylon, he also hears with it a voice coming from heaven, commanding this: "Go out of her, my people, that you not partake of her sins, and that you do not receive her plagues." Rev 18.4 The same apostle often threatens everlasting destruction to those who worship the beast, but life and glory to those who forsake and flee from the beast, so that they cling only to the only Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ. Therefore, that departure of ours from the see or church of Rome, is not only lawful, but also necessary, as that which is commanded by the Lord himself and by his holy apostles, to whom unless we obey, we cannot be saved.

Otherwise, we are not ignorant that fallings away are altogether abominable and to be blamed. Notwithstanding, unless we distinguish among these fallings, it will not plainly appear what we either allow or disapprove, or what we follow or flee from. There is a defection of apostasy in which, through their hatred of faith or religion, atheists or godless men, out of mere ungodliness and contempt of God, with their wicked ringleaders Lucian and Julian the Apostate,[2642] fall away from the sound and catholic faith, and finally from the fellowship of the faithful. Moreover, they blaspheme and rail against Christian verity, and either scornfully laugh at, or persecute, the very church of God. There is also a heretical defection in which, along with Valentine, Marcion, Arius, Manicheaus, Artemones, [2643] and other such monsters, certain proud, arrogant, and malapert [2644] wicked persons, either refuse the scripture; or twisting it, they despise and tread it under their feet. Or else they deny, overthrow, and resist certain articles of faith, and the sound and ancient opinions of the church of God, and they affirm the contrary. So they frame heretical churches for themselves, and depart from the true, ancient, and catholic church.

v.78

There is, moreover, a schismatic defection: such as the Donatists, who separated themselves from the true church of God under the pretence of obtaining a more absolute kind of holiness. [2645] I spoke of this very largely a little earlier. And the two kinds of defection recalled above are altogether abominable and wicked, even as the third kind can also by no means be defended. But none of all these can be imputed to us now-a-days, by our departing from the church of Rome. For the departure is void of all crime, and it is made not from the true, but from the false church; not from the people of God, but from the persecutors of God's people; not from the articles of faith and sound opinions of the church, but from errors which obscure the articles of faith and from the wicked traditions and corruptions of men. Moreover, this is made not done lightly, but of necessity; not for innovation,[2646] but for true religion's sake,[2647] so that leaving the fellowship of darkness we may be gathered together again with Christ, the true light, and all his members. And it is in this way, now-a-days, that we have forsaken that see of Rome, flowing with false doctrine, idolatry, and the blood of innocent martyrs; and embraced the doctrine of the gospel and of the apostles, and therefore Christ himself the head of the church, which is the fellowship of all saints believing in Christ.

I have said this much up to here by digression. I now return to the treatise of the catholic church, so that I may make an end of those things which remain to be said. And to that end, so that greater light and force may be added to those things which I have previously spoken about the church, I will now bring out certain parables from the holy scriptures, by which those things are [2648] painted before our eyes as it were.

v.79

And thus it will be easy for every man to differentiate between the inward and the outward church; and to know either what properly pertains to every one, or else what is not proper.

First of all, the church is set forth for us under the shape and fashion of a house. A house is built to this end, that men may dwell in it; and it is built by workmen of all sorts, made of wood, stones, and mortar, the foundation being first laid, upon which walls are set, which are joined together with a cornerstone. Last of all, the roof is added or placed aloft, without which the whole building, rotting little by little, would fall down and decay. I said that the church is the house of God, the chief master-builder of which is God himself. In the figure of it, that is to say, in the tabernacle made by Moses and the temple built by Solomon, God delivered both to Moses and David, the fashion of the temple, according to which pattern they should build it. For from the beginning, God kept the angels so that they would not fall; and He repaired man who had fallen into sin and death immediately after the beginning of the world — sanctifying a church for himself, which he also severed out, compassing it about with his word. And it is altogether needful that we keep this fashion of the church, and that we do not receive any other fashion, either by emperor or pope, or delivered by any other man. The true master-builder of this house of God. It says in the gospel: "Upon this rock I will build my church." Mat 16.18 For it is the same Son of God who makes us worthy of his kingdom; he gives us faith, by which we are made true members of the church of God. But even though the Lord himself is the only and principal builder of his church, yet he does not refuse the labours of men in the building. Indeed, he rather joins men with him in building the church, whom also he granted to call master-builders.[2649] For Paul says: "As a skilful master-builder, I have laid the foundation." 1Cor 3.10 And again: "Who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but the ministers by whom you believed, and as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, nor he that waters, but God who gives the increase." 1Cor 3.5-7

v.80

Again: "We together are God's labourers. [2650] You are God's husbandry and God's building." 1Cor 3.9 We will make the matter plain by an example.

At the time which God would raise up a house for himself among the Gentiles, he first of all endued Cornelius with his grace, the governor of the Italian regiment placed by Caesar,[2651] or the captain and centurion of it. Later, after sending the apostle Peter, he prepared and made ready that house for himself. For Peter teaches and baptizes; Cornelius with his household hearkens, believes, is baptized, and becomes the house of God, the true church; the Lord dwells in this church by his Spirit. For even as a house is dwelled in by men, so God dwells in the church, as Paul witnesses, saying, "The temple of God is holy, which you are." 1Cor 3.17 Again: "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you?"" etc. 1Cor 6.19 The foundation of this house is Christ; for Christ says by Isaiah: "Behold, I put or lay in Zion (i.e., in the church) a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believes shall not make haste." Isa 28.16 The Lord expounds this prophecy in St. Matthew's Gospel, and applies it to himself as the foundation of the church. Peter has confessed that Jesus is the true Son of the living God, the Messiah that was looked for. Jesus says, "And upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not overcome it." Mat 16.18 There is to be added to this, the exposition of St. Peter the apostle who, reciting the very same words of the prophet Isaiah, and alluding to that saying of David, "The stone which the builders refused is the head of the corner," Psa 118.22 expressly says that Christ is that "living stone, refused by men, but chosen by God, a sure foundation, upon whom whoever stays shall not be confounded." 1Pet 2.6-7 And also Paul the apostle agrees with Peter. For he says: "And the rock was Christ." 1Cor 10.4

And again: "No man can lay another foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1Cor 3.11 Therefore, though in another place he names the self-same foundation as the foundation of the prophets and apostles, it is not to be taken as if the apostles and prophets were the foundation of the church; but that they laid Jesus Christ as the foundation of the church, and built the whole building on this foundation; yes, even themselves also. Eph 2.20

v.81

For mortal men cannot be the object of faith and the foundation of the church, upon which the faithful may stay. David cries: "The way of God is uncorrupt: the word of the Lord is tried in the fire: he is a shield to all that trust in him. For who is God, besides the Lord? And who is mighty (or a rock),[2652] save our God?" 2Sam 22.31-32 And Jeremiah says: "Thus says the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and withdraws his heart from the Lord. Blessed be the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is." Jer 17.5, 7 So the writings of the prophets and apostles with one consent show us that the rock, that is to say, the foundation of the church, is Christ, and that it is he only and alone.

They greatly err therefore, whoever they may be, who attribute to the bishop of Rome this divine praise, power, and prerogative, which is due only to the Son of God. And if they object that many interpreters, both Greek and Latin,[2653] have understood the rock to be Peter himself, we refuse man's authority, and affirm and bring forth heavenly authority. Christ did not say, I will build my church upon you, but upon a rock; and it is that self-same rock that you have confessed. Yes, and Peter takes his name of Petra, which signifies a rock,[2654] even as a Christian of Christ. And Peter himself understood the rock to be Christ. To this comes the authority of Paul, saying: "The rock was Christ." 1Cor 10.4 And, "No other foundation can any man lay, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1Cor 3.11 For David before him said: "Who is God, besides the Lord; or who is a rock, save our God?" 2Sam 22.32 I do not repeat these testimonies unadvisedly: for all those who are not out of their wits will confess that more credit is to be given to these most manifest testimonies, witnessing that Christ alone is the rock, and placing him as the foundation of the church, than to those who teach that both Peter and the bishop of Rome, together with Christ, are the rocks and foundations of the church.

v.82

I will use no sharper speech against them at this time, for it is most manifest to all men what kind of men they are: most unworthy to be reckoned with Peter, but most worthy to be counted among Simoniacs. Peter foresaw what kind of men they would be; and therefore, lest anyone be deceived by them, he painted them in their colours in the second chapter of his second epistle. But leaving them, we will return to the exposition of the parable we had in hand.

The matter of the house, such as the walls and other parts, are faithful men, built upon the foundation Christ. Those famous and principal workmen of this building, Peter and Paul, witness and explain this in the following words. Peter says: "You come to Christ as to a living stone, disallowed by men, but chosen by God, and precious. And you, as living stones, are made a spiritual house, and holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." 1Pet 2.4-5 And Paul says: "Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building coupled together, grows unto a holy temple in the Lord: in whom you are also built together to be the habitation of God by the Spirit." Eph 2.19-22 Therefore, by the authority of the apostles we learn that Christ is the cornerstone in the house of God, who, lest the walls fall down, couples them together, and upholds the whole building. He is also the roof of the church, that is to say, the defender and ruler, under whose defence the church lives safe, happy, and blessed. To this pertains the consideration of the tabernacle of Moses, and of the temple of Solomon: for either of them is called the house of God. The tabernacle was distinguished into the holiest of all, the holy place, and the court. And even though these several parts are named, it is still called one house of the Lord, because there is only one universal church, which nevertheless has her parts. "The holiest of all" is a figure of the triumphant church in heaven, where our fellow-servants and brethren are: the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and all the blessed spirits.

v.83

There Christ our Lord always appears in the sight of God; he is our ark, in which are contained the treasures of the church — there we have the fulfilling of the law, the certainty of the covenant, and our propitiation; there we have our oracles. In this part of the temple, all things are sumptuous, gold and precious stones; for in heaven, perfect joy is attained. In the temple are forms of angels, palms and flowers, for in the life to come the elect will be as the angels of God. Mat 22.30 Here, those who overcome are green forevermore. "To him that overcomes," says the Lord, "will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Rev 2.7 Here all things shine: for in Christ and in the life to come, we shall be made bright. "The holy place" represents to us the militant and inward church, sanctified with the blood of Christ; which not only has a show of godliness, but godliness itself: for by faith they cling fast to God, and with mutual charity they are knit together among themselves. They serve God in spirit, hearing God's word, and being partakers of the sacraments. In the holy place, therefore, Solomon placed ten candlesticks, ten tables, and ten caldrons; for in the church, the saints are daily enlightened, nourished, and purged through repentance. Finally, "the court" received the whole assembly of the people; for the church is the assembly of all those who profess faith, having hypocrites also mingled with them. Between the holy place and the court (or porch) are two pillars in Solomon's temple, dedicated to the posterity of David; for it is Christ who bears up the church, by whom the way is open into the church. Through the benefit and power of Christ, the church has obtained, that if she continues in Christ, she will also be "the pillar and ground of the truth." But besides the tabernacle and temple of God, besides the church, there is no place in which God receives the service done to him; God is only favourable in the church of his saints.[2655] Let the Jews, Turks, and Saracens, therefore, do works which are ever so excellent in outward show; yet, without Christ and his fellowship, no man pleases God. Heb 11.6

Again, the church of God is compared by Isaiah to a most excellent vine, who says by plain words: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant." Isa 5.7

v.84

And also in the gospel, our Lord plainly expounds in the parable of the vine, that men are the branches of this vine. Yes, and in John he says:

"I am that true vine, and my Father is a husbandman. Every branch that does not bear fruit in me, he takes away; and every one that bears fruit, he purges it, that it may bear more fruit. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, no more can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches: he that abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit: for without me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch, and withers; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they burn." Joh 15.1-6

There is one church therefore; for it is one vine. Out of her come branches, partly fruitful, and partly unfruitful: for both the good or godly and true worshippers of God, and evil men or hypocrites, are counted to be in the church; but hypocrites in their time are cut off, and thrown into everlasting fire. The good remain in the vine, and are not cut off, but bear fruit that are they indebted for to Christ, the foundation of the church, and also its head and preserver; by his spiritual and living juice, he makes them fruitful in good works. In this most evidently appears the knitting together of the head and the members, Christ and the faithful. We spoke of this at first, and the Lord adds in the gospel: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask what you will, and it shall be done to you." Joh 15.7

Moreover, this church of the faithful is called the kingdom of God. For the Son of God himself, Christ Jesus, is the king of the church, that is to say, of all the faithful — who governs the church by his Spirit and word; and she in return willingly submits herself to his government. Nor are there many kingdoms in the world, because there is one only King of glory, Christ. I treated this king and kingdom in the seventh sermon of my fourth decade.

Now we have also said often, that the church is likened to man's body. In the body, the head is the chief, which is never absent from the body; and being struck off, it leaves a dead body, void of sense.

v.85

And even though this body has many members, there is a most pleasant agreement of them all among themselves; every one agrees and consents together among themselves: they sorrow one with another, and they each help one another. What one member does for another member, all faithful people likewise perform towards one another. They are united to their head Christ by faith; the head itself is joined to the members through grace and the Spirit. Christ is never separated from the church: nor does she have life anywhere else than from Christ. Although he is absent in body from the militant church, yet he is continually present in spirit, in operation, and in government. Thus he needs no vicar on earth, since he governs alone, and continues forever as the only head, the only king, the only priest and saviour of his church. For the Lord says in Ezekiel: "I will raise up over my sheep a shepherd, who shall feed them, namely, my servant David: he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David shall be their prince among them. I the Lord have spoken it." Eze 34.23-24 This last thing he added, lest any should doubt the faith and certainty of those things which are spoken. God is the eternal truth, and he has spoken it: therefore that which he has spoken must be most true. But what has he spoken? That there shall be and is one pastor and prince of the church. Behold, it is not without significance that he said one. But who is that one? He expounds that, and says, "my servant David," namely, Christ Jesus, that branch of David's posterity whom the authority of the gospel everywhere calls the Son of David. He shall be a shepherd, not in name and title only, but in deed; for he shall feed his sheep, and therefore he shall be in the midst of them. For in the gospel he says expressly: ""Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Mat 18.20 And again: "Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." Mat 28.20 Now, if he is present with his church, then she has no need of a vicar; for a vicar supplies the place of the one who is absent. "Wherever Christ's vicar is acknowledged, therefore, there is no Christ, and therefore anti-Christ reigns there. This will be made yet more clear and sure, if we weigh what it means that Christ is said to be the head of the church.

v.86

The head is the life, salvation, and light, or that which gives light to the church, the supreme governor of the faithful, who both can and will always be present to the whole congregation of saints, of all ages, and dispersed throughout the whole world. He will hear her prayers and requests, and moreover, send her succour in all things. And briefly, he is able perfectly to govern the whole church, and both provide for and bring to pass all her matters, in all things. But this privilege, I think, can be given to no creature without blasphemy and sacrilege. Therefore, only Christ, perfect God and man, is and remains the only head of the church. Those who acknowledge the pope of Rome as the head of the church militant, either do not know what they do and say, or they willingly and wittingly blaspheme the Son of God, whom they will not have to reign over his church alone.

But let us now hear the testimonies of St. Paul the apostle of this matter.

"God has raised up Christ from the dead, and set him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities and powers, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not in this world only, but also in that which is to come. And he has made all things subject under his feet, and he has appointed him over all things, to be head to the church, which is his body, even the fulness of him that fills all in all things." Eph 1.20-23

Behold, Christ is the head, for he rules all things in heaven and on earth; he governs all things; he has all things subject to himself; and he makes the church his body, ministering to her those things which she has need of, and fulfilling all her desires. Again, the same apostle says: "Christ is the head of the church, and he is the saviour of the body." Eph 5.23 It is the part of the head to preserve and govern the body: but no man performs that, except Christ. He remains, therefore, the only head of his church; especially since the church is the spiritual body of Christ, and therefore it cannot have a carnal head, unless you would make a poetical monster of the church: for Christ is the head of the church, not because he is man, but because he is God and man.

But if the defenders of the Romish idol and champions of the monarchy of Rome understand the head to be the prince or governor on earth, as the scripture called Saul the head over Israel, and they understand this of chief bishop ruling in the chief see — then et them again hear the scripture itself confuting their filthy error, saying:

v.87

"And there also arose a strife among the apostles, which of them would seem to be the greatest. But Jesus said to them: The kings of the Gentiles reign over them, and those who bear rule over them are called gracious lords. But you shall not be so. Rather, let the greatest among you be as the least; and the chief, as he that serves. For who is greater, the one who sits at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at the table? And yet I am among you as the one who ministers (serves)." Luk 22.24-27

That primacy of the church of Rome is therefore of men; it is not of the doctrine or institution of Christ: yes, it is rather quite contrary and repugnant to the institution, doctrine, and example of Christ; who would not have the apostles or apostolic men reign like the princes of this world. He instituted ministers of the church, who should serve the church. She sits at the table; the ministers set that food before her which they receive from the Lord, and rightly divide the word of the Lord. Did not Christ himself refuse a crown on earth, and did he not minister, who is Lord of all? Does he not disallow any minister to seek any prerogative in respect to eldership? "He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger." Luk 22.26 He therefore commands an equality among them all. And therefore St. Jerome judges rightly, saying that by the custom of man, and not by the authority of God, some one of the elders is placed over the rest, and called a bishop — even though of old, an elder or minister and a bishop were of equal honour, power, and dignity.[2656] And it is to be observed that St. Jerome does not speak of the Romish monarchy, but of every bishop placed in every city above the rest of the ministers.

v.88

I do not bring this out, to the end we should stay upon the authority of man; but to the end that I might show that even by the witness of man, it may be proved that the majority, as they call it, does not have its origin from the Son of God and from God's word, but out of man's brain;[2657] and therefore that Christ remains the only head of his church, and the bishop of Rome is something less than the head of the church militant. [2658] And with this, we cling most steadfastly to the sacred and holy gospel, and to the undoubted doctrine of the apostles. This doctrine takes away all pride of supremacy, and commends to us a faithful ministry and the equal authority and humbleness of the ministers. The apostles again witnesses this, saying: "Let a man think of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the secrets of God." 1Cor 4.1

To this belongs almost the whole tenth chapter of John, in which the Lord named himself the true and also the only shepherd of the universal church. The only sheepfold of this shepherd is the catholic church, gathered together by the word out of the Jews and Gentiles. And sheep of this fold are all the faithful people in the world, hearing and giving themselves over wholly to be governed by this chief shepherd Christ. Even though he also communicates this name of pastor or shepherd, to the ministers appointed to the ministry of the church, he retains for himself the charge of the chief shepherd, and also the chief power and dignity. Men that are pastors of churches are all ministers, and are all equal: Christ our Lord is the universal pastor, and chief, and Lord of pastors. The more that worthy diligence and trust is in the pastors, the more worthy it makes them. Therefore, when the Lord said to Peter, "Feed my sheep," Joh 21.16 he did not commit to Peter any empire either over the world or over the church, but a ministry on behalf of his redeemed. "Teach my sheep," he says, "and govern them with my word; my sheep, I say, whom I redeemed with my blood;" for Paul says: "Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock of which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood." Act 20.28

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The bishop of Rome is therefore deceived, who by the Lord's word spoken to Peter, thinks that full power is given to him over all in the church.[2659] Let the apostle Peter himself be heard, talking with his fellow-elders, opening those words of the Lord spoken to him: " The elders who are among you," he says, "I beseech, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which depends upon you, caring for it not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but from a ready mind. Not as though you were lords over God's heritage, but that you may be examples to the flock." 1Pet 5.1-3 Peter does not speak of any empire and lordship — indeed, by express words, he forbids lordly dignity. For just as he is appointed by the Lord to be a minister and an elder, not a prince and a pope, so too he appointed no princes in the church, but ministers and elders, who should feed Christ's flock with the word of Christ, and do that willingly and lawfully, all wicked devices at once set aside. To this belongs the whole thirty-fourth chapter of Ezekiel, which we alleged a little earlier. But if the heart of the bishop of Rome and his men had not been hardened, and their eyes blinded, they would long ago have seen that they could in no part nor by no means have been numbered among the shepherds of the church and disciples of Peter. They would at least have marked that sentence of their own Gregory, which he recites to Maurice the emperor, almost in these words: "I boldly affirm that whoever he is that calls himself the universal priest, is a forerunner of antichrist." And shortly after: "But because the truth itself says, 'Everyone who exalts himself shall be brought low,' I thereby know that the more swollen the puffing, the sooner it is broken." [2660] These are his sayings.

v.90

LAST OF ALL, the estate of Christ and the church is shadowed by the similitude of marriage between the husband and the wife; for Christ is called the husband of the church, and the church is called the spouse of Christ. St. John says to his disciples: "You yourselves are my witnesses, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy is therefore fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease." Joh 3.28-30 And this allegory is very common in the prophets. In a certain place, a damsel is pretended, despised and polluted, lying in her filthiness; and a certain nobleman comes by who, plucking her out of the mire, and making her clean from her filthiness, and also sumptuously apparelling her, chose her for his wife. And even though this allegory declares that heavenly benefit which God showed to his people being in bondage in Egypt, by their wonderful deliverance, and adopting them into his peculiar people — notwithstanding this, who does not see that all mankind, from its origin, is defiled with sin and wickedness, and sticks fast in the mire of hell? Who does not know that the Son of God came down from heaven, and washed all mankind in his blood; and having purged her, he has joined to himself a glorious church, having neither spot nor wrinkle, nor any such thing? Eph 5.27 Surely, marriage is a mutual participation in common between those who have contracted about all their goods; it is a certain knitting together into one body as it were, not to be dissolved. Therefore, when Christ took our flesh upon himself, he became ours in all things, and we also became members of the same body — of his flesh, and of his bones. In us there is infirmity, sin, and death: our husband has also taken these same things to himself, so that he might make them harmless to us. In Christ our husband is justification, sanctification, and life; he communicates these same things to us, his spouse, so that in him we might be just and holy, and might live through him.

From that lawful joining together of the Lord and the church, are born lawful children to God; for which the church is called a mother, and a freewoman, that is, a matron and a mistress.

v.91

For the apostle Paul says: "Jerusalem which is above is free; which is the mother of us all." Gal 4.26 For just as children are born through the joining of man and woman together, by the propagation of their seed, so Christ has coupled the church to himself, in which he has left the seed of his word. By the word our mother, the church, children are born (which I admonished you about before, when I spoke of the origin of the church [2661]); that is to say, while retaining the seed of the word, by the preaching of the word, she fashions and nourishes us in her womb, and then she brings us forth into the light; afterwards she nourishes us with milk, and brings us up with stronger food, until we all grow up into a perfect man. But just as there is no mother without a husband, and without true faith being plighted, and without seed — even so, without Christ, without true faith and the seed of God's word, the church is not our mother, that is, a free woman and our mistress. By these things we have by the way learned why the church of God is called a mother.

Notwithstanding, she is also called a virgin; for before all things, the Lord requires the faith and integrity of this holy mother, the church. For the apostle Paul says: "I have coupled you to one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ." 2Cor 11.2 Therefore, it is the part of the spouse, to bring her virginity to her husband as her dowry, and to keep it undefiled. But what manner of virginity is that? Sincere faith in Christ, which wholly, or with all her mind, clings forever to one. This comes to pass when we give ear only to our spouse, and love none but him alone — to be brief, when we persevere in the simplicity of the gospel. For it follows in the words of the apostle: "But I fear, lest it come to pass that, as the serpent deceived Eve with his subtlety, so your minds would be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." 2Cor 11.3 That simplicity acknowledged Christ as the means of salvation, the recovery [2662] of life and all heavenly treasures; without him there is no salvation, nor any good thing. But who would call someone a chaste matron, if she listens to bawds, and sets her heart on the love of others, and does not content herself with her husband only? Would not all men cry out that she is a naughty pack,[2663] an adulteress, by lying with others, and bearing children of strange seed?

v.92

Spiritual adultery and fornication is much spoken about in the holy scriptures. All the sermons of the prophets are full of such allegories. They call those men or churches who receive strange seed — that is to say, doctrine differing from the word of God — adulterers, whoremongers, and fornicators. For they go a whoring from God; they do not cling to God only; they do not love God alone with all their heart; they do not worship, serve, and call upon him only. Rather, they choose others for themselves, whom they may worship and call upon, either instead of God, or together with God. A good part of the fifth chapter of Jeremiah pertains to this, and the whole second chapter of Hosea. Among other things, the Lord says: "I will not have compassion on her children, because they are children of fornications, for their mother has played the harlot; she has said, I will go after my lovers," etc. Hos 2.4-5

Since these things are this way, brethren, there is no reason why any man should reverence the church of Rome, decking herself with the title and beauty of the holy mother, the church. For she is not the holy mother church; she is not an uncorrupted matron and virgin. For where is the husband, who is the only husband of this chaste matron? Where is the faith and integrity kept with her husband? Has she not defiled herself with strange seed? Has she not received and taught a new and strange doctrine from the word of God, and by that means begotten many children — not to Christ, but to antichrist? St. John, beautifying this church with her apt title, calls her, "Great Babylon, the mother of whoredoms and abominations of the earth; and a woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus Christ." Rev 17.5-6 Our holy mother, the church, is an undefiled virgin, hearing only the voice or doctrine of her only well-beloved husband, placing all the means of life and salvation in him alone, and depending only upon him in all things.

The scripture paints the mystery of Christ and the church with many other allegories: but it suffices to have spoken this much of it. The Lord Jesus, the true and only Shepherd of his church, lovingly bring home again the wandering sheep into his fold; and being gathered together in his church, preserve them forever. Amen.

v.93

5-3. THE THIRD SERMON: OF THE MINISTERS OF GOD'S WORD.

OF THE MINISTRY, AND THE MINISTERS OF GOD'S WORD; WHY AND FOR WHAT END THEY ARE INSTITUTED BY GOD. THAT THE ORDERS GIVEN BY CHRIST TO THE CHURCH IN TIMES PAST WERE EQUAL. FROM WHERE AND HOW THE PREROGATIVE OF MINISTERS SPRANG.

AND OF THE SUPREMACY OF THE BISHOP OF ROME.

The exposition touching the church of God will be more truly understood, brethren, by those things which remain to be spoken out of the word of the Lord concerning the ministry and ministers of the church. For I said, the church of God is built and preserved by the word of God; and that is done through ministers appointed for that purpose by the Lord. So that it now follows to speak of the ministers of the church, and their ministry, that is, of that order with which God governs his church.

And truly, the ecclesiastical ministry is extended both to stir up, and also to maintain, public prayers and the administration of the sacraments, and it is especially occupied in preaching the word of God. I will speak of the two former items in a convenient place and time. At present, I will treat the ministry of the word.

In consideration of this, it is first expedient to view why God, in instructing men, uses the aid or ministry of men; and what men perfect [2664] or work in the ministry itself, and what God works. Truly, for his exceeding goodness and mercy toward us, He covets to pour himself wholly into us. I think it is good to repeat this often, so that it may be deeper rooted in our hearts, and we may also think to ourselves what we owe to God. He does this so that we may both be strengthened and blessed in him; and that we may perfectly understand his will toward us; and finally, [that we may understand] our duty by which we are bound to him. Just as he furthers our salvation very diligently in all things, so he himself comes forth to instruct men, lest there be anything lacking in true doctrine.

v.94

But such is our weakness and corruption through sin, we cannot abide the meeting of his eternal and wonderful majesty. This is apparent by the immense communication which God had with our fathers, but especially at his meeting with the whole church of Israel at mount Sinai. For when he came down on the mount, not without glory and heavenly majesty, and uttered with his own mouth a brief sum of his whole religion and of all the laws (we call this sum the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments), the people, being astonished with his divine majesty, said to Moses: "You talk with us, and we will hear: but let not God talk with us, lest we die." Deu 5.25-27 And God, receiving this offer, said: "I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you: they have said well all that they have spoken. Oh, that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me," etc. Deu 5.28-29 Insomuch that this manner of teaching by men, which men themselves have chosen for themselves, God will have to be perpetual, and never to be broken: so as when he sent his Son into the world, he clothed him with flesh, that by him, God might speak to us in that way. [2665]

God indeed might, by the secret illumination of his Spirit, without man's ministry (because his power is tied to no creature), regenerate the whole world, and govern the church itself. But he does not despise his creatures, nor destroy the work of his own hands, and he does all things in order. Even so, from the beginning he spoke to the world by patriarchs, then by prophets, and afterward by apostles; nor today does he cease to give doctors and pastors to the world. So that it becomes us not to tempt God — that is, not to look for a secret inspiration with heretics and Enthusiasts, [2666] but to acknowledge a just order, and that God himself speaks to us by men from whom he would have us learn religion. The eunuch of Candace (queen of Ethiopia), read the holy scriptures; Act 8.27f and by secret inspiration, the Lord could have taught him the mystery [2667] of faith. But God gives him Philip to be a teacher and an interpreter.

v.95

Likewise Paul, the doctor of the Gentiles, taken up into the third heaven,2Cor 12.2 and instructed by Christ himself, not by men, about all the principles of our religion, is nevertheless referred to a man called Ananias. Act 9.12 The angel of God is sent to Cornelius, captain of the Italian regiment at Caesarea, who might have instructed Cornelius in all points of true religion; but God wills [2668] the angel to call for Peter the apostle: "He (says the angel) will tell you what you must do." Act 10.1-6 For this cause, ministers are called saviours: they are said to convert men. Their word is not called the word of man, but the word of God; he who despises them, seems to despise God himself. It is also said that they themselves bind and loose, and retain and forgive sins. For Obadiah the prophet says that saviours will ascend into the mount Zion — which many [2669] interpret to be about the apostles. Oba 1.21 Paul, pleading before king Agrippa, and repeating the words of God which came to him in a vision, says: "I send you to the Gentiles, to open their eyes, that they may be turned from darkness to light," etc. Act 26.18 And Gabriel the archangel said before that, speaking of John, "He shall go before the Lord with the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just men." Luk 1.17 Moreover, the apostle wrote to the Thessalonians, "We thank God, because when you had received from us the word of the preaching of God, you did not receive it as the word of men, but as it is indeed, the word of God, which works also in you who believe." 1The 2.13 Again: "He therefore who despises these things, does not despise man, but God, who has given you his Holy Spirit." 1The 4.8 For the Lord says in the gospel: "He that hears you, hears me; and he that despises you, despises me." Luk 10.16 And again: "Whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven; and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven." Mat 16.19 And again: "Whose sins you remit, they are remitted to them; and whose sins you retain, they are retained." Joh 20.23

v.96

But some, twisting these places of the holy scripture against their natural sense, in a way give the ministers an equal power with Christ; and what only pertains to him, they communicate also to them. But they say that the ministry must be set out by such means, lest it grow vile and of no estimation among profane men. Others so speak of the inward drawing of the Spirit, that they seem to make the outward ministry superfluous, or take it clean away, and to attribute nothing at all to it. Therefore, the ministry must be limited within its bounds, lest it be drawn here and there with the affections and lusts of men, and either too much or too little be attributed to it. Let the ministry indeed be beautified and kept in authority; but let it be done without dishonouring God. Nor indeed does it become us, under the pretence of the ministry, to attribute to man's labour, that which is God's office alone, on whom all men ought to depend, and to whom, as the only well-spring and giver of all godliness, they ought to have respect. Therefore, the faithful ministers of the Lord Jesus should only have regard to this: that they may keep the glory and authority of Christ unblemished, and his priesthood sound to himself in every point. For the Lord Jesus himself, sitting at the right hand of the Father in the true tabernacle, which God pitched and not man, remains a priest — yes, the only high priest of his church forever, still executing all the duties of a priest in the church. For as the only teacher and master in the church, he teaches his disciples — that is, the church or congregation of the faithful — enduing them with the Holy Ghost, regenerating and drawing them, sanctifying and making them free from their sins. The scripture plainly teaches this in every place. This glory, this power, he has given to none; nor does any minister, unless he is blinded with devilish pride, takes that to himself, as though he worked these works that are proper to Christ, either for Christ, or in Christ's stead, or together with Christ.

v.97

The apostles, being Christ's most faithful ministers and most chosen instruments of God, did not give the Holy Ghost; they did not draw men's hearts; they did not inwardly anoint men's minds; they did not regenerate souls; they themselves did not deliver from sin, death, the devil, and hell: for all these things are the works of God, which he has not communicated to anyone. This is why the most holy Baptist in plain words denied that he was Christ; he denied that he himself baptized with the Holy Ghost. "I baptize with water: but he baptizes with the Holy Ghost. I am the voice of a crier in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord." And Paul, pleading his cause before Agrippa, wishes of God that king Agrippa were such a one as Paul himself was, except for his bonds: but such a wish would not have been needed, if he himself could draw, sanctify, and absolve. There are infinite others of this kind to be seen in the scriptures.

Yet nevertheless, the ministry of the church is not needless. The king's counsellors and officers do not have equal power with the king, nor are they kings with the king or for the king; but for all that, their service is not in vain. Therefore, that thing which Christ, the Son of God — who is the greatest, the best, and the chief high priest of his church — works in his catholic church inwardly and in their minds, as the only searcher of the hearts. He declares and testifies the very same thing outwardly by his ministers, whom the scripture for that cause calls witnesses, ambassadors, or messengers. "You (says the Lord to his apostles) shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning." Joh 15.27 And Paul says: "I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles." 1Tim 2.7 Therefore, the same apostle in another place calls the gospel both a testimony, and preaching, of our Lord Jesus Christ.[2670] And John the apostle affirms that he was banished into the isle of Patmos "for the word of God, and for the witnessing of Jesus Christ." Rev 1.9 And therefore, when ministers bear witness of the Son of God, and promise life everlasting out of his word, their word is not called man's word, but the word of God. And they are said to save and to release from sin; for they are the true messengers and heralds of the King, who is the deliverer, who has sent them to publish remission of sins. Thus they also attribute all the means of life, salvation, and delivery, to the only deliverer Christ.

v.98

Paul in another place calls ministers, "fellow-labourers with God;" and afterward again, "dispensers of the secrets of God." For the salvation which the Son of God alone has wrought, and which also He alone gives, the ministers preach or dispose,[2671] and so they are "fellow-labourers." Out of the doctrine of the gospel, Paul compares the teacher in the church to one who sows seed, and the ministers he compares to gardeners and planters of trees, to whom he commits the outward manuring, reserving the inward working to Christ our Lord, saying: "Who is Paul then, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed; and as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that plants anything, nor he that waters; but God that gives the increase." 1Cor 3.5-7

Augustine, being instructed with this testimony from the scripture, learned to speak and write of the ministry of the church, in such a way that nothing would be diminished from the glory of God who inwardly moves and teaches us. And yet, in the meantime, the office of the ministry should not be taken away, or despised as unprofitable. For in his epistle ad Circenses, the 130th, speaking of the secret drawing of God and the outward ministry of men, he says:

"These are not our works, but God's; I would not at all attribute these things to man's working: no, not even if, when we were with you, a great conversion of the multitude were to happen through our speaking and exhortations. By his ministers, God works and brings to pass that which outwardly warns by tokens or signs of things; but the things themselves, He inwardly teaches by himself."

But lest it seem to anyone, that he spoke too briefly and sparingly, and not worthily enough about the ministry of the church, Augustine immediately adds:

"Therefore, neither should we be slower to come to you, just because whatever praiseworthy thing is done among you, does not come from us, but from Him who alone does wonderful things. Yet we should more carefully run to behold the works of God than our own works; because even if we ourselves have any goodness in us, we are His work, and not man's. Therefore the apostle said: 'Neither is he that plants anything, nor he that waters; but God that gives the increase.'" [2672]

v.99

Augustine, speaking of the very same thing in his twenty-sixth treatise on John, says:

"All the men of that kingdom are those who shall be taught of God; Joh 6.45 they shall not hear by men. And though they hear by men, yet what they understand is inwardly given; it shines inwardly; it is inwardly revealed. What do men do in preaching outwardly? "What am I doing now when I speak? I make you hear a noise of words with your ears. But unless He reveals it is within, what do I say? or what do I speak? The outward workman is the planter of the tree, and the inward is the creator; he that plants, and he that waters, works outwardly; we do that: but neither is he that plants anything, nor he that waters; but God that gives the increase. This is the meaning of, 'They shall be all taught of God.'" [2673]

v.100

This is why, when St. Paul says in another place, "You are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in stony tablets, but in fleshy tablets of the heart;" 2Cor 3.3 we must diligently differentiate between the work of the Spirit, and the work of man or of the minister. The minister does not take on himself the honour of God and the work of the Spirit, but his own work, that is to say, the ministry. Paul preaches, and writes with ink; but the Spirit of God moves the heart; and with his grace, or anointing, he writes in the very heart: so he works together with God, Paul working his proper work, and the Spirit working his work. The apostles are preachers and ministers of the gospel, not of the letter, but of the Spirit: not that they give the Holy Ghost, but because they are preachers of the gospel, that is, of that which gives the Spirit of Christ,[2674] yes, who pours it into the believers. But they are not preachers of the letter of the law, which does not give grace and remission of sins; rather, it works wrath and brings sin to light. Touching the keys and the power of the keys, there will be a more fitting place to speak of it elsewhere. And moreover, it seems that here is a fit place for those things which I disputed about in the first sermon of this decade, touching the power and ministry of the church.

Again, though the Lord uses man's help in teaching his church, and uses us as labourers together in finishing the salvation of mankind, he shows most evidently how greatly he loves us, and how much he esteems us. For he has laid up so great a treasure in earthen vessels, and even in us, he works whatever is most excellent, and overcomes all the high excellence of the world. By this, we learn to attribute all the glory to Christ, Paul again teaching us:

"We do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. For it is God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, who has shined in our hearts, to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are afflicted on every side, yet are we not in distress," etc. 2Cor 4.5-8

v.101

Moreover, all the members of the ecclesiastical body are wonderfully glued together by the ecclesiastical ministry. For this chiefly helps to make concord and continue unity: because we want mutual instruction. And to every church, one particular pastor is appointed as a governor, a faithful head of house [2675] as it were, governing and keeping in order his whole family. Truly it cannot be denied that in time past that most exquisite order of the tabernacle, and the temple, and the tribe of Levi consecrated to the priesthood, were ordained to this end by God. As soon as that ungodly king Jeroboam forsook this order through wicked presumption, he rent the kingdom in pieces, and at length utterly overthrew both his own house and the whole kingdom.[2676] St. Paul also, speaking of the ends of the holy ministry instituted by God, does not forget the unity of the ecclesiastical body, to which he also joins other notable good things. If any man desires his words, they are these:

"He instituted ministers for the gathering together of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edification of the body of Christ: till we all meet together in the unity of faith, and knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, and to the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ: that from here on, we no longer be children, wavering, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the deceit of men, and with craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive; but let us follow the truth in love, and in all things grow up into him who is the head, that is, Christ," etc. Eph 4.11-15

These ends of the ecclesiastical ministry are manifest in the preaching of the word of God. God has instituted a ministry in the church, that all the members may be brought into the unity of the body, and that they may be subject and cling to Christ their head, that thereby we may grow to be of full age, and become perfect men; that we not always be children, and that we do not lie open to the deceits and bewitchings of all heretics; but being joined together in true faith and charity, let us hold fast the pure and simple truth of Christ; and serving Christ sincerely in this world, we may after death reign with him in heaven.

v.102

Out of these things let us also derive this: that the ecclesiastical ministry, though it is executed by men, yet it is not of man, that is to say, it is not invented by man. For the beginning of it is from heaven, and the author or institutor of it is God himself; and therefore the worthiness of it greatly excels.

The first preacher in paradise was God himself, yes, the Son of God himself. By the ministry of the Holy Ghost, he always spoke to the fathers — just as afterwards, being incarnate, the Spirit was given by the Father to be a master and teacher to the whole world. He preached remission of sins and repentance to our parents, Adam and Eve. He ordained and revealed a sacrifice, instead of a sacrament; in which it might be represented and ratified [2677] to them, the price of the redemption, promised by the seed to be paid at a convenient time, etc. Adam with his sons and nephews, Seth, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Abraham, with their sons and nephews, succeeded one another in the ministry, even unto Moses. In his time, while he governed the church, and after him, prophets and priests are given, even to the time of John the Baptist and Jesus, the promised seed — I mean Christ, our king and high priest. He likewise sent his disciples into the world, that is to say, the apostles, who ordained as their successors, bishops and doctors. I have spoken of this more largely in another place.[2678] God himself, therefore, is heard in the voice or doctrine of his ministers; so that we are commanded to give ear to the ministers, preaching the gospel, as we would to the very angels of God; yes, as we would to the Lord himself. For this cause, Paul praises the Galatians, saying: "You did not despise nor abhor my trial which was in the flesh; but received me as an angel of God, yes, as Christ Jesus." Gal 4.14 Concerning this, St. Augustine says in his thirtieth treatise on John:

"Let us hear the gospel as if the Lord were present; and let us not say, 'Oh, happy are they who could hear him;' because there were many of them who saw him, and yet consented to kill him, and many among us who have not seen, and yet believed. Joh 20.29 For that also which sounded precious out of the mouth of the Lord, is both written for our sakes, and kept for us, and it is also read for our sakes; and for our posterity's sake, it shall be read to the end of the world.

v.103

The Lord is above, yes; and the Lord, who is the truth, is also here. For the body of the Lord with which he rose may be in one place, but his truth is spread abroad everywhere. Let us therefore hear the Lord, and also that which he gives us by his words." [2679]

This much from him. The Lord, our high priest, speaks to us even today by the ministers preaching his word. And indeed, we have all things set out in the scriptures, whatever the Lord spoke by the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, which the ministers of the church read and declare before us. Who, therefore, can then despise the ministry and the faithful ministers of Christ, especially since our Lord and Saviour took upon himself the ministry, and was made the apostle and minister of the church of the Jews? [2680] And what if those first ministers were such that, in any doctrine of religion, in holiness and excellence, they had no equals much less their betters, in any age? In our day, as these are the last times, in which scoffers and epicures have their full range, is the ministry of God's word of no value? To the contrary, if you run over and weigh all the ages, even to the beginning of the world, you will find that the wisest, most just, and best men in the whole world, held nothing in more reverence than the word of God, and the prophets, and the holy apostles of God.

But before we proceed any further in other things belonging to this matter, we will answer some who, under the pretence of the holy scriptures, endeavour to pervert the ministry of the word. For they allege this text of Jeremiah: "No man shall teach his neighbour, for all shall know me." [2681]

v.104

We do not deny that Jeremiah has so written. But we say, by that kind of speech and figurative language, he meant nothing else than this: that the knowledge of God and heavenly things would be very common in the whole world; which Joel also foretold would come to pass, and which Peter alleges in the Acts, second chapter. Act 2.16 18 Meanwhile, these two prophets, and all others, very often mention the teachers of the church, whom the Lord would send to his people. These prophets would not have done this, if they had understood that all preachers would be completely removed. Others object that all alike have the office of teaching committed to them, namely, parents to teach their children, and everyone to admonish his neighbour; there is therefore no need for the ministry of the word of God in the church. This is sophistry.[2682] For all of us can and should privately teach and admonish our children and our neighbours; but the public ministry of the word of God is not therefore superfluous. For the same God who commanded parents that they should instruct their children in godliness, Deu 6.7 and that every one of us should teach and admonish our neighbours, has given public ministers to the church. Eph 4.11 It is their office to teach openly or publicly in the church. Nor is this permitted to whomever would do it, but only to those who are lawfully ordained — lest, if others teach, they might not go forward in the right path. For then it would be lawful for everyone, being inspired with the Spirit of God, at whatever time and place,[2683] both to soberly challenge, and to affirm the truth. Therefore, the public ministry of the word remains nevertheless, perpetually, in the church.

This much we have spoken in general about the ministry and the ministers of the word of God. What now remains of this matter, we will discuss by their kinds and parts. And first, we will show what orders, or what offices, the Lord has instituted from the beginning, or whom he has put in authority in the holy ministry of the church; then, what manner of men, in what way it is fitting for us to ordain ministers; and last of all, what manner of office it is that those have, who are ordained in the church. And that we will not be troublesome to you, by beginning a long discourse from the patriarchs, we will begin at our Lord Christ himself.

v.105

Paul the apostle says of him in the fourth chapter to the Ephesians: "He that descended, is the same who ascended far above all heavens, to fulfil all things. And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and doctors, to gather together the saints, into the work of ministration, into the edifying of the body of Christ;" Eph 4.10-12and so forth. Therefore, our Lord ordained apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and doctors, by whose labour he meant to build, preserve, and govern the church.

Let us now see what the scripture teaches us about them. Apostle is a new name, given by the Lord himself to those twelve whom he chose particularly, and ordained teachers and masters to (all) nations. For thus we read in the sixth chapter of Luke: "The Lord called his disciples: and from them he chose twelve, whom also he called apostles." For apostle signifies, one who is sent, a messenger, ambassador, or orator. For in the gospel of St. John we read: "The apostle (or messenger) is not greater than the one who sent him." Joh 13.6 And truly, in the prophets and in the old Testament, [2684] mention is often made of sending, from which it seems the Lord borrowed that name. We read of no certain bounds appointed to the apostles; for the Lord says in the gospel: "Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to all creatures." These are the master-builders of the first church of God, from whom ancient writers took the name of apostolic churches — I mean, those which the apostles first founded, such as the ones at Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, and many others mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles.

The name minister or PROPHET is widely used, as spoken of in another place.[2685] Prophets, in this place in Ephesians, are those who excel in singular revelation, and by whom the Lord foretells things that will come to the church. Such was Agabus, who foretold the famine which was to come, and also foretold St. Paul of his bonds. In times past, wise and godly men, endued with a singular gift of interpreting the scripture, were called prophets. This may appear from the words of the apostle in 1Corinthians, 14th chapter.

An EVANGELIST is a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, sent with apostolic authority. Such were Philip and Timothy, etc.

v.106

PASTORS watch over the Lord's flock, having care of the Lord's people, feeding the church with the word of truth, and keeping the wolves from the sheepfolds. The chief of these is that good Shepherd, Christ, who says to Peter, "Feed my sheep;" by which he joins himself to shepherds.

DOCTORS or TEACHERS have their names from teaching. Nor do I see that they differ from shepherds, except that they only taught, and meanwhile were not burdened with the care that belongs to the pastor. Of this sort, in a way, are the interpreters of scriptures, and governors of Christian schools.

Other names are also found for the OVERSEERS of the church in the scriptures. The apostle Paul says to the shepherds, gathered together in the council at Miletum: "Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God." But BISHOPS are called superintendents, seers, keepers, watchmen, and rulers. The people of Athens called those whom they sent to their tributary cities which were subject to them, to diligently see and mark what they did in every city, episkopouv [2686] and fulakav, that is to say, spies and watchmen.[2687] The apostles called bishops watchmen, and keepers of the Lord's flock, and the stewards of Christ, or dispensers of the secrets [2688] of God in the church. And PRESBYTER, an ELDER, gets his name from age and ancient years. In times past, the care of the commonwealth was committed to the elders, as to those who were exercised with manifold experience and long use of things; for governors of cities are called both seniors and senators. And as commonweals have their senators, so the church has her elders; as it appears in the Acts, chapters 14, 15, 20, and 21. It seems that ordaining elders came into the church out of the synagogue; for thus we read in the book of Numbers: "Gather to me (he says) seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; ...and I will take from the spirit which is upon you, and put it upon them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, lest you be constrained to bear it alone." Num 11.16-17

v.107

This is why the elders in the church of Christ are either bishops, or otherwise prudent and learned men added to bishops, that they may more easily bear the burden laid upon them, and that the church of God may better and more conveniently be governed. For Paul says: "The elders that rule well, let them be counted worthy of double honour; most specially those who labour in the word and doctrine." 1Tim 5.17 There were therefore certain others in the ecclesiastical function, who even though they did not later teach, as the bishops did, yet they were present with those who taught in all church business. Perhaps they are elsewhere called governors by the same apostle; 1Cor 12.28 that is to say, those who are set in authority concerning discipline and other affairs of the church.

And because we have come thus far in this present treatise, we will also declare the names of other offices in the church. There is much talk in the scriptures about DEACONS, and among ecclesiastical writers, about priests. In the primitive church, the care of the poor was committed to deacons, as it is plainly gathered out of the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. There are also laws to be seen, which are prescribed for them by the apostle in first Timothy, the third chapter. The office of deacons was separated from the function of pastors; and therefore we do not consider them in the order of pastors. The ancient fathers referred them to the ministry, but not to the priesthood. We also read that women, not wedded, but women widows, ministered in the primitive church; and among others, Phebe of the church of Cenchrea, who was highly praised by the apostle, is very famous. But he forbids women to teach in the church, and to take public offices upon themselves. Therefore, how, or in what things, did women minister in the church? Undoubtedly they ministered to the poor in duties pertaining to women. They ministered to the sick; and with Martha, Christ's hostess, they cherished the members of Christ with great care and diligence: for what other offices could they have?

Moreover, the name priest seems to be brought into the church out of the synagogue; for you will not otherwise find the ministers of the word of God, and of the churches, being called priests in the new Testament, except as all Christians are called priests by the apostle Peter. 1Pet 2.9

v.108

But it appears that the ministers of the new Testament are called priests by ecclesiastical writers, for a certain likeness which they have with the ministers of the old Testament. For as priests did their service in their tabernacle, so these ministers, according to their manner and fashion, minister to the church of God. For otherwise, the Latin word is derived from holy things, and signifies a minister of holy things — a man, I say, who is dedicated and consecrated to God to do holy things. And holy things are not only sacrifices, but whatever things come under the name of religion; we do not exclude from this the laws themselves, and holy doctrine. In the old Testament, we read that David's sons were called priests [2689] — not that they were ministers of holy things (for it was not lawful for those who came from the tribe of Judah to serve in the tabernacle, but only Levites) — but living under the government and discipline of priests, they learned good sciences and holy divinity.

Here, it seems, it must not be pretended that those names which we have treated, are used one for another in the scriptures.[2690] For Peter, the apostle of Christ our Lord, calls himself an elder; and in the Acts of the Apostles he calls the apostleship a bishopric. St. Paul, calling the elders together at Miletum and talking with them, also calls them bishops; and in his epistle to Titus, he commands him to ordain elders town by town, whom he immediately after calls bishops.[2691] And none are so gross-headed as to deny that they are also called both doctors and pastors.

Now, we think it is manifest to all men by these things, what orders the Lord himself ordained from the beginning, and whom he has consecrated to the holy ministry of the church, to govern his own church. He laid the foundation of the church, at the beginning, by apostles, evangelists, and prophets; he enlarged and maintained it by pastors and doctors. Elders and deacons were helpers to these: the deacons in seeing to the poor; and the elders in doctrine, in discipline, and in governing and sustaining other weightier affairs of the church.

v.109

Nevertheless, it appears that the order of the apostles, evangelists, and prophets, was ordained by the Lord for his church, at the beginning, and for a time — according to the matter, persons, and places. For many ages since, and immediately after the foundation of Christ's kingdom on earth, the apostles, evangelists, and prophets ceased; and in their place came bishops, pastors, doctors and elders. This order has continued most steadfastly in the church; so that now, we cannot doubt that the order of the church is perfect and the government absolute, if today also, there remain in the church of God, bishops or pastors, also doctors or elders. Yet we do not deny that after the death of the apostles, God oftentimes raised up apostles, who might preach the gospel to barbarous and ungodly nations. We also confess that God, even at this day, is able to raise up apostles, evangelists, and prophets, whose labour he may use to work the salvation of mankind. For we acknowledge, that holy and faithful men, who first preach the truth of the gospel to any unbelieving people, may be called apostles and evangelists. We acknowledge that men inspired with the singular grace of the Spirit, who foresees and foreshows things to come, and are excellent interpreters of the scriptures, or illuminated divines, may be called prophets; as we have shown elsewhere more at large.[2692]

But in the order of bishops and elders, from the beginning, there was singular humility, charity, and concord; no contention or strife for prerogative, or for titles or dignity; for all acknowledged themselves to be the ministers of one master, co-equal in all things touching office or charge. He made them unequal, not in their office, but in their gifts, by the excellence of those gifts. Yet those who had obtained the more excellent gifts, did not despise the lesser sort,[2693] nor did they envy them for their gifts. St. Paul says: "Let a man so esteem us, as the ministers of Christ, and dispensers of the secrets of God." 1Cor 4.1 The same Paul in more than one place, calls the preaching of the gospel "the ministry;" for that took deep root in the ancient bishops' hearts. When his disciples strived for dignity, and (as they say) for the majority — that is, which of them should be the greatest [2694] — the Lord set a child in their midst, and said: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven." Mat 18.1-3

v.110

Truly the martyr of God, St. Cyprian, standing in the council of the bishops at Carthage, wisely said: [2695]

"Nor has any of us appointed himself to be a bishop of bishops, or by tyrannous fear, compelled his fellows in office to necessarily obey: since every bishop has, according to the licence and liberty of his power, his own free choice — as if he might not be judged by another, since neither can he judge another. But let us all look for the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who only and alone has power both to prefer us in the government of his church, and to pronounce sentence upon what we do." [2696]

At that time, therefore, bishops did not contend for the primacy or patrimony of Peter; but that one might excel another in his pureness of doctrine and holiness of life, and in mutually helping one another. And then, undoubtedly, the affairs of the church went forward prosperously, so far that, even though the most powerful princes of the world persecuted the church of Christ with fire and sword, nevertheless, she stood unmoveable against all the assaults of the devil and the world, having won the victory; and daily she had been more enlarged and renowned. Oh, how happy we would have been if this order of pastors had not been changed, but the ancient simplicity of ministers — that faith, humility, and diligence — had remained uncorrupted!

v.111

But in the process of time, all things of ancient soundness, humility, and simplicity, vanished away. Some things were turned upside down; some things went out of use, or else were taken away, either of their own accord or by deceit; some things were added. Truly, not many ages after the death of the apostles, there was seen a far different hierarchy (or government) of the church than what was from the beginning; although those beginnings seem to be more tolerable than this same order is today. St. Jerome [2697] says: "In times past, churches were governed with the common counsel and advice of the elders. Afterward, it was decreed that one of the elders, being chosen, should be set over the others. To him are referred the whole care bishops of every church, so that the seeds of schisms would be removed." [2698] This much from him.

In every city and country, therefore, the one who was most excellent was placed above the rest. His office was to be superintendent, and to have the oversight of the ministers [2699] and of the whole flock. He did not have dominion over his fellows in office, or other elders (as we understood even now from Cyprian's words). Rather, just as the consul in the senate-house was instated to demand and gather together the voices of the senators, to defend the laws and privileges, and to be careful lest there arise factions among the senators — even so, the office of a bishop in the church was no different. In all other things, he was equal with the other ministers. But if the arrogance of the ministers, and the ambition of bishops, had not further increased in the times that followed, we would not speak a word against them.

v.112

St. Jerome affirms, that "That preferment of bishops did not spring from God's ordinance, but by the ordinance of man. These things we have recalled," he says, "to the end that we might show that among the old fathers, the bishops and ministers were all one; but little by little, so that the plants of dissensions might be plucked up, all the care was committed to one. Therefore, ministers know that by the custom of the church, they are subject to the one who is set over them. So too, let bishops know that it is by custom, rather than by the truth of the Lord's disposition, that they are 'greater' than the other ministers: and that they ought to govern the churches together, in common, following the example of Moses who, when it was in his power alone to govern the people of Israel, chose seventy others with whom he might judge the people." [2700] Thus he writes in his commentary on the third chapter of the epistle of Paul to Titus.

But the ancient fathers did not keep themselves within these bounds. There were also ordained patriarchs at Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome. There are appointed archbishops, or metropolitans; that is to say, those who have government over the bishops throughout the provinces. And to bishops of cities, or inferior bishops, there were added those called chorepiscopi (or bishops of the multitude);[2701] that is to say, whenever the country or region was larger than the care and oversight of the bishop placed over the city would suffice to meet, these offices were added, such as vicars and suffragans, who might execute the office of the bishop throughout that part of the country. But we know that the functions of suffragans, or vicars general, in these last times, are far different in bishops' courts and dioceses. And also, subdeacons were placed under deacons. And when wealth increased, archdeacons were also created; that is to say, overseers of all the goods of the church.

v.113

As yet, they were not mingled with the order of ministers [2702] or bishops, nor of those who taught; but they remained as stewards, or factors, of the goods of the church. Nor did the monks at the beginning, execute the office of a priest or minister in the church; for they were considered laymen, not clerics, and were under the charge of the pastors. But these unfortunate birds were never left soaring until in these last times, they have climbed into the top of the temple, and set themselves on bishops' and pastors' heads. For monks have been and are both popes, archbishops, and bishops — and what are they not? It is repeated out of the register of Gregory, that he would put out of the clergy, whichever monk would take the degree of an abbot; for the one dignity would hinder the other (he was nevertheless very favourable to the monks). [2703]

In times past, clerics (who are the Lord's inheritance, or whose lot is the Lord) were called students, or professors of divinity; that is to say, the very seed of the pastors of the church, and those who were consecrated to succeed in the ministry of the church: that is, those who lived under government, and were trained up by the doctors and elders in the study of the liberal sciences and holy scriptures.[2704] This institution is ancient, not new, nor invented by man; for in times past, among the old people of the Jews, they were called Nazarites.[2705] And the most excellent churches have continually had famous schools, even from the time of the apostles, as Eusebius often witnesses.[2706] But the affairs of the church somewhat increasing, it seems that the charge of opening and shutting the temple or the church was committed to those students; and to prepare all things in the church; and further, to read openly before the people, those places of scripture that the bishop appointed them. From this, perhaps, the names of door-keepers and readers sprang, which are today reckoned among the ecclesiastical orders.[2707]

v.114

But those who were more familiarly present with the bishops, and accompanied them, and were esteemed as those who might succeed in their places after the decease of the bishops, were called Acoluthi (acolytes), or "followers;" for it is a Greek word. And just as, for the most part, all things become worse in time, even so with these things. The further off from their first institution, the more filthily they were twisted. In some things, you see nothing left but the bare name; some things are utterly lost; some things are turned altogether to another use. And for witnesses to this, I allege Isidorus, Rabanus, Innocentius, Durandus, and other writers of this kind.[2708] They make two sorts of ecclesiastical persons: one of dignity, another of order — of dignity, those such as a pope, patriarch, primate, archbishop, archpriest, archdeacon, and provost; of order, those such as the minister [2709] or priest, the deacon, etc. But some account six orders of them, others eight. All with one accord include doorkeepers or porters, readers or singers, exorcists, acolytes, subdeacons, deacons, elders or priests. Those they divide again into greater and lesser orders. Among the greater orders are the priest or elder, the deacon, and the sub-deacon. The rest are called the lesser orders; there remains nothing of these orders beside the bare name. The office of doorkeepers is turned over to the sextons, which they call holy-water clerics. There are no readers; for that ancient reading is worn out of use. The psalmists, or singers, mean nothing more than that they rehearse or sing. Touching the exorcists they say this: Josephus writes that king Solomon found out the manner of exorcism, that is, of conjuring, by which unclean spirits were driven out of a man who was possessed by Eleazar the exorcist, so that they no longer dare to come back. [2710]

v.115

Those who are named exorcists, are called to this office. Of these, it is said in the gospel: "If through Beelzebub I cast out devils, then by whom do your children (namely, your exorcists or conjurers) cast them out?" Mat 12.27 This much they say. I repeat it to this end: that it may appear to all men, that these men are the very same ones of whom the apostle foretold that it would come to pass that they "will not suffer wholesome doctrine, but will be turned to fables." 2Tim 4.3-4 For who does not know that what is reported about Solomon is most fabulous? Who does not know that the apostles of the Lord were not exorcists, nor did they use at any time any type of enchantments or conjurations? For they cast out unclean spirits with a word, that is, by calling upon, and by the power of, the name of Christ. Those gifts ceased long ago in the church of God. Those sons of Sceva the priest, in the Acts of the Apostles, 19.14, were said to be exorcists, whom the evil spirit, though they called on the names of Jesus and Paul, ran upon and tore the clothes from their backs. And so, by God's appointment, it was made known to all men how much the eternal God is delighted with exorcists. Yet these fellows thrust them upon us. Touching the acolytes, or followers, they write this — and hear, I beg you, how trimly they reason. "The acolytes," they say, "are wax-bearers, because they carry wax-candles. For when the gospel must be read, or mass is to be said, wax-candles are lit to signify the joy of the mind." [2711] Hearing these things, who will say that these men unlearnedly handle no mysteries? Sub-deacons and deacons are no longer providers for the poor; but being made ministers of superstition, they attend to the popish mass. The deacon's office is to sing the gospel; the sub-deacon's is to sing the epistle. I cannot express in few words, what foolish men fondly chatter concerning these matters. They have set an archdeacon over these, which is a name of dignity and preeminence. [2712]

v.116

Sacrificers, who are also called priests,[2713] are variously distinguished; for there are regular priests, and secular priests. By regular priests they intend monks: though they are nothing less than what they are said to be. Truly, they resemble those who, of old, were called monks in no point of their doings. A great part of them are a rule and law unto themselves. Some of these men are doctors appointed to the office of preaching, yet they are rather occupied in saying their hours,[2714] and in singing and saying masses. These men sow superstition, and they most obstinately defend it, and most bitterly persecute true religion. Another sort, and the greatest part of these monkish priests, do nothing but sing in the church, and mumble mass, and do it for a very slender price. But you may sooner number the sands of the coast of Libya than the whole rabble of these. But they are unprofitable both to God, and to the church, and even to themselves; these men are utterly unlearned, and "slow bellies," and yet in the meantime, they are sworn enemies to the truth of the gospel.

Among the secular priests, the chief are canons; for the most part, these are idle persons, given over to voluptuousness and gluttony, indeed secular, that is to say, worldly.[2715] They think they have gaily discharged their duty if they make an end of the hours which they call canonical, and are present onlookers at the mass; and if they honour and beautify with their presence God's service, as they call it. They seem to be more strict, and not secular priests, who say mass both for the quick and the dead. There are also reckoned in the number of secular priests, parish priests, whom they call Plebani; that is, priests appointed for the people, who only represent some shadow of the old institution in this: that they preach and administer the sacraments. Nevertheless, you cannot allow this, because they minister them according to popish traditions, and not according to the doctrine of the apostles. And they do many other things by reason of their office, which godliness by all means disallows. Added to these are hirelings, helpers, or vicars. There are also joined to these Sacellani, whom they call chaplains, of whom there is an exceeding number.

v.117

Like the monkish priests, these consider the chief parts of their duty to be repeating their hours, but especially in mass. As for doctrine, they attribute nothing to it; for you will find some of this company who never in their life made one sermon. For they commit the charge of preaching only to their parish priests and their vicars; they serve those gods to whom their altar or their chapel is consecrated, etc. By all these things, it plainly appears even to blind men, how shamefully the first institution of ministers or pastors is corrupted and turned upside down. They set archpriests over the priests. I used that word in my preface or epistle in the beginning of the first decade. [2716] And I hear that some brethren are offended at it, as though some piece of popish leaven still stuck about us; or as though we thought to bring some unworthy dignity back into the church. But I would not have those brethren fear. There are no popish archpriests with us. Nor did I intend any popish dignity by that word, but the office of overseeing, which others call visiting. For they have charge of all degrees in our country, in admonishing and correcting. They have no prelacy or superiority; they reap no rewards by it.

But we return to our purpose. They derive priests, or sacrificers, from the seventy disciples, whom it is read in the gospel that the Lord chose; the order of bishops, from Peter himself, and the residue from the apostles. And immediately, they divide the order of bishops into three parts; namely, patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops.[2717] They account the patriarchs the fathers of princes, or highest fathers; and they also call them primates. And primates, they say, have authority over three archbishops, as a king has authority over three dukes. Here I think cardinals have their place, in whom the church of Rome is turned like a gate on its hinges. For in the Decretals of Gregory, De Officio Archip., it reads thus: "Cardinals have their name a cardine" that is, from the hinge of a gate; "for as the gate is ruled by the hinge, so the universal church is governed by cardinals." [2718]

v.118

Archbishops are the princes of bishops as it were: they are also surnamed metropolitans, because they have their government in the chief cities. Indeed, with the Greeks metropolis is  a mother-city from which colonies are deducted as it were; that is, people are sent from there to inhabit some new place.[2719] For this reason, the one who governs some one province is called the metropolitan bishop, and he has other bishops under him. These are called both bishops, chief priests, and presuls. But if you compare all these things with what I said before about the bishops and governors of the primitive church, you will say there is a very great difference between them.

But what they write touching the pope, or chief bishop, is far [2720] from the writings of the apostles and evangelists, and from the first ordaining of ministers made by our Saviour Christ. Our most holy lord, the pope (they say), excels all those bishops in dignity and power; he is called pope, that is, the father of fathers; he is also called universal, because he is chief of the universal church; and he is also called apostolic, and the chief bishop, because he fills the place of the chief of the apostles. [2721] For he is Melchizedek, whose priesthood others are not to be compared to, because he is the head of all bishops, from whom they descend as members from the head; and of whose power they all receive, whom he calls to be partakers of his care and burden, but not to be partakers of the fulness of his power. [2722]

v.119

They therefore define the pope as the supreme head of the church on earth, and the only universal shepherd of the whole world, who cannot err, nor should he be judged by any man. For, they say, he is the judge of all men, having absolute power. For thus says Pope Innocent the ninth,[2723] in his third question: " The judge ought not to be judged either by the emperor, or by all the clergy, or by kings, or by the people." Upon this statement, this gloss was written: "A general council cannot judge the pope; as it appears in the Extravagants, in the title of election, cap. Significasti. Therefore, if the whole world were to pronounce sentence in any matter against the pope, it seems that we must stand to the pope's judgment." [2724] To this pertain those common grounds of the clawback,[2725] flattering lawyers of the pope's court, very plausible and authentic: "That all the laws of the pope are to be received by all men, as if they proceeded from the very mouth of Peter. [2726] That the authority of the pope is greater than the authority of the saints. [2727] That the pope is all, and above all. [2728] That God and the pope have one consistory;" Hostiensis [2729] also affirms this In C. Quanto de Transl. proel., [2730]

v.120

"That the pope cannot be brought into order by any man, even if he is accounted a heretic. [2731] That he has supreme power, nor does he have any equal:[2732] That he has all laws within his breast: That there is a general council where the pope is:[2733] That he has all laws in his breast: [2734] That he has both swords, by which he may rightly be called an emperor; yes, that he is above the emperor: That he alone can depose the emperor, and pronounce the sentence of the emperor to be of no effect: That he alone may spare whom he will; and may also take away the right of one man, and give it to another; and finally, he may take away privileges." To be short, they say, "He is lord of lords, and has the right of the king of kings over his subjects; yes, and also has fulness of power over the temporal things on earth.[2735] Yes, and also the whole world is the pope's diocese, in which he is the ordinary of all men;[2736] and it stands upon the necessity of salvation, that every man be subject to the bishop of Rome." [2737]

v.121

For a conclusion, I will add to this the words of the glosser, who says, In Ca. Quinto de Transl. Episcopi, Tit. vii.

"The pope is said to have a heavenly power; and therefore he alters the very nature of things, by applying the things that are of the substance of one thing to another: and of nothing he can make something; and that sentence which is of no force he can make to be of force; because in those things with him, what he wills, his will is instead of reason. Nor is there any who may say to him, Why do you so? For he can dispense above the law, and of unrighteousness make righteousness, correcting and changing laws; for he has the fulness of power." [2738]

But who hears these things without horror both of body and mind? Who does not understand that the saying of Daniel is fulfilled, "He thinks that he may change times and laws?" Dan 7.25 Who does not understand, that the saying of Paul is fulfilled, who says, "I know this, that after my departing grievous wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock; also, men shall arise from among yourselves, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after themselves?" Act 20.29-30 For from bishops, and from those who advance bishops, came forth this man of sin; 2The 2.3 who places himself in the throne of the Lamb, and claims those things for himself which are proper only to the Lamb. Of this sort are the supreme government, priesthood, lordship, and full power in the church, about which I have spoken enough in the former sermons. Who is not now moved to think that this saying of Paul is fulfilled: "The adversary, or enemy of Christ shall be revealed, and shall be exalted above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God?" 2The 2.3-4

v.122

But the pope's champions argue that it is for the profit and salvation of the church, indeed, that it is necessary for the church, for some one bishop to have preeminence over the others, both in dignity and power. But let them dispute and set forth their idol as they please. Those who simply confess the truth must freely acknowledge that the pope is antichrist; for what these men babble about the supremacy of the pope is flatly repugnant to the doctrine of the gospel and of the apostles. For what more evident thing can be alleged against their disputations, than what the Lord said to his disciples, when they strived for sovereignty?

"The kings of the Gentiles reign over them, and they that bear rule over them are called gracious lords. But you shall not be so; but let the greatest among you be as the least; and the chief, as he that serves. For who is greater; he that sits at table, or he that serves? is not he that sits at table? And I am among you as he that serves." Luk 22.25-27

I alleged this place and also briefly discussed it in my former sermon.[2739] This simple and plain truth shall continue invincible against all the disputations of these harpies.[2740] The most holy apostles of our Lord Christ will not be lords over any man under the pretence of religion;[2741] Indeed, St. Peter in plain words forbids lordship over God's heritage, and commands bishops to be examples to the flock. 1Pet 5.3

Though they object, that Christ said to Peter, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven," etc. and, "Feed my sheep;" and thus, St. Peter was appointed over all the apostles, and in them over all priests, ministers [2742] and bishops, the chief and prince, yes, and the monarch of the whole world — it does nothing at all to establish their dominion or lordship. We willingly grant, that St. Peter is the chief of the apostles; and we also ourselves willingly call St. Peter the prince of the apostles; but it is in that sense that we call Moses, David, Elijah, or Isaiah, the chief or prince of the prophets; that is to say, those who have obtained far more excellent gifts than the rest.

v.123

But we deny that Peter was the chief or prince, in the way that these men would have him; and we deny it again most constantly. And with this, we defend St. Peter, and clear him from those spots with which these men strive to defile him, even being dead. He would not have remained faithful towards his master, if he had taken rule or dominion to himself. In all places, we read that Peter was equal with the other disciples; but in no place in the scripture do we read that he was their master. And St. Paul, in the beginning of his epistle to the Galatians, shows in many words, that in apostleship, he is not at all inferior to Peter. Nor when he came to Jerusalem, did he come that he might kiss Peter's feet, or to profess subjection to him; but that by their meeting and friendly conference together, everyone throughout the church might understand there was perfect consent in opinions between Peter and Paul, and that, touching apostleship, their authority was equal. In the same place, Paul calls James, Peter, and John, pillars. Gal 2.9 He does not attribute that prerogative to Peter alone; notwithstanding, he would have rightly done this, if he had received supremacy at the hands of the Lord, as these men affirm. How does it happen that Peter does nothing of his own head, but refers ecclesiastical matters to the rest of the disciples, as to his fellows in authority? We may see this in the Acts. In another place, he calls himself a fellow-elder, 1Pet 5.1 not the prince of priests. When he was sent by the apostles with John into Samaria, he does not require another to be sent, lest his supremacy seem to be diminished, but he willingly obeys. But if we were to grant that Peter was chief of the apostles in the way that these men affirm; would it follow from this, that the pope is the prince of the whole church, indeed, of the whole world? For just as the pope is not Peter; so the twelve or eleven apostles are not the whole world. Moreover, Peter could not give what he did not have. He did not have an empire over the whole world; therefore he did not give it.

But Constantine gave it to Sylvester, they say.[2743] Even if we perfectly agreed that the donation of Constantine was true, and not feigned or forged (which the best learned men affirm), Sylvester himself would still not have received an imperie, or dominion, even though it had been offered to him.

v.124

For the voice of the high and heavenly prince, Christ, would have been of more authority with him than the foolish affection of an earthly emperor ("The kings of the nations bear rule over them, but it shall not be so with you,"). Shall we believe that Peter would have received secular power with imperial government, if the emperor Nero had proffered it him? No; in no way. For this word of the Lord took deep root in his inward bowels: "But it shall not be so with you.'" Before he had received the Holy Ghost, wandering in blindness with the rest of the multitude of Jews, he imagined that the kingdom of Christ on earth would be an earthly kingdom. But after he received the Holy Ghost, he understood that the throne of Christ, the chief king and emperor, was not on the earth, but situated in heaven.[2744] He knew that Christ our Lord fled into the wilderness when the people thought to make him a king. He knew that Elisha by most wholesome counsel refused the reward of Naaman, the prince; and that Gehazi his servant, to his everlasting reproach and the overthrow of his own health, required it afterward from his hand. St. Peter would not take upon himself the charge of the poor, lest he thereby with less diligence attend to prayer and the preaching of the word of God; the Acts of the Apostles witness this. Who therefore thinks it likely that, casting aside the office of apostleship, he would have received the empire even of the whole world? He denies that one man can both happily execute the charge of the ministry of the word, and also minister to the necessity of the poor. But what pope would they give to us, who has the Spirit more fully than Peter had? who can perform what Peter could not? who can not only serve at tables, but also govern the whole world? Therefore, these are trifles which they repeat to us touching the donation of Constantine. Constantine was more sound than to frame such a donation which he knew was repugnant to the doctrine of Christ. Sylvester was more upright than to receive what he knew could not be received without the utter overthrow of the ministry of the word.

v.125

But if Constantine gave that altogether, which he is said to have given, and Sylvester did not refuse his donation, then both of them offended, because both dealt against the word of God.

In recent years, I saw what Augustine Steuchus, a man otherwise well-learned and greatly read, has written against Laurentius Valla, touching Constantine's donation.[2745] But he brings no sound arguments, though he wonderfully rages, and puts all the force of his eloquence to use, and finally, he busily heaps together from all places whatever, by any manner of means, may seem to further this cause. And truly, that book seems better worthy to be trodden underfoot, than to be occupied in good men's hands. For I do not invent words: he often calls that ecclesiastical kingdom of Rome eternal,[2746] even though the kingdom of Christ and the saints alone is eternal. Does he not most manifestly place the pope in the seat of Christ our Lord? For, after he had recited the testimony of one pope Nicolas, he immediately adds:

"You hear that the high bishop of Constantine is called God, and counted for God. This truly was done when he adorned him with that famous edict; he worshipped him as God, as the successor of Christ and Peter. As much as he could, he gave divine honours to him, he worshipped him as the living image of Christ." [2747]

This far, in the sixty-seventh section of his book. Nor has he written differently in the twenty-eighth section. For, recalling certain imaginations of his own, conceived about the pope, he pretends (I cannot tell) what fruit would come of it, if it were made known among the furthest Indians, that all the kingdoms of the world are governed by the pope's beckoning; that kings worship him, as being something very well known to them, that he is the successor of Christ.

v.126

And therefore, they do not receive him as a mortal man, so much as God himself in him, who has substituted him in his place on earth. And therefore, we ought to abstain from reproachful words, if he sins in anything as a man, because in him they worship the Son of God.[2748] Do you think Peter would have suffered these wicked rejoicings, and these flattering or rather sacrilegious voices? Peter lifted up Cornelius when he fell down before him, who would have worshipped him, and said, "Arise; I myself am also a man." Act 10.26 We also read that the angel himself said to John, who fell down and would have worshipped at the angel's feet: "See that you do not do it; for I am your fellow-servant, and of your brethren the prophets." Rev 22.9 It is also written of Herod Agrippa, because he did not repress the flattering voices of the people, who cried when he had ended his oration, "It is the voice of a God, and not of a man," Act 12.22 that he was therefore struck by the angel of God, and he rotted away, being eaten by worms. Therefore, since we know that Christ himself, the Son of God, yet reigns in the church, to whom alone all glory and power is given; and he has not substituted any man on the earth, in whom he would be worshipped and served; we worship and serve Christ Jesus alone, the Son of God; and we utterly abhor the pope as antichrist, and a dunghill-god, or (if you will) a god of the jakeshouse,[2749] together with the sacrilegious [2750] clawbacks and blasphemous flatterers.

The Lord indeed said to St. Peter: "You are Peter; and on this rock I will build my church: and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven," etc. But in what way do these sayings establish the monarchy, prerogative, and dignity of the pope?

v.127

Peter is commended of the Lord for the constancy of his faith: upon which also he received his name, being called Peter a petra, that is, of the rock, in which he settled himself by a true faith. Christ is that rock to which Peter stayed. He hears, that this shall be the perpetual foundation of the church; that all will be received into the fellowship of the church, who with a true faith confess with Peter, that Jesus Christ is the very Son of God, and rest upon him as the only rock and salvation. Moreover, the keys of the kingdom of God are promised to Peter. But when they are delivered, they are not given to Peter alone, but to all the apostles. For "the keys" are not (as these men imagine) a certain dominion and jurisdiction; but the ministry of opening and shutting the kingdom of heaven; to let into the church, and to shut out; which is wrought by the preaching of the gospel, as it shall shortly be said more abundantly. In the same manner, when Christ said to Peter, "Feed my sheep," he did not give Peter the monarchy of the whole world and dominion over all creatures, but committed to him a pastoral cure;[2751] I have spoken about this in my last sermon, and also elsewhere, both often and largely against the supremacy of the bishop of Rome.[2752] As for the ancient writers of the church which they object to us, testifying I know not what about the supremacy of Peter, we will answer in one word: that we do not care so much what the old writers thought about this, as what Christ the Son of God instituted; and what the apostles practised (whose authority far excels the judgment [2753] of the old writers), and what they have left both in their writing and in examples for us to judge and follow. I have also spoken of this in the second sermon of this decade.

We have almost gone further than we determined. Therefore, that we may draw to an end, we have spoken about the order or office which the Lord instituted in his church; and whom he has placed over it, by whose labour He will establish, govern, further, and preserve his church. Those things which remain to be said, we will put off until tomorrow. For they are longer than can be finished at this time; but they are more worthy and more excellent than to be restricted to a few words, etc.

v.128

5-4. THE FOURTH SERMON: OF THE CALLING TO MINISTRY.

OF CALLING TO THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD OF GOD. WHAT MANNER OF MEN,

AND IN WHAT FASHION, MINISTERS OF THE WORD MUST BE ORDAINED IN THE CHURCH.

OF THE KEYS OF THE CHURCH. WHAT THE OFFICE IS OF THOSE WHO ARE ORDAINED.

OF THE MANNER OF TEACHING THE CHURCH; AND OF THE HOLY LIFE OF THE PASTORS.

In this present sermon, by God's assistance, we will as briefly and plainly as we can, set forth for you, dearly beloved, what manner of men ministers should be; and in what way it behoves us [2754] to ordain ministers today — not speaking again of the office, but of persons fit for the office. For I do not think it necessary or profitable to show at large that the order or function instituted by Christ in the church, suffices even today to gather, govern, and preserve the church of God on earth; indeed, without these orders in these last ages, new inventions are instituted. For the thing itself witnesses, and the absolute perfection of the primitive church avouches it. But that it may be plainly understood by all men, whom it behoves the church today to ordain ministers, we will speak a little more amply about the calling of the ministers of the church.

Calling; is nothing other than a lawful appointing of a fit minister. The same may also be called both ordination and election, though one word is larger in signification than the other. Election goes before by nature; for whom we choose, those we call. Ordination comprehends either of them. But there are four kinds of calling numbered by almost all men. The two former are lawful, the two latter are unlawful.

The FIRST kind of calling is where ministers are called neither of men, nor by man, but by God — we read that Isaiah the prophet and the apostle Paul were called this way. This kind is confirmed for the most part with signs or miracles, and it is called a heavenly and secret calling.

v.129

The SECOND kind of calling is made of God indeed, but by the ordination of men: We read that Matthew, Luke, and Timothy, were created ministers of the church in this way. This kind is ordinary, public, used by men, and common today. God indeed calls, bestowing necessary gifts upon his ministers, and appointing laws for those who elect them. Following those laws, they ordinarily elect the one whom, by signs, they conjecture was first called of God. By signs, I mean the necessary gifts for ministers.

Now the THIRD kind of calling, which is the first of the unlawful callings, indeed comes from men, but not from God; such as when some unworthy person is ordained for favour and rewards. And here sin is committed, by those who are ordained, as well as by those who bear rule in the ordination. It is sin by those who are ordained, when they desire to be placed in the ministry, for which they either do not understand, or they will not understand, that they are very unfit, being destitute of the necessary gifts; or else, when they are sufficiently furnished with knowledge of the scriptures and other things, yet they do not take the right path to this function — that is to say, when they do not regard the glory of God but their own gain. For what is required of those who are to be ordained, is a testimony of their own conscience, and a secret calling; namely, by which we are well known to ourselves to be moved to take this office upon us, not through ambition, not for covetousness, not for a desire to feed the belly, nor from any other lewd affection; but through the sincere fear and love of God, and a desire to edify the church of God. St. Paul has written of this very eloquently and holily in 1Thess. 2. Besides this, the testimony by others of [the candidate's] sound learning and skilfulness in things, is also required. For all of us please ourselves and esteem ourselves worthy, to have the government of the church committed to us, even though we foully deceive ourselves. And those who have the authority of ordination offend when, in ordaining ministers, they do not regard what God has willed to be done in this as set down by his laws, and what the state and safety of the church requires, but only what is for the commodity of the one to be ordained.

v.130

Often-times, therefore, unworthy persons are ordained; or those who are unlearned, and not very sound;[2755] or else those who are sufficiently learned, but not of a good reputation;[2756] or those who are simple and good Christians, but unfit and unskilful pastors. And they are allured to this through favour or bribes. Thus they provoke the most heavy wrath of almighty God upon themselves, and make themselves partakers of all those sins of which they are the authors, in that they do not uprightly execute the charge committed to them. Our elders [2757] called this sin simony, an offence punishable with no less punishment than shameful reproach [2758] and death ever-lasting. Anthemius the emperor,[2759] writing to Armasius,[2760] says among other things:

"Let no man make merchandise of the degree of priesthood by the greatness of price; but let every man be esteemed for his merits, and not according to what he is able to give. Let that profane thirst for covetousness cease to bear rule in the church, and let that horrible fault be banished far from holy congregations. Let the bishop be chosen in our time, in this manner: for being chaste and lowly, so that in whatever place he comes, he may purge all things with the uprightness of his own life. Let a bishop be ordained not with a price, but with prayers. He ought to be so far from a desire for promotion, that he must be sought by compulsion; and being desired, he ought to shun it; and if he is entreated, he ought to fly away. Let this alone be his furtherance: that he is importuned by excuses to avoid it. For truly he is unworthy of the ministry that is not ordained against his will." [2761]

This much from him. If he were to come to Rome today, he would think without a doubt that he had come into a strange world; yes, into the mart of Simon — not of Peter, but of Simon Magus the Samaritan, Act 8.9-24 and of Gehazi the Israelite. 2Kng 5.20-27

v.131

The FOURTH kind of calling is that by which any man thrusts himself into the ministry of his own private affection,[2762] being neither ordained of God, nor yet by man. About this kind of men, the Lord says in Jeremiah: "I have not sent them, and yet they ran." Jer 23.21 Cyprian, writing to Antonianus,[2763] calls such men schismatics, who usurp for themselves the office of a bishop, no man giving it to them.[2764] And this kind of calling is improperly called a calling.

Thus it is evident that in the church, there must be a calling that is public and lawful for many other causes, but especially for these: that the ordinance of God is not neglected, and that the discipline of the church is retained, and that all men in the church may know who are preferred to the ecclesiastical ministry. Therefore, even though Paul, the apostle and doctor of the Gentiles, in the beginning was not sent of men, nor by men, but of God only, yet this same Paul, at the commandment of the Holy Ghost, is separated by the church of Antioch, together with Barnabas, to the ministry of the Gentiles. In the same manner, many others were sent or called of God; nevertheless, it behoved them to be ordained also by men. For Paul says in another place: "And no man takes this honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as Aaron was." Heb 5.4 And again: "How shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent?" etc. Rom 10.14

Concerning that second kind of calling, which is common and received today in the church, and yet appointed by the Lord, there are three things to be considered: first, who they are that call; that is, who have right and authority to call, or to ordain ministers; secondly, who, or what manner of men, are to be ordained; and lastly, in what manner those who are called, are to be ordained.

And first of all, the Lord has given power and authority to his church to elect and ordain fit ministers. We have declared this before, in the second sermon of this decade, by the example of the ancient churches in the world, Jerusalem and Antioch. Of these two, the church of Jerusalem not only ordained seven deacons, but also Matthias the apostle. Act 1.23

v.132

And the church of Antioch separated to the ministry Paul and Barnabas, the famous apostles of Christ. [2765] The churches of the Gentiles being instructed by Paul and Barnabas, they ordained them elders or governors of those churches by election, obtained by voices.[2766] The primary ones in this election were the pastors themselves; for Peter governing the action, Matthias was created apostle by the church. Act 1.15, 26 The ancient church diligently observed this form or order for many years. For Cyprian says, Epist. Lib. i. Epist. 4:

"The common people especially have power either to choose worthy priests, or to refuse those who are unworthy. Also we see this thing descends from the authority of God; that the priest is chosen in the presence of the common people, before all men's eyes, and is admitted to be worthy and fit by public judgment and witness. As in Numbers, the Lord commanded Moses, saying: 'Take Aaron your brother, and Eleazar his son, and bring them up into the mount, before all the congregation.' God commands the priest to be ordained before the whole congregation: that is, he teaches and shows that the ordaining of priests should not be done without the knowledge of the people being present; that in their presence, either the vices of the evil might be discovered, or the merits of the good commended; and this is a just and lawful ordaining, which shall be examined by the election and judgment of all." [2767]

v.133

This custom and manner endured up to the time of St. Augustine; for it is to be seen in his hundred and tenth epistle which witnesses that the people giving a shout, Augustine ordained Eradius as his successor.[2768] In these latter times, because the people often made tumults in the elections of pastors, the ordination was committed to chosen men of the pastors, magistrates, and people. These three kinds of men put forward or named notable men, out of whom the one who was thought best was chosen. There is something about this here: In Justiniani Imperat. Novel. Constitut. 123. [2769]

Those who think that all power of ordaining ministers is in the bishops', diocesans', or archbishops' hands, use these places of the scripture: "For this cause I left you in Crete "(says Paul to Titus), "that you should ordain elders in every city." Tit 1.5 And again: "Lay hands hastily on no man." 1Tim 5.22 But we say that the apostles did not exercise tyranny in the churches; and that they did not execute all things about election or ordination alone, excluding other men in the church. For the apostles of Christ ordained bishops or elders in the church, but not without communicating their counsel with the churches; yes, and not without having the consent and approbation of the people. This may appear by the election or ordination of Matthias, which we have now recounted once or twice. Truly, the Lord in the law says to Moses: "You shall appoint judges." Deu 16.18 But in another place he says: "You shall seek out among all the people whom you may make rulers." [2770] And again, Moses to the same people: "Bring men of wisdom and understanding, and I will make them rulers over you," etc. Therefore, just as Moses does nothing of his own will in the election of the magistrate, though it was said to him, "You shall appoint judges," but he does all things communicating his counsel with the people, so undoubtedly Titus, though it was said to him, "Ordain elders in every city," he understood that nothing was permitted by this which he might do privately as he thought good, not having the advice and consent of the churches.

v.134

Therefore those who shake off the yoke and tyranny of the bishops of Rome for good and reasonable causes, do not sin at all; they recover that ancient right granted by Christ to the churches.

Nor is it any great matter whether discreet men chosen by the church, or the whole church itself, ordain fit ministers; nor whether it is done by voices, by lots, or in some certain necessary and holy manner. For in these things, godly men will not provoke contention, so that all things are done holily and in order. But here I will not dig up the crafts, deceits, practices, and grievous wars, taken in hand for this right of ordaining, along with the shedding of much blood, spoilings, and the lamentable burnings of countries. The histories of the acts of Henry the IV and V, and also of the affairs of the Frederiches,[2771] most evidently witness how impudently and abominably the popes of Rome have behaved themselves, along with the sworn friends of the bishops. Perhaps I will have occasion to speak of this matter elsewhere.

Here is a marginal note, perhaps by the original translator (hence the editor's footnote at the end):

Master Bullinger has written more largely of this matter elsewhere in these words: "Because among the tumults and factions of the people, nothing was done according to the prescript of God's word, but all things were done upon affections, by which the worst were ordained, instead of the best. To the end that this might not be, and that the best, the most learned, and the godliest ministers might be appointed to churches, the whole right of choosing them was granted to bishops," etc. And a little after, "Therefore, if any (of the bishops) well use this right or authority to the edifying of the church, it is very well. But if any of them abuse it through tyranny, let them either be brought into good order by the godly magistrate, or else let the right or authority to appoint ministers be taken from them." [2772]

Now we will declare what manner of men it behoves us to ordain as ministers. Truly, not whoever lusts, but the choicest men of sound religion, furnished with all kinds of sciences, exercised in the scriptures, skilled in the mystery of faith and religion, strong and constant, earnest, painful, diligent, faithful, watchful, modest, of a holy and approved conversation, lest through their corruption of life and scant good name and fame, the whole ministry become vile, and that which they build up with wholesome doctrine, their wicked life pulls down again.

v.135

We will repeat the rule of the apostle. fully comprehending all things pertaining to this matter:

"You shall ordain elders, or bishops, if any are blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, who are not slandered by riot, nor are disobedient; for if a man cannot rule his own house, how will he care for the church of God? For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; (for it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful 1Cor 4.2); not froward, not angry, no striker, but gentle, not given to wine, not covetous, not given to filthy lucre, but barbarous, one who loves goodness, watchful, sober, righteous, godly, temperate, modest, apt to teach, holding fast the faithful word which is according to doctrine, so that he may be able both to exhort in wholesome doctrine, and to improve [2773] those that speak against it, and to stop their mouths: no young scholar, lest being puffed up, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. He must also have a good report of them who are outside, lest he fall into the rebuke and snare of the devil...." 1Tim 3.2-7; Tit 1.6-9

All these are the words of the apostle, recited out of the first Epistle to Timothy, and in his epistle to Titus.

Therefore, exact judgment and great diligence are very needful in this case, to discuss all the points of doctrine and life. I say a strict trial of life and perfect examination of learning are needful: for this is not a matter of small weight; the whole safety of' the church hangs upon this. If any unworthy and unlearned are ordained, the whole church is neglected for the most part, led astray, and overthrown. But we do not mean a childlike and scholar-like examination; but a grave and strait examination of knowledge in the scripture and its true interpretation, of the charge of a pastor, of the mysteries of sound faith, and of other similar points. That the elders in times past were very diligent in these things, it may appear by what Ælius Lampridius recites, in the life of Alexander Severus: that it was the manner among the Christians to offer the names of their bishops to the whole church before they were received, if perhaps any among the people would show a reason why he was unworthy of such an office.[2774]

v.136

Thus Justinian the emperor writes, Const. 123: "If at the time of ordination, any accuser stands up and says [the candidate] is unworthy to be ordained, let all things be deferred, and let examination and judgment be had first." [2775] And here I will at present recite the decree of the 4th council of Carthage on this matter, which is related in this way:

"When a bishop is to be ordained, let him first be examined, whether he is by nature wise, if he is able to teach, if he is temperate in behaviour, if chaste in life, if he is sober, if careful about his own business, if lowly, if courteous, if merciful, if learned, if instructed in the law of the Lord, if wary and careful in the sense and meaning of the scriptures, if exercised in the opinions of the church; and above all things, if he teaches the grounds of faith with substantial words (or perhaps, of less moment), that is to say, confirming that the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are one God, and avouching the whole Godhead of the Trinity to be co-essential, and consubstantial, and co-eternal, and co-omnipotent; if he acknowledge every person by himself in the Trinity to be perfect God, and the whole three persons to be one God; if he believes the incarnation of God, not wrought in the Father, nor in the Holy Ghost, but in the Son only: so that he who was the Son of God in the Father, the same should be made the son of Man in the manhood of his mother; very God of the Father, and very man of his mother, having flesh in the womb of his mother, and having in him a human and reasonable soul together of either nature — that is to say, God and man, one person, one Son, one Christ, one Lord, creator of all things. and the author, lord, and governor of all creatures, with the Father and the Holy Ghost; who suffered a true suffering of his flesh, died with the true death of his body, rose again with the true taking again of his flesh and a true taking again of his soul, in which he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

v.137

He must also be asked, if he believes one and the self-same author and Lord of the new and old Testament, that is to say, of the law, the prophets, and apostles; if the devil became evil, not by creation, but by choice. He must also be asked, if he believes the resurrection of this flesh which we bear, and none other; if he believes the judgment to come, and that everyone shall receive according to that they have done in the flesh, either punishments or rewards; if he does not forbid marriage, if he does not condemn bigamy or second marriage; if he does not condemn the eating of flesh; if he has fellowship with penitent persons who are reconciled; if he believes that all sins are forgiven in baptism, original sin in which we are born, as well as those sins which we commit willingly; if he believes that none who are outside the catholic church can be saved, etc. When he is examined on all these points, and found fully instructed; then let him be ordained a bishop, with the consent of the clergy and laity, and by the assembly of the bishops of the whole province, and especially of the metropolitan." [2776]

This council is said to be celebrated in the year of the Lord 400.

v.138

But I do not repeat these things as if I stood upon the decrees of councils and men; or as if I thought all things which pertain to true salvation and perfection were not contained in the holy scriptures; but to admonish our adversaries, that their manners and doings today not only do not agree with the examples and doctrines of the apostles, but they do not so much agree with the decrees of the ancient writers. If perhaps they were to look within themselves, leaving the diverse doctrine of men, they might receive the most ancient tradition and the most infallible doctrine of the holy apostles.

I come now to the declaration of the last point; that is to say, in what manner those who are called, are to be ordained. The apostles in their ordinations exhorted the church to fasting and prayer; and those who were called, they placed and set in the sight of the church, and laying their hands on the heads of those who were ordained, they committed the churches to them. I have spoken elsewhere of the laying on of hands.[2777] It was a signification of the charge committed to them. Nor is it read that among the old fathers there was any other consecrating of pastors, just as all other things in the primitive and apostolic church were also simple and not sumptuous. In the ages following, ceremonies increased, and yet in such a way that to some at the beginning, they did not seem to have altogether exceeded measure.

v.139

But to me, that seems to be overmuch which is added to God's institution at man's pleasure. And, I ask you, what need is there to patch men's fancies and customs to the institutions of the apostles? Why does the laying on of hands not suffice you, since it sufficed the blessed apostles, who were far holier than you and more skilful in heavenly matters? Afterward oil was added; the book of the gospels was also added. For in this manner, the fourth council of Carthage decrees: "When a bishop is ordained, let two bishops place and hold over his head and shoulders the book of the gospels; and one pouring upon him the blessing, let all the other bishops that are present touch his head with their hands." [2778] Those of latter times have added a pall to it. [2779] But today there is no end of ceremonies, or rather, of follies. If any man diligently compares their ceremonies with the attire of Aaron and the Jewish priests, he will swear the whole of Aaronism has been brought back by them into the church. Indeed, this is more sumptuous [2780] and burdensome; and it is so contrary to the doctrine of the gospel, that at this time I affirm their consecration is both infamous, and fully stuffed with excess, pride, and offence, and by that means, it is intolerable. There is another thing to be noted, which is that, even if among the old fathers, consecration increased by multiplying ceremonies, it was freely bestowed; nor was there anything in it, or in the whole church of Christ, that was for sale. But today, it is a shame even to speak of how expensive the palls are, sold by that Romish Canaanite,[2781] and the great costs by which consecrations are made. Gregory, in the council at Rome, celebrated in the time of Mauricius and Theodosius, decrees among other things:

v.140

"Following the ancient rule of the fathers, I ordain that there be nothing at any time taken for ordinations, nor for giving the pall,[2782] nor for the delivery of the bulls. For seeing that in the ordaining of a bishop, the high bishop lays his hand upon him, and the minister reads the lesson from the gospel, and the notary writes the epistle of his confirmation — just as it is not becoming for the bishop to sell the hand that he lays on him, so in the ordination it is not becoming for the minister to sell his voice, nor for the notary to sell his pen. But if any man presumes to make any gain by it, he will be sure before the judgment-seat of Almighty God, to undergo the sharp sentence due to so horrible an offence." Yet he immediately adds: "But if the one who is ordained were to offer anything, not as required, but of his own free will, and only for favour's sake, we grant that he may." [2783]

I have declared up to here what manner of men, and of what sort, bishops or pastors must be who are ordained in the church of God. And although it may be easily gathered from those things, why we do not allow ourselves today to be ordained by those who are called (and seem to themselves to be the only) "lawful ordinaries" — that is to say, those who in the Romish Church descend from the apostles by continual succession — I will yet, if I can, declare the reason somewhat more plainly. I have spoken elsewhere [2784] of the continual succession of bishops or pastors, and of the church, so that it would be superfluous here to repeat and rip it up again. I have also proved, that our churches are the true churches of God, though they do not agree with the late upstart church of Rome. And it is evident that true churches have power to ordain pastors, whether it is done by the voices of the whole church, or by the lawful judgment of those who are chosen by the church. It consequently follows, that those who our churches ordain, or rather, which the churches of Christ ordain, are lawfully ordained.

v.141

And there are weighty causes why the holy churches of God refuse to have their ministers ordained by popish ordinaries. For St. Paul says: "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preaches any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed." Gal 1.8 And these men preach another gospel beside that which Paul preached; we would have this understood as touching the sense (in which there is more danger), and not the words. And therefore these men are struck from heaven with this curse or excommunication. But who can abide to be ordained by those who are struck with a curse, or excommunicated? Moreover, the chief thing in the ordination, is the doctrine of the gospel — seeing that ministers of the church are especially ordained to this end: that they preach the pure gospel of Christ sincerely to the people, and without mingling man's traditions. But this very thing they not only most strictly forbid those who are ordained, but they also compel them to abjure [2785] by a certain kind of oath which they offer to them. For they are bound by that wicked oath, not made to Christ, but to the pope against Christ. For among other things, those who are elected bishops take their oath in this way:

"I, N. elected bishop of N., from this time forth will be faithful and obedient to blessed Peter, and to the holy apostolic church of Rome, and to our lord N. the pope, and to his successors entering canonically. The counsel which they commit to me by themselves or messengers, or by their letters, to their hindrance I will not willingly disclose to any man. I will be a helper to them, to retain and defend against all men the popedom of Rome and the royalties of St. Peter. I will endeavour to keep, defend, increase, and enlarge the rights, honours, privileges, and authority of the church of Rome, of our lord the pope, and of his foresaid successors. Nor will I be in counsel, practice, or treaty, in which shall be imagined against our lord the pope himself, or the church of Rome, any sinister or prejudicial matter to their persons, right, honour, state, or power. And if I understand such things to be imagined or procured by any, I will hinder them as much as it lies in me; and with as much speed as I conveniently may, I will signify it to our said lord, or some other by whom it may come to his knowledge.

v.142

The rules of the holy fathers, the decrees, ordinances, sentences, dispositions, reservations, provisions, and apostolic commandments, I will observe with my whole might, and cause them to be observed by others. Heretics, schismatics, and rebels against our lord the pope, I will persecute, and fight against to my ability." [2786]

Since these men are sworn thus in this manner, who, I beg you, that is a faithful lover of Jesus Christ, of his church, of true faith — yes, and add to this, of the commonwealth — can abide to be ordained by them? There is no talk in their oath of the gospel, nor of our Lord Jesus Christ himself. There is no mention of the holy scriptures; but there is most diligent mention of the rules and ordinances of the fathers. Peter is named; but it is not that apostle of Christ who said, "Silver and gold have I none;" but another Peter, I know not who, having kingly dignity. Indeed, the apostolic church is named; but later, by interpretation, they add what manner of church they would have it understood to be, for they call it the papalty.

v.143

This papalty — not the church of God, I say, but the papalty, and the honours, privileges, and rights of the popedom — behold, they promise they will defend this against all men. For they acknowledge the pope as their lord, against whom they would have nothing imagined; indeed, if they know that others devise anything against the pope and popedom, they promise to discover it, and faithfully help against it. I do not think that any man can bind himself more strictly to someone.

Neither is it unknown that those whom they call heretics, are not enemies to the Christian faith, nor teachers of opinions contrary to the scriptures, but rebels to the pope. They are, I say, those who, as they neglect the decrees and laws of the pope, and preach the scriptures only, so they give all the glory to Christ, as to the only head and high priest of the church. And therefore, they teach that the pope is neither the head nor the high priest of the church.

But who, loving true godliness, can bind himself with such an oath? Who would renounce and forsake the friendship of Christ, and humble himself to become the bond-slave and footstool of the pope of Rome? To be short, who would desire to be ordained a minister of Christ and of his church, at the hands of those who have done in this manner?

Here may be added, that in the consistory of Rome, all things touching holy orders are most corrupt, insomuch as scarcely any small tokens of Christ's institution appear. I will not repeat at present, that there are many new constitutions of men joined to them; that in a way, no voice of the church remains in the ordination of pastors — no "choice" is made of those whom the church deputes [2787] for this end. For the right of presentation, collation, and confirmation, being dispersed among many, has even become a heritage with some; so that both fools and half-wits [2788] may be made ministers or bishops. Nor can I let this pass: that true examination and sharp pastoral discipline is lost with them. An examination remains, but it is altogether childish, one in which those who are ordained are lightly asked what is usually demanded of scholars in common schools: whether one can read well, construe well, sing, and be skilled in numbers?

v.144

They cannot deny this; nor also this: that priests are ordained more to read, to sing, and to say mass, than to govern the church with the word of God. Thus more regard is had of the voice, that it is apt for singing, than of skilfulness or experience in the holy scriptures. But they think the matter is nicely handled if some skilful lawyer is preferred to the office of a pastor. For it seems for the most part to be more profitable, to plead craftily in the court for the increase and maintenance of riches, than to preach well in the church for the winning of souls. What? Do we not see men who are sent from the law, and out of the courts of kings and princes, to possess churches, who are better fitted for anything else than governing the churches of God? For ecclesiastical offices have begun to be counted as princes' donatives,[2789] for which they are called benefices. The bishops of Rome themselves have bestowed priesthoods on their cooks, ravenous soldiers, barbers, and mule-drivers — and this far more honestly, than when they bestowed them on bawds. A great many priests thrust themselves into the holy ministry by violence and simony; an office which nevertheless could not or would not be executed well. And those who are received by a more honest title, are received through commendation and favour; this is greatly availed either by affinity or kindred, and consanguinity. In all these, there is greater regard for the belly than the ministry. They provide better for those who are accounted priests and are not priests, than for the church of God and the salvation of souls. But by this means, all things go to wrack in the church, and the flock of God is oppressed with the weight and ruin of the shepherds.

To this pertains the plurality (as they call it) of benefices. Someone, either soldier or courtier, often rakes to himself — the pope offering it to him — half a dozen benefices or more; of which they take no further care, than to receive the gain. For he never teaches; indeed, he is very seldom at his flock, unless it is when he shears them. In the meantime, the Lord's flock is neglected, and perishes: for the vicars who are set over the flock by them, for the most part, are unlearned and hirelings.

v.145

He that is content with the least wages is placed over the flock, whatever manner he may be. And he seems to have enough learning if he can read, sing, say mass, hear confessions, anoint, and read the gospel out of the book on Sunday. What remains to be done beyond that, seems to them to be small matters.

I am ashamed and sorry to repeat what a censure remains for reformation of manners in the church. The thing itself cries, and experience witnesses, that unworthy persons are not shut out from this holy ministry; for all are admitted without difference. And yet whoremongers, drunkards, dice-players, and defiled men, indeed, men overwhelmed with diverse heinous crimes, are allowed in the ministry.

But lest they seem to do nothing in this, the bishop asks at the giving of orders, "Who are worthy of honour?" and his chancellor, or the archdeacon,[2790] quickly answers the bishop (who before then, never saw or heard what kind of men they are of whom he bears witness), "They are worthy." [2791] Moreover, they use so many and such kinds of ceremonies in their consecration, that the one who is studious of the truth of the gospel, cannot receive them with a safe conscience. These causes, and others not unlike them, make us such, that we cannot abide being ordained by the ordinaries or bishops of the Romish church.

The LAST POINT remains, which I purposed to declare at the beginning of this treatise: what is the office of the ministers who are ordained in the church. I can show you this in one word: to govern the church of God, or to feed the flock of Christ. For Paul the apostle, speaking to the pastors of Asia, says: "Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to rule (or feed) [2792] the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood." Act 20.28 And the pastors govern the church of God with God's word, or with wholesome doctrine, and with a holy example of life.

v.146

For St. Paul says again to Timothy: "Be an example to those who believe, in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in pureness." 1Tim 4.12 He writes the same to Titus, chapter 2. But the papists forge far other things from the office or function of bishops, and they confirm it, as they also do their other trifles, by the authority or power of "the keys" — as I said when I treated the power of the church.[2793] I will therefore, first of all, say something touching the keys (as much as I think sufficient for this matter).

A key is an instrument very well known to all men, with which gates, doors, and chests, are either shut or opened. It is transferred from bodily things to spiritual things; and it is called the key of knowledge and of the kingdom of heaven. For the Lord says in the gospel of Luke: "Woe to you, interpreters of the law: for you have taken away the key of knowledge; you do not enter in yourselves, and those who came in, you forbade." Luk 11.52 St. Matthew presents the same sentence this way: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the kingdom of heaven before men: for you yourselves do not go in, nor do you allow those who would enter, to come in." Mat 23.13 Behold, what Luke calls "taking away the key of knowledge," Matthew expounded as "shutting heaven." The key of knowledge, therefore, is the instruction itself concerning a blessed life: by what means we are made partakers of it. He who takes away the key, is the one who does not instruct the people about true blessedness; or else is a hindrance to it, so that others cannot instruct [2794] them. Therefore, the keys of the kingdom of heaven are nothing else than the ministry of preaching the gospel, or the word of God, committed by God to his ministers, to the end that everyone may be taught which way leads to heaven, and which way carries down to hell. The Lord promised these keys to Peter, and in him to all the other apostles, when he said: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." Mat 16.19

v.147

Let us inquire, therefore, when were the keys delivered to Peter and to the rest? And the agreeable consent of all men is that they were given in the day of the resurrection. But it is evident that this is the same day the ministry or function of preaching the gospel was committed to the apostles. It follows from this, that the keys are nothing else than the ministry of preaching the gospel among all nations. For this is declared to the world; that the salvation purchased by Christ, is communicated to those who believe, and that hell is open for the unbelievers.

But now, let us hear the testimonies of the holy evangelists. John the apostle and evangelist says: "The Lord came to his disciples and said, Peace be to you; as my Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he had said that, he breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Ghost: whose sins you remit, they are remitted to them; and whose sins you retain, they are retained." Joh 20.22-23 These statements agree with the words by which he promised the keys; for there he said: "Whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven;" and here he says: "Whose sins you retain, they are retained." There he said: "And whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven;" and here he says: "Whose sins you remit, they are remitted to them." Therefore, "to bind" is, "to retain sins;" and "to loose" is "to remit sins." You will say, How do men remit sins, since it is written that only God forgives sins? Let other testimonies of the other evangelists therefore be adjoined, expressing that the same history was given in the day of his resurrection. Luke says: "Then the Lord opened their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures; and said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations." Luk 24.45-47 And Mark says: "He appeared to them as they sat together, and reproved them for their unbelief and hardness of heart; and he said to them, Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature: he that believes and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that will not believe, shall be damned." Mar 16.14-16

v.148

Therefore, God only forgives sins for those who believe in the name of Christ, that is to say, through [2795] the merits and propitiation of Christ: but the ministers assuredly declare by the preaching of the gospel, that sins are forgiven; and by that preaching they bind and loose, remit and retain sins. The matter will be made plainer by an example or two. St. Peter, speaking to the citizens of Jerusalem, says: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Act 2.38 And so St. Peter used the keys committed to him in this manner: he looses on earth, and remits sins to men, that is, he promises to those who believe, assured remission of sins through Christ. God has confirmed this message, giving remission of sins to the faithful, as they believed. Moreover, the keeper of the prison at Philippi, being amazed, says to Silas and Paul: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" The apostles answered: "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, and your whole household." Act 16.30-31 The apostles loosed him that was bound, and forgave him his sins, by the keys, that is, by the preaching of the gospel: since he believed this gospel on earth, the Lord judged him to be loosed in heaven.

These things are taken out of the Acts of the Apostles. In the same book of Acts, we read examples of the contrary in this manner: "The Jews, being filled with indignation, spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul, and railed. But Paul and Barnabas grew bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing that you put it away from you, and think yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, look, we turn to the gentiles." Act 13.45-46 Again, when Paul at Corinth had preached Christ to the Jews, and they resisted and reviled him: "The apostle shook his raiment, and said, Your blood be upon your own heads: I am clean: from now on I will go to the gentiles." Act 18.6 And so he bound the unbelievers. And God confirmed the preaching of Paul, because it proceeded from God himself. And unless you put the proper and true key into the lock, you will never open it. The true and right key is the pure word of God; the counterfeit and thievish key is a doctrine and tradition of man, estranged from the word of God.

v.140

I think I have sufficiently proved by evident testimonies of the scripture, that the keys given to the apostles and pastors of the church, and so to the church itself, are nothing else than the ministry of teaching the church. For by the doctrine of the gospel, as with certain keys, the gate of the kingdom of heaven is opened — when a sure and ready means and way is shown to attain to the participation of Christ, and the joys of everlasting life, by true faith. Man's record agrees with the testimony of God. For St. John Chrysostom, writing on Matthew chapter 23, says: "The key is the word of the knowledge of the scriptures, by which the gate of truth is opened to men. And the key-bearers are the priests, to whom is committed the word of teaching and interpreting the scriptures." [2796] Because I desire to be brief, I will not bring other testimonies of old interpreters of the scriptures to bear, which do not differ at all from ours.

Since these things are thus, brethren, and they are delivered to us in express scriptures, we do not greatly care what the papists babble touching the power of the keys; and what offices, dignities, preferments, and I know not what other thing, and what authority of priests, they derive from there. We have learned, not out of the words or opinions of men, but out of the manifest word of God, that the keys are the ministry of the preaching of the word of God; and that the keys are given to the apostles, and to their successors. That is to say, the office of preaching remission of sins, repentance, and life everlasting, is committed to them. Thus, we now conclude this: that the chief office of a pastor of the church is to use those very keys which the Lord has delivered to his apostles, and no others; that is, they are to preach the only and pure word of God, and not to fetch any doctrine from any other place, than out of the very word of God. For there is a perpetual and inviolable law today, which was also laid upon our pastors, which we read was laid upon the most ancient governors of the church. The Lord himself witnesses to this in Malachi, saying:

v.150

"My covenant was with Levi of life and peace; and I gave him fear, and he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and there was no iniquity found in his lips; he walked with me in-peace and equity, and turned many from their iniquity. For the priest's lips should preserve knowledge, and they should seek the law from his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Mal 2.4-7 Again, the Lord says to Ezekiel: "You shall hear the word from my mouth, and give them warning from me." Eze 3.17 In Jeremiah the Lord says: "The prophet that has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that has my word, let him speak my word faithfully." Jer 23.28 He expressly differentiates between heavenly things and earthly things; between those things which are of the word of God, and those that are feigned and chosen by man, which he wills [2797] to let pass as uncertain things, and as dreams. For he immediately adds: "Is not my word as fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the hard stone?" Jer 23.29 And again: "Do not hear not the words of the prophets who preach to you and deceive you: truly, they teach you vanity; for they speak the meaning of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord." Jer 23.16

Therefore, all the true prophets of God have this continually in their mouth: "Thus says the Lord; The mouth of the Lord has spoken it." And therefore they delivered to the people nothing contrary to the word of God. The old people also had the scripture; and the prophets were nothing else than interpreters of the law, applying it to their place, time, matters, and persons. Also our Lord Jesus Christ oftentimes says that his doctrine is not his own, but the Father's — which, if you understand this literally and according to his words, I do not know whether anything more absurd can be spoken. Therefore, the Lord means that his doctrine is not of man, but of God. Does he not send us continually to the writings of the law and to the prophets, and confirm his own sayings by them? But Christ is the only teacher of religion, and master of life, appointed to the universal church by God the Father. To this church, he himself also sends teachers, and shows them what they should deliver,[2798] saying: "Teach them to observe those things which I have commanded you." Mat 28.20

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Also: "Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to all creatures." Mar 16.15 But the apostle Paul witnesses that the gospel was promised by the prophets of God in the holy scriptures. And the apostles delivered to the nations this doctrine received from Christ, adding nothing to it, taking nothing from it; and with this they also expounded the ancient writings of the prophets. Yet in this matter, they trusted nothing to their own wit, nor to being ruled by their own judgment. For the apostle Peter says: "As every man has received the gift, even so, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold graces of God. If any man speaks, let him talk as the words of God." 1Pet 4.10-11 Tertullian also, in his book entitled De Praescript. Haeret. (which I also repeated elsewhere), expressly says:

"It is not lawful for us in anything to rest upon our own fancy or judgment, nor to be negligent markers of what any other man brings forth from his own brain. We have the apostles of the Lord for authors; for they themselves did not choose anything which they might establish after their own fancy; and the doctrine which they received from Christ, they faithfully delivered to the nations. Therefore, even if an angel from heaven were to preach otherwise, he shall be accursed at our hands." [2799]

We have moreover shown in our sermons about faith and the church, that faith depends upon the word of God alone; and that it wholly stays upon the word of God alone; and also that the churches of God are built and preserved by the word of God, and not by man's doctrine [2800] — all of which seems to pertain to this matter.

v.152

Nor is it left to the bishops of the church of Christ, as the popish pastors falsely boast, to ordain new laws, and to broach new opinions. For the doctrine, which was delivered to the apostles of Christ, is simply to be received by the church, and simply and purely to be delivered by the pastors to the church, which is the congregation of those who believe the word of Christ. Who does not know what is said by the prophet, "All men are liars; God alone is true"? [2801] The church is the pillar and ground of truth because, as it stays upon the truth of the scriptures, it publishes no other doctrine than what is delivered in the scriptures, nor receives any other being published. And who would claim for himself the glory due to God alone? God is the only lawgiver to all mankind, especially in those things which pertain to religion and a blessed life. For Isaiah says: "The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; and he himself shall be our Saviour." Isa 33.22 And St. James also says: "There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy." Jas 4.12 God claims this as proper to himself: to rule those who are his, with the laws of his word, over whom He alone has authority of life and death.

Moreover, those laws cannot be godly, which presume to prescribe and teach faith, and the service of God, according to their own fancy. The doctrine concerning faith and the worship of God, unless it is heavenly, is nothing more than what it is said to be. God alone teaches us what is true faith, and what worship he delights in. And therefore, in Matthew the Son of God pronounces from Isaiah: "In vain they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Mat 15.9 Join to this also, that from the new constitutions of men, there always springs up a wonderful neglect, and yes, a contempt, of the word of God and of heavenly laws. For through our own traditions, as the Lord also says in the gospel, we go astray, and despise the commandments of God. Mat 15.3

Now, since it is manifest where the pastor or doctor must fetch his doctrine from, namely, no other place than out of the scripture of the old and new Testaments, which is the infallible and undoubted word of God; and therefore, this doctrine is certain and immutable.[2802] There now remains something to be said about the manner of teaching, which the teacher or pastor of the church should follow. And here I will only briefly touch the short sum or effect of matters.

v.153

Before all other things, therefore, it is required of pastors, that they continually consider it to be spoken to them, which the apostle commanded to be told to Archippus: "Take heed to the ministry that you have received in the Lord, that you fulfil it." Col 4.17 And moreover, that they never turn their eyes away from that lively picture of a good and evil shepherd, which Ezekiel, that famous prophet, sets out in this manner:

"Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves: should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat; you clothe yourselves with the wool; you kill those who are fed; but you do not feed the sheep: the weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, nor have you bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with cruelty and with rigour you have ruled them." Eze 34.2-4

And again:

"I will feed my sheep, says the Lord God; I will seek what was lost, and bring back what was driven away, and bind up what was broken, and strengthen the weak; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and I will feed them with judgment." Eze 34.15-16

Hereby we gather that it is the duty of a good pastor or shepherd to feed, and not to devour, the flock; to minister, not to exercise dominion; to seek the safety of his sheep, not his private gain; and also to seek again the lost sheep, that is to say, to bring back those which cannot abide the truth, and wander in the darkness of errors — to bring them home to the church and to the light of the truth; and to restore and bring back again the sheep that is driven or chased away, namely, those who are separated from the fellowship of the saints, or the godly, because of some private affection; to heal or bind up those who are broken; for he means the wounds of sins, which Jeremiah also commands us to heal. To be short, to strengthen the weak and feeble sheep, and not altogether tread them underfoot; and to bridle those sheep who are strong, that is to say, men flourishing in virtues, lest they be proud and puffed up with the gifts of God, and so fall away. But let him think that these things cannot be performed, except through sound and continual teaching derived out of God's word.

v.154

The manner of teaching extends itself to public and private doctrines. By public doctrine the pastor either catechises, that is to say, he instructs, those who are younglings in religion, or others who are grounded in it. To the younglings or ignorant sort, he opens the principles of true religion. For catechesis, or the form of catechising, comprehends the grounds or principles of faith and Christian doctrine; namely, the chief points of the covenant, the Ten Commandments, the articles of faith [2803] or the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and a brief exposition of the sacraments. The ancient churches had catechisers [2804] properly appointed to this charge. And the Lord commends to us, both in the old Testament and in the new, with great earnestness, the charge of the youth — commanding us to instruct them in true religion, both timely and diligently. Moreover, he sets out great rewards and grievous punishments in that behalf.

Assuredly, no profit or fruit is to be looked for in the church from those hearers who are not perfectly instructed in the principles of religion by catechising. For they do not know not what the pastor in the church speaks of, when they hear the terms covenant, commandment, law, grace, faith, prayer, and the sacraments. Therefore, greatest diligence ought to be used in this, if in anything.

The doctrine, which pertains to the more perfect sort, is specially occupied in the exposition of holy scripture. It may appear out of the writings of the old bishops, that it was the custom in that happy and most holy primitive church, to expound to the churches, not certain parcels of the canonical books, nor some chosen passages from them, but the whole books of the new Testament, as well as of the old. And in so doing, no small fruit came to the churches.[2805] Just as today we also see by experience, that churches cannot be better instructed, nor more vehemently stirred up, than with the words of God himself, and with the faithful interpretation of the books of the gospel, the law, the prophets, and the apostles.

v.155

Here, by the way, we give warning that the interpretation of the scriptures is not a liberty to imagine whatever one desires, and to twist the scriptures whichever way one would; but it is a careful comparing of the scripture, and a special gift of the Holy Ghost. For St. Peter says: "No prophecy in the scripture is of any private interpretation." 2Pet 1.20 Therefore, no man has power to interpret the scriptures according to his own fantasy. Nor is the best exposition, that which has the most favourers; as if the best interpretation had the consent of the greater number. For then Arianism and Turkism would excel Christianism by many degrees. That exposition is best, which is not repugnant to faith and love, nor is twisted to defend and spread abroad the glory and covetousness of men. But I have spoken about interpretation of the scriptures in the second sermon of the first decade.[2806]

A teacher's exposition of the canonical books of the scripture will be fruitless to the people, unless the scripture is aptly applied, regarding the place, time, matter, and persons of each church. And it must be to this end (which I also taught in the third sermon of this decade [2807]): that the church may be edified, not that the teacher in the church may seem better learned or more eloquent. The Lord commends to us the wise steward, and says: "Who is a faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord has made ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?" Luk 12.42 and following. St. Paul also, writing to Timothy the bishop, says: "Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2Tim 2.15 Meat is unprofitable unless it is divided and cut into parts. But here the householder knows what portions he should give to every one in his family, not having regard to what delights every one, but to what is most profitable for every one. The same apostle, teaching that all the actions of a preacher in the church ought to be directed to edification, says: "He that prophesies, speaks to men to edifying, and to exhortation, and to comfort." 1Cor 14.3 Therefore, teaching of the better sort needs not only the exposition of the holy scripture, but also a plain demonstration, manifest as possible, of the principles and grounds of Christianity.

v.156

And chief is an evident doctrine of repentance and remission of sins in the name of Christ; and also a sharp rebuking to be used in due time, or a grave yet wise reproving of their faults. For speaking to his apostles, the Lord says: "You are the salt of the earth; if the salt becomes unsavoury, with what shall it be salted?" Mat 5.13 To this also pertains the confuting of errors and repressing of heresies, and the defence of sound doctrine. Paul says that the "mouths of vain talkers and seducers of minds must be stopped and sharply rebuked." Tit 1.10-11 Nor is it enough simply to teach true religion, unless the teacher in the church, by often teaching, constantly urges, defends, and maintains it. To this chiefly belong these words of Paul:

"I charge [or adjure] you, therefore, before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and in his kingdom; preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, improve, rebuke, exhort, with long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure wholesome doctrine; but having their ears itching, they will get themselves a heap of teachers according to their own lusts, and turn their ears from the truth, and be given to fables. But watch in all things, suffer adversity, do the work of an evangelist, make your ministry fully known." 2Tim 4.1-5

Therefore, they need very frequent exhortations so that what the church, by frequent and plain teaching, understands either to be followed or to be avoided, she may either constantly follow or refuse — being stirred up and compelled by a fervent exhortation. And here it is needful for a preacher to use long-sufferance, lest he throw away all hope if he does not see by and by, the happy success that he wishes for; and some mighty and impudent adversaries obstinately argue that against him. For Paul says:

"The servants of the Lord must not argue; but be gentle to all men, apt to teach, suffering evil with meekness, instructing those who are contrary-minded — if God at any time would give those repentance, that they may come to the knowledge of the truth and to themselves again, out of the snares of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." 1Tim 2.24-2^6

v.157

Moreover, there needs to be mild and enlivening comfort: for many are troubled, being tried with diverse temptations. Unless you faithfully comfort them, they are overcome by Satan. These and other things like it, pertain to the teaching of the more perfect sort.

Here I may also mention the care of the poor; for this especially pertains to a minister and to his public preaching, by which he may continually provoke the richer sort to mercy, that they may be ready to distribute. The apostle Paul has left us notable examples of this matter in almost all of his epistles; but specially in the sixteenth chapter to the Romans, and the first of first Corinthians, and also in the eighth and ninth chapters of second Corinthians. St. Peter, James, and John, very diligently commended the care of the poor to St. Paul; as Paul himself repeats in the second chapter to the Galatians. And although Peter in Acts 6.2, refuses the office of distribution, he is altogether careful in this: that godly and faithful dispensers may be appointed for the poor. Therefore, the care of the poor pertains chiefly to the pastors, so that the poor are not neglected, but tenderly cherished, as the members of Christ.

The private kind of teaching, in itself, does not differ at all from the public kind; but it is called private in respect to the learners. For someone comes to the pastor, in the manner of Nicodemus, and desires very to be familiarly instructed by him in things properly concerning himself. Besides that, this shepherd goes privately and instructs those whom, by evident tokens, he has learned may be more easily won to Christ by private conference than by public preaching. Moreover, he privately admonishes, and takes heed in time, lest those who are more unadvised, be more deeply plunged in evil. To this pertains the visitation of both sick persons and prisoners, none of whom a faithful pastor neglects; but he visits them that much more diligently, as he perceives them more grievously tempted. For a good pastor is always watchful over the whole flock of Christ for whom Satan lays snares, ranging about, seeking whom he may devour. The pastor resists him by prayer, admonitions, teaching, and exhortations.

v.158

If every church had such a pastor who would not easily forsake the flock, how great the fruit would be that we hope for! Thus it is not without cause that we are commanded incessantly and earnestly to pray to God, that he would give to his church faithful, wise, godly, and diligent pastors.

Thus I have spoken up to here about the doctrine of bishops in the church of God. And unless a bishop teaches in this manner, and does those things which are joined to teaching, he is unworthy of the name of bishop, pastor, or doctor, however he may pretend to an apostolic title. For certain things are joined to the doctrine of the church, which are also required of a preacher of the gospel, and belong to his office, such as: to gather together a holy assembly in which he may preach, conceive prayer, and minister the sacraments. But these things will be spoken of in their place.

Now there remains to be considered, how bishops may govern the church of Christ with the holy example of their life. In the gospel, the Lord says to his apostles: "You are the light of the world: a city that is set on a high hill cannot be hidden; nor do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Mat 5.14-16 Therefore pastors, not only in doctrine but in holy life, give light to the church. And beholding that their pastor's life agrees with his doctrine, the church is herself moved to practise innocence of life. For the example of a good man greatly prevails to further the love of virtues. And contrariwise, the scripture witnesses that the corrupt example of the sons of Eli, the chief rulers in religion, corrupted the people. For the scripture says: "And the sin of the children of Eli was too abominable before the face of the Lord, so that the people began to abhor the sacrifices of the Lord." 1Sam 2.17 For men, seeing the corrupt life of the ministers of the church, begin to somewhat doubt the whole doctrine, crying: If the pastor thought those things true which he teaches us, he would not live so dissolutely. Therefore, such teachers are said to overthrow with their naughty life, what they have built with wholesome doctrine.

v.159

This is why Paul requires a bishop, or pastor of the people, to be blameless; that is to say, who cannot rightly and worthily be reprehended by the faithful. For otherwise, by however much every bishop is more sincere and upright, he is that much more subject to slanders and reproaches by the wicked. The Lord himself foretold of it in the gospel: "If they have called the Lord of the house Beelzebub, then how much more shall they call those of his household!" Mat 10.25 And, "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." Joh 15.20 And again, "Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and lying shall say all manner of evil saying against you for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven." Mat 5.11-12 Therefore, a pastor should very carefully, and as much as it is in him, take heed that both at home and abroad, he lives a life worthy of himself and his calling. Eph 4.1 Let him live chastely, both single as well as married. Let temperance, soberness, thriftiness or good husbandry, hospitality, and other virtues, which I have repeated before from the apostle, flourish in a bishop. Let him govern his own household wisely, and reverently instruct them; and so bridle them, that he gives no occasion of offence to the church through riotousness or other misdeeds. For so the apostle Paul has also commanded, who says (framing again the exercises of a bishop): "Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and doctrine." 1Tim 4.13 He requires of Timothy a diligent reading, that is to say, a continual study, by which he may more perfectly exhort and teach. Paul requires of this man who has been brought up in the knowledge of the scriptures since childhood (as he writes elsewhere), a continual study of the scriptures. How great is the diligence then, that the apostle requires of those who, as they have not obtained such plentiful gifts of the Spirit as Timothy had, are not exercised in the scriptures from their infancy! Let some [2808] therefore be ashamed of their unskilfulness; let them be ashamed of leisure that is not given to study, and of their idleness when travelling. For just as many read nothing at all, but continually live idly and rot away in idleness as it were, so countless others are busied in those things which are not at all fitting for bishops.

v.160

Therefore the apostle says: "No man who goes to war entangles himself with the affairs of this life, so that he may please the one who has chosen him to be a soldier." 2Tim 2.4 Here would be a fit place to speak of stipends due to pastors; but we will defer it to another place. But if at any time bishops go abroad among the people for business' sake, and are present in assemblies of honest men, they should endeavour with no less care, lest they give any just occasion of offence to the church either by deed, word, apparel, by the company they keep, or finally, in the whole course of their life. In all places and at all times, let there appear in pastors, holy uprightness, fit ripeness of judgment, honest behaviour, wisdom, modesty, humanity, humility, and authority worthy of God's ministers; but let the contrary vices and wicked misdeeds be far from them.

In these few words, I think, are contained those things which others have handled at large, in treating the discipline and behaviour of the clergy. For all ages understood that a dissolute and loose life was evil in all degrees and kinds of men; but in the ministers of the church, it is worse and most intolerable. For what can a minister of the church do in the church, whose authority is altogether lost? Authority therefore is requisite in pastors.

Many complain of the lack of this authority; and seeing it trodden underfoot, they set about to rear it up again with I cannot tell what kind of props of titles and ceremonies. But authority is not gotten with such light and vain things. It is rather obtained by the grace of God, through the love of truth and uprightness of life. If happily God touches men's hearts, they may understand that God works his work in the church by his ministers as by his instruments. They may perceive that ministers are to do the work of the Lord with ferventness of spirit, and not coldly; that they are not to fear anything in a good cause — no, not even the wicked and mighty men of this world — but resist them. And yet they are to do nothing from hatred or malice, but do all things out of a fatherly affection, with good courage, constancy, and wisdom. If there is joined to this, not a hypocritical, but indeed a holy and upright life, together with honest, modest, and attractive behaviour, then all wise men will perceive that there is sufficient authority proved by this, for a godly minister.

v.161

Yet, I would not have the Donatists or anabaptists,[2809] hereby claim any kind of defence or protection, however small. They contend that the ministry of the word and sacraments, executed by a minister whose life is unclean, thereby becomes of no value. But even if a holy life were requisite in a minister, their ministry does not become of no value through the minister's dishonest life, so long as his doctrine is sound and perfect. For the Lord in the gospel commands us to hear those who teach in Moses' chair, but he forbids us to follow their doings; for they teach good things, but do not do them. I have spoken of this matter in the second sermon of this decade.[2810] Nazianzen very properly says: "The print of a seal is all the same, whether it is graven in iron or in gold." [2811] And it is one and the same gospel, it is one and the self-same heavenly treasure sent by the Father, whether it is brought by a good messenger or a bad one. But in the meantime, the dishonest life of the ministers of the church should not be winked at, but be chastened; and those who are past cure should be put out of the ministry, lest through their continual offences, they make the holy ministry infamous.

But many will ask: Why do you handle these things in public preaching? These things were to be told the ministers privately. I answer that the very laws which properly pertained to the priests, were in times past communicated to the magistrates and governors of the people, and were read before the people themselves. Moreover, it is manifest that Christ our Lord handled those things in public sermons, which properly pertained to the doctors and pastors of the people. To this it may be added that St. Paul, speaking of elders or ministers, says: "Those who sin, rebuke openly, that the rest also may fear." 1Tim 5.20

v.162

The holy scripture, describes good and faithful shepherds and teachers with great diligence; with no less faithfulness and diligence, it paints the false teachers and false shepherds or wolves,[2812] to the end that all men [2813] may know them, and beware of them. These things are everywhere to be seen in the writings of the prophets and apostles. Yet singular places, if any man would know, are to be seen in Deu 13 and 18, Isa 56, Jer 23, Eze 34, Dan 11, Mat 7 and 23. The epistles of Paul are plentiful in describing and confuting them; and St. Peter spends a great part of his second epistle in overthrowing such men. The testimonies and examples of the same prophets and apostles show that godly ministers and faithful pastors will be vexed with all kinds of afflictions and persecutions. Yet nevertheless, they also witness evidently that the ministry will never be utterly oppressed, but the ministers will continually have the victory, yes, even when they are slain. For the Lord always gives ministers to his church, who, though they are tried as gold in the fire, yet they overcome through him who has overcome the world and the prince of the world.

The last times will be very wicked, as we read the times of Noah and Lot were. But we read that in that uttermost corruption, those two most excellent men, with a few other singular men in all godliness, who were true worshippers of God, flourished and did their duty. Even so, to the very end of the world, the ministry of the word shall also endure; and worthy doctors and pastors will flourish, striving against and persecuting all ungodliness and looseness of life. Let the enemies of the truth cease to hope for the overthrow of the ministry and ministers of the word of God. "I will," says the Lord in the gospel, "be with you always, even to the end of the world." He cannot lie who has spoken this. "He shall consume antichrist," says the apostle, "with the spirit of his mouth; and shall abolish him with the brightness of his coming for judgment." 2The 2.8 There will therefore be ministers in the church, and preachers, yes, at the very gates of hell, however horribly they may rage, even to the end of the world.

v.163

These things up to here have I comprehended, as briefly as I could, touching the ministry of the word, and the ministers of the churches of Christ. But it is not in our power to frame or give such pastors. By the grace and goodness of God, good pastors are given, and the wicked are taken away. Let us all therefore call upon God, asking Him to give us faithful and godly ministers, by which his name may be always sanctified and the church of God may be happily governed, to the salvation of all those who believe.

5-5. THE FIFTH SERMON: OF PRAYER, SINGING, & THANKSGIVING.

OF THE FORM AND MANNER OF HOW TO PRAY TO GOD; THAT IS, OF CALLING

ON THE NAME OF THE LORD: WHERE ALSO THE LORD'S PRAYER IS EXPOUNDED;

AND ALSO SINGING, THANKSGIVING, AND THE FORCE OF PRAYER, IS TREATED.

The ministry of the word of God in the church of Christ being handled, I think I have a convenient place to treat the prayer of the faithful, which godly ministers never leave, to stir up the church.

PRAYING

The word PRAYER is widely used among writers, and it is in daily use. At present, we will use it in the same manner that David the prophet used it, saying: "Hear my prayer, God; and let my cry come to you." Psa 102.1 For prayer is a humble and earnest laying forth of a faithful mind, by which we either ask good things from God's hands, or else we give him thanks for those things which we have received. And there are chiefly two parts of prayer: invocation (or asking), and thanksgiving. By petition, we lay open to God the requests and desires of our heart; beseeching him to give us good things, and that he will turn evil things away from us, as it may be to his glory and good pleasure, and according to our necessity.

v.164

In invocation or petition, we comprehend obsecration,[2814] which is a more vehement prayer; and also intercession, by which we commend other men's matters to the Lord. For we offer prayers to the Lord our God, not only for ourselves, but also for our brethren, and for their manifold necessities; for those who are distressed with perils; for those who are sick; for those who suffer persecution, or are oppressed in some way with other calamities and afflictions. Nor do we exclude beseechings, by which we earnestly desire evils to be turned away from ourselves or from others. There are also complaints, by which the saints in their prayers holily expostulate with God. Thanksgiving comprehends both divine praises, and it also celebrates with a joyful spirit God's noble power, and the benefits received from his hand. A great part of the Psalms is referred to this. One part pertains to invocation or calling upon God; other parts serve to teach or instruct; and some serve to declare or expound. There is no place to speak of this at present. Paul, the blessed apostle of Christ, acknowledging these parts of prayer in writing to the Colossians, says: "Continue in prayer, and watch in this with thanksgiving." Col 4.2 And to the Philippians he says: "Let your requests be shown to God, in prayer and supplication with giving of thanks." Phi 4.6 And again to Timothy: "I exhort, therefore," says Paul, "that first of all prayers, supplications, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." 1Tim 2.1

THE KINDS OF PRAYERS

Kinds of prayers are these: there is a PRIVATE prayer of every faithful man; and there is also a PUBLIC prayer of the whole church.

PRIVATE prayer is made to God by every faithful man, in whatever place, either in the house or out of doors, in the closet of his heart and temple of his own body. For St. Peter went up into the uppermost part of the house and prayed. St. Paul says, "I would, therefore, that the men pray everywhere, lifting up pure hands;" 1Tim 2.8 and Christ our Lord, very often departed even out of the temple into the mount to pray. And in the gospel he says: "When you pray, enter into your chamber; and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret." Mat 6.6

v.165

PUBLIC prayer is that which is used by the church; these prayers are made to God in the holy assembly, according to the accustomed order of every church. Now the pastor's duty is, as Paul also admonishes in 1Timothy 2 (and as we repeated in the sermon before this), to gather together, instruct, and preserve the assemblies, in which supplications or common prayers are made. And those who are more negligent than becomes them in this, are greatly to be blamed; nor indeed are those pastors to be suffered, who seldom or never teach diligently, and are cold in stirring up a desire in men, to pray. Men by nature are slow and slack in the study of religion; and therefore we need a sharp spur; and the charge and office of stirring up, and provoking, is committed to the pastors of churches. The prophets somewhere cry: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, assemble a congregation." Joe 2.15 For in a holy congregation, three things are chiefly used: the teaching of the gospel, faithful prayers, and religious celebration or administration of the sacraments: and sometimes there is a collection made for relieving the poor and the church. The holy scripture witnesses that these things are not instituted at the will and pleasure of man, but by the authority of God; yes, and immediately after the first beginnings; and they were also used by the most holy worshippers of God. There is no doubt they were used by the most ancient patriarchs, both those before the flood and those who followed immediately after. For the scripture plainly witnesses this about Jacob himself, the grandson of Abraham, that he erected an altar in Bethel, at which he assembled his whole household, though exceedingly great; and there he offered sacrifice to God. He instituted holy assemblies in Moses' time by the law, in most evident commandments. Indeed, he diligently commands in the Ten Commandments to sanctify the sabbath-day, which also comprehends holy assemblies. The holy prophets of God everywhere praise and commend the ecclesiastical assemblies of God's people. Nor did Christ our Lord disallow them, when he came in the flesh. For it was in the most notable assemblies and feasts that he taught with great diligence; even so, he gathered and assembled together both the people and his disciples, whom he specially commanded that they not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father. When they were gathered together in an assembly and in prayer, we read in the Acts that this was then performed.

v.166

There also, the assembly of the faithful is commended to us; as it appears both in the 11th and 14th chapters of Paul's first epistle to Corinth. Those supplications which Paul commands to be made for all those who are set in authority, are made chiefly in holy assemblies. Truly, Pliny, a heathen author, writing to Trajan the emperor, makes obvious mention of holy assemblies.[2815] Holy assemblies in olden times held very excellent promises; as we may see in the prayer of Solomon, which is described to you in the first book of Kings, 8th chapter. And today, the church of Christ has promises that are not at all inferior to them. Christ our Lord says: "I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth touching anything that they ask, it shall be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." Mat 18.19-20 Behold, the Lord himself is in the midst of the assemblies of saints; and where the Lord is, there is both plenty and the treasure of all good things. And therefore, the experience which we have about matters, teaches us that the supplications of the church are effectual; for the Lord hears the prayers of the church, and delivers from evil those whose safety the church commends to Him. We have oftentimes experienced that those who were in extreme danger have found very present help, even at the same instant in which the congregation has offered their prayers to the Lord. Moreover, the example moves very many who are otherwise hard-hearted and barbarous; for they see the devout godliness of the holy congregation, and the fervency of the faithful in assemblies, and they are thereby moved; so that looking within themselves, they acknowledged that they are miserable, and desire to be partakers of this fellowship, according to the saying of St. Paul:

v.167

"If therefore, when the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak strange tongues, and those who are unlearned come in, or those who do not believe — will they not say that you are out of your wits? But if all prophesy, and one who does not believe comes in, or one who is unlearned, he is rebuked by all men, and judged by all. And so the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so he will fall down on his face, and worship God, and say plainly that God is in you indeed." 1Cor 14.23-25

With what confidence, therefore, and how shamefully, some dare to treat holy assemblies lightly; and not only that, but tjeu also scorn them, as if they were assembled together without any profit at all. David in his banishment complains of nothing so much as being compelled to wander in the wilderness, and be shut out from holy assemblies. For he promises the Lord, he will enter into his holy congregation if he is ever restored again. Psa 22.22 Truly, when the Lord says in the gospel, "He who is of God, hears God's word;" Joh 8.47 it follows that those who love the congregation, in which the word of God is preached, have the natural mark of sons of God.

But many not only loathe holy assemblies, but also say that prayers are altogether superfluous, vain, and unprofitable. Therefore, before we proceed any further, we will show that the godly must pray, and that the prayers of the faithful are both effectual, profitable, and necessary. They say, All things are done by the providence of God, and therefore prayers are unprofitable; for what God has foreknown, he will truly bring to pass in the manner of his foreknowledge; nor can it be hindered by prayers. But these men abuse the providence of God; for out of it they gather what the holy scriptures do not teach them to gather. For in Deuteronomy, Moses has left written in express words: "The Lord had determined to destroy you; therefore I made intercession to the Lord, and I found favour." Deu 9.19 Jonah threatens such certain destruction to the Ninevites from the Lord, that he even foretold the number of days. But when the men of Nineveh believed the Lord, and repented, the Lord became favourable to them again; nor did he destroy them when they repented.

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Moreover, Isaiah had spoken to Hezekiah out of the mouth of the Lord, "You shall die, and not live." Isa 38.1 But when the king poured out his prayers, from the bottom of his heart to the Lord, God changed his sentence that he had pronounced. For the Lord himself says in Jeremiah: "I will speak suddenly against a nation or a kingdom, to pluck it up, and to root it out, and to destroy it. But if this nation against whom I have pronounced, turns from its wickedness, I will repent of the plague that I thought to bring upon them," etc. Jer 18.7-8 Therefore, the prayers of the faithful are effectual, staying the wrathful judgments of God, yes, and removing them.

They object again, that prayer is a declaration of things which we require of the Lord; and God foreknows all things; therefore, these things are unprofitably and superfluously declared to him which he already knows; and for that reason, prayer is unprofitable. This is confuted by Christ our Lord himself, who plainly said, "Your heavenly Father knows what things you need, before you ask of him." Mat 6.8 Nevertheless, adding a form of prayer, he then teaches us to pray. In another place, he commands and stirs us up to pray often: "Watch and pray, lest you fall into temptation." Mat 26.41 And Paul says: "Rejoice always; pray continually." 1The 5.16-17 In every place there are many precepts of this kind. Nor do we declare our matters to him as to one who does not know them; but we utter them to the one who understands the desires of our heart, and humble ourselves at the feet of his majesty. We ask of him what we know we lack, and yet it is certainly to be received from him, who is the author of all goodness; for we believe his sure and infallible promises. In the meantime, prayers are not superfluous, for the Lord would assuredly give what we asked. The Lord promised the delivery of his people, which the godly did not doubt at all. Yet they prayed to the Lord with incessant supplications, crying, "Deliver us, O Lord our God;" Psa 106.47 nor did they think they laboured in vain.

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The anabaptists [2816] pretend absolute pureness. Therefore, being pure, they neither can nor should pray, "Forgive us our debts," Mat 6.12 since [they claim] there remain no debts. The most holy evangelist and apostle John answers such a claim, saying: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." 1Joh 1.8-10 For as long as we live in this world, there remain remnants of sin to be washed away every moment by the grace of Christ.

Moreover, they object that it is written, "We know that God does not hear sinners;" Joh 9.31 and we are all sinners. Therefore, God hears none of us, and so men's prayers are found to be unprofitable. We answer, that some sinners are altogether ungodly and despisers of God: those God does not hear. There are again repentant men, and those who fear God; they are nevertheless sinners, and rightly called such because of the remnants of sin: those God hears. This might be shown by the examples of David, Manasseh, Peter, the thief crucified with Christ, and many others, who were sinners; and yet when they prayed, they were heard.

Therefore, we say that the prayers of the faithful are not only profitable and effectual, but also necessary for men. For we men are defiled with sin, destitute and void of all goodness. "Every good giving, and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights." Jas 1.17 He commands us to pray, and offers very large promises to those who pray. Therefore, our fathers were often exercised and very fervent in prayer; by their example, they teach us that prayers are necessary. The scripture also diligently and at large recites how they obtained great things by their prayers in very weighty affairs and dangers, indeed, in most necessary matters, from our most true and most bountiful Lord and God. The apostles pray for the Holy Ghost, faith, and the increase of faith; and they received their requests, not sparingly, but liberally, being made partakers of all kinds of graces from Christ. In the gospel, the publican prays in the temple, and says: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner;" Luk 18.13 and immediately he found the Lord merciful to him. The holy history records what and how great were the things that Elijah obtained from the Lord by his prayers.

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And the blessed apostle James applies his example to us also, that in faith we too should call upon God. I repeat this, lest any man think that it does not pertain to us at all. Again, it would take too long to recite how much the faithful prayers of Moses, David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and other valiant men prevailed in wars, in famines, in sickness, and in other exceedingly great dangers. These examples prove that prayer is always necessary to men, and also very effectual. For we plainly see that God is moved with the prayers of his faithful; for he is good and merciful; he loves us; he took on flesh that he might be touched by feeling our infirmities, lest we be dismayed at him. He is true and faithful, performing those things faithfully which he promises. What? Does he not freely, liberally, and bountifully call all men to him, offering himself wholly to those who call upon him in faith?

But just because those who pray do not always receive what they ask, it does not prove that prayer is altogether unprofitable; for it is oftentimes profitable for the one who prays, not to receive his requests. There are, moreover, many causes for which God either puts off the things that are asked, or does not grant them. There is a kind of man who prays, of whom it is written: "He that shuts his ear at the cry of the poor, will cry himself, and not be heard." Pro 21.13 Again: "Though you make many prayers, yet I will hear nothing at all, seeing that your hands are full of blood." Isa 1.15 So again in Solomon, Wisdom cries out, testifying that she will not hear those who call on her, because they would not first hear her giving a warning in time. Pro 1.20-30 All these things are gathered in a way from the person who prays: what follows is derived from the thing which they pray for. St. James says: "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, to consume it upon your lusts." Jas 4.3 For the Lord, in answering two of his chosen disciples, who demanded the highest places in the kingdom of Christ, says this: "You do not know what you ask." Mat 20.22 Furthermore, when holy men ask for holy and necessary things, or at least not unjust or evil things, which nevertheless they do not receive from the Lord, they immediately think that God is a God of judgment and justice, and therefore that he will not immediately deliver them out of afflictions: yet desire they deliverance with continual prayers.

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""Whom the Lord loves he chastens." Heb 12.6, 10 And whom he chastens, he does not chasten to destroy them; but "that they should not be condemned with the wicked world." Gal 1.4 For it is lawful in such distress to pray with David, "Do not rebuke me in your anger, O Lord; nor chasten me in your displeasure;" Psa 38.1 and with Jeremiah, "Lord, correct me in judgment, not in fury;" Jer 10.24 and with Habakkuk, "When you are angry, remember your mercy." Hab 3.2 The godly doubt nothing of the power and goodness of God toward men. That which God wills, and which is profitable for the children of God, God can do. The old and new Testaments afford us countless examples of this. Therefore, when we are not delivered, when we do not obtain our desires, it is most sure that God would have it so, and that it is profitable for us that it should so be. By this means he hears our prayers when he hears us. For our prayers tend to this end only: that it might go well with us. God, since he is only wise, knows what can profit and what can hurt us, and he does not give us what we ask; and yet, by not giving, he indeed grants what is good for us. Therefore, the lawful prayer of the faithful is always effectual, and it evermore obtains his purpose; the Lord granting to his people, what he knows to be good.

Furthermore, the Lord defers performing what is asked, yes, and at times he seems to neglect our prayers altogether. But by prolonging, he tests his people, that he may make their faith more fervent, and his gifts more acceptable; they are that much more joyfully received, by how much they are looked for with an ardent desire. In this temptation, let that saying of the prophet comfort us: "Can a woman forget her child, and not have compassion on the son of her own womb? Though they forget, yet I will not forget you." Isa 49.15 For the church would have said, "God has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me."

THE MANNER OF PRAYER

Let us now consider what manner of prayer it should be, which he that calls upon God uses. That question cannot be better resolved, than by weighing the chief circumstances.

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First, therefore, let us consider WHO must be called upon by those who pray. None truly, but the one and only God. For three things are required of the one who is prayed to: first, that he hear the prayers of all the men in the whole world; that he pierce and exactly know their hearts; indeed, that he know more rightly and better, all the desires of men, than men themselves can utter them; secondly, that he be present everywhere, and have power over all things in heaven, on earth, and in hell; and has in his power all the ways and all the means to help; thirdly, that his will be exceedingly good and ready prepared; that what he can do, he may also be willing to do. And these properties are found in God only. For only God searches the reins and the hearts; only he sees and hears all things; only he knows more perfectly those things which are within and without man, than man himself; only he is present in all places; only he is almighty; only he is wise. The will of God alone embraces man with most perfect goodness, and is always ready, and faithfully procures only that which is profitable for man. Therefore, only God should be called upon. But if these properties were attributed to the most chosen souls in heaven, who could do so without blasphemy and sacrilege? Therefore, the souls in heaven, living with God, are not to be called upon, especially since the scripture in plain words testifies, that "Abraham and Jacob do not know us;" Isa 63.16 and it commands us to call on God, and forbids us to communicate those things which are God's, to creatures. And if we say nothing else, to whom, I ask you, of all the saints or angels in heaven, can we say without blushing, "Our Father, which art in heaven," Mat 6.9 and then what follows in the Lord's prayer? Let us therefore call upon God only, that heavenly Father, whom alone all the saints or godly men, as many as have been in the church, have called upon.

No mortal man, however good [2817] he seems to be, is worthy to come into the sight of the eternal and most holy God — which all men confess with one voice. And yet, many and diverse patrons, intercessors, and advocates, are chosen and received by those who pray; by whose intercession either they themselves might be brought to God, or their prayers might be presented to God.

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This is why some have chosen angels for themselves; others have chosen apostles; others the most holy and among all other women, that most blessed virgin, the mother of Christ; [2818]  some others have chosen others, as they have put confidence in this man or that man. But they have forged these things for themselves out of the imagination of their own heart, and have not learned them from the mouth of the Lord. The scripture, that only rule of truth, sets forth for us one mediator, intercessor, patron, and advocate, by whom we may come to God, and by whom we may present our prayers to the Lord. All the prayers of all men are unpleasant and abominable, which are not made by Jesus Christ. Nor does true faith teach us to forge and imagine another advocate for Christ, or some other with Christ, in the sight of God; nor should we ourselves alone, without our advocate Christ, rush into the presence of God the Father. Here, true Christians are separated from Jews, from Turks,[2819] yes, and from papists also. For, despising the Son of God, they call upon the Father alone, without the mediation of Christ Jesus. But the voice of God, by the gospel and his apostles, pronounces against them. In the gospel, we read that the Lord said: "The Father has committed all judgment to the Son, because that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honours not the Son, the same honours not the Father which has sent him." Joh 5.22-23 And again: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me." Joh 14.6 And John, the apostle and evangelist, says: "Whoever denies the Son, does not have the Father." 1Joh 2.23 But these men do not acknowledge Christ as the only intercessor; but they teach that saints in his stead, or with Christ, should be called upon as patrons before God. But the same John, showing who is an advocate for Christians, did not appoint himself; he did not lay before us saints instead of Christ, nor them along with Christ; "but," he says, "we have an advocate with God the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1Joh 2.1 Nor does Paul show us any other in 1Timothy chapter 2, and Hebrews chapter 7.

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To the Ephesians, in chapter 3, Paul says: "By Christ we have boldness and entrance with confidence, by faith in him." Eph 3.12 Christ is sufficient for those who believe, as the Father has stored up all good things in him alone, commanding us to ask those things in him and by him, through prayer. These things are sufficient for minds that do not desire contention. Those who would, let them search further in the fifth sermon of the fourth decade.[2820]

THE SPIRIT OF PRAYER

I have told you who is to be prayed to or called upon by the godly worshippers of God, and by whom: namely, to God alone, through the only Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us now see, what should stir up man to call upon God. Surely, the Spirit of our God principally; for prayer is rightly counted among the gifts of grace. For we could neither earnestly nor heartily call upon our God, unless we are stirred up and provoked to it by the Spirit of God. For even though the commandment of God wills us to pray, and present necessity and danger drive us to pray, and the example of others allure us to pray; yet all these things would do nothing, unless the Spirit forces our minds to His will, and guides and keeps us in prayer. Therefore, though there are many concurring causes which move men to prayer, yet the chief origin of prayer is the Holy Ghost. Whoever prays with any fruit, begs with a holy preface at the entrance of all prayers, for His motion and government. To this pertain these words of the holy apostle:

"The Spirit also helps our infirmities; for we do not know what to pray as we should; but the Spirit itself makes requests for us with sighs which cannot be expressed. But he who searches the hearts knows what the meaning of the Spirit is; for He makes requests for the saints according to the will of God." Rom 8.26-27

Indeed, the Spirit of God is said to make intercession; not that he indeed prays and groans; but because he stirs up our minds to pray and to sigh. And he brings to pass, according to the pleasure of God, that we should make intercession or pray for the saints; that is to say, for ourselves.

THE ABILITY TO PRAY

But let us consider with what abilities someone must be furnished, who comes to purposefully pray to God.

By God's Mercy. First, it is necessary that he lay aside all opinions of his own worthiness and righteousness; that he acknowledge himself to be a sinner, and to stand in need of all good things; and so let him yield himself to the mere mercy of God, desiring by His mercy to be filled with all things that are good.

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For that great prophet of God, Daniel, says this: "We do not present our prayers before you in our own righteousness, but in your manifold mercies." Also, you read a similar prayer offered to God in Psalm 79. For the people of the Lord cry out: "Help us, O Lord of our salvation, for the glory of your name: deliver us, and be merciful to our sins, for your name's sake. Do not remember our sins of old; make haste, and let your mercy deliver us." Psa 79.8-10 In the new Testament, the Pharisee in Luke, trusting in his own righteousness, is put aside and cast off from the Lord; but the publican, freely confessing his sins and craving mercy from God, is heard and justified. Luk 18.10f For unless we acknowledge our nakedness, weakness, and poverty, who, I ask you, would pray to God? "For it is not those who are strong, but those who are sick, that need the physician." Mat 9.12 And the Lord in the gospel says: "Ask, and you shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened to you; seek, and you shall find." Mat 7.7-8 Therefore, he that is commanded to ask so that he may receive, does not yet have what he asks for; he that knocks, by knocking, signifies that he stands outside the door; and he which seeks, has lost what he yet seeks. Therefore, being shut out from the joys of paradise, we seek and ask by prayer for what we have lost and do not have. Therefore, though David and Hezekiah and other saints of God, allege in prayer their own righteousness, for which they seem to worthily demand to be heard — truly, they do not regard their own worthiness, but rather the truth of God. He has promised that he will hear those who worship him. Therefore, the godly say, Behold, we are your worshippers: therefore it is fitting that you not neglect us, but deliver us.

Meanwhile, in other places they speak in such a way about their righteousness, that we cannot doubt that in their prayers they mention their righteousness with a certain measure and limitation. "Do not enter into judgment with your servant," says David; "for in your sight no man living shall be justified," etc. Psa 143.2

In Faith. Furthermore, and what is chief of all, it is needful that those who pray must have a true and fervent faith. Let the doctrine of faith, therefore, in the matter of prayer, show us light as the morning-star; and with an assured hope to obtain from God the thing which is asked, let him that prays make his petition. Mar 11.24; 1Joh 5.15

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"Let him ask in faith," says St. James, "nothing wavering: for he that wavers is like a wave of the sea, tossed by the wind, and carried with violence. Nor let that man think that he will receive anything from the Lord." Jas 1.6-7 And Paul also says: "How shall they call upon him, on whom they have not believed?" Rom 10.14 I have spoken of faith in the fourth sermon of the first decade. But to the end that faith may increase in just measure, and flourish and continue stable, we must labour in the promises and examples from every place gathered together. We will recite a few. In the book of Psalms we read: "Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the most High." Psa 50.14 And: "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." Psa 50.15 Again: "The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all those who call upon him in truth (or faithfully). He will fulfil the desire of those who fear him: he will also hear their cry, and will save them." Psa 145.18-19 Again, in Isaiah the Lord says: "And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer them; and while they are still thinking how to speak,[2821] I will hear them." Isa 65.24 In Matthew, the Lord says: "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For whoever asks receives, and whoever seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened," etc. Mat 7.7-8 In the same gospel, the Lord says: "And whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive it." Mat 21.22 In the 11th chapter of Mark, the same sentence is put this way: "Whatever you desire when you pray, believe that you have it, and it shall be done for you." Mar 11.24 Again, in the gospel of St. John the Lord says: "Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do." Joh 14.13 Again: "Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Ask, and you shall receive." Joh 14.13-14 David frames an argument from the example of the fathers, and says: "Our fathers hoped in you, they trusted in you, and you delivered them; they called upon you, and they were helped; they put their trust in you, and were not confounded." Psa 22.4-5

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From this, David gathers that he also will not be forsaken by the Lord. In the history of the gospel, there are very many examples to be seen, which exceedingly confirm and establish the faith of the godly.

With Godliness. But since faith is not a vain imagination, but an effectual power, working by the Holy Ghost all kinds of good works (though they neither trust to these, nor think they will be heard in consideration of them), yet nevertheless, those sinners who are faithful do not impudently, and without repentance, trust to their own wits,[2822] dealing only in words with the Lord; but they join a holy life to their prayers. For Solomon says: "He that turns his ear from hearing the law, his prayer will be abominable." Pro 28.9 And the Lord says in Isaiah: "Though you make many prayers, yet will I hear nothing at all, seeing your hands are full of blood." Isa 1.15 About such impenitent persons, we understand that in the gospel: "God does not hear sinners." But what is more, the saints will obtain nothing if they continue in prayer for them. For Jeremiah, praying earnestly for his people who were otherwise being obstinately wicked, hears this:

"You shall not pray for this people; you shall neither give thanks nor bid prayer for them; make no intercession for them; for in no way will I hear you. Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah? The children gather sticks, the fathers kindle the fire, the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drink-offerings to strange gods, to provoke me to wrath." Jer 7.18

In the same manner, the Lord says in Ezekiel: "If I send a pestilence into this land, and if Noah, Job, and Daniel, were in it," (or in the midst of it,) "as truly as I live, says the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter, but save their own souls in their righteousness." Eze 14.19-20

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Therefore, it follows that the supplications of unrepentant men, impudently persevering in their sins, even though they cry without ceasing, "Help us, O God, our Saviour; deliver us, Lord; we beseech you to hear us," these are altogether fruitless; for they desire to be preserved, so that they might take their further pleasure and commit wickedness. And though God gives us freely those things which we ask, yet it is necessary that an affection or desire to live well accompanies such great benefits received from the hands of God. For here we should most diligently to take heed, that we not think we will be heard for our virtues' sake, but for the mere mercy of God in Christ Jesus.

Heavenly-Minded. Moreover, whoever desires to have his prayers acceptable to God, let him lift up his mind toward heavenly things from earthly things. Touching this, the blessed martyr of Christ, Cyprian, eloquently and holily entreats us, saying:

"When we stand occupied in prayer, we must with our whole heart watch, and be diligent in prayer. Let all worldly and fleshly thoughts depart; neither let the mind think upon anything else at that time, except that which it prays. Let your breast be shut against the adversary, and let it be open to God only; nor let it allow the enemy of God to enter into it in the time of prayer. For he oftentimes steals upon us, and enters in; and subtly deceiving us, he turns our prayers away from God, so that we have one thing in our heart, and another thing in our mouth. It is not the sound of the voice, but the mind and sense, that ought to pray to God with an unfeigned affection." [2823]

But that the mind of him who prays may be lifted up from earthly things to heavenly things, is chiefly the work of the spirit of true faith, the steadfastness of hope, and the fervent love of God — if we also remember the dreadful majesty of God, before whose eyes we stand praying.

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All the creatures in heaven and earth worship and reverence Him; thousands upon thousands of angels serve Him. Let us think to ourselves how profitable and necessary are the things that we ask of God, without which we cannot be happy. Let us moreover remove from us all those things which either detain and keep us in this world, or which pull us back to earthly things. Of this sort are slothfulness, covetousness, and surfeiting — and to be short, all other sins like these. And contrariwise, let us apply ourselves to watchfulness, soberness, gentleness, and liberality.

With Fasting. Surely the scripture almost everywhere joins fasting and mercy to prayer; for these virtues make us more cheerful and ready to pray through faith. Daniel says: "I turned my face to the Lord God, and sought him by prayer and supplication, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." Nor do Jonah and Joel teach unlike this. Indeed, in the gospel and writings of the apostles we hear everywhere: "Watch; be fervent in prayer; be sober." For if the belly is full, either no prayers at all are made, or else fat and unwieldy ones. We read that St. Augustine said of this: "Would you have your prayer fly up to God? Then make it upon two wings: fasting and alms-deeds." [2824] For in the Acts of the Apostles the angel of the Lord says to Cornelius the centurion: "Your prayers and alms-deeds are held in remembrance in the sight of God." Act 10.4

With Charity. And surely God requires fervent prayer from us; but it cannot choose but be cold, if not inflamed with charity. Therefore, those who are cruel and unwilling to forgive their brethren their trespasses, and still retain hatred toward their brethren, cannot pray before God, who says: "And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any man, so that your Father who is in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses." Mar 11.25 And again: "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father shall also forgive you: but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses." Mat 6.14-15 And in another place he says: "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." Mat 5.23-24

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For otherwise, all your gifts will not be acceptable to God. Let us therefore willingly forgive, and let us love and do good to our neighbours, so that our prayers will pierce the heavens.

Mindful. Agreeable to this, is that we pray not only with the mouth or voice, but with the mind and inward affection of the heart, and with the spirit and fervency. There was no voice heard from Moses nor from Hannah, the mother of Samuel, when they prayed; but they cried to God most earnestly in spirit. God heard Moses, and led him safely with all the people of Israel through the Red sea, out of the most bloody hands of the Egyptians. And God made Hannah fruitful, who before was barren. And contrariwise, we read in the gospel, that the Lord alleged these words against the Pharisees, out of Isaiah: "This people draws near to me with their mouth, and honours me with their lips, howbeit their heart is far from me: but in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines precepts of men." Mat 15.8-9 Therefore, Paul aptly said: "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also." 1Cor 14.15 Here he calls the living breath and voice of man "spirit." [2825]

Freely Offered. By these heavenly testimonies, their prayers are condemned, who with a marvellous rolling and swiftness of the tongue, babble many words in a short space. And their prayers are maimed and curtailed, who utter words without sense; for their mind is otherwise occupied. No other desire is felt by them, unless this happens to be a desire: that they pant and blow, hasting to make an end of praying. Monks and priests are chief among this kind of men; they pray for money and for their hire; that is, they sell nothing for a great price to mad people. Not that prayers are vain of themselves, but because, being used in that way, they become vain. In the gospel, the Lord pronounces this against such men: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; for you devour widows' houses, and do it under a pretence of long prayer; therefore you will receive the greater damnation." Mat 23.14 I know what those sophisters here bring forth and allege for the defence of prayers said for reward or stipend; but in a few words I give them this knot to loose.

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These men who pray in this way, either have faith and charity, or else they do not. If they have it, then they pray without reward, for charity's sake; and if they do not have it, then their prayers are of no effect. And therefore, it is with a false show that they deceive ignorant people, who pay their money for lawful prayers, but are requited with unlawful ones; and if they were lawful, then they were to be neither sold nor bought.

In God's Will. This is also required of the one who prays: that he does not desire things that are unworthy for God to grant, nor require those things that are contrary to the laws of God. For St. John the apostle says, "If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." 1Joh 5.14 Therefore, when we ask things that unworthy for God to grant, he does not hear us. Moreover, always and in all our prayers, our will and our desires ought to be obedient to God and his will. Therefore, let no man go about wickedly tying God to certain circumstances; let no man prescribe to God at what time, in what place, or in what manner, he will bring to pass anything that he will do. God, who is only wise, knows when it is time to help. He is also both faithful and omnipotent, and indeed able to do greater things than we can either ask or understand; We also read that Paul has said this. Eph 3.20

Therefore, that most honest widow, Judith, was not without cause very angry with Ozias the priest,Jdt 8 because he appointed a set number of days to God, which being ended, God should deliver, or otherwise they would give up the city. For Judith says:

"What manner of sentence is this to which Ozias has consented: to deliver this city to the Assyrians if relief does not come to us within five days? And who are you that tempt the Lord? This is not a sentence likely to obtain mercy, but rather to provoke wrath and kindle displeasure. You have set the mercy of God a time limit, and have appointed him a day according to your own phantasy. But because the Lord is patient, let us rather repent, and crave pardon from his hands, by pouring out tears." Jdt 8.10-14

Therefore, being in extreme danger, we read that David spoke this most godly: "If I find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back; but if he says to me, I have no delight in you; behold, here I am; let him do with me what seems good in his eyes." 2Sam 15.25-26

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Persistent. And now, long continuance is also very needful in prayers. The Lord says in the gospel, "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." Mat 7.7 By heaping together these words, he reminds us [2826] of continuance in prayer. "Ask," he says, earnestly and constantly, as those do who require things they stand in need of; "seek," as those do who search for things that are hidden and precious; "knock," as those do who with earnest desire long to come to their friend. For all these sayings not only signify a desire, but also a continual study to obtain the things required. In the gospel of St. Luke, the Lord presented a parable tending "to this end, that we should always pray, and never be wearied." Luk 18.1 For Paul also says: "Rejoice always; pray continually; in all things give thanks." 1The 5.16-18 Yet, let no man think that by these words of the Lord and the apostle, the error of the heretics Psallini, or Euchitae,[2827] is confirmed. They did nothing else but pray. The Lord commands us to pray always; that is to say, as often as we conveniently may, at all times and in all places, we are to be of an upright heart toward God [2828] in all things, who should always wait for good things from God's hand, and give him thanks for the benefits received; who should also continually ask favour from Him. Such an endeavour is commended to us in Anna, the daughter of Phanuel. Luke mentions that she "did not depart from the temple, but night and day served the Lord with fastings and prayers." Luk 2.36-37 It was not that she did nothing else, having no regard for her body, nor did not at any time eat, drink, or sleep; but because prayer was her continual and chief business. For today, speaking in the same way, we say that the husbandman labours without ceasing, and the student reads night and day. All men understand that this kind of speech signifies a continual and exceedingly great diligence in work and reading. The woman of Syrophoenicia, in Matthew, chapter 15, [2829] shows us a notable example of unwearied continuance in prayer or invocation. But if God seems to neglect us, or to defer our requests longer than seems fit, let us always remember what the prophet Habakkuk has said: "Yet a little while, and he that comes will come, and will not tarry;" and, "The just shall live by faith," etc. Hab 2.3-4

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Timely. From this it will be very easy to show the time of prayer — when we ought to pray. We should therefore PRIVATELY pray always; for continually while we live, there is diverse and manifold matter offered to us for prayer. Pray therefore as often as the Spirit moves you, and as often as necessity itself or matter provokes you to pray. Yet, let nothing here be done by constraint; let all things proceed from a willing and free spirit. But PUBLIC prayers are restrained as to time; for there are set and appointed hours to pray. Set hours are those certain times received by the church, during which the whole congregation assembles together in the morning or evening, to hear the word of God, to pray, and to receive the sacraments. Socrates bears witness in his history, that the ancient churches in times past did not meet together in a holy assembly all at one time, and at the same hours. And there is no danger in this diversity.[2830] Let it be left to the discretion of the churches to come together [2831] for the service of God, whenever it seems most necessary, customary, fitting, and profitable for themselves. Moreover, appointed hours of prayer are those which are set or forewarned for a certain time by the church, for present necessity's sake. In dangerous times, and in weighty affairs, the holy apostles appointed prayers and fastings; these are also lawful today, without superstition, and with just moderation. And it appears from these words of the prophet Joel, that this is a most ancient ordinance: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the people together," etc. Joe 2.15-16 Does the apostle not command man and wife privately to separate themselves for a time, and to abstain from their lawful delights, so that prayer in necessity may be more fervent? 1Cor 7.5

THE PLACE OF PRAYER

And now, it will also not be hard to judge about the place of prayer; for I said in the beginning of this sermon, that holy men may pray at all times privately, and also in all places.

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For the true prayer of holy men is not tied to any place, nor is it judged better in one place than in another; for the goodness or worthiness of the prayer is not esteemed by the place, but by the mind of the one who prays. For the Lord says in the gospel: "The hour will come, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit to pray in and in truth," etc. Joh 4.23 But those who are persuaded that the godly may pray in no other place than at home in their chamber, are in no way passed over in this passage. In confirmation of this, they twist these words of our Saviour: "But when you pray, enter into your chamber; and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father, who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly." Mat 6.6 But these words are an antithesis, or a contrary sentence, to that which goes before it; and this is what goes before it: "And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to stand praying in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men." Mat 6.5 Against this he immediately opposes: "But you, when you pray, enter into your chamber." In reproving the abuse of prayer, he did not condemn the place properly, but rather he spoke figuratively in this manner: The Pharisees, with their prayers which they make in the streets, hunt for praise and commendation by the people; so on the contrary part, by mentioning a chamber, he did not mean that the place itself makes the prayer either better or worse; but he taught by figurative speech, that we should pray with an upright mind, and be most free of hunting for the praise of men. For he that prays with a mind not troubled with affections, having regard only to God, "prays in his chamber," whether he prays in the church or in the street. For otherwise, the Lord prayed with his disciples in the temple, in the city, in the field, and wherever occasion was offered. It also follows: "And the Father, who sees you in secret, will reward you openly;" that is to say, the Father, who allows a mind that is not proud, but humble and free from ambition, will reward you openly. But PUBLIC prayers are used in the church or assembly of saints. If any man despises them, saying prayer should not to be tied to any place, I cannot think he is worthy of the name of a Christian, since he shamefully abuses Christian liberty. Finally, I have spoken before about assemblies;[2832] and we will perhaps say more in the last sermon of this decade.

v.185

THE POSTURE OF PRAYER

Here, the posture of those who pray also comes to be handled. But let all riot, all pride, all immoderate trimming of the body, be far from those who come into the church of Christ to pray. Someone would seem to filthily scorn the godly magistrate, who in coming to crave pardon for his fault, would lay aside his mourning clothes; and putting on white apparel, proudly appear before the assembly of grave and godly senators. Such a person might be judged worthy, not only to be denied his request, but also to be cast into prison. And who would deny that they more shamefully mock God, who coming into the church to ask His pardon, and being oppressed with the burden of their sins, yet in that place are so far from being humble, that they rather appear before the presence of God and his saints having their bodies so attired, as they thereby both provoke anew the wrath of God against them, and grievously offend the most godly who are in the church? Therefore, Paul teaches at large that modesty, proper and humble behaviour, is to be used in the church. This is seen in the eleventh chapter of first Corinthians. What remains about this matter, the blessed martyr of Christ, Cyprian, comprehends in these words:

"Let the words and prayers of those who pray, be governed in an orderly way, keeping modesty and shame-facedness. Let us think that we stand in the sight of God. God's eyes must be delighted both in the posture of our body, and the manner of our words. For just as it is the part of an impudent person to use clamorous shouts in praying; so contrariwise, it is fitting for a shamefaced person to pray with modest prayers." [2833]

Some foolishly imagine, that prayer is made either better or worse by the posture of our bodies. Therefore, let them hear St. Augustine, Lib. ii. ad Simplicianian, Quaest. 4, saying:

v.186

"It does not matter in what way our bodies are placed, so long as the mind, being present with God, brings her purpose to pass. For we pray standing — as it is written, 'The publican stood afar off;' — and kneeling, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles; — and sitting, as David and Elijah did. And unless he was praying lying down, it would not have been written in the Psalms, 'Every night wash I my bed.' Psa 6.6 For when any man seeks to pray, he places the members of his body in a manner which seems most fit to him at the time, to stir up his devotion. But when prayer is not sought, but an appetite or desire for prayer is offered — when anything comes suddenly to our mind, by which we are devoutly moved to pray with sighs that cannot be uttered; Rom 8.26 in whatever manner it finds a man — doubtless, prayer is not to be deferred until we have sought in what place we may sit, or where we may stand or kneel down." [2834]

Tertullian, in his Apology against the Gentiles, mentions the behaviour of the Christians of his time when they prayed. He says: "We Christians are all of us evermore praying for all men, looking up into heaven with our hands spread abroad, because we are harmless; we are bare-headed, because we are not ashamed; to be short, we need no one to put us in remembrance, because we pray from the heart." [2835]

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Notwithstanding, what we must chiefly remember is the doctrine of our Saviour in the gospel, saying: "When you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, so that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward." Mat 6.5 For above all things, we must beware that we neither pray privately nor publicly to this end; nor should we fashion the posture of our body in order to get the vain praise of the people, so that we may seem to be renowned and considered holy before men. It suffices that we please God, and are allowed by his judgment.

THE SUBJECTS OF PRAYER

In the discourse of prayer, no man would say that it is the smallest thing to know what you ought to pray, what you should ask for from God, or for whom you should pray. Here the persons and things of prayer are to be considered. Persons are either public or private.

PUBLIC persons are bishops, teachers, magistrates, and all who are set in authority. The writings of the prophets, evangelists, and apostles, command us to pray for these men. Paul more than once requires intercessions to be made by the church to the Lord for him, that he might be delivered from disordered and froward men; and that he might freely preach the gospel, as it became him to preach it. [2836] The same Paul commands us to pray for all those who are set in authority, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty." 1Tim 2.2

PRIVATE persons are our parents, wife, children, kinsfolk, allies, neighbours, citizens, friends, enemies, sick persons, captives, those who are afflicted, and, to be short, all who are nearby us, whose health and safety, both nature and Christian charity would have us commend to God by prayers. And there are testimonies and examples of these in the scripture.

But the THINGS we should pray for are those good things that are to be desired; some of which are heavenly, spiritual, or eternal; and others which are earthly, corporal, or temporal. Moreover, some things truly are common, and others again are private. Those things that are common pertain to the whole church and commonwealth; nor do they belong to a few, as private things do. And spiritual things are chiefly reckoned to be these: faith, hope, charity, perseverance, and that whole company of virtues, the profit and safety of the church, forgiveness of sins, and life everlasting. Among these are not unfitly reckoned the gifts of understanding, the liberal sciences,[2837] well ordered schools, faithful teachers, godly magistrates, and upright laws.

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Corporal things are a peaceable commonwealth, strong and valiant armies for war, health, strength, a handsome body, abundance or sufficient wealth, the safe prosperity of wife and children, the protection and defence of friends and citizens, peace, a good name, and other things of this kind. But no man is ignorant, that we ought to have a greater care for spiritual things than corporal things, and to principally desire heavenly things. And there is also a choice to be made in corporal things: that the profit of the commonwealth be preferred before our own private gain. For if the commonwealth continues in safety, the citizens may also be safe; and so long as schools and universities or places of learning are maintained, there is hope that the commonwealth will never be destitute of wise and upright governors. In temporal goods, some things are also better than others. Those that are best, the saints or godly men therefore chiefly require from the Lord. Nevertheless, those which are of less value, they understand to come from Him, and therefore they also ask for them from the Lord. Those who are poorly exercised in the scriptures assert that it is not lawful in prayer to ask for corporal goods from the Lord; but they are confuted by many examples from the scripture. For not only the patriarchs and prophets, but also the apostles of Christ, asked for temporal goods from the Lord — such as defence against their enemies, a good report, and other things necessary for the body. We will learn this shortly by the form of prayer which the Lord himself has taught us, diligently showing us what we should ask for.

THE LANGUAGE OF PRAYER

This also comes in question, In what tongue must prayer be made? Those who assert that we must pray in Latin privately and publicly, seem in my judgment to be out of their wits, unless they speak of those who are skilful in the Latin tongue. For since we must pray not only with our mouth and voice, but also with our heart and mind, how, I ask you, will someone pray with heart and mind, who uses a language he does not understand? Indeed, he utters godly words, but he does not know what he says. For it all comes to one reckoning: to never pray at all, or to babble words which are not understood. Let every nation therefore pray in that language which it understands best and most familiarly.

v.189

And it is no less madness to use a strange language in public assemblies. This has been the root of the greatest evils in the church. Whatever the priests who were ordained by God, and the prophets who were sent from him, spoke or repeated to the people of olden times in the church, they did not speak or recite in the Chaldean, Indian, or Persian tongue, but in the Hebrew tongue — that is, in their vulgar [2838] and mother-tongue. They also wrote books in their vulgar tongue. Christ our Lord, together with his apostles, used the vulgar tongue. He furnished the apostles with the gift of tongues, that they might speak to every nation; and because in that age the Greek tongue was most plentiful and common of all, the apostles did not write in the Hebrew tongue, but in the vulgar Greek tongue. Truly, it behoves us that those things which are done in the public church for the holy assemblies' sake, should be understood of all men; for otherwise so many men would be assembled together in vain. From this it is clearer than daylight that those who have brought strange tongues into the church of God, have troubled all things, have quenched the fervency of men's minds, yes, and banished out of the church both prayer and the use of prayer, and all the fruit and profit that would come of things done in the church. And truly, the Roman and Latin prince [the pope] has brought this Latin abomination into the church of God. He cries out that it is wickedly done if Germany, England, France, Poland, and Hungary, both in prayer and other kinds of service in the church, do not use the Roman or Latin tongue, but use Dutch or German, English, French, Polish, or the Hungarian language. St. Paul, handling this controversy once, says in plain words:

"If I pray in a strange tongue, my spirit or voice prays, but my understanding is without fruit. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing with the understanding also.

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Otherwise, when you bless with the spirit, how will the unlearned say Amen at your giving of thanks, seeing that he does not know what you say? You may truly give thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God, I speak languages more than you all: yet I would rather speak five words in the church with my understanding, that I might also instruct others, than to speak ten thousand words in a strange tongue." 1Cor 14.14-19

And truly, Justinian the emperor cites this very place In Novell. Const. 123, where he strictly commands bishops and ministers to recite the holy oblation and prayers used in holy baptism, not secretly, but with a loud voice which might be heard by the people, with the intent that the minds of the hearers might thereby be stirred to set forth the praises of God with greater devotion.[2839] Moreover, it is evident that Gregory himself, who is called the Great, spoke to the citizens in the city of Rome in their country's language. He himself witnesses to this in the preface of his commentary on Ezekiel, to Marianus the bishop.[2840] Of the Greek bishops, no man is ignorant that in their churches they had their whole service in their native language, and they have left their writings to us in the same tongue. We might therefore be worthily judged mad and void of understanding if we too did not use our own language in the administration of divine service in the church. Because so many and such excellent examples have gone before us from the most famous churches, and the most singular bishops and governors of the church, I will not speak again about this most express and manifest doctrine of St. Paul the apostle.

v.191

SINGING

This place now requires that I say something about singing in the church, and of canonical hours. But let no man think, that prayers sung with man's voice are more acceptable to God than if they were plainly spoken or uttered; for God is neither allured with the sweetness of man's voice, nor is he offended if prayer is uttered in a hoarse or a base sound. Prayer is commended for faith and godliness of mind, and not for any outward show. Those outward things are used rather as a means to stir us up; even though they have little effect unless the Spirit of God inflames our hearts. Nor can any man deny that the custom of singing is very ancient; for the holy scripture witnesses that the Levites sang in the ancient church, long before the coming of Christ; yes, and they sang at the commandment of God. And again; I think no man can deny that the same skilled kind of music brought into the church of God by David, was both accounted among the ceremonies, and it was abolished together with the temple and the ceremonies. We do not read that our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true Messiah and full perfection of the law, sung in any place, either in the temple or outside the temple; or that anywhere he taught his disciples to sing, or commanded them to ordain singing in the churches. For what is read in Matthew and Mark — "And when they had sung a hymn, or psalm, they went out into the mount of Olives," Mat 26.30 — is such a saying, that it does not necessarily force us to understand that the Lord sang with his disciples. For a hymn, which is the praise due to God, may be humbly uttered without the voice quavering.[2841] Truly, the old translation in both places, in Matthew as well as in Mark, consistently interprets it: Et hymno dicto exierunt in montem Olivarum; that is to say: "When they had said a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives." In Matthew, Erasmus has translated it, Et cum hymnum cecinissent; "When they had sung a hymn:" but translating Mark, he says, Et cum hymnum dixissent; "When they had said a hymn:" but in either place it is umnhsantev (umnesantes). And umnew (umneoo) signifies, to praise, or to set forth one's praise; which has customarily been done both by singing, and also without singing.

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We do not read that the Lord himself commanded singing to his apostles, nor that they ordained singing in the church; nor do we read in the Acts of the Apostles that they themselves sang in holy assemblies. Yet Paul did not rebuke the church at Corinth, which began to sing, either of her own accord, or by a certain imitation of the old church; because he saw their manner of singing differed much from the old. He therefore allowed the singing of psalms; but in the meantime, he preferred prophecy above it, or the office of preaching. He also required of those who sang, a measure to be kept, and also that it should be done with understanding; without this, doubtless, both prayer and singing is not only unprofitable, but also hurtful.

"I will pray with the spirit," says the apostle, "and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." 1Cor 14.15 Nor do I know of any place else where the apostle mentions singing in holy assemblies; unless we're inclined to apply here, what Paul has left written in the 3rd chapter to the Colossians (though that may seem to be a private institution). For he has left these words written in the epistle to the Ephesians: "Do not be drunk with wine, in which is excess; but be fulfilled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts; giving thanks always for all things to God, even the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Eph 5.19-20 What manner of saying this is, is easily judged by the occasion and order of the words. For he says nothing about the public singing customarily used in the church, but of the private manner of singing. For he refers to riotous banquets where, for the most part, songs which were not very honest used to be sung by those who were well tippled [or tipsy]. "Therefore, do not be drunk with wine," says the apostle, lest you sing songs that are scarcely honest; rather, if you are inclined to sing, then sing psalms and spiritual songs. To this may also be added that even in those kinds of songs, he requires the song to be of the heart, rather than the warbling of the voice. This is far from at any time allowing unattractive shriekings, either public or private.

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Even so, the sense and meaning will be simpler and plainer, if we understand that in corde (which signifies "in the heart" Eph 5.19) is used in that verse instead of "joyfully," or "from the heart." This is why no man can or should disallow moderate and godly singing of psalms, whether it is publicly-used in holy assemblies, or at home in private houses. And truly, you will find many testimonies in the ecclesiastical history written by Eusebius and Sozomenus, declaring that the eastern churches, even immediately after the time of the apostles, used to sing psalms and hymns to Christ our Lord. [2842] You will also find this: that it was ordained by certain decrees of councils, that nothing else should either be read or sung in holy assemblies except the canonical scripture.[2843] For early on, a mean [2844] was not kept in the church, nor was only the canonical scripture used, for certain men intermixed their own songs.

Yet here, dearly beloved, I thought it good to put you in -mind of two excellent things concerning this matter. The first of them is that the singing of the ancient church was a far different kind of singing than what is used today. For Erasmus Rotterdam rightly judges that the singing used in the ancient churches was none other than a distinct and measured pronunciation, such as used today in some places in pronouncing the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Lord's Prayer.[2845] Truly, Pliny, who was the proconsul in Asia, by a diligent search or examination of matters, found out that Christians met at certain appointed times before daybreak, and sang a psalm among themselves to Christ their God. That place from Pliny may be seen in book 10 of his Epistles to Trajan the emperor.[2846] Also Rabanus Maurus says, lib. Instit. Cler. 2. cap. 48: "The primitive church sang in such a way, that with a little altering of the voice, it made the one who sang heard further; the singing was more like a loud reading than a song." [2847]

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These things he borrowed out of the 33rd chap. of St. Augustine's 10th book of Confessions. In that one place, he plainly confesses that he sins when he is more delighted with the sweetness of the voices than with the sense of the words. And therefore he desires that all the melodious tunes of sweet songs, with which the Psalter of David is replenished, might be removed from his ears and from the hearing of the church. For it seemed safer, which he remembered he had often heard concerning Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria: he made the reader of the psalm utter it with such little straining of the voice, that he seemed to read rather than to sing. [2848]

By the things I just said, I would put you in mind that singing, however ancient an institution it may be, was nevertheless never universal, nor thrust upon the churches as a necessity; rather, it was free; nor was it always used in all churches. To this may be added what Sozomenus witnesses: that those churches which sang, did not use the very same kinds of prayers, or psalms, or readings, or the very same time.[2849] Socrates also says in the 5th book of his history, chap. 22: "To be short, in all countries, everywhere, you will not find two churches which in all points agree together in prayer." [2850]

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And it appears that it was a long time before the western churches received melody, or the custom of singing, even by the testimony of Augustine. In his 9th book of Confessions, chapter 7, he recounts that Ambrose, being oppressed with the snares and persecutions of Justina, the Arian empress, ordained that hymns and psalms should be sung according to the custom of the eastern parts. Since that time, the custom of singing has been retained and also received by other parts of the world.[2851] Nevertheless, before the western churches received the order of singing, they were esteemed by all those of the east to be true churches; nor did it enter anyone's head, that therefore they were heretical and schismatic churches, or not rightly governed, because they were destitute of song or melody. No man gathered that because the eastern churches sing, and the western churches do not, that therefore they are not churches.

If this uprightness and liberty had remained safe and unaltered [2852] — that is to say, if, according to that ancient use of singing, nothing had been sung but canonical scriptures; if it had still been in the liberty of the churches to sing or not to sing — then truly there would be no controversy in the church today about singing in the church. For those churches, which use singing in the ancient manner practised in singing, would sing only the word of God and the praises of God; nor would they think that they surpassed other churches in this point; nor would they condemn those churches that do not sing at all — and these would not despise those which used to sing soberly and reverently. For if godly men persevere in the study of godliness, and in daily [2853] prayers, even though they do not sing, yet they nevertheless remain the sons of God.

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Nor does all singing edify in every place; nor are all churches fit to sing. Rabanus says in the same place that I just now cited, "The custom of singing is instituted in the church for fleshly-minded men's sake, and not for those who are guided by the Spirit; so that those who are not moved by words, may be allured with the sweetness of the melody." etc. [2854]

But the singing, about which there is controversy today, is not that sort of ancient singing; but it is more that, both in matter and tune, for the most part, it is clean contrary to the old. The common sort call it Gregory's singing. Doubtless it is not referring to Gregory the Great who, it seems, was not very friendly to singing. This appears from his constitution, described in the Registry, in the fifth part of it, chapter 44. [2855] We would therefore seem to judge more truly, if we refer it to Gregory the fifth, who is said to have been enthroned about the year of our Lord 995, and moreover to have used the help of one Robertus Carnotensis.[2856] Yet there are some who ascribe it to Vitalianus, some to Gelasius.[2857] It would irk me to repeat what Durandus has patched together about this matter in his Rat. Divin. lib. v.; for I give it little weight.

There are many things in this latter kind of singing to be discommended. First of all, many things, even most things, are sung contrary to true godliness; nor are all things that are sung taken out of the holy scriptures, but instead out of I know not what kind of legends and the traditions of men. And those things which are sung out of the scriptures are for the most part so twisted and corrupted, that no part of the heavenly sense or meaning remains. Creatures and dead men are called upon. Moreover, this kind of singing is commanded by them; and they do not sing of their own accord or good will, but under constraint. Indeed, they sing for money, and to the end that they may get an ecclesiastical benefice, as they term it.

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Only clerics hired for that purpose sing now-a-days; not the whole church of Christ, as was customary in times past. Nor is there any end or limit in their singing; they sing day and night. And there is more attributed to this foolish and ungodly kind of singing, as if to a heavenly or meritorious work, than true faith allows. A man may well say that it is so much babbling, which the Lord in Matthew forbids and condemns as a heathenish superstition. Mat 6.7 Moreover, they sing in a strange tongue, which few understand; and that is done without any profit at all to the church. A long sound is heard, quavered,[2858] and strained to and fro, backward and forward, of which a man cannot understand one word. Often the singers compete for the excellence of their voices. By this it comes to pass that the whole church rings with a hoarse kind of yelling, and through the strife that arises between their voices, the hearers little understand what is sung. I say nothing at present about their music, which they call "figurative," and about their musical instruments, all of which in a way are contained in their "organs" as they term them. I say nothing about their dirges, or prayers for the dead. I treated this in another place.[2859] But these, and other like things, so occupied the whole time of divine service in the church, that very little or none was left for true prayers, and for the holy and heavenly preaching of the word of God. Therefore, it was for most just causes that those who believe the gospel, neither use such singing, nor allow it in the church of God. They seem to deal very devoutly and most wisely, who bestow most of the time (or even the whole time) of ecclesiastical assemblies, in fervent and quiet prayers, and in the wholesome preaching of the word of God, omitting such singing. This is especially true since it is a hard thing to limit or restrain singing which is otherwise tolerable, lest it exceed and go beyond the appointed bounds at some point.

Furthermore, all the holy scripture witnesses in many places that our ancient predecessors had certain canonical and appointed hours, in which they prayed both privately in their houses and publicly in assemblies.

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David more than once in his Psalms says that he would go to the Lord in the morning and evening. Daniel prayed to the Lord at three separate hours or times of the day. Dan 6.10 Again, David says: "Seven times in a day I praise you;" Psa 119.164 but by seven times he means many times. For elsewhere we read: "I will strike you for your sins seven times;" Lev 26.24 and again: "The just man falls seven times, and rises up again;" Pro 24.16 and also: "If your brother sins seven times in a day, and returns seven times in a day to you," etc. Luk 17.4 In diverse places, therefore, as in this place of David, seven times is used for many times. And Christ our Lord has tied the private prayers of the faithful (as we told you before [2860]) neither to place, nor to time. He has not taken away public prayers; for he is not the Lord of confusion, but of order. But his disciples, when they were in the land of Jerusalem, also observed the customary hours of praying which that nation kept, out of liberty, not necessity, and especially for the assembly's sake. For Peter and John go up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer. Act 3.1 In the day of Pentecost, all the saints with one accord were gathered together, and received the Holy Ghost, at the third hour of the day. Act 2.15 And it is also read, that Peter privately went up into the upper part of the house about the sixth hour. Act 10.9

The temple being destroyed, and the Jews scattered abroad, the churches gathered out of the gentiles did not observe the same hours of gathering together, or assemblies; but at their own liberty, as it seemed most fitting and convenient to every church. Truly, the ecclesiastical history also mentions this diversity;[2861] yet for the most part, there were hours in the morning and evening used for assemblies. St. Jerome, in his epitaph on Paula, does not expound the rite or order of the universal church as to what it should do in holy assemblies, but what the companies of solitary virgins usually did of their own accord. He says: "In the morning, at three, six, and nine o'clock, at evening, at midnight, they sang the Psalter in order. Only on Sunday they went to the church, near which they dwelt," etc. [2862]

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So it pertains to private institution. The same sort of thing is written to Lacta, touching the institution of her daughter;[2863] and to Demetriades, De Custodienda Virginitate.[2864]

And truly, the greater or more famous and solemn churches (which today they call cathedrals, namely, from cathedra, a chair, or from the order of prophets teaching or professing there; as at one the church of Antioch, Corinth, Alexandria, and similar ones, seemed to have been), at certain hours, namely, in the morning, at noon, yes, and evening also, assembled to expound or discuss the holy canonical scriptures. The foundations of that observation seem to be laid in the church of the Corinthians; of which the apostle abundantly witnesses in 1Corinthians 14th chapter. Eusebius, in the fifth book of his ecclesiastical history, ninth chapter, mentions an ecclesiastical school at Alexandria. He says: "From a long time ago, the doctrine and exercise of the holy scriptures flourished among them. This custom also continues even to our time; which we have heard also to be instituted by men mighty in eloquence, and in the study of the holy scriptures;" [2865] namely, following the example of the Corinthian church. Some marks [2866] of this most wholesome rite or custom appeared at some time in the occidental or western church, as gathered from the writings of St. Ambrose and Augustine.

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But truly, in these very times, and in the times immediately following, all nations were in a way held by the ears with perpetual wars. The Roman empire was torn in pieces in revenge for the blood of Christ, and of his holy apostles and martyrs, according to the prophecy of Daniel and St. John the apostle and evangelist. It was made the prey of all people [2867] — the Goths or Germans rushing them on this side, the Huns and other barbarous soldiers assaulting Rome sharply on the other side — the best schools were destroyed, extensive libraries were burned, honest and good studies perished. For this reason, doctors or teachers were given to the churches, who were most unlike the ancient doctors and teachers; they were not furnished with such an ability that they could deal in the holy scriptures with the same dexterity and fruitfulness as their predecessors. In this disorder and downfall, lest nothing remain untouched of the canonical scriptures, it is evident that men rose up who were not altogether negligent of the canonical doctrine, who divided the whole canonical scripture into such parts, that they might read over the whole bible once in the course of a year, and the psalter more often — yes, even in a sevennight. [2868] They used the Psalms instead of prayers; and as time went by, many other prayers were also joined to these. And lest the very reading of the scriptures seem to lack all exposition, the readings, lectures, or homilies of the fathers were at length added to it. It was not that the priests should read them secretly to themselves (as they are prone to do today), or that they should with a post-haste reading, mumble them in place of matins;[2869] but that they should thoroughly handle them in the open church, as an exercise before the people, to the edification of the church. [2870] I need not repeat that this rite was not received by all men, so far is it from being strictly commanded. There remain some tokens or proofs of this In Distinct. 15. Sancta Rom. [2871]

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Furthermore, it is from reading the canonical scriptures at specific hours, that they are named canonical hours; [2872] just as the canons [2873] are also named from studying and reading the canonical scriptures. But at what time this was done, and who did it, is not certainly known. Some attribute some part of it to Jerome, others to Damasus, and some to Pelagius (the second of that name); also some others to Gelasius and Gregory. [2874]

Not a few homilies and lectures were said to be Bede's, and other doctors of later times.[2875] In the end, many other things are read in those hourly prayers, which do not savour a whit of antiquity. And thus, truly, because it is an institution patched up in various ways and at sundry times, it is far newer than the papists think or take it to be. Nor are there any lacking who, at the request of Carolus Magnus, Paulus Diaconus (or monk) of Cassina, and monk Isuard, ordained and delivered to the church selected or chosen lessons, especially those which concern the saints and are customarily read at these hours. [2876] But however the matter stands, it is most certain that those hours commanded today, and called canonical, are the invention of man and not of God. They are rasped or rotten relics or shadows of the old law. [2877] Beside this, it cannot be denied that there are many fables, toys, and follies annexed to it. Truly, today there appears such a mingle-mangle or hodgepodge, that it seems utterly unworthy either to be used or suffered any longer in the church of Christ — unless we would rather that care be taken for the bellies of some, than for the good state and welfare of the whole church. This much and thus far about this.

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THE LORD'S PRAYER

It remains, in the last place, to discuss how we must pray; what words, or what form of prayer, we must use. Truly, there are many forms of prayer; but none is better than that which our Lord, the only-beloved Son of God the Father, has delivered. Nor is there a more certain form comprehending all in all in few words. In this summary, he has prescribed what is worthy of him, what is acceptable to him, what is necessary for us, and to be short, what he is willing to grant.  Expounding the Lord's Prayer, St. Cyprian says of this, among other things:

"He that made us to live, has also taught us to pray; even of his bountifulness by which he has granted both to give and to bestow all other things whatever. So that, when we speak with the Father in that prayer and supplication which the Son has taught us, we may be more easily or readily heard, and may truly and spiritually worship him. For what prayer can be more spiritual, than that which is given to us by Christ, from whom also the Holy Ghost is sent to us? What prayer before the Father is more true than that of the Son, proceeding out of his mouth, who is truth itself? So that, to pray otherwise than he has taught is not only ignorance, but also offence, since he himself has set down and said: 'You cast aside the commandment of God to establish your own tradition.' Mar 7.8 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us pray as God our master has taught us. It is a friendly and familiar prayer, to call upon God in such manner that he has taught us, when that prayer of Christ comes to his ears. Let the Father acknowledge the words of his Son when we pray. He that dwells within the heart, let him also be in the tongue. And since we have him as our advocate with the Father for our sins, and being sinners, when we ask pardon for our offences, let us utter the words of our advocate. For since he says, 'Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you,' how much more effectually do we obtain what we ask in the name of Christ, if we ask it in his prayer!" [2878]

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From here arises a question, "Whether we are so tied to the words of the Lord's Prayer, that we may not pray in other words at all? I answer that the Lord would not tie us to his words set down and conceived, as though it were not lawful to use other words or another form; but he set forth certain universal things for us, to which we might refer all our prayers. For Augustine writing to Proba about praying to God, de Orando Deo, shows that there is nothing in any place in the holy scriptures that is prayed for, which is not comprehended in the Lord's Prayer. "For," he says, "if you run over and through all the words of all holy prayers, you will find nothing which this prayer of the Lord does not comprehend and contain." He immediately adds: "So that it is free to use such and such words in praying, if it is to say the same things; but it is not free to speak other things." [2879] Therefore, they most warily and wisely act, who refer all their prayers to the Lord's Prayer, to which they attribute the chief and principal place; and keeping it continually in their mind, they meditate on it, and exercise themselves in it.

There is usually another question also to be asked, "What need there is to express and open our desires in words to God, since he already knows all things? We told you shortly after the beginning of this sermon, that prayer is humbling ourselves before the majesty of God.

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To this, moreover, we add this: we do not express and open our desires to God, as though he did not know them, or as though we would teach him, being ignorant; or that we would entreat and get God's favour with our intricate, laboursome, and eloquent prayer. But it is for our own sakes that we use words with which to stir ourselves up. And to this end also the most holy men of God are, in the Psalms and holy histories, said to have largely declared their desires to the Lord. "We are not," says St. Jerome, "declarers, but cravers. For it is one thing to declare a thing to someone who is ignorant, and another thing to crave a thing from someone who knows — in that, it is a declaration; in this, it is a duty; there we faithfully declare; here we lamentably beseech." [2880] And St. Augustine says: "Words are needful for us, with which we may be moved and diligently consider what we should ask; not with which we should believe that the Lord is either taught or entreated." [2881]

Therefore, when the Lord forbade much babbling or vain lip-labour in prayer, he did not simply tie the prayer of the faithful to the sum of a few words. Rather, he forbids us, in the way of heathens, Mat 6.7 to pour out many words without wit, reason, meaning, and understanding; and so to think that we will be heard for the sake of much babbling, and oft-repeated prayers; as they falsely think today, who say a certain number of prayers which they call Rosaries. [2882]

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For the Lord adds: "They think they will be heard for the sake of babbling much." Mat 6.7 St. Augustine differentiates between babbling much, and praying much.

"To babble much in praying, is to make many superfluous words in a necessary matter. But to pray much, is to call to him whom we pray to, with a long and godly stirring up of the heart. This business, for the most part, is accomplished more with sighings than with speakings... It is not wicked and fruitless to pray longer, when we have leisure; for it is written about our Lord himself, that he spent the whole night in prayer, and prayed a long time. What else did he do in this, but give us an example?" [2883]

And if it is a hard matter for any man to pray long and continually, he may break off his prayer. However, he must go to it again, and oftentimes renew it afresh; for such short speaking in prayer is praiseworthy. And that we may make an end of this place, let no man think that in praying, he declares our affairs to God as if not knowing them. Let no man think that he is heard for his presentation, and even for his laboursome and exact presentation, and that being often repeated, and with most earnest outcries instilled or poured into the ears of God. Let no man think that his prayer must stand on a certain number — that is to say, that Paternosters must be summed up for our God as if He did not have a good memory, and to a Lord who is ill to be trusted, upon corals and beads put together on a lace,[2884] serving to keep a reckoning or account as it were.[2885]

And because I have said what all godly men throughout the whole world confess, that a most perfect platform of praying is delivered to us in the Lord's Prayer by our Lord Jesus Christ himself, it remains that we cite word for word that most holy form of praying

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It is orderly made with most divine words even by the mouth of the Lord, as Matthew the apostle has left it recorded for us. And then we will expound it as briefly and plainly as possible, with the intent that everyone may better understand what he prays, and feel a more effectual working inwardly. This is the form of that most heavenly prayer:

O our Father, which art in heaven; hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, as well on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses [or debts], as we forgive those who trespass against us [or our debtors]. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Mat 6.9-13

This most holy prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ, our saviour, our doctor or teacher, and highest priest, delivered to the catholic church to be a catholic form or rule to pray to God, is usually divided into a little PREFACE, and SIX PETITIONS. Some reckon seven. Some say, that the three former petitions serve chiefly to spread abroad God's glory; the three latter concern the care of ourselves, and ask those things that are needful for us. But they all seem to contain both in manner.

PREFACE — The little preface is this: "our Father, which art in heaven." By this we call upon God; and, dedicating ourselves to him, we commit ourselves wholly to his protection and mercy. And every word has his high mysteries; for our Lord would have us pray with understanding rather than with words. These therefore admonish us, and suffice to be thought upon. But the mind, being instructed with the Holy Ghost (which I told you is needful above all things for those who pray), and being lifted up to behold God and heavenly things, devoutly and ardently meditates on these things.

And truly the word, "Father," puts us in mind of many things together. For first, it teaches us that all our prayers ought to be offered to none other than to Him who is a father; that is to say, that only God is to be called upon, and not another for him, or another with him.

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For our God and Father is one, the fulness and sufficiency of all good things, in whom only the faithful are quieted and rest, and without whom they seek nothing that is truly good. And truly this prayer can be offered to no creature. For to which of the angels, or the saints, can you say without sacrilege: "Our Father, which art in heaven?" etc.

Furthermore, this word Father teaches us through whom we should call upon this Father; not by the mediation or by the mouths of saints, but by Jesus Christ our Lord — through whom alone we are made the sons of God, who were otherwise children of wrath by birth and by nature. Eph 2.3 Who, I pray you, dares come before the presence of the most high and everlasting God, and call him "Father," and call himself "son," unless the Father in his beloved and natural Son had adopted us as the sons of grace? Therefore, when we say "Father," we speak from the mouth of the Son, who has taught us so to pray, and by whom we are promoted into this dignity. So that it is not at all needed to add the name of Christ, and to say, We pray you, heavenly Father, for Christ's sake; since in the first word "Father," we comprehend the whole mystery of the Son of God and our redemption. For insomuch as he is our Father, we are his sons, and that is by the merit of Christ. Therefore, we call upon the Father, and so we call him through Christ; to repeat, we pray so from the mouth of Christ. Moreover, this sweet and favourable word, "Father," clean disburdens us from all distrust of heart; for we call him "Father" not so much in consideration of his creating of all things, as for his singular and fatherly good-will toward us. Thus, even though he is Lord God, and indeed a great Lord, and an Almighty God — yet when we pray, we attribute none of these names to him; but we call him Father because indeed he wishes us well, loves us, takes care and charge over us, and having pity upon us, he desires to store and heap upon us all good things whatever; indeed, this is of his own accord and good-will toward us. To this pertain the testimonies of the prophets, especially that of David:

"The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, and of great kindness. He will not always chide, nor keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heaven is above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him.

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As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he knows what we are made of, and he remembers that we are but dust." Psa 103.8-14

A very excellent example of this is to be seen in the gospel of St. Luke, where the loving father is painted with wonderful affections, receiving into favour again that prodigal son and waster of his wealth.

To this is added the word "Our;" which puts us in mind of two things. For first, it is not enough to acknowledge God to be the God and Father of all, or to be the God and Father of others, unless we also believe that he is our Father; unless we dedicate and yield ourselves wholly into his faith and protection, as our Father, who wishes us well, loves us, cares over us, and at no time and place neglects us. For unless we believe so, our prayer is not commended either with faith or with the love of God; and therefore, it is not a whit acceptable to God. But we understand that the best and greatest God is our God, by his manifold benefits, as well as (and especially by) the mystery of our redemption through Christ. We have spoken of this elsewhere.[2886] Furthermore, since immediately, at the very beginning, he bid us to pray "Our Father," and not "My Father;" he requires love from us. For his will is that we should not only take care for our own salvation, but for the salvation of all other men. For we are all the members of one body — upon which each individual one prays not individually for themselves, but every one prays for the safety of all the members, and also for the whole body. Touching this matter, I spoke before, when I treated the manner of praying to God.[2887]

There is later added, "Which art in heaven;" not that God is shut up in heaven as in a prison. Solomon, the happiest and wisest king of all, confuting that error long ago, said: "If the heavens of heavens are not able to contain you, then how much less this house!" 1Kng 8.27 To these words I think may be annexed those which Stephen alleged in the Acts of the Apostles (out of Isaiah Isa 66.1) concerning the same thing. Act 7.49 God is therefore said to be in heaven, because his divine majesty, and power, and glory, shines most of all in the heavens.

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For in the whole course of nature there is nothing more glorious, nothing more beautiful, than the heavens. Moreover, the Father exhibits and gives himself to us to be enjoyed in the heavens. Heaven is the country common to us all, where we believe God and our Father dwells, and where we worship God and our Father; even though we believe that he is in every place, and is always present with all. For as heaven compasses and covers all things, and is everywhere distant from the earth by even spaces, so the presence of his Majesty also fails us in no place. We have heaven everywhere in our sight; we are everywhere in the sight of God. But beside this, by the mention of heaven, we are put in mind of our duty and of our wretchedness. It is our duty to be lifted up in our minds, by praying into heaven, and to forget earthly things; and to be delighted with that heavenly Father and country more than with this earthly prison and exile. It is our wretchedness, that being banished out of that country for our sins, and wandering in this earth, we are subject to diverse calamities; and therefore, being constrained by necessity, we never cease crying to the Father. By first of all saying, "Which art in heaven," we differentiate between the Father whom we call upon, saying "our," and our earthly father; attributing almightiness to God. Surely the one who is called upon and ought to hear, must know all, see all, and hear all; yes, and moreover, He wills and is able to do all. Therefore, we expressed his good-will toward us in these words, "Our Father." And to this we now join His knowledge of all things, and His power to do all things, by adding, "Which art in heaven." By these words, the faith of those who pray is stirred up and confirmed.

SIX PETITIONS – Now six petitions follow in order.

The FIRST is, "Hallowed be your name." We have called God our Father, and ourselves his sons. But it is the part of sons to honour or glorify their father; and therefore immediately at the beginning, we desire that the name of the Lord God, and our Father, might be sanctified or hallowed. Truly, it is always holy and undefiled in itself; nor is it made any whit better or worse by us. Thus we pray that what is and remains holy in itself, should be acknowledged as such by us, and always sanctified by us.

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A name is the definition of anything whatsoever; and names are invented to differentiate one thing from another — a means by which they might be known among themselves. But God is infinite and unmeasurable; moreover, he is one. Therefore, he does not have a name by which to be defined; and he does not need a name by which to be discerned from other gods. Those names that are attributed to him in the scriptures are attributed for our infirmity; to the end that, by some reason and comparison, we might understand some things that are said about the One who is unmeasurable and infinite. Therefore, the name of God is indeed God himself, with all his majesty and glory.

To "sanctify," or "hallow," otherwise signifies to separate things from a profane to a holy use. In this place, it signifies to magnify, to praise, and to glorify. We therefore desire that God himself, who of his own nature is a good, holy, and forever blessed, gentle, bountiful, and a merciful Father, might (as he is in himself) be acknowledged and magnified by all of us; that all nations, leaving their error and heresies, might consecrate themselves in truth to this one and only Father and God; that all things which defile the name of the Lord — of which sort are wicked deceits or practices, ungodliness, epicurism, an unclean life, and especially corrupt and anti-Christian doctrine — may be taken away; and that, being enlightened, we might sanctify or hallow the name of the Lord.

Therefore, in this petition we desire the Holy Ghost, the only author of all true sanctification; we pray for true faith in God by Christ throughout the whole world; we pray for holy thoughts and a pure life, with which we might glorify the name of the Lord. This is done while each one does his own duty; while Satan, the author of all uncleanness, is cast out; while corrupt doctrine is taken away, and deceit ceases; and while the filthiness of the world is banished. The most excellent king and prophet David presents this petition in these words: "God be merciful to us, and bless us, show us the light of his countenance, and be merciful to us; that your way may be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations. Let the people praise you, God; indeed, let all the people praise you;" and as follows in the 67th psalm. To this belongs the whole prayer of our Saviour, described by St. John in the 17th chapter of his gospel.

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The SECOND petition is, "your kingdom come;" for the name of God and our Father cannot be sanctified or hallowed unless he reigns in us. There is one kingdom of God, another of the devil. Furthermore, one kingdom of God is said to be of glory, and another rightly of grace. The kingdom of glory is not of this world, but of another world. The kingdom of grace is the kingdom of Christ in this world. In this kingdom, Christ reigns by the Holy Spirit in his faithful ones, who of their own accord submit themselves to him to be governed, saying and doing those things which beautify and befit Christians. The devil also reigns, but in the children of unbelief, who yield themselves to him to be governed according to his ungodliness and wickedness — doing those things which are not only delightful to the flesh, but which turn to the reproach of God's majesty. After this life, by the just judgment of God, the devil, the king of the ungodly, is caught unto hell, into the kingdom of death and judgment, there to continually burn. Moreover, the earthly kingdom, which princes of this world govern, is called either the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of the devil, as it fashions and frames itself to one of the two. All these things we knit up in few words, because we have more plentifully treated them in another place.[2888] Thus, we pray in this second petition, that Christ might reign and live in us, and we in him; that the kingdom of Christ might be spread abroad and enlarged, and prevail throughout the whole world; that doctors or teachers, and ecclesiastical magistrates, and finally, that princes, and, yes, schools too, and whoever may further the kingdom of Christ — being anointed and watered with His graces, may flourish, overcome, and triumph. Furthermore, we pray that the kingdom of the devil and antichrist may be broken and vanquished, lest it hurt and trouble the saints; that along with the kingdom of the devil, all ungodliness may be dashed and trodden underfoot — to be short, that all the weapons and armour of anti-Christianism may be broken into slivers, and come to nothing.

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Lastly, we pray in this second petition, that, after we have sailed out of the tempestuous gulf [2889] of this world, we might be received and gathered to Christ and all the saints, into the everlasting kingdom of glory. For as we desire the kingdom of God to come to us, and God to reign in us, so we pray to come or to be received into his kingdom, and to live forever with him most holily.

The THIRD petition is: "your will be done, on earth as well as it is in heaven." God does not reign in us, unless we are obedient to him. Therefore, after his kingdom, we desire the grace of perfect obedience. For we do not desire that God does what he will; for God's will is continually done, even though we never pray for it, and even though we wrestle and strive against it with all our might. For the prophet says: "Our God is in heaven; he has done whatever pleased him in heaven and on earth." Psa 115.3 We ask, therefore, that what he wills, he may make us both to will and to do. For his will is always good; but through the corruption of sin, our will is evil. Therefore, we pray him to be present with us with his grace, that our will may be regenerated and framed to the good will of God; that of its own accord, it yield itself to the Holy Ghost to be framed; that his grace wills what he inspires;[2890] that he finish in us what he has well begun, and gives us, moreover, strength and patience for it; that in prosperity as well as in adversity, we may acknowledge the will of God,[2891] lest we will anything of ourselves, and swell and be puffed up in prosperity, and also faint and perish in adversity. Rather, we pray that we may apply ourselves in all things, and through all things, to be governed by his will; namely, to submit our will to his will in this manner. Furthermore, if we ask anything contrary to his will, that he would not grant it, but rather pardon our foolishness, and weaken our own will (for our will is not good for us); to instruct and teach us in His good will, to the end that we may doubt nothing, that this will is always to be followed, that this will is always good, and that this will works all things for our commodity and benefit.

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In this point, the faithful feel a very great battle in themselves. Paul witnesses to this, saying: "The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these two are at mutual enmity between themselves, that what things you would do, you cannot do." Gal 5.17 Therefore, we do not desire any kind of framing of our will to God's will, and yet we add: "On earth, as well as it is in heaven" — that is, Grant, O Father, that your will may be done in us earthly men, as it is done in your saints,[2892] the blessed spirits. These spirits do not strive against your most holy will in heaven. But being in one mind, they only will that which you will, yes rather, in this one thing they are blessed and happy: that they agree and quiet themselves in your will. Truly, it is not the least part of felicity or happiness in earth, to will what God wills; it is the greatest unhappiness, not to will what God wills. And truly, this might be declared by infinite examples. I will allege only one, and a common one too. Someone is grievously sick, and feels pains and torments scarcely tolerable; but in the meantime, he acknowledges that he suffers these things by the commandment and will of God, his most good, bountiful, and just Father, who wishes him well, and has sent this grievous calamity for his salvation and for his own glory. Does he not, in the midst of his torments, by submitting himself to the will of God, feel refreshing? And that which seemed most sharp and most bitter to man, by this voluntary and free submission, he makes it delightful and most sweet. Again; another is sick, though not vexed with a very great disease; but this man does not acknowledge that this sickness is laid on him by the good will of God. Rather, he thinks that God does not know about the disease, that God does not care about the disease. Therefore this man attributes it to diverse and sundry causes, and he imagines and seeks diverse means to heal it. And in these things, he is awfully vexed and afflicted; and yet, by striving so against the will of God, he feels no refreshing or comfort at all. Therefore, not willing what God wills, what else does he do (as they are prone to do) than double the evil, by using ill means to avoid it?

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Therefore, the foundation of all happiness is faithful obedience, by which we fully submit ourselves and whatever else belongs to us, to the good will of God. And therefore, in this greatest petition, we pray to the Father that he would give us regeneration or newness of heart, true obedience, persevering patience, and a mind that is always and in all things agreeing with and obeying God.

The FOURTH petition is such: "Give us this day our daily bread." For the will of God cannot be done in us, unless we are nourished and strengthened with the bread of God. Bread, among the Hebricians, signifies all kinds of food, and the preserving or sustenance of the substance of man. Thus we read in the prophet: "I will break the staff of bread." Eze 4.16 But man consists of two substances, the soul and body. The soul is the spirit; the body is made of earth and other elements. Therefore, it is preserved with two kinds of bread, spiritual and corporal. The spiritual food of the soul, by which it is preserved in life, is the very word of God, proceeding out of the mouth of God; out of the law, Deu 8.3 the Lord repeats and says: "Man does not live by bread only, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God." Mat 4.4 And because this presents to the faithful, the eternal and incarnate Word of God — I mean, the very Son of God — we rightly acknowledge that he is the food of the soul, indeed, the food of a whole faithful man. For he himself witnesses that he is "the bread that came down from heaven; of which those who eat, shall not die," but have life everlasting. Joh 6.51 Corporal bread consists of elements, and it is earthly; it comprehends food, drink, raiment, prosperous health of body, maintenance — to be short, the safety and good estate of man's life.

And this bread, truly, we call ours; not that it is not the gift and benefit of God, but because it is appointed for us, and pertains to our preservation, and is necessary for us. Yet, when we call it daily, we signify that it is the most excellent of all, which alone can sustain and preserve our substance — as much as is sufficient and as long as it is fitting, and altogether in the same manner and order which is needed. For we said before, it is not our part to prescribe to God the manner of doing or giving.

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To this also pertain the following words, "Give us this day:" for it belongs only to God to give; nor does this petition apply to any creature. David says: "All things wait upon you, that you may give them food in due season. When you give them, they gather it; when you open your hand, all things are filled with good." Psa 104.27-28 Again: "The eyes of all things do look upon you, O Lord, and you give them food in due season; you open your hand, and fill with your blessing every living creature." Psa 145.15-16 Now, we pray "Give us," and not "Give me." This puts us in mind again both of brotherly love and unity. For we should not only seek our own, but also to pray for the safety and preservation of all other men. The word, "this day," appoints us a measure. For we are saying this: Suffice us, Lord, daily and every moment, with as much as is necessary and enough for us, which you alone know best of all. For we are admonished, by the way, that we should not burn with immoderate desire for transitory things; and we should not lavish them riotously when we have them, losing both our goods and our souls. And therefore, that wise man has said:

"Two things have I requested of you; do not deny me these before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies; give me neither poverty nor riches; only feed me with food convenient for me: lest perhaps being full, I should deny you, and say, Who is the Lord? or being oppressed with poverty, fall to stealing, and forswear the name of my God." Pro 30.7-9

Therefore, in this fourth petition, we yield ourselves wholly into the care and tuition of God the Father, and commit ourselves to his providence — that he who alone is able to save us, might feed, defend, and save us. For unless he pours his blessing upon us, unless he gives us strength by those things that are the means of our sustentation [2893] and maintenance, all things are of no force. We pray for the happy course of the word of God; for the pastors of the church themselves; for the maintainers of the commonweal; for the safety of the church and commonweal. We crave that the bountiful Father would supply all wants, and give whatever things are necessary for the sustentation both of the body and the soul.

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The FIFTH petition. Furthermore, lest anyone think himself unworthy of the daily bread, because it is for children and not dogs, Mar 7.27 and therefore that he should pray hesitantly, and with less courage, the Lord, preventing [2894] this cautiousness of the godly, adds the fifth petition. It is this: "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." In these words, we ask forgiveness of our sins. And that we may obtain forgiveness of our sins, it is needful that we confess ourselves to be sinners. For unless we do this, how will we pray that our sins should be forgiven? Truly, all the saints use this order of praying; therefore, all of them acknowledge themselves to be sinners. For there remain relics, yea, even in the regenerate and most holy men, which daily burst out into evil thoughts, evil sayings and doings, yea, and often into heinous offences. But whatever our faults and sins, first, truly we confess them humbly to God the Father, and afterward pray him to forgive them. We call our sins "debts," as God himself teaches us, because we are indebted for the punishment of them (as the price) due to God. And he forgives our debts, when he does not punish us as we deserve. He judges us as if we were not indebted to him at all. For the allusion is made to corporal debts: which if the creditor forgives the debtor, he has no further power to cast into prison, or to punish the one who was his debtor. Therefore, not only is the fault forgiven us, but the punishment also. Nor do we speak any words about our merits to the Father.; but we say, "Remit, or forgive, us our debts." The word remission means a free forgiveness of sins; he forgives us, because we are not able to pay. Thus we read in the gospel: "When the debtors were not able to pay, he forgave them both their debts." Luk 7.42 The same is set down in Matthew 18.25. Therefore, it is by no merits of ours, by no satisfaction of ours, but by the bountifulness of God through Christ, that we pray that all our sins may be forgiven. Nor do the saints doubt the certainty of forgiveness here; for the Lord says in the gospel: "Whatever you ask in my name, believing, you shall receive it." Therefore, those who pray in faith, do not doubt that their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake; for so we also confess in our creed: "I believe the forgiveness of sins."

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We quickly add to this: "As we forgive our debtors" —not that we should think, through our forgiveness, that we deserve or obtain forgiveness of our sins; for otherwise the reason for remission would not be certain. For if someone either brings or does anything for which his sin is taken away, or if he satisfies for his sin, nothing is forgiven. Rather, he is recompensed as he deserves. Therefore, these things seem to be added for other causes. First, as much as we care about forgiveness (which many may doubt), the Lord's will is to comfort our insecurity by adding this phrase. It is a sign, as it were, by which we might understand that our sins are surely forgiven by God, so far as we are sure that we have remitted and forgiven others their offences with which they have offended us. Furthermore, his will was to drive out of us all old grudges, hatred, and malice; and to drive into us the study and desire of love and charity; and to admonish us of our duty, that, if as yet there stuck in our minds any part of old enmities, we may know that it should altogether be laid aside and cast out of our stomach — yes, and that even now, we must call upon the Lord to move our hearts, that we may be able to do it. Surely, it is hard [2895] to lay down old injuries and offences. But it is fitting that we forgive our brethren lesser faults, when we have obtained pardon of very great sins by our most gracious Father. That is, unless we wish to haply test our fortune, like the one in the parable of the gospel. He had proof of the great bountifulness and liberality of his Lord in forgiving him, while he was fierce and cruel toward his brother, in exacting from him a very small and trifling debt. The parable is very well known in the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew. Mat 18.23-35

The SIXTH and last petition is: "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;" for sin is never so forgiven, that concupiscence does not remain in the flesh, which temptations stir up, and lead us into diverse kinds of sins. And these temptations are of diverse sorts. For first, God tempts us when he bids us do any thing by which to prove us, such as when he asked Abraham to offer up his son; or else, when he sends adversity upon us, so that with the fire of temptation, he may both exercise our faith, and cleanse away the dross of our misdeeds. These temptations of God tend to the salvation of the faithful. Therefore, we do not simply pray not to be tempted: for the temptation of God is profitable. For the man who suffers temptation is said to be blessed:

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"For when he is tried, he will receive the crown of life." Jas 1.12 We also pray that we are not led into temptation: for the devil likewise tempts us; and we are tempted by the world, and by our flesh. There are temptations on our right hand and on our left, tending to this end: to overthrow us, to drown us in the bottomless pit of our sins, and thereby to destroy us. When that is done, we are not only tempted, but we are led into and also entrapped in temptation. Therefore, we make such a petition as this: If it pleases you, heavenly Father, to exercise us with your wholesome temptations, we beseech you to grant that we may be found approved. And do not allow us to be led by a devilish and wicked temptation, so that, leaving you, and being made bond-slaves to our enemy, and drowned in the gulf of wickednesses, we are caught and kept by him in evil, sin, and in our own destruction.

For now we add the contrary clause, which also expounds the former. Others say it is the seventh petition: "But deliver us from evil;" apo tou ponhrou; I say, from that evil, namely, from Satan, who elsewhere is called a tempter. Deliver us from Satan, and from all evils which he sends: deliver us from snares, crafty practices, deceivings; from war, famine, captivity, plague; from all those things which are evil, hurtful, and dangerous. Those things which our heavenly Father knows very well, to whom we say here: "Give us healthful and good things; take away from us those things which you know to be hurtful and evil."

And so, we briefly conclude the Lord's Prayer, adding moreover, "Amen." That confirmation and giving of assent, was common and usual of old, as we see in Deu. 27, Neh. 8, and 1Cor. 14. To begin with, it expresses our desire; for we confess that we heartily desire those things which we pray for. Besides that, it declares the certainty of our faith, as if we were to say, I believe assuredly that these things are granted to me by God. For "Amen "is the same as saying, "So be it." And the Lord in the gospel oftentimes says, "Amen, Amen, I said to you" — that is, of a certainty I tell you the truth; or I utter and pronounce to you the undoubted truth. And so the faithful, after they have offered prayers to God, having their minds pacified, now joyfully wait for the gifts of the Lord.

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Furthermore, before the word, "Amen," immediately after reciting these words, "But deliver us from evil," some add, "For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." But Erasmus Rotterdam, in his annotations on the new Testament, witnesses that those words are not found in any old Latin copy, but are found added in all Greek copies; and yet they are not expounded by any of the interpreters, except by Chrysostom and his follower Theophylact. And therefore, they seemed to him to be added to the Lord's Prayer, as some have added these to the Psalms: "Glory be to the Father, to the Son," etc. Erasmus immediately adjoins:

"Therefore, there is no cause why Laurentius Valla should stomach the matter, that a good part of the Lord's Prayer was curtailed. Their rashness was rather to be reproved, who did not fear to patch their own toys to so heavenly a prayer. For I may call them toys, in comparison to that which God has taught, whatever has proceeded from men; especially if that which men have added and put to, is compared with Christ the author of prayer." [2896]

Nor did only Erasmus doubt this addition. For the Spanish copy, called Codex Complutensis, has this: "It seems more credible that these words are not a part of the Lord's prayer, as a member of the whole, but was put in through the fault of some certain writers, or printers."

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In the same book is shortly added:

"And even though St. Chrysostom in his Commentaries on Matthew, Homil. xx., expounds these words as if they were of the text; yet it is conjectured to be more true that even in his time, the originals in his treatise were corrupted. Thus, none of the Latins, not of the ancient interpreters or commentators, has made any mention of these words." [2897]

And surely, this is truly said. For the most diligent interpreters, each of whom has taken in hand to expound the Lord's Prayer word for word, as did St. Cyprian, Jerome, and Augustine, have not spoken so much as one word about this addition.

I have said this much up to here about the Lord's Prayer, and about calling on God's name; of which Solomon, the wisest that ever was, most truly pronounces: "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runs to it, and is exalted;" [2898] that is, he stands and is preserved in a safe, or in a high place, out of the reach of any weapon.

THANKSGIVING

We will say something (as we have done with this) about thanksgiving, another kind of prayer. And though this is also comprehended in the Lord's Prayer (for it comprehends all things belonging to true prayer, therefore it contains thanksgiving also), after expounding that, I would also treat this by itself, lest by mingling things, there arise a confusion or disorder in our minds. And truly, the Lord requires thanksgiving of us — of which there are not a few arguments for it in the holy scriptures. For how many praises, rejoicings, and thanksgivings, are read in the Psalms, written and left both by David and other prophets! And in the law also, the Lord instituted a particular kind of oblation and sacrifice, which we have said is called the Eucharist, or the sacrifice of thanksgiving.[2899]

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What else was the supper of the Passover, but a thanksgiving for deliverance out of Egyptian captivity? Surely, our Lord Jesus Christ, instituting a remembrance of all his benefits and specially of the redemption purchased by his death, and knitting up all the sacrifices in brief, delivered the Eucharist, or sacrament of thanksgiving, to his church. We will declare this in a convenient place; and we partly showed it in our former sermons.[2900] Mankind in prosperity is all about lustiness and jollity, and seldom thinks to himself, where prosperity comes from. So he does not regard those spiritual mysteries and benefits so much as he otherwise would. But they seem to be swine, and not men, who not only fail to regard the benefits of God as they should, but moreover contemn them, and tread them underfoot. The heavy judgment of God waits for them.

Furthermore, the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving is due to God only: for he is the only giver and author of all good things; though in the meanwhile He uses the means and ministry of men and other creatures. Some prince sends you a most royal gift; and that is done by a courtier not of the lowest degree, but a most chosen man. Yet nevertheless, though he is a nobleman, you do not give thanks to him, but to the prince from whom the gift came. In the meanwhile, however, you honestly confess that the courtier in this bestowed his labour for your sake. But he would not have bestowed it unless his prince had so commanded. And so the whole benefit at length redounds to the prince himself, and to him alone. As all our invocation or calling upon God is acceptable to God the Father through Jesus Christ our Lord, so no thanksgiving of ours is acceptable to God, unless it is offered through Jesus Christ. To this pertains the mystery of the altar of incense, which is mentioned in the ceremonies of the law.[2901] But the apostle also says: "Give thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." And again he says: "By him we offer a sacrifice of praise always to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing his name."

But that we may be thankful for all the benefits of God, and offer continual thanksgiving to God, it is needful to first acknowledge and weigh well with ourselves, the benefits of God; for if these are not yet known or rightly weighed, our mind is not set on fire to give God thanks for his benefits.

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And these are quite diverse; indeed, they are infinite: for they are private and public, general and special, spiritual and corporal, temporal and eternal, ecclesiastical and political, singular and excellent. But who can reckon up all their kinds and parts? God created, beautified, garnished, and made this world fruitful for man. To the ministry of this, he severally appoints angelic spirits, whom he had created to be ministers for himself. He gives us souls and bodies, which he furnishes and stores with infinite gifts and abilities; and, that which far passes all other benefits, he loosed man, being entangled in sin; he delivered him, being a bond-slave to the devil. For the Son of God sets us free into the liberty of the sons of God. By dying, he quickens; by shedding his blood, he purges and cleanses;[2902] he also gives us his Spirit, by which we may be guided and preserved in this banishment, until we are received into our everlasting and true country. Those who consider these things with a true faith cannot help but be rapt into the praise and setting forth of God's goodness, and into wonderment at a thing that is doubtless to be marvelled at — that the gracious and mighty God has such a special care for men, than whom this earth has nothing more wretched or miserable.

Here the saints of God are destitute of words, nor do they have words fit enough for so great a matter. David cries: "O Lord our God, how wonderful is your name in the whole world; for you have set your glory above the heavens;" and following in the eighth psalm. Psa 8.1 And again, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is the house of my father, that you have brought me here (or so advanced me)? And what can David say further to you? for you, Lord God, know your servant;" and so forth, as follows in the 2nd book of Samuel, chap. 7. 2Sam 7.18-20 This David has set down a most notable form of blessing, or praising, or giving thanks to God, in the 103rd Psalm, which begins thus: "Bless the Lord, my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who forgives all your wickedness;" and so forth.

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But what need is there of any more words? The Lord's Prayer may be a most perfect form of praising God, and giving thanks to God for all his benefits, and serve instead of many. For as the preface and all the petitions call to our remembrance, and absolutely set forth for us, God's greatest benefits which are most liberally bestowed upon us, and also upon all others. So, if we consider that it is our duty to give thanks to God for every one of these, and later begin, even at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, to weigh this chiefly with ourselves, that God the Father, of his unspeakable mercy toward us, has adopted us miserable sinners into the number of sons, by whom we will be sanctified, and in whom God will reign, and at last also translate to his everlasting kingdom. What a plentiful matter of praising God and giving thanks to him is to be ministered here, to say nothing of all the other petitions! But these things are better and more rightly understood by good, godly, and devout exercise, than by precepts, however diligent.

And the Lord so much esteems this thanksgiving, offered to him with true humility of mind, and also faith, that he receives it and considers it a most acceptable sacrifice. There is often mention of this in the old Testament, as when it is said: "Whoever offers me thanks and praise, honours me. I will not reprove you because of your sacrifices. I will take no bullocks out of your house, nor goats out of your folds.[2903] Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the most High; and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will hear you (and [2904] deliver you), and you shall glorify me." Psa 50.14-15, 9 Again: "I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the name of the Lord." Psa 116.17 And Hosea also says: "Take these words with you, and turn to the Lord, and say to him, O forgive us all our sins, and receive us graciously (Nim rechtfur gut); and then will we offer the calves [sacrifices] of our lips to you." Hos 14.2 Accordingly, Malachi has also left written: "I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts; nor will I receive an offering at your hand. For from the rising of the sun to its going down, my name is great among the gentiles; and in every place, incense and a pure offering shall be offered to my name: for my name is great among the gentiles, says the Lord of hosts." Mal 1.10-11

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Furthermore, [2905] with great consent, all the old interpreters (Irenaeus chiefly, and Tertullian) understand this "pure offering" to be Eucharistia — that is to say, praises and thanksgivings, and prayer proceeding from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith.[2906] Truly, the ancient fathers have called the Eucharist, or mystical supper of Christ, a sacrifice, for no other cause than in it praise and thanksgiving are offered to God. For the apostle Paul shows that Christ was once offered, and cannot be offered often nor any more.

For great is the worthiness, power, and virtue, not only of praise or thanksgiving, but also of prayer wholly; I mean of the invocation too. Although I have already said something about this, [2907] where I declared that our prayers are effectual, yet I add these few words. The saints truly had a most ardent desire for praying, because of the wonderful force of prayer. For, to say nothing of those most ancient fathers before and shortly after the flood, did not Abraham pray when he received the promises? And as often as he changed his dwelling, did he not call upon God? At Abraham's prayer, king Abimelech is delivered from death and from barrenness, which the Lord, being displeased, laid upon his house; he is cured. Gen 20.17-18 Jacob poured forth most ardent prayers to God, and received inestimable benefits from Him. In Exodus, Moses prays, not once, but often; and takes away the plagues from the Egyptians, which the Lord had brought upon them by his just judgment. At the prayer of Moses, the Amalekites turn their backs; and when he ceased or left off, the Israelites fled away. Exo 17.9-11 Again, when the fire of the Lord devoured the outlying tents of Israel, they cried to Moses; and Moses again cried to the Lord: and suddenly the fire that devoured them was consumed. Num 11.1-2

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Again, the people murmured against the Lord, and vengeance is prepared; but Moses by mild and continual prayer quenches the wrath of God; for it is said to him: "I have let them go according to Your word." shortly after, when the people began afresh to murmur against Moses and Aaron, and the vengeance of God had already consumed fourteen thousand and seven hundred men, Aaron, at the commandment of Moses, burns incense, and standing between the dead and those that were living, though near and appointed to death, he pleads for and obtains pardon by prayers. Num 16.41-48 Innumerable others of this kind are read about Moses. By prayers Joshua, Moses' successor, made the course of the sun and moon stay so long, until he had revenged himself upon his enemies. Jos 10.12-13

By prayer, without any audible voice, Hannah puts away from her the reproach of barrenness, and immediately is made a fruitful mother of very many children. 1Sam 1.13; 2.21 Samuel, the most godly son of godly Hannah, vanquishes the Philistines by prayer; at harvest time, a mighty tempest of thunder and rain was suddenly raised up. 1Sam 7.8-11 We also read things not unlike Elijah. Jonah in like manner prayed in the whale's belly, and was cast on the shore safe. Jon 2.1-9 Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah, most religious kings, by prayers that were poured forth to God by faith, triumph over their most powerful enemies. Nehemiah asked nothing of his king before he had first prayed to the Lord of heaven; Neh 1.4; 2.5 therefore he obtained all things. Neh 2.8 By prayer, the most valiant and virile Judith overthrew and slew Holofernes, the most proud enemy of God's people, and the terror of all nations. Jdt 13.3-11 Daniel brought all his affairs to pass by prayers to God; so too, Esther took a deed in hand that was necessary for God's people, and with three days' fasting and daily [2908] prayers, brings it to a happy end. Est 5.1f In the most blessed and most desired birth of our Lord Jesus, companies of angels are heard singing praises together to God. Luk 2.13 What, and when our Lord's life was in extreme danger, did he not take himself to prayer; and later heard the voice of an angel comforting him? The apostles, together with the rest of the church, prayed with one accord about the third hour or the day, and shortly after, they received the Holy Ghost. Act 2.1-15

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And when the apostles were in danger, the church cries suppliantly for God's help, and without delay, quickly finds succour. Act 12.5 They receive great liberty to speak, and work very great signs and miracles among the people. Peter is brought out of a very strong and fenced prison by an angel of God. Act 5.19 What should I say about Paul and Silas praying and praising the Lord in prison? Is it not read, that the foundations of the prison were all shaken with an earthquake, and by that occasion the keeper of the prison was turned unto God? Act 16.25-26 I could bring countless examples of this sort, truly; but I am persuaded that for the godly, these are sufficient. And faithful men do not attribute these forces, effects, or virtues, to prayer, as though to a work of ours, but as proceeding from faith; and so they attribute them to God himself, who promises these things, and performs them for the faithful.

For the judgment of Paul touching these is known in the11th chap. to the Hebrews: that all glory is due to one God: may He grant to so illuminate all our minds, that our prayer may always please him. Amen.

5-6. THE SIXTH SERMON: OF SIGNS & SACRAMENTS.

OF SIGNS, AND THE MANNER [2909] OF SIGNS; OF SACRAMENTAL SIGNS: WHAT A SACRAMENT IS; OF WHOM, FOR WHAT CAUSES, AND HOW MANY SACRAMENTS WERE INSTITUTED BY CHRIST FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH; WHAT THINGS THEY CONSIST OF; HOW THESE ARE CONSECRATED; HOW THE SIGN AND THE THING SIGNIFIED IN THE SACRAMENTS ARE EITHER JOINED TOGETHER OR DISTINGUISHED; AND OF THE KIND OF SPEECH USED IN THE SACRAMENTS.

The treatise on the sacraments remains, which we heard is joined to the word of God and prayer. But in speaking of sacraments, delivered by Christ our king and high-priest, and received and lawfully used by his holy and catholic church, I will, by God's grace and assistance, observe this order: first, we treat them generally, and then particularly or severally.

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SIGNS DEFINED. And here, beforehand, I will determine the certain signification of a sign or sacrament. If I am somewhat long or tedious in this, dearly beloved, I crave pardon; for I hope it will not be altogether fruitless.

Signum, a sign, the Latin writers call a token, a representing, a mark and show of something that has signification. So say Tully [2910] and Fabius. Fabius says: "Some call signum shmeion,(semeion) though some term it indicium; some others vestigium, a mark or token by which a thing is understood, such as slaughter by blood." [2911] St. Aurelius Augustine, the famous ecclesiastical writer, cap. 4, De Magistro, says: "We generally call all those things signs, which signify something; where we also find words to be." [2912] Again, Lib. ii. De Doctrina Christiana, cap. 1, he says: "A sign is a thing beside the semblance which it lays before our senses, making of itself something to come into our mind or thought; such as, by seeing smoke, we believe there is fire." [2913]

The said Aurelius Augustine divides signs into natural signs and given signs. "He calls those natural which, without any will or desire to signify, beside themselves, they make something else known, such as smoke signifying fire; for smoke does not have any will in itself to signify. Given signs are those which all living creatures give to one another, to declare as well as they can, the affections of their mind, or anything which they conceive, mean, or understand." And given signs he divides again by the senses. For some belong to the eyes; as the ensigns or banners of captains, the moving of the hands, and of all the members.

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Some again belong to the ears; as the trumpet and other instruments of music, yea, and words themselves, which are chief and principal among men, when they intend to make their meaning known. To smelling he refers that sweet savour of ointment mentioned in the gospel, whereby it pleases the Lord to signify something. To the taste he refers the supper of the Lord; for, he says, "by taking the sacrament of his body and blood, he gave or made a sign of his will." He also adds an example of touching: "and when the woman by touching the hem of his vesture is made whole, that is not a sign of nothing, but signifies something." [2914] St. Augustine has treated the kinds and differences of signs in this way.

Others also, whose opinion does not differ at all from his, distinguish signs according to the order of times. For they say about signs, that some are of things present, some of things past, and some of things to come. They think that signs of things present, represent current things: ivy-garland lets us understand that wine is sold wherever it is hung up. The signs that our master Christ worked, signified that the Messiah and the kingdom of God had come, promised by the prophets.

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Signs past comprise all tombs, monuments of the dead, and those stones stacked by Joshua in the midst of the Jordan, signifying to those who came after, what was done in previous times. Gideon's fleece gave a sign of things to come; that is to say, it was a sign of the victory which he would have over his enemies.

But these signs, being well-considered and not neglected,[2915] may more amply and plainly be divided into other signs: some are given by men, and some ordained by God himself. Signs or tokens are given by men, to show and signify something, to keep it in memory among men, or in a way, to seal up what they would have certain and sure. In this sense, every demonstrative description or picture is called a sign. In Ezekiel chapter 4, Jerusalem, portrayed in a tile,[2916] is called a sign. Eze 4.1 Also in ancient times, they treated the images of the dead as signs, because by those images they would renew afresh the memory of those [who had died], and keep them in remembrance, as if they were alive. Yes, and the holy scripture calls idols signs; as it appears in Isaiah chapter 45, Isa 45.20 and the 2nd Paralip. 33.[2917] So stones being set up or laid down to mark out anything, such as landmarks, and all tombs and monuments, are signs. Rahab of Jericho said to the Israelites:[2918] "Give me a sign by oath, that you will show mercy to me; and they gave her a rope to hang out of her window." Jos 2.12,21 Behold, the rope was a sign of their faith and truth, with which (as we would say) they sealed themselves surely and without any dissimulation, to take diligent heed that Rahab would not be destroyed. We Zwicers [2919] term such signs that are given or received in confirmation of faith and truth, wortzeichen, because they are added to the words, and seal them, as it were; and also wahrzeichen, because we give witness by them, as it were, that in good faith and without any fraud or guile, we will perform in deed what we promised in word.

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Now these kinds of signs are of diverse sorts. Some are mute or dumb, and pertain to the sense of the eyes. Of this sort are the standards used in war, such as crosses, banners, and flaming fires, which are mentioned in Numbers 2, Psalm 73, etc. Nor is any man able to reckon up all those of this sort. For new ones come in constantly and quickly, as it pleases men. Judas gave a sign to his company: "Whomever I kiss," he says, "that is the one: take him." Mat 26.48 The joining of right hands which pertains to the sense of feeling, is a sign of faithfulness, help, and fellowship; indeed, it is the silent sign that Paul calls "the right hand of fellowship." Gal 2.9 To this belong various movings and gestures. Some of them pertain to the voice. These are perceived by hearing, and uttered by man's voice, or by the sound of things which have no life. By man's voice are uttered words, whistling, and other things of this kind. To this may be added watch-words uttered by the voice, such as Shibboleth in the twelfth chapter of Judges. Jdg 12.6 Voices without life are those made by trumpets, flutes, horns, guns, drums, by ringing bells and sounding instruments, which also extend very far and largely.

Now signs are given by God to this end: to teach and admonish us about things to come, or about things past: either to lay before the eyes of their beholders, and represent in a certain likeness, the things of which they are signs; or else to seal, as it were, the promises and words of God with some visible ceremony celebrated by men by God's institution. To be short, they are given that they might exercise our faith, and gather together in one assembly or company, those who are scattered. And these are not all of one sort, but they greatly differ between themselves. For some have their beginning from natural causes, and yet they are nevertheless given as signs by God, to put us in mind of things, or to renew His promises,[2920] and to teach men of things that have been done — such as the rainbow mentioned by Moses in Genesis 9.

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For when the flood ceased, God made a new league with Noah, and ordained the rainbow for a sign of his covenant. He did not make it anew; but being made long before, and appearing by natural causes, he consecrated it by a new institution, with the intent that it might cause us to call the flood to remembrance, and renew the promise of God as it were — that is to say, that it would never come to pass again, that the earth would be drowned with water. Now, this sign does not have any ceremony ordained, by which it might be celebrated among men; nor does it gather us together into the society of any body or fellowship. But this sign is referred chiefly to God, saying: "I will set my rainbow in the clouds,[2921] that when I see it, I may remember the everlasting covenant made between me and you." Not much different than this, are signs and wonders — signs, I say, given in the sun, moon, and stars, which forewarn men of destruction and calamities to come, unless they amend by repentance. But neither do these have any ceremony ordained to celebrate the remembrance of them, nor to gather us together, etc.

Again, there are other signs that are altogether miraculous; they are not natural, even though there are natural things in them. Of this sort is Gideon's fleece, and the shadow of the sun going backward on the dial of king Hezekiah. These signs, just as we read they were shown only once, so they are not commanded to be followed by any institution, or to be celebrated for some particular end. They were given to Hezekiah at that time, to signify and witness the victory which he would have against his enemies, and the recovery of his health. Altogether and merely marvellous, are those things which our Lord Jesus Christ, in the last chapter of Mark, called signs, gifts, means of healing, and speaking with tongues.[2922] These were given to and bestowed upon men, not by any power of man or virtue of healing in him, but by the power and virtue of Christ only. Those signs declared to men that it was the true and undoubted preaching of the gospel, by which Christ is declared to be Lord of all — Lord of life and death, and of Satan, and also of hell itself.

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For now, when the dead rise, and diseases are driven out, through the name of Christ — by these very signs, it is proved that what is said is true: that Christ is Lord of all things. So the wonders which Moses and Aaron wrought in Egypt, Exodus 4, are called signs in the scripture; for they were witnesses both of God's lawful sending, and tokens of his mighty power to be executed against Egypt. But neither of these had any ceremony with them, nor did they gather anyone together into a society.

Now, we also read that some signs are paradigmatic. That is, they are indeed used by men, but it is not without God's commandment — so that these may also be said to be signs from God. They are altogether free from miracles; indeed, they are not only fetched from natural things, but also from things that are common and usual. Such were the bonds, pitcher, and chains of the holy prophet Jeremiah. Jer 27.2f Being willed by God to do so, Jeremiah laid these things before them in a certain evident form and figure; I mean, as a visible sign to be seen with men's eyes, which by his preaching, he had prophesied would befall them. We may see similar things in Ezekiel, the 17th and 24th chapters. In some things, these paradigmatic signs are like those exercises of rhetoric called chriae activae; rather, they are mixed chriae, so-termed because they consist partly in words and partly in deeds.[2923] Aphthonius defines an active chria, "to be that which declares and plainly shows a thing by action, deed, or gesture: as when Pythagoras was asked how long man's life lasted; he stood still for a while, so that they might look at him; but shortly he shrunk away, and withdrew from their sight: this action signified that man's life is but short and momentary." [2924]

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But for the most part, chriae mixtae are set down in the scripture, consisting of word and deed — as when Christ took a child,[2925] and set him in the midst of his disciples, and spoke these words: "Truly I say to you, Unless you turn, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Mat 18.3 But these actions or signs do not have the institution and commandment of God, charging us to renew this very action by solemnly celebrating it. Nevertheless, sacramental signs have some affinity with these — namely, baptism and the Lord's Supper; for they are given to us from above, and are taken from natural things, without any miracle; indeed, they are instituted in the form of natural and sensible things, and in very common things, such as water, bread, and wine. They have this in common with other signs given by God, in that they renew things past, and foreshadow things to come, and represent things by a sign. They differ peculiarly from other signs, in that they have ceremonies joined with the commandment of God, which He has commanded his church to solemnize. And this is also peculiar to them: that being seals of God's promises, they couple us visibly to God and to all the saints; and they are dedicated to the most holy mysteries of God in Christ. I will treat these more largely and diligently later.

The sacramental signs of Christ and of Christ's church, namely, those which Christ our Lord has delivered to his church, and which his church has received from him and lawfully uses,[2926] are called "sacraments" by Latin writers. But the word is not found in the whole of scripture except as used by interpreters.[2927] Yet, the word "sign" is often used in the scriptures; what helps for our purpose, is most significantly set down in Genesis 17 and Romans 4. Meanwhile, we do not reject the Latin word sacramentum, a sacrament, by regarding it lightly; nor do we reject it by forging or devising a new one. I like the word sacrament well enough, as it is used lawfully.

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St. Augustine, in his fifth epistle to Marcellinus, says: "It would take too long to dispute about the diversity of signs which, as they pertain to holy things, are termed sacraments." [2928] From this doubtless sprang this common definition or description: "a sacrament is a sign of a holy thing." [2929] Though it cannot be rejected, it is clear to see that the nature of the thing is not fully comprehended or expressed in it; nor is it separated from other things which are also holy signs. There is another definition, therefore, that is suggested and used, which is indeed more perfect than the first: "a sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible grace." [2930] But because this also does not express the nature of the thing in all points, the following definition seems more allowable to many, stated this way: "Sacraments are ceremonies with which God exercises his people, first to stir up, increase, and maintain their faith; then to the end of testifying of his religion before men." [2931] This is a true and right definition. But what if you define a sacrament somewhat more fully and largely in this manner?

"Sacraments are holy actions, consisting of words or promises of the gospel, or of prescribed rites or ceremonies, given to the church by God from heaven, for this end: to be witnesses and seals of the preaching of the gospel, to exercise and try faith, and to represent and set before our eyes the deep mysteries of God, by earthly and visible things. In short, to gather together a visible church or congregation, and to admonish them of their duty."

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This definition truly is far-reaching, large, and manifold; a definition, I say, gathered of many parts. But we mean to go at it simply and plainly, and to lay out the whole matter before your eyes to be seen; then will we make manifest every part of it, and confirm it with testimonies of scripture.

Now, that I may more fully treat the names that are given to this thing, I find that Latin writers call a sacrament an oath, or a religious bond. This is because it was not thoroughly done (I think), and to the proof, without certain ceremonies. M. Varro, in his second book De Lingua Latina, declaring what it means to contend with an oath, says:

"In some things, the plaintiff and the defendant each bet [2932] five hundred pieces of silver at the place appointed for that purpose; and in other things, they gaged a set number of ounces; so that the one who recovered in judgment would receive back his gage; but the one who lost would forfeit it to the treasury." [2933]

Interposing holy things for the gage, [2934] through partaking of the sacraments, we are bound to God and to all the saints, as if by obligation; and also God himself, by the testimony of the sacraments, has bound himself to us by an oath. It therefore appears that the name sacrament is very aptly and properly applied to our signs. We also read in Latin writers, about an oath that soldiers used to take; for it was not lawful for them to fight unless they were put to their oath and sworn. They took a solemn oath, having someone recite the form of the oath to them word by word (as Yegetius says in his book De Re Militari [2935]), that they would stoutly and readily do whatever their captain commanded them, and that they would never forsake the field in the defence of the commonweal of Rome.

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They had a donation given to each of them as a pledge or earnest; they gave their name to be enrolled; and they were marked so that they might be known from other soldiers.[2936] Now, because we are received and enrolled as Christ's soldiers by our sacraments (especially by baptism); and by receiving the sacraments, we profess and testify that we are under the banner of Christ our captain;[2937] the signs of Christ and his church are therefore not mistakenly called sacraments, nor without reason. Meanwhile, I will not stoutly contend that the word sacrament was, for that cause, chiefly attributed by those in ancient time to these, our signs.[2938] For Erasmus Rot., a man very well gifted in the tongues, and thoroughly tried in old and ancient writers,[2939] none better, says in Cathe. sua Symb. v.:

"Those who speak most exquisitely call sacramentum an oath or bond, confirmed by the authority of God and the reverence of religion. But our elders used this word for what the Greeks call a mystery — which a man may call a religious secret, because the common people were excluded from meddling with them." [2940]

Therefore, the old writers [2941] called those signs sacraments, instead of mysteries. For the same signs are called mysteries by the Greeks, which the Latin writers for the most part interpret as holy and religious secrets — holy secrets, I say, which the profane common people were excluded and debarred from celebrating. For Caelius in Lectio. Antiqui. supposes that they were called mysteries, oti dei musantav threin endon, because it behoved those who hid them, or administered them, to keep them close, and not show them to any common person.[2942]

v.237

Thus mysteries may well be called separated and holy secrets, known only to those who were ordained for that purpose, [2943] and to be celebrated only by saints or holy men. Yet it may seem that the Greek musterion is derived from mustes and muoo, just as apoduterion is derived from apo and duoo — so that the etymon [2944] of it may have no more force with the Greeks than testamentum has among the Latins, which is a witness-bearing of the mind (although I am not ignorant what some also reason in this case). Sacraments, therefore, are called mysteries, because in a dark speech [2945] they hide other things which are more holy. And Paul willingly uses this word in his epistles. There is a plain reason why this word was attributed to the holy signs of the Christian church: for these things are known only to the faithful, and are hidden from those who are profane and unholy. And surely the preaching of the gospel itself is called, "The mystery of the kingdom of God;" Mar 4.11 this is to teach us that the unclean being shut out, it is revealed only to the children of God. For our chief interpreter of mysteries says: "Do not cast your pearls before swine, nor give that which is holy to dogs." Mat 7.6 And Paul: "If our gospel lies hidden as yet," he says, "it is hidden in those who are lost, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe," 2Cor 4.

Furthermore, many of the Greek doctors of the church have called our sacraments symbola; this word is also received and often used by the Latins. It is derived from symballoo, that is to say, confero, to confer or compare together; for by comparing one thing with another, symbols are made apparent and rightly perceived. Symbolum therefore signifies a sign which has relation to some other thing, as we said about the standard, etc.

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And truly, among the Grecians in olden times, the use of symbols or signs was diverse; for in their sacrifices [2946] they had their symbols, signs (I say) allegorically meaning something — as in the sacrifices of Bacchus, a sieve was their symbol or sign, and they carried it about when they were well tippled;[2947] thereby it signified that those who are drunk are blabs, and can keep nothing secret. What if I can prove by an allegory or dark speech, that the opinions of men, containing something of deep understanding, are called symbols? For Pythagoras' symbols are known well enough. So mystical divinity began to be called symbolic, because it was wrapped in more hidden and secret mysteries. So that which is darkly uttered and in the manner of a riddle, is mystical; [2948] it has in it a far more contrary meaning than it seems to offer by words. Again, the gift and token of faith and truth, which by mutual consent passes between the bride and the bridegroom, whereby it is not lawful for them to shrink or go back from their word, promise, or covenant, is called a symbol. Furthermore, soldiers serving under one and the same banner, were given symbols or badges. In the same way, certain confederated cities that were joined together in a league of friendship, to the end that they might go safely to the bordering cities, and to those which took part with them, were given symbols or mutual signs — that is to say, tokens. These being shown and seen, gave each other gentle and courteous entertainment [2949] by their league-fellows, companions, and singular friends.

The ancient writers therefore applied this word symbol to our sacraments, because they represent and show us the exceedingly great and deep mysteries of God. They are allegorical and enigmatic, hard and dark to understand. And lastly, by the institution of his sacraments, the Lord himself has bound himself to us; and by partaking them, we in turn bind ourselves to him and to all the saints, testifying and openly professing to fight stoutly and valiantly under the Lord's banner.

v.239

Moreover, these holy symbols and signs admonish and put us in mind of brotherly love and concord, so that we remember to love most entirely and with all our heart, as God's children and our brethren, those who are communicants or partakers with us at the same table, and are washed clean by the same baptism.

This much concerning sacraments: what they are, by what names they are called, and why they are so called. Let what we have briefly noted be sufficient.

SACRAMENTS. Setting aside all other things, it seems necessary, first of all, to declare and show who was the author of the sacraments, and for what causes they were instituted. All men in a manner confess that God alone is the author of sacraments, and not men — nor yet the church itself. For there is one among the schoolmen, who teaches the church this lesson: namely, that she should remember she is no lady or mistress over the sacrament, but a servant or minister; and that she has no more power or authority to institute any form of a sacrament than she has to abrogate any law of God.[2950] Aquinas also, part. iii. quaest. 46. articulo 2. says: "He institutes, or he is the author of a thing, who gives it force and virtue: but the virtue and power of the sacraments comes from God alone; therefore God alone has the power to institute or make sacraments." [2951] And indeed, God alone has the power to institute true service and worship: but sacraments belong to his service and worship; therefore God alone institutes sacraments. If anyone in the old Testament had offered a sacrifice which God had not commanded, or did not offer it in the manner that God willed it to be offered, it was not only not available to him, but also his offence in doing so was rewarded with most terrible and fearful punishment. Who does not know that the sons of Aaron, for offering strange fire, were horribly burnt and scorched with fire which fell down from heaven?

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Such sacrifices therefore displease God, as profane or unholy; nor do those sacraments deserve to be called lawful, which do not have God himself for their author. To this is added that sacraments are testimonies, and seals as it were, of God's good-will and favour toward us. Who, I pray you, can better, more uprightly, or more assuredly bear witness of God's good-will toward us, than God himself? In no way does that deserve to be called or considered the seal of God, to which he neither set his hand, nor imprinted with his own mark. [2952] Indeed, it is a counterfeit seal, because it does not come from God; yet, in the meantime, it bears an outward show of the name of God. In behalf of this is that saying of St. Augustine, which is in every man's mouth: "The word is added to the element, and there is made a sacrament." [2953] By this we gather that in the institution of sacraments, the word of God obtains the principal place, and has the most ado; the word, I say, of God, not the word of men, nor yet of the church. From this it follows that the sign ought to have its proceeding from God himself, and not from any manner of men, however many, however cleric-like or learned, however harmless and holy of life. So that, now, there can be no other author of sacraments than God himself alone.

As we receive the word of salvation and grace, so it is also needful that we receive the signs of grace. Although the word of God is preached to us by men, yet we do not receive it as the word of man, but as the word of God, according to the saying of the apostle: "When you had received the word of God which you heard from us,[2954] you did not receive it as the word of men, but (as it is indeed) the word of God." 1The 2.3 It behoves us to have respect for its first author who said when he sent his disciples abroad: "Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to all creatures, Mar 16.15 teaching them to observe whatever I have commanded you; and baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Mat 28.20

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"He that hears you hears me; and he that despises you despises me." Luk 10.16 And therefore, though the sacraments are ministered by the hands of men, they are not received by the godly and religious as though proceeding from men, but from the hand of God himself, the first and principal author of them. To this belongs the question which Christ our Lord asked in the gospel: "The baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men?" Mat 21.25 Truly John, who baptized, was a man; but in baptizing, he baptized according to God's institution and ordinance. And therefore, the baptism of John was from heaven, though the water with which he baptized flowed out of the bottomless depth into the river Jordan, and John himself was resident on the earth. To this also notably agrees what Paul expressly says: "That which I delivered to you I received from the Lord." 1Cor 15.3 Therefore, although St. Paul was a man, yes, and a sinner too, yet what he delivered to the church, he did not deliver as from himself, or as any invention of man, but as Christ has delivered it; so that it is not his, nor man's, but [2955] Christ's tradition, a divine and heavenly tradition. Besides this, our high priest and everlasting bishop works even today in his church, the one whose ministry they execute, that is, at whose commandment they baptize; and according to whose institution, those who are the stewards or dispensers of the mysteries of God, minister the holy sacraments of the Lord's Supper.[2956] The institution of the sacraments,[2957] therefore, must be acknowledged [2958] by us to be the very work of God. This far touching the author of sacraments.

Peter Lombard, in his Sentences, reckons up three causes why sacraments were instituted; that is to say, why spiritual and heavenly things were delivered and committed [2959] to us under visible signs, forms, and ceremonies. The first of these is so cold and weak, that I am loath to recall it to memory.

v.242

He places merit in this: that by God's government and direction, man seeks salvation in things that are baser and inferior to himself. He adds this afterward: although he seeks salvation not in them, but in God through them. This also he has uttered unadvisedly enough, and has not sufficiently considered. The other two causes, namely, that sacraments were invented and ordained under visible signs for our instruction and exercise, do not seem altogether absurd or disagreeable to reason.[2960]

The truest and most proper reason why sacraments are instituted under visible signs, seems to be partly God's goodness, and partly man's weakness. For we hardly reach for the knowledge of heavenly things, if they are laid before our eyes without visible form, [2961] and as they are in their own nature, pure and excellent. But they are better and more easily understood if they are represented to us under the figure of earthly things — that is to say, under signs that are familiar to us. Therefore, our bountiful and gracious Lord covertly and darkly — no, rather evidently and notably — set the kingdom of God before us, to view it in parables or dark statements. [2962] Even so, by signs it pleased him to lay before our eyes, in a way, the very same thing, and to point it out to us, as if painted in a table; to renew it afresh, and to maintain the remembrance of it among us, by a lively representation. John Chrysostom admits this cause as a chief and proper cause. In his eighty-third homily on Matthew, he says:

"The Lord has delivered to us nothing that is insensible. The things indeed are sensible, yet they have altogether a spiritual understanding or meaning. So baptism is ministered under a sensible element, namely water; but what is wrought by it, that is to say, regeneration and the new birth, spiritually enters into the mind.

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For if you were a bodiless creature, he would have delivered to you all these gifts bare, naked, and bodiless, according to your nature. But since you have a reasonable soul coupled and joined to your body, he has therefore delivered to you in sensible signs and substances, those things which are perceived with a spiritual understanding." [2963]

I do not allege this as if I would take the testimony of man for my stay; but I do it because I see St. John Chrysostom's speech according to the manner observed and used in the scripture. For who does not know that the scripture is full of parables, similitudes, allegories, and figurative phrases, which the Holy Ghost uses, not for his own sake, but for ours? In the gospel, the talk which Christ had with Nicodemus touching heavenly regeneration is very well known. By using the hidden and covert terms of air, wind, and water, etc., he reasons, saying: "If I have told you of earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" Joh 3.12 What he calls "earthly things," is his doctrine of heavenly regeneration or new birth, figured to us under the earthly signs of water and the spirit, or of air and the wind; and what he means by "heavenly things" is that self-same doctrine of heavenly regeneration, nakedly delivered to Nicodemus without any imagination, without similitude or sensible signs. Thus the Lord signifies that men more easily conceive and understand the doctrine of heavenly things, when it is shadowed under some dark and covert sign of earthly things,[2964] than when it is nakedly and spiritually delivered — that by comparing things not too unlike, it may appear that the sacraments were for no other cause revealed or instituted, [2965] than for the sake of demonstration: that heavenly things might become more familiar and plain to us.

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In this, we have to mark the analogy, which is a certain aptness, proportion, or (as Cicero terms it) a convenience;[2966] or a fit agreement of things known by their signs. If they are slightly [2967] passed over without this analogy, the reason for a sacrament cannot be fully and perfectly understood. But this analogy, if diligently discussed and observed to the full, offers to the beholder, without any labour at all, the very anagwgh, (anagooge) that is to say, the hidden and secret meaning of a sacrament. When we come to treat these things, we will do what we can to make them manifest by examples.

Whoever therefore thoroughly weighs the institution [2968] of sacraments, cannot help but extol with praises the exceeding great goodness of the Lord, who not only opens to us miserable men the mysteries of his kingdom, but he takes singular care for man's infirmity. Framing himself to our capacity, in a way he stutters and stammers with us. Regarding our dullness and the weakness of our wit, he clothes and covers heavenly mysteries with earthly symbols or signs. Thereby he most plainly and pithily opens them to us, laying them before our eyes, to be evidently beheld.

In this same institution of the sacraments, we have reason to extol and praise the wisdom of God, if we take it in hand [2969] to compare great and small things together. For this custom is received as a law throughout the whole world: that all the wisest men, when they had occasion to speak of high mysteries of wisdom, they did not do it by words alone; rather, by signs and words together, they commended them to their hearers. This was to the end that the two most noble senses in man, namely, hearing and seeing, might both at once be vehemently moved, and forcibly provoked, to consider the matter. The volumes of heathenish philosophers are full of examples. What do you say to the Jews, God's old and ancient people? Did not God himself show very many such examples among them?

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Again, in making leagues or confirming promises in earnest and weighty matters, men use signs or tokens of truth, in order to win credit for their words and promises. Even so, acting in the manner of men,[2970] the Lord has added signs of his faithfulness and truth in his everlasting covenant and promises of life; the sacraments, I mean, with which he seals his promises and the very doctrine of his gospel. Nor is this rare or strange to him. Men swear even by the Lord himself, when they would make others certainly believe, and in no case to mistrust the truth of their promises. Therefore, it is read in the holy scriptures, that the Lord himself took an oath and swore by himself, Jer 22.5 when he meant "most abundantly to show to the heirs of the promises," as the apostle says, "the stableness of his counsel." Heb 6.17 Moreover, it was the accustomed manner among those of old, as they were making their league or covenant, to take a beast, and to divide him in pieces, and each of them to pass through and between the pieces so divided. They testified by that ceremony, that they would yield themselves to be so divided and cut in pieces, if they did not steadfastly hold to what they promised in their league or covenant. In the same manner, making or renewing a league with Abraham (which Moses describes at large in the 15th chapter of Genesis), the Lord commands Abraham to take a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, each three years old, and to cut them in half, and to lay each piece opposite the other. When Abraham had done this, the Lord himself, in the likeness of a smoking furnace or firebrand, went between the pieces, so that thereby Abraham might know that the land of Canaan would certainly be given to him and to his seed to possess; and that all the things which He had promised in that league, would be brought to pass. Therefore, since the good and true Lord is always like himself, he now frames himself toward His church in the same manner as we said he did then. I ask you, what wonder or strange thing is it then, that he should leave to us also today, under visible things, signs and seals of his grace, and of the mysteries of the kingdom of God?

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Up to here we have treated the chief causes of sacraments, for which they were instituted.

KIND AND NUMBER OF SACRAMENTS. Touching the kind and number of sacraments, which is next, there are diverse opinions among the writers, especially of later times. For among the old and ancients, this question drew quickly to an end, as an undoubted and well-known perfect principle. But whoever diligently searches the scriptures, will find that those of the old Testament had sacraments of one kind, and those of the new Testament had sacraments of another kind. The sacraments of the people under the old Testament were circumcision and the paschal lamb, to which were added sacrifices. I abundantly spoke about this in the third decade, sixth sermon.[2971] In like manner, by the writings of the apostles, the sacraments of the people under the new Testament (that is to say, of Christians) are two in number: "baptism" and "the supper of the Lord." But Peter Lombard reckons seven: baptism, penance, the supper of the Lord, confirmation, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony.[2972] The whole rabble of interpreters and rout of schoolmen follow him.

But all the ancient doctors of the church, for the most part, reckon two principal sacraments. Among those doctors, Tertullian, in his first and fourth book Contra Marcionem, and in his book De Corona Militis, very plainly mentions only two — that is to say, baptism, and the Eucharist or supper of the Lord.[2973] And Augustine also says, Lib. iii. De Doctr. Christiana, cap. ix.: "The Lord has not overburdened us with signs; but the Lord himself, and the doctrine of the apostles, have left us a few certain things instead of many. And those are to be most easily done, most reverently understood, and most purely observed: such are baptism and the celebration of the body and blood of the Lord." [2974]

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And again he says to Januarius, Epist. cxviii.: "He has knit and tied together the fellowship of a new people, with very few sacraments in number; they are easily observed, and very excellent in signification: these are baptism, consecrated in the name of the Trinity; and partaking of Christ's body and blood; and whatever other thing is commended to us in the canonical scriptures — except those things with which the servitude of the old people was burdened according to their hearts and the time of the prophets.[2975] These are found in the five books of Moses." [2976] By the way, mark that he does not say, "And whatever other things are commended to us in the canonical scriptures;" but, "whatever other thing," etc. This plainly proves that he is not speaking of sacraments, but of certain observations both used and received by the church — as the subsequent words of Augustine declare. Yet I confess without dissimulation, that the same Augustine elsewhere mentions the sacrament of orders. [2977] Nevertheless, this seems to me to be also considered: that the self-same author applies the name sacraments to anointing, and to prophecy, and to prayer, and to certain other things of this sort,[2978] as well as to orders. And now and then, he reckons among them, the sacraments of the scripture.[2979]

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Thus we may easily see that, in his works, the word "sacrament" is now used one way, and sometimes another. He calls all these sacraments because, being holy, they came from the Holy Ghost; and also because they are holy institutions of God, observed by all who are holy. And yet these differ from those other two sacraments, which are holy actions consisting of words and ceremonies, and which gather together its partakers, into one fellowship. But Rabanus Maurus also, bishop of Mentz,[2980] a diligent reader of Augustine's works, Lib. De Instit. Cleric, cap. xxiv. says:

"Baptism and unction, and the body and blood, are sacraments; they are called sacraments for this reason: because, under a cover of corporal things, the power of God works our salvation more secretly, as signified by these sacraments. Hence, they are also called sacraments for their secret and holy virtues." [2981]

This Rabanus Maurus was famous about the year of the Lord eight hundred and thirty; so that even by this we may gather that the ancient apostolic church had no more than two sacraments. I make no mention here of Ambrose, even though in his books about sacraments, he does not number as many as the company of schoolmen do. This is because some of those works published in his name, are not accepted by all learned men as Ambrose's.[2982] So too, I little force the authority of the works of Dionysius, which I need not declare what price and estimation they have among learned and good men.[2983] But however the case stands, the holy scripture, which is the only infallible rule of life and of all things that are to be done in the church, commends only baptism and the Lord's Supper to us, as the solemn institutions and sacraments of Christ.

v.249

Those two are therefore sufficient for us; so that we need not be moved, whatever the subtle invention of man's busy brain may at times bring against or beside these two. Why? Because God never gave power to anyone to institute sacraments.

Meanwhile, we do not contemn the wholesome rites and healthful institutions of God, nor yet the religious observations of the church of Christ. We have declared elsewhere, what we think and teach touching penance and ecclesiastical order.[2984] Of the remainder, which latter writers authorise as [2985] sacraments, we will speak in their convenient place. Also elsewhere, so far as we thought requisite, we have treated the likeness and difference between sacraments of the people of the old and new Testaments.[2986]

Now, let us see what things sacraments consist in. By the testimony of the scripture and by all the godly men, they consist in two things: namely,

- in the sign and the thing signified;

- in the word and the rite;

- in the promise of the gospel and in the ceremony;

- in the outward thing and the inward;

- in the earthly thing, I say, and the heavenly;

and as Irenaeus witnesses in his book, the martyr of Christ,[2987]

- in the visible thing and the invisible;

- in the sensible thing and the intelligible.

To this belongs what St. John Chrysostom says upon Matthew: "Christ delivers nothing to us that is sensible except under visible things; the outward things are sensible, yet they are all spiritual." [2988] But he calls those things aistheta, sensible, which are perceived by the outward senses, such as seeing, hearing, tasting, and touching; but those things he calls noeta, intelligible or mental, which are perceived by the mind, the understanding, consideration, and the discourse or reasoning of the mind — not of the flesh, but of faith.

v.250

By the testimony of the scriptures, this thing shall be made manifest.[2989] The Lord says to his disciples in the gospel: "Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to all creatures; and he who believes and is baptized shall be saved. Mar 16.15-16 You shall baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Mat 28.19 The same gospel says of John the Baptist: "John baptized in the wilderness, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." Mar 1.4 So also St. Luke witnesses that St Peter said to the Israelites: "Repent, and be baptized everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Act 2.38 In baptism, therefore, water or sprinkling water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and all that which is done by the church, is a sign — a rite, ceremony, and outward thing; it is earthly and sensible, lying open and made plain to the senses. But remission of sins, partaking of (everlasting) life, fellowship with Christ and his members, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost which are given to us by the grace of God through faith in Christ Jesus, is the thing signified — the inward and heavenly thing, and that intelligible thing which is not perceived except by a faithful mind.

In the same manner, the scripture says, bearing witness also of the supper of the Lord, which is the other sacrament of the church: "The Lord Jesus when he had taken bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Likewise he took the cup, and gave it to them, saying, Drink you all of this; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me." [2990] Now, therefore, all that action which is done by the church [2991] following the example of Christ our high-priest (I mean, the breaking and distributing of bread, and yes, the banquet or receiving of bread and wine), is the sign, rite, ceremony, and the outward or earthly thing — that sensible thing which lies open before the senses. But the intelligible thing and thing signified, the inward and heavenly thing, is the very body of Christ given for us, and his blood shed for the remission of sins, and our redemption and fellowship which we have with Christ and all the saints which, indeed, he chiefly has with us.

v.251

By these things it will be easy to determine with certainty about the names or terms now given to the sacraments. For they are called external or outward signs, because they are corporal or bodily, entering outwardly into those senses by which they are perceived. Contrariwise, we call the things that are signified, inward things — not because the things included in the signs lie hidden, but because they are perceived by the inward faculties, or the motions of the mind, wrought [2992] in men by the Spirit of God. So also, those signs are termed both earthly and visible, because they consist of things taken from the earth: namely, water, bread, and wine; and because they are manifestly seen in these likenesses. To be short, the things signified are called heavenly and invisible, because their fruit is heavenly, and because they are discerned with the eyes of the mind or of faith, not the eyes of the body. For otherwise, the same body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which in the supper are represented to the faithful in the form of bread and wine, are not heavenly or invisible of their own proper nature; for the body of our Lord, touching his substance and nature, is consubstantial, or of the same substance as our bodies. Now, it is called heavenly for its deliverance from corruption and infirmity, or else because it is glorified, and not because his own nature is brought to nothing, or laid aside.[2993] The same body of his, of its own nature, is visible, not invisible, and resident in heaven; yet it is seen by the godly celebrating the supper, not with the eyes of the body, but with the eyes of the mind or soul. Therefore, in respect to us it is called invisible, which of itself is not invisible.

Now, in the sacraments the word is called, and it is indeed, a witnessing of God's will, and a remembrance and renewing of the benefits and promises of God; yes, and it is the institution and commandment of God, which shows the author of the sacrament, along with the manner and end of it. For the word in baptism is the very same word that we just now recited: "Go into the whole world," etc.

v.252

In the supper of the Lord, the word of God is, "Jesus took bread," etc. And the rite, custom, and manner of how to celebrate the supper,[2994] is to be sought from the example of the Lord going before it in holy action. This action comprehends both prayers, and those things which are recited from the word of Christ. For just as he broke bread and divided it, and [distributed] the cup in like manner, so we likewise follow in this holy action, with holy imitation and sacramental rite. As he gave thanks, so we also give thanks. By certain prayers in baptism, we request the assistance and grace of the Lord; we recite certain verses out of the gospel which we know are requisite in the administration of baptism; and we usually do the same in the celebration of the Lord's Supper also. But it is not my intention at present to speak largely and exactly about the rites of the sacraments. Notwithstanding, we hold those to be best, which are taken out of the holy scripture, and do not exceed its bounds. These will be spoken of in their place.

Some, instead of "the word" use "promise;" and instead of "rite," use "ceremony." But truly, I see no danger at all in the word "ceremony" if it is understood to be the outward worship and rite which the Lord himself commended to us by his example, and left to be used in the celebration. And indeed, sacramental signs are not simple or bare signs, but ceremonies or religious actions. So too, there seems to be no danger in the word "promise" if by promise we understand the preaching of the gospel, and the commemoration or remembrance of God's promises, which we often use in the preaching of the gospel and in the celebration of the sacraments. That is to say, God receives us into his fellowship for Christ's sake through faith, washes away our sins, and endues us with various graces; Christ was given for our sins; he shed his blood to take away the sins of all the faithful. For in celebrating baptism, we use these words of the Lord: "Suffer the little children to come to me; for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven," etc. Mar 10.14

v.253

In the celebration of the banquet of God's holy children, we use these holy words of our Lord: "And after supper Jesus took bread, and after he had given thanks he broke it, and gave it to them, saying, Take, eat: this is my body which is given for you. This is my blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins: do this in the remembrance of me," etc. [2995] For those remembrances and recitations are the promises of the gospel, promising forgiveness of sins to believers, showing that the Lord's body is given for them, and his blood shed for them; this faith, truly, is the only and undoubted means to obtain life and salvation. Christ is the strength and substance of the sacraments, by whom alone they are effectual, and without whom they are of no power, virtue, or effect.

But if anyone understands "promise" to mean "covenant," by which the Lord singularly binds, or you might say, ties himself to the signs in which or with which he would be present bodily, essentially, and really — in this, he says more than he can show or prove by the scriptures. For in no place has Christ promised to be present corporally— that is, with his true body, in the signs, or with the signs. Otherwise, I am not ignorant of how God sometimes appeared to our fathers in a bodily figure, that is, in some visible form or shape. For example, when he showed himself to Jacob, who was named Israel, leaning on a ladder, and to Moses in the hole of a rock, as if in a mirror. But these do not properly pertain to this purpose where we treat the corporal presence of Christ, and the sacramental signs. But because many twist these words of the Lord, "This is my body, this is my blood," to prove a corporal presence of the Lord's body in the supper, I answer, that those words of the Lord are not to be roughly expounded according to the letter, as though bread and wine were the body and blood of Christ substantially and corporally; but only mystically and sacramentally. So that the body and blood of Christ abide in their substance and nature, and in their place — I mean, in some certain place of heaven. But the bread and wine are a sign or sacrament, a witness or a sealing, and a lively memory of his body given and his blood shed for us. But we will treat this more at large in a convenient place.

v.254

By these things which we have spoken of, it sufficiently appears how sacraments consist of two things: the sign and the thing signified; of the word of God, and the rite or holy ceremony.

There are some, notwithstanding, who think there is such a force grafted by God into the words, that if they are pronounced over the signs, they sanctify, change, and in a way, bring with them, or make present, the things signified; they plant or include them within the signs, or at least they join them with the signs. For these kinds of statements are heard about it: that the water of baptism regenerates by the virtue of the words; and that, by the efficacy of the words, the bread and the wine in the supper, are made the natural flesh and blood of the Lord. But the sacraments of Christ and his church consist of the word and the sign. It seems that we must diligently search out what must be understood by "the word."

I said just now, that "the word" in the sacraments was a witness-bearing of God's will, and the commandment of God, or the institution of God, which declares to us the author, manner, and end of a sacrament. By this word, I say, and commandment of God, by this will and institution of God, the sacraments are sanctified. It is not that the words are so pronounced by the ministers, that they are to be read before as if recited by the Lord himself, or delivered by his apostles; but it is because God would have it so, did so, and commanded his apostles to do so. For whatever God does, or commands us to do, is sanctified by the very commandment or deed of God. For all things which he has done are exceedingly good; therefore, these things which he commands us to do, cannot help but be holy, because he is holy and the only sanctifier. Thus, the sacraments are sanctified by the nature, will, deed, and commandment of God, and not by the pronunciation of any words.

v.255

To this, the faithful obedience of men is necessarily required, so that it may be applied to man and do him good. This should altogether make us put our trust and confidence in the mercy and power of God; in no way should we despise or cast behind us the institution of God, even though it seems base and contemptible in outward appearance. This will appear more plainly in the example of Naaman, the captain of the king of Syria his band. 2Kng 5.1-14 He heard from the prophet, undoubtedly at the Lord's commandment, that he should wash himself seven times in Jordan: for so it would come to pass that he would be cleansed from his leprosy. Here you hear the word, the will and commandment of God, I say. But you do not hear that any words were repeated either over the Jordan, or over Naaman; nor that any words were prescribed by the prophet that Naaman should repeat, by which there is any force of purifying or cleansing given to the water. Naaman, by faith, obeys the commandment of God, and he is cleansed from his leprosy — not by his own merit, nor by the benefit of the water of the Jordan, but by the power of God and his own faithful obedience. Lepers also in the gospel, and not a few of them, are cleansed by the power and will of Christ, through faith, and not by the pronouncing or speaking of words. The Lord indeed said, "I will, be clean." Mat 8.3 But if anyone today were to recite the same words a hundred times over any leper, it would avail nothing. By this, it is manifest that no force is given to words, to work health by pronouncing them.

The apostles indeed said to the sick, feeble, and lame, "In the name of the Lord Jesus, arise and walk;" and they rose up and were healed;[2996] yet they were not healed by the benefit of the words, but by the name — by the power, I mean — and virtue of Christ. For Peter, who said to the lame man in Jerusalem, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk," Act 3.6 said in the midst of the council of Jerusalem: "If this day we are examined about the deed done to the sick man, by what means he is made whole, let it be known to you all, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth this man stands here whole." Act 4.9-10

v.256

And to the people he said, "And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man sound, whom you see and know; and the faith which is by him, has given to this man health." Act 3.16 Beside these verses, we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that the sons of one Sceva, a priest, being exorcists or conjurers, called on the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits; but these spirits were so far from giving way to their exorcisms and conjurings, that they ran at and overcame them, so that they scrambled [2997] to escape alive. Act 19.14-16 It is most apparent there, that those exorcists used almost the same form in their enchantments, which the apostle used; for they tried to cast out the foul spirit in the name of the Lord Jesus; but they were not able so to do. Who cannot see and perceive, that the words pronounced do not prevail at all? Nor is it any obstacle or hindrance at all, that those exorcists were without faith; for this is something that is very well known and received by all men, that sacraments are no less effectual when they are ministered by wicked ministers, than when they are ministered by the best ministers.

But here, this saying of the apostle is objected against us: "Christ gave himself for the church to sanctify it, cleansing it in the fountain of water by the word," or in the word. Eph 5.25-26 Behold, they say, men are cleansed by the water of baptism, which by the word has the force of sanctifying put into it. Therefore, it must be that words have force to sanctify. But I will confute them by an evident demonstration, that the apostle did not mean what they suppose.

The apostle prescribes to married Christians their duty. To the plainer and pithier setting forth of which, he uses the example of Christ and his church, commending the exceeding love which Christ bears toward his church. Being inflamed with this love, he gave himself for the church to this end: to make it a pure [2998] and glorious spouse for himself.

v.257

Here, by the way, he sets down the manner of purging; for he says the Lord Jesus himself has cleansed it. For it is Christ's office alone to purge and to cleanse. Now the manner of purging follows: "In the fountain of water by the word:" Because it is briefly spoken, it has some obscurity in it. He mentions two things which the Lord uses to cleanse those who are his, "the fountain of water," and "the word." "The fountain of water" is baptism, which is the outward action and witness-bearing of the inward purifying or cleansing, wrought by the grace and Spirit of God. As the apostle says, "According to his mercy he saved us by the fountain of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Tit 3.5 For he adds, by way of interpretation, "and renewing of the Holy Ghost," of which the fountain of water is a sign. Moreover, "the word" is the very preaching of the gospel, testifying that, by the grace and mercy of (God) the Father, his only Son was given to us; and being given for our sins, he makes those who believe in him, heirs of eternal life. So that now, these words of Paul to the Ephesians, fifth chapter, very well agree with this commandment of the Lord mentioned in St. Mark: "Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to all creatures: he which shall believe and be baptized, shall be saved," etc. Mar 16.15 For by these words, the Lord also shadows for us the manner and means of our salvation: that it is he alone who purges us by faith. Yet, meanwhile, he wills believers to be signed with baptism; and that it should be preached openly in the world, that it is he who pardons sins; yes, and who freely gives everlasting life. But how do all these things, I ask you, fit their purpose, who would prove by those words of Paul, that there is force and virtue in the words themselves to sanctify baptism? These words of the Lord spoken to his apostles, make our point even more manifest: "Now are you clean," he says, "through the word which I have spoken to you." Joh 15.3 Shall we say here, that through the words which Christ recited, the disciples of Christ were made clean? Why then did he need to be crucified the next day, and to have died?

v.258

What, was it to the end that he might purchase that power for the words? In that case, all the glory would be given to the words. Do not faith and godliness tell us that "by the word of the Lord" means, that which is declared by the preaching of the Lord — that is, by the death and redemption of Christ, whereby those who believe it are cleansed? For in another place he says, "purifying their hearts by faith." Therefore they err, because they do not rightly judge about the word or speech. For the Lord speaks of the word preached and believed; and they understand it to mean the word pronounced, as though being pronounced, it had force from the Lord to sanctify. St. Augustine also supports us; in his 80th treatise upon John, he says:

"From where does such great virtue and power come to the water, that it should touch the body and wash the heart, unless it is through the working of the word — not because it is spoken or pronounced, but because it is believed? For in the word itself, the sound passing away is one thing, and the virtue which remains is another thing. 'This is the word of faith which we preach,' says the apostle; 'because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and believe with your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' Rom 10.9-10 Thus we read in the Acts of the Apostles, 'purifying (or cleansing) their hearts by faith.' Act 15.9 And St. Peter says in his epistle, 1Pet 3.21 'So also baptism saves us; not putting away the filth of the flesh, but in that a good conscience makes its request to God.'  [2999] This is the word of faith which we preach, and undoubtedly by which baptism is also consecrated, that it may have power to cleanse. For Christ with us the vine, with his Father the husbandman, has loved his church, and given himself for it. Read the apostle, and mark what he adds, saying: 'that he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the fountain of water in the word.' It would be in vain, therefore, that cleansing should be attributed to a frail and fading element, unless this were added: 'in the word.'" [3000]

v.259

And so forth; for I have recited St. Augustine's words, not that I stay myself upon man's testimony, or that I would have any man urge it, or that I am content to be ruled by the witness of man; but because in these words he has gathered together some testimonies out of the scripture, bearing witness from the word. By this we may understand, that it is the word of faith preached, and not the word spoken or pronounced, which ought to be received. This word, I say, truly cleanses; that is to say, the grace of Christ alone purifies, to which both the word and faith are directed. And it is for that cause that he expressly said, "Not because it is spoken, but because it is believed." Shortly after, he says: "The word of faith which we preach." Furthermore he says: "By the word of faith, baptism is consecrated, that it might have power to cleanse." What else is this, than if he had said, the very substance of faith makes baptism effectual? For this follows: "It would be in vain, that cleansing should be attributed to the fading and corruptible element, unless this were added, 'in the word.'"

Now if a man considers the mysteries of the saints or holy men in olden times, he will not find in the celebration of circumcision, the feast of the Passover, or the sacrifices, any words were spoken by which these sacraments were formed and created as it were, and made effectual. To which this belongs: John the Baptist not only baptized the common people without respect to person, but he also baptized the Lord Jesus himself in the water of Jordan.

v.260

No words were pronounced in the meantime, by which he called and drew down the heavenly grace over or upon the water of baptism. Again, when Christ our high bishop instituted his supper in the gospel, he commanded nothing to be spoken or pronounced, by virtue of which the elements might either be changed, or the things signified (being drawn down from heaven) should be present with or joined to the signs. Rather, the evangelists have declared what the Lord has simply done, and that we should do what his will was, according to the manner and end he instituted his supper. We read in no place that the Lord said, As often as you speak or pronounce these my words, "This is my body, This is my blood," it shall come to pass by virtue of my words, that the substance of the sign will be made void; and at the same point of time in which the words are spoken, it will begin to be the true body and the true blood of the Lord, in the forms or likenesses of bread and wine; or that the forms or likenesses and the truth of the sign remaining, it will begin at once, with the bread and wine, to be the very body and blood of Christ. Therefore, in pronouncing or speaking the words of the Lord in the supper, there is no power or virtue either to call down the things signified, or to change the things present.[3001] These imaginations rather seem to maintain superstition more than religion — as though the words, pronounced according to the form conceived, had the power to call down out of heaven, to bring from one place to another, to restore health, to draw to, to put from, or to transform or change anything. St. Augustine reckons among superstitious vanities, those things which are tied or fastened about the body as remedies against diseases, which medicine also takes no account of; whether it is in charming, or in certain signs called characters, or in hanging certain things about some part of the body. The place is seen in Cap. 20, Li. De Doct. Christ. 2. [3002]

v.261

Chrysostom, being very angry with those who hang the written gospel about their neck, has these words upon Matthew chap. 23:

"In what does the force or power of the gospel consist? In the form and figure of the letters, or in the understanding of the meaning and sense of them? If it is in the form of letters, then you do well to hang it about your neck: but if it is in understanding the meaning, then it is better that they were laid up in your heart." [3003] This is what he says.

And there is the same reasoning about the figures, and about the pronunciation of the letters or words of the gospel; for just as the figure of the letters has no power to do anything, there is no force or virtue either in the pronunciation or the sound of words. Pliny, a heathenish writer, alleges many heathenish examples, in which he declares that words are effectual; yet, among other things which he brings up, he has this to say: "It is a question whether words or enchanting phrases have any force: but everyone who is wise is so far from believing it, that even man by man, they utterly deny it." The place may be seen in Lib. xxviii. cap. 2. [3004] But most worthily, the true word of God itself is preferred above all these, by which Moses, Deu 18, forbids and condemns with great severity, all kinds of superstitions and enchantments.

I know what the adversaries will object here; namely, that it is a blessing or consecration, and not a superstition, that they use. Besides this, they bring many examples out of the scripture, set down in their canonical decrees, by which very foolishly and doubtless most unaptly, they set about proving that the natures of things are changed by blessing or consecration (as they say); from this they also gather that the bread is turned into flesh, by the words of blessing or consecrating.

v.262

Their examples are of this sort: the water flowed out of the rock after it was struck with Aaron's rod; the river Nile turned into blood; the water at the marriage in Cana of Galilee turned into wine; the bitter waters of Meribah changed into sweet water; and Moses' rod turned into a serpent. But, I beseech you, what make these to the Lord's Supper, with which they have no manner of similitude or likeness? So, this must be an unapt and doltish comparison [3005] which they make: The river Nile was turned into blood, therefore the bread is turned into flesh: the water at the marriage in Cana was changed into wine, therefore the wine in the Lord's Supper is changed into the blood of Christ.

It's true that the water gushed out of the rock when it was struck, the river Nile was turned into blood, the water at the marriage was changed into wine, the bitter waters of Meribah became sweet, and Moses' rod was turned into a serpent. But truly, the water, the blood, the wine, the sweet water, and the serpent, were so turned and changed, that they were not in the form or likeness of those things which they were before; nor were they at once that which they were before, and also that which they were then made into. But the water of the Nile was truly blood, not water and blood together; nor was there invisible blood under the visible form of water. And so the case also stands in the other examples.

Therefore, they do not at all agree with the sacramental signs; but they are so far from being like them, that they are altogether unlike them. Moreover, who can tell by what pronunciation of words Moses made the water burst out of the hard rock, or turned the river Nile into blood, or changed the bitter waters into sweet? Who knows what form of words the Lord used when he changed water into wine? Therefore, they unfitly apply these examples to their blessing or consecration, as to changing the natures of things, since it cannot be shown what manner of blessings the saints or holy men used. Likewise we do not read that Moses and Joshua pronounced any words of blessing by which they divided the channel of the Erythrian sea, [3006] and the river Jordan.

v.263

Elisha is not read to have uttered any words of blessing when he made the axe swim, and took it out of the water by the handle. The power of God worked in all these things; but we must not imagine whatever we intend to proceed from that. For it is weakness, and not power, which is repugnant to justice, and which takes things in hand which are contrary to God's truth; but the mighty works of God are of such a sort, that any man may understand and manifestly see that they are such as they are said to be. The Lord said, "Let there be light; and there was light." It was that kind of light, I mean, which was called light — and according to the nature of light, it also gave light. That which was light indeed, was not called or made light, if it did not also give light. So too, the bread is called the body of Christ, though it does not have so much as one jot of the [physical] body of Christ in it.

Furthermore, this word "blessing" is not so used in any place in the scriptures, as they would have us believe. To bless, in the scriptures, is to thank, to praise, to salute, to bid farewell, to speak well of anyone, to wish well, to rejoice, to highly extol, to give thanks for a good turn, to increase, to enrich, to multiply, or to make fruitful. I could, if need be, bring examples to prove each of these. But a man nowhere reads that to bless is the same as changing the nature of things by the words of God, nor by good words and prayers pronounced in a set manner. They say, "We read in the gospel, that the Lord took bread and blessed it: yes, and Paul also calls the bread and cup by that name, i.e., 'The bread and cup of blessing,' undoubtedly the bread and cup of consecration; and by this consecration, the substance of the signs is miraculously changed." I answer that the words both of the gospel and of the apostle are wrongfully twisted to that sense, which never came into the mind of the Lord or his apostles. For to declare the meaning of that place in the gospel: To bless is not to make the sign of the cross with the gesture of the hand; nor to lay one's mouth to the bread and cup, and to whisper in a low voice the set syllables of the words of consecration. Rather, it is to sing praises to God, or to give thanks for His benefits bestowed on us.

I will confirm what I said, by the authority of the evangelists and apostles. For the apostles and evangelists use the word blessing or thanksgiving indifferently.

v.264

For where Mark has εὐλογήσα (eulogesas), that is to say, "blessing," Matthew, Luke, and Paul have εὐχαριστήσας (eucharistesas), that is to say, "giving thanks:" Mark also uses this word a little after: "And when he had taken the cup," eucharistesas, that is, "when he had given thanks, he gave it to them." [3007] Therefore, to bless, as the apostles themselves interpret it, is to give thanks, since they put the one word for the other. The diligent reader may also see this in 1Cor 10.30; we will fully and wholly treat that passage in what follows. Our adversaries have therefore not yet proved from the scriptures, that to bless is the same as changing the things; or that by words, pronunciation, or reciting words, the things which are signified are brought into, or made present [with the sign].[3008] Truly, the ancient writers mentioned a mystical blessing, but it was in a far different sense than these consecrators. We will speak of true consecration shortly; and in another place, we will also confute whatever things they have brought concerning the blessing or consecrating of baptism.

Now we will make an end of what we began. Words of themselves were instituted by God to this end: to signify, and by signifying, to bear witness and to admonish. Beside this, they do not have any hidden force to change the natures of things, nor to cause the things themselves to be corporally present; nor do we read that holy men ever used them in this way. Therefore, those who use them other than as they were instituted, sin and deceive men. For Aurel. Augustine acknowledges the very same thing in his Enchiridion ad Laurent. Capit. 22. He says: "And truly, words are instituted to this purpose: not that men should deceive one another by them, but by which one might make another know his meaning. Therefore, to use words for deceit, and not to that end to which they were ordained, is sin." [3009]

v.265

The same Aurelius Augustinus, making a summation of his whole book entitled De Magistro, asks this question: "But now, I would have you tell me what your opinion is about all this that I have spoken to you?" Later he answers this: "I have learned, being admonished by the words, that a man is taught nothing else by words, than to learn; and that it is a very small matter, that by speech or talk, we partly know what the speaker thinks. But whether the words which he spoke were true, that teaches he only, who admonished that he dwelt in the heart when the other spoke with the tongue." [3010] This much he says in the last chapter of his book De Magistro. To this purpose pertain the words of Solomon the wise, in the book about the Preacher, Ecc 12.11 saying: " The words of the wise are like pricks and nails that pierce by the authors of these gatherings,[3011] which are given by one shepherd." [3012] Here we willingly acknowledge that there is a great force in eloquence and in the prayers of the just;[3013] as the Grecians signified by Hercules of Gallia; Cicero also has very plentifully declared it, in Lib. i. De Oratore. [3014] But what they forge and imagine about Pitho, or Suada, or Suadela, the lady and mistress of eloquence,[3015] we truly attribute to the Holy Ghost, who gives grace to the speaker, and who also prepares and stirs up the minds of the hearers. By these things, I think it is manifest to all men that it is a new forgery of man, and not a doctrine from Oracle, to say that in the celebration of the sacraments, there is such force grafted into the words recited, that they turn and change the things, or make the things signified to be present, and either put them on or join them with the signs.

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But we will show later, that the signs are not changed or mingled with the things signified, but that both of them still remain in their own nature and property. It will be sufficient if we attribute to the words, what the scripture attributes: namely, the office of signifying and admonishing, of moving and stirring up, which they have from God. For those who deck them with strange and falsified titles, defile and blemish the words of God.

We acknowledge indeed, that all the power of almighty God is attributed to the word of God. But who does not see that what is spoken and meant of the everlasting Son of God, is called "the Word of God" in the scripture? Who is such a dorhead,[3016] that he cannot rightly distinguish between the everlasting Word of God — who is the Son of God, the second person in the reverend Trinity — and the word that is repeated, spoken, or pronounced by man? The everlasting Word of God, in his own substance and nature, remains a creator and not a creature: it is not mingled, grafted, or incorporated into man's voice. The word which proceeds from man is a creature, not a creator, and it still remains a creature; for it is a sound which passes away. Nevertheless, what still remains is a virtue, if it is sincere and not adulterated, and it is received by faith; for so it preserves. Yet this is not by its own proper virtue or power, or because it is pronounced by man, but through His power or virtue who revealed the word, and who is true, and therefore preserves those things which he promises to preserve by his word. So that, now indeed, God himself preserves, who said that by his word he would preserve those who believe. Wis 16.26 The word, therefore, which God has revealed to us by his servants the prophets, and by his chosen apostles, is not, nor is it called, the word of God, as if the sound of syllables, words, and voices, are of their own nature the word of God — that very same word, I mean, who of his own substance is the Son of God — but because the revelation of the word was made from God, in the Holy Ghost, through the word or wisdom of God.

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This is why, although their origin is from God and not man, the words which the prophets and apostles uttered are man's words; nor can they do anything else but give signification. Even so, I would not disparage the due force of the external word of God, and those things imputed to the literal word, which are proper to God.[3017] I acknowledge all those things which, with a sound understanding or judgment, are attributed to the word of God. But I have discoursed about this more at large elsewhere. [3018]

But now, some will say: If, sacraments are not sanctified or consecrated by reciting the words of God, then from where do they have this, so that they are and are called sacraments, or holy signs? Is the consecration vain and of no force? Surely, that consecration which the papists have feigned is vain and of no force. But in the beginning of this chapter, I spoke about consecration or true sanctification; I will now set this forth a little plainer and more abundantly.

The holy scriptures, when they mention holy things, they very often use this Hebrew word קַדֵּשׁ (qadash), Gen 2.3 which the Greek interpreters commonly translate by agiazw (hagiazoo), the Latins by Sanctifico, Consecro, and Initio. The use of this word reaches very far: for it signifies to sanctify, to offer to God, to purify or cleanse, and to justify; also to sever or put apart, and to separate — to separate (I mean) from profane use, and to dedicate them to holy things; to call a thing by some name, to apply, and to appoint. Therefore we say, that to consecrate, in this place, is nothing else but to sanctify, to dedicate to God, and in a way, to separate, or to make something holy which was profane. But who does this? Or by what means or instrument does the one who sanctifies do it? Who, I beg you, consecrates, or makes holy? Is it God? Or is it man? Truly, it is God, and not man. For God, instituting anything, and testifying and declaring by his word what he has instituted, and to what end he has done it, of his own holy, just, and good will, and by his own only institution, I say, without any other means, He consecrates the thing which He himself has already instituted.

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For as He is holy, just, and good, so that whatever He commands is holy, just, and good. And man — understanding by the word of God, that God has instituted anything for a holy, just, and good use — accepts, receives, and uses that institution for holy, good, and just ends. Therefore, by uttering certain words, man does not consecrate and make holy the institution. And because he believes that all the institutions of God are holy and good, he therefore also celebrates this institution of God, even as God has ordained, and gives God thanks, depending altogether upon God and the rule of his word.[3019] The apostle says, speaking in another place about this manner of sanctification:

"Now the Spirit speaks evidently, that in the latter times there will rise deceivers, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused, if it is received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." 1Tim 4.1-5

Look, he says, "meat is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." But the word of God in this passage (as Paul the apostle expounds it) is a testimony of the scripture and of the will of God, by which we are taught that all things which God has made are exceedingly good, and that they are clean, and not unclean; God has created them to be eaten and for our use. In the Acts, St. Peter hears, "Arise, Peter, slay, and eat;" for he saw in a vision before him, all living creatures of the earth and the air. "Peter answered, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." Therefore, he heard again: "What God has cleansed, do not call common." Act 10.13-15 But when, I ask you, did God make them clean? When he made and gave them for the use of man. Prayer is annexed to the word, not as a charm or enchantment, but as a faithful thanksgiving. For the apostle more than once or twice mentions thanksgiving, so that by the general word, that is to say, by prayer, nothing else might be understood by it than the special word, by which I mean, thanksgiving; for we might say that prayer is to invocation and thanksgiving, as the root is to the branches.[3020]

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Therefore, he says the meat is holy because God, who is good, has made and appointed it for the use of man; and also because it is received by man with faith and thanksgiving. For meat is not holy and good to many men, not through any fault in the meat (which is always the good creature of God), but the fault is in those who do not acknowledge by faith the benefits of God, or who abuse them, and glut themselves contrary to the word of the Lord.

So too stands the case with the matter of sanctification, which we must also apply to the sacraments. God, of his own good will, and for the commodity of men, ordained sacraments. He chose for himself, out of his good creatures, water, bread, and wine. And appointing them to some certain end, he laid a platform, and commanded us to use and celebrate them. Now therefore, by the commandment and choice of God, the water, bread, and wine, are consecrated, and he signs them with his word, and declares that he would have them counted sacraments, and shows the manner in which he would have them celebrated. So that the consecration of sacraments is made through the will, institution, choice, or commandment of God, and the seal of his word. Therefore, when water, bread, and wine, are used in a common way, or not as they are chosen and instituted by God, the word of God is slandered as it were,[3021] and they are altogether common and profane. But being used holily, according to the choice or commandment of God, and the word or sign being added to them, they become sacraments, which they were not before. The same substance still remains in them, which they had before; but they are instituted for another end and use, for they are sealed with the word and commandment of God, and therefore they are hallowed. To this may also be added their holy use: setting forth by a true faith, the benefit of our redemption, and giving thanks [3022] by faithful prayers to our bountiful Redeemer.

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To suit this purpose, we may fetch examples from civil government, in which some things, adjoined for certain new causes, having their substance still remaining, are now made into that which they were not before. For silver or gold, not yet being coined with the magistrate's mark, is nothing but silver or gold. But if by the commandment of the magistrate, a new form is added by an imprint, it is made into money, which it was not before, even though it is the very same substance which it was before. Wax, before it is sealed, is common and usual wax; but when by the king's will and commandment, what is engraved in the king's seal is imprinted in the wax, and it is applied to evidences and letters patents, [3023] it is then so esteemed, that whoever defaces the sealed evidences [3024] is arrested as guilty of treason. I trust you see plainly by this, that the true sanctification or consecration of sacraments consists in the will and institution of God, for a certain end and holy use of them, as declared to us in the word.

I have perhaps spoken more at large about this than some may think needful. But the godly reader will pardon my tediousness, since my desire is to open all things faithfully, diligently, and at large. Now that I have defended the lawful use of the word, and declared the virtue of it, and opened to you the true sanctification or consecration of sacraments, as occasion served, I will return to where I left. And because I taught that sacraments consist of two parts, the sign and the thing signified, it remains to show that those two parts retain their distinguished natures, not communicating their properties. By declaring this, both as to those things which go before and those which follow (yes, as to the whole substance of the sacrament), without doubt, a wonderful light will appear. But I will speak about communicating these names or terms in their convenient place.

Each part retains its distinguished nature, without communicating or mingling its properties. This may be seen by this: that many are partakers of the sign, and yet they are debarred from the thing signified. But if the natures of the parts were united or naturally knit together, it must be that those who partake of the sign, must also partake of the thing signified.

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Examples from scripture, just as they are ready, so are they evident. For Simon Magus, in the Acts of the Apostles, received the sign and he was baptized: but he had not received so much as one iota of the thing signified. And Judas Iscariot, a cruel and faithless traitor of his master, likewise ate the bread of the Lord, but he did not eat the Lord;[3025] otherwise he would have lived happy, just, and blessed forever: for the Lord himself says, "he who eats me, shall never die." Joh 6.54 But Judas died everlastingly; therefore, he did not eat that food of life.

To these evident testimonies of scripture I will now add certain testimonies of St. Augustine's pertaining to that purpose, who in his treatise on John 26 says:

"We receive visible food this day: but the sacrament is one thing, and the virtue of the sacrament is another. How many receive the things upon the altar, and when they have received it, die! Thus the apostle says, 'He eats and drinks his own damnation.' 1Cor 11.29 Was not the morsel poison, which the Lord gave to Judas? And yet he received it, and after he had received it, the enemy entered into him — not because what he received was evil, but because being evil himself, he received that good thing unworthily."

And immediately after he says:

"The sacrament of the thing, that is, of the knitting together of the body and blood of Christ, is received at the Lord's table, by some unto life, by others unto destruction: but the thing itself, of which it is a sacrament, is received by all men unto life, by none to destruction, whoever are partakers of it."

And again he says:

"He who does not dwell in Christ, nor Christ in him, without doubt he neither eats his flesh, nor drinks his blood spiritually, although carnally and visibly he chews with his teeth the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. But he rather eats and drinks the sacrament of so great a thing to his own damnation." [3026] And so forth.

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He has similar words in his book De Civit. Dei,[3027] xxi. 25. cap. And in his book De Doctr. Christ, iii. cap. 9. he shows that "in the conjunction of natures, there needs to be a distinction, lest we stick too much upon the outward sign." [3028]

Now we come to the proofs of the scripture. The apostle witnesses in 1Cor chap. 10, that "all our fathers were baptized, and all ate of one spiritual food, and all drank of one manner of spiritual drink;" 1Cor 10.3-4 but the Lord had no delight in many of them. Though, if they had eaten that spiritual food and drunk that spiritual drink spiritually by faith, undoubtedly the Lord would have delighted in them. "For without faith," as He himself says, "it is impossible to please God." Heb 11.6 Therefore, God is well pleased with those who have faith. Thus our fathers truly were partakers of visible sacraments, but they were destitute of invisible grace. From this it follows that the sign and the thing signified retain their natures; they are not confounded or mingled, but distinguished and separated. Besides this, the words of the gospel have some affinity, or at least some likeness, with sacramental signs; otherwise, the words are preferred far above the signs. The apostle says that he "was sent to preach, and not to baptize." 1Cor 1.17 But many hear the word of the Lord with their outward ears, who for all that, because they are void of faith, are also without the inward fruit of the word.

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Paul says yet again: "For the gospel was preached to us, as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, because it was not coupled with faith." Heb 4.2 For so it comes to pass, that many receive the visible sacraments, and yet they are not partakers of the invisible grace, which is received by faith alone. From this it yet again follows that the sign is not confounded with the thing signified, but both of them retain their substance and nature, distinguished. What, and does the scripture not expressly and pithily differentiate between the outward ministry of man, and God the inward worker and giver of spiritual gifts? For John the Baptist says: "I baptize you with water, but he (Christ) will baptize you with the holy Ghost." Mat 3.11 What Peter said agrees with this: "Baptism saves us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but in that a good conscience makes its request to God." [3029]

To this now pertains that evident testimony of St. Augustine, iii. Quaest. lib. in Levit. Quaest. 83, written in these words:

"We must diligently consider that, as often as he says, 'I the Lord who sanctify him,' he speaks of the priest. Yet he also said to Moses, 'and you shall sanctify him.' How, therefore, do both Moses and God sanctify? It is because Moses does not sanctify for the Lord; but Moses sanctifies in the visible sacraments by his ministry, and the Lord by the invisible grace by his Holy Spirit, where the whole fruit of visible sacraments is also. For without this sanctification of invisible grace, what profit do we have by visible sacraments?" [3030]

Just as John the Baptist made a distinction between his own ministry in baptism, and the power of Christ, even so he also distinguishes between the ministry of preaching, and the drawing of the spiritual teacher:

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"I am the voice of a crier in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord." Joh 1.23 And again: "He that comes from on high is above all; he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaks of the earth; he that comes from heaven is above all; and what he has seen and heard, that he testifies," etc. Joh 3.31-32 Agreeing with this, St. Paul says:

"Who is Paul, what is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So that neither is he that plants anything, neither he that waters; but God that gives the increase." 1Cor 3.5-7

Even so, the comparison of ministers with th