our fathers; we have done amiss, and dealt wickedly (Psalm cvi. 6). Let us all make open confession with the prodigal son to our Father, and say with him, We have sinned against heaven, and before thee, O Father: we are not worthy to be called thy sons (Luke xv. 18, 19). Let us all say with holy Baruch, "O Lord our God, to us is worthily ascribed shame and confusion, and to thee righteousness: we have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have behaved ourselves ungodly in all thy righteousness (Baruch ii.). Let us all say with the holy pro. phet Daniel, O Lord, righteousness belongeth to thee, unto us belongeth confusion. We have sinned, we have been naughty, we have offended, we have fled from thee, we have gone back from all thy precepts and judgments (Dan. ix. 5-8). So we learn of all good men in Holy Scriptures, to humble ourselves, and to exalt, extol, praise, magnify, and glorify God.

Thus we have heard how evil we be of ourselves: how of ourselves, and by ourselves, we have no goodness, help, nor salvation; but contrariwise, sin, damnation, and death everlasting: which if we deeply weigh and consider, we shall the better understand the great mercy of God, and how our salvation cometh only by Christ. For in ourselves (as of ourselves) we find nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable captivity, into the which we were cast, through the envy of the devil, by breaking of God's commandment, in our first parent Adam (2 Cor. iii. 5). We are all become unclean; but we all are not able to cleanse ourselves, nor to make one another of us clean (Psalm xlix. 7). We are by nature the children of God's wrath (Ephes. ii. 3); but we are not able to make ourselves the children and inheritors of God's glory. We are sheep that run astray (1 Pet. ii. 25); but we cannot of our own power come again to the sheepfold, so great is our imperfection and weakness. In ourselves therefore may we not glory, which (of ourselves) are nothing but sinful: neither may we rejoice in any works that we do, which all be so imperfect and impure, that they are not able to stand before the righteous judg ment-seat of God; as the holy prophet David saith, Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord; for no man that liveth shall be found righteous in thy sight (Psalm cxliii. 2). To God therefore must we flee, or else shall

we never find peace, rest, and quietness of conscience, in our hearts. For he is the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation (2 Cor. i. 3). He is the Lord, with whom is plenteous redemption: he is the God, which of his own mercy saveth us, and setteth out his charity and exceeding love towards us, in that of his own voluntary goodness. when we were perished, he saved us, and provided an everlasting kingdom for us (Psalm cxxx. 7; [Titus iii. 5; Rom v. 8]). And all these heavenly treasures are given us, not for our own deserts, merits, or good deeds (which of ourselves we have none) but of his mere mercy freely. And for whose sake? Truly for Jesus Christ's sake, that pure and undefiled Lamb of God. He is that dearly beloved Son, for whose sake God is fully pacified, satisfied, and set at one with man. He is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world: of whom only it may be truly spoken, that he did all things well, and in his mouth was found no craft nor subtilty (John i. 29, [Mark vii. 37], 1 Pet. ii. 22). None but he alone may say, The prince of the world came, and in me he hath nothing [John xiv. 30]. And he alone may also say, Which of you shall reprove me of any fault? (John viii. 46). He is the high and everlasting Priest, which hath offered himself once for all upon the altar of the cross, and with that one oblation hath made perfect for evermore them that are sanctified (Heb. vii. 27; [x. 14]). He is the alone Mediator between God and man, which paid our ransom to God with his own blood, and with that hath he cleansed us from all sin [1 Tim. ii. 5, 6; 1 John i. 7]. He is the Physician, which healeth all our diseases. He is that Saviour, which saveth his people from all their sins (Matt. i. 21). To be short, he is that flowing and most plenteous fountain, of whose fulness all we have received. For in him alone are all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God hidden [John i. 16; Col. ii. 3]. And in him, and by him, have we from God the Father all good things, pertaining either to the body or to the soul. O how much are we bound to this our heavenly Father for his great mercies, which he hath so plenteously declared unto us in Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour! What thanks worthy and sufficient can we give to him? Let us all with one accord burst out with joyful voice, ever praising and magnifying this Lord

of mercy, for his tender kindness shewed unto us in his dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hitherto have we heard what we are of ourselves: very sinful, wretched, and damnable. Again, we have heard how that of ourselves and by ourselves, we are not able either to think a good thought, or work a good deed, so that we can find in ourselves no hope of salvation, but rather whatsoever maketh unto our destruction. Again, we have heard the tender-kindness and great mercy of God the Father towards us, and how beneficial he is to us for Christ's sake, without our merits or deserts, even of his own mere mercy and tender goodness. Now, how these exceeding great mercies of God, set abroad in Christ Jesus for us, be obtained, and how we be delivered from the captivity of sin, death, and hell, it shall more at large (with God's help) be declared in the next sermon. In the mean season, yea, and at all times, let us learn to know ourselves, our frailty and weakness, without any cracking or boasting of our own good deeds and merits. Let us also acknowledge the exceeding mercy of God towards us, and confess, that as of ourselves cometh all evil and damnation, so likewise of him cometh all goodness and salvation, as God himself saith by the prophet Hosea, O Israel, thy destruction cometh of thyself, but in me only is thy help and comfort (Hosea xiii. 9). If we thus humbly submit ourselves in the sight of God, we may be sure that in the time of his visitation, he will lift us up unto the kingdom of his dearly beloved Son Christ Jesus our Lord: to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen.

A SERMON OF THE SALVATION OF MANKIND, BY ONLY CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR, FROM SIN AND DEATH EVERLASTING.

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BECAUSE all men be sinners and offenders against God, and breakers of his law and commandments, therefore can no man by his own acts, works, and deeds (seem they never so good) be justified, and made righteous before God but every man of necessity is constrained to seek for another righteousness or justification, to be received at God's own hands, that is to say, the forgiveness of his sins and trespasses, in such things as he hath offended. And this justification or righteousness, which we so receive of God's mercy and Christ's merits, embraced by faith, is taken, accepted, and allowed of God, for our perfect and full justification. For the more full understanding hereof, it is our parts and duties ever to remember the great mercy of God, how that (all the world being wrapped in sin by breaking of the law) God sent his only Son our Saviour Christ into this world, to fulfil the law for us, and by shedding of his most precious blood, to make a sacrifice and satisfaction, or (as it may be called) amends to his Father for our sins, to assuage his wrath and indignation conceived against us for the same.

The efficacy of

Insomuch that infants, being baptized and dying in their infancy, are by this sacrifice washed from their sins, brought to God's favour, and Christ's passion made his children, and inheritors of his and oblation. kingdom of heaven. And they, which in act or deed do sin after their baptism, when they turn again to God unfeignedly, they are likewise washed by this sacrifice from their sins, in such sort, that there remaineth not any spot of sin, that shall be imputed to their damnation. This is that justification or righteousness which St. Paul speaketh of, when he saith, No man is justified by the works of the law, but freely by faith in Jesus Christ. And again he saith, We believe in Jesus Christ, that we be justified freely by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, because that no man shall be justified by

the works of the law (Gal. ii. 16). And although this justification be free unto us, yet it cometh not so freely unto us, that there is no ransom paid therefor at all. But here may man's reason be astonied, reasoning after this fashion. If a ransom be paid for our Objection. redemption, then is it not given us freely. For a prisoner that payeth his ransom is not let go freely; for if he go freely, then he goeth without ransom for what is it else to go freely, than to be set at liberty without payment of ransom? This reason is satisfied by the great wisdom of God in this mystery of our Answer. redemption, who hath so tempered his justice and mercy together, that he would neither by his justice condemn us unto the everlasting captivity of the devil, and his prison of hell, remediless for ever without mercy, nor by his mercy deliver us clearly, without justice, or payment of a just ransom: but with his endless mercy he joined his most upright and equal justice. His great mercy he shewed unto us in delivering us from our former captivity, without requiring of any ransom to be paid, or amends to be made upon our parts, which thing by us had been impossible to be done. And whereas it lay not in us that to do, he provided a ransom for us, that was, the most precious body and blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesus Christ, who, besides this ransom, fulfilled the law for us perfectly. And so the justice of God and his mercy did embrace together, and fulfilled the mystery of our redemption [Ps. lxxxv. 10]. And of this justice and mercy of God knit together, speaketh St. Paul in the third chapter to the Romans [vv. 23-25], All have offended, and have need of the glory of God; but are justified freely by his grace, by redemption which is in Jesus Christ, whom God hath set forth to us for a reconciler and peace-maker, through faith in his blood, to shew his righteousness. And in the tenth chapter [v. 4], Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness, to every man that believeth. And in the eighth chapter [vv. 3, 4], That which was impossible by the law, inasmuch as it was weak by the flesh, God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh, by sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, which walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. In these foresaid places, the apostle toucheth specially