towards other, shall find all the creatures of God to you ward as hard as brass and iron. Alas, what fury and madness doth possess our minds, that in a matter of truth and certainty we will not give credit to the truth, testifying unto that which is most certain! Christ saith, that if we will first seek the kingdom of God, and do the works of righteousness thereof, we shall not be left destitute, all other things shall be given to us plenteously. Nay, say we, I will first look that I be able to live myself, and be sure that I have enough for me and mine; and if I have any thing over, I will bestow it to get God's favour, and the poor shall then have part with me.

See, I pray you, the perverse judgment of men; we have more care to nourish the carcase, than we have fear to see

our soul perish. And, as Cyprian saith, whilst we stand in Sermon. de doubt lest our goods fail in being over liberal, we put it Eleemosyn

out of doubt, that our life and health faileth in not being liberal at all. Whilst we are careful for diminishing of our stock, we are altogether careless to diminish ourselves. We love Mammon, and lose our souls. We fear lest our patrimony should perish from us; but we fear not lest we should perish for it. Thus do we perversely love that which we should hate, and hate that which we should love; we be negligent where we should be careful, and careful where we need n't. Thus vain fear to lack ourselves, if we give to the poor, is much like the fear of children and fools, which when they see the bright glimmering of a glass, they do imagine straightway that it is the lightning, and yet the brightness of a glass never was the lightning. Even so, when we imagine that by spending upon the poor, a man may come to poverty, we are cast into a vain fear; for we never heard or knew, that by that means any man came to misery, and was left destitute, and not considered of God. Nay, we read to the contrary in the Scripture, (as I have before showed, and as by infinite testimonies and examples may be proved.) that whosoever serveth God faithfully and unfeignedly in any vocation, God will not suffer him to decay, much less to perish. The Holy Ghost teacheth us by Solomon, that the Lord will not suffer the soul of the Prov.xvi righteous to perish for hunger. And therefore David saith unto all them that are merciful, O fear the Lord, ye that be his saints, for they that fear him lack nothing. The lions do lack and suffer hunger; but they which seek the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good. When Elias was in the desert, God fed him by the ministry of a raven, that

1 Kings xvi

evening and morning brought him sufficient, victuals, When Daniel was shut up in the lions' den, God prepared meat for him, and sent it thither to him. And there was the saying of David fulfilled, The lions do lack and suffer hunger ; but they which seek the Lord shall want no good thing. For while the lions, which should have been fed with his flesh, roared for hunger and desire of their prey, whereof they had no power, although it were present before them, he in the mean time was fresh fed from God, that should with his flesh have filled the lions. So mightily doth God work to preserve and maintain those whom he loveth; so careful is he also to feed them who in any state or vocation do unfeignedly serve him, And shall we now think that he will be unmindful of us, if we be obedient to his word, and according to his will have pity on the poor? He giveth us all wealth before we do any service for it; and will he see us lack necessaries when we do him true service? Can a man think that The that feedeth Christ, can be forsaken of Christ, and left without food? or will Christ deny earthly things unto them, whom he promiseth heavenly things for his true service? It cannot be therefore, dear brethren, that by giving of alms we should at any time want ourselves; or that we, which relieve other men's need, should ourselves be oppressed with peaury. It is contrary to God's word, it repugneth with his promise, it is against Christ's property and nature to suffer it, it is the crafty surmise of the Devil to persuade us it. Wherefore stick not to give alms freely, and trust notwithstanding, that God's goodness will minister unto us sufficiency and plenty, so long as we shall live in this transitory life, and after our days here well spent in his service, and the love of our brethren, we shall be crowned with everlasting glory, to reign with Christ our Saviour in heaven: to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory for ever. Amen.

AN

HOMILY

OR

SERMON

CONCERNING

The Nativity and Birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

AMONG all the creatures that God made in the

beginning of the world most excellent and wonderful in their kind, there was none, as the Scripture beareth witness, to be compared almost in any point unto Man, who as well in body as soul exceeded all other, no less than the Sun in brightness and light exceedeth every small and little star in the firmament. He was made according to the image and similitude of God, he was endued with all kind of heavenly gifts, he had no spot of uncleanness in him, he was sound and perfect in all parts, both outwardly and inwardly, his reason was uncorrupt, his understanding was pure and good, his will was obedient and godly, he was made altogether like unto God in righteousness and holiness, in wisdom and in truth; to be short, in all kind of perfection.

When he was thus created and inade, Almighty God, in token of his great love towards him, chose out a special place of the earth for him, namely, Paradise, where he lived in all tranquillity and pleasure, having great abundance of worldly goods, and lacking nothing that he might justly require, or desire to have. For, as it is said, God Psalm ii. made him lord and ruler over all the works of his hands, that he should have under his feet all sheep and oxen, all beasts of the field, all fowls of the air, all fishes of the sea, and use them always at his own pleasure, according us he should have need. Was not this a mirror of perfection? Was not this a full, perfect, and blessed estate? Could any

thing else be well added hereunto, or greater felicity desired in this world? But as the common nature of all men is, in time of prosperity and wealth, to forget not only themselves, but also God; even so did this first man Adam, who having but one commandinent at God's hand, namely, that he should not eat of the fruit of knowledge of good and ill, did notwithstanding, most unmindfully, or rather most wilfully break it, in forgetting the strict charge of his Maker, and giving ear to the crafty suggestion of that wicked serpent the Devil. Whereby it came to pass, that as before he was blessed, so now he was accursed; as before he was loved, so now he was abhorred; as before he was most beautiful and precious, so now he was most vile and wretched in the sight of his Lord and Maker: instead of the image of God, he was now become the image of the Devil; instead of the citizen of heaven, he was become the bond-slave of hell, having in himself no one part of his former purity and cleanness, but being altogether spotted and defiled; insomuch that now he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin, and therefore by the just judgment of God was condemned to everlasting death. This so great and miserable a plague, if it had only rested on Adam, who first offended, it had been so much the easier, and might the better have been borne. But it fell not only on him, but also on his posterity and children for ever, so that the whole brood of Adam's flesh should sustain the self-same fall and punishment, which their forefather by his offence most justly had deserved. St. Paul, in the fifth chapter to the Romans saith. By the offence of only Adam, the fault came upon all men to condemnation, and by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. By which words we are taught, that as in Adam all men universally sinned, so in Adam all men universally received the reward of sin; that is to say, became mortal, and subject unto death, having in themselves nothing but everlasting damnation both of body and soul. They became, as David saith, corrupt and abominable, they went all out of the way, there was none that did good, no not one. O what a miserable and woeful state was this, that the sin of one man should destroy and condemn all men, that nothing in all the world might be looked for, but only pangs of death, and pains of hell! Had it been any marvel if mankind had been utterly driven to desperation, being thus fallen from life to death, from salvation to destruction, from heaven to hell? But behold the great goodness and tender mercy of God in

his behalf: albeit man's wickedness and sinful behaviour was such, that it deserved not in any part to be forgiven; yet to the intent he might not be clean destitute of all hope and comfort in time to come, he ordained a 'new covenant, and made a sure promise thereof, namely, that he would send a Messias or Mediator into the world, which should make intercession, and put himself as a stay between both parties, to pacify the wrath and indignation conceived against sin, and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery, whereinto he was fallen headlong by disobeying the will and commandment of the only Lord and Maker. This covenant and promise was first made unto Adam himself immediately after his fall, as we read in the third of Genesis, where God said to the serpent on this wise; I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her secd. He shall break thine head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Afterward the self-same covenant was also more amply and plainly renewed unto Abraham, where God promised him, that in his seed all nations and families of the earth should be blessed. Again, it was continued and confirmed Gen. xxyi. unto Isaac in the same form of words as it was before unto his father. And to the intent that mankind might not despair, but always live in hope, Almighty God never ceased to publish, repeat, confirm, and continne the same, by divers and sundry testimonies of his prophets; who, for the better persuasion of the thing, prophesied the time, the place, the manner, and circumstance of his birth, the affliction of his life, the kind of his death, the glory of his resurrection, the receiving of his kingdom, the deliverance of his people, with all other circumstances belonging thereunto. Isaiah prophesied that he should be born of a virgin, and called Emanuel. Micah prophesied that he should be born in Bethlehem, a place of Jewry. Ezekiel prophesied that he should come of the stock and lineage of David. Daniel prophesied that all nations and lauguages should serve him. Zechariah prophesied that he should come in poverty, riding upon an ass. Malachi prophesied that he should send Elias before him, which was John the Baptist. Jeremiah prophesied that he should be sold for thirty pieces of silver, &c. And all this was done, that the promise and covenant of God, made unto Abraham and his posterity concerning the redemption of the world, might be credited and fully believed. Now, as the Apostle Paul saith, when the fulness of time was come, that is, the perfection and course of years, appointed from the beginning,