to the true Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, making us a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a particular people of God, in that he died for our offences, and rose for our justification. St. Paul to Timothy, the third chapter; We were, saith he, in times past. unwise, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in hatred, envy. maliciousness, and so forth.

But after the loving kindness of God our Saviour appeared towards mankind, not according to the righteousness that we have done, but according to his great mercy, he saved us by the fountain of the new birth, and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he poured upon us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that we, being once justified by his grace, should be heirs of eter nal life, through hope and faith in his blood.

In these and such other places is set out before our eyes, as it were in a glass, the abundant grace of God, received in Christ Jesus, which is so much the more wonderful, because it came not of any desert of ours, but of his mere and tender mercy, even then when we were his extreme enemies. But for the better understanding and consideration of this thing, let us behold the end of his coming, so shall we perceive what great commodity and profit his nativity hath brought unto us miserable and sinful creatures. The end of his coming was to save and deliver his people, to fulfil the law for us, to bear witness unto the truth, to teach and preach the words of his Father, to give light unto the world, to call sinners to repentance, to refresh them that labour and be heavy laden, to cast out the prince of this world, to reconcile us in the body of his flesh, to dissolve the works of the Devil; last of all, to become a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

These were the chief ends wherefore Christ became man, not for any profit that should come to himself thereby, but only for our sakes, that we might understand the will of God, be partakers of his heavenly light, be delivered out of the Devil's claws, released from the burden of sin, justified through faith in his blood, and finally received up into everlasting glory, there to reign with him for ever. Was not this a great and singular love of Christ towards mankind. that, being the express and lively image of God, he would notwithstanding humble himself, and take upon him the form of a servant, and that only to save and redeem us? O how much

are we bound to the goodness of God in this behalf! How many thanks and praises do we owe unto him for this our salvation, wrought by his dear and only Son Christ! who became a pilgrim on earth, to make us citizens in heaven; who became the son of man, to make us the sons of God; who became obedient to the law, to deliver us from the curse of the law; who became poor, to make us rich; vile, to make us precious; subject to death, to make us live for ever. What greater love could we silly creatures desire or wish to have at God's hands?

Therefore, dearly beloved, let us not forget this exceeding love of our Lord and Saviour, let us not show ourselves unmindful or unthankful toward him: but let us love him, fear him, obey him, and serve him, Let us confess him with our mouths, praise him with our tongues, believe on him with our hearts, and glorify him with our good works. Christ is the light, let us receive the light. Christ is the truth, let us believe the truth. Christ is the way, let us follow the way. And because he is our only master, our only teacher, our only shepherd, and chief captain; therefore let us become his servants, his scholars, his sheep, and his soldiers. As for sin, the flesh, the world, and the Devil, whose servants and bond-slaves we were before Christ's coming, let us utterly cast them off, and defy them, as the chief and only enemies of our soul. And seeing we are once delivered from their cruel tyranny by Christ, let us never fall into their hands again, lest we chance to be in a worse case than ever we were before. Happy are they, saith the Scripture, that continue to the end. Be faithful, saith God, until death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Again, he saith in another place, He that putteth his hand unto the plough, and looketh back, is not meet for the kingdom of God. Therefore let us be strong, steadfast, and unmoveable, abounding always in the work of the Lord. Let us receive Christ, not for a time, but for ever; let us believe his word, not for a time, but for ever; let us become his servants, not for a time, but for ever; in consideration that he hath redeemed and saved us, not for a time, but for ever; and will receive us into his heavenly kingdom, there to reign with him, not for a time, but for ever. To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, praise, and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

AN

II OMILY

FOR

Good-Friday, concerning the Death and Passion of our
Saviour Jesus Christ.

T should not become us, well-beloved in Christ, being

sin and death, and from everlasting damnation, by Christ, to suffer this time to pass forth without any meditation and remembrance of that excellent work of our redemption, wrought as about this time, through the great mercy and charity of our Saviour Jesus Christ, for us wretched sinners, and his mortal enemies. For if a mortal man's deed, done to the behoof of the commonwealth, be had in remembrance of us, with thanks for the benefit and profit which we receive thereby; how much more readily should we have in memory this excellent act and benefit of Christ's death? whereby he hath purchased for us the undoubted pardon and forgiveness of our sins, whereby he made at one the Father of heaven with us, in such wise, that he taketh us now for his loving children, and for the true inheritors, with Christ his natural Son, of the kingdom of heaven. And verily so much more doth Christ's kindness appear unto us, in that it pleased him to deliver himself of all his goodly honour, which he was equally in with his Father in heaven, and to come down into this vale of misery, to be made mortal man, and to be in the state of a most low servant, serving us for our wealth and profit; us, I say, which were his sworn enemies, which had renounced his holy law and commandments, and followed the lusts and sinful pleasures of our corrupt nature. And yet, I say, did Christ put himself Colom. ii. between God's deserved wrath and our sin, and rent that obligation, wherein we were in danger to God, and paid our debt. Our debt was a great deal too great for

Heb. vi

Rom. vi.

Rom. viii.

Rom. i.

us to have paid. And without payment, God the Father could never be at one with us. Neither was it possible to be loosed from this debt by our own ability. It pleased him therefore to be the payer thereof, and to discharge us quite.

Who can now consider the grievous debt of sin, which could none otherwise be paid, but by the death of an Innocent, and will not hate sin in his heart? If God hateth sin so much. that he would allow neither man nor angels for the redemption thereof, but only the death of his only and well beloved Son, who will not stand in fear thereof? If we, my friends, consider this, that for our sins this most innocent Lamb was driven to death, we shall have much more cause to bewail ourselves that we were the cause of his death, than to cry out of the malice and cruelty of the Jews, which pursued him to his death. We did the deeds wherefore he was thus stricken and wounded; they were only the ministers of our wickedness. It is meet then that we should step low down into our hearts, and bewail our own wretchedness and sinful living. Let us know for a certainty, that if the most dearly beloved Son of God was thus punished and stricken for the sin which he had not done himself; how much more ought we sore to be stricken for our daily and manifold sins which we commit against God, if we earnestly repent us not, and be not sorry for them? No man can love sin, which God hateth so much, and be in his favour. No man can say that he loveth Christ truly, and have his great enemy (sin I mean, the author of his death) familiar and in friendship with him. So much do we love God and Christ, as we hate sin. We ought therefore to take great heed, that we be not favourers thereof, lest we be found enemies to God, and traitors to Christ. For not only they, which nailed Christ upon the cross, are his tormentors and crucifiers; But all they, saith St. Paul, crucify again the Son of God, as much as is in them, who do commit vice and sin, which brought him to his death. If the wages of sin be death, and death everlasting, surely it is no small danger to be in service thereof. If we live after the flesh, and after the sinful lusts thereof, St. Paul threateneth, yea, Almighty God in St. Paul threateneth, that we shall surely die. We can none otherwise live to God, but by dying to sin. If Christ be in us, then is sin dead in us : and if the Spirit of God be in us, which raised Christ from death to life, so shall the same Spirit raise us to the resurrection of ecerlasting life. But if sin rule and reign in

Christ hath not

fro.n sin, that we should live

us, then is God, which is the fountain of all grace and vir tue, departed from us: then hath the Devil and his ungracious spirit rule and dominion in us. And surely if in such miserable state we die, we shall not rise to life, but fall down to death and damnation, and that without end. For Christ hath not so redeemed us from sin, that we may redeemed safely return thereto again: but he hath redeemed us, that we should forsake the motions thereof, and live to fast. righteousness. Yea, we be therefore washed in our baptism from the filthiness of sin, that we should live afterward in the pureness of life. In baptism we promised to renounce the Devil and his suggestions, we promised to be, as obedient children, always following God's will and pleasure. Then if he be our Father indeed, let us give him his due honour. If we be his children, let us show him our obedience, like as Christ openly declared his obedience to his Father, which, as St. Paul writeth, Phil. iì. was obedient even to the very death, the death of the cross. And this he did for us all that believe in him. For himself he was not punished, for he was pure and undefiled of all manner of sin. He was wounded, saith Isaiah, for our Isaiah liti. wickedness, and stripped for our sins: he suffered the penalty of them himself. to deliver us from danger: He bare, saith Isaiah, all our sores and infirmities upon his own back. No pain did he refuse to suffer in his own body, that he might deliver us from pain everlasting. His pleasure it was thus to do for us; we deserved it not. Wherefore the more we see ourselves bound unto him, the more he ought to be thanked of us, yea, and the more hope may we take, that we shall receive all other good things of his hand, in that we have received the gift of his only Son, through his liberality. For if God, saith St. Paul, hath not spared his own Son from pain and punish- Rom. viiiment, but delivered him for us all unto the death; how should he not give us all other things with him? If we want any thing, either for body or soul, we may lawfully and boldly approach to God as to our merciful Father, to ask that we desire, and we shall obtain it. For such power is given to John i. us, to be the children of God, so many as believe in Christ's name. In his name whatsoever we ask, we shall Matt. xi. have it granted us. For so well pleased is the Father Almighty God with Christ his Son, that for his sake he favoureth us, and will deny us nothing. So pleasant was this sacrifice and oblation of his Son's death, which he so obediently and innocently suffered, that we should take it for the only and full amends for all the sins of the world.