THE HIGH WAY TO HEAVEN BY the clear light of the Gospel cleansed of a number of most dangerous stumbling stones thereinto thrown by Bellarmine and others.  
IN A Treatise made upon the 37.38. and 39 verses of the 7. of john: wherein is so handled the most sweet and comfortable doctrine of the true union and communion of Christ and his Church, and the contrary is so confuted, as that not only thereby also summarily and briefly, and yet plainly all men may learn rightly to receive the sacrament of Christ's blessed body and blood, but also how to believe and to live to salvation. And therefore entitled The high way to Heaven.  
By Thomas Spark Doctor of Divinity.  
Printed by R. R. for Robert Dexter. 1597.   

To the Right Honourable and most reverend Father, the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and one of her majesties most honourable privy Council, his very good Lord; Thomas Spark wisheth all health, happiness, and prosperity to his own hearts good contentation and comfort.  
Many and sundry favours and kindnesses (Right Honourable and right reverend in the Lord) for these twenty years space that I have known you, received at your Grace's hands, have always made me not only to love and reverence you; but also to think myself unfeignedly so much bound and beholden unto your Grace, as that I have a long time been of this mind, that it is not sufficient to discharge me of unthankfulness, by bare words (though never so full of kindness & thankfulness) both in your absence and presence to testify the same, (whereof yet ever since I first knew you I have been careful and mindful) and therefore I have long ago resolved myself (having no better means to do it by,) by dedicating some part of my poor labours unto you, to give you and all others, to whom the sight thereof shall come, some public and assured testimony of my dutiful and thankful heart towards you. Whereupon having at the earnest and importunate suit and request of divers of my worshipful and good friends, not long since committed to writing the Treatise following (which in effect they first heard me from point to point in this manner deliver unto them in certain sermons) I have now thought it good in this sort somewhat enlarged to publish it, the better to satisfy their desires: and to the end aforesaid, I have made bold to dedicate the same unto your Grace, beseeching you to accept thereof rather according to the mind of the offerer (which I protest unto you is full of love and reverence towards you,) than to the simplicity & meanness of the thing itself, which I must needs confess in respect of the handling, is much unworthy of such an Honourable patron as yourself is. As for the matter, it is (I am persuaded) answerable to the title that I have given it, which is, The high way to Heaven. For therein first is showed how the law is our schoolmaster to Christ, by causing us to know our sins, and to feel the weight and burden thereof to make us weary of the same, and therefore to hunger and thirst after him: and than what Christ is in person and office, and how he is to be apprehended and fed on to salvation by a true and lively saith in him, is largely & plainly declared: and lastly also, herein such as are and have been first duly thrown down by the law, and after truly raised up again by the Gospel, in Christ, are taught how they are to live and spend the rest of their days in holiness and righteousness. Which I am sure is the old ancient beaten way throughout all the whole course of the old and new Testament, and in all sound antiquity, that the saints and servants of God have taken to be the only saife and sure wace, whereby they have sought to come to the kingdom of heaven. Your Grace therefore being one (as I fully persuade myself you are) that seek to come thither by this only way, and therefore one also that is very desirous that all others should walk thitherwards in an even and straight course thereunto; in respect of the matter therein handled, my good hope is, you will not be ashamed or think much at all, that it seeketh thus to come abroad under your countenance & protection. For though the way be never so well known already and be beaten and trodden out by many before this, and that perhaps more exactly and substantially than it is herein in by me: yet seeing many are still to go this same way, & all cannot hit of the same guides, & still Satan will be busy by his complices either to keep men from finding it, or by one sleight or other to turn them out of it. I trust that after so many that have gone before me in guiding men into and keeping them in this way, this my proffered service to that end, may & will be yet profitable unto many. Now these 24. years at the least it hath pleased the Lord to use my poor ministry, and that, his name be blessed for it, in great peace & quietness, & yet I have therein always been of this mind, and am & will be still, not to esteem or know any thing, but even this way through jesus Christ and him crucified. 1. Cor. 2.2. And sure I am I find and I persuade myself I shall still, though I continued therein twice as long more, this to be a matter so necessary and of that importance beyond all other, to be insisted in and dwelled upon, that I should never have either leisure or pleasure to trouble either press or pulpit with any thing without the very bonds and strict limits hereof. For (alas) every where, yea even where most pains hath been taken and yet is by catechizing of & conference with the people, yea by view of their lives, there is either such gross ignorance hereof, or erring or halting herein to be found & seen amongst them, that if all the ministers of England had the tongues both of men and Angels, they should find work enough throughlie to employ themselves in, only about the reformation hereof. I would to God therefore, that all controversies, whereof men may be ignorant without danger either of not finding, or of not leasing this heavenly way, might either be kept and reserved only to brotherly and friendly conferences among the godly learned, or else that for ever they might be fair dead and buried amongst us; and that so, that all of us as one man with one heart and with one mind, might & would join all our forces together to lead men aright into this way, and to keep them on straight in the same, what subtlety and cunning soever Satan and his instruments should at any time use to the contrary. For we may be sure, so that he any way can get men to miss or to lease this way whiles we are busying our own heads and the peoples with other matters of far less importance, though therein we show never so much zeal and learning, he hath the very thing he desireth. For that doubtless hath been and is still a dangerous stratagem or policy of his, when he findeth he cannot as he would prevail by keeping men in ignorance and careless security, then to do what he can, that they may spend their learning and zeal about matters of the least moment; that in the mean time he may the more quietly by their silence in matters of greatest weight, by the other contrary way, as it were pave the way to Atheism: yea I fear much (to speak plainly what I think) that lack of due consideration hereof in time, in some hath not only been one of the next causes of the fantastical sects of the Brownistes, and Familistes, but also of too shameful increase, in so great light of the Gospel, both of Papists and Atheists amongst us. Wherefore my hearts desire and prayer to God for England is and ever shall be, and for all the Churches of Christ wheresoever in the wide world, that this subtlety of Satan may both here and every where be throughlie well looked unto, and the mischief thence ensuing be as carefully prevented as possibly may be: for otherwise it may grow intolerable and uncurable. And I beseech the Lord heartily to give your Grace and all the rest of the reverend Fathers the Bishops of this land, and all others that be in authority with you in the same, both skill and will, power and might by the assistance of his holy spirit speedily and effectually to cleanse and purge these Churches of England and Ireland so, of all these four kinds of dangerous adversaries, that without their stopping of us at the first, or seducing of us afterward either of the right hand or of the left, all the rest of us as brethren and heirs of the kingdom of heaven may both happily get into this way thither, and also most steadfastly and constantly persevere therein even unto the very end.  
Thus presuming (as you see) of your Graces courteous and friendly acceptance both of this my travel in pointing out this way, and also of this my bold dedicating the same unto you: I will not cease to pray unto God to requite and recompense seavenfolde into your bosom both this & all your great and undeserved former favours towards me. And thus beseeching him also long to preserve you in health and honour to his glory, the Churches good, & to your own everlasting comfort now & ever; craving also pardon for this my boldness, and hoping thereof, I most humbly take my leave. From Blechlie in Buckingham shire. 1596.  
Your Graces always most ready and willing to be at your commandment. Thomas Sparks.   

The high way to Heaven.  john. 7. vers. 37.38.39. 
Now in the last and great day of the feast, jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.  
He that believeth in me, as saith the scripture, out of his belly shall flow rivers of waters of life.  
This spoke be of the spirit, which they that believed in him should receive. For the holy Ghost was not yet given, because that jesus was not yet glorified.  
IN these words (well-beloved in our Lord and Saviour) the holy Evangelist Saint john hath set down the sum and effect of a famous sermon made by Christ himself, the very consideration whereof, ought both to stir up me to open the same the more reverently, and also to prove you, to listen thereunto the more religiously and attentively. Herein, 
The method.  the method that he hath followed, and that therefore likewise I must, is this; First, he noteth certain circumstances thereof, than the substance of the sermon itself. The circumstances he expresseth in these words, Now in the last and great day of the feast, jesus stood and cried saying: and the sermon in the rest: and that in this order. First he noteth to whom he directed it, and his speech therein, saying that he began it thus, If any man thirst: then in the rest, what it was that he spoke unto such: Now the sum of his speeches (as he hath here recorded it) consisted of two points: first of a commandment that he gave to them to whom he spoke, and then of a promise that he made them, obeying that commandment of his. The commandment the Evangelist saith, was this, Let him come to me and drink: and the promise was this, he that believeth in me as saith the scripture, out of his belly shall flow rivers of waters of life. So that he commanded two things: first a coming unto him, and then a drinking of him: and forasmuch as the promise was thus delivered in a figurative and metaphorical kind of phrase, the Evangelist directed by the spirit of God, of a care he had to lead men to the right understanding of Christ's meaning therein, and to preserve them from mistaking of the same, telleth us plainly, that by the rivers of waters of life, that Christ spoke of in this promise of his, he understood, the spirit which they that believed in him, should receive, adding withal, that that was not in such measure yet powered upon such, as it should be afterward, for that jesus was not yet glorified; for so his words, the holy Ghost was not yet, must be understood as I shall show, 
The circumstances.  when I come unto them. Wherefore now to prosecute these things in order as they lie, as they shall offer themselves unto us in the text. First we have to consider what he hath said concerning the circircumstances of this sermon. Touching which, now in the last and great day of the feast, jesus stood and cried (saith the Evangelist:) for the better understanding of which words, if we peruse the former part of this Chapter, it will evidently appear unto us, that when Christ made this sermon, he was at Jerusalem, and in the temple there, by occasion of the feast of tabernacles, which then there they kept & solemnized; where and when the jews sought to take him, and therefore purposely the pharisees, and high priests sent officers thither, and that to the end that so he being taken, they might kill him, whereof Christ was not ignorant. For there before this, at this very feast, teaching openly out of the scriptures, to the astonishment of all his enemies, that heard him, he saith slatly unto them, vers. 19 Why go ye about to kill me? Now the last day of this feast as we may see. Levit. 23. vers. 36 was the eight day when by God's ordinance they were to have an holy convocation, and a solemn assembly: upon which day jesus stood up, and made this sermon, with a loud and crying voice, that so the better he might be heard throughout that great assembly and concourse of people. All these things therefore laid together, show us plainly thus much, that jesus was the preacher of the sermon, and where, when, and in what manner it was preached by him: namely, that it was preached at Jerusalem, even in the temple, at and in the feast of tabernacles, and upon the last and most solemn day thereof, and that in the midst of most bloody, and malicious enemies; most confidently, stoutly, and boldly, for he uttered it standing and crying, thereby showing that he was neither afraid to be heard nor seen: yea, thereby making it most manifest, that he desired nothing more, then that they should thoroughly both see and know his person, and understand and believe his doctrine. And yet for all this, how desirous soever his enemies were, then to have taken him, yet no man had power to lay hands on him, as it is noted: Verse. 44. yea they that were sent to that end, returned, and gave this reason of their not touching him, that never man spoke as he did, verse. 46. The noting thus of these circumstances, by the Evangelist, we must not think was needless, but to very good purpose: yea, we ought always to assure ourselves, howsoever in human writings and speeches, there may often be found many idle and superfluous words, that it is nevor so in the Canonical scriptures. For they being as they are, all inspired of God, 2. Tim. 3. vers. 16, and the holy writers thereof, speaking and writing therein only, as they were moved by the holy Ghost, as Peter testifieth of them, 2. Pet. vers. 21. we may be sure they have not uttered or set down any word in vain therein. And if we do but a little weigh and consider of those circumstances, thus set down here by saint john how sleight soever the use thereof seem to us at the first we shall soon perceive, that there is both much and very good use to be made thereof. For first notwithstanding the corruptions of those times, in that Christ would come to Jerusalem, to the feast of tabernacles, we may learn, not only Christ's obedience to God's ceremonial law, as then yet standing in force and not abrogated, to teach us always to be obedient to his perpetual laws: But also, that it is not lawful, schismatically (as anabaptists, Brownistes, and they of the family of love and others do) to shun public assemblies, and the exercises of true religion therein, for every small corruption and superstitious fashion, either but seeming to such so to be, or indeed which are so to be found therein. Because that then both in the priests and in their additions and detractions from the law of God, the corruptions were many, gross and evident, as the Evangelists and stories of those times, make it most manifest, and yet as we may see by this, Christ shunned not the temple and their assemblies there. And in that Christ there among the greatest and spitefullest enemies that he had, preached and taught thus boldly: Further there by his example he hath given us to learn, that having a lawful calling, and a good cause as he had, neither dangerousness of the time, place, or persons, that we hau● to deal withal, aught to make us shrink from execution and urging of the same. His choice of this day rather than an other to make this sermon in, his standing to utter it, and his uttering it, crying, argue that he had a care, and an earnest desire, that it both might be heard of as many as might be, and also be well understood and carried away, for than was it likely the audience was the greatest, and that which they heard last (as Chrisostome very well observeth upon this place in his fiftieth Homily of saint john,) especially uttered in this sort, was also likely best to be regarded and marked of them: which may very well teach us in all our actions and deeds, both wisely to make a choice of our time, to do them, when there is most likelihood to do good thereby to most, and also in the business of the Lord to deal faithfully and confidently, and in no case boldly, but zealously and earnestly. And the better to encourage us therein, to follow our Lord and Saviour, it is worthy the noting, that for all his thus dealing, and the set purpose of his enemies then to take him, that yet he departed thence safe, without any trouble; for until the time appointed of our heavenly father be come; we may see by this, we may and shall safely proceed on, in the discharging the duties of our vocation, what dangers soever otherwise in the mean time, seem to lie in the way to stop us, or to cut us off. And lastly this earnestness of Christ about the delivery of this doctrine, showed both in his standing and uttering of it, crying, may teach us that he saw of the one side, the matter was worth the hearing, & of the other side, that there was in his hearers such dullness, notwithstanding to listen as they should thereunto, that all this would be little enough: the consideration whereof ought to move you, that be hearers, to rouse up your spirits, to listen thereunto more attentively: and straightly it urgeth me to be as earnest and vehement as I can, in the opening the same unto you: and so consequently may and aught to stand in stead of a most forcible place, both to me and you, to bid us, both in speaking and hearing hereof, every way, to behave ourselves righteously.  
Wherefore thus by these circumstances and the use thereof, we being (I hope) prepared to do: let us now go on as it followeth. If any man thirst, saith Christ, 
To whom he spoke.  whereby it appeareth, that he directeth his speech, although to all that thirsted, without exception, whatsoever they had been before, yet to none but to such, for he knew well enough that none but such would either regard his commandment or had any right unto, or portion in, the promise that he meant to make. In the very same sense saith Esay, in the person of God. Cap. 55.1. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, etc. and the same prophet, Cap. 44. verse. 2. & 3. bringeth in the Lord, saying, Fear not o jacob my servant, and thou righteous whom I have chosen: for I will power water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, etc. Likewise of the same kind of men spoke Christ, Math. 5.6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. And in the chapter going before this, whence I have my text, where Christ teacheth, that, He is the bread of life, and that his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood drink indeed, he sayeth, he that cometh unto him shall never hunger, and he that believeth in him, shall never thirst. verse. 35. By all which places laid together we may see that it is an usual thing with the Lord, by thirstiness to describe them, to whom with any hope to do good he speaketh, and to whom he useth to make his gracious promises: and that though sometimes he name thirstiness only, that yet he sometimes also requireth both hunger and thirst expressly; thereby teaching us, that when the one is only named to understand the other also. Now for as much as the meat and drink talked of in any of these places, to satisfy the hungry and thirsty, is neither earthly nor such as we use to take in by the mouth and other instruments of the body, but altogether heavenly, and such as must be eaten & drunken by the mouth of our souls: therefore we may be sure that herein there is a metaphor used, and that in this phrase and speech, by a similitude betwixt the hunger and thirst of the body and the affections of the soul, by those terms the Lord meaneth, the like passions and affections of the soul afore towards the mere and drink prepared therefore, as is found in the body after meat and drink mee●e and fit for it. 
What it is to thirst.  Seeing then that the ground and foundation of such metaphors is always the analogy and resemblance betwixt the metaphorical words, and the things for the expressing whereof they are used, we shall the better understand what is meant hereby by the hunger and thirst of the soul, if we do but consider that bodily hunger is an earnest longing after meat for the body proceeding from a sensible feeling of emptiness and want thereof: and that bodily thirst, is an earnest longing after moisture to remove the heat and dryness that for lack thereof troubleth the body, for what is this spiritual hunger and thirst else, but an earnest longing for salvation only in Christ jesus, proceeding from an effectual feeling of nothing but damnation to be due unto us, in respect of ourselves? And therefore the soul that is inwardly tormented, vexed, troubled and disquieted with a due sight and feeling of the own emptiness, to justify or save itself: yea, that naturally findeth itself promised with nothing else, but with the scorching heat of sin, and drought of all goodness, doubtless will so hunger and thirst, that is, so earnestly and unfamedly long and desire to be delivered from this state and condition, that in truth, without all hypocrisy it will be ready to say with Daevid, that as the Hart brareth after the rivers of matters, so it doth after the living God. Psal. 42. verse. 1. & 2. But to put it out of all doubt, that here by the hungry and thirsty, are meant only such: compare here with the very like speech of Christ, Math. 11. vers. 28. where he said: Come unto me, all ye that are weary and laden, and I will ease you. For even there as here, he first describeth them, to whom he spoke, secondly he telleth them what he would have them to do, and lastly, he giveth them a sweet promise, which they should enjoy if they would so do. So that though there be some difference betwixt the words of Christ there and here, in sound, yet little or none is there in sense: wherefore in steed of the hungry and thirsty here in this place, he there placeth the weary and laden: whereby he understandeth them, that being heavy laden with sin, (as we are all) are grown also to be weary thereof, which no man may or can think himself to be, as long as he continueth securely, in going on in sin, so adding sin to sin. For he that is weary of his burden, hath a desire to be eased thereof, and in the mean time, until he can get quite to be discharged of it, he himself rather daily seeketh to lessen it, then to increase it. The broken and contrite heart therefore under the burden of sin, and that groaneth, and is inwardly disquieted in his very soul, with the feeling and smart thereof, is the man that will hunger and thirst after Christ, that so in him, and by him, he may be eased and delivered: and therefore such are the only men to whom Christ here speaketh. At this point was David Psalm. 6. when he wrote, vers. 2. & 3. Have mercy upon me (O Lord) for I am weak, O Lord) heal me, for my bones are vexed, and my soul is also soretroubled, etc. But being again in the same case, (as it appeareth, Psa. 51.) he comforteth himself with this, ver. 17 That the sacrifices of God were a contritespirit, and that a contrite spirit and broken heart, he would not despise. And good reason hath every man to be of his mind. For Esay. 61 1.2.3. (for so Christ himself hath taught us to apply it) it is said of Christ, that the spirit of the Lord was upon him, and that therefore he had anointed him, and sent him to preach good tidings unto the poor, to bind up the broken hearted, to preach liberty to the captives, and to them that are bound, the opening of the prison, etc. And therefore after in the person of GOD, saith the prophet: to him will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my words, wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his words, Esay. 66. verse. 6. and even to this Christ had an eye, Matth. 5.3.4.5. saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, etc.  
And hence came it, that the proud pharisee puffed up with a conceit of his own righteousness, went home unjustified, and the poor publican thrown down and humbled before GOD, in the sight of his own sins, and therefore crying, Lord be merciful unto me a sinner, went home more justified, Luke. 18.9. etc. for as Christ said, Mat. 9.12.13. so it is most true, the whole need not the physician, but they that are sick, and he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And always it hath been the lords fashion, to resist the proud, and to give grace unto the humble, 1. Pet. 5.5. And therefore the blessed virgin observeth that, in her song, that as he scattered the proud, in the imagination of their hearts, and put the mighty down from their seats, and sendeth away the rich empty, so he exalteth them of low degree, and filleth the hungry with good things, Luke. 151. etc. This was the very reason why Christ was so courteous to publicans and sinners, Matth. 9.10. and so bitter to the scribes and pharisees as he was, Matth. 23. vers. 11. etc. And this made him say to the chief priests and elders of the jews, verily, verily, the publicans and harlots go before you into the kingdom of God. Matth. 21.31.13. And hereunto (I take it) he had an eye, when he said, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For whereas they that are not broken and contrite hearted for their sins, but either live in them in security, or are puffed up with a swelling conceit of their own merits, make no haste to Christ, they that are throughlie and duly humbled in and under their sins, are glad to hear of him, and to press withal hast unto him, for forgiveness of them. And this we see most clearly in the examples of Zacheus, and Marie Magdalen: whereof the one (as we read in Luke. 19) Ran up into a wild fig tree, that he might satisfy himself with seeing Christ, and no sooner heard Christ say unto him, Come down at once, but he came down hastily, and received him joyfully. verse. 5. & 6. And the other, hearing of Christ, to testify her unfeigned sorrow for her sins, and her love to Christ, for that she hoped by him to have them forgiven her, (as the same evangelist showeth, Cap. 7.37.38. pressed after Christ, into a Pharifies house, as he sat at meat, bringing with her a box of ointment, to bestow upon him: whither when she came, she stood at his feet, behind him weeping, and washed his feet with tears, and wiped them with the heir of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with oil. In all the story of the new testament, where have we more hearty affection and earnest hunger, and thirst after Christ showed, then in these two great sinners, when once the Lord had made them to feel their sins, and to be weary of them. Nay this I dare and do boldly affirm, that if we peruse the whole book of God thorough we shall never find that either God the Father, or Christ his only son, ever comforted any before they were discomforted, or healed any either of bodily or spiritual disease before they saw their disease, felt it, were weary of it; and therefore sued for help and deliverance. For why should pearls be cast before swine, or health be offered to those that find not want of it, or meat and drink be set before those that neither hunger nor thirst? Out of all question therefore we must thus first hunger and thirst, before we can be of the number of those, to whom Christ will offer himself either to be meat or drink: and unless we feel our spiritual sickness of sin, and the danger thereof without him, he will be no physician of ours, and unless we have good stomachs and appetites to and after the notable cheer, that already is prepared for us, in the marriage of the kings son, (whereof 〈◊〉 we read, Matth. 22.1. 〈◊〉. it is but in vain to have bidders sent unto us, to bid us come, for let them do what they can, either we will not come at all, or else we will make light of coming, or come to the purpose. This our most merciful and wife God foreseeing as he hath in his son Christ jesus, provided both meat indeed, and drink indeed, for our hungry and thirsty souls sufficiently to feed upon to eternal life, without which he knoweth we can no more live before him at all, than we see by experience this life can long be maintained and continued without meat and drink fit for it; so hath he left unto us most notable and effectual means to breed in us the hunger and thirst, that is meet to be had after this food of the soul, for he is not only like a liberal housekeeper, that when he hath provided good cheer for his friends, would have them bring good stomachs with them, that they might well feed thereon, but also lest his provision should be lost, or ill bestowed upon such as care little for it, he provideth for all those that he will allow for his guests, ways and means to procure them before they come hunger and thirst indeed after his dainties. 
Ways and means to drive us to Christ.  And these ways and means of his are these, his law, his judgements threatened, and his judgements executed upon others, and especially on the person of our saviour. For by the law rightly understood, cometh the knowledge of sinner Rom. 7. vers. 7. yea, thereby as most notably the Apostle showeth in that place, the power and tyranny of sin over us, is most plainly described: in respect of which office of the law, the law is said to be our schoolmaster unto Christ, Gal. 3.24. for whiles it maketh us see ourselves to be sinners, and that great and dangerous sinners, it causeth us to despair of heaven at all, by our own merits, yea, it driveth us either to make no other reckoning, but to go to hell, whether by our sins we have deserved to go, or else to seek out of ourselves quite, by faith in Christ jesus, to be justified, and so to come to heaven by him. But this it cannot do, unless we muse and meditate thereon aright, and unless we understand it aright: for though it be set before us of the Lord as a glass to discover and lay before us on the one side, what we own unto him, & had been able to pay him, if we had continued in the state wherein he created us; & of the other side to show us that now by our ownfal we are become such bankrupts, that when we owe gold we are not able to pay copper, yea, where we own him thousands we are not able to answer him one of a thousand, yet unless the lord open our eyes rightly to understand this his law, it cannot nor will not stand us in this steed; for as the best glass being looked into without light, directeth us nothing, but when by the light it is looked upon, it doth the office, even so is it in this case. And therefore to this purpose we are to understand with David, that the law of God is perfect, and in that respect (as gold is tried seven times in the fire,) Psal. 19.7. etc. Wherefore we may be sure it stretcheth, (rightly understood) to the condemnation of all sin whatsoever, and to the commendation of all virtue likewise whatsoever; Insomuch as it containeth an absolute and most perfect rule of righteousness, and holiness: from which as oft as we decline, either to the right hand, or to the left, in heart, word, deed, or countenance, either in omitting things therein commanded, or in committing things therein forbidden, so oft it pronounceth us to be transgressors thereof. Whereupon consequently it must needs be true, that if we judge our own selves but according to the law, we shall find it as impossible for us to number our sins, as either it is to number the stars of heaven, or the sand of the sea shore; the consideration whereof, seeing that the promise of the law is only this, Do this and live, Leuit. 18.13. and he that faileth in one point is guilty of al. jam. 2.10. may first make us see that heaven being the Lords, and therefore none being worthy, but he to set the price thereof, or covenant with man upon what condition he shall have it, that it is set at a price, and offered upon condition of such perfection in works as infinitely passeth our reach: and therefore that way none but they that either understand not the law, or are so foolish, that they think they can have heaven at their own price, or that God will measure the price thereof, not according to the worthiness thereof, but according to men's purses: will ever seek to get heaven. And further seeing that the law is the law of God, who for that, he made us able at the first to keep it, may by good right still call for the keeping of it at our hands; though before he call for it, he knoweth now that such is our corruption of the one side, and the perfection of it of the other side, that we can not keep it, thereby we are to learn to fall down before him, and with the tears of our souls to confess our debt, that therein he demandeth indeed to be due debt unto him, in regard of the state wherein he created us, but that by our own fault we are grown now utterly unable to pay it, and therefore that there is now no other way for us to escape the danger of his infinite justice, but by flying to the throne of his mercy in his son Christ jesus. O if we would, break up the fallow lands of our hearts, (as we are counseled to do, jere. 4.4.) by causing this sharp plough of the law to make deep furrows in it. For then so much good feed of the gospel, as is, would not daily be spilled and lost upon us, for that our hearts for lack hereof, are either like the high way, or like to stony or thorny ground. But finding that the hardness of our hearts is such that this plough alone will not pierce deep enough to break them up, let us add thereunto the weight of Gods threatened judgements against the transgressors of the law. Entering into which meditation, we shall find, first generally Gods curse denounced against all those that do not observe and keep all the words of the law, Deut. 27.26. And to go no further, then to that Chapter and the next in particular, we shall find so many most fearful judgements threatened to all transgressors of the law, as that thereby we may easily perceive, that to all transgressors thereof, the Lord would have us to understand, that infinite and most intolerable are the plagues both in this life and that which is to come, that be threatened and due. And in very reason we must needs see it must be so, for sin or transgression of the law being as it is, an offence against the almighty, and so a means directly to deserve the severity of his justice, to be showed against the same, who is so simple but he must needs see, that all miseries in this life, and eternal death and damnation in the life to come, are but justly threatened against all that break the law? Now these things thus being, may we think that those being both due and threatened, that the infinite justice of GOD is such that it will not inflict or execute the same, when or upon whom he list? To what end tend all the fearful examples of God's vengeance executed upon men, that we read of in the scriptures and in other books, and daily seeby experience, but to teach us that God is not a bare threatener, but that he both can and willbe as severe as his threatenings come unto, if there be not a just and sufficient stop to stay the fierceness of his just wrath from breaking out against all the generation of mankind? If all this will not serve to make us have broken and contrite hearts for our sins, and so to hunger and thirst after Christ, let us further yet behold the ugliness of our sins, and the extreme danger that we were in, by the means of them; in this that God hath not spared his only begotten son, to give him to us, to be borne and to live and die for us, as he did. For herein, as the love and bountifulness of our God towards man, hath most gloriously appeared, (as Paul noteth, Titus 3.4.) so therein, and thereof we may say with the Psalmist, that mercy and justice have most notably met and kissed each other, Psal. 85.10. for doubtless such was the love of the father towards the son, that if in his wisdom any other physician, or any other means, could or would have served to have recovered and cured us of our sins, he would never have so far debased his son, as being God, to appoint him to become man, and in his manhood to have endured, living, and dying for us, that which he did. O then in that the office of a saviour was committed unto him, in that he taking upon him to go through therewith as he did, being as he was in person, not man only, but God also, yet found it so heavy and difficult a thing; we have most just cause to see and behold, that it is a thing of the greatest difficulty that may be, to satisfy the just wrath of God for sin; In him (we know) there was no sin, and in his mouth there was no guile, Esay. 53.9. 1. Pet. 2.22. for such an high priest, it became us to have, that was separate from summers, and needed not as the priests of the old Testament, first to offer for his own sins, and then for the people's. Hebr. 7.26.27. And yet in that, he bore our infirmities, he was surely driven to carry our sorrows, insomuch that he was debased as he was, and wounded and broken as he was, for our transgressions and iniquities, Esay 53.3.4.5. In that therefore his pure and holy manhood, though it had personally united unto it a Godhead, to enable it to go thorough with that which it had to do and suffer, going under the burden, but of our sins, was driven into those bloody sweats and agonies, that it was in the garden, Luke. 22: 44. and both there and after upon the cross, before he could say, all is finished, john 19.30. to say Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me, my soul is heavy unto death, Math. 26.39. and 38. and my God my God why hast thou forsaken me. Mathewe 27.40. it was made manifest unto the whole world, that infinite is the severity of God's justice against fin, & that none but such an one was ever able to have borne the burden thereof, and to have got from under it again, to triumph over it, as he hath proved that he did, by his most glorious and comfortable resurrection and ascension into heaven after his death and passion when thus the justice of GOD and his wrath against sin was manifested in his suffering, thorough astonishment thereat, from the sixth hour unto the ninth, there was darkness over the whole earth, the vail of the temple rent, from the top to the bottom, the earth did quake and the stones were cloven and the graves did open themselves Math 27 45.51, 52. if these then and all the former laid together will not or cannot so astonish or amaze us, at the sight of our sins, and of all God's wrath due unto us, and most surely ready we cannot tell how soon, to destroy us, if it be not stayed by this our mediator jesus Christ, as that hereby our hearts break and rent a sunder for sorrow, we make evident demonstration, that we are more blockish and senseless, than these senseless creatures, & so we shall prove that we are none of those to whom Christ here speaketh. But if here by as joel hath taught us Cap. 2. ver. 13. we take occasion to rend our hearts and not our garments, and so to hunger and thirst aright for comfort from Christ, than whatsoever we have been before, of Christ it hath been said unto us, both for good direction herein, and everlasting comfort, A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, Esaie 42.3. when the Lord therefore by reading or preaching of his word, or by any other means that it shall please him to use to that purpose, bringeth all these, or any of these, to our remembrance, than we are to make our reckoning, that of his good grace & favour thereby he gives us just occasion so to see our sins, that in the sight & feeling of the burden thereof, we should thus hunger & thirst after him, that through him we might be delivered from them. And the more and better we dwell upon the mediation of these four things, the Lord withal opening our eyes and hearts rightly to understand them, and the use thereof to this end, the more forcible we shall find them to work this effect. But the truth is, through our original sin, we have brought with us into the world, such a general forwardness to all evil, and backwardness to all good, joined with such gross blindness in things spiritual, and by actual sins daily flowing from this bitter fountain in us, we have all of us, so hardened our own hearts, that though the Lord by sounding these things outwardly in our ears, may make us without all excuse, if hereby we take no occasion thus to be humbled before him, yet most certain is it that the hearing of these things never so often outwardly beaten upon, will never prove forcible and effectual inwardly to breed in us, this true spiritual hunger and thirst, until the Lord himself of his special favour and grace, both open the eyes of our minds, and mollify and soften our hard hearts, and so indeed himself by his own hand and power, hereby work this in us. This taught Moses the jews, saying, yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear unto this day. Deut. 29.4. And yet this is in deed the Lords special work, he showeth the same people again by his prophet Ezechiell, saying, I will put a new spirit within their bowels, I will take away the stony heart out of their bodies, and will give them an heart of flesh. Cap. 11.19. when therefore we find that neither the meditation of the law, nor yet of the judgements threatened, nor executed against the breakers thereof, nor the hearing nor thinking of Christ's passion, with the cause thereof, can breed or provoke this to be in our hearts, we cry unto God with Ephraim, jer. 31.18. Convert thou me & I shallbe converted, for thou art the Lord my God: and with David, Psal. 119.18. open mine eyes that I may see the wonders of thy law. And so in his good time, if we be his, doubtless we shall find all these so work together, to the breaking of our hard hearts, with remorse for our sins, that even in respect thereof, we may say with him also, Have mercy upon me O Lord, for I am weak, O Lord heal me, for my bones are vexed, my soul is sore troubled, I fainted in my mourning, I cause my bed every night to swim, and water my couch with my tears, Psalm: 6.2. etc. yea with a good conscience, without all dissembling, we shall be able to say with him, as the heart brayeth for the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee O God, even for the living God. Psal. 42.1.16.2. For when we have the due sense and feeling in deed of our sins, that we ought to have before ever we will seek after Christ as we should; we will and must (as I have showed before) be undoubtedly weary thereof, and desirous to be eased of the most heavy burden of them. And let us not think, that it is enough, thus to be once in all our life, namelywhen first we come to Christ, and turn unto him aright. For though then it be most necessary, in respect both of our original and actual sins wherein perhaps we have lived a long while before (thus to be affected) when we seek first pardon and remision thereof in him: yet for as much as after we be come unto him, and have put him on though thenceforth sin shall reign no more in our mortal bodies, it will yet, do what we can, be found so cleaving unto us & dwelling in us, that if we should say we have no sin, we should deceive ourselves 1. John 1.8. For that when by experience, we are enforced, the best of us, with james. 3.2. to confeste, that in many things we sin all: we are still from time to time, as long as we live, so to look into the glass of the law, and to meditate upon the rest, as that thereby, we may take occasion, continually to nourish earnest hunger and thirst after Christ, that for our new and daily sins we may more and more seek unto him, and apply him daily afresh unto us. For both David and Paul long before they wrote, the one, the 51. Psalm, the other the 7. to the Romans', were in the state of grace, and the favour of God, the former by faith in the messias to come, the other by faith in him already come, and yet as it is evident in both those places, both these conferring the pure and spiritual law of God with their own lives, take occasion thereby, not only to see and confess their own sins but also in a spiritual manner to hunger and thirst after forgiveness thereof, and therefore to fly to God in the person and mediation of Christ jesus, for that they were persuaded, that if he took in hand the washing of them in his precious bloodshed, they should be whiter than snow, & be cleandelivered from the sinful body of the flesh. Let us therefore first and last, and when sooner we would come unto Christ, which we shall have need to do continually as long as we live here, this way that I have showed you, both seek to begin and still to continue this spiritual hunger and thirst in us after him.  
Satan our malicious old and subtle enemy knoweth full well all this to be most true, 
Satan's devices take us from thirsting. First showed and then confuted.  and therefore whereas he was too weak to stay God, from providing us thus in his son meat and drink to satisfy our hungry and thirsty souls withal, and to seed on to salvation, we may be sure yet that he will do what he can to keep us from this hunger and thirst, proceeding from a deep and due feeling of our sins, and the grievousness thereof; that so either loathing this heavenly food, or not sufficiently finding our need and want thereof, through our own fault, we may be never the better for it. And the means whereby he most prevaileth herein, be, ignorance, security, and error. By ignorance, he prevaileth with all those, be they jews, Turks, Papists, or whatsoever, whom by any cunning he can keep in ignorance, either of the law, person, or office of Christ, of which sort wonderful many be. By security he prevaileth, not only also with the former, but likewise shamefully with the carnal gospelers, beguiling their hearts being as yet indeed, for all their fair outward show in words, quite void of all true love and delight, either in the law or gospel, through the deceitfulness of sin, and by teaching of them to turn the grace of God into wantonness, and most lewdly to abuse the mercies of God in Christ, by presuming thereby to have their sins forgiven them, when and how they list: though they as long as they list continue therein. By error also he prevaileth mightily with very many, and now a days wonderfully amongst the papists. For as though directly they had conspired with Satan to keep men from everhaving that hunger and thirst after Christ that I have proved to be most necessary (notwithstanding the great light that shineth in the world and discovereth and detecteth their dealing herein to be too too bad) they have set abroach, and defend a number of opinions, which can lead to no better, or other end, but toblunt and to dull the edge (very greatly at the least), of all such hungering and thirsting after Christ. For to what other, or better end serveth, either their refusing to join with us, or their teaching as they do, in the doctrines of original sin, and man's free will in things spiritual and good? with us they will not hold, that original sin, is such an universal inbred and inborn corruption, and privity in man where by, not only it is evident that Adam's sin, is imputed unto him, and that the guiltiness thereof therefore is his, withal the other bad fruits, and consequentes thereof, but also amongst all other, this, that naturally, even by the force and power thereof he is altogether in all the powers both of his body and soul corrupted and prone to all evil, and backward, to every thing that is good: but to the full constitution of the nature thereof, they hold, that it is enough to say it is either a want of original righteousness, which, aught to be in us, or an habitual aversion from God, which they hold to be but such, as that therewith may and doth in some yet stand, man's free will to good, & that it is so quite taken away and abolished in the baptism of every one, that thenceforth there remains not, (though concupiscence remain still) any relics thereof at all, or cause why man should be grieved either at or with the feeling thereof as at, or with sin. And such free-will is it which they hold man hath after his fall, even to and in that which is spiritual & good, as that man in his first conversion to God, having but the outward means thereof sufficiently offered unto him, that even that grace is sufficient to convert him, if he would himself, which they hold he might, if he list: and being once converted, that is (as they take it) the outward means being once so fully and effectually proffered him, as whereby he taketh occasion rightly to use his free-will, in accepting of grace so offered: then they hold by the means of grace there upon bestowed upon him (which they count and call the habit of charity) he can will freely, and work any good thing. Whereas we (as we have often showed) enforced both by the scriptures, fathers, reason, and all experience, confess and teach, that by the fall of Adam, our free-will to and in that which is good indeed, is so lost as that, what good means so ever, at any time be outwardly presented unto us, yet thereby we shall never be able to will well, by any power left in us, nor ever shall indeed unless GOD inwardly, by his spirit withal, first create and frame in every one of us a new heart and will, to choose that which is good, and then always after assist, strengthen and guide the same therein. Who may not therefore, even hereby plainly see, that Satan mightily prevaileth by their doctrine to hold men back from hungering and thirsting after Christ, as they should? For if original sin bring no deeper nor universaller corruption with it then they teach it doth, into the nature of man, and may and is so quickly and utterly abolished out of the same again by baptism, and man hath in himself remaining such a free will to good, that before his conversion, upon the offering of the outward means thereof sufficiently he may be converted, if he will himself, and that after he needs no daily or further supply of the spirit to lead his will always thereunto, but that which he received in his first conversion, to work together with the native or hereditary free will that was before in man: then surely what is there left, either by the consideration of our original sin, or by the view of our lack of free will to good, an inseparable companion thereof, to make us to long and to thirst after Christ? For by their doctrine, if we be but baptised, we are quite rid and freed from the former, and as for the latter we have it naturally so, as yet it is not quite taken from us by Adam's fall, but only by our sins original and actual, so settred and hindered that either upon sufficient means, but outwardly offered, we may use it again, even to the accepting thereof, to our conversion, or after, but by virtue of grace received at once in our conversion, for ever then use and show it free to the working out of our own salvation. After baptism than you see, they hold it needless for a man to trouble: his conscience with original sin, or any part thereof, and to deliver the other out of captivity, where into it is brought by sin, that so (as some of them speak) they may go with the own foot thereof, and fly with the own wings and feathers thereof, which it had before, though it could not use them; there is no more in effect to do, but to have the outward means sufficiently proffered, for that even thereupon, if man will use his free will, (as they say he may do, if he will) all the rest touching the full freedom there of, will follow. Their doctrine also of satisfying for our sins, by ourselves and others, of the force and validity of indulgences masses, and such like things purchased for us, likewise either by ourselves, or others, either whiles we are alive or dead, and their conceptes of purgatory, and the relief of souls there, by a number of things, which they seek to make men believe, will serve well, to that end, of the overplus merits, and satisfactions of others to be communicated to such as lack, either through the common force of the communion of saints, or by the special intention of the doer and sufferrer of them, or of the ordinary disposer thereof at his pleasure (which they hold to be the pope) and of their mediation and intercession of saints and Angels, for their devout worshippers and callers upon: are as it were so many strong cables, to hold men back either altogether, or in great part, from longing and thirsting at all after Christ. lastly their doctrine hath been and is such, to blunt the edge and force of the law, which God hath left, as I have showed, righthe understood, to drive men hereunto, that in very deed they have left it, as it is and must be understood, by their gloss and additions, and detractions about the same, without any force at all in effect, to this purpose. For first at their pleasure they leave out the second commandment, and to make yet up the number of 10. they divide the last into two:: secondly though David never so much magnify the perfection thereof as we have heard, Psal: 19.7. yet it shall be so imperfect with them, as that there are 5. commandments more, which they call the command lements of the church, beside infinite other traditions, for the observing whereof often times, they make the commandments of God of no effect, as the Pharisees did for theirs, which must needs be observed, say they, or else a man cannot lead such a holy christian life, as he should: thirdly they are so confident & resolute, that it is possible for man to keep the law of God, that they have cursed all that hold the contrary, they teach a man may do that & more also, and that God were a very tyrant, if man could not keep & fulfil his law. Yea herm they have gone so far as that not only they hold, that a man may in every point so exactly keep it, that he can neither be charged with transgression of any commandment therein contained, nor yet in justice be debarred from the wages & reward of salvation which by perfect keeping thereof, he hath merited and deserved. Which whiles they teach and do, first they make some negligent and careless, in studying and meditating of the law to the purpose aforesaid, seeing by them they are occasioned, to think that man may add thereunto, and take from thence at his pleasure, and so by this means the law stands these in no steed, to this end: and secondly by their last kind of doctrine hereof, whereas both the nature of the law itself, and all the circumstances used by God in the first promulgation thereof, plainly show, that by God's ordinance it was and is appointed to make man to tremble and quake, at the sight of his manifold & great sins & imperfections thereby made known unto him, that so thereby he might take occasion, the sooner and the more earnestly to seek to be made righteous by Christ, and to have that unrighteousness of his own, pardoned & covered, they have quite transformed & altered the use thereof, as though it were given of God of purpose strongly to lead man, to a strong conceit of his own ableness to keep & fulfil the same, & so consequently thereby to an opinion, that either Christ is not very much to be thirsted for at all, or else, that one may very quickly have done with him. Their rule, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, borrowed from Plutarch, that is, laws must be made according to man's ability to keep them, will not bear out and justify this their opinion of man's ableness now to keep the law. For it is sufficient for clearing of God of all blame herein, as I have showed before, that man as he created him at the first, was able to keep this law, which now both plain and plentiful experience, and the express scripture itself, saith it is impossible for him to do, through the weakness of the flesh, Rom. 8.3. For what reason is there, seeing man is fallen from his ability, by his own folly, either that God therefore should fall, or alter in his rule of righteousness, or that he may not challenge that at his hands, that in respect of his creation, and otherwise he owes him, though he know well enough before hand, that he is not able to pay him one of a thousand? Especially, seeing man may make this most notable and profitable use thereof, even thereby to take occasion to see from what he is fallen, and to what, that so he may give over, ever trusting to come to heaven, by keeping of the law, whereof he is so great a breaker, that he may seek and trust only to come thither, by believing the gospel of jesus Christ. To maintain yet the fancy of man's ability and possibility to keep the law, they have devised a number of shifts, all which also tend to the quenching of spiritual hunger and thirst after Christ. For to this end some of them have taught, that the precise, full, and perfect sense of the law, is not for us here in the way to our country, but when we come there, and that here we may be said to have kept it, though in an inferior and imperfecter sense: other some think, and have written, that man may be said to be a keeper and fulfiller of the law, when for the most part he doth so, but others misliking of both these, as not pregnant enough to advance man's ability, and the facility or easiness of the law, teach plainly that the justified man, or man in the state of grace findeth the law of GOD, in his most perfect sense, an easy yoke for him to bear and to undergo, for that by grace his is enabled perfectly to keep and fulfil it all, in every point, even here. And yet in deed these lusty lads, for all this, for that by experience they find that saying of james. In many things we sin all. Cham 3.2. verified in them, even when they think themselves to be in that state, and for that they find likewise, that saint Paul in that state in deed, yet complaineth of concupiscence, which he found in himself, by comparing himself with the law, that was & is spiritual, holy, and good, and showeth that most gladly he would be rid thereof. Romans' 7.7. etc. Are feign to help out this their position, with this, that those sins whereof james speaks, and others, of men in that case, are but venial sins, and that the first motions to sin, or concupiscence found in the regenerate after baptism, are not sin. And the better yet to make this untempered mortar to cleave, though Christ have told us, that an account is to be given for every idle word. Math. 12.36. Yet these venial sins of theirs amongst which I am sure they bring idle words, must be pardonable, even for the littleness thereof, must not be accounted contra legem, that is contrary to the law, but only praeter legem, that is to say, besides the law, and such as may be washed and done away, by knocking of the breast, by holy water by saying the lords prayer, by fasting a day, by an alms giving, by general confession of sins, or by a Bishop's blessing, yea, as one saith, though these be done without any inward good motion at all: Yea, if all these will not serve, their great Bellarmine will not yet be put, or driven from this position, of the ableness of man to keep the law: For after he had tried, with other of his fellows, what these could do, to wipe away the objections made against the same, pressing Paul's experience to the contrary. Rom. 7. though it be there never so plain, that by the law even then he found himself a breaker of the law, and therefore no perfect keeper thereof, yet for that Paul there, to comfort himself with all, confesseth that in his mind, or inward man he delighted in the law, allowed of that which was good, and condemned the contrary, he sayeth that in so saying Paul proves and shows, that he was, for all the law in his members, which likewise he saith rebelled against the law of his mind, and led him captive unto the law of sin, a perfect keeper even then of the law. For the law saith he, is not given to the sense or flesh, but to the mind and spirit of man, wherein Paul kept the law, though in the other respect he had such cause to complain. And whereas he knew that such as they count no venial, but deadly sins have been found, and may be again, even in the regenerate, yet such he will defend, may be counted perfect keepers of the law, when they have risen again by repentance, and have had those their sins forgiven in Christ. Yea though he be enforced by a place out of Saint Augustine's first book of his retractions, Cap. 19 to confess, that there is advouched by him, some imperfection in the best men's keeping of the law, yet to do the best that he could, to cover and cure the wound that, that saying had given his cause, he would make his reader believe, that the imperfection that he finds therein, is but Carentia perfectionis, the want of perfection, and not the transgression of any one commandment, which he resembled to the omitting of one letter, in writing of much. If this be learnedly to defend a position, or the maintenance thereof not only to fall into so many absurdities, as these be, and then beside to be driven to use such a sort of frivolous, and fruitless shifts as these be, what position can possible to be foolish, and false, but that a man of any wit may defend it? And who can be so simple and blind, but he must needs perceive, that in all this gear, whether they see it or not, that Satan directly by their mouths and pens, laboureth and sweateth most eagerly, and directly, to make men so drunken and full with a conceit of their own perfection, or at least small imperfection, that they hunger nor thirst after Christ, as they have cause in deed to do, Who but men bewitched with an opinion, that whatsoever their Roman prelate's allow for currant and found doctrine, how contrary so ever it be in deed to scriptures, fathers, reason, and all, would ever hold, either all or any of these? For most plentifully, by all these, a number of times we have showed them, their vanity and folly, in all of these, and to this day they neither have, nor ever will be able to answer us to the purpose herein. And assure thyself that herein I have charged them with nothing, but with that, which I find, in the best and most famous writers of their side, as namely in Andradius, Osorious, Canisius Vega, Fransciscus de victoria, the censure of Colen, their Rhemish notes of the new testament, and in Bellarmine. But, howsoever, therefore they may stand ressolute herein, yet I hope even the bare recital hereof, maketh thee Christian reader, to see the very gross absurdity thereof also. If there were no more to cause thee to see it, but this, that the rest of all these their doctrines plainly tends and is, as I have showed, to drive man either to think his soul's sickness through sin, not to be so dangerous and grievous as it is indeed, and therefore as we teach it to be, or for his recovery thereof to trust to other physic or Physicians, then to the only physician of our souls Christ jesus even that surely were and is sufficient. For how can that doctrine be any way found or good, that naturally bringeth forth or breedeth either of these cursed fruits, so daingerous to man's salvation, or so injurious to the honour and glory of Christ jesus? Yet that thou mayst not be without thy particular counterpoison in a readiness, against every one of these their poisons, to justify our doctrine, and to confute theirs: touching original sin & free will, remember that with us, against them it is written touching the former thus; The imagination of man's heart is only evil, even from youth. Gen. 6.5. & 8.21. the natural man perceiveth not the things of the spirit of God, neither can he know them. 1. Cor. 2.4. Yea that before our conversion, we are said to have hard and stony hearts, Ezech. 11.19. Rom. 2.5. but also to be darkness. Ephes. 5.8. and dead by sin. Ephes. 2.5. and that touching the other, Paul hath most plainly taught the Saints at Phillippis, that it was God that wrought in them, both the will and the work, and that of his own good pleasure, Cap. 2.13. and that Christ himself most plainly hath said, that no man can come unto him but whom the father draweth. joh. 6.44. and that without him we can do nothing. john. 15.5. And their next three are sufficiently confuted, even in that we read, and we know it is most certain that our Christ is able perfectly to save all them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Heb. 7.25. and hath offered himself once for all to take away the sins of many, Cap. 9.28 yea with that one offering, hath consecrated for ever them that are sanctified, 10.14. especially it being also most plainly written as it is, that as there is but one God, so there is but one mediator betwixt God and man the man Christ jesus, 1. Tim. 2.5. and that there is no other allowed door, whereby at all to enter into God's sheepfold, but only the same Christ jesus, john. 10.1.9. etc. For these places are most pregnant to cut the throat for ever of all those devices, and may satisfy, and will any, that are not wilfully disposed to wrestle, for the advancing of the creature and his own found devise, though to the darkening and obscuring of the creator, our blessed God and saviour for ever. Now lasthe, in as few words as I can, to arm thee, that thou take no harm by that which they teach touching the law, and the keeping thereof. First to overthrow their main ground therein, remember and mark well that Peter in the first famous council at Jerusalem speaking of the law, openly and confidently pronounces it to be a burden, which neither they nor their forefathers were able to bear. Act. 15.10. and that therefore Paul hath proved that no man can be justified, by his keeping of the law, because it is written, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law, to do them, Gal. 3.16. For these places will stand in force, for all Bellarmine's, and his fellows cavilling, and seeking by their Romish sophistry to wipe away the same, to the full and direct confutation of this their opinion, that it is possible, and also found true by experience (for otherwise they say nothing, for we dispute not, as Augustine said in this case, 
Lib. 2. cap. 6. de pectatorum meritis.  what God can do, but what he doth) that a regenerate man, should perfectly keep the law. For neither was the question that they had in hand in that council, only of the keeping of the ceremonial and judicial law of Moses, but of keeping therewith also the whole law, as it appears by the setting down of the same, and the circumstances thereof, Vers. 5. neither was the law, nor is it, any other way a yoke or burden, which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear, but as therein especially is comprised the law moral, which rightly understood, man's weakness considered, is infinite harder to keep for man, than both the other. And for Paul in the other place, to have granted only this, that no man by his own strength without faith and grace can keep the whole law, would not, nor could not, have served his turn, to any purpose to confute those that he dealt withal. For neither were the false Apostles so foolish to teach, or the Galathians once so silly or simple, as to be but in danger to believe, that any such works of the law, so done, were at all to be trusted unto, to earn or merit their salvation by. And therefore as it cannot be denied, but that he speaketh there of the law in general (as his words, continueth not in all things, which are written in the book of the law, do show) so may it not, nor cannot, without wilful cavilling, that the proposition, that he assumeth, as granted, and such as might not be denied was this, that certain it is, no man continueth in all the things that are written in the law, to do them, whosoever he be. For thereupon it must and doth only follow, that such as these were that he reasoned against, that put trust and confidence in the works of the law, which they did after faith, and in grace, could not be justified thereby: because the law found them yet in some things breakers thereof, and therefore was so far of from justifying of them, for keeping it in part, that he pronounced them accursed for not keeping it, in whole and in every point. And yet Bellarmine seems to persuade himself, that he hath cleanly shilted of the former place, by telling us that Peter so spoke of the law, in respect of the ceremonies thereof, and the iudicialles thereunto appertaining only, and that also he hath quite rid his hands of the other, by assuming a proposition about such works of the law, as were yet never in question there, betwixt him and any of his adversaries. Thus than the pillar of theirs thrown down and laid in the dust, with it are all the rest that depend thereon, overthrown also. Notwithstanding, briefly let us take a view of them, the better to understand the vanity and impiety therein set down. That the perfect and exact sense of the law is rather for men in heaven then in earth, how can it be, seeing most of the commandments are such, as concern only this life? our Sabaoth is perpetual, and not one day in the seven, and what distinction of degrees amongst us are to be imagined there, that we should read the fifth commandment? Yea what need shall then be there to have any of the other prescribed us, where there is no danger at all, or fear to be had of loss of life, honesty, goods, or name? As for the next gloze wherbysom would have men to be counted keepers & fulfillers of the law, for keeping it in the most part, james hath most planily taught, saying, whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet faileth in one point, he is guilty of all. Cap. 2. Ver. 10. Now other of them say that grace makes the whole easy to be kept, it is easier said, than any way proved to be so, for that all experience of such as have had grace, in as good measure, as any again can hope to have it, hath been ever yet most flat to the contrary. Yet we easily grant, that to men in grace, it is far easier than to any other, yea and that it is easy to them in this respect, that they unfeignedly studying and endeavouring to keep it, though sometimes they fail & come short thereof, yet thereby taking occasion to repent, and so by faith, to seek to the fountain of grace, Christ jesus, for pardon, they find him most able and willing to account their purpose and care to have kept it, even instead of the fulfilling thereof indeed, to pardon & purge them of all their a berrations from the same. But where is all this, to prove man any time, to be so full and perfect a keeper thereof, that he neither may be charged with the transgression of any one commandment, nor in justice debarred from the wages of heaven which he hath merited and deserved thereby? And yet thus far they go in this point, though quite without warrent or ground. For though this were granted them, that after regeneration, some thus could and did keep the law, yet where find they that God hath bound himself by any promise, to give heaven to any for keeping his law, only in some part, or for some piece of his life. Doubtless the promise that God hath made of life, or reward to the keepers of his law, is, if they, during their whole life wholly, observe the same, otherwise he hath promised them nothing, but a curse, as we have heard before. But to let this pass, and to proceed, their next helps and refuges are, that which they hold of venial sins, and of concupiscence, and of the first motions to sin not consented unto: wherein they ere many ways. For first it is great boldness in them to say where james or any other say, in mancy things we sin all, that there they mean only their venial sins: Where experience told daily shows and proves that very many of those also very great & gross sins, and that oftentimes have overtaken, & yet do the better sort of men & they themselves, hold venial sins, not to be sins simply, but improperly. Whereupon it should follow by their construction, that james should speak, but in this sense, in many things we sin all, not simply but improperly. And counting such a number of sins venial as they do, I wonder they are not ashamed yet to bold, that they are not contrary to the law, but besides it. For what perfection were there in the rule of righteousness prescribed therein, if it left such a number of sins unchecked, and encountered? That they all should be but at the omitting of a letter in writing of much, or as some others have said, but as a few small motes in a fair garment, and therefore to be pardoned, either for their own littleness, or to be wiped clean away by such trifling means, as they to that end, say will serve it is strange that any that have any knowledge of God, or his justice, or of his written word, should either so say or think. For who knows not, that God requires the whole heart, & soul of man, and that all the faculties and powers, both of body and soul, should wholly serve him, and that as he himself is purity itself, so his justice is so infinite pure, that it can abide nothing, that hath any imputitie in it? And who can read Christ's exposition, but of these two commandments thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, and of that part of the third, thou shalt not forswear thyself. Mat. 5.12. etc. but he shall even thereby plainly perceive, that Christ there, hath taught us that a number of those which they count their venial sins, are grievous sins before God, directly forbidden in his law, and such, as if the Lord should but enter into judgement with us for, we were never able to abide it. For there to be angry unadvisedly, to say to another ●aca, to call one fool, to look on a woman to lust after her, to swear vainly at all, by the smallest thing that is, are there expressly forbidden by Christ as contrary to these laws, and as sinners every one of them worthy of grievous and heavy punishment. And yet many of these, if not all, they must needs confess, be such as they count but venial smnes. Let not any man therefore, liften unto these men, thus seeking to extenuate the vileness and heaviness of any sin, how small soever: but rather let every one learn of Christ to account the smallest sin that he falleth into, in thought, word, or countenance, damnable enough of it own nature, if God lay it to the charge of the committer thereof. That concupiscence or the first motions to sin, arising in our mind, are not sin, may, I would think, appear sufficiently to be false, in that Paul so complaineth thereof, as he doth, and would so sane be rid of it, as we read Romans. 7.7.17.24. and that expressly it is forbid in the last commaundement● thou shalt not lust after, or desior any thing that is thy neighbours. Which to be so by this it is enident, that by Christ's own oxposition (as we have heard) lust confented unto but secretly in thought, is condemned and forbid in the former commandements. For there is no probability, that the Lord of purpose setting down the sum of his law, so briefly as he doth in these 10 commandments of his, and distinguishing it into 10. expressly, as he doth, Deut: 4.10. that either he would forbid one thing often, or confound one commandment, and the matter thereof with an other, which of necessity must be granted yet to be so, unless for the distinction of this last commandment from the former we say, that therein bare and naked unlawfullust or concupiscence, though not consented unto, is expressly condemned, and in the other, the same yielded and consented unto. And thus it seemeth, Paul took it, and understood it, in saying he had not known lust, (meaning that it is sin) but that the law saith, thou shalt not lust: Romans 7.7. and there upon doubtless he is driven to acknowledge as he doth there, the law to be spiritual, and himself unable to answer in his flesh the perfection thereof. And God requiring, as I said before, and as we are taught by the sum an abridgement of the law, often repeated in the scriptures, that we should love him with our whole heart, and our neighbour as ourself, how can our hearts be wholly his, when there are but these first filthy motions to sin, never so little a while flying up and down there. Wherefore if sin be as john hath defined it, the transgression of the law, 3.4. and hereby the very life of the law and the substance thereof be broken, as doubtless it is, how can it be, but that bare lust, and the first evil motions to sin, though by and by resisted, are sin, and that simply and properly▪ Now as for the last silly shifts of Bellermine, to say that the law was not given to the sense, but to the mind, and therefore that Paul obeying the law in his mind, was no breaker thereof, though he found that in his members which led him to the contrary, what is it else, but to say, so we serve God in our mind, it makes no matter, how we behave ourselves in our bodies or flesh, as though the same God, that created the soul, created not the body also, and therefore required not as well that the one part of man, as the other, (though first he would have the soul) should serve him. Who therefore of any wisdom or learning, would have thought that such a beggarly and fond answer as this, would have served, to have clean dashed & answered, such an invincible argument, as he takes upon him to answer herewith? And as for his other 2. they are very ridiculous. For what is it to prove, that the keeping of the law, is possible to the regenerate, to say, that if they fall into any mortal sin, repenting thereof, and having the same forgiven, than they are counted still as keepers thereof? For this is not by their merit and perfect keeping of the law, but by the grace of the gospel, which offereth pardon to these that repent, though they have trasgressed the law. And as forth last, which as his answer to Augustine's place 1. retract. Cap. 19 that thereby indeed is confessed a want of perfection in man's keeping of the law, and not a transgression of any commandment, how can it stand, seeing, as it is clear in deed in Augustine, and he himself is therefore enforced to confess it; that his answer is there, that the perfection required by the law cannot be found in man in this life, otherwise, then whiles all things therein commanded, are accounted as done, when whatsoever is not done, is pardoned? And as in deed, in other poor lahours of mine already in print, I have showed, the ancient fathers are most plain and pregnant in this, to show, that the perfection of our righteousness, lieth rather in the sight of our own manifold unrighteousness, to urge us to thirst after the making of us righteous, through the righteousness of Christ jesus, them in any finding at any time, of any perfect inherent righteousness, in ourselves. Wherefore these things considered, I trust you will rather use the means before laid before you by me, according to God's word, to breed in you true hunger and thirst after Christ, than that you will end any ear at all, to these subtleties of Satan, to hold you there from such therefore, hopping that by those means, either God hath heretofore made you, or at this present hath or will, let us proceed.  
The next thing beer to be considered of, 
The command meant. which contains 2. things. b. what it is to come unto Christ.  is the commandements here given by Christ, unto such as I have spoken of and have laboured to make all you wherein as I said in the beginning, he requireth of all such, two things, namely that they should come unto him and then drink of him, where by coming unto him, we have not, as Augustine hath noted in his 26. and 32 tracts upon john, to understand a coming unto him by the feet of the body. For so many came unto him, touched him, and througed him, and yet were never the better. Mat. 5.31. but a coming unto him, by the direction of the eyes of the soul, by the feet of sound knowledge of him, what he is in person, and what he is in office. When this word is used alone as Mat: 11.28. in those words of his, come unto me, all ye that be weary and heavy laden, and I will ease you, than thereby doubtless we have not only to understand, thus much, but that thereby further is required of us, faith in him, grounded upon this our knowledge of him, as upon the foundation thereof. But where it is coupled with other words, that either expressly, or in effect call for faith, as it is here, then thus as I have said, it is to be taken, as john. 6.40. compared with this place makes it evident. For there instead of coming unto him, he saith he that seethe the son, not understanding thereby, the seeing of him, with bodily eyes, but with spiritual: and then he goeth on, saying, and believeth in him, shall have everlasting life. Wherefore, until by the light of the gospel, men have so profited, through the inward working of God's holy spirit in them, that they know and acknowledge Christ aright, both in person and office they have neither eyes not feet in Christ's sense, here, to come unto him by or withal. Pray we therefore for this light, and the countenance thereof amongst us. For certainly the natural man perceives not the things of God, neither can he, because they are spiritual. 1. Cor. 2.11.14. etc. But they that have the light of the gospel shining amongst them, though before they sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death, yet (if the fault be not in themselves), they may see a great light, and life is risen up to them, in this behalf. Mat. 4.16. Peter by this light directing him and shining unto him, showed that with these feet he was come to Christ Matthew. 16.16. confessing Christ to be the son of the living God, and therefore to his great comfort, and to encourage others so to come unto him also, Christ answered him and said. Blessed art thou Simon the son of jonas, for flesh and blood hath not revealled this unto thee, but my father which is in heaven. Mat: 16.17. Surely we here in England, God's name be blessed for it, have had now this great while the light clearly shining amongst us, to direct us in our coming to Christ, to make straight steps unto our feet, lest that which is halting be turned out of the way, as we are counseled, Heb. 12 13. And yet I fear there is such bad and small coming to Christ, sound amongst us, that he in respect of most of us, hath too too just cause to say unto us, as he did to the jews in his time, This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, & men love darkness better than light because their deeds are evil. Io. 3.19. where for we have cause to think, that also, which in an other place, he said unto some of them, even to be spoken of us all: yet a little while, is the light with you: walk whiles ye have light lest the darkness come upon you, for he that walketh in the dark knoweth not whither he goeth, and therefore while ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of the light. john. 12.31.36. But that this his advise and counsel may be in time, and that effectually taken to heart, and followed of us, in this case in walking aright unto Christ by the direction of this light, whiles it shines amongst us, we are seeing our own unableness other wise so to do at all to be as it is, to pray him according to his promise made to his disciples, that he would also pray his father to bestow upon us even the spirit of truth, to teach us all things. john. 14.16.17.26. and to lead us unto all truth. 16.13. For if ever we attain by this light, to the sound and perfect knowledge of jesus Christ, wherein even the wisdom of God in a mystery, as Paul speaketh, is contained. 1. Cor: 2.7. doubtless we shall have cause with him to say further, as he doth there also Ver: 10.11. God then hath revealed it unto us by his spirit, for that searcheth all things, even the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man, which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.  
Seeing then that Christ commandeth us here to come unto him and to come unto him is nothing else, but according to the light of the gospel, directing us therein, by his spirit to be enabled, rightly to know him, acknowledge and confess him, it standeth us upon diligently to mark and to consider, how therein he is described and set forth unto us. Which if we do, we shall soon find, 
What Christ is in person.  that the sum and substance of all set before us therein tendeth, either to set out what he is in person, or in office: let us therefore before we proceed any further, the better to teach us and to enable us to do, as Christ here biddeth us, a little consider what in these two respects it hath taught us. Touching the former, what he is in person, therein thus much we may learn, that whereas most certain it is, as our catholic saith teacheth us, and the whole course of the scriptures, proveth, that there is but one eternal, true and almighty God, the maker and governor of all the world, and yet in the unity of Godhead, that there are 3. distinct persons, the father, the son, and the holy ghost, coequal & coeternal: the light of the gospel makes it most clear & evident, that the 2. persons in this trinity, having been from everlasting, & then also being true & very God, when the fullness of time was come, he took unto himself the full and whole nature of man in the womb of the blessed virgin Marie, that by the power of the holy ghost shadowing her, she both conceived and bore a son, (remaining still a virgin) that was & is very God and man also, & yet not two persons burr one. The history of this his incarnation, conception, and birth, most agreeably to all ancient prophecies given before of the coming of the Messiah in respect of all the circumstances thereof, of whom he should descend according to the flesh, at what time he should come, where he should be borne, and in what manner, is set forth most plainly by Mat. 10. and by Luke, 1. & 2. In which also, so much as I havesaid, touching his person, is taught, for therein we find him termed the son of the almighty & Emanuel, that is, God with us: & to prove that he was conceived & born of the virgin his mother, a very man, there his pedigree is derived even down from Adam to Abraham, Isaac, jacob, David & the rest, whereby also it appear th', that he is indeed that seed of the woman and of those descended that should tread down the serpent's head & in whom all the nations of the world should be blessed. And yet in this history he is still spoken of, neither as of one, by the commixtion or conjunction of two natures, made a third, nor yet by the consociation or association of two natures, remaining still two people, but as he became, & so still remaineth one only person consisting of these two natures, so therein is he set before us. This mystery also is most notably, in my opinion opened unto us by saint Paul, Philip: 2. vers. 5.6.7. and 8. in these words, 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 he made himself of no reputation, & took on him the form of a servant, & was made like unto men, & was found in shap as a man. For her in if the words be well marked he hath most profoundly, set down, what he was before his incarnation, and what he became then: what he was before, he showeth in these, being in the form of God, he thought it no robbery to be equal with God: and what he became after in the rest, and even these few words show first thabefore his incarnation, he was one that had a true being and existence, to confute Ebion and Ceremony, and all their followers, who hold that he took all his being & existence of the virgin, and that therefore he was only man: and servetus also hereby is confuted, who fant astically & blasphemously taught, that the word was nothing before, that had a being and existence, but that it was but the decree in God's mind of the making and creating of this man, and of replenishing him with his godhead. For he is said to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is, one existing and being in the form of God: and after it is added, that even this same took unto himself the form of a servant. To this same purpose saith john, in the beginning was the word, Io: 1.1. and Christ himself said, before Abraham was I am, Io. 8.58. and Paul he himself took the seed of Abraham. Heb: 2.16. Secondly by form of God understanding here the nature of God, as after the form of a servant we must understand the very nature of man, as all sound interpreters both old & new ever have done, in that it is said that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, being in the the form of God, & further that being in the form he thought it no robbery to be equal with god, all these things be further taught, that this being of his which he had before, was the being of a very true God, & that yet he was a distinct person in the Godhead from the father, though equal to & with the father. For as his being in the form of man, proved, that he was a very man, & yet a distinct person in that nature from other men, equal with them in the common nature: so his being in the form of God, and his just and lawful thinking (which doubtless it was, or else it could not have been incident to such an one) that it was no wrong, or robbery to be equal with God, proves most substantially, that he was before his incarnation by nature very God, & equal to his father as touching his Godhead, though a distinct person from his father. For who can be in the form of God, but very God, & who can think it no robbery & that rightly, to be equal to God, but he that indeed is coequal to & with God, & yet how can these things be said, and said truly, as certainly they be here, of the son of God, but they must needs prove, that though father, son, & holy ghost, be all but one God, and have but one essence, & that most perfectly one, that yet the same is a distinct person from the person of the father? For one & self same person cannot be said to be equal to itself: he therefore that thinketh it no robbery to be equal, must needs be one person, & he to whom he accounts himself equal, an other. So that with this one short sentence, & with these very few words, as it were with one blow, all these heretics, Arrius, Photinus, Carpocrates, servetus, Sabellius, Praxeas, the Tritheits, and Gentilis, & their scholars, are laid for dead, and therefore are meet for ever to be buried in the graves of infamous, and blasphemous heretics. For Arrius, though he granted that Christ had a being before his incarnation, yet he could never be brought to confess, that in that being, he was God, from everlasting, coeternal, and coessential with the father. Photinus and servetus, with their crew, held he was God, and the son of God, and so might be called, but not by nature, but by grace, and office. Carpocrates likewise acknowledged in Christ, besides his manhood a celestial and divine nature, but yet he would not yield that it was of the same essence that his fathers was. Sabellius & Praxeas would have there to be but one person, named with three names, & the Tritheits & gentilis contended for the distinction of the 3. persons, that they would have them to have 3 distinct essences, & so consequently, to be 3 Gods. These here sies of Arrius, Photinus, Sernetus & Carpocrates, have all their deathswound, in that expressly, he is said to have been in the form of God, it being most certain that there by God the father, is meant & by his form no accidental form, for that God the father hath none such, but his very essence, & substance. And this his being in the same form with his father, likewise cuts the throat of Gentilis, & of all Tritheites, for it most strongly showeth one form or essence to be one & self same, most perfectly, to distinct persons therein: & lastly the comparison & equality, betwixt him & his father, set down in the other words (for as much as such comparison could not be, if he & his father were but one person, named only by divers names) is as pregnant, for ever to confound, Sabellius and Praxeas. But the lords name be blessed & praised for it, if these words wernot plain enough to prove this doctrine of the son of God, to be most clear against these heretics, we have else where in the scriptures, the same most plentifully and plainly taught. For what can be plainer to this purpose, than these words of john? Cap. 1.1. and 2. In the beginning, was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God: For the first clause shows his existence, and being from everlasting, the second his distinct existence, and being in person, from his fathers, and that last his unity in essence with him. Plain also to this end is that which we read, Heb. 1.2.3. For there the Apostle calls him the son of God, whom his heavenly father hath made heir of all things, and by whom he made the world, and he termeth him the brightness of his glory, and the engraved form of his person, bearing up all things by his mighty word. For herein, his being before the world was, the distinction his of person from his fathers, and yet the unity of essence betwixt them, in most forcible words is advouched: let these therefore be sufficient for this point.  
Now if we would know what he became, and is by his incarnation, in person further, as I said before, the rest of the words of faint Paul before alleged out of his 2. Chapter to the Philliplans, most notably lay that also down before us. For the Apostles purpose being to show the Phillippians, how Christ humbled and abased himself, for the good of his Church, that he doth in showing them how first he did it, by taking upon him the form of a servant, and by being made like unto men, and by being found in shape of a man, so setting down the mystery of his incarnation; and after by telling them how being so become man, he humbled himself to be obedient even unto the death for them, to purchase their redemption. Note therefore diligently (well-beloved) and mark religiously, the words of the Apostle before alleged, to express the mystery of his incarnation. First he faith, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which we english, but he abased himself, and made himself of no reputation: which words teach us, that though it be most true that we have heard of him before, that voluntarily yet to show his obedience to the will of his father, and his love towards his Church, when the time appointed of his father was come, he was content, though not to cease to be that, which he had always been before which was impossible, yet so to have the glory and shining brightness wherein always thither unto he had been in with his father, for a time darkened, obscured and hid, as that in comparison thereof, he might be said and thought, even much to have abased himself, yea to have made himself of no reputation. Now to show us more particularly and specially wherein this abasing of himself, lay, and how he did it, the Apostle sayeth he did thus, even himself abase himself, by taking the form of a servant, etc. thereby understanding, the very nature of man, withal the properties and natural infirmities thereof, sin only excepted, as we are taught to understand it, Heb. 2.17. & 7.26. where the Apostle most plainly teacheth that in all things, he in his manhood was made like unto his brethren, but that he was without sin. And these three words form, shape, and similitude, used by the Apostle here himself, make it evident, that he had a purpose as substantially as might be, to express as much. Yea the word servant shows further that voluntarily also he became amongst men, to deliver men from servitude, even the common servant of men to serve under the burden of their sins, as one in whom there was neither form nor beauty, & who was rejected and despised of men, as in that respect, the prophet Isayah discribs him, 53.2.3.54. The Apostles meaning is therefore hereby to teach, that Christ being from everlasting very God with his father, though a distinct person from his father, that at he was not thus abased against his will, for that being so, he thought it no robbery to be equal to his father but that he himself most freely & willingly was content thus to strip himself, or to empty himself, of that glory & equality which he had naturally with his father, in taking unto himself, as he was & is in the second person in the trinity, the whole nature of man with all the sinless, harmless, and natural properties thereof, both in body & soul, and in uniting the same immediately in the creation thereof, yea in the very same instant and moment, with himself, as he was the son of God, personally, that so, as he was before in that he was the son of God, almighty, infinite, incomprehensible, and eternal, so he might be, as he was the son of man, weak, finite, comprehended, and mortal. The better yet once again to make you see, that the Apostles meaning in these his words, stretch thus far, besides that which I have noted already therein, observe and mark further, that he saith not the form of God, either abased itself, took the form of a servant or was made in the likelihood or similitude of men, but he the which was in the form, he made himself of no reputation, & was made so, and found also in the shape of a man, to teach us, if we will speak like the Apostle, and so accordingly believe, we must not say nor believe that nature took nature, but the person of the son took unto himself the nature of man, and so, that as he was created, so it was immediately united unto that person to have together, with that person, a personal union, and never to have first any existence or being a part, by, or in itself. For then the Apostle would have said aswell that the thing assumed, was he that was in the form of a servant, as he had said that the assumer was he that was and had a being in the form of God, which he doth not. The assumer therefore was the second person in the trinity the son of God, and neither father, nor holy Ghost, nor yet the bare essence of God but as in it this second person had his existence and being; and the assumed, was not a person of a man first being and existing a part, but the nature with all the assential and inseparable harmless properties thereof, of a true and very man both in respect of his body and soul. That by this form of a servant, he meant not any other created nature, but the nature of man, he sufficiently showeth, by adding that he was made in the similitude of man, and in shape found as a man. For Martion and other heretics here upon gathering, that he assumed not the very nature of man, but the show and phantasm of a man, they do most wilfully but cavil, and foolishly seek to darken a most manifest truth. For besides that all the story of his conception, birth, life, and death, and most plain speeches and phrases continually used of him in the scriptures, prove that he was a very true and perfect man, both in body and soul, these words give them no ground to build any such conclusion upon. For Adam is said to have begot Seth according to his own image or likeness, Gen. 5.3. and yet we might justly count them very fond, that therefore would infer, that Seth had not the very nature of a man, that Adam had, but a bare shadow or similitude thereof. The words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly englished, taking and made, well understood, made it most clear, that the second person took unto itself personally, the nature of man so that he united so verily and personally with himself, as he was the son of God, and the second person in the trinity, that nature of man that he assumed, that john might justly say, the word was made flesh, Cap. 1.14 and that we may most safely believe that he that before subsisted only in the form of God, now also subsistes in the form of a servant, and that as in respect of the one nature he is the very son of God, equal to his father; so also in respect of the other, he is the very son of his mother, and very man, and so lesser and inferior to his father. In the old testament, we read he appeared in diverse forms unto men, but yet we never can say that then he made himself of no reputation by taking such forms upon him, neither therefore was he made the things he appeared to be, because he never assumed them so to himself, that he personally united himself unto them. And hereby also we may further learn, in that the assumer, and thing assumed, are thus both described here, the one to be that, that had his being in the form of God before, and in this work remained still himself: and the other to be the form of a servant, accompanied or invested with the likeness & shape of a servant: that both these, notwithstanding this personal union, are entire and perfect in their own nature, without any abolishing of either nature, or confounding of other in themselves, or in the properties with the other in Christ. Lastly these words are plain and forcible to make us see, that notwithstanding the assumer of the form of a servant unto himself, thereby is made in the likeness of a man, and found in shape as a man, that yet he is but one person now subsisting, both in the true form of God, and in the very nature or form of man. For as of one person, after the finishing of this his incarnation, both here and else where always the gospel speaketh of him. Dream therefore we may not, that this union of the nature of man personally with the son of God is either in the commixtion of the two natures, or by the inhabitation of the one, in the other, or by the adjoining of the one unto the other, or by the assisting of one the other, neither yet by the real communication of the properties of the one with the other so, as that the one nature, may simply & properly be said, to be of the same properties, that the other is. For though water & wine be mixed in one cup, the spirit of God dwell in the servants of God, & God adjoin himself unto them & assist them most apparently every where, yet cannot wine, the spirit, or God, be said to have so taken unto themselves water, the hearts of men, or the servants of God, that therefore wine is made water, the spirit of God, or God, the hearts of men, or the servants of God themselves; as we here see him that hath been always in the form of God, said to have been made in the form of man, by his taking unto himself the form of a servant. And though most certain it be, and therefore most usual in the scriptures also (the better to note the true, real, essential, and personal union, betwixt the son of God, and the nature of man) to hear those things that properly appertain to the manhood to be affirmed of our blessed God and Saviour, and also those things that properly belong unto him only as he is God, spoken of the man Christ: yet to make it evident, that as it is heretical, to confound the one nature with the other, that so it is also, and hath been ever so accounted of all those who by the motion of God's spirit, and not of their own, have written the scriptures to communicate properly the special properties of the one unto the other, they have never so spoken or writ, but speaking of these two natures in the concrete, that is, as the words used to signify the same not the person subsisting in the essence and never speaking thereof in the abstract, as the schoolmen speak, that is, as the words used, note the naked and simple essence in itself. And therefore for this true essential, and personal union of the son of God, with the form of a servant, we say according to the truth, and to the scriptures, that Christ is God and man, but we use not to say, he is Godhead and manhood, and we say, they crucified the Lord of glory, so noting that person that was and is the Lord of glory, and understanding this of his person, not in respect of that nature whereby he was so the Lord of glory, but in respect of the other nature personally united thereunto, wherein he was passable and might be crucified. And so likewise speaking of his person in respect of the other nature, we may say, and say truly, the man Christ is almighty, every where and infinite, because he is so in that respect, that he is the son of God, but we may not say that his manhood is so. For we must understand and always remember, that whensoever any thing is affirmed of Christ, in respect of the one nature that properly belongs unto a●●ther, that the meaning thereof never is to invest the one nature, with the properties that are peculiar to the other, but that so we speak, to show the personal union of both in one person. We may see a pretty good image hereof in a man, as he consists of body and soul: for, because of the concurring but of those two natures together, to the constitution of a man as they do, though infinitely it come short of the reaching to the excellency of this mystery that we now speak of, may truly be said in diverse respects, to be a heavenly creature, and an earthly; mortal and immortal: heavenly and immortal, in respect of his soul, and earthly & mortal, in regard of his body: and diverse things that are proper to the body, are yet said of the soul, and contrary they which are special to the soul, are affirmed of the body; as for example, we say sometimes the soul of man awaketh or sleepeth, which are properly said of the body, and we say the body heareth, seethe, or understandeth, when as in deed, the body can do none of these, but by the soul: and yet as we think they destroy the nature of man, that either for the union or coupling of these two together, to make a man, or for any of these phrases, would either turn the one of these into the other, confound one of these with the other, or invest the one nature really with the properties that be special and peculiar unto the other, so hold we it most firmly in this case, that it is, plainly heretical to do the like. These things therefore thus weighed and considered, we have just cause to say and think with the Apostle, That great is the mystery of Godliness, namely even this, that God is manifested in the flesh, and yet justified in the spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory, 1. Tim. 3.16. And by these things we may so clearly see our Christ in person to be very God, and very man, and yet for all that, but one person, as that both with the Apostle Paul, we may call him, The mighty and blessed God for ever. 2. Tim. 2.13. and the man Christ jesus, 1.2.5 and yet still speak of him, as but of the one person, as he doth in both these places. And to conclude this point, hereby also even sufficiently, we may see and hear all the heretics, and their heresies confuted, that ever yet have set themselves against any point or part of the truth of this doctrine of his person. For hereby against Ebion Cerinthus, and Photinus, denying his godhead that hath been a duouched, and against Martion confessing that, and denying the truth of his manhood, that hath been likewise plainly proved: and consequently Arrius that held rightly of neither, affirming that in respect of the one, he was but a created spirit, and in regard of the other, a body only, without any other soul than his created Godhead, and Apollinaris that denied that he had the mind or reasonable soul of a man, howsoever he granted him the sensitive and growing soul, are confounded also; especially remembering further, that Christ himself, as plainly to teach them by his words that he had a very soul of a man, as by experience they saw and found he had the very body of a man, said not only, that his soul was heavy unto death, Math. 26.38. but dying, as Luke reporteth 23.46. cried with a loud voice, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And Nestorius that held the two natures in him only to be united by consociation and assistance, and that therefore he had still a Godhead and a manhood, not only distinct in their natures, but also so, that in him the son of God was one, and the son of the virgin an other, as he was condemned in the counsel of Ephesus, for one that was led by the spirit of Antichrist, for his so losing or dissolving of jesus, so hath the Apostle directly confuted him in this place to the Phillipians, and john also as I have showed, in setting down plainly, that he that was in the form of God, whom john called the word, so took unto himself the form of a servant, that he was made very man, or flesh. Eutiches also, who to overthrow Nestorius, taught that the two natures are so united, after the incarnation, that howsoever they were two before, after they are but one, cannot stand with the apparent distinction that Paul hath made betwixt the assumer, and assumed nature, both before, in, and after the assuming of the one by the other unto himself. And whereas, if this opinion of his were true, it should thereupon follow that then either the Godhead should be turned into the manhood, or the manhood into the Godhead, for that of the commixtion of both, a third thing should grow. Every one of these absurd consequentes, Paul hath refelled also, by teaching us both to remain, without either turning of the one into the other, or confounding one of them, by any commixtion or otherwise, one with an other, as we have heard. And consequently hereby both the Lutherans and Papists, who for the maintenance of their gross real presence, and mouth eating of Christ, both God and man do most eager strive and contend, to entitle the manhood of Christ, with the peculiar properties of the godhead, as to be muisible, incircumscriptible etc. are most plainly proved, to teach herein heretical and damned doctrine, for that thus confounding the properties, with Eutiches in deed, and truth, they confound the natures themselves, and therefore let them (as they may justly) take the condemnation of Eutiches, in the council of Chalcedon, to be also directly their condemnation. Under this same condemnation come the heretics, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so called, because Eutiches being condemned, they durst not say whom they followed, though with him they hold but one nature after the incarnation to remain, and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that thought the divine nature was turned into the humane, and that therefore they might say, that it suffered, and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also, which holding that there was nothing left but the divine nature, and that the other was absorbed of that, yet held that that nature was ignorant of many things, and the Aphterdoxitae, who held that the humane nature was impassable, for the coniunxion that it had with the divine, and also the Monothelites, who therefore taught, that there was but only will in the person of Christ. For all these stumbled and fell with Eutiches in urging so the union, of the two natures, that they in effect, one way or other, ere they had done, either by confounding the natures or the properties left but one in effect. Let us therefore, whatsoever heretics, either old or new, have thought, or do, or shall think to the contrary, most constantly hold this, as the very rock and foundation, whereupon if we be built and stand fast, the very gates of hell shall never prevail against us, that Christ jesus in person, is very GOD, the second person in the trinity, and also very man the son of the blessed virgin Marie, and therefore, that both these two are so personally united in him, that he is one person, and that without any conversion of the one nature into the other, or confusion either of the natures themselves, or of the several and special properties, the one with the other. For most necessary it is that in every respect he should be such an one, or else he neither can be an able, nor fit person, to be our jesus. For though the sin of man, there being grown of God's part such just cause of enmity against man, of man's, such alienation and aversion of mind from God; as there is, it was first most meet, that he that should be the attonement-maker twixt these, should first in himself have the two natures at unity and one. And then seeing the order of God's justice required, that as man had offended it, man again should appease it, by undergoing the burden of the sins of man, to satisfy fully the same for them, as it was necessary, that he that would be man's saviour, should therefore be a very man: so likewise because no nature but that which is of power infinite, and therefore none but very God, could ever have been able to have enabled the nature of man to undertake, and effectually to go through with this most great and hard work, to satisfy fully the infinite justice of God for the sins of the world, it was as needful, that he should be true and very God. Yea for these causes it was most requisite that these two, very God and the nature of man, should be so united, as that thereof should consist but only one person, as I have said, that so the passable nature might bear, as Esay speaketh, the chastisement of our peace. Esay, 53.5. and that the other which is impassable, by the power and dignity thereof, having it so personally, subsisting in and with itself, might fit it for that purpose, not only contributing unto it power and strength, sufficient therefore, but also, communicating unto the things done and suffered to that end, by that nature, though in number, and for the time of the accomplishing the same fruit, an infinite dignity and worthiness, to satisfy the infinite justice of God, for the purchassing and compassing of man's salvation. For otherwise, if that nature, by this means had not been the manhood of one that was and is very God also, it might well have entered into this work, but doubtless in wrestling under the burden of our sins, against hell, death, and devil, to satisfy the infinite justice and wrath of God for the same, it might well have been swallowed up of death, and of the sorrows of hell but it neither should nor could ever have valiantly and triumphantly overcome all these, and nailed as it were out sins, and the hand writing that was against us for the same, to his cross (as Paul speaketh Colos. 2.14.10. begot us again unto a lively hope, that is, to assure us, that he had gone through the work, that he took in hand, as now through the power thereof, by rising again, the third day from death to life, and by ascending visibly as a conqueror into heaven forty days after, and by sitting ever since at the right hand of his father, in the heavenly places) most evidently he hath. For it is the spirit that, quickeneth, and without that so united unto it as it was, His flesh could have profited nothing. Io: 6.63. Therefore verse divinely saith the apostle, that by his eternal spirit it was (thereby understanding plainly his Godhead) that he offered himself without spot to God, to purge our consciences from dead works, to serve the living God. Heb. 9.14. And hence is it, as the former saying of Christ showeth plainly enough, that he saith, my flesh, is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed: joh. 6.55. and again 53.54. except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you: but whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For how can it be otherwise, but that he being as he is God and man in one person, by the means of this most high union of his Godhead with his manhood, but that from the same Godhead, there must needs proceed and flow through his manhood, infinite power to quicken and save all those, that be partakers thereof? And how can it be possible, but that the heavenly father, must needs account this his well-beloved son, in whom he is well pleased, a fit and most sufficient means to make him also to be well pleased, with all these, that confess and acknowledge him to be in person as he is, and confidently repose their redemption, and salvation. Whatsoever therefore others have done, or yet do, let us learn by thus knowing and acknowledging Christ to be in person, to come unto him.  
Now concerning his office, the same light of the gospel will most clearly direct us what also to hold and to believe touching that, 
What Christ is in office. and first in general.  both in general, and in particular. In general, it sets him before us to be the Christ, the Messiah, the saviour of the world. And this it doth also in such sort, as that it teacheth as solely and wholly, sully and freely, to account him so to be. For most plainly we read, (as we cannot hear too oft, that saint Peter most confidently to the faces of his stoutest enemies, hath advouched, that there is no salvation in any other, for amongst men there is given no other name under heaven, whereby salvation cometh but his, Act: 4.12. And therefore in this respect he is called, The author and finisher of our faith, Heb: 12.2. and ∝ and ●. the beginning and the ending. reve. 1.8. Besides he himself, that best knew himself what he was and is, tells us plainly to this purpose, that he is the way, the truth, and the life. Io. 14.6. yea that he is so the door of the sheepfold, that whosoever he be that climmeth up and seeketh to get in by any other way, he is a thief and a murderer, Ioh: 10. vers. 1. and 7. again Mat. 22. comparing the kingdom of heaven to a marriage that a king made unto his son, and the true ministers of God to the bidders, unto that marriage, he shows that his heavenly father, to illure his guests to come thereunto, hath willed them to say unto them, all things are prepared already, vers. 4. thereby showing that in that, that this marriage is so consummate betwixt him the son of the heavenly king, and our nature, as by the personal union thereof, we have heard it is, we may be sure, that if now we will come, and feed of the heavenly cheer, that in and by this marriage is provided for us, that even therein we shall find all things necessary to feed us to eternal life so sufficiently provided for us before hand already, that we need speak no further. And this he had an eye unto when he said to the woman of Samaria, Ioh: 4.14. whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall be no more a thirst, but it shall be in him a well of water that springeth up to eternal life. It is good listining therefore to Esays' proclamation in this respect, to every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters, yea, ye that have no silver come buy and eat, I say buy wine and milk without silver and without money. 55.1. For doubtless they that hereby will learn to come unto him by faith, for the food of their souls, and so give over laying out their silver or labouring for that which will not prove bread to satisfy them (which all they do which are at never so much pains and cost by any other means to satisfy their hungry and thirsty souls) they as they are further taught there, though they be utterly unable of themselves to give any recompense unto him, for the same, yet in him they shall find both meat and drink sufficient, not only to refresh their souls, but even to delight them with fatness. When people therefore, for all this will not trust only to this all sufficient saviour of their souls, but besides him, devise unto themselves other persons and things in that respect to be trusted unto: what do they else but give GOD occasion to complain of them, as jeremy he did of the jews, and therefore to say: O ye heavens be astonished at this, be afraid, and utterly confounded saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken the fountain of living waters, to dig them pits, even broken pits, that can hold no water. Jere: 2.12.13. And yet as plain as these things be, the Church of Rome hath, doth and will still most grossly and openly commit these 2. great evils, whatsoever either God or man can say to, the contrary, as we shall see most plainly ere I have done, howsoever, let them do thus as long as they list, let us only seek and trust unto the fountain of living waters, Christ jesus our Lord and saviour.  
How be it the better and the more, 
Then more particular , that by him we have full remission of our sins.  to occasion us so to do indeed, as we ought from point to point, and in all respects let us see more particularly how this office of our saviour is set forth in the Gospel unto us. For it contenteth not itself with this summarily telling us, that he is the full and perfect saviour of the world but because he that is such an one indeed must first then purchase for us full remission of our sin, for which otherwise all God's curses and judgements both in this life and in that which is to come, must come upon us, and also he must provide for us (we never having nor ever being able to have any such of our own) a perfect righteousness answerable even to Gods most perfect rule of righteousness, whereby we may be made righteous before him, and have just and right title to the kingdom of heaven, into which being as it is the throne of the most pure God, no impure and unclean thing or person can or may enter. Yea because to the full compassing of this for us, and to the making us indeed partakers and possessors hereof, which is our saviours office to do, it is necessary that he should then be a king, to conquer our enemies and to govern and keep us, a prophet to teach and guide us by his word, and a priest to redeem us, and to make continual intercession for us, the gospel most notably doth in all these respects describe Christ unto us to be such an one, as the saviour of the world should be, and as we have need of. But first let us hear what it saith touching the two former, and after we will come to the view also of the other. Touching the first of which, that is, full remission of our sins, as it was promised at the first by God to Adam and Eue. Gen: 3.15. That he should tread down the serpent's head: and after was more plainly revealed to Daniel, that when Messiah the prince should come he should confirm the covenant, and not only cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, but also finish the wickedness of his people, seal up their sins, and reconcile their iniquity. 9.27. and 24. and therefore by Isaiah plainly foretold, that he should be so wounded for our transgressions, and broken for our iniquities that the chastisement of our peace should be upon him, and that by his stripes we should be healed: 53.5. so in the new testament we read, that an Angel from heaven told joseph most plainly, shortly after his conception, That his name should be called Jesus', because he should save his people from their sins. Mat: 1.21. And therefore ere yet he was borne old father Zacharie by the inspiration of the holy ghost prophesied that his son john should go before his face to prepare his ways, and to given knowledge unto his people of their salvation, by the remission of their sins. Luke: 1.16.77. which after john faithfully performed saying of him in the presence of a great multitude he being then there also, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. Io. 1.16. His apostles also most plainly bear witness to his point, according to their commission, Luke. 24.47. For we read. Act: 10.45. that Peter most confidently in presence of a great company, said and testified, that to him all the prophet's witness, that through his name all that believe in him should have remission of their sins. And therefore in his first epistle. Cap. 2 24. he apply so that before alleged testimony of Esay to this purpose, that he saith, in his own body upon the tree, he so bare our sins, that we being delivered there from having by his stripes ourselves healed, we should live in righteousness. And john he is as plain saying, If any man sin we have an advocate with the father jesus Christ the just, & he is the reconciliation of our sins, and not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. 1. Epist. Cap 1.12. And what can be more plain and pregnant to this end then that sweet saying of saint Paul this is a true saying & worthy of all men to be received, that jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, whereof in great humility and feeling of his sins, he acknowledgeth himself cheese. 1. Timo: 1.15. yea to show us that he took this remission of sins that he looked for through Christ to be full and perfect, not only to discharge us of all the eternal punishments due unto us, for our sins in the world to come, but also, of the whole curse of the law, within the compass whereof are all kind of temporary punishments in this life, as we may see, Deu: 27. & 28, as he saith, there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ jesus. Rom. 1.8. so Galathians the third the 13. also he writeth that he became accursed for us, to deliver us from the curse of the law. And if the forgiveness of our sins that we look for at God's hand stretch not thus far, how could they be said to be made, as white as snow or wool, Isay: 1.18. when they are forgiven: or how could it be said of God when he forgives them, that he would remember them no more, as it is 31.34. Heb. 10.17. Yea that then he casts them all into the bottom of the sea, as he promiseth he will, Math: 7.19? And yet as necessary, comfortable, and certain as you see this doctrine to be, the papists can not find in their hearts, to let us go away with it thus wholly and freely. For first they directly hold that sins fallen into after baptism, have a number of fountains of water to wash them in, and means to purge the owners thereof, besides Christ jesus and his merits. Their sacrament of penance which they hold to consist of contrition, confession and satisfaction: and the priests absolution thereupon, in this case must serve us as a second plank after shipwreck to fly unto, and to escape the danger of the tempestuous seas of God's wrath by: and if this will not serve, than Masses, satisfactory works done by man's own self and others extraine unction, and lastly the enduring of the pains of purgatory, and the mediation of Saints and Angels, all laid together, shall help them quite to be discharged from those sins, and the punishments yet by them to be suffered for them, from which they durst not for all this evidence that I have brought, look fully to be delivered by the precious blood of Christ jesus. And yet they cannot be ignorant, that as in the institution of the sacrament of his body and blood, he called the cup the new testament in his blood, which should be shed for the remission of sins. Mat. 26.28. that so when it was shed to that end, and therefore he even ready to die: that to show that by that death of his all meritorious suffering & satisfying for sin had an end, he said consummatum est, that is, it is finished, Io: 19.30. And that therefore in the epistle to the Hebrews, the absolute sufficiency of the sacrifice offered by Christ to purchase us full and perfect redemption and salvation by the remission of our sins, once for all by his own person, is so advouched as though, the holy Ghost therein of purpose directed the writer to prevent and to confute all these devices, who may not see? The stone that they would seem especially to stumble at, and whereby to fall into these conceits, is that which we read 2. Sam. 12. that notwithstanding upon David's repentance he told him, that God had forgiven him his sin and put it away, verse: 13. yet he not only denounceth a judgement against him upon occasion of that his sin, but also it after followeth and is showed, how it was in deed executed upon him. For here upon, when other shifts fail them, to countenance their antichristian eclipsing and defacing the full and free remission of sins, ye of all our sins, original and actual, before baptism and after, that any way are remissible, they imagine yet they may hold thisfast, that howsoever by and in him, we may have remission of the sins themselves, and release of the eternal punishments due therefore, that yet there may and doth remain some temporary to be abide or satisfied for, by ourselves, or other of our good friends, either here in this life, or in purgatory in the life to come. But alas who seethe not, that the ground which they have from hence is to weak and sandy, to build such a huge heap of satisfactory works and sufferings upon, as here upon to rob Christ, and to advatire and enrich themselves, they would feign build? For though this and the like dealing of GOD with his servants, prove that God may and doth for just causes known unto himself, take occasion by their sins, to chastise them and to correct them for the same though he have before forgiven them their sins, and never mean that they shall therefore be condemned, yet neither this, nor all the like examples ever can prove, that by the enduring of, or satisfying for these any way or by any body, God's meaning ever was, that they should perfect the work of the remission of their sins. For doubtless his son having undertaken the purchasing of this for us at his hands, and there lacking in him neither skill nor power nor affection, to go through with the work which he had taken in hand, without doing of him to manifest and open wrong, in robbing of him, in taking from him that which is his due, we must fully be persuaded that for our sins he hath so fully satisfied his heavenly father, that he will think we do him great injury, and much stain his justice, if by any other doing or suffering we should offer him any other price or payment again therefore. Such punishments therefore either threatened by God or afflicted upon his children after in Christ their sins are forgiven them, they are his fatherly chastisements, to teach them the better to see the vileness and grievousness of sin, and serve both them and other as God's sanctified means to warn them to take more heed of sin thereafter, and to mortify them thereunto: but in no sort must we be so foolish as with these kind of men to imagine, that they must either be endured, or otherwise bought out by our own satisfactions or of others, to make perfect or to consummate the full remission of our sins. By these devices they set their priests and prelates a fit in the consciences of men, as though they could absolve them, and discharge them from that, from which all the blood shed of Christ jesus though never so well believed in, hath not yet quit them, and so by their devise of purgatory, and their manner of relieving of souls there by their pardons, masses and dirges &c: and by doing of these, and by their absolution, extraine unction, and their taking upon them to offer Christ again to his father for them, as though his own offering of himself could not serve the turn, they have wonderfully enriched themselves. What other reasons soever they may pretend hereof, if these were not the reasons indeed that set them and held them in this way, they had long ago, or would quickly be glad with us, to preach and to believe, full remission of all sins, both in respect of the guiltiness and punishment also, by and thorough the only sufferings and satisfaction done by Christ. For what reason in the world can cause them but once to think that Christ hath borne the burden of our sins, but so in his own body upon the tree, that he should, when he had done, return the same again upon us in some fort to bear and to suffer for? Or if they would needs hold this to be thus, how can they tell how much Christ hath suffered and how much he hath left to be suffered by us, or when they have suffered all that either for quantity or quality, is meet to make the remission plenary, complete and full. But thus in the just judgement of God it is fit, that they should entangle themselves with gross and intricate absurdities, that leave the only true way to heaven, Christ jesus, and thus seek out biepathes of their own invention to bring them thither. Let us therefore (good brethren) give no care unto them, but as we have been most plainly taught out of the canonical scriptures, be fully persuaded that there is full and absolute remission of all our sins unto us if we repent thereof aright and believe in Christ jesus.  
And as plainly doubtless do the same scriptures, 
And a derfect righteousness by imputation.  and the gospel therein contained, show us that in the same Christ jesus we are by faith to seek to be made righteous, not by any righteousness of our own doing, but by a righteousness in Christ jesus. And yet I am not ignorant, that the papists are at such opposition also to this, that their learned divines of Lovan most impudently and shamefully have written, that it is as absurd to say that we can be made righteous by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, as it is for a man to be counted an ass by the imputating unto him the form of an ass; the rather therefore and the more diligently let us mark what therein we are taught of this point also; Paul doubtless so speaking of that righteousness, whereof to this end GOD is an allower and a liker, saith flatly, That it is on all, and upon all that believe in him. Rom. 3.22. For he is made unto us of God, not only our wisdom, sanctification and redemption, but also our righteousness, as the same Apostle writeth, 1. Cor. 1.30. And lest with the papists we should think, that this righteousness, is that inchoated inherent righteousness, which is found in the regenerate, taught them by the law, and wrought in them by the spirit of God, received by believing the Gospel, which indeed the scriptures call sanctification, and the fruits of the spirit in such, he saith in the first to the Romans. 17. That this righteousness of God, is revealed by the Gospel, from faith to faith: and that as he addeth, without the law. Rom. 3.21. which may well and truly be said of the righteousness that is most perfect and absolute in Christ jesus, to the knowledge whereof we come by the Gospel, and not by the law, and whereof more and more according to the increasings of our faith, we find ourselves possessed. For this righteousness of God, is by the faith of jesus Christ, unto all and upon all that believe, as he speaketh in the very next verse: but this we cannot say of the foresaid inherent righteousness in any of ourselves: for the law rightly understood, reveals unto us a perfect rule of holiness and righteousness, yea perfecter, then through the weakness of the flesh, it is possible for us to answer and keep, as long as we live here. Rom. 8.3. and therefore, because without such a righteousness as is perfect in the eyes of GOD himself, we can have no entrance into the most righteous kingdom of God, he hath, as there we are taught, sent his son in the similitude of sinful flesh, to condemn sin in the flesh, That we that walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit, in him, yet might have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us. 3. & 4. verse. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Rom. 10.4. And therefore this same Paul, Gallat. 2.16. (though I dare be bold to say he had then as much inherent righteousness of his own, as ever had any merit-munger in the world, writeth thus. We that are jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, know that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith of jesus Christ: even we I say have believed in jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. And yet more plainly to show that he made no reckoning of any inherent righteousness of his own, either before his conversion or after to justify himself by before God at all, but only to this purpose, of Christ's righteousness to be imputed unto the believer in him, most notably (to the shame and just consutation and confusion of all that will not submit themselves to this righteousness of God, but through a blind and an ignorant zeal, will still seek to establish their own righteousness, for all the fearful warning that they have of the rejection of the jews, even for this very fault, as most clearly they are taught, Rom. 10.2.3.) in this Epistle to the Philippians, Cap. 3, vers. 7.8.9. he hath set down these words: The things that were vantage unto me I counted loss, for Christ's sake, yea doubtless I think all things but loss, for the excellent knowledge sake of jesus Christ my Lord. For whom I have counted all things but loss, and do judge them to be dung, that I might win Christ, and might be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, even the righteousness which is of God through faith. Whose example herein, he there also setteth before all that minded to be perfect to follow, vers. 14.15. etc. If notwithstanding any should be sound that would not, he hath told them most confidently that whey might trust to. Gal. 5.4. saying, ye are abolished from Christ, whosoever is justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. All which proofs laid together make it most clear, that jesus Christ in office is so the saviour of the world, that he is so, so wholly and solely, fully and freely, that without sacrilegious robbing of him of that honour and glory that is due unto him alone, and that most justly, in that high office of saving men's souls, as the meritorious cause thereof, he may neither have Saint nor Angel in heaven, nor man, merit nor any thing else in earth joined or coupled with him at all.  
Let not the papists therefore once think that their new found distinction of former and latter justification or that their telling us that by the works of the law, Paul understood the works only done before grace, by the bare light of the letter of the law, or that in this article when he so oft teacheth us that we are justified by grace, he meant thereby the infused grace or habit of charity, or that their going about to hide and shadow their robbing of Christ of justifying the believer in him, thoroughly in and by his own self, in teaching their latter justification to be by man's own merits and satisfactions, not so much for the worthiness of the things done or suffered by men, as for that, they are done of men formally justified before with God by the infused grace of charity, and that they are therefore grown to that efficacy, by the blood and merits of Christ, for which believed but on, as they teach, God hath justified them, by infusing the gift of charity into their souls and minds: let them not once think or dream, I say, that any or all of these their sophistical and cunning sleights or shifts, either can or shall, once darken or blemish the plain evidence and clear light of this doctrine of justification, redemption and full salvation, freely and effectually by faith in Christ jesus. For as for the first of these, they cannot be ignorant, that whensoever the question is in hand, how and whereby man is to be justified before God, the scriptures throughout, as plainly teach us, that there is but one justification or way thereunto, as they teach us that there is but one God. Indeed they show sometimes, that there is a proceeding and growing forward ●●eerein, from virtue to virtue, from faith to faith, and so from strength to strength, in applying unto us, (according to the increasings of our knowledge more and more of our own wants, and of Christ's person and office, and according to our proceeding in the strength, virtue, & power of our faith grounded thereupon) Christ jesus & his merits: and sometimes they speak of justification in a larger or in another signification, & therefore then they may and do urge him that is justified to be yet more justified, but hereupon to build, that therefore there are two distinct kinds of justification of man before the tribunal seat of GOD, is both to build without ground and foundation and wilfully in a most serious cause, to play, and seek by dallying with ambiguity of words, to deceive the simple. Now as for their second shift, the vanity & falsehood thereof, will soon appear to any that with any indifferency will but consider Paul's words, when in handling of this point he shutteth out works of the law from having any thing to do in the office of justifying. For writing as he did always when he handled this question, not to jews, that indeed thorough ignorance both of Christ and of the true meaning and use of the law, used to seek by the works of the law, in their sense, that is, by works taught by the law and done before grace, to be justified, but to converted and believing Gentiles: to what purpose had it been to labour so often and so earnestly to drive them from seeking justification by such works of the law, whereof they could never make any such reckoning, in that before their conversion, they were not so much as once acquainted with the law. If therefore we must think, (as we are bound) that Paul wrote and spoke to the purpose, and aptly to those that he had to deal withal, out of all question we must needs be of that judgement, that he taught even the converted and believing gentiles, in what measure soever the spirit of grace enabled them to have, and to perform, never so many good works of the law, yet when they were never so full of them to trust perfectly, freely to be justified by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ jesus, and not at all by the works of the law. Alas who is so simple as to think, that the false Apostles sought to persuade the Galathians, whom Paul had left settled in seeking their justification freely by faith in Christ, to seek many so to be justified in part, or in whole, by works of the law done without or before grace? and yet if this popish gloze must stand, Paul in his Epistle written of purpose to persuade the Galathians, not to listen to these, teaching them to seek any way to be justified before God by the works of the law, therein either disputes to no purpose, and fights but with his own shadow, or else it must be granted that these were the works of the law, that they were taught by them to put some trust and confidence in, which to imagine were most gross and absurd, for there is no likelihood therein at all. His reasons that he used to shut out the works of the law, from the office of justifying, are these, for by the law, cometh the knowledge of sin. Rom. 3.20. For that our rejoicing is in this case excluded not by the law of works, but by the law of faith, verse. 27. For that if Abraham were justified by works he hath wherein to rejoice, but not with God, for that the wages is counted to him that worketh, not of favour (as he taketh it for granted it was to Abraham and must be to all the children of Abraham, in this case) but of debt, which likewise he assumeth as granted to be in this point absurd. Rom. 4.2.4. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void and the promise is of none effect. For the law causeth wrath. 14.15. therefore it is by faith, that it might come by grace, and the promise might be sure to all the seeds. 16. As mante as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them: No man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident, for the just shall live by faith: and to Abraham and his seed were the promises made: he saith not, and to thy seeds, as speaking of many but and to thy seed, as of one which is Christ. Gal. 3.10.11.16. Every and all of which arguments, make and serve strongly, not only to debar works done before grace, according to the outward letter of the law, from all office and power to justify, but also all works done after grace, effectually if man's own free will in such sort concur to the working of them as they teach. For even therein and when they are done, the law findeth such imperfection in the doer, as we may see by Paul's own confession. Rom. 7.24. that he hath cause to cry: O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death, and to acknowledge even in such a one as then he himself was (who doubtless was then in the state of grace, that the law is such a revealer of sin yet to be in him, and therefore also of wrath, that he is so far off from having any cause by his own works done after grace, to think that he deserveth to be justified or saved in any respect, that thereby he may justly with him take occasion to confess, that though the law be spiritual yet he is carnal, & so sold under sin, that in his flesh there dwelleth no good thing, for though to will is present with him, & that he allow not the evil he doth, because in his inner man he consenteth unto the law that it is holy and good, yet he doth sometimes the evil that he hateth and findeth no means, as he should, to perform that which is good, Verse. 14. etc. And by works done after grace, flowing (as they say) from our own free-will in great part, if justification should come at all, how then could we be excluded from all reioyeing in that respect in ourselves? how could our justification come freely and of savour, and not at all of debt, as Paul teacheth it must? how could it be but in some sort we should be heirs by the law, and not only by faith and the virtue of the promise, neither of which can be sure and certain, if they rested upon the condition of the works that we at any time can do, which we can never be sure that we have attained unto, either in that measure or manner (as they themselves are driven to confess) as is required of us. Yea if thereby at all, our justification could come, why then was not the promise made unto us in the plural number, in seeds, and not in seed, to warrant us, as especially to look for the benefit thereof by the merits of the seed of the woman, of Abraham, Isaac, and jacob, so partly and secondarily at least, by ourselves, and our own merits or works joined with his? But to end this point, what can be more clear to put us out of all doubt, that Paul shuts not from this office of justifying, only works of the law done before grace, but also the best works done in grace, then that he himself in the third of the Philippians (as we heard before) in this respect, doth not only in the time passed disable his own good works done according to the law before his conversion unreprovable, but also in the very present time when he wrote that Epistle, which was not long before his death, his works or righteousness which he then had, as dung, that so he might be justified by another righteousness, to be found and attained unto, by faith in Christ. In that also, 1. Cor. 4.4. First he confesseth, that he knew nothing by himself, (speaking then of himself as he was in the state of grace) and then by and by he addeth, that he was not thereby justified, he plainly showed that though he had lived so in the execution of his Apostleship, that his conscience accused him not of transgression therein any way (within the compass whereof lay most of the works that he had done in grace) yet he thought not thereby to be justified at all. Wherefore from whom soever these our adversaries have sucked or learned this gloze or interpretation of Paul's words, evidently hereby it appeareth, that it is a cursed gloze, for that it so directly corrupteth the text, and therefore upon whom soever they would father it, to put the envy and shame thereof from themselves, both of them must give us leave, rather to forsake them herein, than the plain evidence of the scriptures themselves, which I am fully persuaded though they hardly or never will be brought unto, they ha●●e so vowed themselves obstinately to resist the truth, that yet the ancient writers in whose writings sometimes they find something that soundeth too much this way, if either they were in these times, or when they lived had heard but half so much, as they have to the contrary, they would most readily and willingly have retracted and recanted the same. For so we find they were willing to do, when either by their own further reading or learning, or by the information of others, they had cause given them to see, wherein for lack of further advise, they have erred: and never did any of these by far thus interpret Paul's words to advance man's merits, and to darken and obscure the glory of Christ, as they do, yea if they could have but foreseen that ever after any would have come after them, thus to abuse their words, to drive men from seeking at all to be justified by the imputation of Christ's righteousness to the believer in him, that then they might trust to their own righteousness inherent in themselves, inhabit, as to the formal cause of their justification, and in work wrought, as to the meritorious cause of another justification, even of salvation itself: I dare be bold to say they would never by any means have been drawn, to have left one syllable behind them in their writings sounding that way. And this sufficiently may appear to any that hath but red their works, therein they are elsewhere so plain, full and pregnant, to avouch justification freely by faith in Christ, through the imputation of his merits and righteousness unto men, as in sundry places of an answer of mine in print to john de Albïne, I have at large showed, whereunto I therefore now refer the Christian Reader. And whereas by grace, whereby Paul's faith we are justified, they would bear men in hand, that there by grace is not to be understood the free savour of God towards man in Christ jesus, but that special gift of that grace, the habit of charity infused or powered into them that believe, all the reasons and places used to confute the former shift of theirs, serve also as pregnantly to overthrow this. And hereof also, as of the other, their only ground is sophistry, taking advantage by the diverse acceptions and significations of the word grace, here to teach men to understand thereby an effect of grace, whereas in deed the very fountain itself of all these effects, which is the free favour of God towards man in Christ, is meant in deed. To discern their juggling and treachery herein, let a man but in steed of grace, used by the Apostle in this argument in these few places following, place but the habit of charity, and then again weigh what a violence thereby is offered, both to his words and sense. We are justified freely by his grace, that is, by his infused habit of charity, through the redemption that is in Christ jesus: Rom. 3.24. By grace are you saved through faith, that is, by the habit of charity infused, through saith, and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast himself. Eph. 2.8.9. to the praise of the glory of his grace wherewith he made us accepted in his beloved, that is, to the praise of the glory of his infused habit of charity etc. who seethe not both the absurdness and ridiculousness of this interplation of grace? and withal perceiveth not indeed nothing else in these places can be understood by grace, but the free favour of God, had towards his elect in Christ jesus, before the foundations of the world were laid? Which grace as it was grounded before all times, only upon the person and office of the son of God our saviour, so to show us, that in the revealing of the same unto us, and communicating the same, unto his, he respects not any desert or merit of man, but only the deserts and merits of his said son, by faith through imputation, made to the believers therein, the Apostle saith, as he doth, not only that we are justified by grace, but also addeth freely, not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast himself. How it is possible if God should have studied of purpose, to cross and to prevent for ever all these popish gloss and tricks, that he should have spoken more plainly or pregnantly to avouch justification freely and only by faith in Christ jesus, and not for the worthiness or merit of any thing in ourselves first or last? And who be so simple, that hath any thing had his spirit, exercised in the word of God and knowledge of Christ jesus, as by any means to be brought to think, that Christ coming to be the meritorious and satisfactory cause of man's salvation, as he did, that yet so far off is it, that he hath gone quite thorough with this work, in, and by himself, that in very deed by the things accomplished in his own person, he hath enabled and dignified things to be found in man, and to be done and suffered him, at the least to finish up and perfect by the meritorious and satisfactory cause of man's salvation? For this were not only to leave the work of man's justification and salvation to be unperfect, for all that hath been done by him in his own person, but also most uncertain, whether ever it should be finished or no, because if the matter be thus to be divided betwixt Christ and man's own self, howsoever man might be sure that Christ hath done his part, he could never be sure that he hath or shall hit in just manner and measure of all that is left for him to do, to perfect the same. Yea if this were thus, that amongst otherendes that Christ had in his merits and sufferings, he had this, thereby so to die our doings and sufferings therewith, that they now shall be meritorious of, and satisfactory for our own salvation, (though by thus saying they would seem to attribute unto Christ's merits more than we do, in that we deny them this effect) in deed and truth in thus dealing, they with judas give him fair words, saying unto him, hail master, when in secret cunningly, they most unkindly and wickedly seek to betray him. Heretofore when they taught this doctrine of man's merits, bluntly, and flatly without this new colour of their so doing, we justly charged themselves to be the sacrilegious robbers of Christ, of that chief and special honour that appertains unto him: but now whiles they have sought, to avoid & to put from themselves the grievousness of this charge, by this their new devise, in steed of making Christ some restitution and amends for the wrong they did him, they now are flatly come to this, obstinately to continue in the doing of him the same old wrong still, but now they will no longer be the only doers thereof themselves, but he himself must be, if not the plain and full principal, yet at the least an open and notorious accessary, and helper forward of them, in this their robbing of him. But whatsoever they say or do herein, let us with the apostle believe, that he is able perfectly to save them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them, and hath an everlasting priesthood. Heb. 7.24.25. For as we have often heard before, an other of them writeth, his own self bore our fins in his body upon the tree, and so, that thereby we are both delivered from sin, and so healed thereof, that thenceforth we should live in righteousness. 1. Pet: 1.2.4. And with all our hearts let us shun and detest all these their popish demses, tending as we see all more or less, to the robbing of Christ of this special honour, to be a full and a perfect saviour in, 
That he is King Friest & Prophet  of, and by himself.  
To proceed therefore, as thus in these two points particularly, you have heard, how the gospel showeth you this to be his office, so for the rest before mentioned, if we look into it, it will teach us, that in this his office, he is our Christ, that is, our anointed and appointed king, priest, and prophet, in and for his Church King to rule, govern, and to protect it, from all the enemies and dangers there of: priest, to redeem it, and to make full and perfect atonement and reconciliation thorough his eternal intercession, betwixt God and it: and prophet to teach and instruct it, by his word from time to time. So that he hath of his Church a priestly kingdom, which he hath purchased, not with gold or silver, but with his own preticus blood, as Peter speaketh. 1. epist: 1.19. which he governeth and ordereth by the sceptre of his word, and perfecteth by the power of his spirit. Of the title and right of his kingrick, Paul Heb. 4.8. understandeth that, Psal: 45.6. and 7. as spoken of David, thorough the spirit: thy throne is for ever and ever, the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness, thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, wherefore cven God thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness, above thy fellows. And touching his priesthood to prove him to be a far more excellent priest then ever was any, of the tribe of Levi. Cap. 7.12. he saith that he was made priest with an oath, by him that said unto him, as it is written. Psal. 110.4. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent, thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchizedech. And lastly concerning his office of a prophet and teacher of his Church, Matthew showeth us, that when he was transfigured in the mount, this voice was heard from heaven uttered of him, (doubtless by his heavenly father) to establish him herein: This is my well-beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, hear him. Cap. 17.5. And to teach us that all doctors & teachers must always stoop to him, and learn that first of him, which they teach others, he saith, be not called doctors, for one is your doctor, even Christ. Math. 23.10. thereby not forbidding the title, but the abuse thereof, which is, when any dare take upon them as doctors and teachers only of truth, to urge that for truth upon the Church, or to God's people, which they cannot warrant so to be, by the undoubted voice and word of Christ. His kingdom is not of this world: for so he himself told Pilate. john. 18.36. and yet he is such a king, as that he is king of kings, and Lord of Lords, reve. 19.16. And as king he is lawgiver unto his people in whose power it is to save and destroy. jam. 4.12. As king he governeth and guideth his Church, both here and in heaven, as the head thereof, Ephe. 1.22. As king he liberally bestoweth thereupon from time to time, those rich graces and gifts, which as priest he hath obtained for it, Ephe. 4.8. And as king he defendeth and protecteth it from all the enemies thereof, Luke. 1.17 78. And of this kingdom of his there is no end, Luke. 1.33. Now as he is priest, he hath offered once for all, such a sacrifice for the redemption of his Church, that he needeth not any other priest to succeed him, either to offer any other, or that again: & thus having obtained for us eternal redemption, and ascending into the heavens, there he sits at the right hand of the father, and appearing continually in his sight, he maketh such continual intercession for us, that he is able perfectly to sane those that come unto God by him. Heb. 7.23.25. & 10. vers. 12. & 9.24. Finally as prophet and teacher of his Church: Whatsoever be hath heard of his father, coming from his bosom, he hath declared unto us, joh. 1, 18.8.26. And this hath he done most sufficiently (as we have often in our writings already in print most plentifully proved, in directing by his spirit, as he hath done, the writers of the canonical scriptures, therein to set down all necessary doctrine for our salvation. And therefore beside, or contrary to that, nothing is to be urged upon his Church, or to be received thereby, as necessary to salvation. All these things now rightly understood, and accordingly confessed and acknowledged to be true of Christ, and thus to appertain unto him, then and not before is he come unto, as here in my text is required and commanded. This doctrine of the person and office of Christ, is the very rock and foundation whereupon the Church of Christ is built, and whereupon it being built, the gates of hell shall never prevail against it, Math. 16.18. another foundation can no man lay, but even this, jesus Christ, 1. Cor. 3.11. Yea this jesus Christ, is the foundation of the Apostles and prophets (namely which they laid) and the chief corner stone, in whom all the building coupled together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, as Paul speaketh to the Ephesians, Cap. 2.20.21. Hereby than it is evident, that not only Turks, and jews, and all such as are open enemies to Christ, & to this doctrine of him, but also all those that would seem to receive him, & yet will not thus in tertain him in their hearts and judgements, as yet stand aloof from him, and dare not so much as come unto him. Amongst which latter sort we must needs muster our domestical and next adversaries the papists. For not only as I have already showed, for the maintenance of their own devices, have they been justly found guilty, & therefore condemned, of crossing the doctrine both of Christ's person and office, both generally and particularly in all the former branches thereof, but also in the three last spoken of, may they likewise be charged and adjudged, and that most justly. For there is neither his kingricke, priesthood, nor prophetship, that they can find in their hearts to leave whole and entire unto him. For to the laws and orders appointed by him as king, for the good government of his Church, they add, detract and alter at their pleasures, so that a man might easily make a huge and large book of nothing else but a bare recital of their additions thereunto, takinges therefrom, and alterations thereof, as any man by comparing the records of the scriptures, wherein his are set down, with their doctrine and practice, may easily and soon perceive. And what can they worse abide, then to allow Christ to be such a priest of the new Testament, as the gospel hath before described here to be. For than their shaven priesthood & the offering of Christ again to his father, as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of quick and dead, and for what purpose soever they for their gain list to intend it, and their invocation & mediation of Saints and Angels, should all lie in the dust, whereby they chief maintain both their credit and wealth. And their writing many treatises and large books to argue the canonical scriptures of obscurity (to discourage the simple from reading of them or caring to have them red) and of insufficiency (to establish their unwritten word of their own traditions, as the undoubted word of God,) to what end else tends it, then most openly to thrust Christ from his office of being the doctor & prophet of his Church, by opening his mouth so plentifully therein, as he hath, for the sufficient direction thereof: that they taking that office upon them, under the title of the Church's practice and tradition, may warrant all their fooleries and errors, for the which the best of them sometimes have confessed, their chief ground comes from thence. You may therefore most plainly see that howsoever in words they would seem to give him his due titles of God, and man, Christ, Messiah, jesus, Saviour of the world, King, Priest, and Prophet, by their deeds in their ordinary doctrine and practice, they pull from him the force and power of the same again. For such a God and man he must be to serve their turn, as under their host can and will lie hid so quietly, that every receiver may eat him with his mouth, how sinful and faithless soever he be: and such an one in his office for all his titles they give him, he must be content to be, as will suffer all the things & persons which they have imagined will serve to that purpose, to join with him in that high & glorious work of meriting and deserving, procuring and perfecting the work of our salvation: let him tell them never so plainly, that his name is the Lord, and that he is as his name is, and that therefore he will not give his honour, either to any other person or thing. Isa. 42.8. Doubtless if any of the things they talk of in this case, might join with him & his merits, in this great and high work of meriting or deserving for man the kingdom of heaven, good and holy works done in grace and faith, are most likely to be they that might partake with him therein. But so far off even their great champion Bellarmine found it to be, do what he could, to entitle these hereunto, that when he had striven with all the cunning and power he had to the end, and so would feign show how man to that purpose might thereupon ground his trust & confidence, he is driven to confess, when all comes to all, that the confidence that man can have, either by means of them or any way else of his salvation, is but human, moral and conjectural, and no way such as certainty of faith requireth, but as may and will have with it, still fear, lest it deceive them in the end. Yea after he hath a little wrestled with our objection against justification and coming to salvation by an inherent righteousness of our own, howsoever before he seemed to himself to run away with it, as a matter most clear, that that might be trusted to, to work and to procure these effects: he is so cooled, that he concludes the matter but thus, that he allows confidence to be put in good works indeed, so that pride therein be avoided: but yet for that, that pride is so hardly avoided in this case as it is, & we are always so uncertain as we must needs be, whether we have attained to that measure and manner of righteousness, that to this purpose is necessary, he thinketh it most safe, when we have done all the good works we have or can, that yet we put all our trust and confidence, in the only mercy and goodness of God. Which what is it else, but when he hath done his worst, against the imputation of Christ's righteousness, to make the believer in him righteous by, for the establishing of this their own inherent righteousness in the romphe thereof, even then to cast us the bucklets, and for shame to take his heels, and to run away from his cause, and to leave us both the field & the victory. But always great is the truth, and it will prevail. Wherefore howsoever they think of themselves, we may plainly enough see, that their case is pitiful and lamentable, in their striving thus, to darken & to obscure the glory of Christ, for the maintenance and setting up of themselves and their own devices in his romphe, and yet when all comes to all, to be enforced thus in effect to confess, that all the while they have but kicked against the prickts, and for that, whereunto they dare not trust in conclusion. God of his mercy make them to see their gross errors herein, and in the mean time let us run by the light of the gospel, this way be Christ, by acknowledging him, both in person and office to be such an one as I have thereby proved and manifested him to be: which when we have done, than we have made a good beginning to obey Christ's commandment here, but yet the chief is behind, for he further addeth, and drink.  
By this drinking, 
Christ must be eaten and drunken and therefore there must be had a true communion with him.  he doubtless understood drinking of himself, thereby implying eating of himself also: for as he said in the former chapter, Except ye drink his blood, so withal he saith, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, ye have no life in you, and whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, verse. 53. & 54. By which figurative & metaphorical kind of speech, he would teach us, that as it is not enough for him that is hungry and thirsty to come where meat and drink is, to see and behold them, yea perfectly to know them, and be able to say what every thing is, and to what use it serveth, but if he would have his hunger and thirst satisfied, he must thereof both eat and drink: even so is it in this case. For it is not enough to come unto Christ, though we come from point to point as I have showed, unless that done, we go further, yea so far as that we as surely and verily take him unto us, and into us, and so make him as certainly our own, as meat & drink received in and well digested, may be said to be our own. Whereby it most clearly appeareth, that as no benefit can arise to the maintenance of this present life by meat and drink, unless they be eaten upon & drunken, and as neither the sap, and juice that is in the meat, nor the power nor force of the drink can be made ours to nourish & strengthen our bodies, unless we eat & drink the meat and drink themselves, wherein they are lodged & contained: even so is it betwixt Christ & us. And therefore, Though he be the bread of life, & his flesh meat indeed, & his blood drink indeed, as we are plainly taught by him they are in the former chap. ver. 53 55. yet we can be never the nearer thereby, to the maintenance of our spiritual life before God, unless by an eating & drinking of him, fit for that purpose, we feed upon him, & cat & drink himself, & so consequently by making him wholly God & man our very own, and so growing into union & communion with him, we attain unto all those good things, that are prepared for us in him. And to put us out of all doubt hereof, Saint john in his first Epistle, Cap. 1.3. showeth us that the whole scope of his ministry and of his fellow Apostles was, that there by this communion and fellowship with Christ might be attained, saying, That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye may also have fellowship with us, and that our fellowship may be with the father, and with his son jesus Christ. Again most plain it is to this purpose, that he writeth, Cap. 5. of that Epistle, vers. 11.12. where he saith That God hath given us eternal life, he that hath the son, hath life, and he that hath not the son, hath not life. For hereby most plainly, first we are taught that the chief use that we are to make of the ministry, is, thereby to attain to have communion with Christ, and then as clearly he shows us (the better to provoke us to strive to make that use thereof indeed) that God in his mercy having provided eternal life for us, which we by the fall of Adam and our own sins had lost, in his son Christ jesus, that yet he would have the case so stand with us in respect thereof, that we can never have that, unless we have the son himself, in whom it is treasured & coffered up for us. Whereby questionless the Lord in his wisdom, even of love towards us, hath so ordered the matter, for our very best. For when Adam and Eve had life in their own hands in paradise, we have found by experience they very quickly lost it. God therefore having so costly and dearly compassed it again for us, by the death and passion of his own welbe loved son, he saw it in his wisdom neither good nor safe for us, living in this dangerous world, to trust it any more in our own hands: and therefore he that is the author and purchaser thereof for us, as he hath the best right thereunto, by his appointment, hath it still lodged for us in himself, and that so surely and inseparably, that none ever shall or can be partaker thereof, but by the communication of his very self first, and so once being sure of him, than also he may withal be assured of the other. For these two now by God's ordinance go always so together, that where Christ is had, there the party in him is sure of everlasting life, and where he is not had, there can be no assurance thereof. The blessed sacrament of the body and blood of Christ was Instituted by him, even of purpose, not only to keep still fresh in our remembrance his precious death, with all the fruits thereof, both generally and particularly, but also without all doubt, to offer to deliver and to feal the dolivery, to as many as rightly as they should receive the same, a most certain union and communion with whole and full Christ himself. And to teach us plainly so much, Paul saith 1. Cor. 10.16. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? the bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ? As certainly therefore as by bodily eating and drinking, in that sacrament, or elsewhere, the eater and drinker of bread and wine, makes himself partaker of all the force and goodness therein, by making themselves first his own, to the cheering and strengthening of this life in the body: so by such eating and drinking of the body broken, and blood shed for him of Christ (which are the things in this sacrament signified and offered unto him) as is fit to make such food his own by, as verily the worthy and right receiver in soul feedeth upon, and is nourished to eternal life, with the broken body, and bloodshed of Christ jesus. And to assure all such of this by Christ, the bread is said to be his body broken, and the wine his blood shed, for the remission of their fins: and both so termed and called by his ordinance broken and powered forth, are particularly to be given to every such communicant, and they are likewise to receive them: and therefore doubtless thereby taught, not only by that which they see and he are in the administration hereof; with thankful and penitent hearts to remember his death, (and sonowe therein, his body was broken, and his blood shed and severed from his body, and that therefore these so handled, are the heavenly and spiritual food prepared for the maintenance of their spiritual life before God,) but also by that which further is delivered, and they receive, that they are to assure themselves, every one in particular, that Christ died for them, and therefore shall nourish and feed them to eternal life, by uniting himself most certainly unto them, to that end and purpose. Further yet to teach us, that this most certain and real union with Christ is for the whole Church, and for the salvation thereof, most necessary, those other metaphors also serve; whereby be is compated to the head and husband of the Church, as of his body and wife, Ephes. 1.12. & Cap. 5.32. or to the vine stock, whereinto his heavenly father engrasteth all those branches, that ever shall being forth much fruit, that he may be glorified, Io. 15.5.6.7.8. For hereby we are taught, that as it is with these, head, husband, and stock, in respect of the body, wife, and branches, so is it betwixt Christ, and all those that shall be saved. As therefore unless the head, really grow and be united to the body, yea though there can but a hair go betwixt the one and the other, the body can have no life from the head: and as marriage being consummate, it maketh them that were strangers before, one body, one flesh, yea one self fame. Ephes. 5.28.29. and that otherwise unperfected, it hath no such effect: and lastly, as it is not enough for the branches to touch the vine stock, yea nothing to have life from thence, unless they so grow therein, that it and they be as it were one: even so is it in this case, betwixt Christ and all those that would be saved by him. And therefore to express as much, Paul saith, That such as are his they are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. Ephe. 5.30. yea, 1. Cor. 1.13. he maketh the Church and Christ but as one perfect man, whereof Christ is the head, and the Church his body: in so much as, Ephes. 1.23. he calleth the Church his fullness: to show that such love there is betwixt Christ and his Church, and that there is also such a perfect union betwixt them, that though he be he that filleth all things, and is the perfection thereof, that he accounteth himself as a head without a body, without the true union and connexion of the Church with him. And therefore, john. 17.23. he was an earnest suitor unto his father, that he might be in his, as he his father was in him, that so they might be made perfect in one, and herein he knew he was so heard, that he accounteth the affliction of any sound member of his Church as the persecution of his own self, and therefore when Saul persecuted such, he said unto him, Saul Saul why persecutest thou me. Act. 6.4. And yet better to assure them thereof, he also reckoneth his own joys to be theirs as well as their sorrows to be his that will open unto him, and be his, and therefore to encourage such so to do and be, he said unto them. reve. 3.22. that to such he would give to sit with him, upon his throne, and that he would sup with them, and that they likewise should sup with him. The cuidence of this doctrine being most strong and apparent as you he are, and the papists themselves, not seeming to doubt thereof at all, (but that theiudgements of God are unsearchable, and that they have deserved for their wilful seeking to darken the light of the gospel, will they nill they shining amongst them, to be made drunk and so quite to be carried away, in the most just judgement of God, by a strong delusion of the enchanted cup, full of formications proffered unto them & uged upon them, by the garish whore of Babylon) it is a wonder that withal they are not enforced, to see & to perceive the most of the absurdities & heresies they hold, touching the article of justification & salvation. For how can it otherwise be, but that they that are thus united to Christ & he to them must needs most certainly, & as it were sensibly understand it so to be, by the wonderful alteration that thereupon throughout both in body & soul will grow in them, by the inseparable graces of the spirit, always accompanying his union with his? And therefore in him there being also, as always there is, full and certain remission of sins prepared for all them that be so nilie his, & he never going without his perfect righteousness; & being as he is the very fountain of all God's favours & mercies towards man, how is it possible that he should be a man's own, & he know it also, but that he may and must, without any wavering or doubting thereof, fully and firmly be assured, that his sins are forgiven him, that his righteousness is his, & that therefore he may have a most special assurance and confidence of the mercy of God, to his most perfect salvation? For these graces and favours of God are never severed from the person of Christ, & therefore whereas he is once really & truly possessed, there also the possessor may be assured that with him he possesseth all those things also. And yet these men, no not their Bellarmine can abide any of these: but it shall be enough with them & him also, to believe there is remission of sins, accompanying baptism, & to be had by him, & in him in the Church, that there is such a mercy of God, that is able to save, and that the righteousness of Christ, may be as he is our head, ours in such a sort, that it may be the efficient cause of an inherent righteousness in ourselves, able to earn heaven by: but particularly, especially for us to believe that we shall without all doubt have all our sins forgiven us, that we are sure of this mercy, and have this righteousness of his imputed unto us as our own, whereby we shall and may be righteous before God, at no hand they can abide. As though he that sticketh not to give us his son God and man to be our very own, so that we are his, and he ours, would not, or could not together with him give us these things also? Yea how can he withhold them, giving us his son, seeing these and he go always together.  
But to proceed, 
This union is not carnal, but spiritual.  this union of ours and communion with Christ, though it must be certain, real, & true, in refpect of the things to be united, yet in regard of the manner of uniting them, we must not imagine it to be any gross or earthly commixtion or conjunction with him, such as is with us, the mingling or joining together of any creatures that in themselves are diverse, but that it is altogether, in respect of the manner, spiritual, and supernatural, and yet nevertheless true and certain, though it be both unsearchable and unutterable. For let a man search all the scriptures thorough, and an other communion and fellowship with Christ, whereupon salvation cometh, then that which is spiritual, he shall neither find either promised, expected, or performed. In deed it was both promised, and thereupon expected, and performed, that Godhead and manhood should be united together in one person, that so man (who by sin had lost his union, communion, and fellowship with God) might recover the same again in and by that person, and by that which he should accomplish in those two natures for him. But as the personal union of these two natures in one Christ, (as by our Catholic faith we are persuaded) is real, certain and sure, so we find it, yet by humane sense and reason, incomprehensible, and yet by the power of the eternal spirit, by the same faith, we are taught undoubtedly to believe, it was so verily effected, for our everlasting good. A communicating of the merits of this Christ, God and man, unto those that belezue in him, by imputation there is, we know: For the righteousness of God is on all, and upon all that beleene in him. Rom. 3.22. which is a righteousness that such attain unto by faith in him, not made manifest by the law (as the inherent righteousness of our own merits, if there were any such, as men know is) as both in that verse, and that which goeth before, is showed. But without the inhabitation of the spirit of God proceeding both from the Father and the Son (the work whereof faith is. john. 6.29. & Gal. 5.22.) we cannot attain hereunto. Howbeit here we talk not either of the union of the two natures in the person of one Christ, nor yet of his communicating of his merits unto us by imputation, nor of his dwelling in us by his spirit: but of his own uniting and communicating of himself both God and man unto us. For consisting of those two natures, here in my text he biddeth us to come unto him, and as I have showed, to drink of him: which if once we duly perform, than we withal even thereby, are sure of all the benefits necessary to our salvation, that by any of these we may look for. Now Paul when he spoke most plainly of this, saying, We are members of his body, of his flesh, & of his bones, Ephes. 5.30. to assure us that it is real and essential, yea and most certain in respect of the things to be united, Christ & his members: yet within two verses after he confesseth and saith, that it is a great mystery that he speaketh of, thereby also showing, that in respect of the manner of uniting of them, it is supernatural and unsearchable by humane sennse and reason: howbeit this is our comfort, that though we cannot conceive it whiles we are here; and our knowledge is unperfect; that yet Christ our saviour to our unspeakable consolation hath told us, that the day shall come when his shall know, 
By the spirit it is obtained.  That he is to the father, they in him, and he in them. Io. 14.20. In the mean time thus much it hath pleased him to reveal unto us by the word, that it is the holy Ghost the vertie spirit of God, without which this cannot be, and by the means whereof this union and communion is made betwixt Christ and us. For it is written, as uttered by Christ himself. Io. 3.5. Except a man be borne again of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And Paul most plainly saith Rom. 8.9. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, the same is none of his. And likewise Saint john. 1. Epist. cap. 4. vers. 13. writeth, that by this we know that Christ is in us, by his spirit that he hath given us. Paul also to this purpose very notably saith, by one spirit, we are all baptised into one body, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. 1. Cor. 12.13. And therefore upon very good ground hath the ancient father Irenaeus (who lived in the next age to the Apostles) in his third book and 19 chapter against the heresies of the Valentinians and others, written most sweetly and profoundly: Sicut de arido tritico massa una fierinon potest, neque unus panis; ita nec nos multi, unum fieri in Christo jesu poteramus, sine aqua, qnae de coelo est: & sicut arida terra, si non percipiat humorem non fruclificat; sic & nos lignum aridum existentes primùm, nunquam fructificaremus vitam sine superna voluntaria plwia: that is, As of dry wheat, neither one lump of dough, nor one loaf can be made; so neither we being many, could ever have been made one in Christ jesus, without water from heaven: and as the dry earth fructifieth not without moisture, so we being first but dry wood, could never have had our fruit to be eternal life without voluntary rain from above. Which in the same place he interpreteth to be the spirit of God, which God bestoweth upon his. Which Chrisosiom in his Homily at Pentecost of the holy spirit, calleth the coupling or band of the union betwixt Christ and his. Further, to prone this our union with Christ to be spiritual, & not any gross or carnal mingling or conjoining of him and us together, it very well serveth, that Christ himself in the fixed of john, hath both absolutely, and most confidently said, verily verily I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. verse. 53. And also a little after, that he is the bread of life that came down from heaven, and his flesh is meat indeed, and his blood is drink indeed, whereof whosoever eateth and drinketh, hath eternal life. Verse. 51.54.55.56. For this being thus, he might well say to all that would be saved, from the beginning of the world, to the end thereof, as we read he said to his. joh. 15.4.5.6. Abide in me, and I in you: as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me can ye doenothing. etc. For as it hath from the beginning been a most certain truth, that to the beginning of the being and life of man, and to the continuance of the same, his body and soul must be united together, so hath it always been, is, and ever will bee, to make whole man to have any acceptable being before God, or life in his sight, that he must have a true union and communion with Christ both God and man. For as there is but one God, so the Apostle hath taught us, There is but one mediator between God and man, the man Christ jesus. 1. Tim. 2.5. neither is there salvation in any other: for amongst men, there is given no other name under heaven, whereby we must be saved: as Peter most stoutly avoucheth. Act. 4.12. Whereupon it must needs follow, that either there was none saved before Christ was God and man, which was not before the world was 4000 year old & more (which once to imagine were most absurd, and notoriously injurious to all the godly patriarchs, Prophets and others that lived in the time of the old Testament) or else that it is most certain & true that Paul hath taught (as it is indeed of such) that they did all not only eat sacramental bread, & drink sacramental drink as we do: but that they did eat the same spiritual meat & drink the same spiritual drink which was Christ, that we do. 1. Cor. 10.3.4. etc. Christ therefore than having no manhood really, but only in the purpose and promise of God, it could not be, that otherwise then by the work & means of the spirit of God they fed upon him, & were united unto him God & man, which yet then was necessary for their salvation. Though therefore now he be come & gone again, in his manhood hood out of the world unto his father, in the highest heavens, which also shall contain him unto the restitution of all things, as Peter hath taught us, Act. 3.21. yet we know also that he is of that almighty power, that as his having not then yet taken man's nature, could not then stop the godly patriarchs, and Prophets from their necessary union & communion with him God & man: so much less, he having taken it now, and having finished the work of our redemption, being risen again ascended & set at the right hand of his father, can the distance of place betwixt heaven and earth, hinder or let the growth of this union betwixt him & his. For we see the distance of place betwixt man and wife, or father and child, doth not lose the knot, or impeach the union, that by marriage & nature was before betwixt them. And we see & find by experience, that though the head in situation and place be much above the feet, that yet by the means that but nature hath to unite them together there is such an union betwixt them, that from the head life is conveyed down even to the soles of the feet: likewise in the mystical body of Christ, though the members be never so far disjoined & severed in place, yet that so little hindereth the communion of Saints, that Paul hath said, we that are many, are one bread & one body, because we all are partakers of one bread, 1. Co. 10.17  
 therefore, by that which I have said it sufficiently appeareth, that it is the will & pleasure of God, that there should be a true and certain union betwixt Christ and his Church, he being as he is almighty, and therefore perfectly able to do whatsoever he will; let not the difficulty any way, or the incomprehensibleness of the bringing of it to pass, at all make us to doubt of the truth of the thing. For (alas) so short is our reach in comprehending the wonderful works of God, that though we be never so sure that we have souls every one of us united to our bodies, yet the manner how, we cannot conceive therefore it being now made clear and apparent, that Christ here by saying drink, hath taught us to make him our very own, and that this must be, though most truly, yet after a spiritual manner; to proceed, it is necessary now to learn, how thus we may eat him and drink him, and so make him our own. 
To eat and drink Christ, is to believe in him aright.   
And for this, we need not seek far: for whereas, if Christ should have continued the manner of phrase that he began with all, he both easily could, would, and should have said in the next verse, he that drinketh of me: of purpose doubtless to show us, that to drink him or of him, is nothing else indeed but rightly to believe in him he saith, he that believeth in me as saith the scripture, etc. And the very same & like course, hath he taken. Vers. 35. of the former chapter. For having said, he that cometh unto me shall not hunger by and by in stead of saying, he that drinketh of me, he addeth he that believeth in me. And to the same end it may well be noted, that in that chapter, the very same things, that are promised to the eater of his flesh, and drinker of his blood, are also promised to the believer in him: and likewise, there, the same things that are threatened against the one, are threatened against the other, as if you compare the 45. verse with the 39 and the 53. with the 64. ye shall soon perceive. Yea if one mark diligently Christ's discourse in that chapter, he shall easily find, that there, to assure us that to eat his flesh and to drink his blood is to believe in him, he hath of set purpose stood, both upon the proposition, and assumption, whereupon necessarily, by the rules of right reasoning, that must follow for the conclusion. For first, there he dwelleth upon this, that to eat the bread of life, is to believe in him, for that he is the bread of life Vers. 35. etc. and then he descendeth to this, but he that eateth the flesh of the son of man & drinketh his blood, eateth the bread of life, vers. 54. for he shall have eternal life: whereupon what can else follow but this, therefore to eat the flesh of the son of man & to drink his blood, is to believe in him? But whom these things yet camnotperswade to be of this mind, let them further remember that john having said, as many as receive Christ are made the sons of God, cap. 1.12. that immediately, lest we should not conceive aright, what it is to receive him he addeth, that is, even they that believe in him. And let them also consider that Paul praying that Christ might dwell in the hearts of the Ephesians, addeth straight, to show us how that might be, by saith. cap. 3.17. For but these two places well laid together, pregnantly prove that Christ is both got & kept, received of us & continued in us by faith. And let not any man think, either that this is new doctrine of late devised by us, or that true faith is too weak thus to reach Christ, & to make him ours. For first it is certain that Tertulian, who lived within 200. years after Christ's birth, in his book de resurrectione carnis, cap. 29. most plainly hath said: Christus est auditu devorandus, & intellecturuminandus, fide digerendus: that is, Christ is to be devoured by hearing, to be chewed by understanding, to be digested by faith. And Augustine, who flourished about the 400. year, is both most plain & plentiful in this point. For in his 25. tract upon john, he saith. Quidparas dentem & ventrens? crede & manducasti: Why preparest thou thy teeth & belly? believe & thou hast eaten. And in the next, he writeth much to that purpose; for he saith there, Ad Christum non ambulandocurrimus sed credendo, non motu carnis sed voluntate cordis, that is, we run to Christ, not by walking but by believing, not by the motion of the flesh, but by the will of the heart. Yea in plain terms there also he saith, Credere in eum, est manducare panem vinum, to believe in him is to eat the bread of life. But in my opinion most notably he writeth to this end upon occasion of the Centurions coming to Christ in his 33. book against Faustus the Manichee, cap. 8. saying. Accedant ad jesum, non carne sed cord; non corporis praesentia sed fidei potentia: Let them come to jesus, not with or in flesh, but with or in heart, not by bodily presence, but by the power of faith. Now teaching the other point also, that faith is not too weak thus to apprehend Christ, it is as plain that he hath said in his 50. tract upon john. Quomodo in coelum manum mittam, ut ibi sedentem teneam? fidem mitte & tenuisti; parents tui tenuerunt carne, tu tene cord, quoniam Christus absens etiam praesens est; nisi praesens esset, à nobis teneri non posset, etc. that is, How shall I stretch my hand into heaven, that I may hold him sitting there? Send thy faith, and thou hast hold of him; the fathers held him in the flesh, hold thou him in heart: for Christ absent is also present: for unless he were present, he could not be held of us. And how this shall be, he plainly showeth, saying, He is gone, and yet he is here, for he carried his body into heaven, but his majesty he hath not taken from the world. Chrisostome also, an other ancient father, who lived much what about Augustine's time, in his second Homily upon these words of Esay, Vidi Dominum, I have seen the Lord, showeth that though we cannot fly up to heaven in body, that yet in mind and cogitation we may. For God (saith he) hath given that such wings that nothing can let or stop it, if it will fly to heaven; & far more piercing eyes, God hath given it (saith he) than the body. And in his 24. Homily upon the first to the Corinthians, remembering there that saying of Christ, Mat. 24.28. Where the carrion is, thither will the eagle's resort, thereupon he inferreth, that the lords table is not for jays or Crows, that feed below, but for Eagles that take their meat aloft: & he saith, that by hat speech, Christhath taught them that would come unto his body to fly aloft, and not to creep upon the earth, nor yet to have any dealing therewith. It is worthy the remembering also, that the same Father noteth, touching the power and force of faith, upon Paul's telling the Galathians, That Christ was even crucified amongst them. Cap. 3.1. For he plainly showeth that the Apostle in so saying, showed them that the strength of faith was such, that it is able to see things though far off, and so by the eyes of faith in the ministry of the word and sacraments which had been amongst those Galathians, Christ's death was or might have been as clearly seen and more clearly, than it was of many that were present at it. And unto Bernard's time, who lived above 1100 years after Christ, it seemeth that this was the currant and received doctrine of the Church, touching our communion to be had and attained unto with Christ by faith. For in his 28. Homily upon the Canticles he most plainly showeth, that though Christ be ascended, that yet he both may and will be touched, Sed affectu, non manu, voto non oculo, fide non sensibus, but then (saith he) it must be by affection, and not by hand, by desire and not by eye, by faith and not by the senses. And again in his 76. sermon upon the Canticles, most notable is it that he writeth to this purpose, saying, Though Christ be set at the right hand of his Father, go to yet, follow him, seek him, and let neither his inaccessible brightness, nor his height discourage thee from seeking, or once cause thee to despair of finding him, if thou canst believe; all things are possible to the believer, the word is near to my mouth and heart: Crede & invenisti, nam credere invenisse est, that is, Believe and thou hast found him, for to believe is to have found him. This admirable power of faith doubtless is excellently advouched Heb. 11.1. whiles there it is defined to be the ground of things which are hoped for, and the evidence of things which are not seen. Wherefore let us not once doubt, but where Christ is sound and rightly believed in, there by that faith the owner thereof eateth his flesh, and drinketh his blood to his or her eternal salvation. 
Every kind of faith will not serve here: yea none but that which is according to the scriptures.   
Yet then great need and care is to be taken, that this faith of ours be sound & right. For neither can every faith, a dead faith, or an erroneous and wrong faith, stand us in any steed in this case: and therefore mark, it followeth in my text, as saith the scripture: which words, if we refer (as they may well, and some interpreters have) unto that which went before, than they serve most plainly, to teach us that it is no other faith that either can or will serve our turn in this case, but only that which is taught us, & warranted to be sound & right in the canonical scriptures. For they are the scriptures only without all question, that here are spoken of. But whether these words, as saith the scripture, here were added and used to this end, or rather as some others take them as referred to the words following, to teach us to understand the promise that followeth, most certain it is that the true Christian faith, whereby we must feed upon Christ and make him with all his merits and graces our own, hath these canonical scriptures of the old and new Testament for the ground and sufficient rule thereof. For they only are able to make a man wise to salvation thorough the faith which is in Christ jesus, and are given by inspiration of God, and are profitable to teach, to convince, to correct and to instruct in righteousness, that the man of God may be absolute being made perfect unto all good works, 2. Tim. 3.15.16.17. And therefore for the right framing and settling us in this faith, these are to be studied and searched and most diligently to be mused and meditated upon, and heard, red, and preached, by every one that hath any care of his salvation, as we may learn, Deut. 17.18.19. josua. 1.8. Psal. 1.1. Io. 5.39. Act. 17.11. 2. Tim. 3.15. in that in these places, we shall find men of all sorts taught, either by plain precept, reason, or example thus to occupy themselves herein. And this hath been the ancient and sound judgement with one consent of the Fathers, for many hundred years after Christ. And therefore, though Augustine confess with the Evangelist, that Christ said and did many things which are not written, yet (saith he) those things are chosen out to be written, which seemed to be sufficient for the salvation of them that believe, Tract. 49. upon john. and Cap. 11. And in his 19 book of the city of God. cap. 18. to this purpose he writeth, that the city of God believeth the scriptures both old and new which we call Canonical, unde fides ipsa concepta est, ex qna justus vivit, From whence that faith whereby the just liveth, is conceived: yea none of us can be or is plainer in this point than he. For in his book of christian doctrine, Lib. 2. cap. 9 he saith there, in those things, quae apart posita sunt in scriptura, that is, which plainly are set down in the scriptures, all those things are found which containeth faith, & manners of living, as namely hope, and charity. And herein he was so confident, that in his third book and sixth chapter against Petilean, most boldly and plainly he saith, if any either of Christ, or of his Church or of any other thing whatsoever that appertaineth to faith and life, I will not say we, but as Paul said, if an Angel from heaven should tell you any thing, which you have not received in the scriptures of the law and the Gospel, accursed be he. And he was not alone of this mind: for Athanasius before him in an oration of his against Idolaters, had most plainly written, that the holy scriptures inspired of God Sufficiunt ad omnem instructionem veritatis, that is, are sufficient to teach all truth. And Tertullian in his book against Hermogenes showeth that he was so resolute in this that he saith there, that he did even adore the sufficiency of the scriptures. Basilius also in his sermon of the confession of faith saith that it is a plain falling from the faith and the very sin of pride, either to refuse any thing herein written, or to bring in over and above any thing. For Christ's sheep hear his voice, & a strangers they fly. And in his Morais, definition 72. he saith, that the very hearers must be learned in the scriptures, that so they may try those things which are delivered them by their teachers; that so they may receive those things that are consonant to the scriptures, & reject those that are not: yea in the 80. definition, he concludeth whatsoever is without the scripture, because it cannot be of faith, (which must come by the hearing of that which is taught in the scriptures, as before he had proved) must needs be sin. Cyrill, Lib. ●2. in joannem. cap. 69. with Augustine saith, that though all things be not written that Christ did, yet those things were written which the writers thought sufficient both for faith and manners. Hierome also saith upon the 23. of Matthew, that which hath not authority from the scriptures, is as easily contemned, as allowed. And therefore Origine upon the third of the Romans hath very well noted, that the Apostle there gives other teachers in the Church an example that those things which they propound to the people, they should strengthen and confirm, not with their own presumptions, but with testimonies of the scripture. For as he saith, if such an Apostle thought that the authority of his sayings was not sufficient, unless he showed them to be written in the law and the Prophets, how much more ought we to think so of ours? Hilary also upon the 118. Psalm notes it as a trick of infidels and the irreligious, to say that the scriptures want perfection of doctrine. Seeing therefore it is most certain and true, that Irenaeus writeth in his third book and first chapter, that what the Apostles first preached, after by the will of God they set down in their writings to be the ground and pillar of our faith, and that in the canonical scriptures of the old and new Testament we have, as Chrisostome avoucheth upon the second to the Corinth's, Homily 13. a most perfect and exact rule to follow, set down; therefore with him and in his words immediately thereupon inferred, I pray you all that you leave that which seemeth good to this man or that, Et de his Scriptures omma inquirite, and of these Scriptures inquire all things; that so we may all conclude with Damascene in this point, in his first book and first chapter de fide orthodoxa of sound faith, all things that are delivered by the law, Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists, Cognoscimus, veneramur, nihil ultrà perquirentes, that is, we acknowledge and reverence, seeking no further. These things I have the rather thus largely noted unto you, because notwithstanding the plain evidence of this undoubted and ancient truth, our adversaries the papists are so far off from yielding unto the same, that to discourage men from making this use of the holy scriptures, (that so they may at their pleasures teach us to build such a faith, as seemeth good unto them, upon their unwritten word of God, which they hold to be the traditions of their Church, yea nothing else in effect but their Pope's pleasures,) the best learned amongst them are not ashamed to bestow great pains, to accuse the scriptures of such insufficiency and obscurity to this purpose, as that without the help of these their traditions, the doctrine of faith and good manners could neither certainly nor sufficiently be learned at a●l. Yea herein they have some of them, as to their perpetual and everlasting shame it is well known, 
Andridius Ecchius: Lindan. Hosius, Canisius Censura Colon.  gone so far in their writings, as that they have not blushed to set it down as a catholic truth, that the greatest part is left to be determined by their traditions, that the scriptures were left rather to be under the Church, then to have authority over her, that it were a pitiful thing if the Church should be tied to the Canonical scriptures in every thing to be ruled and overuled thereby, eye that it cannot norever will be well with the Church as long as the lay people are suffered to read them, or to hear them red: for they are so obscure, and their sense is so flexible and heard to be found (say they) that thence all heresies are sucked, and that their sense is as but a leaden rule or a nose of wax unless it be stiffened, streighted and kept even by the help of their traditions. Wherein most expressly they resemble the heretics that Irenaeus describes in his third book and second chapter, who for traditions thus defaced the scriptures. What greater blasphemies can be uttered against the majesty of God the author of these scriptures? For he having left them unto his Church, in his good providence by his penmen for her better direction to know his will, and then to believe and live accordingly, (as out of all doubt he hath) how may we think without doing of him the greatest wrong that may be, that he hath left it therein no perfecter a rule than they hold, to this end? For were not this in effect to say, that either he could not for lack of power, skill, and wisdom, or that else he would not for lack of love and care towards it, make it any sufficienter and certamer? For what reason else can there be that he should undertake, begin & go forward as he hath with such a rule for the direction thereof, and yet leave it when he hath done, so maimed and so unprofitable as they would make it? Now to have but either of these conceits of God, were it not most absurd and injurious unto him? For how can we spoil him either of infinite wisdom, or of infinite and most perfect love & care to wards his Church, but withal we plainly deny him to be the true God? Wherefore let us, whatsoever these men say to the contrary, learn to believe as only the canonical scriptures of God teach us; & to that end & purpose, let us now as briefly as we can, take a view what they do teach us in this respect & behalf.  
Concerning this point, 
What faith the scripture here requireth.  first it is out of doubt, whatsoever the Lord hath taught or told for truth in these canonical scriptures, we are most firmly by faith to aslent unto, to be so, and therefore hereof, howsoever to discredit us withal the papists would seem to the contrary, we neither make nor move any controversy with them. Yea we most hearty wish and pray, that as they define faith to be a firm assent to the whole revealed will of God by his word, that once it would please God to give them but this faith, to assent in deed without wavering to that which he hath taught in his written word in the canonical scriptures: for then all the controversies betwixt them & us would straight be at an end. But alas they enforce such a sense upon these scriptures & so equal their unwritten word of traditions herewith, that as long as they take this course there is no hope that ever they either can or will have this grace: wherefore to leave them a while, grounded far more upon their own unwritten traditions, then upon the canonical scriptures for the substance of their faith, the next thing that we are to understand touching faith is, that when it is spoken of, as it is here in my text, it importeth more than this general assent to all truth taught in the canonical scriptures. For that brings one no further than credere Deo, Deum, & de Deo, that is, to believe or credit God, & to believe that he is, & what he is, whereas here in my text expressly Christ saith, he that believeth in me, thereby requiring that we should not think it enough to believe him as a speaker always of truth, or to believe that he is such a one in person & office, as I have showed him to be, (for both these he hath already sufficiently called for at our hands in bidding of us come unto him) but that it is necessary for us, if we would have him to be our meat & drink indeed, to go yet further, that is, to believe in him. Which is indeed (the former lessons being well taken out) thereupon as upon a most sound foundation, to ground a most certain trust & confidence, that in, for, through, and by him, wholly and solely, freely & sully we shallbe justified here, and saved here after. To all the former degrees of faith, the reprobate and such as are destitute foe the graces of regeneration & sanctification yea the very devils may come, namely to yield that every thing is as God hath said it to be in his written word, to credit him because he is truth itself, & to believe that he is, & that he is also such a one as he therein sets forth himself to be, & this may therefore make them to tremble, as james saith, 2.19. But this is not the faith of Gods elect, that Paul speaks of, to Titus cap. 1. nor that, which he saith worketh by charity. Gal. 5.6. nor that which is said, purifieth the heart. Act. 15.9. nor that whereof it is so often and so universally said, Whosoever believeth in him, shall not perish, but have eternal life. Io. 3.15. etc. Necessary it is that Gods elect have all these degrees and branches of faith, and the believing thus far is always found in them before they can believe in jesus Christ so as that through him they can have any assurance of their salvation: but if they will have such a faith whereby in Christ jesus they shall be iustied, than they must nor stay in these generalities, but they must set Christ with all his graces necessary for either their justification or salvation before them, and by embracing and applying him particularly unto them, & all that ever he did for man's salvation, as even done particularly & most certainly forthen; in him and by him so made theirs, they are to be assured that God hath freely justified them, & undoubtedly also will save them. For though every truth taught by God in his word be the general object of faith, yet the proper object thereof, by apprehension where of it is so oft said in the scriptures to justify, is only Christ jesus, whom it is not enough for faith with her inward eyes to know and confess to be as he is in person and office as you have before heard, but as you may sufficiently perceive by Christ's setting of himself before the faithful as the meat and drink of their souls, and by his requiring, that they should hunger and thirst after him, yea eat him & drink him, & then by his plain expounding that eating & drinking of him to be believing in him, he is by faith to be taken & appropriated to every right believer in him. And to put it out of doubt, that the justifying faith or faith in Christ jesus, must have and indeed hath this effect, Paul after he had willed the Corinthians to prove & try themselves whether they were in the faith, he straight addeth, And examine yourselves, know you not your own selves that jesus Christ is in you, unless you be reprobates? 2. Co. 13.5. when faith thus apprehendeth Christ, & so possesseth her owner of him, as that he himself may know that Christ is in him, how can it be then but he that hath by faith so found and got Christ, hath also in him & by him a special assurance that his sins are forgiven him, & that undoubtedly he shall for that Christ's sake be saved? when it doth all this we deny not, but most willingly we confess that there it bringeth forth by the power of the spirit of sanctification, good works plentifully in her owner; but yet we dare not say that it justifieth either for the worthiness of itself, or for the worthiness of all the noble train of good works inseparably always in good measure accompanying it, but only for the worthiness of jesus Christ, whom it apprehendeth. But that undoubtedly faith findeth in Christ jesus full and sufficient cause and matter, for which most certainly God will both justify & save all those that thereby have put him on, as Paul speaketh, Rom. 13.14. all the places of scripture before produced to prove him to be in, and of himself, a full and most perfect Saviour, most pregnantly and forcibly screw. Seeing therefore brethren (as thereby sufficiently hath appeared) by the blood of jesus, We may be bold to enter into the holy place, by the new and living way which he hath prepared for us through the vail that is his flesh, and seeing we have an high priest which is over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in assurance of faith, & sprinkled in our hearts from an evil conscience, and washed in our bodies with pure water, let us keep the profession of our hope without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. Heb. 10.19. For faith is the ground of things hoped for, & the evidence of things which are not seen. Heb. 11.1. Let us ask them therefore in faith of our good & gracious God, and waver not, as james counseleth us, for he that wavereth is like the waters of the sea, tossed of the wind, and carried away, neither let that man think that he shall obtain any thing of the Lord: jam. 2.19. And let us confidently conclude with Saint Paul, that being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through jesus Christ, by whom also we have access through faith unto his grace, wherein we stand and rejoice under the hope of the glory of God, yea with that hope, that shall never shame or confound us. Rom. 5.1. etc. For whatsoever our adversaries say or feel to the contrary in themselves, we that can find once by faith, that we have put on Christ, that we have eaten his flesh and drunk his blood, yea that he is even in us, and therefore have first Gods promises often declared and made unto us, and then the same particularly, outwardly in the sacraments, and inwardly in our souls by his spirit thus sealed and applied unto us, dare boldly with Saint john say, that we know we are translated from death to life. 1. Epist. 3.14. and with Saint Paul, that we are persuaded that nothing shall ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ jesus. For seeing he hath not spared to bestow his own son upon us, how shall he not with him give us all things else. Rom. 8.13.39. yea we are sure it is no presumption to believe God without any wavering, thus many ways testifying his effectual mercy & love to appertain even unto us: eye we know it were wickedly to call the truth and faithfulness of God into question, once to doubt when he so many ways hath sought to put us out of all doubt. No marvel though the papists can attain unto no such joy and peace or assurance in their consciences of salvation by their faith. For first they build as much of their faith upon the sandy foundation of their own traditions, as upon the rock of the canonical scriptures: secondly the faith that they talk on, leads them no further then to a general astent to all truth revealed by God unto man in his word, whereof in particular they neither think the knowledge of all that truth necessary, nor yet the special application of the promises to any, contenting themselves with believing in general, that there is in the Church remission of sins purchased by Christ, etc. And thirdly they hold there is no such faith whereby, in, & for Christ the owner thereof can come to any such assurance of the mercy of God, of the forgiveness of his sins, and of life everlasting: yea that that is rather a presumption, & a mere fiction and invention, than any faith allowed of God, unless God give a man a special revelation, as it were telling him by name in particular, that he shall have these in deed for Christ's sake: and that therefore it is enough for to believe that their are these things in deed by Christ purchased. And therefore lastly they hold that faith may be in the reprobate, and that it is said to justify only because it is one of the first dispositions to justification, and that it justifieth not so much for apprenending Christ the justifier, as for that it obtaineth that Christ should formally justify her owner, by pouring into him the grace of charity, whereby he may after be able more to justify himself, and to merit the kingdom of heaven by good works. So that in effect they hold & teach, that it justifieth not for Christ apprehended & applied to her owner, but for charity and other good works that Christ by his grace, for the worthiness thereof, bestoweth upon him quite contrary to the scriptures; which as we have heard, shut works quite out from this office of justifying and purchasing of salvation for man. Whereas they know further that the same scriptures put a manifest difference betwixt this righteousness of the law that lies in doing, and that which we have to make us righteous by, by saith in Christ jesus. Rom. 10.5. etc. and Gal. 3.12. And yet even their great Doctor Bellarmine neither is nor will be ashamed of any of this their doctrine of faith, and in this last point, though he be enforced to grant that we are first justified freely without works in Christ jesus, and that heaven also is God's children's by adoption and inheritance: yet the formal cause of our justification must be with him the infused habit of charity, and good works after done must make us to have a second right unto the kingdom of heaven, and so to further degrees of glory there, by the way of wages and just debt. Though for all this, when he hath done his best for the maintenance of this second title and right thereunto, he dare not teach any with any special assurance & confidence that cannot deceive them, to trust thereunto. Nay these things thus being most certainly held and taught by them touching the nature of faith quite contrary to the scriptures, I can never marvel that by their faith there is bred no certainner hope or confidence in them of God's mercy, or of the forgiveness of their sins, or of any thing else that appertains to salvation, then as when they are at the best, may finally deceive them, and in the mean time with much fear and doubting of their estate trouble them: yea I rather wonder, that in the just judgement of God they are not in continual horror and terror of conscience and as it were compassed about every hour with the very torments of hell, for that they will not be brought to seek to come to the father only by him, but by whom, as he himself hath taught us, none can ever come unto him. Io. 14.6. For whiles thus they plead and stand upon a wrong title, and would also bear men in hand that a special end and use of Christ's coming was, not to procure them sufficient title and right to the kingdom of heaven, in, and by himself and things done and suffered by and in his own person, but to enable them by these means to make themselves to have a second, a better & further title thereunto, they are most worthy to lose all the comfort that they might have, if they would stand to the right and only good title, by and for jesus Christ's sake alone. And doubtless as I have showed before, if they repent not, they will one day all the pack of them, find, though too late that Paul hath pronounced sentence of them, in the like case of the Galathians Cap. 5.4. saying, Ye are abolished from Christ, whosoever are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. God of his mercy therefore, if it be his holy will, open their eyes in time, that they may repent of all these their most dangerous errors, and come with us once, to be content to believe in Christ jesus, as the Scriptures indeed teach us. In the mean time, let this that I have said, be a sufficient warning to us, as the adopted sons of God thorough faith in Christ, joh. 1.12. to look for heaven as an inheritance prepared for us by our heavenly father before the foundations of the world were made. Matt. 25.34. and now reserved for us, which are kept by the power of God thorough faith unto salvation. Pet. 1.4. & 5. that so heaven may be to us as it is said to be indeed, the free gift of God (Rom. 6.23.) through jesus Christ our Lord. And let us let thes hireling and mercenary minded men alone, that disdain to have heaven of God's free alms, and therefore will have it either by their own earning and deserving of it, or else they will go without it, which they are most like to do, because they will have it otherwise then God himself the owner thereof, hath covenanted and appointed that ever any shall come by it. I know they have their colours and sophistical devices to give yet such a gloss and fair show to this their dealing, as though for all this all were very well of their sides: but all they can gain thereby is this, that so much the more they prove their religion to be aptly and worthily termed by the Apostle, the mistress of iniquity. 2. Thess. 2.7. and that the proud and pompous whore of Babylon should have that word Mystery, set for her very brand and mark in her forehead, and that she should yet carry all her abominations and fornications, wherewith she should make the inhabitants of the world drunken, in a golden cup, the sooner to entice them to drink deeply thereof. For indeed and truth as I have showed before and elsewhere, they can stand them in no better steed either before God or before any that are wise, than Adam and eves fig leaves did them to hide their nakedness from the eyes of God. For how can they be so silly and simple, as to imagine indeed that in this great light any can & will be so foolish as hearing what they do, so plainly and plentifully set down every where in the doctrine of the gospel, that Christ went thorough effectually in his own person with the work of our redemption and salvation, as once to be drawn by their sophistical persuasions, that yet what he hath done, serveth especially but to merit that chantie first should be bestowed upon us: and then that thereunto, & to our good works proceeding therefrom, should be conveyed from his merits a dignity and power, first formally to justify us by the one, which we could not be by the application of him and his merits unto us thorough faith, and then after to earn and merit more surely for us by the other, the kingdom of heaven, than he had done? For they may prate and brag, that whiles they thus say and teach, they attribute more to the merits of Christ than we do, that both for our justification and salvation trust only thereunto; but every man for all that, under these fair words may plainly see, that in very deed they hereby most grossly would make him, as I said before, the very principal in the robbing of himself of that special honour that is his, to be a full and a perfect Saviour in and by himself. 
This faith is wrought by the spirit.  But enough his said of this point Howbeit this further touching this faith, whereby we eat and drink Christ and make him our own (well-beloved) I would have you to understand, that it is not to be attained unto by any power or strength of flesh and blood, but it is the special work and fruit of the Spirit of God. For immediately after john had told us, that they that believe in Christ at they that receive him, whereby they are made the sons of God, he saith that such are borne not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, john 1.12. & 13. And Christ hath most plainly said, john. 3.5.6. Verily verily I say unto thee, except a man be borne of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God that which is borne of the flesh is flesh, and that which is borne of the Spirit is Spirit. And yet more plainly to assure us of the truth of this point, Paul in express words hath taught us, that faith is the fruit of the Spirit, Gal. 5.22. 
Ordinarily the word preached.  But yet we must not think, though the Spirit can extraordinarily work this faith without means immediately where, when, and in whom it listeth, that yet notwithstanding, ordinarily it doth it by the ministry of the word, and that preached: For so Paul concludeth, saying, Rom. 10.17. Then faith is by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And therefore accordingly, 1. Cor. 1.17. he writeth, That seeing the world by wisdom knew not God, in the wisdom of God it please him, by the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe. And therefore also he notes, it is an especial fruit and effect of Christ's ascension. Ephes. 4.10.11. etc. that he gave and bestowed sundry ministries there mentioned, upon his Church for the repairing 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 the acknowledging of the son of God, unto a perfect man, and unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more, children, wavering and carried away with every wind of doctrine by the deceit of men, and craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive. Saint Peter also agreeable hereunto in his first Epistle, Cap. 1.22.23. etc. noteth that our souls are purified in obeying the truth, thorough the spirit, being born again not of mortal seed but of immortal, by the word of God, which after there he saith endureth for ever, and is that which is preached amongst them. Whereupon therefore in the next chapter he exhorteth them to lay aside all maliciousness, all guile, dissunulation, envy, and evil speaking, and as new borne babes to desire the sincere milk of the word, that they may grow up thereby, if it be so they had tasted how bountiful the Lord was. Verse. 1.2.3. Whereunto we had as much need to list●n as ever they had. For these are the days wherein we live, wherein that prophecy of Christ is fulfilled, Mat. 34. touching the danger that should be by false prophets and teachers, able if it were possible to seduce the very elect. Verse 24. and wherein he may behold multitudes for lack of food and faithful preachers and teachers, as sheep having no shepherd dispersed and scattered; and therefore in respect whereof he may also say, Surely the harvest is great, but the labourers are few. 
And by the administration of Sacraments.  I would to God therefore we could and would every one of us according to his counsel there, Pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust out labourers into his harvest, Matth. 9.3.6. etc. Besides the bare preaching of the word as it is well known and confessed of all, for the better both breading and nourishing of this our faith as an outward good means, for the spirit to work that effect in us by, our most gracious and loving GOD, knowing how slow to believe we would be, hath left and given unto us visible and palpable Sacraments, thereby as it were to seal and more particularly to apply unto us all the good promises of salvation in Christ jesus: as namely now, baptism and the supper of the Lord to us of the new Testament. The first whereof offereth unto us and sealeth the delivery to the right receiver thereof, of his regeneration, teaching him to look for it at the hands of God the Father, through God the Son, by the mighty working of the holy Ghost only, in that only he is baptised in water in their names. And the other is a Sacrament of his continual nourishment to eternal life, in and by the broken body, and bloodeshed of Christ jesus. And therefore as to be a man, it is necessary but once to be borne, but yet after often to be said: so is it most necessary for those that would ever grow to be perfect men in Christ jesus but once to be baptised, but often to receive the other Sacrament. And it must be remembered always that both these offer and set before us one and self same Christ: the one, that he may by his blood wash us clean from our sins, and regenerate us that we may begin to lead a new and a holy life: the other, that by his body broken and his blood shed for us, he may be both meat and drink and sufficient spiritual food and nourishment unto our hungry and thirsty souls but then withal we may understand, that the same Christ to the same ends is offered still unto us when his Gospel is preached unto us: only this is the difference, as I said before, that the word offers and sets him before us in general, and these in particular and special manner lead us unto him. And whereas the word to breed or nourish faith in us, stricketh only the sense of our hearing; these duly ministered do not only the better to provoke and strengthen the same, move and strike that, but also our sight, smelling, taste and feeling. And therefore as it was noted by Paul. He●●●. 2. that the cause why the word which the jews heard in the wilderness profited them not, because it was not mixed with faith in those that heard it: so is it most certain that these shall not profit us, though outwardly we be partakers thereof neu●r so much, if we have not faith to pierce further than to the outward elements: and if it be a fault so to harden our hearts, when the word is but preached, that we take not occasion thereby to believe, it must needs be a far greater fault, if these added thereunto we be still unfaithful. And therefore, as in respect of hearing of the word the Apostle said, Heb. 3.5. So long as it is said, to day harden not your hearts, as in the provocation: for some when they heard, provoked him to anger, so say I unto you, in respect of both much more. To this end never forget the examples of Simon Magus and of judas, whereof though the one was baptised, as we read he was, Act. 8.18. and the other was with Christ at the institution of the other Sacrament as it appeareth, Luke. 22.21. yet as it appears in both those chapters, for that they neither of them had any sound or true faith, they were never the better, but the worse, for that to their other sins they added in the receiving of these, the profaning, as much as lay in them of both thes. If when the word is preached, therewith the Spirit of God so to work in your hearts, that the eyes of your souls be opened aright to see and know Christ, and your hearts framed accordingly to believe in him, undoubtedly even then according to Christ's commandment here in my text you come unto him and drink him, yea you eat his flesh and drink his blood to eternal life. Wherefore (dear brethren) when you come but to hear, I say unto every one of you with the wise man, Ecclesiastes 4.17. Take heed to thy foot when thou interest into the house of God, that so thou mayst follow his counsel in that which followeth, that is, to be more near to hear, than to offer the sacrifice of fools. And according to the advise of jeremy, (by the strong plough of repentance & faith) break up the fallow ground of your hearts when you come to hear, that we sow not the good seed of the word amongst thorns. Cap. 4.4. For as you may most plainly learn by the parable, Mat. 13.4. etc. though the Lord send never so good seedsmen amongst you, & they sow the good seed never so faithfully, yet if your hearts be either like the high way, or like thorny or stony ground, you shall never bring forth any good harvest to the Lord. For only the good & honest heart furnished with patience shall do that, as there we are taught: and therefore labour to bring such hearts. But alas when all comes to all, most true it is that Christ saith, none can come unto him, but whom the father draweth, Io. 6.44. Paul may plant, and Apollo water, and yet all to no purpose, unless God give the increase, 1. Cor. 3.3. And yet I say for all this, despise not prophesying, if you would take out the former lesson quench not the spirit. 1. Thes. 5.19.20. For by the outward ministry of men, the Lord inwardly by his spirit worketh in you a knowledge and love of Christ, and so draweth you unto him. And that hath Christ himself taught immediately saying, joh. 6.45. It is written in the Prophets, they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the father cometh unto me. Whereupon very well Augustine in his 26. tract upon john noteth saying, videte quomodo trahit pater, docendo delectat, non necessitatem imponendo: that is, behold how the father draweth, by teaching he delighteth, not by imposing necessity or enforcing. And to the same purpose upon the foresaid words he most sweetly observeth that it being found true in these earthly delights, that every one is drawn or carried with his delight, that much rather Christ by teaching being manifested unto us, by his Father will draw us unto him. Yet most certain it is, that only God it is that first openeth and enlighteneth our minds to see Christ, by his ministry set before us; and who then creates in us a new, a will to delight in him and to embrace him, which the same Father acknowledgeth also saying; that we will well, he worketh of himself without us, and when we so will that we do, he worketh together with us: De gratia & libero arbitrto, Cap. 17.  
And yet though all this be most true, 
Of Sacraments in general.  are not the sacraments and the use and meditation thereof needless and superfluous unto us to this purpose. For as the word written in the canonical Scriptures is as the written will of our heavenly Father, which we publish unto you when we read them, and by preaching open them unto you: so the Sacraments are as the great and authentic seals of the Lord annexed thereunto, for the more and better assuring us of the certainty of those heavenly legaces that therein are bequeathed us. Indeed God for his part is so steadfast, constant and true in all his sayings, that though only by bare speech he should reveal his will unto us, it were our duties most steadfastly to beleeveit. But he that made us, knoweth what is in us, and by experience we find how necessary so ever it be for us to believe the word of God, that yet though we have it (as in the goodness of God towards us we have) both written, and thus sealed and confirmed by his Sacraments, that all this is little enough to make us believe it as we should. Wherefore seeing it hath pleased God to stoop so low unto us, & thus to apply himself to our capacity, let us in the name of God praise him therefore, and most thankfully take use of all the means that he hath left us to get unto his son by. And therefore give me leave here to enlarge myself a little unto you, that there be nothing wanting in me to show you, or to help you forward, by the help of these Sacraments, that I speak of, through the working of God's spirit in your hearts withal, more and more to come unto Christ, and to be united unto him to your everlasting salvation. And the rather because I know as the right understanding of the nature thereof may by God's blessing mightily help you or ward therein; so either the ignorance thereof, or an erroneous conceit of them may very much hinder you in the same. Sacraments I call them, according to the ancient use, and phrase of the Church: which name I take was at the first borrowed from an ancient fashion of making a solemn vow and covenant betwixt the Emperor and his soldiers, whereby he was bound to them to go in and out before them as an Emperor, & they bound themselves unto him again to be faithful and obedient soldiers. And therefore because in these sacred rites it was observed, that likewise there passeth a solemn covenant betwixt God and the worthy receivers thereof, it was thought that not unfitly they might be called Sacraments. And in very deed, whether we consider Baptism or that other of the body and blood of Christ, we shall easily find that thereby this is done. For in Baptism, the minister in the name of GOD offereth by baptizing in water, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost, unto the party baptised not only a figure & representation of the washing away of his sins and of his regeneration in the blood of Christ, but also a visible and sensible seal thereof, whereby God bindeth himself to do all this for the party, if the let and stop thereof be not in himself: and he likewise by receiving this Sacrament maketh open profession, that he will live and believe accordingly. And in the other when bread and wine, called as they be, are delivered unto the communicant, in like manner than God offereth to feed that party to eternal life, with the body broken and blood shed of his son: and he, by taking of them, makes open confession that he so believeth and therefore will so show it in his life thereafter: and of this mutual covenant the sacrament delivered and received is a most certain pledge and seal betwixt them. It stands therefore every one in hand, that receive these Sacraments to have a great care, not only to believe that GOD for his part will perform that which thereby he bindeth himself unto: but also for their parts to fulfil that, whereunto they tie themselves: otherwise sure they are no better than dissemblers before men, and hypocrites before God. If the Etymology of this word Sacrament, be but considered, it might teach us in an●e case to deal with these always, Sacra mente, that is, with a sacred and a holy mind. The word is taken and usëd so generally often, that every outward thing by God's ordinance signifying a further grace or benefit, hath been called a Sacrament. And therefore john Chapp●●s in his Commentary upon Raymunds' sum of the Sacraments tract. 1. thought he had found in Hugo de sancto victore in his sixth book of Sacraments, a very perfect definition of a Sacrament, when he found that he defined it to be, Naturale elementum extrinsecùs oculis suppositum, ex institutione figurans, ex similitudine repraesentans, & ex sanctificatione aliquam gratiam invisibilem conferens: that is, A natural element set outwardly before the eyes, by institution figuring, by similitude representing, and by sanctification conferring some invisible grace. And in very deed, it somewhat well restraineth the overlarge use of the word: and there is nothing therein but it is true of Sacraments properly taken as I take them now. But to make it fully to express the nature of a sacrament thus taken, and no more, I would thereunto add, (and I am sure it ought to be so) that the institutor must be God himself; that sometime the outward partis not only one element to be seen with the eyes, but more than one: and that it is not enough that by sanctification it confer any visible grace whatsoever, but that that grace be even Christ himself with such graces as in him re provided for our salvation. And therefore I define a Sacrament, as now I speak thereof, to be A visible sign or signs, ordained by Christ, to be ministered in his Church to them that be his, not only to figure & represent himself and what he hath done for their salvation; but also whereby to offer himself with grace necessary to salvation, and to deliver himself with the same, and to seal the communication and delivery thereof, to every worthy receiver of the outward element or elements, according to his institution. And such we find no more now in the new Testament, but Baptism and the lords Supper. The other five urged as Sacrament by the Romanists of our days, howsoever in some general & improper sense they maybe so called, in this they cannot. For some one or other necessary thing mentioned in this definition is wanting in every one of them. And yet there is nothing in this definition that can be omitted, if we mind so to define or describe a Sacrament as that indeed truly, and fully, we mean to express the nature thereof as it is common but to these two, Baptism and the Supper. To the constitution therefore of a Sacrament by this we may see that it is first necessary, that Chrst be the author and institutor thereof. Secondly, that there have a commandment passed from him to administer it in his Church. thirdly, that it consist of such outward visible element or elements, as he hath chosen and appointed for that purpose. And four, that according to his ordinance they be taken as means to put him on by, and to make him ours, with all such graces as in him are provided for our salvation. So that asto the making of a perfect man there must concur body and soul in one; and to the being of our Christ to be a fit person to be our Messiah and Saviour, Godhead & manhood: so to the full being of a Sacrament according to Christ's ordinance, an outward element or elements, and Christ himself and his grace fit and needful for our salvation are necessary. And therefore as neither body & soul in man, nor Godhead & manhood in Christ without falling into a gross error there about, can or may be said or thought to be either confounded with the other, or annihilated or absorpted sorpted of the other: so neither may we say or think of these two parts in a Sacrament. When therefore we come to receive any Sacrament; as outwardly we receive the outward element, so inwardly we must seek to receive also the heavenly thing thereby offered unto us: or else by our default we severe those things which we should coupple, and as much as lieth in us, overthrow the nature and use of the Sacrament.  
Now to descend from the consideration of a Sacrament thus in general, 
Of Baptism.  to these two particular Sacraments: In Baptism which is the first, we have Christ's ordinance for it, and commandment also for the ministering of it. Math. 28.19. where Christ said unto his disciples; Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost. And thereby also the word baptize signifying, as it doth, to dip in water or therewith to sprinkle, we may see the outward element to be water. Which is also confirmed by all the practice of the Churches in the Apostles times: as appears both in the story of their Acts written by Saint Luke, and elsewhere. And that the thing thereby signified, offered, & delivered is Christ himself, and so in him remission of sins, regeneration and dying to sin, and living again unto righteouspesse, it sufficiently appeareth in these places of the Scriptures. Know ye not that all we which have been baptized into Christ, have been baptized into his death? we are then buried with him by Baptism into his death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. Rom. 6.3.4. All ye that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Gal. 3.27. Be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus Christ for the remission of sins, Act. 2.38. Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify it and cleanse it, by the washing of water through the word etc. Ephe. 5.25.26. According to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of the new birth, and renewing of the holy Ghost, Tit. 3.5. Baptism that now is, saveth us by the resurrection of jesus Christ. 1. Pet. 3.21. They therefore that are desirous not only to be accounted baptized with the outward Baptism of water, must as you see according to Paul's counsel, Rom. 13.14. put on the Lord jesus Christ himself, and take no thought for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it. For if they be partakers of the other part thereof, in the blood of Christ, they are washed and cleansed: and so must, and are bound to live as men dead to sin and alive to righteousness. Baptism therefore Is a Sacrament of the new Testament, wherein by being dipped in, or sprinkled upon with water, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost, we are assured that God the Father can and will in the blood, and by the blood of his Son, by the mighty working of the holy Ghost, wash away our sins, and so receive us and incorporate us into his Church, that we shall be his new born children and enabled to be holy, because he is holy. We administer it to infants because it succeed Circumcision: which was by God's ordinance appointed to be ministered to the infants of the jews, when they were but eight days old, Goe 17.12. because Christ said, Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Mat. 19.13. because we read that the Apostles baptized whole households, as Act. 16.33. amongst which sometimes it is most likely there were some infants: and lastly, because we find that God promised not only to be the God of Abraham, but also of his feed after him. Gen. 17.7. and that Saint Paul most plainly teacheth, that if one of the parents be believing, then is the seed holy. 1. Cor. 7.14. And therefore it being administered to such, and in water, and in that manner that it is by Christ's ordinance, the nature of water being as we know it to be; we may and aught to learn all these lessons, that we are all borne and conceived in sin, and therewith so defiled that we stand need of washing: that this washing and cleanseing is to be had at God the Father's hands, through jesus Christ, by the working of the holy Ghost, and no where else: that God both can and will thus wash and cleanse us, and that therefore this Trinity in unity is only to be believed in and trusted unto for the matter of our salvation, and to be honoured in all thankfulness for the same, by our ceasing from sin and doing of that which is good. Whereupon we see, that they that would lead us after we have once been thus baptized, to put our faith and confidence for any part of our forgiveness of sins or salvation either in any other person or thing as the common fashion is amongst papists, doubtless they would have us to revolt from that faith wherein we were baptized, and whereunto thereby we have most solemnly bound ourselves. Hereby also we may perceive that though Baptism itself be but once to be ministered for the reason before showed: yet as oft as ever either we find our sins ready to shake our faith, or otherwise to trouble us, by meditation thereof we are thus to have our recourse again unto it, to the strengthening both of our faith, and to the weakening of the power of sin, (howsoever the papists would persuade us, that it serveth only to assure us of remission of sins before;) because we may be sure that God is always ready, if we can believe in him, to perform unto us whatsoever he hath offered unto us therein. Which doubtless is the remission of all our sins before or after, we believing and repenting thereof. Or else if only thereby were offered forgiveness of sins before it; then surely the Church would have deferred it to the last, or later than either it hath or yet doth.  
And as for the other Sacrament, 
Of the other Sacrament.  if we do with any diligence but consider that which we find set down thereof. Mat. 26.26. etc. Mar. 14.22. etc. Luk. 22.19. etc. 1. Cor. 11.23. etc. we shall there find, whatsoever appertaineth either generally to a Sacrament, or particularly unto it most plainly and effectually expressed. For there it is evident that Christ instituted it, and commanded his ministers to administer it until his coming again: that he ordained very bread and wine to be the outward visible elements: and his body broken for his, and his blood shed for the remission of their sins, to be the things by the other figured, signified and represented; yea, thereby both offered and truly delivered and communicated to the right and worthy receiver: And therefore to assure them of as much, he called the bread broken & distributed, his body broken: & the wine powered forth & given them in the cup, his blood of the new Testament, shed for many to the remission of their sins. We therefore by warrant from hence do define this: To be a Sacrament of the new Testament, instituted by Christ, and to administered by his ordinance, and to be received according to the same of his faithful people, consisting not only of bread broken & wine powered out into the cup, to be distributed & received of all worthy comers thereunto in remembrance of his death and passion; and as undoubted tokens by his institution (though not of their own nature) both that his body was broken, and his blood shed for all his in general, and also particularly for the full redemption and salvation of every right receiver hereof: but also of the very broken body and bloodshed of Christ, for our salvation therewith all as certainly offered to be fed on to eternal life, and fed on indeed by every worthy communicant (though by spiritual means) as the other are offered unto them, taken and fed on by the instruments of the body. Whereupon most earnestly we exhort every one that would worthily come unto this table, and so be partakers indeed to their comfort of this Sacrament, with Saint Paul in any case to try and examine themselves first, and to judge themselves, least for want of so doing they be here judged of the Lord by eating of this bread and drinking of this cup unworthily to have made themselves guilty of his body and blood, and so to eat and drink their own damnation. For though we hold bread and wine herein still to retain their former substance and essence; because even by the express words of the institution in the places before quoated so much is evident, and the common nature of a Sacrament requireth the continuance of the outward element in his former nature that so it may carry the better and apterresemblance of the thing whose name it beareth: yet we know and most willingly confess with all antiquity, that thereof here by virtue of Christ's institution, (which doth and shall remain in force still to the world's end always to effect the same in bread and wine according to his ordinance set aside and used to this purpose) there is a very great change and alteration. But that is but in name, use, and estimation. For whereas before they were but called bread and wine, and served but to the common use of the nourishing and cheering of the body, and therefore so only were to be esteemed: herein they bear the names of the very body and blood of Christ, and they serve as the Lords good means to lead and strengthen our faith to feed thereupon indeed to our salvation: 
The use thereof.  and therefore we esteem of them herein, not as they are of their own nature, but as they are by his institution, sacred signs, simbols, representations, similitudes, pledges, and seals of those things whose names they bear. And therefore we call upon you most earnestly, whensoever you receive, in the fear of God reverently so to take them: and so by marking what is said of them and done with them, to take occasion, first to call effectually to your remembrance how Christ's body was broken with sorrows and torments, and his precious blood shed and severed in his passion from his body to satisfy the justice of God his heavenly father for man's sins, yea even for every one of your sins; and therefore withal hearty to sorrow for your sins that put him to all these pains, and yet unsainedlie also with thankful hearts to rejoice, that he would take such pains for them that were so unworthy thereof. Which you are notably occasioned to do, when in the administration of this Sacrament you first see the bread broken and the wine powered forth, and both particularly offered unto every one of you, severed and apart the one after the other, yet bearing the names of his body broken, and blood shed for you. Secondly, knowing the natures of bread and wine as you do, and to what use they serve touching this life; they bearing here the names of the body broken, and blood shed of Christ as they do, we assure you that thereby most justly we are occasioned to believe, that in the body broken and blood shed of Christ, both the bread and drink, that is, all the food that is necessary for the maintenance of our spiritual life for ever before God, lieth; and that therefore there it is only to be sought. And in that these further thus called and used, are given unto every one of you that come unto the lords board, and you take them, thereby the Lord by us his ministers particularly offers his body broken and his blood shed unto every one of you, to feed and nourish you to everlasting life: and you by taking of them in outward show, answer both him and us, that you do most firmly and steadfastly every one of you particularly believe, that he will do so indeed. Wherefore in any case when you stretch forth your hands and open your mouths to take bread and wine, thus called, at our hands; take Christ's so calling of them to be a most follemne promise to his, to assure you that if indeed then you believe that his body was once broken for you, and his blood shed for the remission of your sins, as the story of his passion and this Sacrament, which is a visible commemoration thereof; show, that then undoubtedly without all question, you do not, nor cannot more ceratinly by those instruments of your bodies, take the bread and wine & feed thereof then by this faith of yours, the very mouth of your soul in this case, you feed upon his broken body and blood shed: But then I say once again, fail not but when your hands and mouths are occupied about the taking & feeding upon the outward elements, let this faith of yours, which is in steed of both to your soul, be fervently occupied in believing that by the broken body & bloodshed of Christ jesus your salvation was & is fully purchased. These three uses thus made & taken in the receipt of this Sacrament; in that you find by experience, & know it to be most certain, that by the force & ordinary work of nature, bread and wine received in, & digested are converted to fit food for our nature, & so there grows an union betwixt our nature and them: so this Sacrament thus received is and aught to be unto us, as a sealed covenant of Christ jesus by the mighty working of his Spirit, to assure us that he will find the means most certainly to unite himself unto us, to nourish and to feed us so with himself, that in him we shall grow to be perfect men in his house. And lastly, as this Sacrament serves first to these ends, & so notably to strengthen our faith in jesus Christ crucified: so serves it also as a most notable mean, outwardly both before God and men, to make confession of the same our faith by; to distinguish us as by our recognizance from others that are not of that faith; to provoke us continually to offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving for this most sweet sacrifice of his son herein brought fresh still to our remembrance, and so believed in and upon; and to be a bond of love and unity amongst all the receivers thereof. For as Paul saith, We that are many are one bread and one body, because we are all partakers of one bread. 1. Cor. 10.17. So that by the receipt hereof as first, our union and communion with Christ is sealed unto us; so also is it the seal and bond of the communion that the Saints of God have amongst themselves. Wherefore as it straightly bindeth us having received it, unless we would have it appear that we received it unworthily, afterwards to live as they that live in, and by Christ: so it bindeth us also all that receive, as members knit together in one body under one head to live together in perfect peace and unity. Worthily therefore, all these things considered, may we say of it as Augustine did in his time: O Sacramentum pietatis! o signum unitatis! o vinculum charitatis! that is, O Sacrament of piety! O sign of unity! O bond of charity! tract. 26. upon john. 
Who should come unto it, & how.  And if these things were well remembered as they ought, neither should ministers, as they do in most places without any due preparation of their people before, admit them tag and rag one and other to this sacred table: neither would the people so rudely, ignorantly, and profanely press thereunto for a fashion only as to too commonly they do. For if at any time that commandment of Christ bind us ministers, as doubtless it doth or else Christ would never have given it us, Give ye not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine. Math. 7.6. it most directly bindeth us here, to do what lieth in us to know that they be neither dogs nor swine to whom we offer this blessed sacrament, before we so do. For herein we see Christ jesus that is the true bread of life, whose flesh is meat indeed and whose blood is drink indeed; as he himself hath assured us john. 6.35.51.55. is offered to the right comers thereunto, & therefore here that saying of Christ is most true, it is not good to take the children's bread, and to cast it to whelps, Math, 15.16. In the old Testament the Lord hath set down an express Law, that none that were uncircumcised should be admitted to the eating of the Pasover, Exod. 12.48. Yea, Numb. 9.6. etc. we read that God by his express Oracle showed Moses, that they that were but ceremonially unclean were worthily kept back; and that all such always after, should a month after the rest eat the Passcover, and not before, that in the mean time they might purify themselves. Likewise, Leuit. 7.20. the Lord saith, If any do eat of the flesh of the Peace offerings that appertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, the same person shallbe cut off from his people. And therefore the godly priest jehoiada had such a care that these laws should be observed, that to his commendation for ever it is recorded of him, 2. Chro. 23.19. that he set Porters by the gates of the house of the Lord, that none that was unclean in any thing should enter in. And when this is not done the Lord complaineth saying, Who is there among you that would shut the doors? etc. Mal. 10. Seeing then here by it is evident that in the old Testament God was thus careful to have none unfit admitted to the Sacraments thereof, we may be well assured that he hath as great care for the Sacraments of the new. Our warrant to admit children to the other, is, that they be borne and descended of such parents as profess faith in Christ; and therefore to whom and their seed God hath made Covenant to be their God: and the other reasons before alleged to that purpose encourage us withal to the same: but in that Saint Paul, as we heard already, would have every one before he eat of this bread, and drink of this cup in this Sacrament, to try, examine, and judge himself, we may plainly learn that none but such as have discretion and knowledge so to do, and so do indeed, are fit to be admitted to this. Most christianly therefore it is provided that none should presume here in England, to present himself to the lords table, before notice thereof given to his minister, that he may try whether he can answer his Catethisme; or otherwise if he know him to be out of charity, or guilty of any notorious crime, he may put him off, until he can answer it, and until he have satisfied the congregation by the testifying of his repentance, and be reconciled unto the party whom he hath wronged. And not without great and urgent cause is Christostome so earnest as we may read he was in his 83. Homily upon Matthew, to persuade the ministers of his time in no case willingly to admit any wicked person to this table, willing them that if they durst not or could not keep back such, to tell him: for he would die rather than he would admit either Consul, Duke, or King for any fear, that he knew to be unfit. I would to God therefore that generally all we of the ministery would take better care of this, than hitherto too many of us have done. Otherwise doubtless we shall not only before the Lord be guilty of the monstrous sin of profaning his holy mysteries, in prostituting of them to profane and filthy persons: but also both to the peril of our own souls and our peoples, we shall willingly (or carelessly and negligently at the least) let them run apparently to eat and drink their own damnation, whose salvation we are bound to tender and to further what we may as our own. And therefore that complaint of the Lords used in the like case. Mal. 1.6.7. will he take up and urge against us, saying unto all such careless and negligent ministers, O Priests that despise my name; and ye say, wherein? ye offer unclean bread upon mine altar; and ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say the table of the Lord is not to be regarded. Which after he proves indeed and effect they did, whatsoever their words were, in that contrary to the law they offered the blind, lame, and sick for sacrifice. For into this very fault we run when we admit, as too commonly we do, unto the receiving of this Sacrament any whom we before know not to be fit both for knowledge and life to receive the same worthily. Howsoever (well-beloved) let the nature and use of this Sacrament persuade you that be the people, in no case to offer yourselves unto this Sacrament, before you find in yourselves an hearty hunger and thirst after Christ jesus therein offered unto you, as you have heard: and so true repentance for your sins past; and then a lively faith grounded upon God's promises in him: and lastly both these testified unto your own souls and consciences by the true fruits of both, dying every day more and more to sin, and living to righteousness, to be without all hypocrisy and dissimulation. For of these quarters and parts must the wedding garment be made, which he must bring with him and have upon his back that, when the master of this feast comes in to view his guests, would be approved of him. Otherwise let him come never so readily with the other guests herewith appareled indeed, and then handle the matter never so cunningly to cause all them to take him to be as worthy a guest as any of themselves; yet when this survey your comes that searches the hearts and reins, he shall quickly be confounded and not able to answer one word for his defence in coming so irreverently, & so shall hear that fearful sentence, which, will he nill he, he must undergo, pronounced on him; Take him, and bind him hand and foot, and let him have his place in utter darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Math. 22.12.13. O therefore (dear brethren) before we come hither, let us devoutly religiously and reverently consider who we are, who it is that hath called us, whither we are called, before whom we shall appear, and to what end; that if not these single, yet these jointly and together may move us to come in that worthy sort that is meet. If we had but to entertain our Landlord, a man of worship, or noble man, we would have a care to put on our best apparel, to deck cur houses in the best manner, and in any case to provide that no fluttish corner be found therein where he should come to offend him, or when we are in his presence that any irreverent or unseemly word or deed should pass from us: how much more ought we to have this care here, where by our coming we make a show; that we mean to entertain and receive in, Christ jesus himself our Lord and Saviour for ever to dwell in us, that all things within us then be prepared accordingly? Saint Paul hath told us, and we may trust him, that we may not take the members of Christ, and make them the members of of an harlot's 1. Cor. 6.15. that we cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of Devils, be partakers of the table of the Lord and the table of De●i●, 1. Cor. 10.20. and that as righteousness hath no fellowship with unrighteousness or light with darkness: so Christ hath no concord with Beliall, or the unbeliever, part with the believer, 2. Cor. 6.14.15. And we find by lamentable experience in judas, that he bringing unto this table, though never so much show of piety, knowledge, honesty, and goodness; yet for that he came as an hollow hearted hypocrite, in a purpose to go on with the treason that for wages he had undertaken, the Devil immediately upon his being there entered into him, and so he never ceased until he had accomplished his wicked purpose, and after by desperate murdering of himself had showed himself to be the child of perdition, as we may read most plainly in the story of the Gospel, john. 13.27. etc. How therefore with any reason may we think that we can come unto the lords table, there by receiving of this Sacrament to grow in union and communion with Christ, and yet be in such palpable ignorance and darkness, and in such love with error and iniquity as very many that come thither both by their lives before & after show themselves to be? If the son and heir of our Prince at any time, though but in his swathing clothes should be offered unto us to hold in our arms, whatsoever we had in our hands, we would readily let fall to do that service, and so to be honoured: how much more to put on the Lord jesus the only begotten Son of God, the King of all kings, yea to receive him into our very selves to be one with us, should we hastily cast away and lay aside the world, the flesh, and the devil, and all the wicked lusts and fruits of these? If David therefore, Psal. 24.9. in spirit foreseeing, that the Ark, which was but a sign and figure of God's presence amongst the jews, should one day be brought in by the doors of the Temple to be placed therein, before the Temple began to be built did cry as he did, Lift up your heads ye gates, and lift up yourselves ye everlasting doers, and the king of glory shall come in: let me upon juster and greater occasion cry and call upon every one that would that Christ should enter into them receiving this Sacrament, lift up your hearts, and be lift up yourselves from all the fruits of the flesh, that this King of glory may enter in indeed. Paul for the sects and factions, and namely for their eating and drinking in the Idol Temples of meat sacrificed unto them, howsoever otherwise they seemed to detest idolatry, and for their lack of love that they showed towards the poor in their love-feastes in not tarrying for them: gave the Corinthians to understand, that they did so unworthily eat of this bread and drink of this cup, that they made themselves guilty of the body and blood of Christ, are and drank their own damnation, and that many slept and were weak amongst them, as by conference of the tenth and eleventh chapters together of the first Epistle written unto them, it appeareth. How can we then but tremble at the consideration of God's judgements due unto us for our unworthy partaking hereof; there being such contentions and varieties of opinions amongst some of us as there be; and besides such a number of other far grosser sins amongst us then these of the Corinthians were? Let us therefore take Paul's remedy, that is, judge ourselves for this (and do no more so) that so we may escape the judgement of the Lord, 1. Cor. 11.31.32.  
Yet I would not have you take me so, 
It is oft to be received.  as though my drift or meaning herein were either quite to discourage you from coming, or at least to drive you not to come but very seldom for fear of unworthy coming. For I am not ignorant that Paul's saying, As often as ye shall eat this bread and drink this cup, ye show the lords death until he come. 1. Cor. 11.26. showeth that it stands very well with the will and pleasure of God, that men should often be partakers thereof. And therefore it is well known it was the fashion of the Primitive Church usually every Sabbaoth day to communicate. And there are great reasons which he that would be accounted a Christian indeed, and so to have faith and knowledge fit for this business, should not dare to refuse to receive when he may. For to be invited unto this table ●o be bid to the marriage of the King's Son: the refusal to come whereunto upon what mind or pretence soever, we find so dangerous Math. 22. that both destruction here, and perpetual exclusion on shutting from the marriage feast is threatened them, Vers. 7. etc. And every one may see, it is to refuse a most notable means to strengthen our faith, whereof the strongest in faith stand need, or at least it is plainly to bewray ourselves to be such, as for want of charity or for some other grievous sin that we know by ourselves, we think not ourselves fit to come. So to see our sins and to judge ourselves for the same is not altogether to be condemned. But yet (dearly beloved) you must understand that if withal we be heartily sorry for these our sins, and purpose unfeignedly amendment, and are willing according to the nature and quality of our sins to give unfeigned testimony thereof, either particularly and privately if that be enough, or more publicly, if the case so require, that is no sufficient reason to keep us from this table. For the more we see our wants and imperfections, yea our faults and sins, if withal we rightly repent thereof having knowledge & faith in Christ jesus right & sound, though weak and imperfect; yet it is very fit and necessary that we come to this table, so to grow on in all these. For it is prepared for hungry and thirsty souls after Christ, and not for proud pharisees that are puffed up with a conceit of their own righteousness and worthiness. 
The impenitent and unbeleeners eat not, nor drink the body and blood of Christ at all  Indeed they that are destitute of all sound knowledge and faith, and show it by their continuing and going on in error and impiety, and hypocrites that have none of the things they should have but in show, are simply unworthy to be admitted; and they whensoever they come, make themselves guilty of the body and blood of Christ, for refusing it, or not having wherewith or whereby totake it, and so eat the bread, & drink of the cup to their damnation. And my speech tends therefore either to provoke such to be repentant and to become new creatures in Christ jesus: or else, until indeed and truth by examining of themselves they find themselves to be in the faith, & so thereby in Christ jesus, lamenting their miserable state and condition there whiles to abstain. For as the covenant belongs not to such whiles they are such; so no more doth the feel of the covenant. For them therefore by coming to snatch at the seal, having nothing to do with the covenant, they as much as in them lies profane the covenant and the author thereof. As therefore we see him worthily condemned of disloyally to the Prince herself, that offers a manifest abusage to her coin, to her Seal, Sceptre, crown, seat royal, robes of estate, or picture: so we may be sure, much more is he to be accounted guilty of the body and blood of Christ, and so worthy of damnation, that not discerning aright that bread and wine are the Sacraments of the body & blood of Christ, with profane hands mouth and heart receives the same. The foolish sons of Ely, and the army of the Israelites abused but the Ark, which was a testimony and sign of God amongst his people, by fetching it into the camp when they fought against the Philistines— and we read the wrath of the Lord bro●●● at both against them and the whole army to their shameful overthrow and destruction. 1. Sam. 4.4. etc. And so likewise when the Philistines profaned it and abused it by setting it, after they had taken it, in the house of Dagon, even therefore, 1. Sam. 5.2. etc. not only in the wrath of the Lord their idol Dagon fell down and broke his neck, and the inhabitants of Ashdod and of all the coasts thereof were miserably thereupon smitten with Emerods', but also they could have no rest or ease until they restored it home again to the people to whom it did appertain. Yea when it was come home again, what else was the cause why the Lord with sudden death smote fifty thousand men of Bethshemesh as we read he did, 1. Sam. 6.19. but that they to whom it did not appertain to do so, looked into it? And why did God manifest unto David his dislike of that fact of his, for the manner thereof, by striking of Vzza with sudden death for laying his hand to the Ark to stay it because the oxen did shake it; though otherwise David and Vzza had never so good meanings, the one in bringing of it home, and the other in so staying it, but because it was carted home, whereas the Levites should have brought it, and he touched it that should not? 2. Sam. 6.7. Wherefore once again I say, not to drive you from the lords table but of a desire that when you come you may come to your comfort, examine yourselves before you come, as Paul hath bidden you 1. Cor. 13. whether you be in the faith or no, and whether Christ be in you or no. For until you be in him you are as dead men before God. For he is, The way, the truth and the life, john. 14.6. so that whosoever liveth indeed before God, with Paul he may & must say; I live, yet not I any more, but Christ liveth in me. Gal. 2.20. and our life is hid with Christ in God, and therefore, when Christ which is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory. Collof. 3.2.4. Whereupon it followeth, as to eat and drink for the sustenance and maintenance of this body of ours, be actions of one alive that hath already body & soul conjoined and united: so none indeed can eat the flesh of the son of man, & drink his blood, but he that already liveth by faith in him as Paul speaketh, Gal. 2.20. & so already hath Christ dwelling in him. And therefore plainly toteach us thus much, saith Christ: Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you: and then thereupon immediately addeth; whosoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and a little after, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me & I in him, john. 6. Whereupon most plainly Saint Augustine in his 26. tract upon john, inferreth thus: Hoc est ergo manducare illam escam, & illum biberepotum, etc. that is, This therefore is to eat that meat, & to drink that drink, to abide in Christ, and to have Christ abide in thee. And by this (saith he) he that abideth not in Christ, & in whom Christ abideth not, without all doubt neither doth he spiritually eat his flesh nor drink his blood, though carnally and visibly, Premat dentibus Sacramentum corporis & sanguinis Christi, He press with his teeth the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ: but rather he eateth and drinketh the Sacrament of so great a thing to his judgement, because being unclean he presumed to come to the Sacraments of Christ. And therefore also most learnedly sundry times there in that tract he shows, that Aliud est Saeramentum, aliud virtus Sacramenti, One thing is the Sacrament, and an other thing is the virtue thereof: that it is he, that Christ saith shall not die but live, that eateth of his flesh; that pertains to the virtue of the Sacrament, and not to the visible Sacrament; which eats within and not without, which eats in heart not he whtch presseth with teeth. For he is most resolute there also, that Resipsa, cuius est Sacramentum, est omni homini ad vitam, nulli ad exitium, qui eius particeps fuerit, etc. that is, That the thing of the Sacrament is to every man that is partaker thereof to life, & to none to destruction: whereas immediately before he had yet written, that the Sacrament thereof, De mensa dominica quibusdam sumitur ad vitam, quibusdam ad exitium: that is, That the Sacrament thereof might of some from the table of the Lord be received to life, and of some to destruction. And most certain is all this, howsoever some would darken all this clear light, and wipe away all this clear evidence, by saying that none else but the faithful indeed can worthily eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood, which are the things of this Sacrament: but yet unworthily they may. For though we read, 1. Cor. 11.27. of an unworthy eating of the bread and drinking of the cup, that maketh them guilty of the body and blood of the Lord, as we have heard: yet we never read nor shall in all the Scriptures, of an unworthy eating of his body and drinking of his blood. For if there had been any such, Christ neither could nor would have said so simply absolutely and confidently as he hath, john. 6.54. and as we have already heard he did, Whosoever eateth my flesh, & drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. No no, it is not the taking or feeding thereupon that can hurtany, but the not doing so, that bringeth the danger; especially then when yet we would make a show to do both, and yet indeed do nothing less. 
Christ is fed on, both God and man.  But all this while I urging the right commumcant in the use of this Sacrament, to seek inwardly by faith to feed upon the body broken and blood shed of Christ jesus himself when outwardly he feedeth upon bread and wine, I would not be so taken as though my meaning were to teach, that faith here were to reach no further then to the uniting of Christ's bare body and blood, and the right communicant together. For as he both in body and soul standeth need of him to be his Saviour, so it is certain, as Christ both God and man perfect God and perfect man in one person is the head and husband of his Church and the redeemer and Saviour thereof: so here faith is to feed so upon his body broken & blood shed, as that withal it must steadfastly conceive and believe that it was & is the body and blood of such an one as was and is both very God and man, and yet but one person. For thence it cometh that the things done for us by his broken body and blood shed, though in number and time wherein they were done they were finite, are in the sight of the heavenly Father of infinite value and dignity (as once I said before) to work our perfect redemption and salvation, that they were done by such a man that had not only a perfect body and soul of a man, and in them both was such an one as it became us to have, that was separate from sinners, Heb. 7.27. but also was and remaineth for ever a true & everlasting God and therefore was able thus to dignify the works done for us in his manhood. And to this end it is most heavenly and divinely noted. Heb. 9 that the force that the offering that Christ made of himself upon the cross for us, to purge our consciences from dead works to serve the living God, cometh and riseth from hence, that then by his eternal Spirit, he offered himself without fault to God for us. And though I am not ignorant that Chrisostome to very good purpose in his 46. Homily upon john, interpreting those words of Christ, john. 6.63. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you are spirit and life: notes that they were spoken by Christ not to disable his flesh altogether from being profitable, because so to think is absurd; but to warn us that carnally we understand not his words, which by his interpretation there we do if we take his words simply as they sound & think no otherwise of them: for that as he saith, all mysteries are to be considered with inward eyes, that is, spiritually: yet I cannot but think with others also, that in so saying Christ meant not only to teach us that his words were not grossly and camally to betaken, that he had spoken of the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood, (as the Capernaits and such of his hearers that believed not, then took them) but spiritually (as his believing disciples, who notwithstanding them, tarried with him when the other murmured or departed by occasion thereof) but that therein he had this further meaning and purpose to show them that if his flesh and blood were as they took them but the flesh and blood of a man, than they could not be indeed such food for their souls, as he had taught them to be; but being, as they were, the flesh and blood of such an one as withal was a spirit, and that an eternal creating Spirit even very God, thence they might be sure that they, rightly fed on by faith and the spirit, both could and would bring life. Thus therefore we teach and exhort all men in the use of this Sacrament, to feed upon the body broken and blood shed of our Christ and Saviour. And yet thus we speak with Christ, and according to the phrase used in the institution thereof; because as by Christ God and man, as by our only mediator we come to the Father; so it hath pleased God in his word to reveal him unto us, that by his manhood and the works done therein, we should grow on to faith in his Godhead united thereunto and so shining & manifesting itself unto us therein.  
Thus than I hope by this time, even by this plain and short declaration only of our faith and judgement concerning the doctrine and nature of this Sacrament, 
The conclusion of this our doctrine.  you may most clearly see and perceive that we are wonderfully wronged and slandered, and that so also are all the Churches of our profession, by our adversaries; whiles to discredit us withal, they would make men believe that we make it but a naked Supper of bread and wine, and so seek to feed our people therein but with bare signs and figures. For you may see and hear that most plainly and earnestly we urge our hearers therein to seek to feed to their eternal salvation, of Christ jesus himself both God and man: and so many other notable uses thereof as you hear we teach, that even in respect thereof all the names and titles that any sound antiquity hath honoured this Sacrament withal, may most justly be given unto it as it is ministered and used by us. We find it hath been called the Supper of the Lord, the Table of the Lord, the Sacrament of his body and blood, the Eucharist, a Sacrifice, and Synaxis, and usually with us it is called the Communion. And which of these is it not with us? It is the supper of the Lord because as we teach, at the last supper he instuted it and it is his Table because therein he feedeth his with himself: it is the Sacrament of his body & blood, because to his it is a sacred means of the Lord to nourish, strengthen, and exercise their faith therein: it is the Eucharist because thereby we are so directly & forcibly occasioned as we are, to yield all hearty thanks unto God for the death and passion of Christ lesus, whereof it is so notable a memorial; and a Sacrifice even therefore also it may be termed: & also Synaxis it is, because it is an excellent bond of our assemblies and meetings together to receive it and lastly, worthily we may and do call it the Communion, be cause it is a seal first of our communion with Christ, and then of one of us with an other in him. And yet for all this, though this most certainly be the general doctrine held with one consent by all the Churches that profess the Gospel with us; except of a few peevish and wilful Lutherans our adversaries, nor these neither will not be satisfied, but when we have said and done what we can, all is nothing with them that in this case we say or do, unless we will with them by virtue of Christ's words spoken by him in the institution here of, hold such a real presence of Christ's body and blood in this Sacrament, as that by the mouths of all comers thereunto and receivers thereof, have they true faith or no, his very body and blood really be taken in and sed upon. Which being a doctrine so directly contrary to that which lutherto I have taught you touching our union and communion with Christ by faith and his spirit only, especially, seeing also it is to be feared that a number have been so nuzzled therein that the conceit they have yet of the truth thereof will hinder them, if it be not the better confuted, from taking any great good by all I have said hitherto: though otherwise here I might well have ended this matter and would, yet I must crave leave of you to take some further pains for the better backing of that which I have said, to lay before you that which I think sufficient for the just confutation of this gross moutheating of Christ jesus by all communicantes whatsoever. 
The things that Lutherans & papists hold in common, for their gross real presence, confuted.   
Herein I shall have to deal with two sorts of adversaries: the one sort where of are the Lutherans which I late spoken of, who to that end interpret Christ's words spoken of the bread and wine, so, as that thereupon they infer such a Consubstantiation, that is, such a being together of the very body and blood of Christ with bread and wine in the use of this Sacrament, that whosoeverreceives the one with his mouth, receives the other: and the other sort are our common adversaries the Papists, who interpret the words of Christ so, as that by the force thereof they teach the bread and wine to be transubstantiated, that is, to be turned into the body and blood of Christ, as some of them have held; or at least thereby, as now most of them hold, so to be conveyed away that there remains nothing but the accidents thereof, under which and together with which the body and blood of Christ really are so certainly present, that every receiver thereof takes into his mouth the very body and blood of Christ. Otherwise these two are at deadly war one with another, and the former in most of the grounds and principles of Christian Religion hold with us fondly against the other, and yet in this and for the maintenance of this their carnal and gross presence, they are as vehement and bitter against us for the denying & oppugning thereof, as the other. Orderly therefore todeale with them both, whereas there are some things in this case common to them both, wherein they both hold alike against us; set us consider of them & of the grounds thereof first, and afterwards we will take a view of those things and of their grounds also wherein they differ both betwixt themselves and also from us: lest otherwise we should be driven tediously to repeat one thing often. By their books that they have written & daily do about this matter, it is evident that they both hold a real presence of Christ's body and blood together with the outward elements in the use of this Sacrament: and likewise, that they both therefore teach, that together with the same every receiver, have he a right faith or no, receives in by his mouth the very real & true body & blood of Christ. And both of them ground both these their opinions, first of Christ's words uttered of the bread and wine; then of his almightiness: and lastly of the state now of his glorified body. In and about the outward elements when they come to be taken of the mouth of the receiver, what they be and how long this their real presence of body and blood with them continues, they could never yet agree. For the maintainers of Consubstantiation plainly with us, notwithstanding Christ's words and all their other grounds for their manner of his real presence, hold and teach that they remain substantially bread and wine still, and so are taken and eaten: and the other will have after those words are once pronounced, the substances of bread and wine to be gone quite, (though unto this day they could never agree to tell what was become of them) and the only accidents thereof to supply the room always after of the outward part of this Sacrament. The other hold their real presence continueth no longer, or at least is tied no longer to bread and wine, nor to any more of it then is received, and the ministery thereof lasteth. For Extra usum, (as they speak) that is, besides the use, they hold neither the bread nor the wine that remains, to be the body and blood of Christ: whereas the other stiffly maintain that all the hosts that they consecrate are every one of them the body of Christ, and therefore they hang them up, which they leave, in a Pixe under a Canopy and honour and worship them as the very bodies of their Saviour. And for the wine they take careful order for that, because they cannot tell how so well to preserve and keep that belike sweet as the other; to consecrate no more than their priest may quite and clean sup up at that very time. But to let these their disagreings alone, the things wherein they agree herein are now to be considered of: wherein, their manner of real presence of Christ offers itself first. Touching the which to begin withal, this I dare be bold to say, for I know it to be most true how drunken soever they be with a conceit to the contrary; it is contrary to all doctrine taught us in the Scriptures, or in any ancient Father or Council for six hundred years after Christ at the least. For with one consent all these when they speak of Christ's presence in this Sacrament, it is real presence to the believing communicant, for whom indeed he gave his body and blood, that they speak for, and that they speak of: as for any such real presence of his, either with or under bread and wine or under the accidents thereof, as these men now plead for, never either any writer of any of the Canonical Scriptures, nor any sound Father or Council ever once dreamt off. And this real & true presence of Christ to the right receiver we do not deny, but we urge & teach more plainly and comfortably than anic of them doc. And this is it that bringeth inseparably with it eternal life & salvation in Christ; & as for this of theirs, the very force of truth & flat experience have driven them to confess may be, and yet the receiver thereby never the better but the worse. What a vain thing than is it for men to keep such a stir to the vexing and disturbing of all Christendom for a thing so fruitless? Alas who is so simple but that he knoweth or may soon know that Christ's body was broken and his blood shed for us men, and not for bread and wine; and therefore that neither bread nor wine, are the things that have to do with his presence nor yet their accidents, but only we men: and then that we may have it sufficiently to our salvation, who seethe not that it is the vainest thing in the world to strive for it, for bread and wine and their accidents? Further, seeing both of these do confess this to be a Sacrament whereof we now entreat, & neither of them yet could show or ever went about it, that in any other Sacrament either of the old or new Testament there was ever any such real conjunction of the inward and spiritual part thereof with the outward, and yet all men know for all that, they were and are effectual Sacraments and seals of the delivery thereof to the right receiver; what reason in the world can they have why they should not think that this likewise may be and also is a full and effectual Sacrament to participate the body and blood of Christ without any such coupling of them and the outward elements thereof, as for the defence of this their real presence here they urge? If that were here necessary, it should be so either by the general right of all Sacraments, or by some special right that may be showed this hath thereunto. But neither of these can they or shall they ever be able indeed to show in this case. Further Christ's own sitting visibly severed in place without any altering of his form, or moving of his place having uttered the words of the institution, they being doubtless as powerful then as ever they were since or shallbe, to make him really to be present to and with the outward elements, doth most clearly overthrow this conceit. And for the next of having him so really herewith present and conjoined that the receivers thereof though they have neither faith nor good manners, yet receive him also therewith, as I have already sufficiently proved, it is both against Scripture and sound antiquity: and the former being so absurd, whereupon it followeth and is built, as I have now showed it is, that must also therewith fall down and be overthrown. Yet for the further mabling of thee (well-beloved) to see yet more not only the vanity and impiety thereof, understand that such a kind of presence of Christ shakes all the articles touching the manhood of Christ, and in very deed leads men most strongly so to spoil him of all the true properties of his manhood, that in effect it leadeth them and most forcibly teacheth them to deny him indeed to be come into the flesh, and to be the seed of the woman, of Abraham, Isaac, and jacob, of juda, jesse, and David, according to the ancient prophecies that are of the Messiah. And so for a bootless eating of him and fruitless, as they themselves must needs confess this mouth-eating of him to be, (for that they grant, oven to the worst sort of men that receive the outward elements,) in the end they will leave us no true Christ at all, either for unbelievers or believers to feed upon. I know their refuge and shift is to avoid this withal, to say that it is by miracle as they teach, and yet Christ's manhood and all the articles touching the same, true, sound, and whole. Indeed any man may see that either they must say so, or else they can say nothing: and that in truth and of absolute necessity it must be granted to be the greatest miracle that ever was wrought, if it be as they say, and yet all these things be upheld sound according to the true & ancient catholic faith. For of both these it must needs follow that Christ at one and self same time hath a body visible and invisible, palpable and impalpable, compassed in place and uncompassed; yea that he hath but one body, and yet many bodies, or that one multiplied into many; unless contrary to manifest Scripture they wildenie him in the heavens (Which shall contain him, as Peter saith, until the restitution of all things. Act. 3.21.) to have, though a glorified body yet a true body; the contrary whereof all the ancient Fathers, as they know well enough, with us against them have taught. And they know though sundry of these Fathers of purpose have written of the miracles of the Scripture, that yet they have not once reckoned up this of theirs amongst them. Neither have they any reason why to think that there is here any such. A mystery and great mystery we willingly acknowledge it to be, that in the right use of this Sacrament, Christ by his Spirit by the means of the faith of his, verily unites himself unto his: but yet no miracle we count it, or call it, because it is Gods ordinary work in other Sacraments so to communicate himself to those that rightly use them: and because when he worketh a miracle there is some strange thing done beyond nature, that the very senses can judge of; which we find not here. For they all with one consent judge them in respect of their substances, to be very bread and wine still in the mouths of all receivers. O but (say they) neither sense nor reason are to be consulted withal in this case. Indeed I grant they never are against any truth certainly taught and warranted by the Scriptures; but when their judgement concurs and consents therewith, than it is very lawful and good to listen thereunto: and so always have the godly learned in all age's thought and taught. And therefore seeing both sense and reason strive against this their devise, for the maintenance of Christ's true manhood, and the right sense of all the articles of our faith touching the same with us; even thereby their cause hath a greater wound than they are ever able to cure again. Besides all this, whiles they thus teach without all warrant from Christ or her word; they are compelled, lest otherwise they should be enforced; most absurdly to say that the wicked eat the body and blood of Christ to salvation; to separate Christ and his saving graces the one from the other, whereas they cannot be severed. For that must always remain an absolute truth, Whosoever eateth his flesh and drinketh his blood, hath eternal life. john. 6.54. and so that also, he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the son hath not life. john. 5.12: A spiritual union and communion with him they shall both find oft promised and spoken of, as I have at large already showed: but a being of his body and blood in the very mouths of all receivers as they talk of, otherwise then Sacramentally, that is, when the outward sacraments or signs thereof are there, they shall never find so much as once spoken for in the scriptures, or in any sound and ancient writer indeed. I cannot deny but that indeed the Capernaits, john. 6. by misconceiving of Christ's speeches there had of the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood, began to dream that he meant some such thing: but we have heard that Chrisostome plainly showeth by the answer that he made them, that he had no such meaning; his words were spiritually to be understood, and so should givelife and not otherwise. And Athanasius upon these words, Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, writeth that withal then Christ put them in mind of his ascension, as indeed he did john. 6.62. to draw them from corporal and fleshly understanding of his words. And therefore very excellently hath Augustine, to prevent all such conceits or murmuring, by occasion of that doctrine of Christ, written of those words of his whereat they so stumbled; in his third book of christian doctrine, Chap. 16. saying thus, That saying of Christ, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man & drink his blood, ye have no life, etc. seemeth to commend an heinous thing and a wicked: and therefore it is a figure commanding us to be partakers of Christ's passion, and to keep in our minds to our great comfort and profit that his flesh was crucified and wounded for us. But I am not ignorant that these men would seem to mislike the Capernaits opinion as much as we; and that therefore they labour to put an infinite difference betwixt their fancy of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, and this of theirs. For they imagined (say they) that then they should feed upon them visibly, and by piecemeal as they did of other their usual meat and drink: whereas they purpose them to be fed on invisibly and wholly. But alas what a poor difference is this, as though it were not as much against the law of God the law of all nations and nature also, knowing it, to eat and drink man's flesh and blood unseen as seen, all at a morsel or at a sup, as by many morsels and sups? If yet they will needs urge this their real presence and their mouth-eating really of Christ, how will they avoid the danger then, that that general and universal proposition of Christ will bring them unto, saying as we read he did Mat. 15.17: What soever entereth into the mouth goeth into the belly, & is cast out into the draft, & c? Even this hath caused many both as learned as any of them and far more ancient, to understand the eating of Christ to be by the mouth of the soul, faith; and not by the very mouth of the body. And they know, with one consent the ancient Fathers teach that the wicked and unbelieving whiles they remain such, cannot eat the body and blood of Christ: which they neither could nor would have done, if they had known that there was any such real presence, either by Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation, as now these men teach. For either of these being granted, the other how absurd soever it be must follow thereupon. And therefore is it, because they know that the Consequent being absurd the Antecedent from whence it floweth must needs be so also, that these men are thus eager to defend this to be no absurdity, that all that communicate, though they be never so bad and faithless, eat the body and drink the blood of Christ really: for otherwise they know they cannot defend any longer their real presence as they do. For Isee no cause else why they should make so much a do for persons so unworthy to have such care and pains taken for them.  
But yet so wedded are these men unto their grounds that they have builded this their fancy upon mentioned before, 
Christ's words prove not their purpose.  that unless we can drive them from thence, notwithstanding all yet said against it, it is to be feared that they will think that they both may and aught to hold it still. Wherefore, whereas first they seem to think that the words of Christ are plain and pregnant to prove their kind of real presence, and mouth-eating consequently of his body and blood; doubtless if with a single eye and without any prejudicate opinion we consider thereof, we shall soon see that it is nothing but peevishness & wilfulness that makes them either so to say or think. That the words of Christ are most certain and true in the sense that he meant them when he uttered them, we never denied nor will; no nor yet we never gave leave unto ourselves so much as once to doubt thereof. Wherefore if any of them persuade any man otherwise of us, they do us open and manifest wrong. Neither can we think so uncharitably of them, but that we are persuaded that they so likewise think of them. Herein then is the difference and controversy betwixt them and us, whether we or they hit of the right sense thereof. Which being the question indeed as it is; for the determining hereof every reasonable man must needs confess, that whose interpretation agrees best with the nature of the thing in hand, with the analogy of faith and good manners, with the rest of the Scriptures and sound antiquity, that is to be taken best to agree with Christ's meaning, and therefore is the fence to be followed and preferred before all others. Now we interpret the words of Christ as spoken by a Metonymy, that is, by a figure of speech whereby one thing bears the name of the other; as here bread and wine we say do, of the body broken and blood shed of Christ; because the one both signifies and representeth the other unto us, and also assures us rightly receiving the one, that we are and shallbe partakers also of the other. These men cry and urge that the words are plain and without any such figure, and yet howsoever they therefore agree that they import a real presence to the outward clementes, and to the mouth of every receiver (as we have heard;) yet the one sort would have them expounded to that end to infer Consubstantiation, and the other a Transubstantiation. judge therefore now I beseech you by the foresaid rules, whether theirs or ours be likest to be Christ's meaning. The matter in hand, when those words were first uttered by him, was a Sacrament: and they know as well as we, that in all other Sacraments when either they were instituted by God, or afterwards spoken of by him; though the very like Phrases for all the world were used of them, that are here by Christ of these: that yet unto this day never any of themselves or others expounded them either as they do these here, or otherwise then we do these. Circumcision is called the Covenant, Gen. 17.10. the Lamb the Passeover, Exod. 12.21. the rock that the people of Israel drank the water of in the wilderness Christ. 1. Cor 10.4. the blood of their sacrifices, the blood of the Covenant, Exod. 24.8. the Ark, the King of glory and jehovah. Psal. 24.8.10. and Baptism is called the laver or washing of our new birth, Tit. 3.5. And yet who ever expounded these phrases either by Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation, thereby really to make always present to every of these outward elements the spiritual matter thereby signified and resembled? yea, who ever understood these otherwise, then to be as the words import, only by signification & representation, and for the assurance of the right users of them, of the presence to them of the things thereby signified and represented spiritually? Why therefore should Christ either speak otherwise in the instituting of this, than had been used in all other Sacraments; or speaking but even so, what reason is there why his speech should otherwise be understood here then in all the rest? To say that this hath a special and essential difference from all other Sacraments, and therefore though these phrases be so to be taken in all other, yet they cannot so be in this: though when they say so they think they have said much to the purpose, yet indeed they have said nothing. For who knoweth not that a man hath an essential difference to distinguish him from all other creatures under the same General that he is? And yet that letteth not but that whatsoever belongs to the nature of the General is common to him with all the rest? For else he should not be defined by his General. So if that which appertains to the nature of a Sacrament in general, of which sort this is that now we talk of, were not common unto this with the rest, it could not with them be said, to be a Sacrament as it is. If therefore the outward elements bearing the names of the inward graces, neither enforce or impart any such thing in any of the other, no reason is there why it should in this. And surely the disciples being so well acquainted with such kind of phrases in all the sacraments of the old Testament, thereby were prepared quietly to hear Christ to use the like in this, and readily & rightly they understood him as in the other: & therefore never once were offended or amazed at his speech, or made any questioning with him either then or afterwards about the sense thereof. Whereas if they had taken them in any such sense, and had thought that they did import any such matter as either of these sorts of men imagine they did; they being so bold with him at other times always in matters of far less importance and difficulty as to inquire his meaning, they would also doubtless so have done in this. Which thing in some sort, and that with some further matter very fit to cross these men's conceit, Chrisostome in his 83. Homily upon Matthew hath noted saying, even speaking of the words of the institution now in question: Quomodo non turbati erant, cum hoc audissent? quia multa & magna de hoc antea disseruit, etc. that is, how came it to pass that they were not troubled (meaning his disciples) when they heard this? because many & weighty things he had discoursed of this before unto them. And a little after he noteth, that he himself drunk thereof, least hearing those words they should have said; what then do we drink blood and eat his flesh? and therefore should have been troubled. For when he first spoke hereof (saith he) many were offended only for his words: lest therefore hereby that also now should have chanced, he did this first himself that so he might with a quiet mind induce them to the participation of these mysteries. Now as for the second rule to examine our exposition of these words by, that which I have said already is both sufficient to justify ours, and to condemn theirs. For in nothing ours can be said to be contrary, or but to carry any show of contrariety either to the doctrine of good manners or to the analogy of faith (if you should examine from point to point our judgement hereof and of the nature and use of the whole Sacrament as I have expressed it;) and theirs, as I lately showed in the confutation of their real presence, both in show and in truth most directly crosseth & cotrarieth both. For hath not even nature a loathing to the taking in by mouth and so swallowing of a whole man, flesh, blood, and bones at one morsel? And a man that can be so taken in and eaten of so many communicantes as be in world at one time, who can be persuaded that he hath the true nature indeed of a man? And come to the third, that is, by the Scriptures themselves to try this matter by, and quickly we shall find by them our exposition warranted, and this of theirs and the consequents thereof confuted. For first, whereas they would countenance theirs against ours, by saying that Christ's words are plain & without figure; look but a little upon them, and you shallbe enforced to confess, & so they also will they nile they, that he hath used in the institution of this Sacrament, in his words sundry figures. For first he saith of the one that it was his body given for them, as Luke saith, or broken for them, as Paul speaketh: & then of the other, that it was his blood shed for them, as Matthew, Mark & Luke report his words; so speaking of that which yet then was not done, as it is well known, as though then it had been done, by an usual figure in the Scriptures, using the time past or present for the time to come. Again concerning the latter element, Matthew saith that he said it was his blood of the new Testament, and so doth Mark: Luke sets down his words thus, This cup is the new Testament in my blood; & so also doth Paul: wherein & whereby any man may see, that wilfully will not make himself blind, two figurative kind of speeches besides this that we strive for. For here is the cup containing, put for that which was therein contained: & whatsoever they would have that to be, wine or his very blood; I am sure they neither yet can or will say that either the one or the other is the new Testament itself. Seeing then it might stand with the nature of this Sacrament & Christ's care & desire to be therein understood to use the figures; what letteth but that we may as lawfully think that he used the usual Metonymy used in all other Sacraments, in giving the names of body & blood to bread & wine, that were but representations & seals of our communion with his body & blood, to our everlasting nourishment? This variety in these, in repeating & setting down the words of the institution as may be seen by this that I have already noted, argues that they were not so superstitiously tied to a set sort & number of words as these men imagine: yea that they, so they kept his very sense, thought that it was lawful for them thus to add or change a word or two tending only to explain the same, hereby it is evident. For Paul's word Broken in steed of Luke's Given, shows how his body should be given even to be broken with sorrows, with whip, crowning with thorn & nailing as it was to the cross: & these two added by them, not used by Mat. or Mar. serve to show us what body of his it is, I mean in respect of what state thereof it is, that here by this Sacrament we are occasioned to think upon it, and to feed on it: and by the other change of their phrase, for Blood of the new Testament, saying, it was the new Testament in his blood, most plainly we are taught, that therefore called heit the blood of the new Testament because the new Testament was ratified and so standeth by the shedding of that blood to all believers in him. But indeed though they would seem to be men that make wonderful great conscience of the letter and words, as though it were sacrilege to go one jot from the sound thereof: yet any man that looks but with half an eye upon either of their interpretations which they stand upon to ground their kind of real presence by, shall soon perceive that they are nothing the men they make show for. For is it all one either to say, together with this is my body and blood, or under the accidents hereof is my body and blood, and to say This is my body and blood? And yet thus, when all is done, Christ's words must sound or else neither will there or can there be either the Lutherans Consubstantiation, or the popish Transubstantiation brought in thereby to uphold their fond real presence by. Sure I am neither any Dictionary or Grammar in the world will allow them thus to expound this word Is. Were it not better for them with us to retain the word, and also with us so to expound it or understand it as not only usually always it is in all other Sacramental phrases, but also commonly always when it is placed between two things of so divers natures as bread and wine, and body and blood be? The rather yet to provoke them so to do, let them but consider whether their new found sense thereof, or this of ours understanding it as placed for (it signifieth representeth and sealeth unto you my body broken and blood shed to be yours to eternal life) stand better but with these words of Christ, Do this in remembrance of me. Luke 22.19. 1. Cor. 11.24. especially so taken as it is clear Paul took them, when thereof he inferreth, 1. Cor. 11.26. as oft as ye shall eat this bread and drink this cup, ye show the Lords death till he come? For according to our doctrine, by these words thus understood Christ would teach us that this Sacrament was instituted by him of purpose to keep in our memories his death and passion, and by the use whereof we might, until his coming again to judgement, profess and nourish our faith in his body then broken and blood shed for us. Here is nothing sounding in the mean time towards any corporal presence of his to the outward elements or mouths of the receivers whosoever: but these words In remembrance of me, and Till he come again sound plainly to the cotrarie. For what need a thing to be done in remembrance of one bodily present; or how can a thing with any good sense be said to be done but till one come, that yet he being verily present in body is done? We read Act. 1.11. that shortly after the institution of this Sacrament he visibly ascended into heaven, the Apostles seeing him so to do with their eyes: and there we read also that the Angels told them, that even so likewise he should come again when he comes from thence: reading also as we do and have already noted once or twice, that the heavens must contain him until the restitution of all things. Act. 3.21. and that his coming from thence is plainly called his second coming, Heb. 9.28. how can we but think that Christ as well meant to forewarn us of these fellows, that by their Consubstantiation or Transubstantiation say unto us, lo here is Christ with this piece of bread, or under the accidents thereof, lo take him into thy very mouth: as of those that point unto us wrong Christ's here or there, when he said, if any should say unto you (speaking of such as should so do after he had left the world, & was gone unto his Father) Lo here is Christ, or there is Christ, believe him not? And how is it possible that we should believe these places of Scripture to be true, and hold still them notwithstanding, that Christ is really and in his full body present in every communicants mouth? May we think with Peter, that the heavens do and shall contain him still, and that yet upon this occasion he is always thus here? And that being so, how can it be that his coming from thence at the last day, shall be but his second coming, or that it is true when he comes from thence he shall come visibly, no such thing having ever been seen here. I know they will say, all these places are to be understood of his visible body, and that they speak of his invisible body. Yea but then we reply, where ever learned they either in Scripture, or in any ancient Father, that ever he had any such invisible body: or how can they ever make it sink into any man's head that hath rightly learned in the Scriptures to know Christ's manhood, that at one and self same time he should have a visible body and an invisible, yea one in the heavens to come invisibly again when he pleaseth; and yet the same both there and this here also multiplied into so many invisible bodies as there be receivers mouths? If this be not with the old rotten doting and long ago condemned Martion to make a mere phantasm of the body of Christ, let any man judge. But once for all by this sword of the Spirit, to pierce this monstrous conceit of theirs to the very heart and so to leave it for dead: seeing they stand so much upon the letter and words of the text, I would have them once again to mark and remember that Saint Paul, that saith therein That which he received of the Lord he delivered, hath upon his credit told us that the Lord speaking of the bread called it not simply and nakedly his body, but his body broken; and they all agree in one that he called the other his blood shed. If therefore they will stick to the words of the text, and yet have a real presence as they teach, of his very body and blood by virtue of the words thereof; they see most plainly than it must be of his body broken and of his blood shed. Unless therefore now they can find us an invisible body broken and blood invisible shed of his, for the mouth of every receiver, they neither say or do any thing to the purpose according to the text. But I hope they are not so far gone, but they know that it is now a thousand and five hundred years ago and more, since he had either his body broken or blood shed; and that when they were so, he died so that he dies no more, as we read. Rom. 6.9. And therefore even hereby the most simple may see that though they could show that his body alive or glorified could be invisible, infinite, and so multipliable as their doctrine imports, which yet they can never do; that yet all this were nothing to the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in respect of that estate of his, when the one was broken, and the other shed for the remission of our sins. And yet hereby it is most evident that the body and blood of Christ, in respect of this their estate and condition, are the body and blood of his, that expressly by the words of the institution we are here to seek for and to feed upon. How can this then be otherwise but as we teach, by calling hereby to our remembrance, that once most certainly they were thus handled for us; and by believing that thereby our salvation was wrought: which as oft as we do, we are fed and nourished therewith to eternal life. Thus than you see, the matter in hand, the Analogy of faith and good manners, and not only other Scriptures, but the very words of the institution lead strongly to the maintenance of our exposition of Christ's words in the institution of this Sacrament, and to the utter overthrow of theirs. And truly the ancient Fathers, as we have a thousand times showed them, are wholly also of our side, against them. It were infinite to bring all that might be found in them to this purpose, as by large volumes written and published by us about this matter we have made it evident. Howbeit, somewhat yet now again let us hear what some of the chief of them have said. Christ took bread which comforteth man's heart, that he might thereby represent the truth of his body, saith Hierome upon the 26. of Matthew. Christ in his last supper, (saith Cyprian in his sermon de unctione Chrismatis) with his own hands, at his table, gave his Apostles bread & wine; but upon the cross, he gave his body to be wounded by the hands of the soldiers, that sincere truth more secretly imprinted in the Apostles, & the true sincerity might expound unto the nations, how bread & wine was the body & blood, and after what sort the causes and their effects agreed, and divers names and kinds should be reduced to one essence, and the things signifying and the things signified were called with one & self same names. And Ambrose in his 4. book & 4. chapter of Sacraments writeth; that as in Baptism we receive the similitude of death, so in this sacrament we drink the similitude of Christ's blood. And Chrysostome most plainly saith in his 11. Homily upon Matthew, that Christ his body itself is not in the holy vessels, but the mystery & Sacrament thereof. Augustine in his 57 question upon Leviticus, prescribeth for a rule, that the thing that signifieth is wont to bear the name of the thing which it singifieth, as Paul said (saith he) the rock was Christ, & not ti signified Christ, but even as it had been indeed; which nevertheless, was not Christ by substance, but by signification. And in his 23. Epistle he saith, that the similitude betwixt the sign and thing signified is the very cause why the one beareth the name of the other in Sacraments: and therefore in his third book of Christian doctrine he saith, it is a miserable slavery of the soul to take the signs for the things signified, Cap. 5. Christ honoured the signs and representations which are seen, with the names of his body and blood, saith Theodoret in his second dialogue. Gelasius against Eutiches affirmeth the image & similitude of the body and blood to be celebrated in these mysteries. Bede upon Luke. 22. writeth that because bread doth comfort man's heart, and wine doth make good blood in his body; therefore the bread is mystically compared to Christ's body, and the wine to his blood. And who hath not heard us an hundred times tell them, that Tertullian in his fourth book against Martion, interpreteth This is my body, saying that it is to say, this is a figure of my body: and that likewise Augustine against Adimantus the Manichee writeth, that Christ doubted not to say, This is my body when he gave a sign of his body: and upon the third Psalm that he saith that Christ admitted judas to a banquet, where he commended a figure of his body to his disciples? And what can be plainer than these either against them, or for us? All these things considered therefore, we may boldly conclude that they have no ground from Christ's words for their gross real presence.  
And surely as little have they either from his omnipotency, 
Neither his omnipotency, nor glorified body will help them.  or from the state of his glorified body. For he will not show his omnipotency in whatsoever we list, but in effecting whatsoever himself pleaseth: and therefore they failing in the proof as they have, that it is his pleasure to have it as they would; it is in vain for them to think that this can or will help them out. But indeed and truth howsoever they would seem to ground much upon his almightiness, & to have a strong faith therein, and seek to discredit our faith in the same: yet in this very point lot theirs and ours be but a little indifferently compared together, and ours soon will prove far the stronger. For I would have them tell me in good sadness whether the Centurion Math. 8.8. that professed that he believed that though Christ came no nearer his house then he was in respect of his bodily presence, that yet he was persuaded that if he but spoke the word, his servant should be healed; or jairus, that said come and lay thy hands on my daughter, and she shall live, Math. 9.19. showed themselves to be better persuaded of Christ's omnipotency. Sure I am, both reason and Christ's magnifying of the Centurion's faith ought to lead them and all men to give the pre-eminence to the Centurion above the other many degrees. Why should they not then see and confess, that we show ourselves more strongly persuaded of his omnipotency than they, in that we show by our doctrine, that we firmly believe that he can & will, even remaining still in heaven, feed us with his body broken & blood shed, though that were so with them, so long ago, as it hath; or they, that by theirs, seem to be persuaded, that this cannot be, unless according to their fancy, to the shaking and crossing needlessly of so many grounds both of good manners & faith as we have heard; he convey himself into our mouths? And to what purpose is it, for the maintenance of this their opinion, for them to labour as they do, to put infinite difference betwixt his body unglorified & glorified, and to seek to persuade men, that it may be as they say in respect of his body now glorified, though not in respect thereof before; seeing it is most certain, that when Christ instituted this Sacrament, his body was not glorified, and by his words expressly, as I lately showed, he instituted this to be a Sacrament of his body broken and blood shed? For who doth not, or at least may not hereby perceive, that we have not here any otherwise to deal with his estate glorified, them thereby now the more strongly to be persuaded that indeed he is able to feed us with his broken body & blood shed once to our eternal salvation? For, that falling out sense, and succeeding the institution of this Sacrament, (wherein both by audible word, and visible action, in breaking bread & pouring forth of wine & calling them, as he did, he promised us that) proves unto us invincibly that whatsoever here he offered & promised us, either by word or deed, that he hath gone through with for us and so now, that he by his resurrection, ascension, & sitting at the right hand of his Father, hath begot us again to a lively hope. But unless we would have Christ otherwise now to be present to us and our mouths, than he was when he himself ministered it to the disciples, and their mouths in the state and time of his passable and unglorified body: let them never talk more of the state of his glorified body. His words show that this was and is a Sacrament of him dying for us, and so a memorial of his death and abasement that he undertook, to merit our salvation by: and not of his glory and of the life that he now hath therein, and therefore is able to bestow upon his and to apply unto them whatsoever in his former estate he deserved. The bread called his body broken, and the wine called his blood shed, as I have said are both here set before us, severed the one from the other, and by his commandment we are bound to take as well the one as the other, and yet the one after the other, the more forcibly thereby to lead us to the meditation of his death and passion, and to feed upon his body and blood so handled for us. And as his having not yet so suffered, letted not the Apostles when he first did institute it, from yet taking occasion thereby and by his administering of it unto them, by faith from feeding upon his broken body and blood to the confirming of their communion with him: so no more doth his having had his body broken and blood shed now above a thousand and five hundred years ago and never since, hinder us from feeding upon the same by faith through the mighty working of his Spirit. For the same Christ that then could make that which was not yet done, as verily done to their faith, and so to be fed upon as done: the same now doubtless is able as easily to make that which was done so long ago, present to our faith to nourish us to eternal life. By this than you see both their real presence that they talk of, to be fond and to too gross, and the grounds that they hold in common for the same to be as bad. 
The special grounds of the Lutherans confuted.   
And to go on now to scan and examine likewise what they hold severally in this case against us: it is notoriously known, the one sort (the fond imitators of Luther I mean) would maintain their real presence of his body and blood together with bread and wine in this Sacrament, when these common grounds of theirs that they have with the papists as they fear will not serve their turn, by the force and strength of the truth of the personal union of the two natures in Christ. Whereupon as it appears by their books extant and confidently published about this matter, (I speak it with grief and compassion towards them, because otherwise in the chiefest points of Christian faith we account them our brethren, and fellow soldiers against the Antichristian Synagogue of Rome) they boldly urge, avouch, & teach, that immediately upon this union consummate in the Virgin's womb, the natures & properties of his Godhead were & are so united unto his manhood, that as the Godhead is everywhere, almighty & of infinite majesty etc. so is the manhood, and therefore in this Sacrament, as they teach. Especially they insist upon the being every where of his manhood, as his Godhead is, to this purpose. Suppose the antecedent were granted them, yet they could never thereupon infer their consequent. For when will they be able to prove that his Godhead is so present here with bread & wine, that the receiver of them, by his mouth always receives the other? But indeed their antecedent is untrue, absurd, & very heretical: & but that I know, it is a most fearful thing before God, to have our faith in respect of persons, contrary to the rule of the holy Ghost, jam. 2.1. and that the Lord will therefore most severely punish it, especially when wilfully men will set themselves to defend that which they have but received from some person or persons whom they have in admiration, against a clearer truth crossing the same; I should never make an end of wondering, that men, otherwise of such learning and judgement as some of these be, ever should dare, in these days of so great light and after so often and manifest solemn sentences of condemnation given of this their conceit in the ancient and primitive Churches of Christ, set abroach such an assertion. The untruth thereof appears enough, even by that the Angels saying when he was risen, He is risen and is not here. Math. 28.6. For seeing that cannot be understood of his Godhead, which is every where, and always was; it must of necessity be understood of his manhood. But besides that, we have his own saying: The poor ye have always with you, but me ye shall not have always, john. 12.8. to back the speech of his Angels: which as they know well enough, all the ancient Fathers conferring with that of Math. 28.20. also, so understand; that by this, the presence of his manhood, they show, we may not look for here, in the earth until his second coming, after once he had left the world and gone to his father, as he said he would. john. 16, 28. & by the other yet to our comfort they show here we enjoy his Godhead. Let any man but read Fulgentius his second Book to King Trasimund, Vigilius his fourth Book against Eutiches, Chap. 4. and Augustine's 57 Epistle; and there he shall find, notwithstanding they were as sound and truly persuaded of the union of the two natures in Christ as any of these men be, the verity, locality, and circumscriptiblenes of Christ's manhood by these and otherplaces and arguments so urged, that any man may perceive this their position was counted very false in those days. The absurdity thereof appears in that herein they take that to be the cause sufficient of his being every where in his manhood, that can be no cause thereof indeed. For see we not naturally and inseparably the Sun and light and heat to be conjoined; and yet who finds not daily by experience that the globe of the body of the Sun remaining still in heaven, yet we here in earth enjoy both the other? Yea, many other things there are, which though they be united together, yet whereof one streacheth and reacheth further than the other: as the sight of the eye reacheth further than the eye itself, & the conceits & cogitations of the mind & soul of man further than either the soul or body themselves. What an absurd kind of reasoning is it then for to say, Christ's godhead and manhood are united, therefore wheresoever the godhead is, there must the manhood be also. And the hereticalnesse thereof is monstrous and intolerable. For not only with Martion, it transforms Christ's true manhood into a mere phantasm or imagination of such a thing: but also in thus confounding the properties of the two natures, it confounds the natures themselves, and so either makes Christ's Godhead or manhood with Eutiches to swallow up the one the other; or which is as absurd, makes Christ's person to have in it one estentiall and true Godhead, and an other communicated unto his manhood beginning when the personal union of these two natures begun, which savours strongly towards Arianisme. Besides all this, if this were true that they say, that straight upon this union of the two natures his manhood had the properties of the Godhead, communicated unto it; than not only to the shaking, but to the quite subverting of all the Articles of our faith touching his manhood, we must hold, that assoon as this union was consummate in his mother's womb, so soon he was there and every where else; and whiles he lived, he was not only where he was seepe and heard, but also every where: and the like we must hold to be true, when he died, was buried, descended into hell, rose again, ascended, sitteth at the right hand of the Father, and when he shall come again to judgement: that is, that in his very manhood, at one & self same time, he was upon the cross and not upon the cross, in his grave and not in his grave, that he descended into hell and that yet he was not in hell, that he rose again out of his grave and did not, ascended up into heaven and yet tarried still below in the earth, that he sits at the right hand of his Father in heaven and yet is elsewhere, and that he shall come from thence to judgement and yet was never gone from hence: because at all these times, his Godhead was, is, and shall be every where, and therefore his manhood. Yea, we must hold, that he was at one & self same time compassed in place, and yet filled every place; that he was passable and impassable; infinite, and finite; visible and invible, in respect of his manhood; the one through the natural condition thereof, and the other through a communicated Godhead thereunto. All which either quite raise these Articles before touched, out of the Creed, or at least they enforce us to conceive them in such a fond sense, as neither the Scriptures nor any ancient writer lead us unto, or encourage us in. Hereupon it comes that in plain terms, because the Article of the ascension is most urged against them that they are not ashamed, some of the greatest of them; to interpret that, to be no changing at all of his place, but a becoming invisible, whereas before he was visible. By which new kind of Divinity, we may say, that he that was seen before in a room is gone out of it, he that was below is gone up into & upper room, if he have but hid himself behind the curtains. And seeing by the same reason they must be driven to inteprete the rest in like manner, hereupon also it will follow, that his leaving his mother's womb, and his rising out of the grave, and therefore his not being found there in his body, was but a deceiving of the senses of his mother, and of those that sought him in his grave and could not find him: for he was there still though she thought that she was quite delivered of him, and they could not find him there. So also by this when he was dying upon the cross visibly in all other places, he was invisibly in his very same manhood alive, and not touched by his enemies. O what a ridiculous, monstrous and foolish assertion is this, whereupon all these most gross absurdities both against reason and all religion follow! Who can once enter but into the view thereof whose heart withal will not tremble and quake, and for the horror thereof be extremely amazed and astonished? The lords name therefore for ever be blessed that hitherto hath kept these our Churches from the infection of the poison hereof; and I beseech him for his Christ's sake, that for ever he would vouchsafe so to do still. Luther never sought to defend his Consubstantiation with this: yea his best friends that he had, and amongst them that famous learned man Philip Melancton plainly report, that yet he was brought to see his error therein ere he died, though he lived not to raze it out of his books. Since his preposterous followers of a wilful eagerness to maintain that which once herein they had undertook, being driven to see the weakness of the former grounds that they had before common with the papists have as with the furious tempest of contention thus run themselves upon this rock. The land in his mercy grant them in time to see their folly, that they may beartily repent hereof, and of the destruction of the Churches of Christ; whereof by this means they have been perilous authors. Amen. Amen. 
The special grounds & fruits of the popish real presence, viewed & confuted.   
Now thus to leave these and to come to the Papists, to view what special grounds and conceits they have for the and intenance of their real presence, and so whither they are grown thorough the good liking that they have of their opinion truly I see I shall enter into the raving of surely a rotten dunghill, the favour whereof may justly offend both God and man. For by occasion of this their opinion of real presence by retue of Transubstantiation, they have transformed this Sacrament into a Mass which they may worthily so call, it consisteth of such a mass of errors and impieties. For thereby, whereas by Christ's institution it is a Sacrament, 
As first their making of it a propitiatory sacrifice.  wherein GOD offereth and giveth to us his sons broken body and blood shed to feed on, they ●●rne it into a sacrifice whereby man should offer up again the Son to the Father: and whereas the use of it, as Christ hath left it unto us, leadeth us to the only sacrifice that Christ hath offered once for all in his own person, thereupon by faith to feed to our perfect and everlasting salvation, they in this their Mass lead us to a propitiatory sacrifice which they say their priests therein offer both for the quick and dead, as though quite contrary to the doctrine of the Apostle to the Hebrews, Christ were such a Priest as needed successors, as Aaron, to offer often sacrifice, for that the once offering of it himself should no more make the comers thereunto perfect, than the sacrifices that the priefies after the order of Aaron offered. Heb. 7.24. etc. If they say that that which they offer is another than that which Christ himself offered: then why and now should it be said, That he by his own blood entered once into the holy place, and hath obtaynedeternall redemption for us. Heb. 9.12. And to say that it is the same only repeated again by them, what need that, seeing by this by himself once offered as we read, Hebre. 7.27.9.26. & 10.10. he hath done it sufficiently for our redemption? Whether therefore they would make it the same or an other, which they say their priests offer, they cannot escape but that they must imuriously go about both to rob Christ and his sacrifice of that honour and prerogative that is due unto them. Paul takes it for granted that if Christ himself should offer himself often, than he must often die, Hebre. 9.26. and that thereupon it came that his offering of himself once for all, was sufficient to proc●●● us that by him so offered, (which he calls the new and living way, Cap●o● 20. seek to come to heaven; first that he was a man without sin. Heb. 7.26. and such a man as liveth for ever, and so hath a priesthood that cannot pass from one to an other, 24. and then that he offered himself without fault to GOD by the aeternal spirit. What an absurd thing than were i● to imagine that a popish sinful Priest, that hath no such eternal spirit in him to dignify his offering, can offer Christ again, or can without attempting to pull Christ out of beaven to the cross again take upon him to offer him to his Father. I know they say their sacrificing or offering of him is unbloody, and so they think they can avoid these absurdities as long as they leave only to Christ the offering of the bloody. But this will not serve their turn one whit. For if Christ's bloody sacrifice of itself be sufficient, as these places most strengly prove it is, what need is there of this unbloody sacrifice of theirs? For where perfect remission of sins and iniquities is such that God according to his conenant will remember them no more, there is no more offering for sin (saith Paul, Heb. 10.17.18.) and in confessing theirs to be unbloody, they must confess that, howsoever they have picked the purses of men both alive and dead with the contrary persuasion, it is utterly unavailable to put away the sins either of the alive or dead. For without shedding of blood is no remission, Heb. 9.22. A sacrifice sometimes the Fathers call is, because it is the commemoration of Christ's sacrifice, and so that which occasioneth us to offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving; in regard whereof they call it also the Eucharist: but a real offering again of Christ to his Father for the sins of others alive or dead, visible or invisible, bloody or unbloody, never any of them thought or taught i● to be. We have to offer ourselves bodies and souls a living sacrifice to God; which we do in serving of him according to his word. Rom. 12.1. An acceptable sacrifice to God is a broken and contrite heart, Psal. 51.17. and we are willed, Heb. 13. to offer the sacrifice of praise always to God, that is, the fruit of our lip● which confess his name (mamely in pouring forth our prayers & pralses unto him;) & to do good & to distribute we are there also commanded, for that with such sacrifices God is pleased Other sacrifices than this we are not taught to offer, and offering these well we may boldly trust to the most perfect and absolute sacrifice that Christ made once for all, which for ever remains fresh and new in the sight of the heavenly Father to make us acceptable unto him in his beloved. Hoc facite, do this, though Virgil help them with his phrase, Cum faciam vitula, when I sacrifice Calves, is too calvish a reason or ground to make them thus proud and saucy to take upon them any way to offer Christ again to his Father for the sins of men. But whither will not foolish man run when once he hath left the beaten way of the Lord in his word, to follow his own devise and conceit? Christ's offering of himself, by himself, doubtless was never applied to the good of any that whiles they were alive took not hold of it: and yet such is the impudency of these men, that now they hold the intention of their Priest in saying of his Mass, shall carry the benefit of this sacrifice whether he list, to live or dead. Yea hereby seeing their credit grow as it hath, and their gains come rolling in, they have not been ashamed not yet are in this great light, to make their sacrifice in the Mass a salve for all sores, and physic for all diseases both of man and beast. Well yet this is not all the mischief that their conceit of real presence by transubstantiation hath brought them unto. For besides this, hereupon they are grown even to honour and worship their hosts once consecrated, even as Christ himself; and therefore whereas Christ commanded that which he eat, brake, and gave, to be eaten straight, they hoist it up over their heads, that all the people may gaze upon it, adore and worship it for their Christ and Saviour: and then when they have played with it their fill, for the most part they eat up all themselves alone, that be the massing priests, and if they leave any them they hang up in a Pixe over the Altar, to serve them an other time; which all comers into the Church in the mean time must adore and reverence, though so hanged up and hidden from their eyes. Wherein doubtless they commit most gross idolatry. For first they themselves many of them hold that the priest must have an intention to consecrate; or else though he utter the words, there follows no transubstantiation thereupon: and therefore wisdom would if they had any care to avoid Idolatry, that they should be sure of the priests intention, before they fell to worshipping of the host, or rather because they can never be sure of that because no man can know a man's thought but himself, and every one can and often doth dissemble and make show to think that which he doth not, they should and would, if there were any fear of God in them, utterly abstain therefrom. Again unto this day they cannot agree amongst themselves of the words and means of consecration: their Schoolmen I am sure Scotus, Petrus de Aliaco, Occam, Thomas Aquinas, Durand, and others wonderfully have jarred about this matter, and as yet I cannot find they are fully agreed. In the mean time therefore whiles they be, they should in all reason be better advised what they do. But to let these reasons alone, who can or may think that it can stand with Christ's saying, john. 4.24. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth, that they should now thus worship a wafer cake in show and taste for very Christ? I am truly persuaded that there hath been no one thing that hath more hardened the hearts either of Turks or jews from becoming Christians, then to hear and see as they do, these men thus to worship these wafer Chrisies of theirs; who yet would be accounted the only good Christians. And it is certain even for this the heathen Philosooner and Physician Averroes, (though he by traveling and reading was acquainted with wonderful many foolish & fond kinds of Idolatry) living and flourishing about the year of Christ no. judged Christians to be the most foolish Idolaters in the world. And without all doubt this hath been a verie God Manzim, that is, of power and riches to them. For the people being persuaded that their priests can turn so quickly a poor wafer into Christ their Saviour, and that they can at their pleasure offer him unto his Father for their soul's health both whiles they are alive and when they are dead they have not cared what honour and riches they have bestowed upon them. And therefore not unfitly may that of Daniel be as well verified of them even for this, as of them of whom he spoke most properly and literally, That they honour the God Mauzim, a God whom their Fathers knew not, Dan. 11.38. And yet behold if we go on but a little further, more iniquity and impiety in their Mast then all these. For therein they have quite contrary to Christ's institution, by absurdly taking it to be a sacrament of Christ's life, 
That they minister it but in one kind.  and so of his body and blood now together in his manhood in heaven, (whereas he left it to be a sacrament of his death, and so of the sundering thereby of the one from the other, as I have showed,) and by a new devise of Concomitance, that is of the going of his body & blood now always together, robbed the common people of the one half of the Sacrament, denying them the cup, & telling them that in taking the host, they take all; for his body & blood are & go now together. But if it were thus, why do they themselves take both; or would they have us to think it needful for them to eat him once under the form of bread, & after to drink him again under the form of wine, & that the one is enough for the people? Evident it is in the words of the institution, and by the practice thereof in Paul's time, 1. Cor. 11. that all were as expressly commanded to drink of the cup, as to eat of the other. But Christ being the wisdom of the Father, had not so much wisdom & forecast as these men belike, to foresee that his body & blood go together, & therefore for lack of foresight he ordained a superfluous thing. What an intolerable pride and presumption is this that dust and ashes, and sinful man shall thus undertake to alter & to control the ordinance of our Lord and saviour? Before the Council of Constance, which was in the year, 1414. we find not the administering of this Sacrament under both kinds, generally and public forbid the common communicant. And in the council of Basil about some 16. years after, for all that, it was permitted to the Boemians again. De consecratione dist. 2. Gratian alleages a decree of Gelasius a Bishop of Rome a thousand years ago, to bind all men to receive in both kinds, saying; either let him that receiveth receive both, or neither, because the division of one mystery cannot be without sacrilege. By this let them that hold their Popes solemn sentences for Oracles, learn what manner of persons now their Popes and priests in this point are become, that now openly profess and practise the contrary hereunto. 
That their priests take it alone.  And because they have also in their Masses (as they say) so often consecration, and yet none receive but the priest himself for the most part: what shift will they make with that, that we find in the same distinction Cap. Peracta: alleged there, as the solemn sentence of Pope Calixt (in the year 223. or thereabout, consecration being done (saith he) all that will not be shut from the Church should communicate; for so the Apostles taught, and the fashion of the Roman Church was. Lo here is both a Pope's decree, and that grounded both upon the Apostles practise and the ancient Roman Churches also, flatly against the practice of the Roman Church that now is. And in very deed no man can read that which Saint Paul hath written of this matter 1. Cor. 11. but he must needs most plainly see that it was then the Apostles practise not only to administer it in both kinds, but also openly in the assemblies, and to all that could and would try and examine themselves: and this man being Bishop of Rome was not ignorant what the fashion of the ancient Roman Church had been. Wherefore as in many other things so in this it appears for all their great brags and countenance of antiquity, that the Roman Church that now is, 
Lastly their Consubstantiation is confuted.  is become an Apostata and runagate from the ancient Apostolic Roman Church indeed. All these abominations & a number more in their Mass, which here without too to much tediousness I cannot stand upon they are so many, arise & grow from their special minion and paragon Transubstantration: and therefore until her brains be dashed out there will never be any ho of their foolishness and madness in this mass and Chaos of confusion of theirs. They would bear the world in hand that she is most ancient and yet indeed and truth how long soever before they were in conceiving of her, yet she was never grown ripe to the birth or borne before Innocent the thirds time. For never before the Laterane council, which was in his time and in the year 1211. (as I have said before,) was this decreed to be a Catholic truth amongst themselves. And this their own great Doctor and Bishop Tonstall in a book of his written of this matter confesseth adding, that perhaps it had been better to have less the manner how Christ becometh present in this Sacrament, as it was before that council. Now before this, the Greek Church was departed from the Church of Rome, and therefore this was rather the decree of a private and particular conventicle then of the universal Church of God; and therefore not only we, but still unto this day the Greeks' reject both this council and decree, though I know much tempering hath been with them since to the contrary. Scotus is not only of the same mind with Tonstall, but if you read him, dist. 11, quaest. 3. upon the 48. book of Sentences, you shall not only find, that he bringeth a number of objections against this, which he never answereth to any purpose but also that in the end, he setting down his sole determination for it, that yet most plainly he confesseth, that the principal ground of interpreting Christ's words by transubstantiation, is this, that de sacramentis tenendum est sicat tenet sancta Ecclesia Romana: of sacraments, we must hold as the holy Roman Church holdeth. For the which axiom, or rule, in so weighty a matter, in his next words he shows, that the best ground he had, was an Extravagant, de haereticis, Cap. ad abolendam, wherein some such things be determined, by a savorite of the same. Which is as good ovidence, as if we should ask a theoves follow, whether he be a thief, if not worse. Gabriel Biell another great Doctor of theirs, writing upon the Canon of the Mass, confesseth that it is not expressed in the Canon of the Bible, whether by transubstantiation, or consubstantiation, the body of Christ be there. And john Fisher a bishop and martyr of theirs, as they count him, writing against Luther's book of the captivity of Babylon, thinketh that every man understandeth that the certainty of that matter depends not so much of the Gospel, as it doth upon the use, tradition, and custom of the Church. And more truly and easily in show, if it had pleased the Church might those words of Christ otherwise have been expounded, (saith Scotus in the forefaide place). These things said together and conferred with that saying of Christ, They worship me in vain, reaching for doctrines men's precepts Math. 15.9. and with Peser. 1. Epist. ●. Cap. 14. Vers. 18. where he tells all them, to whom he wrote that general Bpistle, that Christ had redeemed them from the vain conversation which they had received by the traditions of the Fathers: we shall soon see that it is no rock whereupon they build this their transubstantiation, but a very sand and a rotten foundation. Yet because they are so confident in this matter as they are, I will not leave them thus. Will you then know the first author that gave them any inkling or ground of invention here of. Truly it was not Mark the Evangelist nor any such; but yet unless I be much deceived, one Mark marked them out the way the first of all others to find it out. This Mark that I speak of, was a famous Magition and a damnable filthy heretic of the brood of Valentilians, a very ancient one (I must needs confess.) For I find that he lived in the time of the Emperor Antarinus Pius which was but 150. years after Christ. Of this wretch writeth Epiphanius in his 34. heresy, proving that which he saith out of Irenaus his 9 chapter against the heresies of the Valentinians, where indeed it is so testified of him, that when by his enchantment or inkling he had caused a cup of white wine to bear the colour of blood, that then he made his fellow believe that by his invocation over it, it was so transubstantiated into blood, that so by his means it might be thought that the grace that is super universa that is, over all, had instilled sanguinem suum in illud poculum, his blood unto that cup: by which means when he had made them in admiration of him and so desirous to drink there of, he gave them (as it is there noted) with great solemnity of words, and so wonderfully bewitched many. And the rather was I led and am thus to think, because the same Irenaeus in the 8. chapter of the said book (secretly directed as I take it by the spirit of prophecy) said that he was verè pracursor Antichristi, that is, truly Antichristes forerunner. If therefore the former novity of their transubstantiation please them not, let them hence fetch the pedigree thereof, and so let Marcus be the first conceiver of it, and Innocentius he that bore and brought it forth. Or if this be not to their minds, I will confess that it may be that they learned it of the heathen, who as they imagined with certain words & gestures could call down their Hecate, jupiter, and Elicius as oft as they list. For never made or at this day maketh any heathen man more ado than they about this business, about the most idolatrous toy of superstition that ever they went about. For the words must be pronounced with one breath, and they use such crossing such bending and bowing, breathing and haling of the words to the elements, as they make themselves very ridiculous to any that are wise that see them & mark their doings. No juggler nor sycophant upon a stage are more full of fond and trifling actions and gestures than a Priest at Mass, and all to effect this their transubstantiation. Who can be persuaded that the Lord of heaven and earth that delighteth in no vanity, but altogether in sincerity and simplicity, can take delight in this gear? Whiles they have been so busy to establish the credit of this their devise by fond tales of diverse miracles showed here and there, and I cannot tell where, it had been more needful for them to have laboured first to agree amongst themselves about the matter, and to clear the doubts that they have moved themselves by occasion thereof. But this hitherto they have found so cumbersome a thing to do, that I dare be bold to say by that which I have red and could set down thereof, the varieties of their opinions and intricate doubts hereupon moved by themselves, and unanswered and unsatisfied as yet, would require a longer time than I have yet spent since I began to talk of this Sacrament, to set them down in. Yea though they use and like the word Transubstantiation never so well, yet though they know that both by the words of the institution, and by Saint Paul's speeches had thereof, 1. Cor. 10.11. and by the testimonies with one consent of all the ancient Fathers, as we have often showed them, Christ called undoubtedly the bread which he broke and gave, his body broken; and the wine in the cup his bloodshed, they cannot yet be brought to tell us or to agree amongst themselves, what it is that should be or is here transubstantiated and converted into his body. Nay in truth they dare not say that either bread or wine or any thing else are the things: and yet we must yield to a transubstantiation though no man yet could or would tell us, and stand to it when he hath done, whereof it is. Howsoever, either they must say it is of some thing, or not: if of any thing, than they know that thereupon it will follow that of that thing, whatsoever it be, here Christ's body is made; which is absurd they themselves seem to think; & to say nothing is turned or transubstantiated into it, is quite to lose their cause. In very deed they are enforced to see, that if they should once by the demonstrative particle This that Christ used, understand the bread & wine, that then it would most clearly follow that there is a Trope or figure in the speech of Christ, or that else they must confess bread and wine to be turned into the body and blood of Christ, and therefore to shun both these straits they cannot tell what to understand by it, and so are at their wits end. By that which they say and doc they yet are resolute that they convey and banish away the substances of bread and wine, and leave nothing but the bare accidents thereof, under which they hold lustily Christ to be flesh, blood & bone. And therefore they sing merrily in their Hymn or Carrol upon Corpus Christi day, Sub diversis speciebus, signis tantùm & non rebus, latent res eximiae, caro, cibus, sangnis, potus, manet homo Christus totus, sub utraque specie: a sumente non concisus, non confractus, nec divisus integer accipitur, etc. that is, Under diverse kinds, signs only and not things, most excellent things lie hid, flesh, meat, blood, drink, yea whole Christ abideth under either kind: of the taker not bruised not broken, nor divided but whole is he taken. But for all this their stir it should seem yet that now they are persuaded they have him rather by banishing of bread and wine (though they cannot tell either how, whither, or into what,) then by transubstantiation of bread and wine thereinto or of anything else. Howsoever it were or be, that there should remain nothing but the bare accidents or out ward forms of bread and wine that is enough utterly to overthrow the nature of the Sacrament. For in Sacraments always there must be an Analogy betwixt the signs and the things signified, which cannot be betwixt bare accidents of bread and wine, (for that they alone feed not at all) and the body and blood of Christ which are our food to eternal life: and therefore to abolish or abandon by what means soever bread & wine, is to destroy quite the nature of the Sacrament. That the very substances thereof remain for all their prating, when they have used all their art & the tricks thereof they can, both Scripture, Fathers, and reason make it most evident. For in the words of the institution, scan and mark them well who list, it is most clear that Christ took very bread and wine, and that he both gave that which he took and that they took the same and no other, though by his institution now changed in name, use, and estimation as I have said. And therefore Paul retaineth the name of the bread and cup still, even when they come to be eaten and drunken upon, 1. Cor. 11.26. and Christ calls it the fruit of the vine tree, and that after he had delivered it, and they had drunken thereof. Mar. 14.25. And in all other Sacraments as we have heard, though the like phrase of speech have been used, yet always have they been fulland forcible Sacraments to offer, to deliver, and to seal the delivery of the inward grace thereby intended to the right receivers, without any such abolishing or transubstantiating of the outward elements thereinto, as is here imagined. And if Christ had had any such purpose, it had sure been as easy a matter with him to have uttered his mind in and by words sounding plainly that he meant to effect some such thing (as by saying, this is turned into my body, or let this be transubstantiated thereinto, or let the substance of this cease, and in the romph thereof let my body come and be) as only to have said affirmatively that it was his body. But having but said so, it is most certain it was some certain thing that he affirmed to be so: for he would never call bare nothing or an individuum vagum, an uncertain thing, (as Gardiner holds he meant by This) his body. And therefore will they nile they, by Christ's words interpreted as they do, either we must have Christ's body, which once was of the nature of the Virgin his Mother (that so he might be that seed of the woman to tread down the serpent's head, and in whom all the nations of the world should be blessed) whensoever any of their priests thereby intent to consecrate (as they speak) made of a wafer again; or at least now grown to be such an one as that it can lie hid under the form thereof, the substance of bread being gone to give it romph. But once again I must tell them that the words of Christ are so far from sounding any such thing, as that if they should be taken literally as they sound, they rather show that his body and blood were become bread & wine or turned thereinto, than the contrary. For when Moses rod was turned into a serpent, or when Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt, if one should have said of the one that it was Moses rod, or of the other that it was Lot's wife, would any thereby have understood that he mente that the scrpent was transubstantiated into the rod or the pillar of salt into Lot's wife, nay would not the very sound of the words most plainly lead any man rather to understand that his meaning was to show Moses rod was turned into the serpent, and Lot's wife into the pillar of salt? Wherefore they have not only no ground in the Scriptures for this their opinion, but not only other scriptures but the very words of the institution are directly against them. And the ancient Fathers are plain that though Christ called bread and wine his body broken and his blood shed, that yet neither by transubstantion nor any way else the substances thereof are gone. Theodoret both in his first Dialogue & second also, though most plainly (as I have noted already) he confess that Christ honoured bread and wine with the names of his body and blood, most flatly saith that yet he changed not their natures but added grace to nature, and that the mystical signs after sanctification (as he pleaseth to speak) go not from their nature, figure or form. And Gelasius against Eutiches writeth directly that in the Eucharist the nature of bread and wine cease not. Ambrose also, as Gratian allegeth him De consecr. dist. 2. cap. p●nis, writing de sacramentis of the Sacraments, noteth that in this Sacrament the word of Christ is so powerful, ut sint quae erant, & in aliud commutentur, that they remain that which they were before, and yet are turned into another thing. And if we would know in what sense and sort they are changed into another thing remaining also still the same that they were before, the same Gratian a little before in the chapter quia corpus, teacheth us to learn that of ourselves by the change that we find in ourselves by regeneration, and that out of Eusebius Emissenus; which as he noteth and we all know is true not at all in respect of outward substance (for that is the same in us when we are regenerate that it was before) but only of inward grace and quality, which is that which I call here in this Sacrament an alteration of the outward elements in name use and estimation. Bertram in a set treatise written of this matter as it is thought in Carolus Calunus time, by many arguments proves bread and wine still to remain. And Elfricke about the year 996. (as Fox noteth) in two Saxon Epistles, which to that end he records, therein taught bread and wine here no otherwise to be the body and blood of Christ, than Manna and the water of the rock in the wilderness were Christ, which all men know they were but by representation and signification, and not really; for that then Christ was not become man. And the same man, as master Fox noteth, translated a sermon out of Latin into the Saxon tongue (which he insertes wholly in his story also) by him then appointed to be red on Easter day to the Saxons inhabiting then this land; which who so readeth shall find that it contains much direct matter & proof, both against transubstantiation, and gross real presence built thereupon. In Bedes time also, who died about the year 734. the same doctrine was continued here and elsewhere, as it appeareth by that which he hath written upon the institution, as it is set down by Luke 22. where he shows (as I have noted before) not only the likelihood of the use of bread and wine in nourishing and cheering our bodies, to be the cause they bear the names of the body and blood of Christ, which semblably nourish and feed our souls: but also he so speaketh and writeth thereof, that yet he shows he took them to be bread and wine still. And as by this you may see then that both Scriptures and Fathers are against them herein, so questionless is all sound reason, most strongly: which as long as it is not controwled or crossed, either by the doctrine of faith, or good manners taught in the Scriptures, is worth the listening unto. Now reason and all our senses, and the experience that we have had and may have of the sowreing of the wine, of the moulding and corrupting of the hosts, so that worms may and have bred thereof, and that Dogs, Bats, Rats, and Miso, and so not only unbelievers can feed thereof, are most sure evidence unto us, that for all their great brags to the contrary, with all their crossing, whispering, breathing, becking and doucking, and demure pronuncing of the words, they cannot neither once remove the substances of bread and wine away, nor bring Christ's body or blood into the romphs thereof. For neither can these things that I have spoken of, all or any of them be incident to bare accidents, neither yet to the most precious body & blood of Christ jesus God and man. For who knoweth not that bare accidents are not, nor can be subjects of such accidents as these be? Neither can they be matter to nourish and feed either man or beast withal, or to breed any such things upon. And howsoever these men can find in their hearts to grant that the body of the Christ whom they serve may be subject to all these things, sure I am the body of the true Christ (that the saying of the Psalmist might be verified thereof, Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption, Psal. 16.10.) could not possibly be held of death until it rot: and therefore much less will the heavenly Father now that it is glorified, let it be either meat for such filthy vermin or for the mouths of wicked men, or to be subject to putrefaction that worms shall breed thereon. But I know though some of them have not been ashamed to say that he can and may be eaten of such beasts as well as of such men (whereof none of them now doubt;) yet generally they say when such things fall out with the outward elements as I have spoken of, than Christ by his almighty power conveyeth himself away, and lets the old substances come again and join themselves with their accidents. In the mean time than I would the best studied of them in this point could either tell us what was becomde in the mean time of the substances, or how their accidents were kept or vnderpropt without substances, and so subjects to be in. And if it were granted then that Christ to exempt and to preserve his body from these inconveniences removes it away before any of these can fall out unto it, yet than they grant that the best shift that their popish Christ hath in this case is to run away or to give place. Such a Christ may become such kind of Christians; but surely the wise hearted Christians would be loath to trust to such a Christ for their salvation whose best shift is thus to fly that a Mouse eat him not; and I would advise them not to trust themselves too much to such a dastardly Christ. I would think that they should & would rather hold that he drives all these away, then that indeed he should be driven away of any of them: and that therefore when any such thing seemeth to fall out otherwise, either the priest consecrated not well, and so failed and came short of transubstantiation, or that the senses are deceived in thinking any such thing in have happened. But seeing they like better to provide for their Christ by his sudden departure, I would have them to tell me, whether they work a greater miracle in transubstantiating bread and wine into him, or these kind of cattle in trasubstantiating him again into the old bread and wine; And I would be glad once to here a substantial reason, why Christ's words should not, or did not prove as powerful to drive the accidents away as the substance, or why they believing, notwithstanding Christ's plain words, that accidents of bread and wine remain, because the senses tells them so, they should not, or will not believe the same senses, as plainly assuring them that the substances themselves also remain, that therefore they are there also. But what should I trouble myself by reason and sense to confute them, which as it should seem have herein, for the maintenance of their own wilful conceit, pride, pomp & commodity, lost both sense, reason, and religion. Notwithstanding to all such as have these, I trust I have said sufficient, to make not only the verity of our own doctrine, touching this Sacrament, sufficiently to appear, but also to the full displaying & disgrasing for ever with such of the vanity of both these our adversaries herein. Wherefore to return to my text, and so to go on again therewith, I hope yet by this that I have said of this matter, you now plainly perceive, that notwithstanding the doctrine and use of this Sacrament, the union and communion that we must seek to have with Christ, though it be true & real in respect of him and us, the persons & things to be united; that yet it is not gross & carnal, to be attained unto by the instruments or members of our body at all, as these our adversaries teach: but that by the word & Sacraments, God offers him unto us, and by his Spirit communicateth him unto us, after a spiritual and mystical manner, and that we by faith wrought and nourished in us by this his Spirit and means, feed upon to our everlasting salvation.  
Touching which faith, 
Conclusion of the commandment.  which thus I have made as it were the hand & mouth of our soul to take Christ offered unto us in the word & Sacraments withal, at the hand of God hsi spirit; let it be remembered once again, that Christ here in my text, calling for it, to drink him by, saith not simply, he that believeth in me, but with this addition, as saith the Scripture. Whereby let us, to conclude this point withal, learn that in this case, it is not enough to believe as we list, nor as this man or that, this company or that teach us always: Yea that we never believe aright to this purpose until we believe in Christ as the canonical Scriptures teach us. All which (as I have before sufficiently showed) lay him still before us to be believed in as our sole and only meritorious cause of our salvation; with whom we may neither join any other person or thing. And so steadfast also our confidence of salvation these teach us aught to be in him, that thereby we may say, We have peace with God through him, and such access to God's grace, as that we stand therein and rejoice under hope which shall never be confounded. Rom. 5. vers. 1.2.3. etc. In so much that having reckoned up all things that are most likely to do it, yet with Paul all that have this faith may boldly and triumphantly say, That nothing shall separate them from the love of God which is in Christ jesus. In any case therefore by the means that he hath appointed for that purpose (which I have now also laid before you) let us strive to attain to this faith and to nourish it when we have once got it. For this is it that joineth Christ and us together, and so fully possesseth us of him and all the treasured graces and mercies of God provided for men's salvation in him, that therefore it bringeth unto us the peace that passeth all understanding, Phil. 4.7. and the joy that none can ever take from us. john. 16.22. We have the word of God and that written, outwardly sealed in the Sacraments, and thereby, by his spirit also inwardly offering to seal & sealing the same unto our hearts & consciences, that God the Father in and by his son Christ jesus, by the mighty working of the holy Ghost both can and will save us. Whatsoever therefore papists prate to the contrary, let us most firmly and constantly thus believe, and not once dare call the truth of God, thus many ways confirmed unto us, once into question. But then let us never for get that golden saying of Cyprian, De duplicimartirio. Non credit in Deum, qui non in eo solo collocat totius suae salut is fiducia: that is, He believes not in God at all, that placeth not the whole confidence of his salvation in him alone. And the rather for that thus to do our Creeds, our Baptism and all the scriptures teach us. Let us not therefore by the example or doctrine of Papists, be drawn from hence to put our confidence, as they do, both in a number of persons and things that are not God. For that were undoubtedly (howsoever they would persuade men to the contrary) no better than to become plain revolters and apostares from the ancient found Catholic faith, which all these most plainly teach and bind us unto, and in deed to fet up unto ourselves a new Christ of our own devising, with whom none of these ever acquainted us. Wherefore as in these respects I would wish that we took heed of the seven of the popish faith, as of the very bane & poison of our souls; so also beware we of their kind of faith in the use of the Sacrament of the body & blood of Christ. For as you may perceive by that which I have said already of that matter, the faith that they most call for in that business is, a believing that Christ's very body & blood are really there under the forms of bread & wine, & so be taken in & by the bodily mouth of every receiver, quite contrary both to the true sense of the Scriptures in that behalf, & to the nature of Christ. These things thus finished and concluded, it remaineth now that we proceed in our text: wherein we have yet to consider of the promise therein made by Christ to all those and to none but to those that by right knowing him, and believing in him, come unto him, and drink of him.  
This promise he utters and expresses in these words as you have heard, 
The promise.  out of his belly shall flow rivers of water of life, whereunto if we refer these words, as saith the Scripture, (as many interpreters both old and new do,) than they teach us to understand this promise, as the Scripture teacheth us ellewhere, and not otherwise. And seeing Christ hath uttered the promise in such a metaphorical phrase as he hath, it may very well be that of very purpose he placed those words as he did, not only to teach us as we have heard already, that we come unto him and drink of him, by sound knowledge and right faith as the Scriptures show us; but also plainly to instruct us, that in so doing we must look to have the words of this promise fulfilled unto us, not in any gross or literal sense, but only in such spiritual manner and sort, as the Scriptures themselves in other places declare. Hereby then to begin withal, Christ hath given us this most notable and profitable rule, that it is a most sound way, rightile to expound Scriptures, and so rightly to understand them, to confer Scripture with Scripture, and to admit no sense of figurative and dark phrases and speeches in the same, but that which may & doth stand with other more plain places, which in God's wisdom and providence even of purpose elsewhere are set down therein, that they may be as a key to let us into the right sense of the hard: than which rule (howsoever now a days our adversaries would persuade they have found a better, namely to make the current practice of their Church; which when they have braved of Doctors and Councils never so much, is indeed only the very pleasure & mutable fancy of their Popes) the ancient Fathers have esteemed and followed this as the best and saifest. As it is evident in Augustine, De doctrina Christiana, Lib. 3.2.6. where he defineth that to be always the sense of the hard place, which is taught in plainer; and that no sense is to be received to be the sense of any, which cannot be proved so to be out of other places. Of the same mind Hierome shows himself to have been in his 19 Homily upon Esay, noting that therefore it is the fashion of the scriptures after hard things to join other that be plain. Origen also in his first Homily of Hierimie, and Chrysostome in divers places, namely writing of the holy Ghost, and in his 12. Homtlie upon Genesis, are most pregnant in this point; the one rejecting all senses and interpretations as of no credit without warrant from other scriptures, and the other affirming plainly that the scriptures so expound themselves that they suffer not the Reader to err. Whereupon no man, no not amongst us, is more earnest to urge all sorts of men to read the scriptures, than Chrysostome, as any man may see in his 9 Homily upon the Collossians, & in his third upon Matthew. Let us therefore in this case take trial of this rule, that so we may learn what we are to understand by these rivers of water, here spoken of and promised. And for as much as when these words were first uttered by Christ, than the Canonical scriptures only of the old Testament were written, it shallbe most fit to look into them for this purpose. Wherein to this end very pertinent it is, that the blessed man (which doubtless he is that cometh unto Christ, and drinketh of him aright) is described in the first Psalm to be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that will bring forth his fruit in due season, and whose leaf shall not fade, but whatsoever he doth it shall prosper, Verse. 3. But that in the five and fifty of the prophesy of Esay. vers. 1. etc. in my judgement, and in my opinion best agreeth with this and appertaineth hereunto. For there, after that the thirsty are solemnly (as it were) by way of proclamation, called and alured to come to the waters, and so freely, being come, to drink wine and to eat milk and that which was fat and good; a promise is made them if they would so do, that they should live and enjoy the sure mercies of David. That also, Esay. 59.20.21. may well be as a Commentary upon this, where after that it is said that the redeemer shall come unto Zion, it is said, that this covenant shallbe made with them that turn from iniquity in jacob, that his spirit and word should never depart from them, nor from their seed after them: which covenant or promise is more fully opened, jeremy. 31.33.34. unto which time of the coming of the Messiah, and the performance of this promise then, joel having an eye, he bringeth in GOD promising then, that he would pour out his spirit upon all sorts, old and young, men and women, Cap. 2. vers. 28. whereunto in my opinion it seemeth that john thought that Christ had relation in this promise-making here, in that in plain terms he telleth us that this he spoke of the Spirit, which they should receive that believed in him: for (saith he) the holy Ghost was not yet, because that jesus was not yet glorified. This therefore is even sufficient to teach us in what sense the scripture would have us to understand, that rivers of waters of life shall flow out of the bellies of such as will come unto him, drink of him and believe in him, as we have heard; namely even of the plentiful gifts and graces of the spirit, that undoubtedly he would bestow and continue in such. And let it not seem strange unto any man thus to hear the spirit of God watering and moistening the house of God, and washing and softening the hearts of those that be in need thereof compared unto waters for it is very usual in the scriptures. For not only, Psal. 1.3. & Esay. 55.1. etc. as I have noted before, by rivers of water & waters we can understand nothing so fitly as the most plentiful & rich graces of God in Christ: but also elsewhere often, both in the old Testament and in the new, the same or like speeches are used, whereby we can understand nothing else. For after that God, to persuade jacob not to fear, had said, I will power water upon the thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, to make it plain that he understood nothing else thereby, immediately he addeth, I will power out my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thy buds, and they shall grow as amongst the grass, and as the willows by the rivers of waters: Esay. 44.2.3.4. And what else could or did Ezechiell understand, Cap. 47.1. etc. by the vision of waters flowing out of the lords house, in such a plentiful manner that they were first ankle deep, than thigh deep, then unpassageable: on every side whereof grow all fruitful trees, whose leaf should not fall, and that monthly should bring forth fruit, and that wholesome and medicinable? And we believing as we do, that the holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son (as both the scriptures and all sound confessions of the Catholic and Christian faith teach) what can we more fitly understand, by that pure river of water of life, clear as christ all, that john saw proceeding out of the throne of God, & the Lamb etc. Revel. 22. Vers. 1. than the holy Ghost proceeding and flowing from the father and the son, to cheer and to make fruitful the Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem. And by that water of life, which Christ taught the woman of Samaria to ask of him, & whereof if a man drink, he said he should never thirst again, for that it should be in him, a well of water, springing up to everlasting life, no doubt of it, he understood nothing else but the Spirit, which he would bestow upon all his, to regenerate and sanctify them effectually withal. Hereby than you may see, not only this interpretation justified, that by rivers of water of life flowing out of the bellies of such as come unto Christ, and rightly make him their own by drinking of him, we are to understand the Spirit of God and the plentiful graces thereof, promised to the faithful; but also that this is a Metaphor very fit & apt to express the same, or else that God would never have so much delighted therein, as thus by the often using it he showeth he hath done. Howbeit before we proceed any further to consider of the ground, why this Metaphor should be counted so apt, and so much to this purpose delighted in; we are first to understand that by the belly, from whence these rivers of water of life should flow, is meant the soul, heart, and good conscience by faith purified, in the believers, Acts 15. Ver. 9 For the end of the commandment, and so the show of all the good fruits of the Spirit in God's children, cometh from a pure conscience, and both them from faith unfeigned, as Paul testifieth 1. Tim. 1. Ver. 5. The belly and bowels are no seat or fountain, from whence such things issue or flow. Then whereas john saith, the holy Ghost was not yet, whereof he telleth us we are to understand Christ's promises; we must take heed that we understand not that, as spoken of the essence or being of the holy Ghost, lest we fall into the heresy of the Nacedonians, who denied the godhead of the holy Ghost: for so he hath been from everlasting, according to our catholic faith, God coetarnall and coequal with the Father and the Son. And therefore the Psalmist, speakeing so thereof, saith, by the word of God were the heavens made, and by the spirit of his mouth all the powers thereof. Psal. 33. Vers. 6. And therefore our Creed & Baptism bind us aswell to believe in the holy Ghost, as in GOD the Father, or in GOD the Son. And when Christ was baptised, as Math. testifieth that there was a voice heard from Heaven from the Father, This is my well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; so he saith, that john Baptist saw the Spirit of GOD descending like a Dove and lighting upon him. Math. 3. Vers. 16. & 17. john therefore must be understood to speak thus, not of the essence or being of the holic Ghost, but of the gifts and graces thereof, in some further measure, than as yet, when Christ made this promise, they had been ordinarily given unto them that believed in him. And I said advisedly and of purpose thus: for it is most clear and evident that before this, all the Saints and servants of GOD, that believed in GOD, feared him and believed in him, had the Spirit of God and the gifts and graces thereof, in good measure, without which they could not have done so as they did, so to do; being, as it is, the special work of the holy Ghost, as it is known well enough to be. And of Simeon do we not read in plain terms, before this, that the holy Ghost was upon him, and that a revelation was given him of the holy Ghost, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord Christ, and that he came by the motion of the spirit into the Temple, etc. Luke 2.25. & c? And in deed, by yielding his reason of his speech as he doth, saying for jesus was not yet glorified, he giveth us to understand, that his speech is to be but understood by way of comparison, and not simply. And thus both August in his 32. Tract upon john and Chrysostome in his 50. Homile upon this place before me expound it. For Augustine there, after that he had showed that Christ's words can neither be understood of the essence of the holy Ghost, which hath been with the Father from everlasting, nor yet simply of the gifts thereof, for that many both in the old Testament and new, as there he declareth, had good measure thereof; his determination is, that modus futurus erat dationis huius qui emnino antea non apparuerat, that is, that yet there should be a manner of giving thereof, which was never seen before, whereof this is spoken, saith he. And the other in the foresaid place of his, most plainly expoundeth, the Rivers of water of life, largiorem spiritus gratiam, more large grace of the Spirit than was given before. And therefore also, both of them there show that by the Belly we are to understand, the heart and conscience of the inward man, answerable to the inward drink and thirst spoken of here by Christ. And so often in the old Testament, the Prophets having an eye to the wonderful measure of God's grace and plentifulness of God's spirit, that should be powredour, upon the Church the Messiah being come, though in very deed they speak but by comparison, and so of necessity must be understood (for elsewhere very plainly they show that the spirit of God was in good measure upon themselves and upon others then) yet they utter the promises of God touching his pouring out of his Spirit then, as though it were a new thing, that he had never done before: as you may see and behold in the 44. of Esay, and in the 2. of joel in the places before alleged. And thus also must Christ's own saying, john 16.7. of necessity be understood, it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send him unto you: for before that, it appeareth they believed in him to whom he so spoke john. 6.69. For there Peter in all their names saith, we believe and know that thou art the Son of the living God, which is a fruit of the Spirit. Gal. 5.22. And before his ascension and glorification it was, that he breathed upon them and said, receive ye the holy Ghost. john. 20.22: wherefore, before in some measure the Comforter was given them. Indeed after his ascension, as we may see, he showed himself mindful of his promise to the full, Act. 2. in furnishing them so upon the sudden, with all gifts meet for their calling, as that they were filled with the holy Ghost, and Spoke with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. If any be now desirous to know why this plentiful and most powerful furnishing of his with such gifts & graces from above, was reserved to follow as a fruit, effect, and consequent of his ascension, and glorification; let him understand, that in the infinite wisdom and providence of GOD it was, that so it might be made manifest unto his Church, to beget in the same a strong and lively hope; that as by his humiliation and abasement he had obtained and purchased for it eternal redemption, so now by his exaltation and advancement, he was so settled at the right hand of his Father, that he was able to pour down upon the same, all gifts and graces necessary to the effectual applying and sealing the same thereunto. So that thenceforth none need doubt but that he hath gone through with the work of our redemption and salvation, and that as head and husband over his Church, he can and will guide, deck, and furnish the same with all the rich treasures of the graces of GOD, which dwell and rest in him as in the fountain beyond all measure, that of his overflowing and infinite fullness, every member thereof might receive enough, to bring it to perfection in him; as most notably Paul teacheth, Ephes. 4. Vers. 9 etc. But yet neither Christ, nor john here are so to be understood, as though this promise of Christ here were limited and to be extended no further than to those, upon whom after his ascension in that extraordinary manner he bestowed his spirit & the gifts thereof, though I cannot but think they had an especial and first eye unto them, as unto the first fruits of all the rest that should follow. For doubtless as Christ requireth all, that he spoke of before, that thirst to come unto him to drink and to believe in him, as saith the Scripture, and therefore looks for all this at the hands of every true member of his mystical body the church: so the thing promised appertaineth and is common to them all, though according to the diversity of places that they hold in that body, one and the self ame Spirit is diversly bestowed upon them, as we are taught 1. Cor. 12. Ver. 4. etc. So that the Spirit and the gifts and graces of God, are here so promised to them all, and shallbe and are performed, as that aptly they may be called rivers of water of life flowering out of their bellies. But yet then some may marvel, comparing the spirit and gifts thereof seen in many of the faithful, since Christ was glorified, with the Spirit and gifts thereof found in sundry, as in the patriarchs and Prophets and other famous holy men in the old Testament, and finding them in show to be but equal, or rather inferior to some of theirs, why john should either simply or by way of comparison, thus signify unto us that the Spirit had not been given in such measure before, as now Christ being glorified it should. Whereunto though I might answer that john might well say so, in that then the partition wall betwixt jew and Gentile should be pulled down, and so the borders & compass of the Church should wonderfully be enlarged, in comparison they were before: yet more fully to answer this objection, though in respect of those times wherein the patriarchs and Prophets and holy men of GOD lived, in the time of the old Testament, their faith and other fruits of the Spirit that appeared and were found in them, were very commendable, yet in many respects john might prefer the Spirit and the gifts thereof given to believers in the new Testament so before them in the old, that in comparison thereof, the Spirit might be said not to have been before. For first, though then the mysteries of religion were sufficiently revealed for those times; yet were they not opened so clearly and lightsomely then, as now since the coming of Christ: and the Spirit that, he being ascended, he promiseth to his, leadeth them to all truth and teacheth them all things, john. 14.26. In so much that the believing Christian now can speak by direction thereof, more plainly of the Trinity, of Christ's person and office, and of many other mysteries of Christian religion, than any of them had done or could. In respect and regard whereof, Christ saith of john Baptist, verily verily amongst them that are begotten of a woman, arose there not a greater: and yet notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. For he preached Christ, and pointed him present, and none of them saw him or spoke of him but a far off; and yet after Christ had gone thorough with that which he came for, and was ascended; by his Spirit he so enlighteneth the hearts of the meanest sound members of his Church, that they can say more of him than john could. And in this respect Christ said, that many Kings and Prophets had desired to see and hear those things which his Apostles and followers saw, and yet did not, Luke. 10.24. Then who also knoweth not that the ministry and revelation of the will of God was then very dark, it lay so much in types and figures, in compasson that it is now, Christ being come and ascended, at whom those did but aim and point at a far off; and that therefore in that respect, Paul might truly and justly say, that the night was past and the day come, Rom. 13.12. and also magnify the ministery of the new Testament, as far more glorious than that of the old, as most notably he doth, 2. Cor. 3.6. & c? For than they had but the light of the moon and the stars to direct them, whereas we now have the brightness of the shining son; and theirs in comparison was but of the letter and of death, and ours is of the spirit & of life, as Paul showeth there. And therefore how can it be otherwise, but that the effects and fruits of the Spirit being conformable in some good measure to the ministry whereby it worketh, but that now since his coming and glorification they should be in his as rivers of water of life, flowing out of their bellies; whereas before they were in comparison but like unto the little and soft running water from out of the fountain of Siloah at the foot of the mount Zion. And somewhat it maketh the better to make us understand both what Christ said and did, as john here hath set it down, that Tremelius noteth upon this place. For he telleth us that the jews in their Talmud in the tract of the feast of Tabernacles Chapter Chal. show that the last day of that feast was the greatest, because as they say, their ancient Doctors taught them that whereas the other days thereof, they should in joy only once circuit the Altar carrying boughs and palms in their hands, and crying Hosannah, that is, save I pray, this last day by tradition, as they took it from Haggai and Zachariah, they were so to do seven times, crying both Hosannah and Hatzlicannah, (that is, save us I pray thee, and make us to prosper) oftentimes with a loud voice: and further he reporteth that there it is set down as the fashion of that people received by the tradition (as they took it) from the same Prophets, that that day they used with great joy to draw water out of the fountain of Syloach, and to carry it to the Priests, that they might power it upon the Altar with the drink offering of wine, having in the mean time that song cheerfully & aloud, which we read, Esay. 12.3. You shall draw waters with joy out of the fountain of salvation: which whiles they did, they thought they served God highly, and provoked him to bestow the Spirit of prophesy upon them, as superstitiously they dreamt that he did upon jonas whiles he was so occupied. Whereupon (as he thinketh) it might well be that jesus took occasion, as that day standing (whereas otherwise when he taught, he used to sit and to speak but in an ordinary voice) to cry unto them, that so the better, for all that noise and stir, he might be heard of them, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink: he that believeth in me (as saith the scripture) out of his belly shall flow rivers of water of life: so to draw them from that superstitious fashion, indeed to draw water of life out of him, the fountain of living waters, as he is termed, jere. 2.3. All these things therefore now thus laid and considered together, I hope you understand both Christ and john in these words of my text, and perceive what other occasion soever he had, he had herein a purpose to promise them that directly come unto him, by drinking of him to satisfy their thirsty souls, and that leaving running to all other rotten cisterns that could hold no water, they should find him no dry fountain, but a fountain to fill them, so that they should run over again therewith to the watering of others: and besides you see that the Lord hath always taken a delight thus to speak of the spirit and gifts thereof, that they should receive that would only seek to come to the Father by him.  
Wherefore seeing the ground of such metaphorical speeches is always the similitude and resemblance (as once I have said already) betwixt the metaphor and the things metaphorized; 
The right use and application of the promise.  let us see and view what likelihood there is betwixt rivers of water of life flowing out of one's belly, and the gifts and graces of God's spirit promised to them that thus come unto Christ and believe in him. Mark therefore amongst many other properties that water hath, it hath these sour; that is, first to wash and make clean; then to soften and mollify; and next to make fruitful that which otherwise would be barren; and lastly to quench and cool. For as you know clothes and other things a number, are washed and made clean thereby: the earth that otherwise would be as Brass and Iron under us, is softened and thereby, it falling upon it in due season and manner, it is made fruitful also; and thereby likewise we see fire quenched, and heat much cooled and abated. Wherefore in that Christ promiseth his spirit unto those that thus come unto him, and make him theirs by believing in him, under the name of waters; thus much, to begin withal (unless we might think that he could not tell how to speak aptly, which but to imagine were absurd,) even hereby we are taught, that the spirit of God in such must and will be as water, and therefore of power to wash and make them clean of the soul errors and sins, wherewith before they were defiled: and so also of power to soften their stony and hard hearts, that the seed of the word may sink deep enough therein, and to make them bring forth fruit always in due season, and finally likewise it will show itself of force to quench in them the fire of concupiscence and to abate the heat of all other sin. Let not any man therefore flatter himself, and think he hath done what here Christ commanded, unless he can approve it by the being and dwelling of the spirit in him, in that sort and measure, that it may worthily bear the name of water in all these respects. For Christ was and is of infinite power and wisdom, and therefore we may be sure he hath made here no other promise, but that which he both can and will perform. Neither lack of ability to be as good as his word, nor rashness or unadvisedness in passing of it at any time, was ever found in him: wherefore let us not be behind in performing the commandment, and nothing is more certain than that he will not be behind with us in performing of his promise. If therefore we find our hearts and lives still delighted with our old filthy errors and sins, stony and slinty that the word can take no root in, or that cannot tremble at the judgements of God, barren of all goodness, and burning still with lust, and on heat with, and after other sins: than whatsoever we can prate or talk of Christ, or faith in him as yet we are mere strangers from them both. Without figure or Metaphor that you may see the plain evidence thereof, mark (I beseech you) but amongst infinite other places, these most plame testimonies of Scripture concerning this point. The fruit of the stirit it in all goodness, righteousness and truth Ephes 5. Ver. 9 They that are in Christ, and so partakers of his death and resurrection, they must be, and are thereby and by the power of his spirit, dead to sin & alive to righteousness, Rom. 6. Ver. 3. etc. Collos.. 2. Ver. 11. & 12. They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections & lusts thereof, Gal. 5. Ver. 24. And with such, old things are passed away, and all things are become new, and therefore they must be new creatures, 2. Cor. 5. Ver. 17. For by him we are delivered from the hands of our enemies, to serve him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives: & that before him, and as in his sight without fear. Luk. 1.74.75. And therefore we must not walk after the flesh but after the spirit, Rom. 8.1. etc. and so put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, being renewed in the spirit of our mind, and casting off the conversation, that was in times Past & the old man: Ephe. 4. Vers. 22. etc. yea we may not dare call him Father, unless we pass the time of our dwelling here in fear, in being holy, as he is holy. 1. Pet. 1. Vers. 16.17. and if we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, Saint john will plainly tell us we lie, and do not the truth, Epist. 1. Chap. 1. Ver. 6. Whereby it is most evident, whatsoever we have been before, when once we are come to Christ and have pur on him, the case must be so quite changed and altered with us, that then though Paul may say of us, you were once such and such, yet now he may have cause to say, as he said in the like case of the Corinthians; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord jesus, and by the spirit of our God. For David can say, having an eye to Christ then far off, purge me with Hisop, and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow, Psal. 51. Vers. 7. How then may we do that dishonour unto Christ being come, as either to think that we are washed in his blood and so justified, and yet remain still foul & filthy, or having seemed to be cleansed and escaped from the filthiness of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord & Saviour jesus Christ, to suffer ourselves to be tangled and overcome therewith again? If we should thus do, we do him the greatest dishonour & discredit that we can. For what cleanly laundress would not take it to be a shame unto her, to be said or thought to have washed her clothes, they remaining still as foul & filthy as ever they were? And most certain it is, if having put our hand to the plough, we look back again, we are, by Christ's own sentence already pronounced upon us, not meet for the kingdom of heaven, Luk. 9.62. and if we be backsliders and revolters, Saint Peter hath told us what we may trust to, namely that than our latter end shall be worse than our beginning; yea that we are no better than dogs, turned to our vomit, or than sows, after they are washed, returning to the wallowing in the mire, 2. Epist. Cap. 3.20. And most seareful is that which we read, Heb. 6.4. etc. & 10.26. etc. touching apostates & revolters from the faith: for there such are told that it is impossible that they should be renewed again by repentance, that there is no more sacrifice to be offered for their sins, that there is nothing left for them but a fearful expectation of irrevocable judgement and condemnation. Now doubtless the very way and means to come to this dreadful estate is, for them that have seemed to stand by professing once the sound faith, to be careless in maintaining and preserving conscience in their lives and conversation; and therefore to teach us as much Paul. calls upon his Timothy, to maintain and nourish together, faith and a good conscience, for that whiles some (as namely Hymineus and Alexander) have made no careful reckoning of the one, they have made shipwreck of the other. 1. Tim. 1.19. & 20. Let him therefore that seemeth to stand, take heed he fall not. 1. Cor. 10.12. and in any case also let him that would seem to be in deed in Christ jesus, be a new creature. 2. Cor. 5.17. for such have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof. Gal. 5.24. they walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, (as ye have heard) Rom. 1. and they are a people zealous of good works. Tit. 2.14. Wherefore let us never once think that our sins are in Christ jesus covered, unless we find ourselves cured thereof; or that for his sake they are pardoned, unless we in truth perceive our bodies and souls purged at the least thereof, that sin reign not in our mortal bodies Rom. 6.12. For they that so are of God, john saith flatly, they cannot sin (meaning, so as that sin reign in them) for that they are borne of God, and his seed remaineth in them. 3.9. Howsoever therefore Hypocrites, and such as have but a temporary faith, may and often do fall headlong into obeying sin with their full and whole consent as their lawful king, in whose obedience willingly they take delight, and so such worthily quite lease those gifts and good graces, which they seamed to have before and consequently by their so falling away, as the same john teacheth in the former Chapter Cap. 2. Ver. 10. make it evident, that they were never of the number indeed, that by a lively faith were in Christ jesus; for then as he saith, they would still have continued with such: yet so it is neither finally, nor at any time after, with those that once have unfeignedly and rightly indeed put on Christ. For as Paul teacheth most evidently and forcibly Rom. 6. throughout, and Col. 1.2. such have so put him on and are in him, that as he once for all died and was buried to put away their sin, and rose again, ascended into heaven, and sitteth there at the right hand of the father, to confer & bestow upon them a perfect righteousness & justification; so by the power and efficacy of Christ dwelling in them, they are dead to sin, and alive to righteousness: and therefore, howsoever, will they nill they, they may, by some relics of sin remaining in them to humble them and to wrestle against, be enforced with the same Apostle in the next chapter, complaining of the tyranny of sin, to cry out, I do not that good I would, but that which I hate that do I, yet all such with a good conscience, may comfort themselves again with him, and say, if I do that I would not do, and hate, it is not I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, Cap. 6.15. & 20. And in the end they may be sure, that the spirit that dwelleth in them, will so strengthen them against the flesh, that they shall get in the end of the battle, the victory, and that in the mean time, the flesh shall never be able utterly to prevail: as they may read, Gal. 5.17. &. 24. For that Spirit being once come into thefield, though old Adam muster all his beaten & wounded soldiers never so oft; yet that man in whose heart the field is once pitched & fought, may assure himself, that it is as absurd for him to think that either in the end or at any time, the flesh shall prevail to drive that spirit out of the field; as it is to think that a base creature can overcome God the Creator. And to assure all such hereof, Christ hath promised when he sends once this Spirit of his unto them, that it shall be their commforter, & that it shall abide with them for ever. john 14.16. & that he would beg of his father, that he should so do. And therefore they may be sure, that he hath done it, & hath also obtained his suit; for he is truth itself. john 14.6. & therefore true in his promise, & besides he tells us, that he knew his father always heard him. john 11.42. Let not that wrong therefore be offerred either to Christ, or to his Spirit, that any should but once think that either of these can be driven out of possession, after once they have taken it in theirs, either by Satan, the world, or the flesh: they may be busy to grieve & trouble them, but never shall they prevail: for they are always the strongerin finitely, and their love & care to keep & preserve theirs is like themselves, that is eternal & most constant: & indeed, in that Christ here in our text promiseth his spirit not only in & under the name of water, but of rivers of waters, & that of life, flowing out of their bellies, that should do, as before he commanded; all this being to be understood of the gifts & graces of the spirit, which he would bestow upon all such (as we have heard;) as thereby we are taught that he will give them to such, not in a scant, but in a very plenteous manner and measure, for that he is a liberal giver, james 1.5, so by calling them Rivers of the water of life, he teacheth us and assureth us that they will never altogether die, or be dried up: for his gifts given to such, are without repentance Rom. 1.29. They show also by the other addition, of flowing out of their bollies, that they will not be smothered and kept in within the bellies of the believers own self, whatsoever the state of the time be wherein he lives. For they must flow out of their bellies; and therefore such must let their light shine be fore men, to the glory of God, and good example and profit of others, as Christ hath taught them Math. 5.16. Wherefore let the first of these lessons occasion every one that is desirous to have any comfortable assurance that this promise is made to him & appertaineth unto him, to strive by all lawful and good means, to have the sanctifying gifts of the spirit, in such plentiful and abundant measure in him, that he may feel, and others find by experience, that they may worthily be compared to rivers of water. And by the second let every such one also learn for the better certifying of his own heart, that he is such an one indeed, that he must persevere unto the end, Math. 10.22. evermore bringing forth more fruit in her age, as the tree planted in the house of God whereunto such are compared, Psal. 92.13.14. useth to do. For to the unspeakable comfort of all such, the gifts and graces of the holy spirit undoubtedly accompanying their right coming unto Christ, and believing in him, are here resembled unto rivers of waters of life, not only for that they come from the true fountain of life, and will lead and guide the owner thereof thereunto, but also for that in such in whom they are once found, they will never either wholly or finally fail or dry up. As therefore such may be sure that the foundation of God remaineth sure, The Lord knoweth who are his, 2. Tim. 2.19. so they may be by these fruits of the Spirit without hypocrisy found in them, most certain that according to Saint Peter's counsel they have joined virtue to their faith, and so consequently have made their own election so sure unto themselves (which always before was sure with God) as that they shall never fall. For this is the indissoluble chain of God, whereof one link can never at all be severed or sundered from an other after that but once the first two be coupled, whom he knew before and predestinated to be like to the image of his Son, and so elected in him before the foundations of the world, those he first calleth, then justifieth, then sanctifieth, and lastly glorifieth, Rom. 8.29.30. Ephe. 1.4. Whom therefore indeed we find once by these rivers of waters of life sanctified, we may be out of doubt that then God hath elected, called, and justified, and that also them he will glorify. For this sanctifying spirit beareth witness with their spirits, that they are the children of God, and so imboldneth them to call upon him saying, Abba Father, Rom. 8.15.16. and it is the holy Spirit of promise that sealeth them and is the earnest of their inheritance and redemption in Christ jesus, Ephe. 1.13.14. Though therefore such to their own sense and feeling, and perhaps also in the conceit of others, may have not only these graces of the Spirit more eclipsed at one time than at another, yea may think that they are quite dried up and vanished: yet forasmuch as whom God once loves, (as doubtless he doth all them whom once truly he doth thus qualify he) loves to the end john. 13.1; let all such be most firmly resolved that this is but the better to humble them, and to provoke them, when they find these graces revived in them again, to work out their own salvation with the more trembling and fear, because he that hath begun this good work in them, will never give it over until he have brought it to perfection; and he it is that will work in them both the will and the deed of his good pleasure. Phil. 1.6. & 2.12.13. For such have the infallible marks of Christ's elect and chosen sheep, whereof he himself most plainly teacheth, that it is impossible that any should either take them out of his hands, or that any of them should finally perish. Matth. 24.24. and john. 10.28. The reason is, that they are kept by the power of God through faith, to salvation. 1. Peter. 1.5. Indeed meet it is and very needful, that such that once have attained to the graces & gifts of the Spirit, to be as rivers of waters of life in them that they should do what they may possibly to nourish and increase the same, and they are to know that if they do fail in doing of their duty in this behalf, that they are worthily caused to see and feel to the great grief of their souls, the decay thereof; yea that they have done as much as lies in them, utterly to lease them and to provoke GOD to be their enemy: and therefore they are most earnestly to repent their negligence and carelessness in this point. But yet the force of this Metaphor, these places and a number more in the Scriptures, that are as pregnant to this purpose, most plainly show that when thus it falls out with such, that yet in the goodness of GOD towards them this their sense, feeling, and the judgement of others prove no stronglier that these gifts of the Spirit are quite gone in them indeed, than the eclipsing or hiding away of the sun from our eyes by foggy mists or clouds at noon days, the raking up of the fire when there is store thereof in the ashes, the not stirring of a live and strong child in the mother's womb at all times a like, or the not appearing of leaves and fruit upon quick trees in an orchard in the deep of winter, prove that there is no Sun in the firmament, no fire on the hearth, no child in the womb, or that then there is no sap in the root of the trees. As therefore when neither the moon, fogs, nor clouds are betwixt us and the Sun, it will appear and shine again; as when the ashes are removed, and the coals hide thereunder are blown again, thereof may grow as great a fire as ever before; as when the child stirreth again, though it have life without motion a great while before, the mother conceiveth as certain hope that she is with child as ever before; and as when the spring time cometh, there will be both leaves and fruit upon the trees in the orchard that seemed dead before in the winter: so is it in this case, when GOD shall remove the lets and causes (as most certainly he will aswell in this, as in these other we see naturally and commonly they are) than the brightness, heat, motion and liveliness of his Spirit, shall and will in his appear again.  
But then the better and the more easily that they may find this to be thus, lastly I would have all such to remember that it is not enough that to their own sense, and in their own conceits they have these gifts of the Spirit as rivers of waters of life: but that if they be such indeed as here are promised, and therefore are performed to all that come unto Christ and believe in him, that they must flow out of their bellies. Where by their bellies, we are to understand, as Augustine hath well noted in his 32. tract upon john, the belly of the inner man, which, as he there tells us, is the conscience of the heart. And as there also he saith, this flowing of rivers of water out of the belly of the inner man Benevolentia eius est qua vult consulere proximo: si enim putet quia quod bibit soli ipsi debet sufficere, non fluit aqua viva de ventre eius; si autem proximo festinet consulere, ideo non siccat quia manat: that is, Is his bountifulness wherewith he will provide for the good of his neighbour: for if he think that that which he hath drunk must but serve himself, the water of life flows not out of his belly; but if he make haste to do good to his neighbour, it drieth not up, and that because it floweth. For as Christ hath taught us by the parable of the Talents, Matth. 25.4. etc. in no case we may conceal or hide the Talentes that he bestows upon us, but use them we must to his best advantage; for otherwise they shall be quite taken from us: whereas if we lay them forth, and use them to the gain of him that bestowed them, they shall not only be increased, but in the end we shall have a most comfortable reward. Pseudonicodemits then, whatsoever the time and place be where and when we live, we may at no hand be: that is, for fear of the jews or pharisees, we may not be such as dare with Nichodemus come stealing to Christ by night only, john. 3.1. For Christ most plainly hath told us, Mark. 8.38. That whosoever he be that will be ashamed of him and of his words amongst an adulterous and sinful generation, he will be ashamed of him in the glory of his Father. As therefore we believe with the heart to righteousness, so Saint Paul teacheth us, that we must confess with our mouths to salvation, Rom. 10.10. For where true and lively faith is indeed, there it will make her owner to be at the same point that the Psalmist was, whatsoever come of it, when he said, I believed, and therefore have I spoken, Psal. 116.10. And likewise where true faith is, as it worketh immediately with GOD in heaven, for the justification of her owner, through Christ jesus, so straight also, and so thenceforth it setteth the heart of her owner so on fire with love both towards God, that in his Christ hath so tenderly loved him, and towards man for his sake, that thence he is most careful that such works and words may flow as both shall and may give a lively testimony thereof both to God & man. For all such have with Saint Paul learned, that by Christ they are redeemed from all iniquity, and purged to be a peculiar people unto himself, zealous of good works. Tit. 2.14. Thus if these rivers of waters of life flow out of our bellies, then, and not else, we may be sure we are come unto Christ, and have drunk of him to eternal life. Whiles then we teach thus (as no otherwise we do,) do we set open any gap of liberty or licentiousness to our hearers, or are we in our doctrine any way enemies to good works, as our adversaries slander us? Nay do we not as earnestly and vehemently, as they can for their lives, urge men to do them? Indeed we dare not teach them, when they have done never so many of them, in any case to make any piece of a saviour, either of any thing they do or suffer: because, as you have heard, we learned out of the Scriptures, that that office so entirely and wholly is to be referred to Christ, that it may not be imparted or communicated, without antichristian robbing of him of that special honour that belongs unto him, to any thing or person else. But yet notwithstanding, as now you hear, we most plainly teach, that none can have any certainty in himself (without which our faith is but a fruitless wavering conceit that as yet he is in Christ and shall be saved undoubtedly for his sake, until the power of him dwelling in him, truly appear by these fruits of the spirit, that are here for their purity, multiplicity, utility, and continuance called rivers of water of life flowing out of the bellies of such. And therefore though we dare not with our adversaries teach men, nor encourage men to do good works, either in part or in whole to earn, deserve, or merit heaven by, (which unless we would say with them, we say nothing to this purpose) yet most clear and evident it is, that to that end we use and urge all the arguments that the Scriptures have taught us. For we beseech them by the mercies of God with Paul. Rom. 12.1. to give up their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, in serving him according to his word, and not according to the fashions of the world. For that by these tender mercies of God towards us in Christ jesus, we that believe aright in him, are delivered out of the hands of all our enemies, that we should serve him without fear, all the days of our life, in holiness and righteousness before him. Luke. 1.74.75. For in that this grace of God, that bringeth salvation unto all men, hath appeared, it teacheth us that we should deny ungodliness & worldly lusts, & that we should live soberly, & righteously & godly in this present world. Tit. 2.11.12. Yea having rightly laid hold of this grace, we say again with the same Paul, That we are God's workmanship created in Christ jesus unto good works, which he hath ordained that we should walk in Ephes. 2.10. Again with Christ to this end we say unto all, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matth. 5.16. and love one another, as he hath loved us: for by this shall all men know, that ye are his Disciples, john. 13.34.36. And with Peter, we exhort all men to join virtue to their faith, to their virtue knowledge, to their knowledge temperance, to their temperance, patience, to their patience godliness, and to that botherlie kindness and love, so to make their election sure, 2. Peter. 1.5. & 6. With james also we cry and call upon every one that maketh confession of faith, to show his faith by his works, which if he do not, we as plainly tell him with the same james, that his faith is dead in himself. jam. 2.17. etc. For the faith that availeth in Christ jesus, as Paul hath taught us, worketh by love, not that love is in the form of faith (for how can one distinct virtue be the form of an other) but that it is the inseparable companion of a lively and sound faith. Neither are we negligent in often laying before our people God's law and the true meaning thereof, both to teach them what good works are, and to incite them to do the same. Wherein we dare be bold to say we go beyond our adversaries, in leading men aright to good works. For we urge and show the law of GOD to be so perfect and absolute a rule of good works, that it reacheth to the condemning of the first motions arising in our minds to sin, though they be not at all yielded unto and liked of, for that it calleth for the whole heart to be occupied only in the things that please GOD, and that all sin is condemned therein, and all virtue commended: whereas our adversaries the papists, hold the law to be so imperfect, that it condemneth not these first motions to sin, and that there are a number of good works, and as meritorious, that have for their ground but the traditions and commandments of men, as many that are expressly commanded by the law of GOD: forgetting belike that the law is so spiritual, that it made Paul to cry out of himself, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death? Rom. 7.24. and that Christ most flatly hath said, that they worship him in vain that teach for doctrines men's precepts. Math. 15.9. We use often to terrify our hearers from ill works, and from omitting of good, by making it manifest unto them, by the judgements of GOD therefore threatened and executed, that so to do, is so daingerous, as that thereby they deserve all Gods heavy judgements to be executed upon them both in this life, and in the life to come: and that undoubtedly they shall, if they repent not. Wherein also we go further than these our adversaries: for they teach that a number of sins, even for the littleness thereof, are not deadly, or such as deserve damnation, which may easily be satisfied for and put away. Lastly we forget not to teach them what promises of reward God hath made to such as will carefully walk before him in holiness and righteousness, both concerning this life, and that which to come; assuring them with Paul, That godliness is profitable unto all things, and hath the promise both of this life present, and of that which is to come. 1. Tim. 4.8. wherein we go so far that also with Christ we confidently tell them, that they shall not lease their reward in heaven, no not of a cup of cold water bestowed aright in his name upon any of his. Mat. 10.42. For though all that we do or can do, be infinitely less than we own to God and are bound to do, (for in many things we sin all, jam. 3.2.) yet all that approve themselves to be in Christ by walking not after the flesh but after the spirit in bringing forth the right fruits thereof, as Paul teacheth Rom. 8.12.13. etc. undoubtedly for God's promises sake in Christ jesus, shall both here and in heaven find themselves and their works so liberally rewarded, that they shall have no cause to complain, but rather to wonder at Gods most bountiful crowning of his own blessings and graces with further both here and there. Thus than you see that though, when the question is in hand why men shall be saved, we dare send them to no other meritorious cause thereof but only to Christ, and the things done by himself for us, because we know that his name is the one lie name whereby cometh salvation, Act. 4.12; yet when it is demanded who they are, which for Christ's sake shall indeed be saved and so rest in God's tabernacle, and for ever dwell upon his holy hill, we are bold to teach that none but they that, according to the time and occasion they have after they be in him, prove themselves to be such by the rivers of water of life flowing out of their bellies, as you have heard, and therefore are such as are described to that end, Psalm. 15.2. etc. And being such, we count it no presumption, but most commendable faith in them to be fully persuaded (because they have not only God's word and promise generally offered unto them, and particularly sealed in the administration of the word and Sacraments outwardly; but also most effectually inwardly testified unto their spirits by Gods own Spirit by these new fruits thereof, to appertain particularly unto them, to ground this their persuasion upon) that for Christ's sake undoubtedly they shall be saved. These arguments therefore, we doubt not, will be sufficient to move and to persuade all that unfeignedly be the Lords, even of love and thankfulness towards him for his unspeakable love and mercies towards them, to strive both day and night, by all possible means, so to stir up the graces of the spirit in them, that indeed worthily they may be counted as Rivers of waters of life flowing out of their bellies.  
Thus then at last (well-beloved in the Lord) we have heard first, the circumstances of a notable sermon made by Christ our Saviour himself, as where, when, upon what occasion, and in what manner he made it; namely at Jerusalem, in the temple, in and upon the last and most solemn day of the feast of Tabernacles, to draw them that were there, from their own vain superstitions that led them from him to himself, uttered by him standing, and that with a crying voice. Secondly you have heard that he spoke therein to all that be thirsty, and to none else, that is to all that are truly broken and contrite hearted under the burden of their sins, and so earnestly long for redemption and deliverance from the same. Thirdly you have heard that he commanded such, what, to ease them of this their spiritual thirst, they should do; and that that was, and is, first to come unto him, that is to know and acknowledge him what he is in person and office, and then to drink of him, that is, rightly to believe in him, and so thereby to make him, with all the mercies of God provided for man's salvation in him, their own: which they having done, lastly you have heard that he promiseth all such that his Spirit in them all should be as rivers of water of life flowing out of their bellies, which was not, nor had not been as yet then; because when Christ made this sermon, he was not yet glorified. And in handling of all these, withal you have been showed what we are to learn every one of us thereby, both ministers and people, which have been such and such and so many good things, as that if we have heard as we ought to do, we have all of us (I hope) even sufficiently to our salvation, learned both how to believe and how to live to be saved. For first we have been taught how by the law we are to be humbled and thrown down, that we may be fit patients for Christ jesus secondly we have heard by the Gospel, how we are to rise again and to recover a better standing than ever we had in the first Adam, by knowledge and faith of the second, Christ jesus our Lord and Saviour. For we have been showed how the Spirit of God by the ministry of the word and Sacraments through this faith of ours, grounded upon sound knowledge, unites Christ jesus himself and us together, though after a spiritual manner, yet most truly and effectually to our salvation, and the contrary doctrine hath at large been confuted. And by the way it hath most plainly been laid before us, how we ought to be qualified both in faith and manners, both in hearing of the word and in the use of the Sacraments, that thereby still we may grow up in the house of GOD in Christ jesus to be perfect men, and acceptable in the sight of his heavenly father. lastly, by the view of the promise we have been (I trust) thoroughly taught what manner of lives we ought to lead, as long as we live, after that once we be got to be in Christ jesus indeed, in all true holiness and righteousness. God therefore of his infinite mercy for our Saviour Christ jesus sake give us grace so to imprint all these things in our hearts, that to his own glory to the edifying of all others, amongst whom we shall live, and to the everlasting comfort of our own souls we may every one of us that have now heard these things, both unfeignedly believe and live always accordingly. Now God the Father, God the Son, and God the holy Ghost, three persons and one GOD, to whom be ascribed all honour, praise, and glory now and for ever, be with all our souls and bodies, to bless, preserve and keep us so in both this way, that we all of us living and dying may keep a steady and straight course therein until he vouchsafe to take us all hence to be heirs of his eternal and everlasting kingdom. Amen. Amen.  
FINIS.   

Printed at London for Robert Dexter dwelling in Paul's Churchyard at the sign of the Brazen Serpent. 1597.   

Faults escaped.  
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