enough (if a man loved not) to go to law for and to trouble and unquiet an whole town, and sometime an whole realm or two.

of hope.

And the office of hope is to comfort in adver- The office sity and make patient, that we faint not, and fall down under the cross, or cast it off our backs. And thus ye see that these three inseparable in this life, have yet separable and sundry offices and effects, as heat and drith being inseparable in the fire, have yet their separable operations. For the drith only expelleth the moistness of all that is consumed by fire, and heat only destroyeth the coldness. For drith and cold may stand together, and so may heat and moistness. It is not all one to say, the drith only, and the drith that is alone; nor all one to say, faith only, and faith that is alone.

Go to then, and desire God to print this profession in thine heart, and to increase it daily more and more, that thou mayest be full shapen like unto the image of Christ in knowledge and love, and meek thyself, and creep low by the ground, and cleave fast to the rock of this profession, and tie to thy ship this anchor of faith in Christ's blood, with the cable of love, to cast it out against all tempests; and so set up thy sail, and get thee to the main sea of God's word. And read here the words of Christ with this exposition following, and thou shalt see the law, faith, and works, restored each to his right use and true meaning. And thereto the clear difference between the spiritual regiment

The anchor vation is

of our sal

thin Christ's

perfect

blood.

and the temporal, and shalt have an entrance and open way into the rest of all the Scripture. Wherein, and in all other things the spirit of verity guide thee, and thine understanding. Amen.

AN EXPOSITION

UPON

THE FIFTH, SIXTH, AND SEVENTH CHAPTERS

OF

MATTHEW.

THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW.

WHEN he saw the people, he went up into a mountain

and sat him down, and his disciples came to him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: Blessed be the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

CHRIST here in his first sermon beginneth to restore the law of the ten commandments unto her right understanding, against the scribes and pharisees which were hypocrites, false prophets, and false preachers; and had corrupt the Scripture with the leaven of their glosses. And it is not without a great mystery that Christ beginneth his

preaching at poverty in spirit, which is neither beggary nor Poverty of against the possessing of riches. But a virtue contrary spirit. to the vice of covetousness, the inordinate desire and love of riches, and putting trust in riches.

riches nor poverty ex

clude, or

assure us of

God's bles

sing.

Riches is the gift of God, given man to maintain the Riches. degrees of this world, and therefore not evil; yea, and some must be poor and some rich, if we shall have an order in this world. And God our father divideth riches and poverty among his children according to his godly pleasure and wisdom. And as riches doth not exclude Neither thee from the blessing, so doth not poverty certify thee: but to put thy trust in the living God, maketh thee heir thereof. For if thou trust in the living God, then if thou be poor, thou covetest not to be rich, for thou art certified that thy Father shall minister unto thee food and raiment, and be thy defender; and if thou have riches thou knowest that they be but vanity, and that as thou broughtest them not into the world, so shalt thou not carry them out; and that as they be thine to day, so may they be another man's tomorrow; and that the favour of God only both gave, and also keepeth thee and them, and not thy wisdom or power: and that they, neither ought else can help at need, save the good will of thy heavenly Father only. Happy and blessed then are the poor in spirit, that is to say, the rich, that have not their confidence nor consolation in the vanity of their riches; and the poor, that desire not inordinately to be rich, but have their trust in the living God, for food and raiment, and for all that pertaineth either to the body or the soul; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Who are poor in spi. pithily

rit is here

declared.

And contrariwise, unhappy and accursed, and that with the first and deepest of all curses, are the rich in spirit, Rich in that is to say, the covetous that being rich, trust in their spirit. riches, or being poor, long for the consolation of riches; and comfort not their souls with the promises of their heavenly Father, confirmed with the blood of their Lord Christ. For unto them it is harder to enter into the kingdom of heaven, than for a camel to enter through the eye

Covetous

ness is a

thing con

word of

God and to the ministers of the same.

of a needle. (Mark x.) No, they have no part in the kingdom of Christ and God. (Eph. v.) Therefore is it evident why Christ so diligently warneth all his to beware of covetousness, and why he admitteth none to be his disciples except he first forsake altogether. For there was never covetous person true yet either to God or man.

If a covetous man be chosen to preach God's word, he is a false prophet immediately. If he be of the lay sort trary to the so joineth he himself unto the false prophets to persecute the truth. Covetousness is not only above all other lusts, (those thorns that choke the word of God in them that possess it,) but it is also a deadly enemy to all that interpret God's word truly. All other vices, though they laugh them to scorn that talk godly, yet they can suffer them to live and to dwell in the country: but covetousness cannot rest as long as there is one that cleaveth to God's word in all the land.

By cove tousness is

a false

prophet chiefly known.

2.

Some cry, The world is nought; not for

their own,

and others' iniquity, but for waywardness they

cannot enjoy their own lusts.

Take heed to thy preacher therefore, and be sure, if he be covetous and gape for promotion, that he is a false prophet, and leaveneth the Scripture, for all his crying, Fathers, fathers, holy church, and fifteen hundred years, and for all his other holy pretences.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

This mourning is also in the Spirit, and no kin to the sour looking of hypocrites, nor to the impatient waywardness of those fleshly which ever whine and complain that the world is nought, because they cannot obtain and enjoy their lusts therein. Neither forbiddeth it always to be merry, and to laugh, and make good cheer now and then, to forget sorrow, that overmuch heaviness swallow not a man clean up. For the wise man saith, Sorrow hath cost many their lives.

And Prov. xvii. an heavy spirit drieth up the bones. And Paul commandeth, (Phil. iv.) to rejoice ever. And (Rom. xii.) he saith, Rejoice with them that rejoice, and

sorrow with them that sorrow, and weep with them that weep, which seem two contraries.

As warmth

nieth the

sun, so followeth the cross a true

This mourning is that cross without which was never Godly any disciple of Christ, or ever shall be. For of what mourning. soever state or degree thou be in this world, if thou profess the gospel, there followeth thee a cross (as warmness accompanieth the sun shining) under which thy spirit shall accompagroan and mourn secretly, not only because the world and thine own flesh carry thee away clean contrary to the purpose of thine heart; but also to see and behold the wretch- christian edness and misfortunes of thy brethren; for which man. (because thou lovest them as well as thyself) thou shalt mourn and sorrow no less than for thyself. Though thou be king or emperor, yet if thou knowest Christ, and God through Christ, and intendest to walk in the sight of God, and to minister thine office truly, thou shalt (to keep justice with all) be compelled to do daily that, which thou art no less loath to do, than if thou shouldest cut off arm, hand, or any other member of thine own body; yea, and if thou wilt follow the right way, and neither turn on the right hand nor on the left, thou shalt have immediatly thine own subjects, thine own servants, thine own lords, thine own counsellors, and thine own prophets thereto against thee. Unto whose froward malice and stubbornness, thou shalt be compelled to permit a thousand things against thy conscience, not able to resist them, at which thine heart shall bleed inwardly, and shalt sauce thy sweet sops, which the world weneth thou hast, with sorrows enough; and still mourning, studying either alone, or else with a few friends secretly night and day, and sighing to God for help to mitigate the furious frowardness of them whom thou art not able to withstand, that all go not after the will of the ungodly. What was David compelled to suffer all the days of his life, of his own servants the sons of Servia, beside the mischances of his own children? And how was our king John forsaken of his own lords, when he would have put a good and godly reformation in his own

King John.