them, and yet is this shameful dieting of theirs murder. cruel enough.

Be not deceived with visions, nor yet with miracles. But go to and judge their works, for the spiritual judgeth all things, saith Paul, (1 Cor. ii.) Who is that spiritual? Not such as we now call men of holy church; but all that have the true interpretation of the law written in their hearts. The right faith of Christ, and the true intent of works, which God biddeth us work, he is spiritual and judged all things, and is judged of no man.

Not all that say to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that fulfilleth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me at that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and did we not in thy name many miracles? Then will I confess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.

This doubling of Lord hath vehemency, and betokeneth that they which shall be excluded, are such as think themselves better and perfecter than other men, and to deserve heaven with holy works, not for themselves only, but also for other. And by that they prophesied, by which thou mayest understand the interpreting of Scripture; and by that they cast out devils, and did miracles in Christ's name, (and for all that, they are yet works of wickedness, and do not the will of the Father which is in heaven,) it is plain that they be false prophets, and even the same of which Christ warned before.

now, forasmuch Christ and his apostles warn us

as

And that such shall come, and describe us the fashions of their visors, (Christ's name, holy church, holy fathers, and fifteen hundred years, with Scripture and miracles,) and command us to turn our eyes from their visors, and consider their fruits, and cut them up, and look within

Who is the spiritualty.

Ignorance excuseth not, if we will not see.

whether they be found in the core and kernel or no, and give us a rule to try them by: is it excuse good enough to say, God will not let so great a multitude err; I will follow the most part, and believe as my fathers did, and as the preachers teach, and will not busy myself: choose them, the fault is theirs, and not ours; God shall not lay it to our charge if we err.

Where such words be, there are the false prophets already. For where no love to the truth is, there are the false prophets; and where such words be, there to be no love to the truth is plain; ergo, where such words be, there be the false prophets in their full swing, by Paul's rule, (2 Thess. ii.) Another conclusion: where no love to the truth is, there be false prophets; the greatest of the world have least love to the truth: ergo, the false prophets be the chaplains of the greatest, which may with the sword compel the rest; as the kings of Israel compelled to worship the golden calves. And by false prophets understand false teachers, as Peter calleth them, and wicked expounders of the Scripture.

Whosoever heareth these words of me, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man that built his house upon a roch: and there fell a rain, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, but it fell not, for it was grounded upon a rock. And all that hear of me these words, and do them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man that built his house upon the sand and there fell a rain, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and dashed upon that house, and it fell, and the fall thereof was great.

Christ hath two sorts of hearers, of which neither of them do thereafter. The one will be saved by faith of their own making, without works; the other with works of their own making, without faith. The first are those voluptuous, which have yielded themselves up to sin, say

ing, Tush, God is merciful, and Christ died for us; that must save us only, for we cannot but sin without resistance. The second are the hypocrites, which will deserve all with their own imagined works only. And of faith they have no other experience, save that it is a little meritorious where it is painful to be believed: as that Christ was born of a virgin, and that he came not out the way that other children do; fie, no, that were a great inconvenience; but above, under her arm, and yet made no hole, though he had a very natural body, and as other men have; and that there is no bread in the sacrament nor wine, though the five wits say all yea. And the meritorious pain of this belief is so heavy to them, that except they had feigned them a thousand wise similitudes and lousy likenesses, and as many mad reasons to stay them withal, and to help to captivate their understanding, they were like to cast all off their backs. And the only refuge of a great many to keep in that faith, is to cast it out of their minds, and not to think upon it. As though they forgive not, yet if they put the displeasure out of their minds, and think not of it till a good occasion be given to avenge it, they think they love their neighbour well enough all the while, and be in good charity.

And the faith of the best of them is but like their faith in other worldly stories. But the faith, which is trust and confidence to be saved, and to have their sins forgiven by Christ which was so born, have they not at all. That faith have they in their own works only. But the true hearers understand the law, as Christ interpreteth it here, and feel thereby their righteous damnation, and run to Christ for succour, and for remission of all their sins that are past, and for all the sin which chance, through infirmities, shall compel them to do, and for remission of that the law is too strong for their weak nature.

And upon that they consent to the law, love it, and profess it, to fulfil it to the uttermost of their power, and then go to and work. Faith, or confidence in Christ's Faith, what

it breedeth.

Love.

blood, without help, and before the works of the law
bringeth all manner of remission of sins, and satisfaction.
Faith is mother of love; faith accompanieth love in all her
works to fulfil as much as there lacketh in our doing the
law, of that perfect love which Christ had to his Father,
and us in his fulfilling of the law for us. Now, when we
be reconciled, then is love and faith together our righte-
ousness, our keeping the law, our continuing, our pro-
ceeding forward in the grace which we stand in, and our
bringing to the everlasting saving and everlasting life.
And the works be esteemed of God according to the love
of the heart. If the works be great, and love little and
cold, then the works be regarded thereafter of God. If
the works be small, and love much and fervent, the works
be taken for great of God.

And it came to pass, that when Jesus had ended these
sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine : for he
taught them as one having power, and not as the scribes.

The scribes and pharisees had thrust up the sword of the word of God into a scabbard, or sheath of glosses, and therein had knit it fast, that it could neither stick nor cut; teaching dead works without faith and love, which are the life and the whole goodness of all works, and the only thing why they please God. And therefore their audience abode ever carnal and fleshly minded, without faith to God and love to their neighbours.

Christ's words were spirit and life. (John vi.) That is to say, they ministered spirit and life, and entered into the heart, and grated on the conscience; and, through preaching the law, made the hearers perceive their duties; even what love they owed to God, and what to man, and the right damnation of all them that had not the love of God and man written in their hearts; and, through preaching of faith, made all that consented to the law of God feel the mercy of God in Christ, and certified them

of their salvation.
sword, that pierceth and divideth the spirit and soul of
man asunder. (Heb. iv.) A man, before the preaching
of God's word, is but one man, all flesh, the soul con-
senting unto the lusts of the flesh, to follow them. But
the sword of the word of God, where it taketh effect,
divideth a man in two, and setteth him at variance against
his ownself; the flesh hauling one way, and the spirit
drawing another: the flesh raging to follow lusts, and the
spirit calling back again to follow the law and will of God.
A man, all the while he consenteth to the flesh, and before
she be born again in Christ, is called soul or carnal. But
when he is renewed in Christ, through the word of life,
and hath the love of God and of his neighbour, and the faith
of Christ written in his heart, he is called spirit or spiri-
tual. The Lord of all mercy send us preachers with
power; that is to say, true expounders of the word of
God, and speakers to the heart of man; and deliver
from scribes, pharisees, hypocrites, and all false prophets. draw
Amen.

For the word of God is a two-edged

us

where it

The word of God, taketh effect, diman into two parts; that is, causeth the one way,

videth a

flesh to hold

and the spirit to

another.