his outward deeds, consenteth not to the law inward, neither hath delectation therein, yea, be would rather that no such law were. So justifieth he not God, but hateth him as a tyrant, neither careth he for the promises, but will with his own strength be saviour of himself: no wise glorifieth he God, though he seem outward to do. He that justifieth himself rejecteth the promises. law and tuous per. son. The second, that is to say, the sensual person, as a The volupvoluptuous swine, neither feareth God in his law, neither is thankful to him for his promises and mercy, which is set forth in Christ to all them that believe. Christian, The right Christian man consenteth to the law that it is A true righteous, and justifieth God in the law; for he affirmeth that God is righteous and just, which is author of the law, he believeth the promises of God, and justifieth God, judging him true and believing that he will fulfil his promises. With the law he condemneth himself and all his deeds, and giveth all the praise to God. He believeth the promises, and ascribeth all truth to God: thus everywhere justifieth he God, and praiseth God. By nature through the fall of Adam are we the children of wrath, heirs of the vengeance of God by birth, yea, and from our conception. And we have our fellowship with the damned devils under the power of darkness and rule of Satan, while we are yet in our mothers' wombs, and though we shew not forth the fruits of sin as soon as we are born, yet are we full of the natural poison whereof all sinful deeds spring, and cannot but sin outwards, (be we never so young) as soon as we be able to work if occasion be given, for our nature is to do sin, as is the nature of a serpent to sting. And as a serpent yet young, A proper or yet unbrought forth is full of poison, and cannot afterward (when the time is come, and occasion given) but bring forth the fruits thereof; and as an adder, a toad, or a snake, is hated of man (not for the evil that it hath done, but for the poison that is in it and hurt which it cannot but do); so are we hated of God for that natural poison which is conceived and born with us hefore we do any similitude. We are plucked from Adam, and graffed in Christ by grace. The blood of Christ hath obtained all things for us of God. outward evil. And as the evil, which a venemous worm doth, maketh it not a serpent; but because it is a venemous worm, doth it evil and poisoneth: and as the fruit maketh not the tree evil; but because it is an evil tree, therefore bringeth it forth evil fruit, when the season of fruit is: even so do not our evil deeds make us first evil through ignorance and blindness, though evil working hardeneth us in evil, and maketh us worse and worse: but because that of nature we are evil, therefore we both think and do evil, and are under vengeance under the law, convict to eternal damnation by the law, and are contrary to the will of God in all our will, and in all things consent to the will of the fiend. By grace (that is to say by favour) we are plucked out of Adam, the ground of all evil, and graffed in Christ the root of all goodness. In Christ God loved us, his elect and chosen, before the world began, and reserved us unto the knowledge of his Son and of his holy gospel; and when the gospel is preached to us openeth our hearts, and giveth us grace to believe and putteth the Spirit of Christ in us, and we know him as our father most merciful, and consent to the law, and love it inwardly in our heart, and desire to fulfil it, and sorrow because we cannot: which will (sin we of frailty never so much) is sufficient till more strength be given us, the blood of Christ hath made satisfaction for the rest: the blood of Christ hath obtained all things for us of God. Christ is our satisfaction, Redeemer, Deliverer, Saviour from vengeance and wrath. Observe and mark in Paul's, Peter's and John's Epistles, and in the gospel, what Christ is unto us. By faith are we saved only in believing the promises. And though faith be never without love and good works, yet is our saving imputed neither to love nor unto good works, but unto faith only. For love and works are under the law, which requireth perfection, and the ground and fountain of the heart, and damneth all imperfectness. Now is faith under the promises, which damn not; but give pardon, grace, mercy, favour, and whatsoever is contained in the promises. Righteousness is divers: for blind reason imagineth many manner of righteousnesses. There is the righteousness of works (as I said before) when the heart is away and is not felt, how the law is spiritual and cannot be fulfilled, but from the bottom of the heart. As the just ministration of all manner of laws, and the observing of them, for a worldly purpose and for our own profit, and not of love unto our neighbour, without all other respect, and moral virtues wherein philosophers put their fecility and blessedness, which all are nothing in the sight of God in respect of the life to come. There is in like manner the justifying of ceremonies which some imagine their ownselves, some counterfeit other, saying, in their blind reason, such holy persons did thus and thus, and they were holy men, therefore if I do so likewise I shall please God: but they have none answer of God, that that pleaseth. The Jews seek righteousness in their ceremonies which God gave unto them not for to justify; but to describe and paint Christ unto them, of which Jews testifieth Paul saying, how that they have affection to God; but not after knowledge, for they go about to stablish their own justice, and are not obedient to the justice or righteousness that cometh of God, which is the forgiveness of sin in Christ's blood unto all that repent and believe. The cause is verily, that except a man cast away his own imagination and reason, he cannot perceive God, and understand the virtue and power of the blood of Christ. There is a full righteousness, when the law is fulfilled from the ground of the heart. This had neither Peter nor Paul in this life perfectly, unto the uttermost, that they could not be perfecter, but sighed after it. They were so far forth blessed in Christ, that they hungred and thirsted after it. Paul had this thirst, he consented to the law of God, that it ought so to be, but he found another lust in his members contrary to the lust and desire of his mind that letted Adam's fall to the devil. him, and therefore cried out saying, Oh, wretched man sinuer believeth, laudeth and thanketh God through Christ, Here shall ye see compendiously and plainly set out, the order and practice of every thing afore rehearsed. The fall of Adam hath made us heirs of the vengeance brought us in bondage and wrath of God, and heirs of eternal damnation. And hath brought us into captivity and bondage under the devil. And the devil is our lord, and our ruler, our head, our governor, our prince, yea, and our God. And our will is locked and knit faster unto the will of the devil, than could an hundred thousand chains bind a man unto a post. Unto the devil's will consent we with all our hearts, with all our minds, with all our might, power, strength, will and lusts; so that the law and will of the devil is written as well in our hearts as in our members, and we run headlong after the devil with full zeal, and the whole swing of all the power we have; as a stone cast up into the air cometh down naturally of his ownself, with all the violence and swing of his own weight. With what poison deadly and venomous hate, hateth a man his enemy! With how great malice of mind inwardly do we slay and murder! With what violence and rage, yea, and with how fervent lust commit we advoutry, fornication, and such like uncleanness! With what pleasure and delectation inwardly serveth a glutton his belly! With what diligence deceive we! How busily seek we the things of this world! Whatsoever we do, think, or imagine, is abominable in the sight of God. For we can refer nothing unto the honour of God; neither is his law or will written in our members or in our hearts: neither is there any more power in us to follow the will of God, than in a stone to ascend upward of his ownself. And beside that we are as it were asleep in so deep blindness, that we can neither see nor feel in what misery, thraldom, and wretchedness we are in, till Moses come and wake us, and publish the law. When we hear the law truly preached, how that we ought to love and honour God with all our strength and might, from the low bottom of the heart; because he hath created us, and both heaven and earth for our sakes, and made us lord thereof; and our neighbours (yea our enemies) as ourselves inwardly from the ground of the heart, because God hath made them after the likeness of his own image, and they are his sons as well as we, and Christ hath bought them with his blood, and made them heirs of everlasting life as well as us. And how we ought to do whatsoever God biddeth, and abstain from whatsoever God forbiddeth, with all love and meekness, with a fervent and a burning lust from the centre of the heart, then beginneth the conscience to rage against the law, and against God. No sea, be it ever so great a tempest, is so unquiet. For it is not possible for a natural The natural corruption of the minds of Adam's heirs plain. ly set forth. |
