them. And by that means in this world we shall have God's defence, favour, and grace, with the unspeakable solace of peace and quietness of conscience, and after this miserable life we shall enjoy the endless bliss and glory of heaven. Which he grant us all that died for us all, Jesus Christ: to whom with the Father and Holy Ghost be all honour and glory both now and everlastingly. Amen.

hall the con

njoy he = to

all

lv.

A SERMON

OF THE MISERY OF ALL

MANKIND, AND OF HIS CONDEMNATION TO
DEATH EVERLASTING BY HIS OWN SIN.

THE Holy Ghost, in writing the holy Scripture, is in nothing more diligent than to pull down man's vainglory and pride; which of all vices is most universally grafted in all mankind, even from the first infection of our first father Adam. And therefore we read in many places of Scripture many notable lessons against this old rooted vice, to teach us the most commendable virtue of humility, how to know ourselves, and to remember what we be of ourselves.

In the book of Genesis Almighty God giveth us all a title and name in our great-grandfather Adam, which ought to warn us all to consider what we be, whereof we be, from whence we came, and whither we shall, saying thus: In the sweat of Gen. iii. 19. thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou be turned again into the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; inasmuch as thou art dust, and into dust shalt thou be turned again. Here, as it were in a glass, we may learn to know ourselves to be but ground, earth, and ashes, and that to earth and ashes we shall return. Also the holy patriarch Abraham did well remember this name and title, dust, earth, and ashes, appointed and assigned by God to all mankind; and therefore he calleth himself by that name, when he maketh his earnest prayer Gen. xviii. 27. for Sodom and Gomorre. And we read that Ju- Jud. iv. 10, dith, Hester, Job, Hieremy, with other holy men ; and ix.

11;
1: Esth. xiv.

2: Job xlii. 26, and xxv,

6: Jer vi.

34.

Wisd. vii. 1-6.

and women in the Old Testament, did use sackcloth, and to cast dust and ashes upon their heads, when they bewailed their sinful living. They called and cried to God for help and mercy with such a ceremony of sackcloth, dust, and ashes, that thereby they might declare to the whole world. what an humble and lowly estimation they had of themselves, and how well they remembered their name and title aforesaid, their vile, corrupt, frail nature, dust, earth, and ashes.

The book of Wisdom also, willing to pull down our proud stomachs, moveth us diligently to remember our mortal and earthly generation, which we have all of him that was first made; and that all men, as well kings as subjects, come into this world and go out of the same in like sort, that is, as of ourselves, full miserable, as we may daily see. And Almighty God commanded his Prophet Esay to make a proclamation and cry to the whole Isaì xì. 6, 7. world: and Esay asking, What shall I cry? the Lord answered, Cry that all flesh is grass, and that all the glory thereof is but as the flower of the field : when the grass is withered, the flower falleth away, when the wind of the Lord bloweth upon it. The people surely is grass, the which drieth up, and the flower fadeth away. And the holy Prophet Job, having in himself great experience of the miserable and sinful estate of man, doth open the same Job xiv. 1-4. to the world in these words. Man, saith he, that is born of a woman, living but a short time, is full of manifold miseries. He springeth up like a flower, and fadeth again, vanishing away as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one state. And dost thou judge it meet, O Lord, to open thine eyes upon such a one, and to bring him to judgment with thee? Who can make him clean that is conceived of an unclean seed? And all men, of their evilness and natural proneness, were so universally given to sin, that, as the Scripture saith, God repented that ever he made man: and by sin his indignation was so much provoked against the world, that he

Gen, vi, 6.

drowned all the world with Noe's flood, except Gen. vii. Noe himself and his little household.

It is not without great cause that the Scripture of God doth so many times call all men here in this world by this word, Earth. O thou earth, Jer. xxii. 29. earth, earth, saith Jeremy, hear the word of the Lord. This our right name, calling, and title, Earth, Earth, Earth, pronounced by the Prophet, sheweth what we be indeed, by whatsoever other style, title, or dignity men do call us. Thus he plainly nameth us, who knoweth best both what we be, and what we ought of right to be called. And thus he setteth us forth, speaking by his faithful Apostle St. Paul: All men, Jews and Gen- Rom. iii.9-18. tiles, are under sin. There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way; they are all unprofitable: there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used craft and deceit; the poison of serpents is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and wretchedness are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes. And in another place St. Paul writeth thus: God hath wrapped all nations Rom. xi. 32. in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all. The Gal. iii. 22. Scripture shutteth up all under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given unto them that believe. St. Paul in many places painteth us out in our colours, calling us the children of Ephes. ii. 3. the wrath of God when we be born; saying also that

we cannot think a good thought of ourselves, much 2 Cor. iii. 5. less we can say well or do well of ourselves. And

the Wise Man saith in the book of Proverbs, The Prov. xxiv. just man falleth seven times a day.

16.

The most tried and approved man Job feared all Job ix. 28. his works. St. John the Baptist, being sanctified

in his mother's womb, and praised before he was Luke i. 15. born, called an angel and great before the Lord, 70; Mal. ii.

9-11.

Matt. iii. 11,

14.

Mark i. 7, 8.

I Cor. xv. 8-10; 1 Tim.

i. 11-17.

1 John i. 8

10.

1; Matth. xi. filled even from his birth with the Holy Ghost, the preparer of the way for our Saviour Christ, and commended of our Saviour Christ to be more than a prophet, and the greatest that ever was born of a woman, yet he plainly granteth that he had need to be washed of Christ; he worthily extolleth and glorifieth his Lord and Master Christ, and humbleth himself as unworthy to unbuckle his shoes, and giveth all honour and glory to God. So doth St. Paul both oft and evidently confess himself what he was of himself, ever giving, as a most faithful servant, all praise to his Master and Saviour. So doth blessed St. John the Evangelist, in the name of himself and of all other holy men, be they never so just, make this open confession: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we knowledge our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Wherefore the Wise Man, in the book called Ecclesiastes, maketh this true and general conEccles. vii. 20. fession: There is not one just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. And St. David is ashamed of his sin, but not to confess his sin. How oft, how earnestly and lamentably, doth he desire God's great mercy for his great offences, Ps. exliii. 2. and that God should not enter into judgment with him! And again, how well weigheth this holy man his sins, when he confesseth that they be so many in number and so hid, and hard to understand, that it is in manner unpossible to know, utter, or number them! Wherefore, he having a true, earnest, and deep contemplation and consideration of his sins, and yet not coming to the bottom of them, he maketh supplication to God to forgive him his privy, secret, hid sins, to the knowledge of the which he cannot attain. He weigheth rightly his sins from the original root and spring-head, perceiving inclinations, provocations, stirrings, stingings, buds, branches, dregs, infec

Ps. li.

Ps. xix. 12; xl. 12.