Matt. x. 22. we were before. Happy are they, saith Scripture, Dan. xii. 12: that continue to the end. Be faithful, saith God, until death, and I will give thee a crown of life. Again he saith in another place: He that putteth Luke ix. 62. his hand unto the plough, and looketh back, is not meet for the kingdom of God. Therefore let us be strong, steadfast, and unmoveable, abounding always 1 Cor. xv. 58. in the works of the Lord. Let us receive Christ, not for a time, but for ever; let us believe his word, not for a time, but for ever; let us become his servants, not for a time, but for ever; in consideration that he hath redeemed and saved us, not for a time, but for ever; and will receive us into his heavenly kingdom, there to reign with him, not for a time, but for ever. To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour, praise, and glory for ever and ever. Amen. AN HOMILY FOR GOOD FRIDAY, CONCERNING THE DEATH AND It should not become us, well beloved in Christ, being that people which be redeemed from the devil, from sin and death, and from everlasting damnation by Christ, to suffer this time to pass forth without any meditation and remembrance of that excellent work of our redemption, wrought as about this time, thorough the great mercy and charity of our Saviour Jesu Christ, for us wretched sinners and his mortal enemies. For, if a mortal man's deed done to the behoof of the commonwealth be had in remembrance of us, with thanks for the benefit and profit which we receive thereby, how much more readily should we have in memory this excellent act and benefit of Christ's death; whereby he hath purchased for us the undoubted pardon and forgiveness of our sins; whereby he made at one the Father of heaven with us, in such wise that he taketh us now for his loving children, and Rom. viii. 17. for the true inheritors with Christ, his natural Son, of the kingdom of heaven! And verily so much more doth Christ's kindness appear unto us, in that it pleased him to deliver Phil. ii. 6, 7. himself of all his godly honour, which he was equally in with his Father in heaven, and to come down into this vale of misery, to be made mortal man, and to be in the state of a most low servant, ( serving us for our wealth and profit, us, I say, which were his sworn enemies, which had renounced his holy law and commandments, and followed the lusts and sinful pleasures of our corrupt nature; and yet, I say, did Christ put himself between God's deserved wrath and our sin, and rent that obligation wherein we were in danger to God, and Col. ii. 14. paid our debt. Our debt was a great deal too great for us to have paid; and without payment God the Father could never be at one with us: neither was it possible to be loosed from this debt by our own ability. It pleased therefore him to be the payer thereof, and to discharge us quite. Who can now consider the grievous debt of sin which could none otherwise be paid but by the death of an innocent, and will not hate sin in his heart? If God hateth sin so much, that he would allow neither man nor angel for the redemption. thereof, but only the death of his only and wellbeloved Son, who will not stand in fear thereof? If we, my friends, consider this, that for our sins this most innocent Lamb was driven to death, we shall have much more cause to bewail ourselves, that we were the cause of his death, than to cry out of the malice and cruelty of the Jews, which pursued him to his death. We did the deeds wherefore he was thus stricken and wounded: they were only the ministers of our wickedness. It is meet then we should step low down into our hearts, and bewail our own wretchedness and sinful living. Let us know for a certainty, that, if the most dearly beloved Son of God was thus punished and stricken for the sin which he had not done himself, how much more ought we sore to be stricken for our daily and manifold sins which we commit against God, if we earnestly repent us not, and be not sorry for them. No man can love sin, which God hateth so much, and be in his favour. No man can say that he loveth Christ truly, and have his great enemy (sin, I mean, the author of his death) familiar and in friendship with Heb. vi. 6. Rom. vi. 23. Rom. viii. 10, him. So much do we love God and Christ, as we hate sin. We ought therefore to take great heed that we be not favourers thereof, lest we be found enemies to God and traitors to Christ. For not only they which nailed Christ upon the cross are his tormentors and crucifiers, but all they, saith St. Paul, crucify again the Son of God, as much as is in them, which do commit vice and sin, which brought him to his death. If the wages of sin be death, and death everlasting, surely it is no small danger to be in service thereof. Rom. viii. 13. If we live after the flesh and after the sinful lusts thereof, St. Paul threateneth, yea Almighty God in St. Paul threateneth, that we shall surely die. Rom vi.11. We can none otherwise live to God but by dying to sin. If Christ be in us, then is sin dead in us: and, if the Spirit of God be in us, which raised Christ from death to life, so shall the same Spirit raise us to the resurrection of everlasting life. But, if sin rule and reign in us, then is God, which is the fountain of all grace and virtue, departed from us; then hath the devil and his ungracious spirit rule and dominion in us. And surely, if in such miserable state we die, we shall not rise to life, but fall down to death and damnation, and that without end. Christ hath not so redeemed us we should live in sin. Tit. ii. 14. For Christ hath not so redeemed us from sin, that we may safely return thereto again; but he from sin, that hath redeemed us, that we should forsake the motions thereof, and live to righteousness. Yea, we be therefore washed in our baptism from the! filthiness of sin, that we should live afterward in the pureness of life. In baptism we promised to renounce the devil and his suggestions, we pro1 Pet. 1. 14. mised to be, as obedient children, always following God's will and pleasure. Then, if he be our Father indeed, let us give him due honour. If we be his children, let us shew him our obedience, like as Christ openly declared his obedience to his Father, which, as St. Paul writeth, was obedient even to the very death, the death of the cross. Mal. i. 6. Phil. ii. 8. And this he did for us all that believe in him. For himself he was not punished; for he was pure and undefiled of all manner of sin. He was wounded, Isa. liii. 4, 5. saith Esay, for our wickedness, and striped for our sins: he suffered the penalty of them himself, to deliver us from danger. He bare, saith Esay, all our sores and infirmities upon his own back: no pain did he refuse to suffer in his own body, that he might deliver us from pain everlasting. His pleasure it was thus to do for us: we deserved it not. Wherefore, the more we see ourselves bound unto him, the more he ought to be thanked of us; yea, and the more hope may we take, that we shall receive all other good things of his hand, in that we have received the gift of his only Son through his liberality. For, if God, saith St. Paul, hath not Rom. viii. 32. spared his own Son from pain and punishment, but delivered him for us all unto the death, how should he not give us all other things with him? If we want any thing either for body or soul, we may lawfully and boldly approach to God as to our merciful Father, to ask that we desire, and we shall obtain John xvi. 23 27. it. For such power is given to us, to be the children John í. 12. of God, so many as believe in Christ's name. In his name whatsoever we ask, we shall have it granted Matt. xxi. 24: us. For so well pleased is the Father, Almighty God, with Christ his Son, that for his sake he favoureth us, and will deny us nothing. So pleasant was this sacrifice and oblation of his Son's death, which he so obediently and innocently suffered, that he would take it for the only and full amends for all the sins of the world. And such favour did he purchase by his death of his heavenly Father for us, that for the merit thereof, (if we be true Christians indeed, and not in word only,) we be now fully in God's grace again, and clearly discharged from our sin. No tongue surely is able to express the worthiness of this so precious a death. For in this standeth the continual pardon of our daily offences, in this resteth our justification, in this we be |