medicine to our wounds, so that it may work the same effect in us wherefore it was given, namely, the health and salvation of our souls. For, as it profiteth a man nothing to have salve, unless it be well applied to the part affected, so the death of Christ shall stand us in no force, unless we apply it to ourselves in such sort as God hath appointed. Almighty God commonly worketh by means, and in this thing he hath also ordained a certain mean whereby we may take fruit and profit to our souls' health. What mean is that? Forsooth it is faith; not an unconstant or wavering faith, but a sure, steadfast, grounded, and unfeigned faith. God sent John iii. 10. his Son into the world, saith St. John. To what end? That whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have life everlasting. Mark these words, That whosoever believed in him. Here is the mean whereby we must apply the fruits of Christ's death unto our deadly wound; here is the mean whereby we must obtain eternal life; namely, faith. For, Rom. x. 10. as St. Paul teacheth in his Epistle to the Romans, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Paul, being demanded of the keeper of the prison what he should do to be saved, made this answer : Believe in the Lord Jesus; so shalt thou and thine Act. 30, house be both saved. After the Evangelist had de- 5. scribed and set forth unto us at large the life and the death of the Lord Jesus, in the end he concludeth with these words: These things are written, John xx. 31. that где may believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, and through faith obtain eternal life. To conclude with the words of St. Paul, which are these: Christ is the end of the law unto salvation for every Rom, x. 4. one that doth believe. By this then you may well perceive that the only mean and instrument of salvation required of our parts is faith, that is to say, a sure trust and confidence in the mercies of God, whereby we persuade ourselves, that God both hath and will forgive our sins, that he hath accepted us again into his favour, that he hath X released us from the bonds of damnation, and received us again into the number of his elect people, not for our merits or deserts, but only and solely for the merits of Christ's death and passion, who became man for our sakes, and humbled himself to sustain the reproach of the cross, that we thereby might be saved, and made inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. This faith is required at our hands; and this if we keep steadfastly in our hearts, there is no doubt but we shall obtain salvation at God's hands, as did Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom the Scripture saith, that they believed, and it was imputed unto them for righteousness. Was it imputed unto them? and shall it not be imputed unto us? Yes, if we have the same faith as they had, it shall be as truly imputed unto us for righteousness, as it was unto them. For it is one faith that must save both us and them, even a sure and steadfast faith in Christ Jesu; who, as ye have heard, came into Jolin iii. 16. the world for this end, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have life everlasting. Gen. xv. 6: 22, 24. Matt. xiv. 28-31. But here we must take heed that we do not halt with God through an unconstant and wavering faith, but that it be strong and steadfast to our James i. 6, 7. lives' end. IIe that wavereth, saith St. James, is like a wave of the sea; neither let that man think that he shall obtain any thing at God's hands. Peter coming to Christ upon the water, because he fainted in faith, was in danger of drowning. So we, if we begin to waver or doubt, it is to be feared lest we shall sink as Peter did, not into the water, but into the bottomless pit of hell fire. Therefore I say unto you, that we must apprehend the merits of Christ's death and passion by faith; and that with a strong and steadfast faith, nothing doubting but Heb. x. 10-18. that Christ, by his one oblation and once offering of himself upon the cross, hath taken away our sins, and hath restored us again into God's favour, so fully and perfectly that no other sacrifice for sin shall hereafter be requisite or needful in all the world. 14, 15. Thus have ye heard in few words the mean whereby we must apply the fruits and merits of Christ's death unto us, so that it may work the salvation of our souls, namely, a sure, steadfast, perfect, and grounded faith. For, as all they which beheld steadfastly the brasen serpent were healed Numb. xxi. and delivered, at the very sight thereof, from their 9: John iii. corporal diseases and bodily stings, even so all they which behold Christ crucified with a true and lively faith shall undoubtedly be delivered from the grievous wounds of the soul, be they never so deadly or many in number. Therefore, dearly beloved, if we chance at any time, through frailty of the flesh, to fall into sin, as it cannot be chosen but we must needs fall often; and if we feel the heavy burden thereof to press our souls, tormenting us with the fear of death, hell, and damnation; let us then use that mean which God hath appointed in his word, to wit, the mean of faith, which is the only instrument of salvation now left unto us. Let us steadfastly behold Christ crucified with the eyes of our heart. Let us only trust to be saved by his death and passion, and to have our sins clean washed away through his most precious blood; that in the end of the world, when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead, he may receive us into his heavenly kingdom, and place us in the number of his elect and chosen people, there to be partakers of that immortal and everlasting life which he hath purchased unto us by virtue of his bloody wounds. To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory world without end. Amen. AN HOMILY OF THE RESURRECTION OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. ! Acta i. 3. FOR EASTER DAY. Ir ever at any time the greatness or excellency of any matter, spiritual or temporal, hath stirred up your minds to give diligent ear, good Christian people, and wellbeloved in our Lord and Saviour Jesu Christ, I doubt not but that I shall have you now at this present season most diligent and ready hearers of the matter which I have at this time to open unto you. For I come to declare that great and most comfortable article of our Christian religion and faith, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. So great surely is the matter of this article, and of so great weight and importance, that it was thought worthy to keep our said Saviour still on earth forty days, after he was risen from death to life, to the confirmation and stablishment thereof in the hearts of his disciples. So that, as Luke clearly testifieth in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, he was conversant with his disciples by the space of forty days continually together, to the intent he would in his person, being now glorified, teach and instruct them, which should be the teachers of other, fully and in most absolute and perfect wise the truth of this most Christian article, which is the ground and foundation of our whole religion, before he would ascend up to his Father into the heavens, there to receive the glory of his most triumphant conquest and victory. I Assuredly, so highly comfortable is this article to our consciences, that it is even the very lock and key of all our Christian religion and faith. If it were not true, saith the holy Apostle Paul, 1 Cor. xv. that Christ rose again, then our preaching were in 14-22. rain, your faith which ye have received were but roid, ye were yet in the danger of your sins. If Christ be not risen again, saith the Apostle, then are they in very evil case, and utterly perished, that be entered their sleep in Christ; then are we the most miserable of all men, which have our hope fixed in Christ, if he be yet under the power of death, and as yet not restored to his bliss again. But now is he risen again from death, saith the Apostle Paul, to be the firstfruits of them that be asleep, to the intent to raise them to everlasting life again. Yea, if it were not true that Christ is risen again, then were it neither true that he is ascended up to heaven; nor that he sent down from heaven unto us the Holy Ghost; nor that he sitteth on the right hand of his heavenly Father, having the rule of heaven and earth, reigning (as the Prophet saith) from sea to sea; nor that he should after Ps. lxxii. 8. this world be the judge as well of the living as of the dead, to give reward to the good and judgment to the evil. That these links therefore of our faith should all hang together in steadfast establishment and confirmation, it pleased our Saviour not straightway to withdraw himself from the bodily presence and sight of his disciples; but he chose out forty days wherein he would declare unto them by manifold and most strong arguments and tokens, that he had conquered death, and that he was also truly risen again to life. He began, saith Luke, at Moses Luke xxiv. and all the Prophets, and expounded unto them the 27. prophecies that were written in all the Scriptures of him, to the intent to confirm the truth of his resurrection, long before spoken of; which he verified indeed, as it is declared very apparently and manifestly, by his oft appearance to sundry persons at |