The First Book of Homilies, Homily 2:
A Sermon of the Misery of All Mankind and of His Condemnation to Death Everlasting by His Own Sin (Part 2)
The Second Part of the Sermon of the Misery of Man.
FORASMUCH as the true knowledge of ourselves is very necessary to come to the right knowledge of God, ye have heard in the last reading how humbly all godly men always have thought of themselves, and so to think and judge of themselves are taught of God their Creator by his holy word. For of ourselves we be crabtrees, that can bring forth no apples. We be of ourselves of such earth as can bring forth but weeds, nettles, brambles, briars, cockle, and darnel. Our fruits be declared in the fifth chapter to the Galathians.[1] We have neither faith, charity, hope, patience, chastity, nor any thing else that good is, but of God; and therefore these virtues be called there the fruits of the Holy Ghost, and not the fruits of man.
Let us therefore acknowledge ourselves before God, as we be indeed, miserable and wretched sinners. And let us earnestly repent, and humble ourselves heartily, and cry to God for mercy. Let us all confess with mouth and heart that we be full of imperfections. Let us know our own works, of what imperfection they be; and then we shall not stand foolishly and arrogantly in our own conceits, nor challenge any part of justification by our merits or works. For truly there be imperfections in our best works: we do not love God so much as we are bound to do, with all our heart, mind, and power; we do not fear God so much as we ought to do; we do not pray to God but with great and many imperfections; we give, forgive, believe, love, and hope unperfectly; we speak, think, and do unperfectly; we fight against the devil, the world, and the flesh unperfectly. Let us therefore not be ashamed to confess plainly our state of imperfection; yea, let us not be ashamed to confess imperfection even in all our own best works. Let none of us be ashamed to say with holy St. Peter, I am a sinful man.[2] Let us all say with the holy Prophet David, We have sinned with our fathers; we have done amiss, and dealt wickedly.[3] Let us all make open confession with the prodigal son to our Father, and say with him, We have sinned against heaven and before thee, O Father; we are not worthy to be called thy sons.[4] Let us all say with holy Baruch, O Lord our God, to us is worthily ascribed shame and confusion, and to thee righteousness:[5] we have sinned, we have done wickedly, we have behaved ourselves ungodly in all thy righteousness.[6] Let us all say with the holy Prophet Daniel, O Lord, righteousness belongeth to thee; unto us belongeth confusion.[7] We have sinned, we have been naughty, we have offended, we have fled from thee, we have gone back from all thy precepts and judgments.[8] So we learn of all good men in holy Scripture to humble ourselves, and to exalt, extol, praise, magnify, and glorify God.
Thus we have heard how evil we be of ourselves; how, of ourselves and by ourselves, we have no goodness, help, nor salvation, but contrariwise sin, damnation, and death everlasting: which if we deeply weigh and consider, we shall the better understand the great mercy of God, and how our salvation cometh only by Christ. For in ourselves, as of ourselves, we find nothing whereby we may be delivered from this miserable captivity,[9] into the which we were cast, through the envy of the devil, by breaking of God’s commandment in our first parent Adam. We are all become unclean:[10] but we all are not able to cleanse ourselves, nor to make one another of us clean. We are by nature the children of God’s wrath:[11] but we are not able to make ourselves the children and inheritors of God’s glory. We are sheep that run astray:[12] but we cannot of our own power come again to the sheepfold; so great is our imperfection and weakness. In ourselves therefore may not we glory, which of ourselves are nothing but sinful. Neither we may rejoice in any works that we do; which all be so unperfect and unpure that they are not able to stand before the righteous judgment seat of God, as the holy Prophet David saith: Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord; for no man that liveth shall be found righteous in thy sight.[13]
To God therefore must we flee; or else shall we never find peace, rest, and quietness of conscience in our hearts. For he is the Father of mercies, and God of all consolation.[14] He is the Lord with whom is plenteous redemption.[15] He is the God which of his own mercy saveth us;[16] and setteth out his charity and exceeding love toward us, in that of his own voluntary goodness, when we were perished, he saved us,[17] and provided and everlasting kingdom for us. And all these heavenly treasures are given us, not for our own deserts, merits, or good deeds, which of ourselves we have none, but of his mere mercy freely. And for whose sake? Truly for Jesus Christ’s sake, that pure and undefiled Lamb of God.[18] He is that dearly beloved Son for whose sake God is fully pacified, satisfied, and set at one with man. He is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world:[19] of whom only it may be truly spoken, that he did all things well,[20] and in his mouth was found no craft nor subtilty.[21] None but he alone may say, The prince of the world came, and in me he hath nothing.[22] And he alone may say also, Which of you shall reprove me of any fault?[23] He is that high and everlasting Priest, which hath offered himself once for all upon the altar of the cross,[24] and with that one oblation hath made perfect for evermore them that are sanctified.[25] He is the alone Mediator between God and man;[26] which paid our ransom to God with his own blood;[27] and with that hath he cleansed us all from sin.[28] He is the Physician which healeth all our diseases.[29] He is that Saviour which saveth his people from all their sins.[30] To be short, he is that flowing and most plenteous fountain of whose fulness all we have received.[31] For in him alone are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge of God hidden;[32] and in him, and by him, have we from God the Father all good things[33] pertaining either to the body or to the soul.
O how much are we bound to this our heavenly Father for his great mercies, which he hath so plenteously declared unto us in Christ Jesu our Lord and Saviour! What thanks worthy and sufficient can we give to him? Let us all with one accord burst out with joyful voices, ever praising and magnifying this Lord of mercy for his tender kindness shewed to us in his dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hitherto have we heard what we are of ourselves; verily, sinful, wretched, and damnable. Again, we have heard how that, of ourselves and by ourselves, we are not able either to think a good thought, or work a good deed: so that we can find in ourselves no hope of salvation, but rather whatsoever maketh unto our destruction. Again, we have heard the tender kindness and great mercy of God the Father toward us, and how beneficial he is to us for Christ’s sake, without our merits or deserts, even of his own mere mercy and tender goodness. Now, how these exceeding great mercies of God, set abroad in Christ Jesu for us, be obtained, and how we be delivered from the captivity of sin, death, and hell, it shall more at large, with God’s help, be declared in the next Sermon. In the mean season, yea, and at all times, let us learn to know ourselves, our frailty and weakness, without any cracking or boasting of our own good deeds and merits. Let us also knowledge the exceeding mercy of God toward us, and confess that, as of ourselves cometh all evil and damnation, so likewise of him cometh all goodness and salvation; as God himself saith by the Prophet Osee: O Israel, thy destruction cometh of thyself, but in me only is thy help and comfort.[34] If we thus humbly submit ourselves in the sight of God, we may be sure that in the time of his visitation he will lift us up unto the kingdom of his dearly beloved Son Christ Jesu our Lord. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory for ever. Amen.
- Galatians 5:19-23 ↑
- Luke 5:8 ↑
- Psalm 106:6 ↑
- Luke 15:18-19 ↑
- Baruch 2:6 ↑
- Baruch 2:12 ↑
- Daniel 9:7 ↑
- Daniel 9:5 ↑
- 2 Corinthians 3:5 ↑
- Psalm 51:1-10 ↑
- Ephesians 2:3 ↑
- 1 Peter 2:25 ↑
- Psalm 143:2. ↑
- 2 Corinthians 1:3 ↑
- Psalm 130:7 ↑
- Titus 3:5 ↑
- Romans 5:8 ↑
- 1 Peter 1:19 ↑
- John 1:29 ↑
- Mark 7:37 ↑
- 1 Peter 2:22 ↑
- John 14:30 ↑
- John 8:46 ↑
- Hebrews 7:24-27 ↑
- Hebrews 10:14 ↑
- 1 Timothy 2:5-6 ↑
- Revelation 5:9 ↑
- Revelation 1:5; 1 John 1:7 ↑
- Psalm 103:3 ↑
- Matthew 1:21 ↑
- John 1:16 ↑
- Colossians 2:3 ↑
- Romans 8:32 ↑
- Hosea 13:9 ↑
