A Sermon of the Misery of All Mankind and of His Condemnation to Death Everlasting by His Own Sin
(Part 1)
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 out 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 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.[1] 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,[2] when he maketh his earnest prayer for Sodom and Gomorre. And we read that Judith,[3] Hester,[4] Job,[5] Hieremy,[6] with other holy men 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,[7] 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 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 aways.[8] And the holy Prophet Job, having in himself great experience of the miserable and sinful estate of man, doth open the same 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?[9] And all men, of their evilness and natural proneness were so universally given to sin, that, as the Scripture saith, God repented that he ever made man:[10] And by sin his indignation was so much provoked against the world, that he drowned all the world with Noe’s flood, except Noe himself and his little household.[11]
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, earth, earth, saith Jeremy, hear the word of the Lord.[12] 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 forth, speaking by his faithful Apostle St. Paul: All men, Jews and Gentiles, 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.[13] And in another place St. Paul writeth thus: God hath wrapped all nations in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all.[14] The Scripture shutteth up all under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ should be given unto them that believe.[15] St. Paul in many places painteth us out in our colours, calling us the children of the wrath of God when we be born;[16] saying also that we cannot think a good thought of ourselves,[17] much less can say well or do well of ourselves. And the Wise Man saith in the book of Proverbs, The just man falleth seven times a day.[18]
The most tried and approved man Job feared all his works.[19] St. John the Baptist, being sanctified in his mother’s womb, and praised before he was born,[20] called an angel[21] and great before the Lord, filled even from his birth with the Holy Ghost,[22] the preparer of the way for our Saviour Christ,[23] and commended of our Saviour Christ to be more than a prophet and the greatest that ever was born of a woman,[24] yet he plainly granteth that he had need to be washed of Christ;[25] he worthily extolleth and glorifieth his Lord and Master Christ, and humbleth himself as unworthy to unbuckle his shoes,[26] 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.[27] 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 cleans us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.[28] Wherefore the Wise Man, in the book called Ecclesiastes, maketh this true and general confession: There is not one just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.[29] And St. David is ashamed of his sin, but not to confess his sin.[30] How oft, how earnestly and lamentably, doth he desire God’s great mercy for his great offences, and that God should not enter into judgment with him![31] 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![32] 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,[33] 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, infections, tastes, feelings, and scents of them to continue in him still. Wherefore he saith, Mark and behold, I was conceived in sins.[34] He saith not sin, but in the plural number sins; forasmuch as out of one, as fountain, springeth all the rest.
And our Saviour Christ saith there is none good but God,[35] and that we can do nothing that is good without him,[36] nor no man can come to the Father but by him.[37] He commandeth us all to say that we be unprofitable servants, when we have done all that we can do.[38] He preferreth the penitent Publican before the proud, holy, and glorious Pharisee.[39] He calleth himself a Physician, but not them that be whole, but to them that be sick,[40] and have need of his salve for their sore. He teacheth us in our prayers to reknowledge ourselves sinners, and to ask forgiveness and deliverance from all evils at our heavenly Father’s hand.[41] He declareth that the sins of our own hearts to defile our own selves.[42] He teacheth that an evil word or thought deserveth condemnation, affirming that we shall give an account for every idle word.[43] He saith he came not to save but the sheep that were utterly lost and cast away.[44] Therefore few of the proud, just, learned, wise, perfect, and holy Pharisees were saved by him; because they justified themselves by their counterfeit holiness before men. Wherefore, good people, let us beware of such hypocrisy, vainglory, and justifying of ourselves. Let us look upon our feet; and then down peacock’s feathers, down proud heart, down vile clay, frail and brittle vessels.
- Genesis 3:19 ↑
- Genesis 18:27 ↑
- Judith 4:10-11; 9:1 ↑
- Esther 14:2 ↑
- Job 42:6 ↑
- Jeremiah 6:26; 25:34 ↑
- Wisdom 7:1-6 ↑
- Isaiah 40:6-8 ↑
- Job 14:1-4 ↑
- Genesis 6:6 ↑
- Genesis 7 ↑
- Jeremiah 22:29 ↑
- Romans 3:9-18 ↑
- Romans 11:32 ↑
- Galatians 3:22 ↑
- Ephesians 2:3 ↑
- 2 Corinthians 3:5 ↑
- Proverbs 24:16 ↑
- Job 9:28 ↑
- Luke 1:15 ↑
- Malachi 3:1 ↑
- Luke 1:15 ↑
- Matthew 11:9-11 ↑
- Matthew 11:9-11 ↑
- Matthew 3:11, 14 ↑
- Mark 1:7-8 ↑
- 1 Corinthians 15:8-10; 1 Timothy 1:11-17 ↑
- 1 John 1:8-10 ↑
- Ecclesiastes 7:20 ↑
- Psalm 51 ↑
- Psalm 143:2 ↑
- Psalm 19:12; 40:12 ↑
- Psalm 19:12 ↑
- Psalm 51:5 ↑
- Matthew 19:17; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19 ↑
- John 15:5 ↑
- John 14:6 ↑
- Luke 17:10 ↑
- Luke 18:14 ↑
- Matthew 9:12 ↑
- Matthew 6:12-13; Luke 11:4 ↑
- Matthew 15:19-20 ↑
- Matthew 12:36 ↑
- Matthew 15:24 ↑
