glosses and colours that they might not be known of the godly and more simple sorte of men. One faynith that he doth not go out of Egipt and Babilon / bicause he may wynne many vnto Christe: when as in the meane tyume he doth both withdrawe himself from Christ / and doth cõfirme manye that be weaker men in the filthes of babilon so that they do not at ony tyme thincke ernestly of true repentaunce. Other do fantisie that ther is no neade opẽly to cõfes religion / but that the inward beleif of the hart doth suffice: And if it be of vrgẽt necessite to confes ony thinge openly / yet that the confession sufficith which is made amonge the brithern which are well known and companions in Religion: Neither that the confession amonge the aduersaires is straitly required / which shall put them in daũger of lyfe. And therfore thou shalt finde sum men of exercise which cã conningly dispute of papisticall ceremonies and make meruailus interpretacions of theim / laboring by all meanes to proue that the godly by the partaking of them neither are defiled / nor yet that the religiõ of the gospell is denied. Thus wittye and subtill doth that trembling feare / and gret desire of this world make them. Truly when the tyme serued that they might lyue without daũger in rest and quiet at ease / they then wold neuer haue thought / no not so mutch as dreamed ony of this matier / Yea of theis thinges they wold haue bẽ loth but euẽ to haue spokẽ / as thinges playne cõtrary to simplicitie / and true religion. But now when the lord hath sent amonge
them the fire of persequution or rather of probatiõ / and they do se that either they must flye out of their countrie / or that they must put ther lyfe in extreme ieoperdie / and yet haue no will to leaue either ease or their riches / or to committ themselues to daũgers / they turn themselues into all formes / and craftyly creping backe by clokinge and dissemblinge they do seeke wayes / by which they may slypp awaie out of the conflict. Which when it happenith as they wold haue it / thẽ without all doubt / ther lyues / their substaunce / and goode estimaciõ do vtterly perishe. For this cause I thincke that I can not entreate a more profitable mater and more meete and necessarie for this our world / The argument and matter. then of the true cõfessing of Christe and the truithe of the gospell / and of the foule denyinge of the same. This matier truly is copius / and most ãple / wherthrough I doubt nothing at all but sum of you be all redy made afraide with the largenes of it / which do consider the end of the sermon by the begynning / and of the mater it self: But I will at this present touche but certayn pointes of this matier hauing cõsideraciõ of the tyme / and especially of you / reuerend fathers and beloued Brethern in Christ. The lord gyue me grace omitting thinges not necessarie / to prosequute only all thos thinges which be necessarie. Thos shameles men / which affirme (without doubt against their own consciẽce) The cloke of them that deny true religion. that ther is no neade at all of the outward and daũgerus confession among the aduersaries of the religion of the gospell / they do wrast the ordinaunces
of Godd to make a cloke for their malice. And they saye / that Godd will not haue holy mariages broken / or that the honor due vnto parẽts shuld be vndoone / that Godd will not haue the gouernmẽt of polities or howsholds disturbed / ãd to be short that he will not haue a mans death and destruction. For what encrease shall happen to the glorie of God by the vnrecouerable miserie of me and my houshold? what profyt shuld come of my chaynes / or of my pouertie vnto my neighburr? And who is it that knowith not that all thinges which we do are to be referred to the glorie of Godd / and to the profit of our neighburr? Yea and if I be burned / or cast into exile for the confession of the gospell / do I not take miself awaie frõ myne by deathe / before my tyme? Do I not throw all myn with me into extreme pouertie and beggerie? And thẽ after all by goodes be loste I am compelled to be burdenus vnto others. The towardlynes of my Sonnes shalbe brought in daunger. The chastitie or my wyfe and doughters shalbe brought into hazarde. For they being pressed with most hard necessitie shall learne by euell artes to gett necessaries for their lyfe. And who will thĩcke that Godd doth allowe theise thinges? who doth so mutche cõmend the faith of mariage / the godly bringing vp of childrẽ / and an howshold wel ordered / that Paule his apostle fearith not to saye, 1. Timo. 5. That if ony prouide not for his and specially for theim of his houshold / the same hathe denied the faith / ãd is worse than an infidell. Wherfor les I shuld be constrayned
to confession / and so denie the faithe / I retayne faith in my harte / and by holding my peace I do dissemble for a tyme / I do not vtterly denye nor throw awaye all Religiõ. All theise thinges (I say) they do most wickedly wraste against their naturall and godlye sense / to defend their desires / and to retayne their wordly commodities.
Confession is necessarie But against all theis we do sett the sentẽce of our lord and Sauiour Iesus Christe / which is neither darcke nor doutfull / that by it all the subtilties of theise mene maye at ones be confuted / and vanishe awaye. In the gospell of Mathewe he confirming the mynds of his disciples against the thretts and terrors of this wicked world / amõg other thinges / Matth. 10. Are not (sayth he) two lytle sparowes solde for a farthinge. And one of them shall not lyghte on the grownd withe out your father: yea euen all the heares of your heade are nombred. feare ye not therfor: ye are if more value then many sparowes. Euery one therfor that shall knowledge me before men hym wyll I knowledge also before my father which is in heauen. But whosoeuer shall denye me before men / hym wyll I also denye before my father which is in heauen: the same lord in the gospell of Marcke / Marc. 8. Whosoeuer (saythe he) shall lose hys lyfe for my sake and the gospell He same shall saue it. For what shall it profyte a man / if he wynne al the worlde and lose his owne soule? or what shall a mã gyue to redeme hys soule wythall agayn? Whosoeuer therfor shalbe ashamed of me ãd of my wordes /
in this aduowtrus and synfull generation: of hym also shall the sonne of mã be ashamed whẽ he commith in the glorie of his father withe the holy angels. Theis wordes of the lorde are playne / ãd spokẽ without ony darcknes. The lord requirith of eiche one of vs that symple and open confessiõ which we make before men / and that such men as are synnars and adulterars / the emenies / I saye / of Godd / and of all true religiõ. for such men do the prophets also call fornicatours and adulterars. He requirith / I saye / that we shuld cõfes hym and his worde / That is / that we shuld simply cõfes that he is Christ / and that we shuld not denye ony thing of his worde either by out wordes or deedes. Examples of true confession, Mat. 16. We read that Peter did confes Christ the lorde sincerely and with a true cõfession when he answered vnto the lorde / which asked and sayed. But whõ saye ye that I am / he answered. Thow art Christe the sonne of the lyuinge Godd. Ioan. 6. Agayn whẽ many did fall from the lorde for that sermon in which he declared in the Synagoge of the Capernaites / that he only was the foade of lyfe / and for that cause the lorde saide to his disciples: Wyll ye also go awaye? Peter answered / and cõfessing the lorde with a notable cõfession he said / lorde to whom shall we go? Thow hast the wordes of eternal lyfe / And we beleue and are sure / that thow art Christe the sonne of the lyuinge Godd. Such like cõfession absolute and true doth the blessed apostle and Euangelist Iohn commẽd vnto vs sayinge. 1. Ioan. 4. Dearly beloued / beleue not euery sprit / but
proue the sprites / whether they are of Godd or not. For many false prophetes are gone out into the worlde. Hereby shall ye know the spirite of Godd: Euery sprite that confessith that Iesu Christe is cõme in the flesh / is of Godd. And euery sprite which confessith not that Iesu Christe is come in the fleshe is not of Godd. And this is that spirite of Antichriste / of whome ye haue herde / howe that he shuld comme and euen now alreadi is he in the worlde. Furthermor this true and catholike confession / doth so attribute all out whole lyfe and saluaciõ vnto the lorde Christe / that it doeth take the same from al other meanes and thinges with which mãs doctrine hathe ony part: wherfor it is not sufficiẽt only to haue cõfirmed the part affirmatiue (as they call it) except thow do also expres the negatiue / and dost so ascribe vnto Christe our lorde all the thinges of our lyfe and saluaciõ / that all men may vnderstõd that thow dost clyme to him al the partes of our saluacion / and that thow dost not gyue ony part therof to ony other. For we do fynd that the lord Iesus did teache such a confession / and that his apostles made the lyke. For whẽ the lorde in the gospell of Iohn speakĩg plainly inough hadd sayed. Ioan. 10. I am the dore / by me if any mã entre in / he shall be safe and shall go in and oute / and finde pasture. A thefe cõmith not but for to steale / kyll / and to destroye: I am come that they might haue lyfe / and that they might haue it more abũdantly: I am the goode shepeherd / a goode shepeherd gyueth his lyfe for the shepe. Yet was he not
contẽt with theis though thy be most playne wordes / but he ioyned also a Negatiue / with a most pitthie asseueraciõ / sayĩg: Verely verely I saye vnto yowe he that enterith not in by the dore into the shepefolde / but clymbeth vp some other waye / the same is a theife and a murtherer. He likewise saith playnly in the same chapter / A goode shepeherd goeth before his shepe / and the shepe folowe hym bicause they knowe his voice. Yea forthewith he addith this also / A straunger will they not folowe / but wil flie frõ him / for they know not the voice of straũgers. Agayn in an other place / Ioan. 14. I am the waye (saithe he) the truthe and the lyfe: Yet he not being content wyth this so playn a doctryne doth adde agayne the exclusyue and saithe / No mã commith to the father but by me. Wherfor Peter thought it not inoughe that he sayde in that full senate of Hierusalem / That Christe is that Rocke which doth by his dethe and resurrection establishe and preserue the beleauers / Act. 4. onles moreouer he had Vindicated to Christ alone all thinges that concerne saluaciõ / and taken the same awaye from others / saying. Neither is there saluacion in ony other: For among men vnder heauen ther is gyuen none other name wherin we must be saued. After which manier likewise saĩt Paul doth proue that Roma. 3. faith in Christ through grace doth iustifie / neither doth he saye this only / Ephe. 2. but he doth also remoue all that which might seeme to gyue iustice vnto men / the lawe I meane and worckes / sayinge. We knowe that a man is not iustified
by the dedes of the lawe / Gala. 2. but by the faith of Iesus Christe. And we haue beleued on Iesus Christ that we might be iustified by the faythe of Christe / and not by the dedes of the lawe / bicause that by the dedes of the lawe no fleshe shalbe iustified. And in an other place the same Paule: Behold (saith he) I Paul saye vnto yowe / Gala 5. that if ye be circũcised / Christe shall profite yow nothing at all. I testifie agayn to euery man which is circumcised / that he is bownd to keape the whole lawe. Christe is become but in vayn to yowe / as many of yow as are iustified by the lawe are fallen from grace / we loke for and hope in the spirite to be iustified thorow faithe. Theis cleare examples of Christ and the apostles / and doctrine of the sincere and sounde confession of Christe do suffice to yow reuerend and godly hearers. Out of which we do gather / that their cõfessions are neither full / nor sincere / which do confes that indeede Christe is thier saluaciõ and rightuisnes / their preist and sacrifice / their aduocate and mediator / Imperfaite confessiõs. yet so that it notwithstõding they do gyue the very same / and cõmunicate them to synneful men / to thinges also and meanes which are in no place instituted nor approued of Godd. And no les corrupt is their confession also / which do confes wyth the mouthe that Godd alone is to be adored and worshipped / that Christe is the only preiste and true aduocate with the father / but yet in their deedes they do denye that same confession of their mouthe / bowinge their knees to Images / worshippinge creatures /
callinge vppon their patrons and fayned saynts of heauen. The hole doctryne of Christe is to be confessed. But the Apostles did not only confes Christe himself / but also all Christes doctrine / all Christes wordes / the whole gospell (I saye) of saluacion: of which Christe is the only Marcke. And therfor when the preistes and senators of Hierusalem did forbidd the apostles that they shuld nomore preache the gospell / they ãswered hartily and playnly: whether it be right in the sight of Godd to herken vnto yow more thẽ vnto Godd / iudge ye. Act. 4. For we can not but speke that which we haue seene and herde. And when they were shutt vp in prison for free preching of the gospell / and wer in daũger of their lyues / they are delyuered of the angell / of whõ by the cõmaundement of Godd they do heare. Act. 5. Go and stande and speake in the temple to the poeple all the wordes of this lyfe. Therfor all thos thinges which are cõtayned in the holy gospell / and holy scriptures / must be confessed of them which are faithfull indeede: for all thos are the wordds of Godd / and the wordds of saluacion / And all thos do sauer of Christe and do bringe vnto Christe. Ioan. 1. In whom only it hath pleased God the father that all fulnes shuld dwell / in whõ (as Paule doth witnes) Colos. 1. 2. we are made perfite so that we want nothinge / as agayn the lorde himself doth testifie: Ioã. 4. 5. 7. he that eateth or drincketh me shall not be hungry or thrustie for euer / but he shall haue in hym self the healthefull waters of euerlastinge lyfe. Yf we do knowe / beleaue / and vnderstonde theise thinges