lieth!' and unless these limitations may attend it, Christ himself came not to bring peace into the world, but a sword.

5. Wherefore if the pope does indeed desire we should be reconciled to him, he ought first to reconcile himself to God; for, as Cyprian saith,' Schisms arise from hence, that the head is not sought, and a return is not made to the fountain of the holy scriptures, and the precepts of our heavenly Master are not kept; for else, it is not peace, but war; neither can any man be united to the church, who is separated from the gospel.' But these men, with whom we are concerned, do use to make a base gain by the name of peace; for the peace they seek is only a peace of idle bellies; for all these controversies betwixt us and them might with great facility be ended, if ambition, gluttony, and luxuries did not hinder it; and from hence proceed all their tears; their souls are in their dishes, and all their loud clamours and noise are only that they may basely and wickedly keep what they have acquired knavishly.

6. In these times the pardoners, dataries, collectors, and pimps of the court of Rome make the greatest complaints against us, who, with others of their trade, think that great gain is godliness, and serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies; for in the foregoing ages this sort of men had a very profitable employment; but now whatever is gained to Christ, turns, as they think, to their loss. Yea, his holiness too complains sadly, that piety is grown cold, and his revenue is become much smaller than heretofore it was; and therefore the 'good man' does his utmost to make us hated, loads us with reproaches, and condemns us for heretics, without any mercy, that they who know not the real cause of all this, may thereby be induced to believe us the very worst of

men.

And yet in the interim we are not therefore

ashamed, nor indeed ought we to be so, of the gospel of Jesus Christ, because we esteem the glory of God more than the good opinion of men. We know that all we teach is true, and we cannot offer violence to our own consciences, nor give testimony against God; for if we deny any part of the gospel of Jesus Christ before men, he will in like manner deny us before his Father; and if there be any that will be offended, and cannot bear the doctrine of Christ, they are blind, and the leaders of the blind; but the truth is still to be preached and owned, and we must patiently expect the judgment of God.

7. And in the interim our adversaries should do well to bethink themselves seriously of their own salvation, and to put an end to their raging hatred and persecution of the gospel of the Son of God, that at last they may not find him the vindicator and avenger of his own cause; for God will not be had in derision; and men, too, now see what is doing; that the flame, the more it is repressed, with so much the greater violence it breaks out again, and displays itself. Their infidelity and unbelief shall never be able to frustrate or put a stop to the faith of God; and if they shall still persist in the hardness of their hearts, and refuse to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, the publicans and the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before them, Matt. xx. 31.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ open all their eyes, that they may see that blessed hope to which they are called, that we may altogether glorify the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent down to us from heaven; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be rendered all honour and glory to all eternity. Amen. Amen.

A SERMON

OF THE SALVATION OF MANKIND,

BY ONLY CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR,

FROM SIN AND DEATH EVERLASTING.

BY ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.

BECAUSE all men be sinners and offenders against God; and breakers of his law and commandments; therefore can no man by his own acts, works, and deeds, seem they never so good, be justified and made righteous before God: but every man of necessity is constrained to seek for another righteousness of justification, to be received at God's own hands; that is to say, the forgiveness of his sins and trespasses, in such things as he hath offended. And this justification or righteousness, which we so receive of God's mercy and Christ's merits, embraced by faith, is taken, accepted, and allowed of God for our perfect and full justification.

For the more full understanding hereof, it is our parts and duties ever to remember the great mercy of God: how that, all the world being wrapped in sin by breaking of the law, God sent his only Son our Saviour Christ into this world, to fulfil the law for us; and, by shedding of his most precious blood,

to make a sacrifice and satisfaction, or, as it may be called, amends to his Father for our sins, to assuage his wrath and indignation conceived against us for the same.

Insomuch that infants, being baptized and dying in their infancy, are by this sacrifice washed from - their sins, brought to God's favour, and made his children, and inheritors of his kingdom of heaven. And they, which in act or deed, do sin after their baptism, when they turn again to God unfeignedly, they are likewise washed by this sacrifice from their sins, in such sort, that there remaineth not any spot of sin, that shall be imputed to their damnation. This is that justification, or righteousness, which St. Paul speaketh of, when he saith, "No man is justified by the works of the law, but freely by faith in Jesus Christ." And again he saith, "We believe in Jesus Christ, that we be justified freely by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; because that no man shall be justified by the works of the law." Gal. ii. 16.

And although this justification be free unto us, yet it cometh not so freely unto us, that there is no ransom paid therefore at all.

Objection. But here may man's reason be astonished, reasoning after this fashion: If a ransom be paid for our redemption, then is it not given us freely. For a prisoner that payeth his ransom, is not let go freely; for if he go freely, then he goeth without ransom; for what is it else to go freely, than to be set at liberty without payment of ransom?

Answer. This reason is satisfied by the great wisdom of God in this mystery of our redemption; who hath so tempered his justice and mercy together, that he would neither by his justice condemn us unto the everlasting captivity of the devil, and his prison of hell, remediless for ever without mercy; nor by his mercy deliver us clearly, without justice, or pay

ment of a just ransom: but with his endless mercy he joined his most upright and equal justice. His great mercy he showed unto us in delivering us from our former captivity, without requiring of any ransom to be paid, or amends to be made upon our parts; which thing by us had been impossible to be done. And whereas it lay not in us to do that, he provided a ransom for us; that was, the most precious body and blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesus Christ; who, besides this ransom, fulfilled the law for us perfectly. And so the justice of God and his mercy did embrace together, and fulfilled the mystery of our redemption.

And of this justice and mercy of God knit together, speaketh St. Paul in the third chapter to the Romans, 23-25 : "All have offended, and have need of the glory of God; but are justified freely by his grace, by redemption which is in Jesus Christ; whom God had set forth to us for a reconciler and peace-maker through faith in his blood, to show his righteousness." And in the tenth chapter, ver. 4. "Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness, to every man that believeth." And in the eighth chapter, ver. 3, 4, "That which was impossible by the law, inasmuch as it was weak by the flesh, God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh, by sin condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, which walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."

In these foresaid places, the apostle toucheth specially three things, which must go together in our justification. Upon God's part, his great mercy and grace: upon Christ's part, justice; that is, the satisfaction of God's justice, or the price of our redemption, by the offering of his body, and shedding of his blood, with fulfilling of the law perfectly and thoroughly and upon our part, true and lively faith in the merits of Jesus Christ; which yet is not ours,