THE KING’S BUSINESS
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filthy enough before God; they stink before His face; and therefore they shall be cast from His presence into everlasting fire; this shall be all their good cheer that they shall have, because they have not the livery of Christ, nor His cognizance, which is love. They remember not that Christ com manded us, saying, “This I command you, that ye love one another.” This is Christ’s commandment. Moses, the great prophet of God, gave many laws, but he gave not the spirit to fulfill the same laws ; but Christ gave this law, and promised unto us, that when we call upon Him He will give us His Holy Ghost, who shall make us able to fulfill His laws, though not so perfectly as the law requires; but yet to the contention of God, and to the pro tection of our faith : for as long as we are in this world, we can do nothing as we ought to do, because our flesh leadeth us, which is ever bent against the law of God; yet our works which we do are well taken for Christ’s sake, and God will reward them in heaven. COMMANDMENTS NOT HEAVY Therefore our Saviour saith, “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” because He helpeth to bear them; else indeed we should not be able to bear them. And in another place He saith, “His command ments are not heavy;” they are heavy to our flesh, but being qualified with the Spirit of God, to the faithful which believe in Christ, to them I say, they are not heavy ; for though their doings are not perfect, yet they are well taken for Christ’s sake. You must not be offended because the Scripture commends love - so highly, for he that commends the daughter commends the mother, for love is the daughter, and faith is thé mother: love floweth out of faith; where faith is, there is love; but yet we must consider their offices, faith is the hand wherewith we take hold on ever lasting life. Now let us enter into ourselves, and examine our own hearts, whether we are in the livery of God, or not: and when we
in his distress, are charitable, loving, and friendly unto him, then we shall be known at the last day: but if we be uncharitable toward our neighbor, hate him, seek our own advantage with his damage, then we shall be rejected of Christ and so damned world without end. THE SAVIOUR SPEAKS Our Saviour saith here in this gospel, “I command you these things;” He speaketh in the plural number, and lappeth it up in one thing, which is that we should love one another, much like St. Paul’s saying in the 13th to the Romans, “Owe nothing to any man, but to love one another.” Here St. Paul lappeth up all things together, sig nifying unto us that love is the consumma tion of the law; for this commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” is con tained in this law of love:, for he that loveth God will, not break wedlock, because wedlock-breaking is a dishonoring of God and a serving of the devil. “Thou shalt not kill;” he that loveth will not kill, he will do no harm. “Thou shalt not steal;” he that loveth his neighbor as himself will not take away his goods. I had of late occasion to speak of picking and stealing, where I showed unto you the danger wherein they are' that steal their neighbor’s goods from them, but I hear nothing yet of restitution. Sirs, I tell you, except res titution is made, look for no salvation. And it is a miserable and heinous thing to consider that we are so blinded with this world that, rather than we would make restitution, we will sell unto the devil our souls which are bought with the blood of our Saviour Christ. What can be done more to the dishonoring of Christ than to cast our souls away to the devil for the value of a little money?—the soul which He has bought with His painful passion and death. But I tell you those that will do so, and that will not make restitution when they have done wrong, or taken away their neighbor’s goods, they are not in the livery of Christ, they are not His ser vants : let them go as they will in this world, yet for all that they are foul and
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