June 21

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.—John 1:17.

THE grace and truth of God, of which the saints, at the appearing of the Only-Begotten Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, beheld him to be full: how this is to be distinguished from the Old Testament, as being a matter of the New Testament; this theme, my beloved, we have undertaken in the name of the Lord, as we promised. Give ye then your best attention, that what, according to my capacity, God shall give me, ye, according to your capacity, may hear the same. For then it will only remain that if, when the seed is sown in your hearts, the birds take it not away, nor thorns choke, nor heat scorch it, and withal there come upon it the rain of daily exhortations, and your own good thoughts, which do that in the heart which in the fields the harrows do, to wit, break the clods and cover up the seed, that it may have leave to sprout: it will then only remain, that ye bear fruit, at which the husbandman may rejoice and be glad. If, however, in return for good seed and good rain, we bear not fruit, but thorns, the seed will not be blamed, nor will the rain be at fault, but for the thorns due fire is prepared.

We be Christian men, beloved, as I suppose I need not long stand to prove to you; and if Christian, then of course, by our very name, belonging to Christ. His sign we bear on our forehead; whereof we are not ashamed, if we bear it likewise on our heart. His sign is that of his humiliation. By a star the wise men knew him: and this was a sign given of the Lord, heavenly and glorious; he would not have a star to be on the forehead of his believers as his sign, but his cross. Whereby humbled, by the same glorified, he lifted up the humble even by that same to which being humbled himself descended. We belong then to the gospel; we belong to the New Testament. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We ask the apostle, and he tells us, that we are not under the law, but under grace. God sent, therefore, his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Behold, for this Christ came, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that now we may no longer be under the law, but under grace. Who then gave the law? He gave the law, who also gave grace: but the law he sent by a servant, the grace himself came down withal. And how were men made under the law? By not fulfilling the law: for whose fulfills the law is not under the law, but with the law. Now whose is not under the law is not raised up, but pressed down by the law. All men accordingly being placed under the law, the law makes all guilty; and for this end it is over their head, that it may show sins, not take them away. The law then enjoins, the giver of the law showeth pity in that which the law enjoineth. Men attempting to fulfill, by their own strength, the requirements of the law, by that their rash and headstrong presumption fell; and so are not with the law, but under the law are become guilty: and since by their own strength they could not fulfill the law, having become guilty

16 under the law, they implored the Deliverer's help. So the guilt of the law made the sickness of the proud; the sickness of the proud became the confession of the humble; the sick now confess that they are sick; let the physician come and heal the sick.

The physician, who is he? Jesus Christ our Lord. What Jesus Christ our Lord? That, which was seen, even of them by whom he was crucified; that Jesus Christ who was seized, buffeted, scourged, spit upon, crowned with thorns, hanged upon the cross, dead, wounded with the spear, taken down from the cross, laid in the sepulchre; that same Jesus Christ our Lord, the same precisely, and the same is, all of him, the Physician of our wounds, that Crucified One, at whom men mocked, at whom while hanging there, the persecutors wagged the head and said, If he be the Son of God, let him come down from the cross, the same is, all of him, our Physician, the same precisely. Why then did he not show them that mocked, that he was the Son of God: at least thus, that if he allowed himself to be lifted up upon the cross, yet, when they said, If he be the Son of God, let him come down from the cross, then he should come down and show them that he was the very Son of God whom they had dared to treat with scorn? He would not. Why would not? Because he could not? Without question he could. For which is greater, to come down from the cross, or to rise again from the grave? But he bore their mockery, for the cross was taken up, not for a token of power, but for an example of patience. On it he cured thy wounds, while on it he long bore his own. On it he made thee whole from a death eternal, while on it he condescended to die a temporal death. And died he, or in him did death die? What a death, that gave Death its death-blow.