ritie, I am becom as it were a peece of sounding mettal or tinkling Cimball. And if I shall haue all prophecie, & know all misteries, and all knowledge, and shall haue all faith, so that I might remoue mountaines, and yet shall not haue charitie: I am nothing. And if I shall geue abroad all my goods to feede the poore, and shall geue vp my bodye to be burned, and yet haue not charitie: it profites me nothyng. To the Galathians 5. sayth Paule: For you my brethren, are called into liberty: doe not ye geue your libertie for an occasion of þe flesh, but by charitie of the spirite, serue ye one an other. For all þe law is fulfilled in one saying: thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thine own self.MarginaliaGal. 5. To the Ephe. 4. chap. he saith: I therfore þt suffer bonds in þe Lord, do beseech you, þt you would walke worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called, with all humblenes and mildenes, with patience, forbearing one an other in loue, being carefull to keepe the vnitie of the spirit, in the bond of peace: that you be one body, & one spirit, euē as you be called in one hope of your calling.MarginaliaEphes 4. And agayne in the. 5. chap.MarginaliaEphes. 5. Be ye followers of me, as most deare children, and walke ye in loue as Christ also hath loued vs, and hath deliuered vp hymselfe for vs, an offering and sacrifice to God of a sweete sauour. To the Philippiās thus he speaketh in the first chapter: Onely let your conuersation be worthy of the Gospell of Christ, that eyther when I shall come and see you, or els in myne absence I may heare of you, that you stand stedfast in one spirit, labouring together wyth one accorde for the fayth of the Gospell. And in nothyng be ye afrayde of the aduersaries, which is to them a cause of damnation, but to you of saluation, and that of God. For to you it is geuē, not onely that you should beleue in him, but also that you should suffer wyth him, you hauing the like fight and battaile that both you haue seene in me, and also now do heare of me. If therfore there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of charitie, if any felowshyp of the spirite, if any bowels of compassiō: fulfill you my ioy, that you may be of one iudgement, hauing one & the self same charitie, being of one accord, of one maner of iudgement, doyng nothing of contention, nor of vayne glory, but in humblenes accomptyng other amongest you, euery one better then your selues, not euery bodye lookyng vpon the thynges that be his owne, but those that belong vnto others.MarginaliaPhilip. 1. And to the Colossians. 3. chapter thus he writeth: You therefore as the electe of God, holy, and beloued, put vpon you the bowels of mercy, gentlenes, humblenes, lowlines, modesty, pacience, bearyng one with an other, & geuing place to your selues (if any haue a quarell agaynst any body) euen as the Lord forgaue you, so do you also. Aboue all thynges haue ye charitie, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of Christ triumph in your hartes, in which peace you also are called in one body. And be ye kinde ~& thankefull.MarginaliaColos. 3. And to the Thessalonians thus Paule writeth in the 4. chapter. As concernyng brotherly charitie, we haue no neede to write vnto you: for you your selues haue learned of God, that you should loue one an other. And the same thyng ye do towardes all the brethrē through out all Macedonia.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThes. 4. Out of all these and many other places of the holy scripture it sufficiently appeareth, that the law of Christ is charitie, neither is there any vertues commaunded of Christ, or any of his Apostles to be obserued of the faythfull people, but that it commeth out of charitie, or els doth nourish charitie.
[Back to Top]The law is geuen by Moses, and the truth by Christ. Christ came not to vnlose the law and the Prophetes, but to fulfill them.MarginaliaMany thinges obserued in the old law, which be not obserued now.
Many thinges vnlawfull in the old law, which be lawfull now. How Christ did loose and not loose the law. But yet many thyngs were lawfull & might haue bene obserued in the time of the law, which in the time of grace must not be obserued. And many things were vnlawfull to them that were vnder the law, which in the time of grace are lawfull inough. After what sort then he did not loose the law, but did fulfill it, it is necessary to declare, for those thinges which hereafter must be sayd. For amongest Christians many thinges are iudged to be lawfull, because in the former Testament in the law, they were lawfull: and yet they be expresly contrary to Christes Gospell. But the authors of such thinges do argue and reason thus: Christ came not to loose the law or the prophetes. Now after what sort he did not vnloose thē, it is manifest by the holy Scripture: that the law geuen by Moyses, was written in tables of stone, to declare the hardnes of the peoples hart towardes the loue of God, or of Christ. But Christ hath written his law in the hartes and in the myndes of his, that is to say, the law of perfect loue of God and of Christ. Which law whosoeuer obserueth, he doth obserue the law of Moyses, and doth much greater workes of perfection, then were þe workes of the law. Thus therfore were the morals of the old law fulfilled in the law of the charitie of Christ, and not vnloosed: because they are much more perfectly obserued, then of the Iewes. This I say, if the Christians do obserue the commaundemētes of Christ in such sort, as he commaunded the same to be obserued. Christ hath fulfilled the lawes morall of the old Testament, because that the morals and iudicials were ordained, that one person should not do iniury to an other, and that euery man should haue payd him that is his. Now, they that are in charitie, will not do iniury to others, neither do they take other mens goodes away from them. Nay it seeketh not her own thinges. For charitie seeketh not the thinges that be her owne. Wherfore, much lesse by a stronger reason it ought not to seeke for other mens goods. And when as the Iudicials & morals were ordained: Christ did not by the workes of the law iustifie the beleuers in him, but by grace iustified them from their sinnes. And so did Christ fulfill that by grace, that the law could not by Iustice.
MarginaliaFree iustification, by faith onely. Paul to the Romaines declareth in a godly discourse, & to the Galathians likewise: that none shall be iustified by the workes of the law, but by grace,MarginaliaGrace that is free fauor, mercy & goodnes of God. in the fayth of Iesu Christ.
Brut's criticism of ceremonies and good works is interesting, but Foxe is stretching a point to hail it as justification by faith.
Wherfore sithens that the holy thinges of the law, were a shadow of those thinges that were to come in the tyme of