A03519:85
Certain Sermons or Homilies (First Book of Homilies)
Certain sermons, or homilies appointed by the kings Majesty, to be declared and read, by all persons, vicars, or curates, every Sunday in their churches, where they have cure. Anno 1547.Certayne sermons, or homelies appoynted by the kynges Maiestie, to be declared and redde, by all persones, vicars, or curates, euery Sondaye in their churches, where they haue cure. Anno 1547.
London: printed by Richard Grafton printer to his most royal Majesty, 1547London: printed by Rychard Grafton printer to his moste royall Maiestie, 1547
Title page typeset from the transcription.
¶An Homily of Christian Love and Charity.¶An Homelie of Christian Loue and Charitie.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Charity is to love God with all our heart, all our life, and all our powers and strength: With all our heart, that is to say, that our hearts,1 mind and study, be set to believe his word, to trust in him, and to love him above all other things that we love best, in heaven or in earth: With all your life, that is to say, that our chief joy & delight be set upon him, & his honour, & our whole life given unto the service of him above all things, with him to live & dye, and to forsake all other things, rather then him. For ⟨image 40⟩he that loveth his father or mother, son or daughter,2 house or land, more then me (sayeth Christ) is not worthy to have me: With all our powers, that is to say, that with our hands & feet, with our eyes and ears, our mouths & tongues, and with all other parts & powers, both of body & soul, we should be given to the keeping & fulfilling of his commandments. This is the first & principal part of charity,3 but it is not the whole: for charity is also, to love every man, good & evil, friend & foe, and whatsoever cause be given to the contrary, yet nevertheless to bear good will and heart unto every man, to use our selves well unto them, aswell in words & countenance, as in all our outward acts and deeds: For so Christ himself taught, & so also he performed in deed. Of the love of God, he taught in this wise, unto a doctor of the law, that asked him, which was the great and chief commandment in the law? Love thy Lord God (said Christ) with all thy hart,4 with all thy life, and with all thy mind. And of the love that we ought to have among our selves each to other, he teacheth us thus: you have heard it taught in times paste, thou shalt love thy friend, and hate thy foe,5 but I tell you, love your enemies, speak well of them that defame you, & speak evil of you, do well to them that hate you, pray for them that vex and persecute you, that you may be the children of your father that is in heaven. For he maketh his sun to rise both upon the evil and good, and sendeth rain to just and unjust.