Seven godly and learned sermons preachedSeuen godly and learned sermons preached

such as have martyred the servants of Christ, such as would seem Gods friends, and yet are his enemies: such as would be Christs kinsmen, and yet are his adversaries: such as would be servants to Christ, and yet do serve Antichrist: such as Isaiah speaketh of, saying, They have broken down my vine, and destroyed ⟨image 81⟩my wine press: such as Christ himself speaketh of, and saith,¹ They have made my Church a den of thieves. Therefore (good Brethren) let not us deceive our selves, let us not say all things were well in the Church, there needed no reformation, all things were as they should be, there needed nothing to be amended. For, alas, all things were out of order, all things out of square, all things so confounded, that all things needed to be amended. I speak herein only generally, I speak not here of the particular things amiss in Gods Church, for then should time fail me, if I should recount them unto you particularly. In time past, if any one man would have sought comfort for his afflicted conscience, where should he have sought it? whether should he have gone for comfort? where should he have craved consolation? what comfort could we have of our own merits, what help by our own deserts, and good deeds? what consolation of the Popes Bulls and Pardons? Alas, no comfort, no consolation, no help at all. And yet unto those were we taught ⟨image 82⟩to run, in those were we taught to seek comfort, and at them to crave consolation. In the Church, before time, it hath been both said & sung unto the people, Tu per Thomae sauguinem, fac nos ascendere ubi Thomas nunc est, Thou Christ, by the blood of thy Martyr S. Thomas, make us worthy to ascend thither, where Thomas now is. This, I say, as a prayer hath been used and sung in the Church of God. The Mother also, that blessed Mother of our Saviour Christ, hath bin openly blasphemed in the Church: she was called, Spes, vita, dulcedo, Our hope, our life, and our sweetness; and further, Salua omnes sperantes in te, Save all them that trust in thee. Thus have men openly prayed unto her, to the great blaspheming of her holy name. But O Christ, O thou that sufferedst for the whole world, where was then thy Passion, where was then that precious blood of thine that washed away the sins of Man, where was then the Lamb of God that redeemed all mankind?