Seven godly and learned sermons preachedSeuen godly and learned sermons preached

Almighty God perceiving the frailty and weakness of this nature of ours, even at the first beginning of the world pronounced thus,¹ and said, Pronum est cor hominis ad malum, à inuentute sua The hart of man is prone and ready unto evil, even from the cradle. This God himself saw well in our weak nature, and therefore he spake thus of it. So dull are we of our selves, to learn any good, and so quick are we to forget the same, so ready are we to fall unto vice, and so hard are we to incline unto virtue. And this hath been engrafted in us, this hath been grounded in this nature of ours, even from the beginning, and this will so continue in us whiles the world lasteth. The hart of man hath always been ready to fall from God, and decline unto vice, always prone ⟨image 86⟩unto evil, and hard to be won unto good. And therefore it behooveth all such as are Preachers, all such as are messengers sent from God, and will show them selves as trusty and faithful servants, it behooveth them not only to show their message, to declare their commission, but they must also encourage them to whom they are sent, they must improve, rebuke, exhort, and control them, and that in time and out of time, in season and out of season, that their message may be fruitful, and they found faithful. So Paul to Timothy saith, Insta oportunè, importunè, ²Preach the word, be fervent, be it in season, or out of season, Do the work of a Preacher, be earnest, call upon them, both in time, and out of time. And even this thing that he willed his Scholar Timothy to do, the same performed he in him self;³ I have not ceased, saith he, to Preach unto you, to teach you both day and night. So likewise in another place, he saith,⁴ Mundus sum ego à sanguine omnium vestrorum, I am clean from the blood of you all, I am pure from ⟨image 87⟩the blood of all men: For I have kept nothing back, but have showed you all the counsel of God. So in like, he saith, Quis infirmatur,