CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

And first, Here is plainly denoted their own infirmity and insufficiency ▪ For why should Christ thus earnestly pray the Father to keep them, and say he had kept them hitherto, but because they were weak and unable to preserve themselves, So that Christ speaks of them as some tender young Infants that are given from arm to arm to be kept, as being not able to go themselves,¹ and truly if the Apostles who were Christs first born (as we may so say) and although Christ knew that he was to endow them with the power of the holy Ghost afterwards in an extraordinary manner, yet if these that seem to be Giants cannot help themselves, what shall we Dwarfs do? If the Pillars are not able to stand of themselves, what can Reeds do? God to show the Church her miserable impotency compareth it to a child new born that is not only loathsome but feeble, and necessarily perishing without some aid, Eze. 16.5, 6. Even thus are we all in our own strength and power.

And first, Here is plainly denoted their own infirmity and insufficiency ▪ For why should Christ thus earnestly pray the Father to keep them, and say he had kept them hitherto, but because they were weak and unable to preserve themselves, So that Christ speaks of them as some tender young Infants that are given from arm to arm to be kept, as being not able to go themselves,¹ and truly if the Apostles who were Christs first born (as we may so say) and although Christ knew that he was to endow them with the power of the holy Ghost afterwards in an extraordinary manner, yet if these that seem to be Giants cannot help themselves, what shall we Dwarfs do? If the Pillars are not able to stand of themselves, what can Reeds do? God to shew the Church her miserable impotency compareth it to a childe new born that is not only lothsome but feeble, and necessarily perishing without some aid, Eze. 16.5, 6. Even thus are we all in our own strength and power.

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