¶ An Homily wherein is declared that Common prayer and Sacraments, ought to be ministered in a tongue, that is understanded of the hearers.¶ An Homilee wherein is declared that Common prayer and Sacramentes, ought to be ministred in a tongue, that is vnderstanded of the hearers.

¶ An Homily wherein is declared that Common prayer and Sacraments, ought to be ministered in a tongue, that is understanded of the hearers.

¶ An Homilee wherein is declared that Common prayer and Sacramentes, ought to be ministred in a tongue, that is vnderstanded of the hearers.

Among the manifold exercises of Gods people (dear Christians) there is none more necessary for all estates and at all times, than is public prayer, & the due use of sacraments. For in the first, we beg at Gods hand all such things, as otherwise we can not obtain. And in the other, he embraceth us, and offereth him self to be embraced of us. Knowing therefore that these two exercises are so necessary for us, let us not think it unmeet to consider, ⟨p. 275⟩first what prayer is, and what a sacrament is, and then how many sorts of prayers there be, & how many sacraments, so shall we the better understand how to use them aright. To know what they be, saint Augustine teacheth us in his ¹book entitled, Of the spirit and the soul. He saith this of prayer: Prayer is (saith he) the devotion of the mind, that is to say, the returning to God through a godly and humble affection, which affection is a certain willing and sweet inclining of the mind it self towards GOD. ²And in the second book against the adversary of the law & the prophets, he calleth sacraments holy signs. And writing to Bonifacius of the baptism of infants, he saith, If sacraments had not a certain similitude of those things whereof they be sacraments, they should be no sacraments at all. And of this similitude, they do for the most part receive the names of the self things they signify. By these words of saint Augustine it appeareth, that he alloweth the common description of a sacrament, which is, that it is a visible sign of an invisible grace, that is to say, that setteth out to the eyes and other outward senses, the inward working of Gods free mercy, and doth (as it were) seal in our hearts the promises of God. And so was circumcision a sacrament, which preached unto the outward senses, the inward cutting away of the foreskin of the heart, and sealed and made sure in the hearts of the circumcised, the promise of god touching the promised seed that they looked for. Now let us see how many sorts