confirming the mynds of his disciples against the thretts and terrors of this wicked world / among other thinges / [] Are not (sayth he) two lytle sparowes solde for a farthinge. And one of them shall not lyghte on the grownd withe out your father: yea euen all the heares of your heade are nombred. feare ye not therfor: ye are if more value then many sparowes. Euery one therfor that shall knowledge me before men hym wyll I knowledge also before my father which is in heauen. But whosoeuer shall denye me before men / hym wyll I also denye before my father which is in heauen: the same lord in the gospell of Marcke / [] Whosoeuer (saythe he) shall lose hys lyfe for my sake and the gospell He same shall saue it. For what shall it profyte a man / if he wynne al the worlde and lose his owne soule? or what shall a man gyue to redeme hys soule wythall agayn? Whosoeuer therfor shalbe ashamed of me and of my wordes / in this aduowtrus and synfull generation: of hym also shall the sonne of man be ashamed when he commith in the glorie of his father withe the holy angels. Theis wordes of the lorde are playne / and spoken without ony darcknes. The lord requirith of eiche one of vs that symple and open confession which we make before men / and that such men as are synnars and adulterars / the emenies / I saye / of Godd / and of all true religion. for such men do the prophets also call fornicatours and adulterars. He requirith / I saye / that we shuld confes hym and his worde / That is / that we shuld simply confes that he is Christ / and that we shuld not denye ony thing of his worde either by out wordes or deedes.
[] We read that Peter did confes Christ the lorde sincerely and with a true confession when he answered vnto the lorde / which asked and sayed. But whom saye ye that I am / he answered. Thow art Christe the sonne of the lyuinge Godd.
[] Agayn when many did fall from the lorde for that sermon in which he declared in the Synagoge of the Capernaites / that he only was the foade of lyfe / and for that cause the lorde saide to his disciples: Wyll ye also go awaye? Peter answered / and confessing the lorde with a notable confession he said / lorde to whom shall we go? Thow hast the wordes of eternal lyfe / And we beleue and are sure / that thow art Christe the sonne of the lyuinge Godd. Such like confession absolute and true doth the blessed apostle and Euangelist Iohn commend vnto vs sayinge. [] Dearly beloued / beleue not euery sprit / but proue the sprites / whether they are of Godd or not. For many false prophetes are gone out into the worlde. Hereby shall ye know the spirite of Godd: Euery sprite that confessith that Iesu Christe is comme in the flesh / is of Godd. And euery sprite which confessith not that Iesu Christe is come in the fleshe is not of Godd. And this is that spirite of Antichriste / of whome ye haue herde / howe that he shuld comme and euen now alreadi is he in the worlde. Furthermor this true and catholike confession / doth so attribute all out whole lyfe and saluacion vnto the lorde Christe / that it doeth take the same from al other meanes and thinges with which mans doctrine hathe ony part: wherfor it is not sufficient only to haue confirmed the part affirmatiue (as they call it) except thow do also expres the negatiue / and dost so ascribe vnto Christe our lorde all the thinges of our lyfe and saluacion / that all men may vnderstond that thow dost clyme to him al the partes of our saluacion / and that thow dost not gyue ony part therof to ony other. For we do fynd that the lord Iesus did teache such a confession / and that his apostles made the lyke. For when the lorde in the gospell of Iohn speaking plainly inough hadd sayed.
[] I am the dore / by me if any man entre in / he shall be safe and shall go in and oute / and finde pasture. A thefe commith not but for to steale / kyll / and to destroye: I am come that they might haue lyfe / and that they might haue it more abundantly: I am the goode shepeherd / a goode shepeherd gyueth his lyfe for the shepe. Yet was he not content with theis though thy be most playne wordes / but he ioyned also a Negatiue / with a most pitthie asseueracion / saying: Verely verely I saye vnto yowe he that enterith not in by the dore into the shepefolde / but clymbeth vp some other waye / the same is a theife and a murtherer. He likewise saith playnly in the same chapter / A goode shepeherd goeth before his shepe / and the shepe folowe hym bicause they knowe his voice. Yea forthewith he addith this also / A straunger will they not folowe / but wil flie from him / for they know not the voice of straungers. Agayn in an other place / [] I am the waye (saithe he) the truthe and the lyfe: Yet he not being content wyth this so playn a doctryne doth adde agayne the exclusyue and saithe / No man commith to the father but by me. Wherfor Peter thought it not inoughe that he sayde in that full senate of Hierusalem / That Christe is that Rocke which doth by his dethe and resurrection establishe and preserue the beleauers / [] onles moreouer he had Vindicated to Christ alone all thinges that concerne saluacion / and taken the same awaye from others / saying. Neither is there saluacion in ony other: For among men vnder heauen ther is gyuen none other name wherin we must be saued. After which manier likewise saint Paul doth proue that [] faith in Christ through grace doth iustifie / neither doth he saye this only / [] but he doth also remoue all that which might seeme to gyue iustice vnto men / the lawe I meane and worckes / sayinge. We knowe that a man is not iustified by the dedes of the lawe / [] but by the faith of Iesus Christe. And we haue beleued on Iesus Christ that we might be iustified by the faythe of Christe / and not by the dedes of the lawe / bicause that by the dedes of the lawe no fleshe shalbe iustified. And in an other place the same Paule: Behold (saith he) I Paul saye vnto yowe / [] that if ye be circumcised / Christe shall profite yow nothing at all. I testifie agayn to euery man which is circumcised / that he is bownd to keape the whole lawe. Christe is become but in vayn to yowe / as many of yow as are iustified by the lawe are fallen from grace / we loke for and hope in the spirite to be iustified thorow faithe. Theis cleare examples of Christ and the apostles / and doctrine of the sincere and sounde confession of Christe do suffice to yow reuerend and godly hearers. Out of which we do gather / that their confessions are neither full / nor sincere / which do confes that indeede Christe is thier saluacion and rightuisnes / their preist and sacrifice / their aduocate and mediator / [] yet so that it notwithstonding they do gyue the very same / and communicate them to synneful men / to thinges also and meanes which are in no place instituted nor approued of Godd. And no les corrupt is their confession also / which do confes wyth the mouthe that Godd alone is to be adored and worshipped / that Christe is the only preiste and true aduocate with the father / but yet in their deedes they do denye that same confession of their mouthe / bowinge their knees to Images / worshippinge creatures / callinge vppon their patrons and fayned saynts of heauen.