neither rejoice I less at his welfare than at mine own. If it were not so, how saith Paul? “Let him that rejoiceth, rejoice in the Lord,” that is to say, Christ, which is Lord over all creatures. If my merits obtained me heaven, or a higher room there, then had I wherein I might rejoice besides the Lord. Here see ye the nature of the law, and the nature of the evangelion. How the law is the key that bindeth and damneth all men, and the evangelion looseth them again. The law goeth before, and the evangelion followeth. When a preacher preacheth the law, he bindeth all consciences; and when he preacheth the gospel, he looseth them again. These two salves (I mean the law and the gospel) useth God and his preacher to heal and cure sinners withal. The law driveth out the disease and maketh it appear, and is a sharp salve, and a fretting corosy, and killeth the dead flesh, and looseth and draweth the sores out by the roots, and all corruption. It pulleth from a man the trust and confidence that he hath in himself, and in his own works, merits, deservings, and ceremonies. It killeth him, sendeth him down to hell, and bringeth him to utter desperation, and prepareth the way of the Lord, as it is written of John the Baptist. For it is not possible that Christ should come to a man, as long as he trusteth in himself, or in any worldly thing. Then cometh the evangelion, a more gentle plaster, which suppleth and suageth the wounds of the conscience, and bringeth health. It bringeth the Spirit of God, which looseth the bonds of Satan, and uniteth us to God and his will, through strong faith and fervent love, with bonds too strong for the devil, the world, or any creature to loose them. And the poor and wretched sinner feeleth so great mercy, love, and kindness in God, that he is sure in himself how that it is not possible that God should forsake him, or withdraw his mercy and love from him; and he boldly crieth out with Paul, saying, “Who shall separate us from the love that God loveth us withal?” That is to say, What shall make me believe that God loveth me not? Shall tribulation? anguish? persecution? Shall hunger? nakedness? Shall sword? Nay, “I am sure that neither death nor life, neither angel, neither rule nor power, neither present things nor things to come, neither high nor low, neither any creature, is able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesu our Lord.” In all such tribulations, a christian man perceiveth that God is his Father, and loveth him even as he loved Christ when he shed his blood on the cross.