if the sun is removed from the world, everything is left obscured,
dispersed, and confused; and thus it is if the voice of the pastor is
removed from the church: religion is left thoughtless, blind, and
troubled, everything is mingled with error, superstition, and
idolatry, so much it is to be a superintendent in the house of God.
The Gospel, religion, and the health of the Church hang on us
alone.^84The last sentence is the telling one, though the first is fairly blatant in
its own right. Jewel makes the health of the Church depend on the
preaching of the Word, and not on the sacerdotal functions of the
Christian ministry: the preached Word and not the sacraments are
the emphasis. From that point the sermon progressed steadily in its
use of more explicit Protestant motifs. Citing an argument which became
a more elaborate theme in his Challenge Sermon, Jewel argued that the
ignorance and stubbornness of the people cannot be deduced as reasons
for not preaching, for God shall give an increase by His Spirit.^85 Jewel
elaborates that in fact, God shall see to it that the ineffectual voice of the
preacher shall be animated by grace, even of an irresistible quality: ‘For
as it belongs to us to instruct the people with words, so it is of God to
join faith with his words and force.’^86 Jewel then further stresses that it
is impossible for the Word of God not to be profitable: ‘Indeed this is the
strength of the Word of God, that it is impossible for it to effect nothing,
and to benefit no one.’^87
Jewel then returns to the notion that preaching is what brings
health and light to the church, equating Scripture with the flesh and
blood of Christ (Haec illa est carno, hic ille sanguis Jesu Christi), and
that Scripture alone – never in concurrence with the magisterial power
of the Church – is the rule of faith: ‘Unless it were for this, neither
would religion flourish, nor faith be established, nor the church be
maintained in her duty.’^88 Jewel’s conclusion stressed the primacy of the
preached Word as the essence of the Christian ministry, for ‘Certainly
Christ has not taught insincerity and hypocrisy. Rather he teaches this,
JEWEL TILL 1558 27
(^84) ‘Si sol de mundo sublatus esset, omnia obscura, dissipata, confusa relinquerentur; ita,
sublata ex ecclesia pastoris voce, religio temeraria, caeca, turbata relinquitur, omnia errore,
superstitione, idololatria permiscentur: tanti est procuratorem esse domus Dei.
Evangelium, religio, pietas, salus ecclesiae a nobis pendent solis.’ Jewel, Works, II, p. 953.
(^85) ‘Proferamus nos lucem. Dominus aperiet oculos: pulsemus aures, Dominus dabit cor
carnem: demus nos verbum, Dominus dabit Spiritum.’ Ibid., p. 954.
(^86) ‘Nam ut nostrum est populum verbis instituere, ita Dei fidem dictis suis et robur
adjungere.’ Ibid., p. 954.
(^87) ‘Ea autem est vis verbi Dei, ut nihil efficere et nulli prodesse non possit.’ Ibid, pp.
954–55.
(^88) ‘Hoc nisi esset, neque religio vigere, neque fides confirmari, neque ecclesia in officio
contineri posset.’ Ibid., p. 956.