Sermons Upon all the Sunday Gospels, Sermon 42
An other Sermon on Trinitie Sonday. ¶The Gospell. Iohn. iii.
THere was a man of the Pharyseis named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Iewes. The same came to Iesus by nyght, and sayde vntounto hym: Rabbi we knowe that thou arte a teacher come from God, for no man coulde do suche miracles as thou doest, excepte God were with hym. Iesus aunswered and sayd vntounto hym Ueryly veryly, I saye vntounto thee, except a man be borne from aboue, he can not se the kingdome of God Nichodemus sayde vntounto hym: Howe can a man bee borne when he is olde? Canne he enter into his mothers wombe, and be borne agayne? Iesus aunswered: Ueryly, veryly I saye vntounto thee, excepte a man be borne of water, and of the spirite, he can not enter into the kyngdom of god. That which is borne of the fleshe is fleshe, and that whiche is borne of the spirite, is spirite. Marueyle not thou that I sayde to thee, ye must be borne from aboue. The wynde bloweth where it lusteth, and thou hearest the sounde thereof, but thou canst not tell whence it commeth, nor whyther he goeth: So is eueryevery one that is borne of the spirite. Nicodemus answered and sayd vntounto hym: Howe can these thinges be? Iesus aunswered and sayd vntounto hym: Art thou a maister in Israell, and knowest not these thynges? Ueryly veryly I say vntounto thee, we speake that we know, and testifie that we hauehave sene, and ye receiue not our witnesse. If I hauehave tolde you earthly thinges and ye beleue not: howe shall ye beleue yf I tell you of heauenly thynges? And no man ascendethe vp to heauen, but he that came downe from heauen, euen the sonne of man, whiche is in heauen. And as Moises lyfte vp the serpente in the wyldernes, euen so muste the sonne of man be lyfte vp, that whosoeuer beleueth in hym peryshe not, but hauehave euerlastyng lyfe.