plentiously And let euery man do according as he hath purposed in hys hart not grudgingly or of necessitie For God loueth a cheerefull geuer God is able to make you riche in all grace that ye in all thinges hauing sufficient vnto the vttermost may bee riche vnto all maner of good workes as it is written He hath sparsed abroad and hath geuen to the poore and hys righteousnes remayneth for euer The office of thys ministration not onely supplyeth the nede of the saintes but also is abundant herein y t for this laudable ministring thankes might be geuen to God of many which praise God for y t obedience of your consenting to y ◠Gospel of Christ and for your singlenes in distributing to them to all mē and in their prayers for you which long after you for the abundaunt grace of God in you Thankes be vnto God for his vnspeakable gift ¶ The dutie of all estates and degrees ¶ The dutie of the hie powers and of the other temporall Magistrates THe dutie of the high powers and of the other temporall rulers is to be learned in the lawe of God to maintaine pure and Christian Religion to nourishe and defend the preachers and studientes of Gods worde to banishe all false religion idolatry to punishe yea and if they wil not turne to kill the preachers and maintainers of false doctrine to iudge equally indifferently without parcialitie to take no bribes nor to oppresse the common people but to care for thē as a father for his children to defend the good to correct the euill to auaunce vertue and to punishe vice That they ought to bee learned in the lawes of God ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures The king shall not multiplie horses to him self neither ought he to multiply wiues vnto him self least his hart turne away neither shall he gather him siluer and golde to much And when he is set vpon the seate of hys kingdome hee shall write hym out a copie of this lawe in a booke And it shall bee with hym and hee ought to read therin all the dayes of his life that he may learne to feare the Lorde hys God and to keepe all the wordes of this lawe and these ordinaunces for to doe them and that his hart arise not aboue his brethren and that he turne not frō the commaūdement to the right hand or to the left but that he may prolong his dayes in hys kingdome Let not the booke of thys lawe depart out of thy mouth but recorde therin day night that thou mayest obserue doe according to all that is written For then shalt thou make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou do wisely Get ye vnderstanding now O ye kinges be learned ye that iudge the earth Serue the Lord in feare and reioyce vnto hym with reuerence Kisse the sonne least he be angry so ye perish frō the right way If your delight be in royall seates and scepters O ye kinges of y e people set your lust vppon wisedome that ye may raigne for euermore O loue the light of wisedome all ye that be rulers of the people ¶ Read the ix Chapter of the booke of Wisedome That they ought to maintaine pure and Christian Religion ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures How greatly king Dauid aduanced Gods religion sought hys glory the holy Scriptures make mencion Asa king of Iuda did that was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God For he tooke away straunge altars hill altars and brake downe the images and cut down the groues and cōmaunded Iuda to seeke the Lorde God of their fathers and to doe according to the law and commaundement Yea he put away y e abominable Idols that hys father had made And he put down Maacha his mother from bearing rule because she had made images in groues And Asa destroyed her images burnt thē by the broke Cedron The Lord God therfore gaue hym and all his land rest and quietnes Iehosaphat king of Iuda sent to hys Lordes that they shoulde teach in the cities of Iuda with them he sent Leuites and priestes And they taught in Iuda and had the booke of the lawe of God with them went about through out all the cities of Iuda and taught the people And the feare of the Lorde fell vppon all the kingdomes of the landes y t were round about Iuda they fought not agaynst Iehosaphat And the Lord stablished the kingdome in his hand and all they that were in Iuda brought king Iehosaphat presentes so that hee had abundance of riches honour King Hezekia put away the hill altars and brake the images and cut downe the groues and all to brake the brasen serpent that Moses had made He renued the feast of the Passeouer He ordayned Priestes and Leuites to serue the Lord God prouided honest liuinges for them that they might substantially apply thē selues to the lawe of the Lord. And the Lorde was with hym so that he prospered in all thynges which he tooke in hand The good king Iosias beside the purging of Iuda and Ierusalem frō hill altars groues carued images and images of metall and such other kindes of idolatry he repayred the house of the Lord his God renued the feast of the Passeouer red in the eares of all the people the wordes of the lawe of the Lorde and made a faythfull promise vnto the Lorde that he and all hys people should walke according to the statutes of that booke And they turned not aside from the Lorde God of their fathers so long as he liued The Lorde God therfore deferred hys plague y t he had threatned to Iuda suffered Iosias to liue in much honour and brought hym to hys graue in peace so that hys eyes dyd not see the mischiefe that the Lorde God afterward brought immediatly vppon Ierusalem and vppon the inhabitors of the same Kinges shall bee thy nursing fathers and Queenes shall be thy nursing mothers That they ought to punishe yea and if they will not turne to kill the preachers and maintainers of false doctrine ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures If there rise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreames and geue thee a signe or wonder that signe or wonder which hee hath said come to passe and then say let vs go after straunge Gods which thou hast not knowen and let vs serue them harken not thou vnto the wordes of that prophet or dreamer of dreames For the Lorde thy God proueth you to know whether you loue the Lorde your God with all your hart with all your soule Ye shall walke after y ◠Lorde your God and feare hym and kepe his commaundement and harken vnto his voyce serue hym cleaue vnto hym And that prophet or dreamer of dreames shall die because he hath spoken to turne you away from the Lord
The Principles of Christian Religion necessary to be knowen of all the faythfull set forth to the great profite in trayning vp of all youth by Tho. Becon Iohn xiij If ye know these thinges blessed are ye if ye doe them Imprinted at London by Iohn Daye dwelling ouer Aldersgate AN. 1569. ¶ Cum Priuilegio Regiae Maiestatis per Decennium THOMAS BECONVS SACROSAC TAE THEOLOGIAE PROFESSOR Ora expressa vides viuos imitantia vultus Quod potuit calimo pictor arte vides Mentis quā nullus potuit tibi reddere pictor Effigiem scriptis 〈◊〉 ipse suis. ¶ The Contentes of this Booke Of fayth WHat fayth is What benefites we receiue of God through◠fayth The Articles of the Christian fayth with confirmations of the same out of the holy Scriptures Of prayer What prayer is What benefites we receiue of God by prayer The Lordes Prayer called the Pater noster with confirmations of euery peticion out of the holy Scripture Of the law What the law is To what vse the law was geuen The x. commaundementes of God with confirmations of euery commaundemēt out of the holy Scripture Of Repentaunce What repentaunce is Of the fruites of repētaunce declared by the word of God Of Baptisme What Baptisme is For what vse Baptisme was ordained Of the Lordes Supper What the Lordes Supper is To what vse Christ did institute it The duty of all estates and degrees accordyng to the doctrine of Gods holy word The dutie of the hye powers and of the other temporall Magistrates The dutie of Subiectes toward the hi◠powers The dutie of Byshops and Ministers of Gods worde The duetie of Parishioners vnto the Ministers of Gods word The dutie of Husbandes vnto their wiues The duetie of Wiues vnto their Husbandes The duetie of Fathers and Mothers vnto their children The duetie of Children towardes their Fathers and Mothers The duetie of Maisters to their Seruauntes The duetie of Seruauntes to their Maisters The duetie of Widowes The duetie of Olde men The duetie of Olde women The duetie of Young folke The duetie of all degrees and estates generally both toward God and their neighbour FINIS To the most gentle and godly disposed childe M. Thomas Cecill sonne to the right honourable Syr Williā Cecill Knight and Secretary to the Kings Maiestie Thomas Becon wisheth the fauour of God with the encrease of vertue and learning II of holy letters we be not sleepie nor vaine readers but diligētly marke what we read we shall easilie perceaue that among other commaundementes of God this is not the last nor the least which he geueth cōcerning the bringing vp of youth in y ◠knowledge of his blessed will For y ◠godly wisedome knoweth right well that except the younglinges of a common weale be vertuously brought vp and faithfully framed according to the right rule of Gods holy appointment it can not come to passe but that his glory the good parentes being once deceased must needes bee obscured in thys world the inuocation of his name cease and all godly religion decay yea the men them selues if they bee worthy that name must needes become brutelike and be caryed about with euery straunge doctrine cōtemne all laudable lawes breake all good orders follow their fleshly appetites lyke vnreasonable beastes so at last bring both thēselues their realmes vnto vtter destruction Therfore as God in his holy law requireth of parentes nothing more earnestly thē to bring vp their children vertuously and according to his word so likewise all godly fathers and mothers haue euer from the beginning done their vttermost endeuour to traine vp their younglinges euen from the very cradells in the nurture feare and doctrine of the Lord supposing them selues then best to please God and most to doe the true office of godly and naturall parentes when they studie how to garnish not theyr childrens bodies with gay and sumptuous vestures but their mindes with noble and precious vertues not bow to lift them vp to transitory dignities worldly honours which as dayly experiēce teacheth are more brittle then glasse and fade away lyke the grasse but how to make them honourable and prayse worthy in the sight of good mē and profitable to the cōmon weale through vertue learning wisedome and counsell And the more the parentes them selues did excell other in knowledge wisedome and learning the greater desire had they to bring their children vnto the lyke perfection bearing heauily that theirs shoulde in any poynt degenerate from their fathers vertues and not orderly aunswere to the godly qualities of their noble parentes Histories both godly and Ethnicke doe minister vnto vs examples aboundantly in this behalfe which I would here gladly recite if I had not attempted the lyke enterprise already in my preface to the Gouernance of Vertue Againe if I were not fully perswaded that you haue heretofore both red and also heard of your teacher the same or els the like histories Your right honourable and most worthy father knowing the good pleasure of God in thys behalfe hath also after the example of all other noble godly parentes painfully trauailed both by him self and by learned teachers to bring you vp euen frō your cradell in the knowledge of Gods will and of good letters that you might as in age so likewise in vertue and learning grow and encrease vnto hys comfort vnto your owne commendation vnto the profite of the common weale hereafter And as your father is learned and hath a brest stuffed with all godly vertues so is hys desire to haue you both learned vertuous that when he shall geue ouer to nature God so disposing hee may leaue behinde hym hys owne image yea as I may so speake hym selfe not onely in lineamentes of body but also in vertue in godlines in wisedome in knowledge and by thys meanes bee counted of hys posteritie a worthy member of the common weale both in him selfe and 〈◊〉 hys sonne It is your dutie therfore to satisfie the good desire of so naturall a father and to aunswere the expectation of many which looke to finde in you hereafter that vertue learning wisedome and grauitie that is euidently perceaued in your most worthy father Thys shall bee brought to passe if according to your beginning ye goe forth diligently to call on the name of God to applie your mind to good letters to giue eare to the wholsome admonicions of your most deare father and to take heede to the daily exhortations of your teacher euer framyng your life according to your knowledge And that ye may do this the more cōueniently I geue you thys little treatise which shall aboundauntly instructe you in those pointes of Christian Religion which at thys present do most of all become your age In it are cōtained the principles of our profession which I haue so opened with the conference of the other scriptures that they may worthily seeme to striue with large Cōmentaries I haue also set forth the duties
Probations out of the holy Scriptures I will call vpoÌ„ the Lord which is worthy to be praysed so shall I be safe from myne enemyes King Ezechias by prayer was deliuered from the proude wicked tyraunt Senacherib both hee and all hys So likewise was Ioseph Daniell Susanna Peter c. By prayer we get the victory of our enemies in battell ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures The people of Israell gotte the victory ouer the Amalechites so long as Moyses prayed for them When the blacke Mores came out to fight agaynst Asa King of Iuda Asa prayed vnto the Lorde and the Lorde gaue him the victory so that all his enemies were destroyed in battell Read y e chapter Iudas Machabeus after he had called on the name of the Lord got a noble victory of Gorgias and his company By prayer we obtaine health of body ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures The miracles which Christ wrought vpon theÌ„ that were diseased fled vnto hym for helpe with faythfull prayer proue this true By prayer we obtaine all thinges necessary for the body ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures Moyses by prayer obtained MaÌ„na from heauen for the Israelites Helias by prayer obtained raine of God to water the earth By prayer our sinnes are forgeuen vs. ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures I sayd I will confesse my sinnes vnto the Lord and thou forgauest the wickednes of my sinne For this shall euery one that is godly make his prayer to thee in a time when thou mayest be found I forgaue thee all that det wheÌ„ thou desiredst me The sinfull Publicaue praying for remission of hys sinnes went home more righteous in the sight of God then the proud Pharisey If any be diseased among you let him call for the elders of the coÌ„gregation and let them pray ouer him and annoint him with oyle in the name of y e Lorde and the prayer of fayth shall saue the sicke and the Lord shall raise hym vp and if he be in sinnes they shall be forgeuen hym By prayer we ouercome the deuill and all our ghostly enemies ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures Thys kinde of deuils is not cast out but by prayer and fasting Watch and pray that ye fall not into temptation The spirite is willing but the fleshe is weake By prayer we obtaine God the holy Ghost ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures If ye which are euill can geue your children good giftes how much more shall your father which is in heauen geue the holy ghost to them that desire it of hym As the disciples of Christ were gathered together in one place and continued in prayer they were all filled with the holy ghost By prayer we obtaine all good thinges both for the body and soule ☞ Probations out of the holy Scriptures What thinges soeuer ye desire wheÌ„ ye pray beleue that ye receaue them and ye shall haue them The haruest is much but the labourers are fewe Pray ye therfore the Lorde of y e haruest that he will send labourers into hys haruest If any of you lacke wisedome let hym aske of hym that geueth it euen God which geueth to all men indifferently and casteth no man in the teeth and it shall bee geuen him But let him aske in fayth c. The Lord is euen at hand Bee careful for nothing but in all prayer and supplication let your peticions bee knowen vnto God with thank esgeuing ¶ Many other benefites receaue we of God through prayer which here to rehearse were to long Read diligently my booke called the Pathway vnto Prayer and that shall sufficiently instructe thée in all thingâ—s concerning prayer ¶ The Lordes prayer called the Pater noster with confirmations of euery Peticion out of the holy Scripture The Disciples sayd vnto Christ Lord teach vs to pray And he said vnto them when ye pray say Our Father which art in heauen hallowed be thy name c. ¶ The Preface of the Lordes Prayer OVr Father which art in heauen ☞ The confirmations Our Father Is not the Lord God the father and thine honour Hath hee not made thee ordayned thee Thou O Lorde God art our father and redemer Haue we not all one father Hath not God made vs no â—hy doth euery one of vs then despise hys owne brother Should not a sonne honour his father and a seruaunt hys master If I bee now a Father where is myne honour If I bee a Lorde where is my feare Ye haue not receaued the spirite of bondage to feare any more but ye haue receaued y â— spirite of adoption wherby we cry Abba that is to say father The same spirite certifieth our spirite that we are the sonnes of God If we bee sonnes then are we also heyres the heyres I meane of God fellow heyres annexed with Christ. Which art in Heauen HeaueÌ„ is my seate â–ª and the earth is my footestoole The Lorde hath prepared his seate in heauen Our God is in heauen hee doth whatsoeuer pleaseth hym Unto thee lift I vp myne eyes which dwellest in the heauens Call no man father vpon earth for one is your father which is in heauen ¶ The first Peticion HAllowed bee thy name ☞ The confirmations I will make the name of my holines to be knowen amoÌ„g my people of Israell and I wil not let my holy name to be euill spoken of any more but y â— very heathen also shall know that I am the Lord the holy one of Israell The time shall come that who soeuer calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saued From the rising vppe of the Sunne vnto the going downe of the same my name is great among the Gentries yea and that in all places The Lord gaue and the Lorde hath taken away Now blessed bee the name of the Lord. Sing vnto the Lorde and prayse hys name Bee telling of hys saluation from day to day Declare hys honour among the Heathen and hys wonders among all people I will declare thy name vnto my brethren In the middest of the congregation will I prayse thee The name of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous flyeth vnto it and shall be saued By Christ do we offer the sacrifice of prayer alwayes vnto God that is to say y e fruite of those lips which confesse hys name ¶ The second Peticion THy Kingdome come ☞ The confirmations Seeke fyrst the kingdome of God and the righteousnes therof and all thynges shall be ministred vnto you The kingdome of heauen suffereth violence the violent plucke it vnto them Who soeuer receaueth not the kingdome of God as a childe hee shall not enter into it Except a man be borne of water and of the spirite he can not enter into the kingdome of God