is my bloud of the new Testament takyng the cup for drinke by a maner of speaking vsed in all tounges as when we say I haue dronke a cup of wine we take there the cuppe for the wyne My bloud of this new Testamēt that is to say my bloud for whose shedding sake this new Testament and couenaūt is made to you for the forgeuenes of sinne The old Testament made betwene God and your fathers in mount Synai in whiche life was promised to thē onely that kept it and to the breakers death wrath and vengeance and to be accursed and no mētion made of mercy whiche was confirmed with bloud Exodus 24. Moyses offered halfe the bloud to God and sprinkeled the people with the other halfe to cōfirme the couenaunt and to bynde both parties neither was there any couenaūt made that was not confirmed with bloud as it is rehearsed Hebrues the 9. And as we see in the bookes of Moses whose custome of bloushedding was not onely to confirme those old couenauntes but also to be a prophecie of the bloud that should be shed to confirme this Testament That old cruell fearefull testamēt which drew y e people away so that they durst not abyde the voyce of thunder nor the terrible sight of the fire but went and stode a farre of was cōfirmed with the bloud of calues But this new and gentle Testament which calleth agayne and promiseth mercy to all that will amend And as it is a better Testamēt so is it confirmed with a better bloud to make men see loue to loue agayne and to be a greater confirmation of the loue promised For if he gaue vs his sonne what will he deny vs If God so loued vs whē we were sinners and knew him not that hee gaue his sonne for vs how much more loueth he vs now whē we loue agayn and would fayne kepe his cōmaundementes In the old couenauntes the people were sprinckled with bloud of calues without in their bodies to bynd thē to keepe the law els we were boūd to iust damnatiō for the breakyng of it Here it is sayd drinke of it euery one that your soules within may bee sprinkled and washed thorough fayth with the bloud of the sonne of God for the forgeuenes of sinne and to be partakers of a more easie and kynde Testament vnder which if you sinne thorough fragilitie you shal be warned louingly receiued to mercy if you will turne agayne and amend Marke in the. 14. And as they dyd eate Iesus tooke bread and when hee had geuen thākes he brake it gaue it to them sayd Take eate this is my body and he tooke the cup and when he had geuē thākes he tooke it to thē they al drāke of it And he said to thē this is my bloud of y e new Testament whiche is shed for many This is all one with Mathew as is aforesayd Luke in the 22. And he tooke bread when he had geuen thankes he brake it and gaue to them saying This is my body which is giuen for you this do in remembraunce of me Likewise also when he had supped he tooke the cup saying This cuppe is the new Testament in my bloud which is shed for you Here is also to be noted that y t cause of the institution was to be a memoriall to testifie that Christes body was giuē and his bloud shed for vs. And agayne where Mathew Marke sayd this is my bloud in the new Testament Luke sayth This cup is the new testamēt in my bloud whiche shal be shed for you This is a straunge speakyng far frō the vse of our toung to call the signe confirmation by the name of the thing that is signified confirmed The Testament is that Christes bloud is shed for our sinnes And Christ sayth This cup is that testament signifieng thereby that y e thing that is meant by this ceremony is that we beleue that his bloud shedding is the remissiō of our sinnes which is the very Testament Paul 1. Cor. 11. saith on this maner That which I deliuered vnto you I receaued of the Lord. For the Lorde Iesus the same night in the whiche he was betrayed tooke bread and when he had geuen thankes he brake it and said Take ye and eate this is my body which is broken for you this do in remembraūce of me After the same maner also he tooke the cup when he had supped saying This cup is the new Testament in my bloud this do as oftē as ye drinke it in the remēbraūce of me For as often as ye shall eate this bread and drinke this cup ye shall shewe the Lordes death vntill he come As Mathew and Marke agree in these wordes So do Lucas and Paul And as it is aboue declared vppon the wordes of Luke and so here by oft repeatyng one thyng This do in remembraunce of me This cup is the new Testament in my bloud This do as oft as ye drinke it in the remembraunce of me Agayne as oft as ye shall eate of this bread and drinke of this cup so oft ye must declare the Lordes death By this oftē repeatyng I say ye may euidently perceaue the cause entēt and whole purpose of the institution of this Sacrament was to testifie and confirme the fayth of the Testament made in the death of Christ how that for his sake our sinnes shal be forgeuen So do this in the remembraunce of me that is to say Take bread wyne and rehearse the couenaunt and testament ouer them How that my body was broken and my bloud shed for many and thē geue them to the people to eate and drinke to be a signe and earnest and the seale of the Testament crie vpon them without ceassing to beleue in me onely for the remission of sinnes and not to dispayre how weake soeuer they be onely if they hang on me and desire power to keepe the law after my doctrine and example of my lyfe and do morne and be sory bycause they cannot do that good thyng which they would For sayth Paul who soeuer shall eate of this bread or drinke of the cup of the Lord vnworthely shal be giltie of the body and bloud of the Lord that is to say whoso receaueth the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ with an vncleane hart not forsaking the old lustes of the flesh Nor purposing to folow Christ and to loue his neighbour as onely Christ was to hym mercyfull The same sinneth agaynst the body bloud of Christ In that hee maketh a mocke of the earnest death of Christ as it is written Hebrues the. 10. treadeth Christ vnder foote and counteth the bloud of the Testament wherwith he was sāctified as an vnholy thyng doth dishonour to the spirite of grace Of this ye may perceaue agayne what the Sacrament meaneth what the entent of the ordinaunce
when we were not his childreÌ„ but his enemyes Christes disciples sayd to the man where is this gest chamber where I might eate the passing by with my disciples they prepared the passeouer And yet Christ eate not the passeouer but the lambe with his disciples where it is plaine y e signe to do on the name of the thyng At last consider vnto what eude all things tended in that last supper how the figure teached the veritie the shadow the body and how the veritie abolished the figure and the shadow gaue place to the body Loke also with what congruence proportion and similitude both in the action the spech al things were consummate and finished and all to lead vs by such seusible signes from the figure vnto the veritie froÌ„ the flesh vnto the spirite And take thou here this infallible assured saying of Christ neuer to fall fro thy mynde in this last supper do ye this into the remeÌ„brauÌ„ce of me And also of Paul saying So oft as ye shal eate this bread lo this heretike calleth it bread eueÌ„ after the words of the Popes coÌ„secratioÌ„ and drinke of this cup praise declare geue thankes for the death of the Lord vntill he shall come agayne to iudgement RemeÌ„ber thou also what Christ sayd to the carnall Iewes takyng the eatyng of hys flesh and drinkyng of his bloud so carnally aunsweryng them My flesh profiteth not meanyng to eate it bodely but the spirite maketh lyfe And to this set the Prophet Abacukes senteÌ„ce The iust lyueth of his fayth And now Christen reader to put thee cleane out of doubt that Christes body is not here present vnder the forme of bread as the papistes haue mocked vs many a day but in heauen euen as he rose and asceÌ„ded Thou shalt know that he told hys Disciples almost twenty tymes betwene the xiij and xviij chap. of Iohn that he should and would goe hence and leaue this world Where to comfort them agayne for that they were so heauy for his bodely absence he promised to send them hys holy Ghost to be their comforter defender and teacher in whom and by whom he would be present with them and all faithfull vnto the worldes end Hee sayd vnto hys Disciples I goe hence I goe the father I leaue the world and now shall I no more be in the world but ye shall abyde still in the world Father I come to thee Poore men haue ye euer with you but me shall ye not alwayes haue with you And wheÌ„ he ascended vnto heaueÌ„ they did behold hym saw the cloude take hys body out of theyr syght and they fastnyng their eyes after him the two men clothed in white sayd vnto them ye men of Galile wherefore stand ye thus lookyng vp into heauen This is Iesus that is taken vp from you into heauen whiche shall so come agayne euen as ye haue sene him going hence Here I would not More to flitte froÌ„ hys litterall playne sense All these so playne wordes be sufficient I trow to a Christen man to certifie hys conscience that Christ went his way bodely ascendyng into heauen For wheÌ„ he had told his disciples so oft of his bodely departyng from them they were maruelous heauy and sad Vnto whoÌ„ Christ sayd Because I told you that I go hence your hartes are full of heauines If they had not beleued hym to haue spokeÌ„ of his very bodely absence they would neuer haue so mourned for his goyng away And for because they so vnderstode him and he so meane as his wordes sowned He added as he should haue sayd be ye neuer so heauy or how heauely so euer ye take my goyng hence yet do I tell you truth For it is expedient for you that I goe hence For if I should not go hence that comforter should not come vnto you But and if I go hence I shall send him vnto you And agayne in the same chap. I am come from the father and am come into the world and shall leaue the world agayne and go to my father What mistery thinke ye should be in these so manifest woordes Did he speake them in any darke parables Dyd he meane otherwise theÌ„ he spake Dyd he vnderstand by goyng hence so ofteÌ„ repeted to tary here still or dyd he meane by forsakyng and leauyng the world to be but inuisible beyng still in the world with his body No surely For he meant as faithfully as playnly as his wordes sowned and euen so dyd hys Disciples without any more maruelyng vnderstand him For they aunswered him saying Lo now speakest thou apertly neither speakest thou any prouerbe But what a darke prouerbe and subtile ridle had it bene if he had meant by his goyng hence to haue â—aryed here still and by forsakyng the world to abyde still in the world and by his going hence to his father by his very bodely Ascention to be but inuisible Who would intrepret this plaine sentence thus I go hence that is to saye I tary here still I forsake the world and goe to the father that is to say I will be but inuisible and yet here abyde still in the world bodely For as concernyng his Godhead which was euer with the father and in all places at once he neuer spake such woordes of it When Christ sayd his death now was at hand vnto his Disciples now agayneÌ„ I forsake the world and go to my father but ye shall tary still in the world If they will expound by his for sakyng the world to tary here still bodely and to be but inuisible why do they not by lyke exposition interprete the tarying here still of the Disciples at that tyme to be gone hence bodely and to be here visible For Christ dyd set these contraryes one agaynst an other to declare ech other As if to tary here still dyd signifie to the Disciples that they should abyde in the world as it doth in deede then must needes his goyng hence and forsakyng the world signifie his bodely absence as both the wordes playnly lowne Christ meant and they vnderstoode them But in so plaine a matter what neede these wordes Be thou therefore sure Christen reader that Christes glorified body is not in this world but in heauen as he thether ascended in which body he shal come euen as he went gloriously with power and great maiestie to iudge all the world in the last day Be thou therfore assured that he neuer thus iuggled nor mocked hys so dearely beloued Disciples so full of heauynes now for his bodely departyng For if he had so meant as our Papistes haue peruerted hys saying hys Disciples would haue wondered at so straunge maner of spech and he would haue expressed his mynde playnly sith at this tyme hee was so full set to leaue them in no doubt but to comforte them with hys playne and comfortable wordes And if he would haue ben
but inuisible and still bodely present hee would neuer haue couered hym selfe with the cloude shewyng them and testifying also by those ij men his very bodely AsceÌ„tion out of their sightes We may not make of hys very bodely AscentioÌ„ such an inuisible iugglyng cast as our Papistes fayne Fashionyng and fayning Christ a body now inuisible now in many places at once theÌ„ so great and yet in so litle a place not decerned of any of our senses now glorified now vnglorified now passible and then impassible and I wote neare what they imagine and make of their maker and all without any woorde yea cleane agaynst all the wordes of holy Scripture For surely in this their imagination and so saying they bryng in a fresh the heresie of that great heretike Marcian which said that Christ tooke but a phantasticall body And so was neither verely borne nor suffered nor rose nor ascended verely neither was he very man Which heresie Tertulian confuteth Christ toke verely our nature such a passible and mortall body as we beare about with vs saue that he was without all maner of synne In such a body he suffered verely and rose agayne from death in such a glorified body now immortall c. as euery one of vs shall ryse at the generall iudgement It is appropried onely to hys Godhead to be euery where and not to bee circumscribed nor conteined in no one place And as for our Papistes prophane voyde voyces his body to be in many places at once indifinitiue incircumscriptiue non per modum quaÌ„ti neque localiter c. which includeth in it selfe contradiction of which Paule warned Timothe callyng them the oppositions of a false named science for that theyr Scholasticall Diuinitie must make obiections agaynst euery truth be it neuer so playne with pro contra whiche science many that professe it sayth Paul haue erred from the fayth as for this contention and battayle about wordes profitable for nothyng els but to subuert the hearers I care not for them For I haue the almighty testimony of the euerlastyng word of God ready to soyle all theyr madde and vnreasonable reasons to wype them cleane away and to turne them into their own confession And for bycause they hold them so fast by Paule I shall loose theyr hold expoundyng the Lordes Supper after Paule which addeth immediatly vnto the cup this y t Luke there left foorth Doe ye this into my remembraunce This doth Paule repete so ofte to put vs in minde that these thankes giuing and Supper is the coÌ„memoration and the memoriall of Christes death Wherfore after all hee repeteth it yet agayne the thyrde tyme saying So oft as ye shall eate this bread hee calleth it still bread euen after the Popes consecration and drinke the cuppe he sayth not drinke this bloude see that ye gyue thaÌ„kes be ioyous and preach the death of the Lord for so much signifieth Anâ—â—â—ciate in this place vntill hee come that is to say froÌ„ the tyme of his death and Ascention vntill hee come agayne to iudgement Furthermore sayeth Paule who so eateth this bread he calleth it still bread or drinke of the cuppe of the Lord vnworthely is giltie of the body and bloud of the Lord. The body and bloud of the Lorde Paule calleth here the congregation assembled together to eate the Lordes Supper For they are his body and bloud which are redemed with his body and bloud as he said in the x. chapter before The cup of thankes giuyng whiche we receiue with thaÌ„kes is it not the felowshyp of the bloud of Christ The bread whiche we breake is it not the felowshyp of the body of Christ For we beyng many together are one bread and one body Loe here Paule expoundyng hym selfe vseth the same forme of spech that is vsed in these woordes This is my body takyng is for signifieth We are one bread one body that is to say we are signified by one loafe of bread to be one body he sheweth the cause addyng because we be all partakers of one lofe or peece of bread And in the xij chapter folowing he sayth plainly ye be the body of Christ and his particular members and in the first to the Ephesians God dyd set Christ to be the head ouer all vnto hys congregation whiche is his body c. And bicause the comparison in the x. chapter betwene the Lordes borde and his cup and the deuils borde and his cup do declare this matter I shall recite Paules wordes saying ye may not drinke the cup of the Lord and the cuppe of the deuill both together Ye may not bee partakers of the Lordes borde the deuils borde both at once The deuils borde and hys cuppe was not his body and bloud but the earing and drinkyng before their images and Idols as dyd the heathen in the worshyppe and thankes of theyr Gods Of the which thyng thou mayst gather what Paul meant by the Lordes borde and his cuppe Now let vs returne to Paule in the xâ— chapter They eate this bread and drinke of this cup vnworthely that come not vnto this borde with such faith and loue as they professed at their Baptisme They eate vnworthely that thrust them selues in among this congregation hauyng not the loue that this SacrameÌ„t and signe of vnity teacheth and signifieth Which maner of people Paule in y e same chapter rebuketh and bendeth all his Sermon agaynst them for that they were conteÌ„tious and came together not for the better but for the woorse So that their commyng together which should haue bene a token of fayth and loue was turned into the occasion and matter of disscution and strife bycause euery man dyd eate as Paule sayth hys owne supper and not the Lordes supper wherein the bread and drinke is common as well to the poore as to the riche But here the rich disdayned the poore and would not tarye for them So that some as the rich went theyr way dronken and full and the poore departed hungry and dry whiche was a token of no equall distribution of the bread and drinke and that the rich contemned the poore and so became sclauÌ„derous and giltie of the body bloud of Christ that is to witte of the poore congregation redemed with Christes body and bloud Thus they that came together appearyng to haue had that loue whiche the Supper signified and had it not vttered them selues by this conteÌ„tious and vnlouyng dealyng not to be members of Christes body but rather giltie and hurtfull vnto them As if a souldier of our aduersaries part shoulde come in among vs with our Lordes badge hauyng not that hart fayth and loue to our captaine that we haue we would if we espyed it by any token take him for a spye and betrayer rather then one of vs. Let a man therefore sayth Paule proue him selfe well before whether he hath this fayth to Christ
make aunswere to thus Supper of the Lorde bringyng â—o â—or them their vnwritteÌ„ wordes dedes dreames for we haue compelled More with shame to flitte froÌ„ the Scripture strewed with their vame straunge termes which Paul damneth and geueth Timothe warning of I shall by gods grace so set the almighty word of God against them that all Christen shall see falshead and deceite in this SacrameÌ„t and so disclose theyr deuilish doctrine and fleighty iugglyng that all that can read Englishe shall see the trouth of Gods word openly beare downe their vnwritten lyes For it is verely the thyng that I desire euen to be written agaynst in this matter for I haue the solutions of all theyr obiections ready And know right well that the more they styrre this Sacrament the broder shall theyr lyes be spread the more shal theyr falsehead appeare and the more gloriously shall the trouth triumph as it is to see this day by long contention in this same and other lyke Articles which the Papistes haue so long abused and how More hys lyes vtter the truth euery day more and more For had he not come beggyng for the Clergy from Purgatory with his supplication of soules and Rastel and Rochester had they not so wysely played theyr partes Purgatory peraduenture had serued them yet another yeare neither had it so soone haue bene quenched nor the poore soule and Proctour there bene with his bloudy Byshop ChristeÌ„â—atte so farre coniured into hys owne Vtopia with a sachell about hys necke to gather for the proude Priestes in Synagoga Papistica When Christ was ascended into heauen and had sent his Apostles the spirite of truth to leade them into all truth perteinyng vnto our saluation euen â—nto hym that sayd I am the truth of whiche truth hee instructed them after his resurrection Luke xxiiij and they had preached the same truth nowe at IerusaleÌ„ Actes ij at which preachyng there were that receiued their wordes and were Baptised about iij. M. hys Apostles remembryng how their maistâ—â— Christ at his last Supper did institute and leaue them this holy Sacrament of his body and bloud to be celeâ—â—ated and done in his remembraunce among such as had receiued his Gospell were Baptised had professed hys fayth and would perseuer in his Religion dyd now in this first congregation celebrate the Lordes Supper breakyng the bread and eatyng it as Christ dyd teach them which Supper Luke and Paule called afterward the breakyng of the bread As Actes ij saying That they which gladly had now received Peters acte were baptised were perseuering in the doctrine of the Apostles and in the communioÌ„ and in the breakyng of the bread and in prayer whiche Sacrament was now a token of the perseueraunce in theyr Christen Religion now professed Of this breakyng of bread Luke writyng of Paule commyng vnto Troades sayth also that their vpon a Sabboth day when the Disciples were come together vnto the breakyng of the bread Paule made a Germon duryng to mydnight c. And that this was no common nor prophane vse but an heauenly Sacrament and a reuerent rite and vsage the circumstaunces of the action declare both in Luke and Paule shewyngit to be the very institutioÌ„ that Christ ordeyned at his Supper Paule thus recitynge this breakyng of the breake saying The bread whiche we breade is it not the felowshyp of the body of Christ y t is to say doth it not signifie vs to be the body of Christ that is hys congregation and people as doth the wordes folowyng declare Paule addyng the cause saying For we beyng many are all together siguified by the one loafe to be one body for that we be partakers of the same bread Also before he calleth in the same Supper the cup of thankes geuyng the felowshyp of the bloud of Christ that is to say the congregation redemed with Christes bloud The holy Sacrament therefore would God it were restored vnto the pure vse as y e Apostles vsed in it their tyme. Would God the secular princes which should be the very pastours and head rulers of their congregations coÌ„mitted vnto their cure would first coÌ„maunde or suffer the true preachers of Gods woorde to preache the Gospell purely and playnly with discrete libertie and constitute ouer eche particulare Parish such Curates as caÌ„ and would preach the word and that once or twise in the Weeke appoyntyng vnto theyr flocke certeyne dayes after their discretion and zeale to Godward to come together to celebrate the Lordes Supper At the which assemble the Curate would propone and declare them first this texte of Paule i. Corinthians xj So oft as ye shall eate this bread and drinke of this cuppe see that ye be ioyous prayse and giue thankes preachyng the death of the Lord c. whiche declared and euery one exhorted to prayer he would preach them purely Christ to haue dyed and bene offered vpon the altare of the Crosse for theyr redemption whiche onely oblation to be sufficieÌ„t sacrifice to peace the fathers wrath and to purge all the sinnes of the world Then to excite them with humble diligence euery man vnto the knowledge of hym selfe hys sinnes and to beleue and trust to the forgyuenesse in Christes bloud and for this so incomparable benefite of our redemption whiche were sold bondemen to sinne to geue thankes vnto God the father for so mercyfull a deliueraunce through the death of Iesu Christ euery one some singyng and some saying deuoutly one or other Psalme or prayer of thankes gyuyng in the mother toung Then the bread and wyne set before them in the face of the Churche vpon the table of the Lord purely and honesty layed let hym declare to the people the significations of those sensible signes what the action and deede moueth teacheth and exhorteth them vnto and that the bread and wyne be no prophane common signes but holy Sacramentes reuerently to be considered and receiued with a depe fayth and remembraunce of Christes death and of the shedyng of his bloud for our sinnes those sensible thynges to represente vs the very body and bloude of Christ so that while euery man beholdeth with his corporall eye those sensible Sacraments the inward eye of his fayth may see beleue stedfastly Christ offred and dying vppon the Crosse for his sinnes how his body was broken and his bloud shed for vs and hath giuen hym selfe whole for vs hym selfe to be all ours and what soeuer he dyd to serue vs as to bee made for vs of hys father our righteousnes our wisedome holynesse redemption satisfaction c. Then let this preacher exhort them louyngly to draw neare vnto this table of the Lord and that not onely bodely but also their hartes purged by fayth garnished with loue and innoceney euery man to forgyue eche other vnfaynedly and to expresse or at least wise to endeuour them to folow that loue whiche Christ dyd set before our
sayth but because the Scripture of God doth so conclude determine I take not Luther for such an author that I thinke hee can not erre but I thinke verely that he both may erre and doth erre in certayne poyntes although not in such as concerne saluation and damnation for in these blessed be God all these whom ye call heretickes do agrée right well And likewise I do not alow this thing because Wickleffe Oecolampadius Tyndall and Zwinglius so say but be cause I sée them in that place more purely expoūde the Scripture and that the processe of the text doth more fauour their sentence And where you say that I affyrme it to be bread still as Luther doth the same I say agayne not because Luther so sayth but because I cā proue my wordes true by scripture reason nature and doctors Paule calleth it bread saying the bread whiche we breake is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ For we though we be many are yet one body and one bread as many as are partakers of one bread And againe he sayth as often as ye eate of thys bread or drinke of thys cuppe you shall shewe the Lordes death vntill he come Also Luke calleth it bread in the Actes saying they continued in the fellowship of the Apostles and in breaking of bread and in prayer Also Christ called the cuppe the fruite of the vyne saying I shall not from hence forth drinke of the fruite of the vyne vntill I drink that new in the kingdome of my father Furthermore nature doth teach you that both y ◠bread and wine continue in their nature For the bread mouleth if it be kept long yea and wormes bréede in it And the poore mouse will runne away with it and desire no other meate to her dinner which are euident inough that there remayneth bread Also the wine if it were reserued would waxe sower as they confesse them selues and therefore they housell the laye people but with one kinde onely because the wine can not continue nor be reserued to haue ready at hand whē nede were And surely as if there remayned no bread it could not mould nor waxe full of wormes Euē so if there remained no wine it could not waxe sower and therefore it is but false doctrine that our prelates so long haue published Finally that there remayneth bread might be proued by the authoritie of many doctors which call it bread and wine as Christ and his Apostles did And though some sophisters would wrast their sayings and expound them after their phantasie yet shall I alleage them one doctor which was also Pope of Rome that maketh so plaine with vs that they shall be compelled with shame to hold their tongues For Pope Gelasius writeth on thys maner Certe sacramenta quae sumimus corporis sanguinis Christi diuine res sunt propterea per illa participes facti sumus diuinae naturae tamē nō desinit esse substantia vel panis vini sed permanent in suae proprietate naturae Et certe imago similitudo corporis sanguinis Christi in actione misteriorum celebrantur That is to say Surely the sacramentes of the body and bloud of Christ are a godly thing and therfore through them are we made partakers of the godly nature And yet doth it not cease to be the substance or nature of bread and wine but they continue in the propertie of their owne nature and surely the image and similitude of the body and bloud of Christ are celebrated in the acte of the mysteries Thys I am sure was the olde doctrine which they can not auoyde And therefore with the Scripture nature and fathers I will conclude that there remaineth the substaunce and nature of bread and wine And where ye say that we affyrme it to be nothing els I dare say that ye vntruely report on vs all And here after I will shewe you what it is more then bread And where ye say that it is méetely well knowen what maner of folke they be and that God hath in part with his open vengeance declared I aunswere that master Wickliffe was noted while he was liuing to be a man not onely of most famous doctrine but also of a very sincere life and conuersation Neuerthelesse to declare your malicious mindes and vengeable hartes as men say xv yeare after he was buryed you tooke hym vp and burnt hym which facte declared your furye although he felt no fire but blessed be God which hath geuen such tyrantes no further power but ouer thys corruptible body For the soule ye can not binde nor burne but God may blesse where you curse and curse where you blesse And as for Oecolampadius whō you also call Huskyn his most aduersaries haue euer commended his conuersation and godly life which when God had appoynted hys tyme gaue place vnto nature as euery mā must and dyed of a canker And Tyndall I trust liueth well content with such a poore Apostles life as God gaue hys sonne Christ and hys faythfull ministers in thys world which is not sure of so many mites as ye be yearely of poundes although I am sure that for hys learning and iudgement in Scripture he were more worthy to bee promoted then all the Bishops in England I receaued a letter from hym which was written since Christmas wherein among other matters he writeth thus I call God to recorde agaynst the day we shall appeare before our Lorde Iesus to geue a reckoning of our doings that I neuer altered one sillable of Gods worde agaynst my conscience nor would doe thys day if all that is in earth whether it be honour pleasure or riches might be geuen me Moreouer I take God to recorde to my conscience that I desire of God to my selfe in thys world no more then that without which I can not kéepe hys lawes c. Iudge Christē reader whether these words be not spoken of a faythfull clere innocent hart And as for hys behauiour is such that I am sure no man cā reproue hym of any sinne howbeit no mā is innocent before God which beholdeth the hart Finally Zwinglius was a man of such learning and grauitie beside eloquence that I thinke no man in Christendome might haue compared with hym notwithstanding he was slaine in battell in defending hys Citie and common wealth agaynst the assaulte of wicked enemies whiche cause was most righteous And if hys mastership meane that that was the vengeaunce of God and declared hym to be an euill person because he was slaine I may say nay and shew euident examples of the contrary for sometyme God geueth the victorye agaynst them that haue most righteous cause as it is euident in the booke of Iudges where all the children of Israell were gathered together to punishe y e shamefull sodomitrie of the Tribe of Beniamin which
remēbraunce of his body breakyng and bloud shedyng and that we shuld eate it together reioysing with ech other declaryng hys benefites Now were the Corinthians fallen from this hunger and came not together to the intent that Gods prayse should bee published by them in the middest of the congregatiō but came to féede their flesh and to make carnal cheare In so much that y t rich would haue meate and drinke inough and take such aboundaunce y t they would be dronke and so made it their owne per not the Lordes as Paule saith and did eate onely the bread meate and not the body breaking as I haue before said the poore which had not that is to say that had no meate to eate were ashamed and hungry and so could not reioyse and prayse the Lord by the reason that the delicate fare of the riche was an occasion for the poore to lament their pouertie and thus the rich dyd neither prayse God them selues nor suffered the poore to doe it but were an occasion to hynder them They should haue brought theyr meate and drinke and haue deuided it with their poore brethren that they might haue been mery together and so to haue geuen them occasion to be mery and reioyse in the Lorde with thankes geuyng But they had neither lust to prayse God nor to comfort their neighbour Their fayth was féeble and their charitie cold and had no regard but to fill their body and féede their flesh And so despised y t poore cōgregation of God whom they should haue honoured for y t spirite that was in them fauour that God had shewed indifferently vnto them in y ◠bloud of hys sonne Christ When Paule perceiued that they were thus fleshly mynded and had no mynde vnto that spirituall maundy which chiefly shuld ther bee aduertised hée reproueth thē sore rehearsing y t wordes of Christ That which I gaue vnto you I receiued of the Lord. For the Lord Iesus the same night in the which hee was betrayed tooke bread and thanked and brake it and said take ye and eate ye this is my bodye which is broken for you this do ye in the remembraunce of me After the same maner hee tooke the cup when supper was done saying this cuppe is the new Testament in my bloud this doe ye as ofte as ye drinke it in the remembraunce of me For as oft as ye shall eate this bread drinke of this cup ye shall shew the Lordes death til he come As though hée should say ye Corinthians are much to blame whiche at this Supper séeke the foode of your flesh For it was institute of Christ not for the intent to norishe the belly but to strēghten the hart and soule in God And by this you may know that Christ so meant For he calleth it hys body which is geuen for you so that the name it selfe might testifie vnto you that in this supper you should more eate his body whiche is geuen for you by digestyng that into the bowels of your soule then the bread which by the breakyng and the distributyng of it doth represent his body breakyng and the distributyng therof vnto all that are faythful And that bée so meaneth is euident by the wordes folowyng which say this do in the remembrance of mee and likewyse of the cuppe And finally concludyng of both Paule sayth as often as ye shall eate this bread drinke of this cuppe in this place and felowshyp ye shall shew y t Lordes death vntill hée come praysing the Lord for the death of his sonne and exhortyng other to doe the same reioysing in hym with infinite thākes And therfore ye are to blame whiche séeke onely to féede the belly with that thyng which was onely institute to féede the soule And theruppon it foloweth Wherfore who soeuer doth eate of this bread and drinke of this cup vnworthely is gilty of the body and bloud of the Lorde He eateth this bread vnworthely which regardeth not the purpose for the which Christ dydinstitute it which cōmeth not to it with spirituall hūger to eate through fayth his very body which the bread representeth by the breaking and disstributing of it which commeth not with a mery hart geuing God harty thankes for their deliueraunce from sinne Which doe not much more eate in their hart y t death of his body then they doe the bread with their mouth Now sith the Corinthyans did onlye séeke their belly and flesh and forgat Gods honour and prayse for which it was instituted y ◠thākes should be geuen by the remembrance of his body breaking for vs they eate it to Gods dishonour to their neighboures hinderaunce to their owne condemnation so for lacke of fayth were giltye of Christes body which by fayth they should there chiefely haue eaten to their soules health And therefore it followeth †Let a man therfore examyne him selfe and so let him eate of the bread and drinke of the cuppe THis prouing or examinyng of a mans selfe is first to thinke with him selfe with what lust and desire he cōmeth vnto the maundy will eate that bread whether he be sure that he is the child of God and in the faith of Christ And whether his cōscience do beare him witnesse that Christes body was broken for him And whether the lust y t he hath to prayse God and thanke hym with a faythfull hart in the middes of the bretheren do driue hym thether warde Or els whether he do it for y t meates sake or to kéepe the custome for then were it better that he were away For he that eateth or drinketh vnworthely eateth and drinketh his owne damnation becaufe he maketh no differēce of the Lordes body That is as it is sayd before he that regardeth not the purpose for which it was instituted putteth no difference betwene his eating and other eating for other eating doth onely serue the bellye but this eating was instituted and ordayned to serue the soule and inward man And therfore he that abuseth it to the flesh eateth and drinketh his owne damnation And he commeth vnworthelye to the maundye where the sacrament of Christes body is eaten ye where the body of the Lord is eaten not carnally with the téeth and bellye but spiritually with the hart and faith Vpon this followeth the text that M. More allegeth and wresteth for his purpose For this cause many are weake sicke among you and many sléepe yf we had truely Iudged our selues we should not haue béene Indged when we are Iudged of the Lorde we are chastened because we should not bée damned wich the world Wherfore my bretheren whē ye come togither to eate tary one for an other Yf a man hunger let him eate at home that ye come not togither vnto condemnation For this cause that is for lacke of good examinyng of our selues as is before touched many are weake and sicke in
the fayth and many a sléepe and haue lost their fayth in Christes bloud for lacke of remembraunce of his body breaking bloud shedding yea not that onely but many were weake and sicke euen striken with bodelye diseases for abusing y e sacrament of his body eating the bread with their téeth and not his body with their hart and minde and peraduenture some slayne for it by the stroke of God which if they had truely iudged and examined thē selues for what intent they came thither and why it was instituted should not haue béene so iudged and chastened of the Lorde For the Lorde doth chasten to bring vs vnto repentaunce and to mortifie our rebellious mēbers that we may remember hym Here ye may shortly perceyue the mynde of Paule An Epitome and short rehearsall of all this booke shewing in what poyntes Frith dissenteth from our Prelates NOw to be short in these thrée poyntes Frith dissenteth frō our Prelates and from M. More which taketh vpon hym to be their proctor 1. Our Prelates beléeue that in the Sacrament remaineth no bread but that it is turned into the naturall body of Christ both fleshe bloud and bones Frith sayth that it is no article of our Crede and therefore let them beléeue it that will And he thinketh that there remayneth bread still and that he proueth thrée maner of wayes First by y e scripture of Paule whiche calleth it bread saying the bread which we breake is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ For we though we bee many are yet one body and one bread as many as are partakers of one bread And againe he sayth as often as ye eate of thys bread or drinke of thys cup you shall shew the Lordes death vntil he come Also Luke calleth it bread saying in the Actes they continued in the fellowship of the Apostles and in the breaking of the bread prayer Also Christ called the cup the fruite of a vyne saying I shall not from hence forward drinke of the fruite of the vyne vntill I drinke that new in the kingdome of my father Furthermore nature doth teache you that both the bread and wine cōtinue in their nature For the bread mouldeth if it be kept long yea and wormes bréede in it and the poore mouse will runne away with it and eate it ' which are euidence inough that there remayneth bread Also the wine if it were reserued would waxe sower as they confesse them selues and therefore they housell the lay people but with one kinde onely because the wine can not continue nor be reserued to haue ready at hand when néede were And surely as if there remayned no bread it could not mould nor waxe full of wormes euen so if there remayned no wine it could not waxe sower And therefore it is but false doctrine that our prelates so lōg haue taught and published Finally y e there remayneth bread might be proued by the authoritie of many Doctors which call it bread and wine euen as Christ and hys Apostles did And though some sophisters would wrest their saying and expoūd them after their owne phantasie yet shall I alleage thē one Doctor which was Pope that maketh so playne with vs that they shall neuer bee able to auoyde them For Pope Gelasius writeth on thys maner Certe sacramenta quae sumimus corporis sanguinis Christi diuinae res sunt propter quod per eadem diuinae efficimur consortes naturae Et tamen non desinit esse substantia vel natura panis vini sed permanet in suae proproprietate naturae Et certe imago similitudo corporis sanguinis Christi in actione mysteriorum celebrantur That is to say Surely the Sacrament of the body and bloud of Christ which we receaue are a godly thing and therefore through them are we made partakers of the godly nature And yet doth it not cease to bee the substance or nature of bread and wine but they continue in the propertie of their owne nature And surely the image and similitude of the body and bloud are celebrated in the acte of the mysteryes Thys I am sure that no man can auoyde it nor so wrest it but that all men shall soone espye hys folly and therefore I may conclude that there remayneth the substaunce and nature of bread and wine The second poynt wherin Frith dissenteth from our Prelates and their Proctor THe Prelates beléeue that hys very fleshe is present to the téeth of them that eate the sacrament and that the wicked eate hys very body Frith sayth that it is no article of our Créede and therefore hée reckoneth that hee is in no ieoperdy though hee beleeue it not And hee thinketh that his fleshe is not present vnto the téeth of them that receaue the Sacrament For hys flesh is onely in one place at once And y t hée proueth both by y t authoritie of S. Austen ad Dardanum and also by the authoritie of Fulgentius ad Thrasuuandum lib. 20. as before appeareth in y t booke And Frith sayth that the wicked eate not hys very fleshe although they receaue the sacrament And that hée proueth by the Scripture Doctors and good reason grounded vpon the scriptures The Scripture is this hée that eateth Christes body hath euerlasting life but the wicked hath not euerlasting life ergo then the wicked eate not his body Agayne the Scripture sayth hée that eateth Christes fleshe and drinketh hys bloud abydeth in Christ and Christ in hym but y t wicked abyde not in Christ nor Christ in him ergo the wicked eate not hys fleshe nor drinke hys bloud Thys may also bée confirmed by good authoritie For S. Austen sayth hée that abydeth not in Christ and in whom Christ abydeth not without doubt hée eateth not hys fleshe nor drinketh hys bloud although hée eate and drinke the sacrament of so great a thing vnto hys damnation And euen the same wordes hath Beda vpon the x. chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians Agayne S. Austen sayth hée that abydeth not in me and in whom I abyde not let hym not say nor thinke that hée eateth my body or drinketh my bloud And euē the same wordes hath Beda vpon the vi chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians And euen y e same sentēce hath Ambrose and Prosper and Beda vpon the xi chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians Finally thys may bée proued by good reason grounded vpon the scripture Christ would not suffer Mary though shée loued hym well to touch hym because shée lacked one poynt of fayth and dyd not beléeue that hée was equall with his father And therfore by reason it must follow that hée will not suffer the wicked which neither haue good faith nor loue towards hym both to touch hym and eate him into their vncleane bodyes Now sith thys is proued true that the
and by what authoritie your highe pollitike rule saued that you dare géeue either of these kindes to the laye men seyng they were both alonely geuen to the Apostles for eueÌ„ by that authoritie that you haue power to take away the one kynd by that selfe same haue you power to take away the other for they were both geuen at once and indifferently to the receiuers so that as many as receiued the one receiued also the other and to them that hée sayd take and eate this this is my body to them hée sayd drinke all of this c. Now if you may thus take away y e partes of y e sacramentes at your pleasure y e coÌ„sequent shall bée y â— incontinuance all the sacramentes shal be destroyed and Christes word set at naught Wherefore my Lord this blasphemous euation will not helpe you but such shamfull solutions must they vse that will be agaynst the open worde of God Amend your conscience my Lorde for if you doe not remeÌ„ber the terrible wordes of y â— Prophet hée shall shake his sword bend his bowe make it al ready therein hath hée prepared the shot of death his arrowes for to burne This is no smal threatning nor lightly to auoide But let vs sée what the scriptures say that which I gaue vnto you I receaued of y e Lord. Marke S. Paules wordes how hée receaued this thyng of the Lorde c. The Lord Iesus the same night in y e which hée was betraied tooke bread and thanked and brake it and sayde Take ye and eate this is my body which is broken for you this doe yée in the remembraunce of mée After y e same manner hée tooke the cup said this cup is the New testament in my bloud this doe as oft as you drinke in the rememberaunce of mée for as often as you shall eate this bread and drinke this câ—p you shall shew the Lordes death tyll hée come Marke diligently how S. Paule declareth how the Lord Iesus Christ dyd institute this blessed and comfortable sacrameÌ„t in both kindes and in both kindes dyd mynister it hymselfe and not that all onely but also enacted this coÌ„mauÌ„dement to all Christen people which must receiue it This doe as often c. Yea and this commauÌ„dement is geueÌ„ after the Sacrament is ministred in both kinds Teaching vs that in both kindes the Lord hath instituted this Sacrament to bée receiued and also that they y â— so receaue it not breake this commaundement of the Lorde This doe as often c. This commaundement S. Paule did not lightly let slyp but hée knew that it was the ordinaunce and y e commaundement of the Lord and also knew y e one iot or tytle of his wordes should not nor ought nor can not bée let slip without perrell of the soules of them y â— so littell makes of his word And therfore hée durst not nor would not and yet hée had as great auctoritie as the counsell of constance let slip or tanspose the institution and commaundement of the Lord but wholy and fully with all diligence hée wrote those wordes vnto all the whole congregation of the Corinthians not to the ministers or priestes all onely but to the whole congregation that is as well to the mynisters of the word as to lay men and also the contrary for hée sayth when you come togither that you may perceaue y â— hée speakes indifferently hée there reproueth theÌ„ that tarryed not for poore men And also these wordes bée playne who so euer shall eate of this bread and drink of this cup worthely c. Now vnto this whole congregatioÌ„ I doubt not but by y e spirit of the Lord which sawe béefore this damnable errour to bée instituted of antichrist and his very all onely mynisters hée sayd drinke you yea and to reproue and manifestly to declare this open errour hée adeth this worde Cuppe signifying and teaching that Christes ordinaunce is not to receaue the bloud in the body onely but to receaue the bloud after his institution by it selfe out of the cup lest they should bée found correctours and blasphemers of the holy institution and commaundement of the Lord Of whom S. Paule receaued this coÌ„maundemeÌ„t and of no couÌ„sels Now what ChristeÌ„ man can doubt but our M. Christ to whom all thing is bare and open both things present also to come knew that there was bloud in his owne body Also Saynt Paule his scholer which learned this lesson of hym was not ignorant that there was bloud in his body And yet firste our maister Christ géeueth his bloud alone by it selfe out of the cup and his diligent scholer knowyng the doctrine of his maister dyd the same regardyng his maisters doctrine and preferring it before his carnall reasoÌ„ which knew that there was bloud in euery body but his maisters doctrine taught him that his maister kept not his bloud in his body but for vs lost and damned persons for our innume rable detestable and aboue all capacitie to declare damnable and abhominable sinnes brake his body shed his bloude thereout plentously and therewith made sacrifice and satisfactioÌ„ for all our sinnes as Saint Iohn sayth The bloud of Iesus Christ clen seth vs from all sinne also we are sanctified by the offeryng of the body of Iesus Christ once for all Now that all Christen men which bée sanctified by the offeryng of this body and by sheadyng the bloud out of this body shoulde alwayes haue both those partes in remeÌ„braunce hée according as the bloud was deuided froÌ„ the body for all sinners indiffereÌ„tly that will come vnto Christe and accordyng to his maisters institution commauÌ„dement ministred this Sacrament and also ordeined it to bée ministred to all men The body by it selfe the bloud by it selfe That they might alway not remember alonely that our Sauiour Christ offered his body for vs but also shed out of that same body his most precious bloud and therfore sayth S. Paule as his maister Christ taught him As often as you shall eate this bread and drinke this cup you shall shew the Lordes death till hée come Now my Lordes come to your counselles Christ and S. Paule defendeth thys thyng partinaciter as you call it that is stifly and strongly wyll they abide by it and will not reuoke it Wherfore after the decrée of your Counsell they bée condemned for heretickes I can no more say but God helpe them for there is no remedy with them but they must néedes to the fier for they will not bée abiured in no wise It is a piteous case that two so good men as these bée will bée thus openly agaynst the decrée of the holy counsell yea and against so many and so noble fathers and so great clarkes the which knew this matter as ye say as well as they and it is not to bée thought that the holy Ghost would leaue so
vsed of Christ Iohn 6. The olde passeouer compared with the Supper of our Lord. Baptisme compared with Circumcision 1. Cor. 10. 11. and 12. Rom. 6. Ephes 4. Eucharistia thaÌ„kes giuyng 1. Cor. 10. and 11. 1. Tim. 1. Baptisme was figured by Circumcision and the Lordes Supper by the paschall lambe Luke 12. 1. Cor. 5. Exod. 12. Luke 22. The Paschall lambe eaten and the Sacrament instituted Twoo thynges to be considered in the Sacramentes The matter and substaunce of of the SacrameÌ„t and the signes of the 〈◊〉 â–ª The signe is called the thyng Gene. 17. Exod. 12. The scripture calleth the signe by the name of the thing that it signifieth The bread in the SacrameÌ„t called the body of Christ the wyne called the bloud of Christ â—st is takeÌ„ for significat Gene. 40. The figuratiue speches vsed in the scripture 〈◊〉 Pet. 2. Ezech. 5. The maner of speakyng in the scripturo Iohn 3. The naturall body of Christ is not in the SacrameÌ„t â–ª The Sacrament is to be receaued with thankes geuyng The vse of the supper Luke 22. Note here the whole circumstaunce of the maner and institution of the SacrameÌ„t of Christes body Luke 22. 1. Cor. 11. Iohn 6. Abacuk 2. Christ declared to his disciples that he would leaue this world 〈◊〉 go to his father in heauen Scriptures are many that shewe Christ as touchyng his natural body is gone and is not here Actes 2. Christ asceÌ„ded into heauen Iohn 14. and. 16. Christ â—â—playne wordes declareth his bodely departure out of this world Christ playnlye shewed vnto the disciples that he must depart from this world to his father in heauen Christes â—…rified body is in heauen Christes 〈◊〉 scention was witnessed by many The here 〈◊〉 of Marcâ—… what it was 1. Timo. 6. 2. Timo. 2. 1. Timo. 〈◊〉 1. Cor. 11. The Supper of the Lord is the commemâ—ration and memoriall of Christes death S. Paule calleth the SacrameÌ„t bread after the consecration By one loafe of bread we are fignified to bee one body in Christ The cup of the Lord 〈◊〉 the cup of the deuill how they differte Who they are that eate of the bread and drinke of the cup vnworthely Euery 〈◊〉 did eate his own supper and not the Supper of the â—â—rd We must firste examine out stlues and theÌ„ come to the table of the Lord. Loke more of this in the Epistle to the reader If we come not thankfully and charitably vnto y t Lordes borde we eate and drinke our damnation S. Paule calleth the poore the Church of God This place the Papistes alledge to proue vnwritten be ritie More belyeth Decolampâ—dius and Zuingitus Loke more of this in the Epistle to the reader Tertulian The worâ—es of Tertulian AusteÌ„ cap. xij against â—dimâ—nt Gene. 6. Leui. 7. Deut. 12. Austen calleth Sacrament the signe of his body Homâ— 83. operitiâ— imperfectâ— Chrisostome calleth the sacrameÌ„t the signe of Christes body The confutatioÌ„ of the Papistes gloses The Papistes are wreâ—ters peruerters of the scriptures The Papistes say that the traÌ„ substantion is done by miracles All true miracles are done to let forth the glory of God Christ dyd miracles to declare hâ—m selfe to be both God and man 〈…〉 〈…〉 1. Thes 2. 1. Iohn 2. 〈…〉 scriptures The conteÌ„tious and wicked doctrine of y â— Papistes hath prouoked the lyght of gods truth to be set forth to the vnderstandyng of the people How the 〈…〉 Aâ—…â—2 The Sacrament is not vsed in these dayes as it was in the tyme of the Apostles A good doctrine for al such ministers as haue cure of soules to vse to his flocke Thankes geuyng The bread and wyne are not prophane but Sacramentes to holy vse 1. Cor. 1. A wholesome and good lesson namely for all ministers Rom. 5. At the ministration of the Sacrament let the minister exhorte all men to haue faith and lone to pray for grace I good and necessary exhortatioÌ„ to be mate to y â— people of the tâ—… they receaue the communioÌ„ None may come to the commuâ—… without y â— weddyng germent 〈◊〉 â—ayth Iohn 13. Thankesgeuyng to God Those wordes of his are in his booke that he made for y t pore soules in Purgatory Marke 42. Not who speaketh but that whiche is spoken is to be weyed most 1. Tim. 4. The holy ghost inspireth where when and on whom he pleaseth Actes 2. 1. Cor. 12. The talent of our learnyng is to be employed to the edifiyng of Christes congregation Wilfully to resist Gods worde is sinne agaynst the holy ghost Ezech. 33. Obiection Aunswere 1. Thess Our imperfection forgeuen thorough faith in Christes bloud The Byshop of Rochesters owne opinion concernyng the vnderstandyng of the scriptures in his time and long a forâ— that Actes 17. The cause of our blindnes and grosse errours 2. Thess 2. Rom. 15. Voluntary ignorauÌ„ce not to bee excused The cause of Iohn Frithes writyng against Purgatory Mans reason must be obedient to the Scriptures Aulus Gelius The rebuke of an open enemy better then the sclender prayse of a frend M. More my Lord of Rochester can not agree The Purgatoryes that God hath ordeyned Iohn 15. The Purgatory of the hart The Purgatory of the hart is fayth The Purgatory of the members Heb. 12. The Purgatory of the meÌ„bers is the crosse of Christ Psal 89. God nayleth vs to the crosse to heale our infirmities So euill was the life of the Papistes that they imagined a Purgatory for them selues The wisedome of the world foolishnes afore God Symon Fishe the maker of the booke of the Supplication of Beggers Our riches is to be bestowed on the poore Either there is no Purgatory els the Pope is mercylesse Whereat M. More first began to fume agaynst such as denye Purgatory Rastell foloweth M. More The names of the disputers in the matter of Purgatory The soÌ„me and contentes of Rastels iij. Dialogues An aunswere to Rastels Dialogue Rastels booke is either true or false If naturall reason conclude agaynst the Scripture then is naturall reasoÌ„ false Roma 5. Iohn 11. 2. Rastels boke clearely quickly confouÌ„ded Rastel beaten to the wall The first chief reason made for Purgatory Rastell Aunswere to the first argument Psal 81. 1. Thess 4. Question Math. 24. The confutatioÌ„ of Rastels first chief argument 1. Iohn 1. 1. Cor. 15. 1. Thess 4. Ephes 1. and. 5. Rastell ouerthroweÌ„ in his owne turne 3. Hebr. 1. Christ is the onely Purgatory and purger of our sins 4. Ephe. 5. A frutefull and excelleÌ„t argument 5. Ephe. 1. Christ by his election doth purge and clense vs. 6. 1. Iohn 1. Ephe. 1. Gallat 5. Roma 7. Roma 8. Roma 5. Roma 4. Psal 31. Iustification freely doth exclude Purgatory Roma 3. Obiection In aunswere to the first obiection Obiection 1. In aunswere to the second obiection 2. The Pope â—elleth Christes merites for money 3. We may not robbe God of his honour 4. Blasphemy to say Christes bloud is not full
in the kyngdome of God Christ nor any felyng therof And who shall take those diseases from them God onely through his mercy for they cā not put of that complection of them selues vntill they be taught to beleue and to fele that it is damnable and to consent vnto the contrary liuing And vnto the second part I aunswere that in respect of God we doe but suffer onely and receaue power to do all our deedes whether we do good or bad as Christ aunswered Pylate that hee could haue no power agaynst him except it were geuen him from aboue and no more could Iudas neither But in respect of y e thing wherin or wherwith we worke and sheade out agayne the power that we haue receaued we woorke actually As the axe doth nothyng in respect of the hād that heweth saue receaue but in respect of the tree that is cut it worketh actually powreth out agayne the power that it hath receaued M. Item that God is author of good and euill as wel of the euill will of Iudas in betraying Christ as of the good will of Christ in sufferyng his passion Tyndall The power wherewith we do good and euill is of God the will is of God As y e power which the murtherer abuseth and wherewith he killeth a man vnrighteously is of God the will wherewith he willeth it But the wickednesse of his wil and crokednesse or frowardnesse wherewith hee sleath vnrighteously to auēge him selfe to satisfie his owne lustes the cause why he knoweth not the law of God and consenteth not to it whiche law should haue informed his will and corrected the crokednesse therof and haue taught him to vse his will his power right is his blindnesses fault onely and not Gods Whiche blindnesse the deuill hath poysoned him with M. Item matrimonie is no Sacramēt Tyndall Matrimonie is a similitude of the kyngdome of heauen as are many thynges mo like as it appeareth by Christ in the Gospell But who institute it to be a Sacrament Or who at his mariage was taught the signification of it Who was euer bound to receaue it in the name of a Sacrament I would to Christes bloud that ye wold make a Sacrament of it vnto all men and women that be maryed and vnto all other and would at euery mariage teach the people to know the benefite of Christ through the similitude of Matrimony And I affirme that in the popes Churche there is no Sacrament For where no signification is there is no Sacrament A signe is no signe vnto him that vnderstādeth nought therby as a spech is no spech vnto him that vnderstādeth it not I would to Christes passion that ye would let them be Sacramentes which Christ institute ordeined for Sacramentes And then if ye make of your own braynes fiue hūdred therto I would not be so greatly greued though I would not geue my consent vnto so great a multitude partly for the bondage and specially lest we should in tyme to come the significations of them lost fall into Idolatrie agayne and make holy workes of them after the exāple of the blindnesse wherin we be now but I would haue the woorde euer liuely preached out of the playne text M. Item that all holy orders bee but mens inuention Tyndall The office of an Apostle Byshop Priest Deacon and Widow are of God But as concerning the shanyng the oylyng and diuersitie of rayment and many degrees sence added therto proue that they be but mens traditions But and ye will make Sacramentes of the oylyng shanyng sheryng and garmentes put their significations vnto them and let the kyngs grace compell them to keepe them and I admitte them for Sacramentes and vntill that tyme I hold them for the false signes of hypocrites M. Itēm that euery man and woman is a Priest and maye consecrate the body of Christ Tyndall In bodyly seruice if the officer appoynted be away euery other person not onely may but also is boūd to helpe at neede euen so much as hys neighbours dogge How much more then ought men to assiste one an other in the health of their soules at al times of nede if the man be away the womā may and is bound to Baptise in tyme of nede by the law of loue which office perteineth vnto the priest onely If she be Lady ouer the greatest ordeined by God that she may Baptise why shuld she not haue power also ouer the lesse to minister the ceremonies whiche the Pope hath added to as his oyle his salt his spitell his candle and cresomcloth And why might she not pray all the prayers except that Idole the pope be greater then the very God if womē had brought a child to Church while the Priest other men taryed the child were in ieoperdy might they not baptise him in the font if there were no other water by And if other water were by yet if that holpe better one mite loue requireth to baptise him therin And then why might not women touch all their other oyle If a woman learned in Christ were driuen vnto an I le where Christ was neuer preached might she not there preach and teach to minister the Sacraments and make officers The case is possible shew thē what should let that she might not loue thy neighbour as thy selfe doth cōpel Nay she may not consecrat Why If the pope loued vs as wel as Christ hee would finde no faulte therewith though a womā at nede ministred that Sacrament if it bee so necessary as ye make it In bodyly wealth he that would haue me one ace lesse then hymselfe loueth me not as well as himselfe how much more ought we to loue one an other in thynges pertainyng vnto the soule M. Item that the host is no sacrifice Tyndall Christ is no more killed It is therfore the Sacrament signe memoriall of that sacrifice wherewith Christ offered his body for our sinnes and commaūded saying this do in the remembraunce of me We be not holpe with any visible deede that the Priest there doth saue in that it putteth vs in remembraunce of Christes death passion for our sinnes As the garmentes and straunge holy gestures helpe vs not but in that they put vs in remembraunce of thyngs that Christ suffered for vs in his passion Euen so the shewyng breakyng and eatyng of the host the shewyng and drinkyng of the cup of Christes bloud and the wordes and the consecration helpe vs not a pinne nor are gods seruice saue onely in that they styrre vp our repentyng fayth to call to mynde the death and passion of Christ for our sinnes And therfore to call it a sacrifice is but abused speach as when we call one that is new come home to breakfast and set a Capon before him and say this is your welcome home meaning yet by that speach that it is but
beleued in Christ to bee incarnated and to suffer death what els meant the poore woman of Lanane by eating then to beleue whē she aunswered Christ saying Ye say soth my Lorde But yet doe the little whelpes eate of the crummes that fall from their maisters table This dyd she aunswere in an allegory accordyng to Christes first aunswere vnto her she meanyng by y t eatyng of the crummes the belief of his woordes and Gospell to be scattered among the Gentils as Christ aunsweryng cōfirmed her meanyng saying O woman great is thy fayth He sayd not thou art a great eater and deuourer of bread Here it is playne that to eate in the Scripture is taken to beleue as Christ him selfe expoundeth it so oft and so plentuously And I am here compelled to inculke iterate it with so many wordes to satisfie if it were possible this carnall fleshvowerer and fleshly Iew. Now to examine and to discusse this matter more depely playnly I shall compare the old passeouer with the new and supper of the Lord. And to shew you how the figures correspond their verities I will begyn my comparison at Baptisme comparyng it with the Lordes Supper which be the two Sacramentes left vs now vnder the grace of the Gospell And afterward to set foorth both these Sacramentes playnly I wil compare Circumcision with Baptisme the passe lambe with Christes Supper We by Baptisme as we testified vn to the congregation our entryng into the body of Christ take here Christes body as doth Paule for his congregation to dye to be buried and to ryse with him to mortifie our flesh and to be reuiued in spirite to cast of the old man and to do vpon vs the new euen so by the thankes giuyng for so did the old Greke doctours cal this Supper at Gods bourde or at the Lordes Supper for so doth Paule call it we testifie the vnitie and communion of our hartes glued vnto the whole body of Christ in loue yea and that such loue as Christ at this his last Supper expressed what tyme he sayd his body should be broken and his bloud shed for the remission of our sinnes And to be short As Baptisme is the badge of our fayth so is the Lordes Supper the token of our loue to God our neighbours where vppon standeth the law and the Prophetes For the end of the precept is loue out of a pure hart and good conscience and fayth vnfayned So that by baptisme we be initiated cōsigned vnto the worship of one God in one fayth And by the same faith and loue at the Lordes Supper we shew our selues to cōtinue in our possession to bee incorporated and to be the very members of Christes body Both these Sacramentes were figured in Moyses law Baptisme was figured by Circumcision the Lordes Supper by the eatyng of the passelambe Where lyke as by Circumcisiō the people of Israell were rekened to be Gods people seueral from the Gētiles so be we now by Baptisme rekened to bee consigned vnto Christes Church seuerall frō Iewes paynyms c. And as their passeouer that is to say their solēne feast yearely in eatyng their passelambe was an outward token of their perseueraunce in their religion and in remembraunce of their passage out of Egypt into the lande of Chanaan so is now the eatyng of the Lordes Supper whiche Christ and Paule called our passeouer a token of our perseueraunce in our Christen profession at Baptisme and also thankes giuyng with that ioyfull remēbraunce of our redemption frō sinne death and hell by Christes death Of the figure of this Supper our new passeouer thus it is written After ye be entred into that land whiche the Lord God shall giue you accordyng to his promise ye shall kepe this ceremonie And when your children aske you what Religion is this ye shall aunswere them It is the sacrifice of the passyng ouer of the Lord when the Lord passed foorth by the houses of the children of Israell in Egypt smityng the Egyptiās and deliuering our houses This eatyng therfore of the passe lambe was the figure of the Lordes Supper ▪ whiche figure when the houre was come y ◠he would it to ceasse and giue place vnto the veritie as the shadow to vanish away at the presence of the body He sayd thus with a feruent desire do I long to eate this passeouer with you ere I suffer Agayne let vs compare the figure with the truth the old passeouer with the new and diligētly consider the propertie of speakyng in and of either of thē Let vs expende the succession imitation and tyme how the new succeding the old mediatour Christ betwen both sitting at the Supper celebrating both with his presence did put out the old and bryng in the new For there is in either of them such like composition of wordes such affinitie and proportiō of spech such similitude and propertie in them both the new so correspōdyng in all thynges to the old that the old declareth the new what is it wherfore it was instituted and what is the very vse therof And to begyn at Circumcision the figure of Baptisme ye shall vn derstand that in such rites and Sacramētes there are two thinges to be considered that is to wit The thyng and the signe and of thyng The thynge is it wherfore the signe is instituted to signifie it as in Circumcision the thyng is the couenaunt to be of the people of God and the signe is the cuttyng of the foreskinne of the preuy mēber In the passeouer the thing was the remēbraunce with thankes giuyng for the deliueraunce out of the hard seruitude of Egypt but the signe was the lambe rosted with such ceremonies as were there prescribed them So in baptisme The thyng is the promise to be of the Church of Christ the signe is the dippyng into the water with the holy wordes In our Lordes Supper the very thing is Christ promised and crucified and of faith with thankes giuing vnto the father for his sonne giuen to suffer for vs. But the signe is the dealyng and distributing or reaching forth of the bread and wyne with the holy wordes of our Lord spoken at his supper after he had thus dealt the bread wyne vnto his Disciples And here is it diligently to be noted That in all such rites ceremonies or Sacramentes of God thus instituted these two thinges that is to witte the thyng signified and the signe that signifieth be concurraunt and inseparable It is the common vse and propertie of spech in the Scripture to call the signe the thyng As is Circumcision called the couenaunt Euery manchild must be circumcised that my couenaunt might be in your flesh for a perpetuall bande And yet was it onely but the outward signe seale of the couenaūt that the sede of Abraham should be his especial chosen people that he would
and that Christ is a vine and a dore And yet yf they should beleue or thinke that he were in dede any of these things they were spirituall and neuerthelesse deceiued For though he so sayd yet I say hys woordes were spiritually to bee vnderstanded And where you say that I flye from the fayth of playne and open scriptures for the allegory destroy the true sence of the letter I aūswere that some textes of Scripture are onely to be vnderstand after the letter as when Paule sayeth Christ died for our sinnes and arose agayne for our iustification And some textes are onely to be vnderstand spiritually or in the way of allegory As when Paule sayth Christ was the stone when Christ sayth him selfe I am a very vyne I am the doore and some must be vnderstand both litterally spiritually As when God sayd out of Egipt cauled I my sonne which although it were literally fulfilled in the childrē of Israell whē he brought them out of Egipt with great power and wonders yet was it also ment verified in Christ hymselfe his very spirituall sonne which was cauled out of Egipt after y e death of Herod And agayne it is very spiritually fulfilled in vs whiche through Christes bloud are deliuered frō the Egypt of sinne from the power of Pharao y ◠deuil And I say that this text of scripture This is my body is onely spiritually to be vnderstand not litterally And y e doth S. Austen also cōfirme which writeth vnto Adamantus and sayth These sentenses of scripture Christe was the stone the bloude is the soule and this is my body are figuratiuelie to bee vnderstande that is to say spiritually or by the waye of an allegorie and thus haue I Saint Augustin wholly on my side whiche thing shall yet heare after more plainly appeare Now his example of his bridegromes ring I very well alow for I take the blessed sacrament to beleft with vs for a very token and a memoriall of Christ in dede but I say that the hole substaunce of the same token and memoriall is his owne blessed bodie And so I say that Christ hath left vs a better token then this man would haue vs take it for therin he fareth like a man to whō a bridgrome had deliuered a goodly gold ryng with a riche rubie therein to deliuer his bride for a tokē And thē he would like a false shrewe keepe away that gold ring geue the bride in stede therof a proper ring of a rishe and tell her that the bridgrome would send her no better Or els like one that when the bridgrome had geuē such a ryng of golde to hys bride for a token will tell her plaine and make her beleue that the ring were but coper or brasse to minishe the bridgromes thanke I am right glad y e ye admit myne example and graunt that the sacrament is left to be a very token and a memoriall of Christ in déede But where you say that the whole substaunce of the same token and memoriall is his owne blessed bodye that is soner sayd then proued For S. Austen sheweth the cōtrary as it is partly before touched and here after shal be declared more plainelye where you say that we fare like a false shrew that would kepe the gold ring from y e bride and geue her a ring of a rishe or tell her that her golde ring were copper or brasse to minish the bridegromes thanke I aunswere that we denye not but that the ring is most fine gold and is set with as rich Rubyes as can be gotten For that ryng I meane the Sacrament is not onely a most perfite token and a memoriall of the bridgromes benefites and vnfayned fauour on his partie but it is also on the other partie Eucharistia that is to say a thankes geuyng for the gracious giftes which she vndoubtedly knowledgeth her selfe to haue receiued For as verely as that bread is broken among them so verely was Christes body brokē for their sinnes And as verely as they receiue that bread into their bellye thorough eating it so verely do they receiue the frute of his death into their soules by beleuyng in hym And therefore they assemble to that Supper not for the valure of the bread wyne or meate that is there eaten but for the entent to geue hym thankes commonly among thē all for his inestimable goodnes But to procéede vnto our purpose if a man would come vnto the bryde and tel her that this goodly gold ryng were her owne bridgrome both flesh bloud and bones as you do thē I thinke if she haue any wytte she might aunswere him that he mocked and the more he sayd it the lesse she might beleue him and say that if that were her owne bridgrome what should she then néede any remēbraūce of hym or why should hee geue it her for a remembraunce For a remembraunce presupposeth the thyng to be absent and therefore if this be a remembraunce of hym then can he not here be present I maruell me therfore much that hee is not afearde to affirme that these wordes of Christ of his body and of his bloud must needes be vnderstand by waye of a similitude or an allegorye as the woordes bee of the vyne and the doore Nowe this he wottes well that though some wordes spoken by the mouth of Christ be to be vnderstand onely by way of a similitude or an allegory yet foloweth it not thereupon that euery like word of Christ in orher places was no other but an allegory for such was the shift and cauillation that the wicked Arrians vsed which tooke frō Christes person his omnipotent Godhead I graunt that the Arrians erred for as M. More sayth though in some place a word be taken figuratiuely it foloweth not therfore in euery other place it should likewise be taken But one question must I aske his mastershyp how doth he know that there is any worde or text in Scripture that must be taken figuratiuely that is by the way of a similitude or as hee calleth it a necessary allegory I thinke though some men may assigne other good causes and euidences that the first knowledge is by other textes of Scripture For if other textes be conferred vnto it and wil not stand with the litterall sence thē I thinke it must néedes be takē spiritually or figuratiuely as there are infinite textes in Scripture Now when I sée that S. Thomas which felt christ his woūds and put his finger in his side called hym his Lord and God and that no text in scripture repugneth vnto the same but that they may well stand together me thinketh it were foly to affirme that this worde God in that text should be taken figuratiuely or by way of an allegory But now in our matter the processe of Scripture will not stand with the litterall sense as
the very thynges and therefore as after a certaine maner the Sacrament of Christes body is Christes body and the Sacrament of Christes bloud is Christes bloud so the Sacrament of fayth is faith For it is no other thing to beleue then to haue fayth and therfore when a maÌ„ aunswereth that the infant beleueth which hath not the effect of fayth he auÌ„swereth that it hath fayth for the SacrameÌ„t of fayth And that it turneth it selfe to God for the Sacrament of conuertion For the aunswere it selfe perteineth vnto the ministryng of the Sacrament As the Apostle writeth of Baptisme we are buried sayth he with Christ through Baptisme vnto death He sayth not we signifie burying but vtterly sayth we are buryed He called therfore the Sacrament of so great a thyng euen with the name of y t very thing it selfe c. If a man would auoyde coÌ„tention and looke soberly on those woordes of S. Austen hee shall soone perceiue the mystery of this matter For euen as the next good Friday shal be called the day of Christes passion yet he shall not suffer death agayne vpon that day for hee dyed but once and is now immortall euen so is the SacrameÌ„t called Christes body And as that day is not the very day that he dyed on but onely a remembrauÌ„ce thereof so the Sacrament is not his very naturall body but onely a remembraunce of his body breakyng bloud sheddyng And likewise as the next Easter day shal be called the day of his resurrection not that it is the very same day that Christ dyd rise in but a remembraunce of the same euen so the Sacrament is called his body not that it is his body in déede but onely a remeÌ„brauÌ„ce of the same And furthermore eueÌ„ as the Priest doth offer hym that is to say crucifie hym at Masse eueÌ„ so is the Sacrament his body But the Masse doth but onely represent hys passion And so doth the Sacrament represent his body And yet though the Masse doth but represent his crucifying we may truly say he is crucified euen so though the SacrameÌ„t do but signifie or represent his body yet may we truly say that it is his body Why so verely sayth he for the Sacramentes haue a certaine similitude of those thinges wherof they are Sacraments And for this similitude for the most part they take the names of the very thynges Blessed be God whiche hath so clearely discussed this matter by this faythfull father Notwithstandyng hée doth yet expresse it more playnly saying after a certaine maner the SacrameÌ„t of Christes body is Christes body Behold deare brethren he sayth after a certaine maner the Sacrament is Christes body And by that you may soone know that he neuer ment that it should be his very naturall body in déede but onely a token and memoriall to kéepe in memorie the death of his body and so to norishe our fayth Besides that his similitude which he after alledgeth of Baptisme doth wholy expound this matter for sayth hée y e Apostle sayth not we signifie burying but he sayth we are buryed and yet in déede the Baptisme doth but signifie it And thereupon S. Austen addeth that hée called the Sacrament of so great a thyng euen with the name of the very thyng it selfe And lykewise it is in our Sacrament Finally to be short I will passe ouer many places which I haue gathered out of his holy father and will touch but this one more S. Austen sayth Non enim Dominus dubitauit dicere Hoc est corpus meum cum daret signum corporis sui Et in eodem capite exponit Sic est enim sanguis anima quomodo petra erat Christus nec tamen petra ait significabat Christum sed ait petra erat Christus That is to say The Lord doubted not to say this is my body when he gaue a signe of his body And after in the same chapiter he expoundeth it For truly so the bloud is soule as Christ was y e stone And yet the Apostle sayth not the stone dyd signifie Christ but he sayth the stone was Christ Here. S. Austen sayth playnely that Christ called the signe of his body his body and in this chapter doth coÌ„pare these thrée textes of scripture this is my body the bloud is the soule and Christ was the stone and declareth them to be one phrase and to be expounded after one fasshion Now is there no man so mad as to say that Christ was a naturall stone except he be a naturall foole whose iudgment we nede not greatly to regard therfore we may well conclude that the sacrament is not his naturall body but is cauled his body for a similitude that it hath wherein it signifieth representeth his body And that the sacrament of so great a thing is called euen with the name of the very thing it selfe as S. Austen sayd immediately before This were proufe inough to conclude that all y e olde fathers did holde the same opinioÌ„ for who would once surmise seing we haue S. Austen so playne for vs which is the chiefest among them all who would once sur mise I say that he dissented in this great mattter from the other faythful fathers or they from him neuerthelesse I dare not let him stand post alone lest ye dispise him And therfore I will shew you y e minde of certaine other also and first of his maister S. Ambrose S. Ambrose wrighting vpon the Epistle of Paule to the Corinthians in the xi chapter sayth Quia enim morte Domini liberati sumus huius rei memoris in edendo potando carnem sanguinem que pro nobis oblata sunt significamus That is to say because we be deliuered by the death of the Lord being mindfull of this thinge meaning of the sacrament we signyfie â—he fleshe and bloud which were offered for vs. Here doth S. Ambrose say inough if meÌ„ were not sophisters but would be content with reason For he sayth that in eating and drinking the sacrament of Christes body we signifie or represent the flesh and bloud of our Sauiour Iesus Not withstanding because you are so slippery we shall bynde you a lytle better by this mans wordes S. Ambrose sayth Sed forte dices speciem sanguinis non video Sed habet similitudinis Sicut enim mortis similitudinem sumpsisti ita etiam similitudinem preciosi sanguinis bibis That is to say But peraduenture thou wilt say I sene appearaunce of bloud but it hath a similitude For euen as thou hast taken the similitude of death euen so thou drinkest the similitude of the precious bloud Here may you see by y e conferring of these two sacramentes What. S. Ambrose iudged of it For he sayth euen as thou hast taken a similitude of his death in the sacrameÌ„t of baptisme so doost thou drink a similitude of his precious bloud in the sacrament of the altar And yet as S.
How many are there of the same sort which thou cāst not make beleue that a thousand thinges are sin which God damneth for sinne all the scripture throughout As to bye as good cheepe as he can and to sell as deare as he can to rayse the market of corne and victuale for his owne vauntage without respect of his neighbor or of the poore of the common wealth and such like Moreouer how many hundred thousandes are there which when they haue sinned knowledge their sinnes yet trust in a balde ceremony or in a lowsy Fryers coate and merites or in the prayers of them that deuoure widowes houses and eateth the poore out of house and harbour in a thyng of hys owne imagination in a foolishe dreame and a false vision not in Christes bloud and in the truth that God hath sworne All these are faythlesse for they follow their owne righteousnes and are disobediēt vnto all maner righteousnes of God both vnto the righteousnes of Gods lawe wherewith he damneth all our deedes for though some of them see their sins for feare of payne yet had they rather that such deedes were no sinne and also vnto the righteousnes of the truth of God in his promises whereby he saueth all that repent and beleue them For though they beleue that Christ dyed yet beleue they not that he dyed for their sinnes and that hys death is a sufficient satisfaction for their sinnes and that God for hys sake will be a father vnto them and geue them power to resist sinne Paule sayth to the Romaynes in the x. chap. if thou confesse wyth thy mouth that Iesus is the Lord and beleue wyth thine hart that God raysed hym vp from death thou shalt be safe That is if thou beleue he raysed hym vp againe for thy saluation Many beleue that God is riche and almighty but not vnto themselues and that he he will be good vnto them and defend them and be their God Pharao for payne of the plague was compelled to confesse hys sinnes but had yet no power to submit hymselfe vnto y t will of God and to let the children of Israell goe and to loose so great profit for Gods pleasure As our Prelates confesse their sinnes saying though we be neuer so euill yet haue we the power And agayne the Scribes and the Pharises say they sate in Moyses seate do as they teach but not as they do thus confesse they that they are abhominable But to the second I aunswere if they sate on Christes sear they would preach Christes doctrine now preach they their owne traditions and therefore not to be heard If they preached Christ we ought to heare them though they were neuer so abhominable as they of themselues confesse and haue yet no power to amende neither to let loose Christes flocke to serue God in the spirit which they holde captiue compelling them to serue their false lyes The deuils felt the power of Christ and were cōpelled against their willes to confesse that he was the sonne of God but had no power to be contēt therewith neither to consent vnto the ordinaunce eternall councell of the euerlasting God as our Prelates feele the power of God agaynst them but yet haue no grace to geue roome vnto Christ because that they as the deuils nature is will themselues sitte in hys holy temple that is to witte the consciences of men ¶ Simon Magus beleued Acts. 8. with such a fayth as the deuils confessed Christ but had no right fayth as thou seest in the sayd chapter For he repented not consenting vnto the lawe of God Neither beleued the promises or longed for them but wondred onely at y ◠myracles which Philip wrought and because tha◠he himselfe in Philips presence had no power to vse his witchcrafte sorcery and arte magike wherewith he mocked deluded the wittes of y t people He would haue bought the gifte of God to haue solde it much dearer as his successours now do and not the successours of Simon Peter For were they Simon Peters successours they would preach Christ as he did but they are Simon Magus his successours of which Simō Peter well proued in y t secōd chapter of hys second epistle saying there were false Prophetes among the people meaning of the Iewes euen as there shal be false teachers or doctours among you which priuely shall bring in sectes damnable sectes is part taking as one holdeth of Fraunces another of Dominyck which thyng also Paule rebuketh 1. Corin. 1. and 3. euē denying the Lord that bought them for they will not be saued by Christ neyther suffer any man to preach hym to other And many shall follow their damnable wayes thou wilt say shall God suffer so many to goe out of the right wayes so long I aunswere many must folow their damnable wayes or els must Peter be a false Prophet by which the way of truth shal be euill spoken of as it is now at this present tyme for it is heresy to preach the truth and through couetousnes shall they wyth fayned wordes make merchaundise of you of their merchaundise and couetousnes it needeth not to make rehearsall for they that be blinde see it euidently Thus seest thou that Iames when he sayth faith without deedes is dead and as the body without the spirite is dead so is fayth without deedes and the deuils beleue that he meaneth not of the fayth trust that we haue in the truthe of Gods promises and his holy Testament made vnto vs in Christes bloud whiche fayth foloweth repentaunce and the consent of the hart vn-the lawe of God and maketh a man safe and setteth him at peace with god But speaketh of that false opinion and imagination wherewith some say I beleue that Christ was borne of a virgine and that he dyed and so forth That beleue they veryly and so strōgly that they are ready to slay who soeuer would say the contrary But they beleue not that Christ dyed for their sinnes and that his death hath peased the wrath of God and hath obtained for them all that God hath promised in the Scripture For how can they beleue that Christ dyed for their sinnes and that he is their onely and sufficiēt Sauiour seyng that they seeke other Sauiours of their owne imagination seyng that they feele not their sinnes neither repent except that some repent as I aboue sayd for feare of payne but for no loue nor consent vnto the law of god nor lōging that they haue for those good promises which he hath made them in Christes bloud If they repented and loued the lawe of God and longed for that helpe whiche God hath promised to giue to all that call on hym for Christes sake then veryly must Gods truth giue them power strength to do good workes when so euer occasion were giuen either must God be a false God But let God be true and euery
miracles his wonders his mighty hand his stretched out arme and what he hath done for you hetherto He shall destroye them he shall take theyr hartes from them and make them feare and flye before you He shall storme them and stirre vp a tempest among them and scatter them and bring them to naught He hath sworne he is true he will fullfill the promises that he hath made vnto Abraham Isaac and Iacob This is written for our learning for verely he is a true God and is our God as well as theyres and his promises are with vs as well as with them and he presente with vs as well as he was with them If we aske we shal obtain if we knocke he will open if we seeke wee shall finde if we thyrst his truth shall fullfill our lust Christ is with vs vntill the worldes ende Math. y ◠last Let this little flock be bold therefore for if God be on our side what matter maketh it who be against vs be they byshops cardinalles popes or what so euer names they will Marke this also if God sende thee to the sea and promise to goe with thee and to bring thee safe to lande he will rayse vp a tempest agaynst thee to proue whether thou wilt abide by his worde and that thou mayst feele thy fayth and perceiue his goodnes For if it were alwayes fayre weather and thou neuer brought into such ieoperdy whēce his mercy onely deliuered thee thy fayth should be but a presumption and thou shouldest be euer vnthanckfull to God and mercilesse vnto thy neighbour If God promise ritches the way therto is pouertie Whom he loueth him he chasteneth whome he exalteth he casteth downe whome he saueth he damneth first he bringeth no man to heauen except he send him to hell first if he promise life he slayeth first when he buildeth he casteth all downe first he is no patcher he can not builde on an other mans foundation he will not woorke vntill all be past remedy and brought vnto such a case y ◠men may see how that his hand his power his mercy his goodnesse and trueth hath wrought all together he will let no man be partaker with him of hys prayse and glorye his workes are wonderful and contrary vnto mans workes Who euer sauing he deliuered his owne sonne his onely sonne hys deare sonne vnto the death and that for his enemies sake to winne his enemye to ouercomme him with loue that he might see loue and loue againe and of loue to do likewise to other men and to ouercome them with well doing Ioseph saw the Sunne and the Moone and xj starres worshipping him Neuerthelesse ere that came to passe God layed hym where he could neither see sunne nor moone neyther any starre of the skye and that many yeares and also vndeserued to norture him to humble to meeke and to teach him Gods wayes and to make him apt and meet for the roome and honor against he came to it that he might perceiue and feele that it came of God and that he might be strong in the spirite to minister it godly He promised the children of Israell a lande with riuers of milke and honny But brought them for the space of fourty yeares into a land where not onely riuers of mylke and honny were not but where so much as a drop of water was not to nourture them and to teach them as a father doth his sonne and to do them good at the latter ende and that they might be strong in their spirite soules to vse his giftes and benefites godly and after hys will He promised Dauid a kingdome and immediatly stirred vp king Saule against him to persecute him to hunt him as men do hares with greyhoundes and to ferret him out of euery hole that for the space of many yeares to tame him to meeke him to kill his lustes to make him feele other mens diseases to make him mercifull to make him vnderstand that he was made king to minister and to serue his brethren and that he shoulde not thincke that his subiectes were made to minister vnto his lustes and that it were lawfull for him to take away from them life goods at his pleasure Oh that our kinges were so nourtured how a dayes which our holy byshops teache of a farre other maner saying Your grace shal take your pleasure yea take what pleasure you list spare nothing we shall dispence with you we haue power we are Gods vicars and let vs alone with the realme we shall take payne for you and see that nothing be well your Grace shall but defende the fayth onely Let vs therefore looke diligently whereunto we are called that we deceaue not our selues We are called not to dispute as the popes disciples do but to dye with Christ that we may liue with him and to suffer with him that we may raigne with him We be called vnto a kingdome that must be wonne w t suffring only as a sicke man winneth health God is he that doth all thing for vs and fighteth for vs we do but suffer onely Christ sayth Iohn xx As my Father sent me so sende I you and Iohn xv If they persecute me then shall they persecute you and Christ sayth Math. x. I send you forth as sheepe among wolues The sheepe fight not but the shepheard fighteth for them and careth for them Be harmeles as Doues therfore saith Christ and wise as serpentes The doues imagine no defence nor seeke to auenge themselues The serpentes wisedome is to keepe his head and those partes wherein his life resteth Christ is our head and Gods word is that wherin our life resteth To cleaue therfore fast vnto Christ and vnto those promises which God hath made vs for his sake is our wisedome Beware of men sayth he for they shall deliuer you vp vnto theyr counsels and shall scourge you and ye shall be brought before rulers and kinges for my sake the brother shall betray or deliuer the brother to death and the father the sonne and the children shall rise against father and mother and put them to death Heare what Christ sayth more The disciple is not greater thē his master neyther the seruaunte greater or better then his Lorde if they haue called the goodman of the house Beelzebub how much rather shall they call his household seruants so And Luke xiiij sayth Christ Which of you disposed to builde a tower sitteth not downe fyrst and counteth the cost whether he haue sufficient to performe it lest when he hath layd the foundation and then not able to performe it al that behold it begin to mocke him saying this man beganne to builde and was not able to make an ende so likewise none of you that forsaketh not all that he hath can be my disciple Whosoeuer therefore casteth not this aforehand I must ieoberd life goods honor worship and al that there
nothing but as the father moueth it euen so hath God all tyrantes in hys hande and letteth them not do whatsoeuer they would but as much onely as he appoynteth them to do and as far forth as it is necessarye for vs. And as when the childe submitteth himselfe vnto hys fathers correction and nurture and humbleth himself altogether vnto the will of his father theÌ„ the rod is taken away euen so when we ar come vnto the knowledge of the right waye and haue forsaken our owne will and offer our selues cleane vnto the will of God to walke which way soeuer he will haue vs then turneth he the tyrantes or els if they enforce to persecute vs any further he putteth them out of the way according vnto the comfortable ensamples of the scripture Moreouer let vs arme our soules with the promises both of helpe and assistance and also of the glorious rewarde that followeth Great is your reward in heaueÌ„ sayth Christ Math. 5. And he that knowledgeth mee before men him will I knowledge before my father that is in heauen Math. 10. and Call on me in time of tribulation and I wyll deliuer thee Psal 65. and Beholde the eyes of the Lord are ouer them thet feare hym and ouer them that trust in hys mercy to deliuer theyr soules from death and to feede them in time of hunger Psal 46. And in Psal 47. sayth Dauid The Lorde is nygh them that are troubled in theyr hartes and the meeke in spirite will he saue The tribulations of the righteous are many and out of them all will the Lord deliuer them The Lord keepeth al the bones of them so that not one of theÌ„ shall be brused The Lord shal redeeme the soules of his seruauntes And of such like consolation are all the Psalmes full woulde to God when ye read them ye vnderstood them And Math. 10. When they deliuer you take no thought what ye shall say it shall be geuen you the same houre what ye shall say for it is not ye that speake but the spirite of your Father which speaketh in you The very heares of your heades are numbred saith Christ also Math. 10. If God care for our heares he much more careth for our soules which he hath sealed with his holy spirite Therefore sayth Peter 1. Pet. 4. Cast all your care vppon him for he careth for you And Paule 1. Cor. 10. sayeth God is true he wil not suffer you to be tempted aboue your might And Psal 71. Cast thy care vpon the Lord. Let thy care be to prepare thy selfe with all thy strength for to walke which way he will haue thee and to beleue that he will goe with thee assist thee and strengthen thee agaynst all tyraÌ„tes deliuer thee out of al tribulatioÌ„ But what way or by what meanes he will do it that committe vnto him and his godly pleasure and wisedome and cast that care vpon him And though it seeme neuer so vnlikely or neuer so impossible vnto naturall reason yet beleue stedfastly that he will do it and then shall he according to his olde vse chainge the course of the worlde euen in the twinckling of an eye and come sodenly vpon our Gyantes as a theefe in the night and coÌ„passe them in their wyles and worldly wisedome when they crye peace all is safe then shall theyr sorrowes beginne as the panges of a woman that traueileth with childe and then shall he destroy them and deliuer thee vnto the glorious prayse of hys mercy and truth Amen ANd as pertayning vnto them that despise Gods worde counting it as a phantasie or a dreame and to them also that for feare of a little persecution fall from it sette this before thyne eyes how God since the beginning of the world before a generall plague euer sent his true prophetes preachers of his word to warne the people and gaue them time to repent But they for the greatest part of theÌ„ hardened theyr hartes and persecuted the worde that was sent to saue them And then God destroyed them vtterly and tooke them cleane from the earth As thou seest what followed the preaching of Noe in y â— olde world what folowed the preaching of Loth among the Sodomites the preachyng of Moses and Aaron among the Egiptians and that sodenly against all possibilitie of mans witte Moreouer as ofte as the children of Israell fel from God to the worshipping of images he sent his prophets vnto them and they persecuted and waxed harde harted and then he sent them into all places of the world captiue Last of all he sent his owne sonne vnto them and they waxed more hard harted then euer before And see what a fearefull example of his wrath and cruel vengeance he hath made of them vnto all the worlde now almost fifteene hundred yeares Vnto the olde Brittaines also which dwelled where our natioÌ„ doth now preached Gildas and rebuked them of theyr wickednes and prophesied both vnto the spirituall as they will be called and vnto the lay men also what vengeaunce would follow except they repented But they waxed hard harted and God sente his plagues and pestilences among them and sent theyr enemies in vppon them on euery side destroyed them vtterly Marke also how Christ threateneth theÌ„ that forsake him for whatsoeuer cause it be whether for feare eyther for shame eyther for losse of honour frendes lyfe or goodes â–ª He that denyeth me before men him will I deâ—y before my father that is in heauen He that loueth father or mother more then me is not worthy of me all thys he sayth Math. 10. And in Mark 8. he sayth Whosoeuer is ashamed of me or my wordes among this adulterous and sinfull generation of him shall the sonne of man be ashamed when he commeth in the glory of his father with his holy Angels And Luk. 9. also None that layeth his hande to the plowe and looketh backe is meete for the kingdome of heauen Neuerthelesse yet if any man haue resisted ignorantly as Paule did let him looke on the truth which Paule wrote after he came to knowledge Also if any man cleane against his hart but ouercome with the weaknes of the flesh for feare of persecution haue denied as Peter did or haue deliuered his booke or put it away secretly let him if he repente come again and take better hold and not dispayre or take it for a signe that God hath forsaken him for God ofttimes taketh hys strength euen froÌ„ his very elect wheÌ„ they either trust in theyr own strength or are negligent to call to him for his strength And that doth hee to teach theÌ„ to make theÌ„ feele that in that fire of tribulatioÌ„ for his wordes sake nothing can endure and abide saue his word and that streÌ„gth onely which he hath promised For the which strength he will haue vs to praye vnto him night and day wyth all
your rewarde is great in heauē Euē so verely they persecuted the Prophets that were before you Here seest thou the vttermost what a Christen man must looke for It is not inough to suffer for righteousnes But that no bitternesse or poyson be left out of thy cuppe thou shalt be reuiled and rayled vpon and euen whē thou art condempned to death then be excommunicat and deliuered to Sathan depriued of the felowship of holy Church the company of y ◠Angels and of thy part in Christes bloud and shalt be cursed downe to hell defied detested and execrat with all the blasphemous raylinges that the poysonfull hart of hypocrites can thinke or imagine and shalt see before thy face when thou goest to thy death that all the world is perswaded and brought in beliefe that thou hast sayd and done that thou neuer thoughtest and that thou dyest for that thou art as giltlesse of as the childe that is vnborne Well though iniquitie so highly preuayle and the truth for which thou diest be so low kept vnder and be not once knowen before the worlde in so much that it semeth rather to be hindered by thy death then furthered which is of all griefes the greatest yet let not thyne hart fayle thee neither dispaire as though God had forsaken thee or loued thee not But comfort thy selfe with olde ensamples how God hath suffred all his olde frendes to be so entreated and also his onely deare sonne Iesus Whose ensample aboue all other set before thine eyes because thou art sure he was beloued aboue all other that thou doubt not but thou art beloued also and so much the more beloued the more thou art like to the image of his ensample in suffering Did not the hipocrites watch hym in all his sermons to trappe hym in hys owne words was he not subtelly apposed whether it were lawfull to pay tribute to Cesar were not all hys wordes wrong reported were not his miracles ascribed to Belsebud sayd they not he was a Samaritane had a deuill in hym was he not called a breaker of the Saboth a wyne drinker a frende of Publicans and sinners did he ought wherewyth no fault was found and that was not interpreted to be done for an euill purpose was not the pretense of his death the destroying of the temple to bryng him into the hate of all men was he not thereto accused of treason that he forbad to pay tribute to Cesar and that he moued the people to insurrection Rayled they not on hym in the bitterest of all hys passion as he hanged on the crosse saying saue thy selfe thou that sauest other come downe from the crosse and we will beleue in thee fie wretch that destroyest y t temple of God Yet he was beloued of God and so art thou His cause came to lyght also and so shall thyne at the last yea and thy reward is great in heauē with him for thy deepe suffering And on the other side as they be cursed which leaue righteousnesse destitute and will not suffer therewyth so are they most accursed which know the truth and yet not onely flee therefrom because they will not suffer But also for lucre become the most cruell enemies thereof and most subtill persecutors most falssy lye theron also Finally though God when he promiseth to blesse our workes do bynde vs to worke if we will obtayne the blessing or promise yet must we beware of this pharesaicall pestilence to thinke that our works did deserue the promises For whatsoeuer God commaundeth vs to do that is our dutie to do though there were no such promise made to vs at all The promyse therefore commeth not of the deseruing of the worker as though God had neede of ought that we could doo but of the pure mercy of God to make vs the more wylling to do that is our dutie c. For if when we had done all that God commaundeth vs to do he then gaue vs vp into the handes of tyrauntes and kylled vs sent vs to purgatory which mē so greatly feare or to hell and all the Aungels of heauen with vs he did vs no wrong nor were vnrighteous for ought that we or they coulde chalenge of deseruing howsoeuer that God vseth his creatures he euer abydeth righteous till thou cāst proue that after he hath boūd him selfe wyth his owne woorde of mercy he then breake promyse wyth them that keepe couenaunt with him So now if nought were promised nought coulde we chalenge whatsoeuer we did And therefore the promise commeth of the goodnes of the promiser onely and not of the deseruing of those workes of which God hath no neede and which were no lesse our duty to do though there were no such promise Ye be the salt of the earth But if the salt be waxen vnsauery what can be salted therwith It is henceforth nothyng worth But to be cast out and to be troden vnder foote of men The office of an Apostle the preacher is to salt not onely the corrupt maners conuersation of earthly people but also the roten hart within and all that springeth out therof their natural reason their will their vnderstādyng and wisedome yea their fayth and belefe and all that they haue imagined without Gods worde concernyng righteousnes iustifieng satisfaction and seruyng of God And the nature of salt is to byte frete and make smarte And the sicke pacientes of the world are maruelous impaciēt so that though with great payne they cā suffer their grosse sinnes to be rebuked vnder a fashion as in a parable a farre of yet to haue theyr righteousnes theyr holynesse and seruing of God and his Saintes disalowed improued condēned for damnable and deuilish that may they not abyde In so much that y u must leaue thy salting or els be prepared to suffer agayne euen to be called a rayler seditious a maker of discorde and a troubler of the cōmō peace yea a schismatike and an hereticke also and to be lyed vpō that thou hast done and sayd that thou neuer thoughtest thē to be called coram nobis and to syng a new song forsweare salting or els to be sent after thy felowes that are gone before and the way thy master went True preachyng is a salting that stirreth vp persecution and an office that no man is mete for saue he that is seasoned hymselfe before wyth pouertie in spirite softnesse meekenesse patience mercifulnesse purenes of hart and hunger of righteousnes and lookyng for persecution also and hath all hys hope comfort and solace in the blessing onely in no worldly thing Nay will some say a man myght preach long inough without persecution yea get fauour to if he would not medle with the Pope Byshops Prelats and holy ghostly people that lyue in contemplation and solitarines nor wyth great men of the worlde I aunswere true preaching is saltyng and
once be one of these sort euen an obseruaunt or of some like secte of which among an huÌ„dred thousaÌ„d thou shalt neuer bring one to beleue in Christ Where among open sinners many beleue at y â— houre of death fall flat vpon Christ beleue in him onely without al other righteousnes It were an huÌ„dred thousand tymes better neuer to pray theÌ„ to pray such lippe prayers neuer to fast or do almes then to fast and to do almes with a mynde therby to be made righteous and to make satisfaction for the fore sinnes Ye haue heard how that it was sayde to them of olde tyme kyll not for whosoeuer killeth shal be in daunger of iudgement But I say vnto you whosoeuer is angry with his brother shal be in daunger of iudgement And who soeuer saith vnto his brother Racha shal be in daunger of a councell But who soeuer sayth to hys brother thou foole shal be in daunger of hell fyre Here Christ beginneth not to destroy the lawe as the Phariseys had falsely accused hym but tâ— restore iâ— agayne to the right vnderstanding and to purge it froÌ„ the gloses of the Phariseys He that slayeth shal be giltie or in daunge of iudgemeÌ„t that is to say if a man murther his deede testifieth agaynst hym there is no more to do then to pronounce sentence of death agaynst hym This text did the Phariseys extend no further theÌ„ to kill with the hand and outward members But hate enuie malice churlishnesse and to withdraw helpe at neede to beguile and circumuent with wyles and subtil bargayning was no sinne at all No to bryng hym whom thou haredst to death with craft and falshood so thou diddest not put thyne hand thereto was no sinne at all As when they had brought Christ to death wrongfully compelled Pilate with subtiltis to slay hym they thought themselues pure In so much that they woulde not goe into the hall for defaling themselues beyng partakers wyth Pilate in hys bloud And Act. v. they sayd to the Apostles ye woulde bring this mans bloud vppon vs as who would say we slue hym not And Saul in the first booke of the Kinges in the xviij chap. beyng so wroth wyth Dauid that he would gladly haue had hym slaine determined yet that he would not defile hymself bâ—t to thrust him into y e haÌ„des of the Philistines that they might slay him and he hymselfe abide pure And as our spiritualtie now offer a man mercy once though he haue spoken against holy church onely if he wil but periure and beare a fagot But if he wil not they do but diet hym a season to winne him and make hym tell more and deliuer hym to the laye power saying he hath deserued death by our lawes and ye ought to kyll hym how beit we desire it not But Christ restoreth the law againe and sayth to be angry with thy neighbour is to slea hym to deserue death For the lawe goeth as wel on the hart as on the â—aÌ„d He that hateth his brother is a murtherer i. Ioh iij. If then the blynde hand deserue death how much more those partes which haue y â— sight of reason And he y â— sayth Racha lewde or whatsoeuer signe of wrath it be or that prouoketh to wrath hath not onely deserued that men shoulde immediatly pronouÌ„ce senteÌ„ce of death vpon him but also that when death is pronouÌ„ced they shuld gather a couÌ„cell to decree what horrible death he shuld suffer And he that calleth hys brother foole hath sinned downe to hell Shall then a man not be angry at all nor rebuke or punishe yes if thou be a father or a mother master or maâ—sâ—…sse husband Lord or ruler yet with loue and mercy that the angre rebuke or punishment exceede not the fault or trespasse May a man be angry with loue ye mothers can be so wyth their children It is a louyng anger that hateth onely the vice and studieth to mende the person But here is forbiddeÌ„ not onely wrath against father mother and all that haue gouernauÌ„ce ouer thee which is to be angry and to grudge agaynst God himselfe that the ruler shall not be wrath without a cause agaynst the subiect But also all priuate wrath against thy neighbour ouer whom thou hast no rule nor he ouer thee no though he do thee wroÌ„g For he that doth wrong lacketh witte and discretion and cannot amende till he be enformed and taught louingly Therefore thou must refrayne thy wrath and tell him his fault louingly and with kyndenesse winne him to thy father for he is thy brother as well made and as deare bought as thou as well beloued though he be yet childishe and lacke discretion But some wil say I wil not hate my neighbour nor yet loue him or do hym good yes y â— must loue him for the first coÌ„maundement out of which all other flow is thou shalt loue the Lorde thy God with all thyne hart with all thy soule and with all thy might That is thou must keepe all his commaundemeÌ„tes with loue Loue must kepe thee from killing or hurting thy neighbour and from couetyng in thyne hart what soeuer is his And. 1. Iohn iiij This commaundement haue we of him that he which loueth God loue his brother also And agayne 1. Iohn iij. he that hath the substaunce of this world and seeth his brother haue necessity shutteth vp his compassion from him how is the loue of God in hym he then that helpeth not at neede loueth not God but breaketh the first commaundemeÌ„t Let vs loue therefore sayth S. Iohn not with word and toung but in dede and truth And agayne S. Iohn sayth in the sayd place he that loueth not his brother abydeth yet still in death And of loue hath Moyses textes inough But the Phariseis glosed theÌ„ out saying they were but good councelles if a man desired to be perfect but not preceptes Exod. xxiij if thou mete thyne enemyes Oxe or Asse goyng astraye thou shalt in any wise bryng them to him agayne And if thou see thyne enemyes Asse fall downe vnder hys burthen thou shalt helpe him vp agayne And Leuit. xix thou shalt not hate thy brother in thyne hart but shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour that thou beare no sinne for his sake For if thou study not to ameÌ„d thy neighbour wheÌ„ he sinneth so art thou partaker of his sinnes And therfore wheÌ„ God taketh vengeaunce and sendeth what soeuer plage it be to punish opeÌ„ sinners thou must perish with them For thou dyddest sinne in the light of God as deepe as they because thou dyddest not loue the law of God to mainteine it withall thiue hart soule power and might Is not he that seeth his neighbours house in ieopardie to be set on fire and warneth not nor helpeth in time to auoide the perill worthy if his neighbours house be burnt vp that his be burnt also seing
sought helpe either for theÌ„selues or for their neighboures and trusted in the promyse of God would so comfort the soule and courage y â— hart that the body though it were halfe dead and more woulde reuiue and be lusty agayne and the labour woulde be short and easy as for an ensample if thou weâ—e so oppresied that thou were weaâ—y of thy life and weÌ„ttest to the kyng for helpe and haddest sped thy spirits would so reioyce that thy bodye woulde receaue her strength agayne and be as lusty as euer it was eueÌ„ so the promises of God worke ioy aboue all measure where they beleued in the hart But our hierlinges haue no Gods woorde but trust in the multitude of wordes length of bablyng and payne of body as bond seruauntes Neither know they any other vertue to be in prayer as ye may see by the ordinaunces of all foundations King Henry the fift built Syon and the Charterhouse of Shene on the other side of the water of such a manner that lippe labour may neuer cease For when the Fryers of Sion ryng out the NuÌ„nes beginne And when the Nunnes ring out of seruice the Monkes on the other side beginne And wheÌ„ they ring out the Fryers beginne agayne and vexe themselues night and day take payne for Gods sake for which God must geue them heauen Yea I haue knowen of some yer this that for very payne and tediousnes haue bidden the Deuill take their founders They call Lent the holyest tyme of the yeare but wherin is that holines verely in multitude of wordes and tedious leÌ„gth of the seruice For let theÌ„ beginne at sixe and it will be twelue or they can ende In which time they be so wearied that by the tyme they haue dined they haue lust to nothing saue to sleepe And in the ende of all they thinke no farther then that God must rewarde their payne And if y u aske how they know it They will aunswere he must reward it or be vnrighteous Now god looketh not on the paine of the prayer but on thy faith in his promise goodnes neither yet on the multitude of thy wordes or long habling For he knoweth thy matter better then thou thy selfe And though the Iewes and the heathen were so foolishe thorough their vnbeliefe to bable many words yet were they neuer so madde as to mâ—mble and buze out woordes that they vnderstoode not Thou wilt say what matter maketh it if I speake wordes which I vnderstand not or if I pray not at all seing God knoweth my matter all ready I aunswere he will haue thee to open thine hart to him to enforme and edifie thine owne selfe That thou mightest know how all goodnes is of him to put thy trust and confidence in hym and to flie to him in time of neede and to be thankfull and to loue him and obey his coÌ„maundementes and turne and be coÌ„uerted vnto thy Lord God and not to runne wilde as the vngodly do which know not the benefites of God and therefore be vnthankfull to obey hys commaundementes And that thou mayst know how what to pray he geueth thee a short instruction and ensample saying after this maner pray O our father which art in heaueÌ„ First thou must goe to him as a mercifull father which of his owne goodnes and fatherly loue that he beareth to thee is ready to do more for thee then thou caÌ„st desire though thou haue no merites But because he is thy father onely if thou wilt turne henceforth submitte thy selfe to learne to do hys wyll Honoured be thy name Honoured and praysed be thy name or honoured and praysed be thou for to honour God and to honour y t name of God is all one And to honour the name of God is to dread him to loue hym and to keepe hys commaundementes For wheÌ„ a childe obeyeth his father he honoureth and prayseth hys father and when he is rebellions and disobedient he dishonoureth hys father This is then the vnderstandyng meaning of it O father seing thou art father ouer all powre out thy spirite vppon all flesh and make all men to feare and dread loue thee as their father in keeping thy commaundementes to honour thee and thy holy name Thy kingdome come That is seyng thou art kyng ouer all make all to know thee make the kynges and rulers which are but thy substitutes to commaunde nothyng but according to thy worde and to them make all subiectes obey Thy will be fulfilled in earth as it is in heauen This is all one with that goeth before For as much then as thou art father and kyng ouer all and all we thy children brethren among our selues make vs all as obedient to seeke and to do thy will as the Aungelles do in heauen Make that no man seeke hys owne will but all thine But if thou withdraw thyne haÌ„d to tempt thy children that the rulers coÌ„maunde ought contrary to thy will then make the subiectes to stand fast by thy worde to offer themselues to suffer all extremitie rather then to obey Finally when we pray to thee in our temptations and aduersities desiring thee of whatsoeuer thyng it be and meane truely yet if thou which knowest all seest a better way to thy glory and our profite then thy will be and not ours As thy sonne Iesus gaue vs an ensample when he desired if it had bene possible that that cuppe of bitter death might haue departed froÌ„ hym saying yet not as I will but as thou wilt Geue vs our dayly bread By bread is vnderstoode all maner of sustinaunce in the Ebrue speach yea and here is vnderstand therby all that pertayneth vnto the necessitie of thys life If we haue bread there is dearth of nothing y t can pinch namely in that land Geue vs our dayly bread Geue vs all that the necessitie of this life dayly requireth Geue it vs day by day as we nede it We desire not to haue store for many yeares to exclude all necessitie of praying to thee and to be as it were out of thy daunger and to forget thee But minister it day by day that we may dayly feele thy benefites and neuer forget thee Or if thou geue vs aboundaunce aboue that we desire then geue vs an hart to vse it and to bestow it for that purpose thou gauest it and to deale with our neighbours and not to loue it inordinatly But to thinke that it is thyne and that thou mayst take it away euery houre and that we be content that thou so do ac thy pleasure and so euer to haue it but for dayly bread Forgeue vs our trespasses as we forgeue our trespassers Because he knoweth that our nature is so weake that we cannot but sinne dayly therefore he teacheth vs dayly to repeÌ„t and to reconcile our selues together and dayly to aske God forgeuenesse Seing he coÌ„maundeth vs to aske we
That fayth haue they in theyr owne workes onely But the true hearers vnderstand the lawe as Christ interpreteth it here and feele thereby theyr righteous damnation and runne to Christ for succour and for remission of all their sinnes that are past and for all the sinne which chaunce thorough infirmities shall compel theÌ„ to do for remission of that the law is to stronge for their weake nature And upon that they consent to the lawe loue it and professe it to fulfill it to the vttermost of their power and then go to and worke Faith or confidence in Christes bloud without helpe and before the workes of the law bringeth all maner of remission of sinnes satisfaction Faith is mother of loue fayth accompanieth loue in all her workes to fulfill as much as there lacketh in our doing the lawe of that perfect loue which Christ had to his father and vs in his fulfilling of the law for vs. Now when we be reconciled then is loue fayth together our righteousnesse our keeping the lawe our continuing our proceeding forwarde in the grace which we stand in our bringing to the euerlasting sauing and euerlasting life And the woorkes be esteemed of God according to the loue of the hart If the woorkes be great loue little and colde then the woorkes be regarded thereafter of God If the workes be small and loue much and feruent the workes be taken for great of God And it came to passe that when Iesus had ended these sayinges the people were astonied at his doctrine for he taught them as one hauing power and not as the Scribes The Scribes and Phariseyes had thrust vp the sworde of the woorde of God into a scabbarde or shethe of gloses and therein had knit it fast that it coulde neither sticke nor cut teaching dead workes without fayth and loue which are the life and the whole goodnes of all workes and the onely thing why they please God And therefore their audience abode euer carnall and fleshly mynded without faith to God and loue to their neighbours Christes wordes were spirit life Ioh. vi That is to say they ministred spirite and life and entred into the hart and grated on the conscience and thorow preaching the lawe made the hearers perceaue their duties euen what loue they ought to God what to man and the right dampnation of all them that had not the loue of God and man written in their hartes and thorow preaching of fayth made all that consented to the lawe of God fele the mercy of God in Christ and certified them of their saluation For the worde of God is a two edged sworde that pearceth and deuideth the spirite and soule of man a sonder Heb. 〈◊〉 A man before the preaching of Godes woorde is but one man all fleshe the soule consenting vnto the lustes of the fleshe to follow them But the sworde of the worde of God where it taketh effect diuideth a man in two and serteth him at variaunce against his own selfe The fleshe haling one way and the spirite drawing another the fleshe raging to follow lustes and the spirite calling backe agayne to follow the lawe and will of God A man all the while â—e consenteth to the flesh before he be borne again in Christ is called soule or carnall But whe he is renued in Christ through y t word of lyâ—e and hath the loue of God and of hys neighbor and the fayth of Christ written in his hart he is called spirite or spirituall The Lord of all mercy send vs preachers with power that is to say 〈◊〉 expounders of the worde of God and speakers to the hart of man and deliuer vs from Scribes Phariseyes hypocrites and all false Prophetes Amen An aunswere vnto Syr Thomas Mores Dialogue made by William Tyndall 1530. ☞ First he declareth what the Church is and geueth a reason of certaine wordes which Master More rebuketh in the translation of the new Testament ¶ After that he aunswereth particularly vnto euery Chapter which semeth to haue any appearaunce of truth thorough all his foure bookes ¶ Awake thou that slepest and stand vp from death and Christ shall geue the light Ephesians 5. THe grace of our Lord the light of his spirite to see to iudge true repeÌ„taunce towardeâ— Gods lâ—we a fast fayth in the mercyfull prâ—…es y â— are in our sauiour Christ serueÌ„t loue toward thy neighbour after the exaÌ„ple of Christ his Saints be with thee O Reader with all that loue the truth loÌ„g for the redemption of Gods elect Amen Our Sauiour I esus in the 16. of Iohn at his last Supper when he tooke his leaue of his Disciples warned them saying the holy Ghost shall come and rebuke the world of iudgemeÌ„t That is he shall rebuke the world for lacke of true iudgement and discretion to iudge and shall proue that the tast of theyr mouthes is corrupt so that they iudge swete to be sowre and sowre to be swete the eyes to be blynd so that they thinke that to be the verâ— seruice of God which is but a blynd superstition for zeale of which yet they persecute the true seruice of God and that they iudge to be the lawe of God whiche is but a false imagination of a corrupt iudgement for blynd affection of whiche yet they persecute the true law of God and them that kepe it And this same it is that Paul sayth 1. Corinth ij how that the naturall man that is not borne agayne and created a new with the spirite of God be he neuer so great a Philosopher neuer so well sene in the law neuer so sore studied in the Scripture as we haue examples in the Phariseis yet hee cannot vnderstaÌ„d the thynges of the spirite of God but sayth he the spirituall iudgeth all thyngs and hys spirâ—e searcheth the deepe secretes of God so that what soeuer God commauÌ„deth hym to do he neuer leaueth searchyng till he come at the bottome the pith the quicke the lyâ—e the sâ—… the mâ—â—ow very cause why and iudgeth all thyng Take an example in the great commaundement loue God with all thyne hart y t spirituall searcheth the cause and looketh on the benefites of God and so conceaueth loue in his hart And when he is commaunded to obey the powers and rulers of the world hee looketh on the benefites which God sheweth the world through them and therefore doth it gladly And when hee â–ª is commauÌ„ded to loue his neighbour as hym selfe he searcheth that his neighbour is created of God and bought with Christes bloud and so forth and therefore he loueth hym out of his hart and if he be euill forheareth hym and with all loue and pacience draweth hym to good as elder brethren wayte on the youÌ„ger and serue them and suffer them when they will not come they speake fayre flatter and geue some gaye thyng and
sticke vp a candle to flatter him and to make him fauourable vnto vs and regarde not the testament of Christ nor the lawes of God because we haue no power to beleue nor to loue the truth And euen so to referre virginitie vnto the person of God to please hym therwith is false sacrifice and heathenishe Idolatrie For the onely seruice of god is to beleue in Christ and to loue the lawe Wherfore thou must referre thy wedlocke thy virginitie and all thy other deedes vnto the keepyng of the lawe and seruing thy neighbour only And then wheÌ„ thou lookest wyth a louing hart on the law that saith breake not wedlocke keepe no whore and so forth and findest thy body weake and thyne office such that thou must haue conuersation with meÌ„s wiues daughters and seruauntes then it is better to haue a wife theÌ„ to be without And againe if thou see seruice to be done y t thou canst not so well do with a wyfe as without then if thou haue power to be without it is best so to be and in such like And els the one is as good as the other and no difference And to to take a wife for pleasure is as good as to absteine for displeasure And when M. More seeth no other cause why it is not best that our spiritualitie were all gelded then for losse of merite in resistyng besides that that imagination is playne Idolatrie I hold M. More beguiled if all we read of gelded men be true and the experience we see in other beastes For then the gelded lust in their flesh as much as the vngelded Which if it be true then the gelded in that he taketh such great payne in geldyng not to minishe his lustes but if lustes ouercome him yet that he haue not wherewith to hurt his neighbour deserueth more then the vngelded And then it were best that we did eate and drinke make our flesh stroÌ„g that we burned to deserue in resisting as some of your holy Saintes haue layd virgins in their beddes to kindle their courage that they might after quench their heate in cold water to deserue the merite of holy Martyrs And wheÌ„ he sayth the Priestes of the old law absteined from their wiues when they serued in the teÌ„ple Many thynges were forbidden them to kepe them in bonde and seruile feare for other purposes And yet I trow hâ— findeth it not in the text that they were forbidden their wiues And when he imagineth so because Zacharias when his course was out gat him home to his house I thinke it was better for him to go to his house then to send for his house to him he was also old and his wife to But and if they were forbidden it was but for a tyme to geue them to prayer as we might do right well and as wel as they But I read that they were for bidden to drinke wine strong drinke when they ministred of whiche ours powre in without measure M. More Christ liued chast and exhorteth vnto chastitie Tyndall We be not all of Christes complection neither exhorteth he to other chastitie then wedlocke saue at a tyme to serue our neighbours Now y t Popes chastitie is not to serue a maÌ„s neighbour but to runne to riotte and to carie away with him the liuyng of the poore and of the true preacher euen the tythes of v. or vj. Parishes and to go either dwell by a stewes or to cary a stewes with him or to corrupt other mens wiues Paphnutius a man that neuer proued Mariage is praysed in the stories for resistyng such doctrine with Gods word in a generall Councell before the Pope was a God And now M. More a man that hath proued it twise is magnified for defendyng it with sophistrie And agayn me semeth that it is a great ouer sight of M. More to thinke that Christ though he were neuer maryed would not more accept the seruice of a maried maÌ„ that would more say truth for hym then they that abhorre wedlocke in as much as the spiritualtie accept his humble seruice reward his merites with so high honour because he can better fayne for them then any of their vnchast I would say owne chast people though he be Bigamus past the grace of his necke verse And finally if M. More loke so much on y e pleasure that is in Mariage why setteth he not his eyes on the thankes geuyng for that pleasure on the pacience of other displeasures The xiiij Chapter MOre Wicleffe was the occasion of the vtter subuersion of the Realme of Boheme both in faith and good liuing and of the losse of many a thousand liues Tyndall The rule of their fayth are Christes promises and the rule of their liuyng Gods law â–ª And as for losse of liues it is truth that the Pope sâ—â—e I thinke an hundred thousand of them because of their fayth that they wold no lâ—nger serue him As he sâ—â—e in England many a thousand sâ—â—e the true â—yng and see vp a false vnto the eâ—fusion of all the noble bloud and murthe ryng vp of the comminaltie because he should be his desender M. The constitution of the Byshops is not that the Scripture shall not be in English but that no man may translate it by his owne authoritie or read it vntill they had approued it Tyndall If no translatioÌ„ shal be had vntill they geue licence or till they approue it it shal neuer be had And so it is all one in effect to say there shal be none at all in English and to say till we admitte it seyng they be so malicious that they will none admitte but fayne all the cauillations they can to proue it were not expedient So that if it be not had spite of their harts it shall neuer be had And thereto they haue done their best to haue had it enacted by Parlament that it should not be in English The xv Chapter HE iesteth out Hunnes death with his Poetrie were with he built Vtopia Many great Lordes came to Baynardes Castell but all namelesse to examine the cause as y â— credible Prelares so well learned so holy and so indifferent whiche examined Bilney and Arture be also all namelesse M. Horsey tooke his pardon because it is not good to refuse Gods pardon and the kynges Tyndall Gods pardon can no man haue except he knowledge himselfe a sinner And euen so he y t receaueth the kynges yeldeth him selfe giltie And moreouer it is not possible y t he which putteth his trust in God should for feare of the xij men or of his iudges receaue pardon for that hee neuer was faultie vnto the dishonoring of our sauiour Iesus but would haue denyed it rather vnto the death And therto if the matter were so cleare as ye iest it out then I am sure the kynges
though all the world smelled it yet it brake not out openly to the eye tyll the seege of Pauia And the Cardinall lent the Emperour much mony openly and gaue the French king more secretly He played with both handes to serue their secreat that all men know not as y â— Bishop of Durham sayd But whatsoeuer the frenchmeÌ„ did they had euer the worse notwithstanding the secreat working of our holy prelates on their side Finally vnto the sege of Pauie came the French king personally with lx thousand men of warre of which xij thousand were horsemen with mony enough And the Emperours host was vnder xx thousaÌ„d of which were but iij. thousand horsmen with no mony at all For he trusted vnto the pope for ayde of men and vnto our Cardinall for mony But the pope kept back his men till the Frenchmen had geuen them a feeld and our Cardinall kept back his mony for the same purpose And thus was the sely Emperour betrayed as all his predecessoures haue bene this viij hundred yeares Howbeit there be that say that the Emperours souldiers so threatened Pace the kinges graces Embassadour that he was fayne to make cheâ—isaunce wyth marchauntes for mony in the kinges name to pay the souldiers withall Wherefore the Cardinall tooke from him all his promotions played tormentours wyth him when he came home because he presumed to do one iote more then was in his coÌ„mission But howsoeuer it was the Emperors men in tarying for helpe had spent out all their vitayles Wherupon Burbon the chiefe captaine of the Emperour sayd vnto his vnder captaines ye see helpe commeth not and y t our vitayles are spent wherfore there is no remedy but to fight though we be vnequallie matched If we winne we shall finde meat enough if we lose we shall lose no more then we must lose with hunger though we fight not And so they concluded to set vpon the Frenchmen by night The king of Fraunce and his lordes supposing that the Mone wold sooner haue fallen out of the skie then that the Emperours hoste durst haue fought with them were somwhat negligent went the same night a mumming that Burbon set vpon them The Emperours host therefore with their sodaine comming vpon them amased the frenchmen and draue them vppon heaps together one on another so that they neuer could come in aray agayne and tooke the king and diuers of hys lordes and slew many and wanne the field And there came out all the Cardinals preuy treason for in the French Kinges tent say men were letters found beside that in the french kings treasure and in all the host among the souldiers were english shippes found innumerable which had come sayling a thousand miles by land But what wonder ships be made to saile ouer y â— sea wings to flye into far countries and to mount to the top of hye hilles When the French king was taken we sang Te Deum But for all that singing we made peace with frenchmen And the Pope the Venetians FrauÌ„ce and England were knit together least the Emperours army should do any hurt in Fraunce Wherby ye may coniecture of what minde the Pope the Cardinall were toward the Emperor and with what hart our spiritualtie with their inuisible secretes sang Te Deum And from that time hetherto the Emperour our Cardinall haue bene twaine After that when the king of FrauÌ„ce was deliuered home agayne and hys sonnes lefte in pledge manye wayes were sought to bring home the sonnes also but in vayne except the Frenchking would make good that which he had promised the Emperour For the bringing home of those children no maÌ„ more busied his wits then the Cardinal He would in any wise the Emperour should haue sent them home it had bene but for our kings pleasure for y â— great kindnes that he shewed him in times past He would haue maried the kings daughter our princesse vnto the Dolphin againe or as y â— voice went among many vnto the secoÌ„d brother he shoulde haue bene Prince in England king in time to come so that he sought all wayes to pluck vs from the Emperor to ioine vs vnto Fraunce to make Fraunce strong enough to match the Emperour to keepe him downe that the Pope might raigne a god alone and do what pleaseth him without controlling of any ouersear And for the same purpose he left nothing vnprouided to bring the marte from Antwarpe to Cales But at that time the Pope taking part with the French king had warre with the Emperour and at the last the Pope was taken which when the Cardinall heard he wrote vnto the Emperour that he should make hym pope And when he had gotten an auÌ„swere that pleased him not but according vnto his deseruinges toward the Emperour then he waxed furious mad sought all meanes to displease the Emperour and imagined the diuorcement betwene the King and the Queene and wrote sharpely vnto the Emperor with manacing letters that if he woulde not make him Pope he woulde make such ruffling betweene Christen princes as was not this him dred yeare to make the Emperour repent yea though it should coste the whole realme of England The Lord Iesus be our shield what a fierce wrath of God is this vpon vs that a misshapen monster shoulde spring out of a dunghill into such an height that the dread of God and man layd a part he should be so malepart not onely to defye vtterly the maiestie of so mighty an Emperour whose authoritie both Christ and all his Apostles obeyed and taught all other to obey threatening damnation to them that would not But should also set so little by the whole realme of England which hath bestowed so great cost and shed so much bloud to exalt and maintaine such proud churlish vnthankfull hypocrites that he should not care to destroy it vtterly for the satisfying of his vilanous lustes ¶ The putting downe of Cardinall Wolsey COncerning the Cardinals putting downe I consider many thinges First that I neuer heard or read that any man being so great a traytor was so easely put to death Then the naturall disposition and inclination of the man how y t his chief study yea and all his felicitie and inward ioy hath euer bene to exercise that aungels wit of his as my lord of Lincolne was wone to praise him in driuing of such dristes to beguile all men and to binde the whole world with all Wherefore I can none otherwise indge by an C. tokens euident vnto whomsoeuer hath a natural wit but that this is also nothing saue a cast of his olde practise so that when God had wrapped him in his owne wiles that he wist not which way out for the Emperour preuailed for al the Cardinals treason and the french children might not come home and he had learned also of his necromancie
to auoyde the trouble of the world and occasions that might plucke me there from and to serue my brother with all euen as one hand helpeth an other or one member an other because one feeleth an others grief the payne of the one is the payne of the other What soeuer is done to the lest of vs whether it be good or bad it is done to Christ and what soeuer is done to my brother if I be a Christen mā that same is done to me Neither doth my brothers payne greue me lesse then myne owne Neither reioyse I lesse at his wealth then at mine own if I loue hym as well and asmuch as my selfe as the law cōmaundeth me If it were not so how sayth Paule let hym that reioyseth reioyse in the Lord that is to say Christ whiche is Lord ouer all creatures I◠my merites obteined me heauē or a hygher place there then had I wherein I might reioyse besides the Lord. Here see ye the nature of the law the nature of the Euangelion How the law is the key that byndeth and damneth all men and the Euangelion is the keye that loseth them agayne The law goeth before and the Euangelion foloweth When a preacher preacheth the law he byndeth all consciences and when he preacheth the Gospell he looseth them agayn These two salues I meane the law and the Gospell vseth god his preacher to heale cure sinners with all The law driueth out the disease and maketh it appeare and is a sharpe salue and a freatyng corsey killeth the dead flesh and louseth and draweth the sores out by the rootes all corruption It pulleth from a man the trust and confidence that he hath in him selfe in his owne workes merites deseruinges and ceremonies and robbeth him of all his righteousnesse and maketh him poore It killeth him sendeth hym downe to hell and bryngeth him to vtter desperation and prepareth y e way of the Lord as it is written of Iohn the Baptist For it is not possible that Christ should come to a man as long as he trusteth in him self or in any worldly thyng or hath any righteousnesse of his own or riches of holy workes Then commeth the Euāgelion a more gentle paster which soupleth and swageth the woundes of the cōscience and bringeth health It bringeth the spirite of God which loseth the bondes of Sathā and coupleth vs to God and his will through strong fayth and feruent loue with bondes to strong for the deuill the world or any creature to lose them And the poore wretched sinner feeleth so great mercy loue kyndnes in God that he is sure in hym selfe how that it is not possible that God should forsake him or withdraw hys mercy and loue from hym And boldly cryeth out with Paul saying Who shall separate vs from the loue that GOD loueth vs withall That is to say what shall make me beleue that God loueth me not Shall tribulation Anguish Persecution Shal hūger Nakednes Shal sword Nay I am sure that neither death nor lyfe neither aungell neither rule nor power neither present thynges nor thinges to come neither hygh nor low neither any creature is able to separate vs from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesu our Lord. In all such tribulations a Christen man perceaueth that God is his father and loueth hym euen as he loued Christ when he shed his bloud on the crosse Finally as before when I was bond to the deuill and his will I wrought all maner euill and wickednes not for hells sake which is the reward of sinne but because I was heyre of hell by byrth and bondage to the deuill dyd I euill For I could none otherwise do to do sinne was my nature Euen so now since I am coupled to GOD by Christes bloud do I well not for heauens sake which is yet the reward of wel doyng but because I am heyre of heauen by grace and Christes purchasyng haue the spirite of God I do good frely for so is my nature As a good tree bryngeth forth good frute and an euill tree euill frute By the frutes shal ye know what the tree is A mās dedes declare what he is within but make him neither good nor bad though after we be created a new by the spirite doctrine of Christ we waxe perfecter alwaye with woorkyng accordyng to the doctrine and not with blynd woorkes of our owne imagining We must be first euill yer we doe euill as a Serpent is first poysoned yer he poyson We must be also good yer we do good as the fire must be first hoate yer it heate an other thyng Take an example As those blynd and deaffe which are cured in the Gospell could not see nor heare till Christ had geuen them sight hearyng and those sicke could not do the dedes of an whole man till Christ had geuen them health So can no man do good in his soule till Christ haue losed hym out of the bondes of Sathan and haue geuē him wherewith to do good yea first haue powred into hym that selfe good thing which he shedeth forth afterward on other Whatsoeuer is our owne is sinne Whatsoeuer is aboue that is Christes gift purches doyng and working He bought it of his father dearely with his bloud yea with his most bitter death and gaue his lyfe for it What soeuer good thyng is in vs that is geuen vs frely without our deseruyng or merites for Christes bloudes sake That we desire to folow y t will of God it is the gift of Christes bloud That we now hate the deuils will whereunto we were so fast locked and could not but loue it is also the gift of Christes bloud vnto whom belongeth the prayse and honour of our good dedes and not vnto vs. Our deedes do vs three maner seruice First they certifie vs that we are heyres of euerlastyng life And that the spirite of God whiche is the earnest therof is in vs in that our hartes consent vnto the law of God and we haue power in our mēbers to do it though imperfectly And secondarily we tame the fleshe therewith and kill the sinne that remayneth yet in vs waxe dayly perfecter and perfecter in the spirite therewith kepe that the lustes choke not the word of God that is sowen in vs nor quench the giftes and working of the spirite and that we lose not the spirite agayne And thirdly we do our dutie vnto our neighbour therewith helpe their necessitie vnto our own cōfort also and draw all mē vnto the honoryng and praysing of God And whosoeuer excelleth in the giftes of grace let the same thinke that they be geuen hym as much to do hys brother seruice as for his owne selfe as much for the loue whiche God hath to the weake as vnto him vnto whom God geueth such giftes And he that withdraweth ought that he hath from hys neighbours neede robbeth
righteousnes our iustifying our redemption our attonement that hath appeased God and clenseth vs froÌ„ our sinnes and all in his bloud so that his bloud is the satisfaction onely And that thou mayst the better perceaue the falshead of our holy fathers fleshly imagination call to minde how that the Scripture sayth Iohn the iiij God is a spirite and must be worshypped in the spirite That is repentauÌ„ce fayth hope and loue toward his law and our neighbour for his sake is hys worshyp in the spirite And therefore whosoeuer woorshyppeth God with workes and referreth his woorkes to God to be a sacrifice vnto hym to appease hym as though hee delited in the worke for the woorkes sake the same maketh of God an image or idoll and is an image seruer and as wicked an Idolater as euer was any blynd heathen and serueth God after the imagination of his owne hart and is abhominable vnto god as thou seest in how many places God defieth the sacrifice of the children of Israell for the sayd imagination So that whosoeuer supposeth that his candle stickyng before an Image his puttyng a peny in the boxe his goyng a pilgrimage his fastyng his wolward goyng barefoote goyng his crowchyng knelyng and paine taking be sacrifice vnto God as though he delited in them as we in the gestures of Iack Napes is as blind as hee that gropeth for his way at none Gods worshyp is to loue hym for hys mercy of loue to bestow al our works vpon our neighbour for his sake and vpon the tamyng of our flesh that we sinne not agayne which should be the chiefest care of a Christen man whyle Christ careth for that that is once past and coÌ„mitted already whether before our profession or after For the conditions of the peace that is made betwen God vs in Christes bloud are these The law is set before vs vnto whiche if we consent and submit our selues to be scholers thereof then are not onely all our foresinnes forgiuen both Poena culpa with our holy fathers licence euer but also all our infirmities weaknes pronesse readynes and motions vnto sinne are pardoned and taken aworth and we translated froÌ„ vnder the damnation of the law which damneth as well those infirmities as the sinne that springeth of them and putteth vs vnder grace Rom. 7. So that we shall not henceforth as long as we forsake not our professioÌ„ be iudged by the rigorousnes of the law But chastised if we do amise as children that are vnder no law Now then if God in Christ pardon our infirmities by reasoÌ„ of which we cannot escape but that we shal now and theÌ„ sinne it foloweth that he must likewise pardon the actuall sinne whiche we do compelled of those infirmities in spite of our hartes and agaynst the will of the spirite For if thou pardon the sicknesse of the sicke then must thou pardoÌ„ the deeds which he doth or â—eueth vndone by the reason of his sicknesse If the madnes of a mad man be pardoned and vnder no law then if he murther in his madnesse he may not be slayne agayne If children within a certaine age are not vnder the law that flayeth theues then can ye not of right hang them though they steale What popishe pardoning were that Thys doth Paule Rom. 7. so confirme that all the world cannot quitch against it saying I consent vnto the law of God that it is good and fayne would I do it and yet haue I not alwayes power so to do but find an other thing in my flesh rehelling agaynst the will of my minde and leading me captine into sinne so that I cannot do that I wold doe but am compelled to doe that I would not If sayth he I do that I woulde not then I do it not but the sinne that dwelleth in me doth it And then sayth he Who shall deliuer me from this body of deathe in which I am bound prisoner agaynst my will Thankes be to God saith he through Iesus Christ our Lorde which hath conquered and ouercome sinne death and hell and hath put the damnation of the law out of the way vnto all that professe the law and beleue in him We be vnder the lawe to learne it and to fasshion our deedes as like as we can but not vnder the damnation of the lawe that we shoulde be damned though our deedes were not perfect as the law requireth or though of frailty we at a time breake it As children are vnder the law that they steale not but not vnder the damnation though they steale So that all they that are graffed into Christ to follow hys doctrine are vnder the law to learne it onely but are deliuered from feare of euerlasting death and hell and all the threatenings of the law and from conscience of sinne which feared vs from God And we are come into God thorough the confidence that we haue in Iesus Christ are as familiar bold with him as yong innocent children which haue no conscience of sinne are with their fathers and mothers or theÌ„ that nourishe them Which were vnpossible if God now as the pope painteth him did shake a rod at vs of vij yeares punishment as sharpe as the paynes of hel for euery trespace we do which trespace for the number of them were like to make our purgatory almost as long as hell seing we haue no Gods word that we shall be deliuered thence vntil we haue payd the last farthing And therefore could our conscience neuer be at rest nor be bolde and familier with God If ye say the Pope can deliuer my conscience from feare of purgatory as his poetry onely putteth me in feare and that by this text Whatsoeuer thou bindest on earth c. If thou this way vnderstand the text whatsoeuer thou being in earth losest any where then might he lose in hell and binde in heauen But why may not I take the text of Christ Ioh. 16. Whatsoeuer ye aske my Father in my name he will geue it you and desire forgeuenesse of all together in Christes name both a poena culpa and theÌ„ remayneth no such purgatory at all Howbeit the text of binding losing is but borowed speach how that after the similitude of worldly binding and losing locking and vnlocking the word of God truely preached doth binde and lose the conscience God sayth to Hieremias cap. 1. Behold I geue thee power ouer nations and kingdomes to plucke vp by the rootes and to shiuer in peeces to destroy and cast downe and to build and plante How did he destroy nations kingdomes and how did he build theÌ„ verily by preaching and prophecying What nation kingdome or citie he prophecyed to be ouerthrowne was so And what Citie he prophecyed to be built againe was so And what nation after they were brought into captiuity he prophecyed to be restored agayne were so And whome he prophecyed to perish perished
it is the gift of God and commeth not of workes lest any man should bost him selfe But we are his workemanshyp created in Christ Iesu vnto good workes vnto whiche God ordeined vs before that we shuld walke in them The text is playne we were stone dead and without lyfe or power to do or consent to good The whole nature of vs was captiue vnder the deuill and led at his will And we were as wicked as the deuill now is Except that hee now sinneth agayne the holy ghost and we consented vnto sinne with soule and body and hated the law of God But God of his grace onely quickened vs in Christ and raysed vs out of that death and made vs sit with Christ in heauenly thynges That is he set our hartes at rest and made vs sit fast in the lyfe of Christes doctrine and vnmoueable frō the loue of Christ And finally we are in this our second byrth Gods workemāshyp and creation in Christ so that as hee which is yet vnmade hath no life nor power to worke no more had we till we were made agayne in Christ The preachyng of mercy in Christ quickened our hartes through faith wrought by the spirit of Christ which God poured into our hartes yer we wist Dearely beloued if God so loued vs then ought we loue one an other If we felt the loue of God in Chrisles bloud we could not but loue agayne not onely God and Christ but also all that are bought with Christes bloud If we loue God for the pleasures that we receaue then loue we our selues But if we loue hym to do hym pleasure agayne that can we no otherwise do then in louing our neighbours for his sake them that are good to continue them in their goodnes them that are euill to draw them to good Loue is the instrument wherewith fayth maketh vs Gods sonnes fashioneth vs lyke the image of God and certifieth vs that we so are And therfore commaundeth Christ Math. v. Loue your enemyes Blesse thē that curse you pray for them that persecute you that ye may be the sonnes of your heauenly father whiche maketh his sunne rise ouer good and bad and sendeth his rayne vpon iust and vniust ye whiche made the sunne of his mercy shyne vpō vs and sent the rayne of the bloud of his deare and onely child vppon our soules to quicken vs and to make vs see loue to loue agayne No man hath at any tyme sene God If we loue one an other God dwelleth in vs and his loue is perfect in vs. Though we can not see God yet if we loue one an other we be sure that he abydeth in vs and that his loue is perfect in vs that is that we loue hym vnfaynedly For to loue God truly to giue him thankes is onely to loue our neighbour for his sake For vppon his person thou canst bestow no benefite And for as much as we neuer saw God let vs make no image of him nor doe hym any imageseruice after our own imagination but let vs go to the scripture that hath sene hym and there wete what fashion he is of and what seruice he wil be serued with Blind reason sayth God is a kerued post and wil be serued with a candle But Scripture sayth God is loue wil be serued with loue If thou loue thy neighbour thē art thou the image of God thy self and he dwelleth in the liuing temple of thine hart And thy louing of thy neighbour for hys sake is hys seruice and worshyp in the spirite and a cādle that burneth before hym in thyne hart and casteth out the light of good workes before the world draweth all to God and maketh his enemyes leaue their euill and come and worshyp him also Hereby we know that we abyde in him and he in vs. For he hath giuen vs of his spirite He that hath not Christes spirit the same is none of his Roma 8. If we haue the spirite of God then are we sure But how shall we know whether we haue the spirite Aske Iohn and he will say if we loue one an other And we haue sene and do testifie that the father hath sent hys sonne the sauiour of the worlde Whosoeuer confesseth that Iesus is the sonne of God in hym dwelleth God and he in God And we haue knowne and beleued the loue that God hath to vs. First the Apostles taught no fables but that they saw and receaued of God by the witnesse of his spirite Secondaryly Iohn ascēdeth vp stepe higher from loue to fayth and sayth he that be leueth that Iesus is Gods sonne hath God in hym And I doubt not but the Pope and his defēders will aunswere Iohn and say then the deuil hath God in hym and is also in God For other fayth then such as the deuill hath felt they neuer any But Iohn preuenteth them we haue knowē and beleued the loue that God hath to vs. That is we beleue not onely with story fayth as men beleue old Chronicles but we beleue the loue and mercy that GOD shewed vs and put our trust and confidence therein And so taketh Scripture belefe we beleue that Iesus is the sonne of God made man and slayne for our sinnes which is a tokē of great loue And that loue beleue we trust therto Where Paule sayth i. Cor. xij No man can cal Iesus Lord except the holy ghost had taught hym But thorough the holy ghost he meaneth not with the mouth onely but in the hart with vnfayned fayth putting his hope trust in the Lordshyp which he hath ouer sinne damnation hell and death For so could no man call Iesus Lord except the holy ghost had taught hym as Christ saith Math. xvi flesh bloud shewed thee not that But yet how shall I see my fayth I must come downe to loue agayne thence to the workes of loue yer I can see my faith Not alway but sometime thou shalt fecle thy fayth without the outward deede as in great aduersitie and persecution when the deuil assaulteth thee with desperation and layeth thy sinnes before thee would beare the in hād that God had cast the away and left the succourles for thy synnes sake Then commeth fayth forth with her shielde and turneth backe agayne the dartes of the deuill and aunswereth Nay for Iesus is y ◠sonne of God yea and my very God and my very Lord and hath takē away my sinnes all dānation And this trouble aduersitie which is come vpō me by settyng of thee and on of thy lymmes is onely to make me feele the mercy of my father and his power and helpe within in my soule and to slay the rest of the poyson which remaineth in the flesh God is loue and he that abydeth in loue abydeth in God and God in hym This haue we heard aboue and it is easie to be vnderstand Herefore is loue perfect with vs
in Christes name by his promise but am not sure that my brother will pray for me or that he hath a good hart to God No. But the Saintes in heauen cānot but pray and be hard no more can the Saintes in earth but pray and he heard neither Moses Samuell Dauid Noye Elias Elizeus Esayas Daniell and all the Prophetes prayed and were heard yet was none of those wicked that would not put their trust in God accordyng to their doctrine and preachyng partaker of their prayers in the end And as damnable as it is for the poore to trust in the riches of the richest vpon earth so damnable is it also to leaue the couenaunt made in Christes bloud and to trust in the saint of heauē They that be in heauē know the elect that trust in Christes bloud professe the law of God and for them onely pray and these wicked Idolaters whiche haue no trust in the couenaunt of God nor serue God in the spirite nor in the Gospell of Christes bloud but after their blind Imagination chosing them eueryman a sondry Saint to be their Mediatour to trust to and to be saued by their merites do the Saintes abhorre and defie And their prayers and offeringes are to the Saintes as acceptable and pleasaunt as was the prayer and the offeryng of Symon Magus to Peter Act. viij Moreouer the Saintes in their most combraunce are most comforted most able to comfort other as Paule testifieth i. Cor. i. In so much that S. Stephen and S. Iames prayed for them that slue them S. Martine preached comforted his desperate brethren euen vnto the last breath likewise as stories make mention dyd innumerable mo Yea and I haue knowen of simple vnlearned persons that of some that were great sinners which at the houre of death haue fallen flat on the bloud of Christ and geuen no rowme to other mens either prayers or preachynges but haue as strongly trusted in Christes bloud as euer dyd Peter or Paul and haue therto preached it to other exhorted other so mightly that an aungell of heauen could not mende them Who then should resiste God that he might not geue the same grace to M. Tracie which was a learned man and better sene in the workes of S. Austē xx yeare before hee dyed then euer I knew Doccour in England but that hee must then faint and shrincke whē most neede is to be strong feare the Popes Purgatory trust to the prayer of Priestes dearely payd for I dare say that he prayed for the Priestes whē he dyed that God would conuert a great many of them and if hee had knowen of any good man amōg them that had neded he would haue geuen and if hee had knowen of any lacke of priestes he would haue geuē to mainteine moe But now sence there be mo then inough haue more then euery man a sufficient liuyng how should he haue geuē them but to hyre their prayers of pure mistrust in Christs bloud If robbyng of widowes houses vnder pretence of long prayers be damnable Math. xxiij Then is it damnable also for widowes to suffer them selues to be robbed by the long pattering of hypocrites through mistrust in Christes bloud yea and is it not damnable to mainteine such abhomination Now when this dāuation is spread ouer all how can we geue thē that haue inough already or how can they that haue inough already take more vnder the name of praying not harden the people more in this dāuable damnation And concernyng the burieng of his body he allegeth S. Austen neither is there any man thinke I so mad to affirme that the outward pompe of the body should helpe the soule Moreouer what greater signe of infidelitie is there then to care at the tyme of death with what pompe the carkasse shal be caried to the graue He denieth not but that a Christen man should be honorablie buried namely for the honour and hope of the resurrection and therefore committed that care to his deare executours his sonne and his wife which he wist would in that part do sufficiēt leaue nothyng of the vse of the countrey vndone but the abuse And that best awyng of a great part of his goodes while be yet lyued vppon the poore to be thankefull for the mercy receiued without bying and sellyng with God that is without byndyng those poore vnto any other appointed prayers then God hath bound vs already one to pray for an other one to helpe an other as he hath helped vs but paciently abidyng for the blessynges that God hath appoynted vnto all maner good workes trustyng faythfully to his promise thanking as ye may see by his wordes the bloud of Christ for the reward promised to hys woorkes and not the goodnes of the workes as though he had done more then his dutie or all that And assigned by writyng vnto whom an other part should be distrubuted and geuyng the rest to hys executours that no strife should be whiche executours were by right the heyres of all that was left to thē These things I say are signes euident not onely of a good Christen mā but also of a perfect Christen man and of such a one as needed not to be agast and desperate for feare of the paynfull paynes of Purgatory whiche who so feareth as they fayne it can not but vtterly abhorre death seyng that Christ is there no longer thy Lord after he hath brought thee thether but art excluded from his satisfaction and must satisfie for thy selfe alone and that with sufferyng payne onely or els taryeng the satisfieng of them that shall neuer satisfie inough for them selues or gapyng for the Popes pardons whiche haue so great doubtes and daungers what in the mynde and intent of the graunter and what in the purchaser yer they can be truly obteyned with all due circumstaūces and much lesse certitude that they haue any authoritie at all Paule thristed to be dissolued to be with Christ Stephen desired Christ to take his spirite the Prophetes also desired God to take their soules from them and all the Saintes went with a lusty courage to death neither fearyng or teachyng vs to feare any such crudelitie Where hath the Churche then gotten authoritie to binde vs from beyng so perfite from hauyng any such fayth in the goodnes of God our Father and Lorde Christ and to make such perfitues and fayth of all heresies the greatest Salomō saith in the xxx of his Prouerbes three things are insaciable and the fourth sayth neuer It is inough But there is a fift called dame anarice with as greedy a gutte as meltyng a maw as wyde a throate as gapyng a mouth and with as rauenyng teeth as the best which the more she eateth the hongryer she is An vnquiet euill neuer at rest a blynd monster and a surmisyng beast fearyng at the fall of euery leafe Quid non mortalia pectora
swete water and bloud of very agonie conceiued of his passioÌ„ so nighe at hand The bloud stricken on the postes saued theÌ„ that they were not plagued with the Egyptians deliuered them out of the captiuitie of Pharao And the bloud of Christ strickeÌ„ on the postes of our consciences deliuereth vs from the captiuitie of Pharao the deuill and smitting of his auÌ„gels c. There might not a bone thereof be broken no more were there of Christes though the ij that were hanged with him had either of them his legges his armes brokeÌ„ Moreouer that it was a very prophecie of y e death of Christ of the vertue of his passion it is made the more manifest by the woordes of Christ himselfe Luke 22. for the night before hys passion when he had eaten Pesah with his Disciples he sayd I will no more â—ate of it henceforth till it be fulfilled in the kyngdome of GOD. As who should say This memoriall which we yearely haue hetherto obserued was once fulfilled in the kyngdome of this world when your fathers were deliuered out of bondage and seruitude of the Egyptians But it hath yet an other signification hetherto vnknowen vnto you which must be fulfilled spirituallie in the kingdome of God by my passion that is at hand and bloud that now shall shortly be shed by the which ye shal be deliuered out of the power of Sathan sinne and hell made heyres of the kyngdome of heauen Neither was it the lambes bloud that deliuered you then For what regarde hath God in the bloud of shepe and calues but the bloud of Christ whom that lambe figured and described his innocencie purenes and obedience to hys father and compassion to mankynde ward whose feble nature he had put on with all the infirmities of the same saue sinne did then deliuer you to bryng you to the fayth of this deliueraunce and to make you through faith partakers therof Many things there be in the Scripture whiche haue a carnall fulfillyng euen there where they be spoken or done and yet haue an other spirituall signification to be fulfilled long after in Christ and his kyngdome and yet neuer knowen till the thyng be done As the Serpent of Brasse which Moses haÌ„ged vp in the wildernes though it tooke effect carnally in the wildernes yet it so describeth the liftyng vp of Christ vpon the crosse the vertue of his passion that no touÌ„g could better declare it to make the hart feele it If ye aske why they may not be knowen till they be done and what prophecie may helpe I aunswere If men dyd vnderstand them before they were done they would endeuour to let the fulfillyng of them and when the significatioÌ„ is fulfilled then to see how playnly it was described in the Scripture doth excedyngly coÌ„firme the fayth thereof and make it better to be vnderstand And when this Pesah was fulfilled spirituallie in the kyngdome of heaueÌ„ by the death and bloud â—heddyng of Christ it ended there And in y t roome therof coÌ„cernyng that spirituall significatioÌ„ came the signe of the SacrameÌ„t of the body and bloud of our Sauiour Christ as Baptisme came in stede of CircuÌ„cision thyngs more easie lesse paynefull and tedious to be obserued and more gentle to prouoke and entise the Heathen For as the lambe describeth the death of Christ to come and the maner of his passion by which we should be deliuered euen so doth the ceremonie of the body and bloud of Christ testifie vnto vs that he hath giuen him selfe to death for vs and redemed vs already if we beleue and cleue 〈◊〉 to the profession of our Baptisme 〈…〉 thâ—â—in or will if any tempest had 〈◊〉 vs out of the right course returne to the right way agayne This to be so the wordes of the Instituâ—â—d declare which are these 1. Cor. 11. The Lord Iesus the night that he was betraâ—ed tooke bread and gaue thankes and brake it and sayd Take eate this is my body that shal be giuen for you this doe in remembraunce of me And likewise he tooke the cup wheÌ„ Supper was done saying This cup is the new TestameÌ„t in my bloud this do as often as ye shall drinke it in the remembraunce of me Here ye see by these woordes that it was ordeined to kepe the death of Christ in minde and to testifie that his body was giueÌ„ and his bloud shed for vs. And Luke 22. This is my body that is giueÌ„ for you do this in remembraunce of me And this cup is the new Testament in my bloud whiche shal be shed for you Loe here ye see agayne that it was instituted to kepe y t death of Christ in minde and to testifie wherfore he dyed eueÌ„ to saue vs from sinne death and hell that we should seeke none other meanes to be deliuered with for there is none other name for vs to be saued by but onely by the name of Iesus Actes 4. And as the children of Israell stong of the firie Serpents could haue none other remedy to saue them from present death then to go and behold the brasen Serpent hanged vp by Moses in the wildernes whiche lookyng on onely healed them Euen so if the styng of death whiche is sinne haue wounded their soule with the workyng of the law in the consciences there is none other remedy then to runne to Christ which shed his bloud hangyng vpon the Crosse and to his euerlastyng Testament and mercyfull promise that it was shed for vs for the remissioÌ„ of our sinnes If thou be stong with conscieÌ„ce of sinne the Cockatrice of thy poysoned nature hath beheld her selfe in the glasse of the righteous law of GOD there is none other salue for remedie theÌ„ to runne to Christ immediatly and to the father through him And to say father I haue sinned agaynst thee and thy godly holy and righteous law agaynst my brother whom I ought of all right to loue for thy sake as well as my selfe forgeue me O father for thy sonne Iesus Christes sake accordyng to thy most mercyfull promises Testament I will aske my brother forgiuenes if the peace I meane be not made already and will make to my power such satisfaction to hym as shall seme right in his eyes if he be reasonable or as the congregatioÌ„ shall assigne or faythfull men thereunto appointed by the congregation or such as I and he will agree vpon and will endeuour my self to do so no more with the helpe of thy grace And will submit my selfe to the wholesome ordinaunce of the coÌ„gregation accordyng the doctrine of thy sonne Iesus and of his faithful Apostles For there is none other name giuen vnder heauen wherby we shal be saued but onely the name of Iesus Hereof ye see that the SacrameÌ„t is an absolutioÌ„ of our sinnes as often as we receiue it where it is truly
more when the Sacrament is sene with the eyes the bread broken the wine poured out or looked on and yet more when I tast it and smell it As ye see when a man maketh promise to an other with light wordes betwene them selues and as they departed hee to whom the promise is made beginneth to doubt whether the other spake earnestly or mocked and doubteth whether he will remember his promise to bide by it or not But when any man speaketh with aduisement and deliberation the wordes are thē more credible but yet if he sweare it confirmeth the thyng more and yet the more if he strake handes if he geue earnest if he call record if he geue his hād writing and seale it so is the promise more and more beleued for the hart gathereth Lo he spake with aduisement deliberation and good sadnes he clapped hands called recordes and put to his hand and seale the man cannot be so faynt without the feare of God as to deny all this Shame shall make him bide by his promise though he were such a man that I could not compell him if he would deny it If a young mā breake a ryng betwene him and a mayde doth not the fact testifie make a presumption to all men that his hart meant as his wordes spake Manoha Sampsones father when he had sene an aungell Iud. 13. he sayd to his wife we shal surely dye because we haue sene the Lord. But his wife gathered other comfort of the circumstaunces and sayd if the Lord would kill vs he would not haue receaued such offerings of our hands nor shewed vs such thynges as he hath nor told vs of thynges to come Euen so our harts gather of the circūstaunces protestatiōs and other miracles of God good argumentes and reasons to stablish our weake fayth with all such as we could not gather at bare woordes onely And this we dispute God sent his sonne in our nature made him feele all our infirmities that moue vs to sinne and named him Iesus that is to say Sauiour because he should saue his people from their sinnes Math. 1. And after his death he sent his Apostles to preach the thynges or tydynges and to thrust it in at the eares of vs set vp a Sacrament of it to testifie it to be a seale of it to thrust it in not at the eares onely by the rehearsing of the promises and Testament ouer it neither at our eyes onely in beholdynge it but beate it in through our feelyng tastyng and smelling also and to be repeated dayly to be ministred to vs. He would not thinke we make halfe so much a do with vs if he loued vs not or if he would not haue vs fayne come and be as mercyfull to vs as he was to his frēdes in the old tyme that fell and rose agayne God so then vsed the Iewes to whom all ceremonyes were first giuen and from whom they came to vs euen such fashions as they vsed among them selues in all his promises and couenauntes not for his necessitie but for ours that such thynges should be a witnes and testimonie betwene him and vs to cōfirme the fayth of his promise that we should not wauer nor doubt in them when we looke on the seales of his obligations wherwith he hath bound him selfe And to keepe the promises and couenauntes better in mynde and to make them the more deepe sinke in our hartes and to be more earnestly regarded and that we should aske what such thynges ment and why God cōmaunded them to be obserued that ignoraunce should not excuse if we know not what we ought to do beleue for naturall reason ought to teach vs that y t outward corporall bodily thyng can not helpe the spirituall soule and that GOD hath not delectation in such fantasie Now if we were diligent to search for the good will of God and would aske what such ceremonies meant It were impossible but then God which hath promised Math. 7. If we seeke we shal finde would send vs true interpreters of his signes or Sacramentes And he that beyng of a lawfull age obserueth a ceremonie and knoweth not the entent to him is the ceremonie not onely vnprofitable but also hurtfull and cause of sinne In that he is not carefull and diligent to search for it and he there obserueth them with a false fayth of his owne imagination thinking as all Idolaters do and euer haue done that the outward woorke is a sacrifice and seruice to God The same therfore sinneth yet more deeper and more damnable Neither is Idolatrie any other thyng then to beleue that a visible ceremonie is a seruice to the inuisible God whose seruice is spirituall as he is a spirite and is none other thyng then to know that all is of hym and to trust in hym onely for all thynges and to loue him for his great goodnes and mercy aboue all and our neighbours as our selues for his sake vnto which spirituall seruyng of God and to leade vs to the same the old ceremonies were ordeined These be now sufficient concernyng the entent and vse of the ceremonies how they came vp Now let vs consider the wordes of this Testament and promises as they be rehearsed of the three Euangelistes Mathew Marke and Luke of the Apostle Paule For Iohn whiche wrote last touched nothyng that was sufficiently declared of other Math in the 26. thus sayth when they were eatyng Iesus tooke bread gaue thankes and brake and gaue hys Disciples and sayd take eate this is my body And he tooke the cup and thanked and gaue it them saying Drinke ye all of this for this is my bloud whiche is of the new Testament that is shed for many for the remission of sinnes First ye see by these wordes that the body was giuen to death and the bloud shed for the remiūiō of sinnes and that for many But who are these many Verely they that turne to GOD to beleue in hym onely and to endeuour them selues to keepe his law from hence forth Which many yet in respect of thē that loue not the law are but very few and euen that little flocke that gaue them selues wholy to follow Christ wherfore if any man thinke hee beleue in Christ and haue not the law written in his hart to consent that his dutie is to loue hys brother for Christ sake as Christ loued him and to endeuour him selfe so to do The fayth of that same man is vayne and built vppon sand of of his own imagination and not vpon the rocke of Gods word for his worde vnto which he hath bound himselfe is that they onely which turne to God to keepe his lawes shall haue mercy for Christes sake Drinke of it all for it is my bloud of the new Testament for it is that is to say the drinke that is in the cup or if ye list the cup
and glory that we owe to God Therfore it foloweth in the same texte vnto hym that worketh not but beleueth in him that iustifieth the wicked is his faith imputed for righteousnes Now if our saluatioÌ„ come of fayth and not through our workes desertes then is Purgatory shut out of doore quite vanisheth away Christ sayth So hath God loued the world that hee would geue hys onely sonne that all whiche beleue in him should not perishe but that they should haue euerlasting life Iohn iij. TheÌ„ what néedeth Purgatory Thou wilt peraduenture say it is true they shall haue euerlastyng lyfe but they must first go through Purgatory I aunswere nay verely But Christ affirmeth and that with an oth that he which heareth his word and beleueth his father which sent him hath euerlastyng life Yea and that he is gone already from death vnto life Iohn v. wilt thou now say that hee shall into Purgatory forsooth if that were true and the fire also so hote as our Prelates affirme then went he not from death vnto lyfe but rather froÌ„ a small death vnto a greater death The Prophet sayth precious is in the sight of the Lord the death of his Saintes Psal C. xvi And S. Iohn sayth blessed are the dead whiche dye in the Lord. Apocal. 14. but surely if they shoulde goe into the paynefull Purgatory there to be tormented of fendes theÌ„ were they not blessed but rather wretched God sayth by Moses Exod. 33. I will shewe mercy to whom I shewe mercy and will haue compassion on whom I haue compassioÌ„ Now if our saluation be of mercy and compassioÌ„ then caÌ„ there be no such Purgatory For y t nature of mercy is to forgeue but Purgatory will haue all payde satisfied so that they twayne bee desperate and can in no wise agrée And looke how many textes in Scripture commende Gods mercy euen so many deny this paynefull Purgatory The Prophet sayth hee hath not dealt with vs after our sinnes neither hath rewarded vs accordyng to our iniquities but looke how high heauens are aboue the earth eueÌ„ so high hath he made his mercy to preuayle ouer them that worshyppe him And looke how farre the East is from the Weast euen so farre hath he set our sinnes from vs. Psal Citj And before in the same Psalme y e Prophet exhorteth his soule to prayse the Lord saying Prayse the Lord O my soule whiche forgeueth thée all thyne iniquities and healeth all thy diseases Now if this be true that he ordereth vs not accordyng to our sinnes but powreth his mercy so plenteously vppon vs if also he forgeue vs all our iniquities why should there be any such Purgatory to purge and tormeÌ„t the sely soules specially sith all was for geuen them before Wilt thou not call him a shrewed creditour whiche after he hath fréely forgeueÌ„ his debtour will yet cast him in prison for the same debt I thinke euery man would say on this maner â–ª It was in his own pleasure whether hee would forgeue it or not and then of fauour and compassion he forgaue it But now he hath forgeuen it hee doth vnrighteously to punish his debtour for it And albeit man repente his forgeuyng and afterward sue for his debt yet God can neuer repeÌ„t him selfe of his mercyable gifts Roma xi And therefore will he neuer torment vs for our trespasses no nor yet once remember them Ezech. xviij Heb. x. Sith God forgeueth the greater offences why shal he not also forgeue y t lesse He forgaue fréely much greater offeÌ„ces vnto the Publicane which knowleged him selfe to bee a sinner Luke xviij then those be for whiche men fayne that we must be tormeÌ„ted in Purgatory For there is no soule as they graunt them selues that suffreth in purgatory for great crimes mortal sinnes But onely for litle pretie pecca duliaÌ„s if a maÌ„ may be bold to vse M. Mores word and for venial sinnes Dis xxv Cap. qualis He forgaue much greater enormities vnto the théefe to whom hee sayd this day shalt thou be with me not in Purgatory but in Paradise Luke 23. He forgaue much greater to Marie Magdalene Luke vij Is his hand now shortned Is not his power as great as it was Is he not as mercyfull as euer he was why leaue we y t cisterne of liuyng water and digge vs pittes of our owne which can hold no pure water Iere. â—j why forsake we Christ which hath wholly purged vs séeke an other Purgatory of our own imaginatioÌ„ If thou beleue that Christes bloud is sufficient to purge thy sinne why sekest thou an other purgatory S. Paul sayth I desire to be losed from this body and to be with Christ Phil. i. Verely if hee had thought to haue gone thorough Purgatory hee would not haue bene so hasty For there shoulde hee haue had an hote broth and an hartlesse and so might he rather haue desired long to haue liued And therefore I suppose that he knew nothyng of Purgatory but that he rather thought as y e truth is that death should finish all his euils and so rowes and geue hym rest in losing hym from his rebbellious members whiche were solde and captiue vnder sinne All ChristeÌ„ meÌ„ should desire death as Paule doth Phil. 1. not because of their crosse and trouble whiche they suffer in this present worlde for then they sought theÌ„ selues and their own profite and not the glory of God But if we will well desire death we must first consider howe sore sinne displeaseth God our father then our owne nature and frailtie and our members so bounde vnder sinne that we caÌ„ not doe nor yet thinke a good thought of our selues 2. Cor. 3. Then shall we finde occasion to lament our lyfe not for the troubles that we suffer in it but because we be so prone vnto sinne and so continually displease God our father What desireth he that would loÌ„g lyue but dayly to heape sinne vppon sinne And therefore should we haue a will to dye bycause y t in death our sinne is finished and theÌ„ shall we no more displease God our father Now if we should fayne a Purgatory it were not possible to imagine a greater obstacle to make vs feare flye from death For sith euery man must knowledge him self a sinner 1. Iohn 1. And not beleue that Christes death were sufficieÌ„t but that he must also go to Purgatory who should depart this world with a quiet mynde The wiseman sayth The soules of the righteous are in the hande of God They séemed to dye in the eyes of the foolish their end was thought to be payne and afflictioÌ„ but they are in peace Sapi. 3. There is no maÌ„ but he must néedes graunt me that euery faythfull is righteous in the sight of God as it
Christen for they beleue that we are fallē from all truth and vtterly dāned But they thinke that there is a Purgatory for them selues wherin they shal be purged punished vntill they haue made full satisfactiō for their sinnes committed but that is false for neither Turkes Saracenes Paynimes nor Iewes whiche beleue not in Christ haue or euer shall enter into any Purgatory but they are all dāned wretches because they beleue not in Iesu Christ Iohn 3. Now sith they be deceaued for they haue no Purgatory but are all damned as many as beleue not Alas what blindnes is that to argue that we must folow them which are both blynd and out of the right way After this disputeth he by naturall reason that there must be a Purgatory his disputation continueth a leafe and an halfe out of the which Rastell tooke all his booke And so are all his apparent reasons disclosed before agaynst Rastell Then begynneth he with the Scripture on this maner IT semeth very probable and likely that the good kyng Ezechias for no other cause wept at the warning of his death geuen him by the Prophet but onely for the feare of Purgatory The story is written 4. Kinges 2. And Esay 38. Exechias was sicke vnto the death And Esay the Prophete and sonne of Amos came vnto him saying this sayth the Lord dispose thy house for thou shalt dye and not liue He turned his face vnto the wall and prayed the Lord saying I beseche thée Lord remember I pray thée how I haue walked before thée in truth and in a perfite hart haue done that thyng which is pleasaunt acceptable before thée Then Ezechias wept with great cryeng these are the wordes of the text We cā not perceaue by the text that he was a great sinner but rather the contrary for he sayth that hee had walked before the Lorde in truth and in a perfite hart hath done that thyng which is pleasaunt and acceptable before the Lord. And therfore it is nothyng lyke that hee should feare Purgatory neither yet hell Thou wilt peraduēture aske me if he wept not for feare of Purgatory why did he then wepe I will also aske you a question and then will I shew you my minde Christ dyd not onely wepe but feared so sore that he sweat like droppes of bloud runnyng downe vppon the earth whiche was more then to wepe Now if I should aske you why Christ feared sweate so sore what would you aūswere me that it was for feare of the paynes of Purgatory forsooth he that would so aunswere should be laughed to scorne of all the world as he were well worthy Wherfore was it then Verely euen for feare of death as it playnly appeareth after for he prayed vnto his Father saying my father if it be possible let this death passe fro me Math. xxvj So fearefull a thyng is death euen vnto the most purest flesh And euen the same cause will I assigne in Ezechias that he wept for feare of death and not for Purgatory Now procedeth he further promiseth to proue it by playne euident textes as it is very needefull for the text that hee alledged before is somewhat to farre wrested and yet will it not serue him Haue ye not sayth he the wordes of Scripture written in the booke of the kynges Dominus deducit ad in feros reducit Our Lord bryngeth folke down into hell and bringeth them thence agayne But they that bee in that where damned soules be they be neuer deliuered thence againe Wherfore it appeareth well that they whō God deliuereth and bryngeth thence agayne be in that part of hell that is Purgatory This texte is written in the first booke of the kynges and in the second chapter and they are the wordes of Anna which sayth The Lord doth kill quickē againe he ledeth downe into hell bryngeth agayne Here he thinketh to haue good hold But surely his hold will fayle hym for in this one text hee sheweth him selfe twise ignoraunt First because he knoweth not that the Hebrue word Sheol doth not signifie hell but a graue or a pitte that is digged As it is written Gene. 42. Si quid aduersitatis acciderit ei in terra ad quam pergitis deducetis canos meos cum dolore ad inferos that is if any euill chaūce vnto my sonne Beniamin in the lād whether you go you shall bryng down myne hoore heares with sorow vnto my graue not vnto hell nor yet vnto Purgatory for he thought neither to go to hell nor Purgatory for his sonne but thought that he should dye for sorrow if his sonne had any mischaunce Besides that he is cleane ignoraūt of the cōmon maner of all Prophetes which for y e most part in all Psalmes Hymnes and other songes of prayse as this is make the first ende of the verse to expounde the last and the last to expounde the first He that obserueth this rule shall vnderstand very much in the Scripture although hee be ignoraunt in the Hebrue So doth this place full well expounde it selfe without any imagination of Purgatory Conferre the first part of y e verse vnto the last and you shall easely perceaue it The first part of the halfe verse is this The Lord doth kill and that expoūdeth the other halfe of this verse where she sayth hee leadeth downe to hell so that in this place to kill and to leade downe to hell is all one thing And likewise in the second part of the halfe verse to quicken agayne and bryng agayne is all one thyng Now if any man be superstitious that hée dare not vnderstand this thyng as figurately spoken then may he verifie it vpon them that God raysed from naturall death as he did Lazarus Iohn xj And all beit no man can deny but that this sence is good and that the text may so be vnderstād yet in my minde we shal go more nye vnto the very and pure truth if we expounde it thus The Lord doth kill and quickē agayne he leadeth downe to hell and bringeth agayne that is hee bryngeth men into extreme affliction and miserie whiche is signified by death and hell and after turneth not hys face vnto them and maketh them to folow hym And to this well agréeth the. 78. Psalme that speaketh of the children of Israel which figure his elect Church and congregation Theyr yeares passed ouer in perpetuall trouble whē he destroyed or killed them then they sought hym they turned and besought him busely He meaneth not here that he had first killed them by temporal death and after their death made them to séeke hym but that he had wrapped them in extreme afflictions and perpetuall troubles and that he sore scourged them whē they brake his cōmaundements yet after turned his mercyfull face vnto hym Finally if you will haue the pure vnderstādyng of this place Note
are all ready damned in hell and some are all ready in heauen And to proue this true he alledgeth the parable of the rich mā Luke xv I am sure my Lord is not so ignoraūt as to say that a parable proueth any thyng But the right vse of a parable is this to expound an harde texte or poynte that was before touched could not entre into euery mans capacitie Neither are all thynges lyke which are spoken in a similitude neither yet all thynges true that are touched in a parable but we must consider the thyng wherefore they be spokē and apply them onely to that they are spoken for and let the residue go as William Tyndall hath well declared vnto you in the parable of wicked Mammon This parable is very hard to be expounded The cause is this no man can wel espye by the text for what purpose it was spoken But this should séeme to be the cause that there were many of the Phariseis other multitude which would not beleue the preaching of Christ although he confirmed his wordes with the authoritie of Moses and the Prophetes but they were curious and some deale phantasticall and therfore would they not beleue his woordes except some apparitions had bene made vnto thē that they might haue bene assured by them that were before dead that hys wordes were true Vnto such it is lyke that hee speaketh this parable playnly concludyng that they should haue no such apparitions of the dead and also that it was not necessary but that they had Moses the Prophetes to whom if they would geue no credence then should they not beleue although one of the dead should ryse againe tell it them Notwithstandyng let me graunt it hym that some are all ready in hell and some in heauen which thyng he shall neuer bee able to proue by the Scripture yea and which playnly destroyeth the resurrection and taketh awaye the argumentes wherewith Christ and Paule doe proue that we shall ryse yet I say let me graunt it hym to sée how he will cōclude What foloweth on that Neither it is credible sayth he that all whiche are cast into hell should streight way goe to heauen therfore must we put a Purgatorye where they may be purged I aunswere All that liue are faythfull or vnfaythfull If he be vnfaythfull then is he damned Iohn 3. If he beleue then is he not condemned but is gone from death to lyfe Iohn 3. 5. The righteous man when hee dyeth shall rest in peace Sapi. 3. And euery faithful mā is righteous before God as y t whole Epistle to the Romaines proueth Ergo then euery faythfull man shall rest in peace and be tormented in the paynes of Purgatory And as touchyng this poynte where they rest I dare be bold to say that they are in the hand of God and that God would that we should be ignoraunt where they be and not to take vpon vs to determine the matter Peraduenture you would enquire of me sith the parable sayth that Lazarus rested in Abrahams bosome what Abrahams bosome is To that would I aūswere that Abrahams bosome were nothyng els then Abrahams fayth For all we are called the children of Abraham because of hys perfite fayth whiche we ought to folow In this fayth are many and in a maner infinite degrées notwithstandyng if it be no greater thē a mustard séede that is to say very small yet shal it saue vs. He that departeth in this fayth resteth in peace and wayteth for the last day when God shall geue vnto hys faythfull that is to his elect for onely are the elect faythfull the faythfull elect the crowne of his glorie which he hath prepared for them that loue hym This crowne doth Paule say that he shall receaue it in that day 2. Timo. 4. that is in the day of iudgement And in the meane season God hath so prouided for vs that they shall wayte vntill the number of their brethren which dayly suffer and shall suffer for Christ be wholy fulfilled and so shall they not be made perfite without vs. Hebr. xj If my Lord will vnderstād by Abrahams bosome heauen I will not be contentious let the Christen iudge which sentence semeth most true But this is once a cleare case that of this he cā proue no Purgatory For the vnfaythfull are all ready dāned and the faythfull rest in peace let him call that what he wil whether to rest in heauen or to rest in their fayth vntill the last day For I am sure there is no man so madde as to say that to rest in peace should signifie to lye in the paynes of Purgatory Furthermore this text shal rather make sore agaynst hym thē any thyng with hym For Lazarus whiles hée was lyuyng was not without sinne nor no man els 1. Iohn 1. so that no man as long as he hath breath in hys body can say that he is without sinne for then should hee make S. Iohn a lyar And yet was not Lazarus caried into purgatory to be purged of his sinnes which were remainyng in his body the houre of his death wherefore I may conclude that there is no such Purgatory For God is as iust vnto hym as vnto vs and therefore would he purge hym as well as vs agayne he is as mercyfull vnto vs as vnto him and will as wel forgeue vs as hym without broyling on y t coales in purgatory for his iustice and mercye are euer one and not alterable But our perfite purgatiō is the pure bloud of Christ which washeth away the sinne of the world And albeit we euer haue the remnauntes and dregges of sinne and rebellion of our mēbers as long as we haue lyfe yet are they wholy finished in death for of such efficacitie is Christes death that it hath turned the death of hys faythfull which was layed vpon vs as the payne of sinne into a medicine agaynst sinne which fully cureth it and maketh an end of it as it was well figured in Golias that was slaine with hys owne sword ANd where as my Lord bryngeth for his purpose Math. xij that mē shal geue accoumptes of euery idle worde I haue soluted that before agaynst M. More that I thinke he shal say hym selfe that he is aunswered For if men shall geue a rekonyng for them on the day of dome as the text sayth that should rather argue that there were no Purgatory wherein those sinnes should be purged for if they had bene purged before of them then shoulde they not geue an accoumpte for them And if it proued any thyng at all it should proue that there were a Purgatory after domesday which no man was euer so foolish as to graunt But the true vnderstādyng of this text is this There are two kyndes of men one faythfull the other vnfaythfull The faythful through their fayth in Christes bloud are all
out of which all good fruites spring therfore it is necessary that this fayth be present or els we should looke for good workes in vayne for without fayth it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. Insomuch that S. Austine called those woorkes that are done before fayth swift running out of the way Moreouer that our merite cannot properly be ascribed vnto our workes doth the Euangelist teach vs saying Whē ye haue done all things that are commaunded you say we are vnprofitable seruaunts we haue done but our duety Luke 17. By the which saying he doth in a maner feare vs from putting any confidence in our own workes and so is our glorious pride and hygh minde excluded then where is our merite Harke what S. Austine sayth The death of the Lorde is my merite I am not without merite as long as that mercifull Lorde fayleth me not c. This death of the Lorde can not profite me except I receaue it through fayth and therfore he rekoneth right wel that the faith in Christ is all his merite I meane the fayth which worketh through charitie that is to say fayth formed with hope and charitie and not that dead historicall fayth which the deuils haue and tremble Iam. 2. Furthermore what S. Austine iudgeth of our merite he expresseth in these woordes marke the Psalme how the proud head will not receiue the crowne when he sayth he that redéemed thy life from corruption which crowneth thée sayth the Psalme Hereuppon woulde a man say which crowneth thée my merites graunt that my vertue hath done it I haue deserued it it is not fréely geuen but geue care rather to the pleasure for that is but thine owne saying and euery man is a lyer but heare what God sayth which crowneth thée in compassion and mercy of mercy he crowneth thée of compassion he crowneth thée for thou wast not worthye that he shoulde call thée and whome he should iustifie when he called thée and whome he shoulde glorifie when he iustifieth thée For the remnantes are saued by the election which is by grace fauour Rom. 11. Now if it be by grace thē is it not of woorkes for then were grace no grace Rom. 4. For vnto hym that worketh is the rewarde imputed not of grace but of duety Rom. 4. the Apostle sayth not of grace but of duety but he crowneth thée in compassion and mercy and if thy merites haue procéeded God sayth vnto thée boult out thy good merites and thou shalte finde that they are my giftes this is the righteousnesse of God not meaning the righteousnesse whereby he himselfe is right wise but the righteousnes wherewith he iustifieth them whome he maketh rightwise where before they were wicked These are Austines wordes Finallye let not that moue you where he addeth that a good woorke maketh not a good man but rather a good man maketh the woorke good for there is no man but he is eyther good or euyll If he be euill then can he not do good but euill for according to Christes testimonye A rotten trée beareth no good fruite Math. 7. And agayne he sayeth Howe can you say well séeing you your selues are euill Math. 12. But if he be good he shall also bring foorth good fruite at his season howbeit that fruite maketh not the man good for except the man be first good he can not bring foorth good fruite but the trée is knowne by the fruite And therfore fayth as a quickening roote must euer goe before whyche of wicked maketh vs ryghtwise and good which thing our workes coulde neuer bring to passe Out of thys fountayne spryng those good woorkes which iustifie vs before mē that is to saye declare vs to be verye rightwise for before God we are verely iustified by that roote of fayth for he searcheth the hart and therefore this iust iudge doth inwardly iustifie or condemne geuing sentence according to fayth but men must looke for the woorkes for theyr sight cannot enter into the hart and therfore they first geue iudgement of woorkes and are many times deceaued vnder the cloke of hypocrisie You may sée that here is nothyng but that a good man may expounde it well albeit the children of this world which with their wiles deceiue thē selues enteryng so presumptuously in to Gods iudgement do séeke a doubt where none is Go ye therfore and let charitie be your guide for God is charitie and though our Lawyers hart would breake yet must you néedes iudge him a Christē man which saith nothyng but that Scripture confirmeth And verely the iudgement of this cause came out of season and euē vngraciously vnto our Canonistes for they are cleane ignoraūt of Scripture therfore condemne all thinges that they read not in their law wherfore we renounce their sentence and appeale vnto the deuines which will soone knowe the voyce of theyr shepheard and gladly admitte those thynges which are allowed by the Scripture whereunto they are accustomed ¶ FINIS ¶ A Letter which Iohn Frith wrote vnto the faythfull folowers of Christes Gospell whyles he was prisoner in the Tower of London for the worde of God Anno. M. D. xxxij ¶ Grace and peace from God the father through our Sauiour Christe Iesu be with all them that loue the Lord vnfaynedly Amen IT can not bee expressed dearely beloued in the Lord what ioy and comfort it is to myhart to perceiue how the woorde of God hath wrought and continually worketh among you so that I finde no smal number walkyng in y t wayes of the Lord accordyng as he gaue vs commaundement willyng that we should loue ech other as he loued vs. Now haue I experience of the fayth which is in you and can testifie that it is without simulation that ye loue not in word and toung onely but in worke and veritie What can be more triall of a faythfull hart then to aduenture not onely to ayde and succour by the meanes of other whiche without daunger may not be admitted vnto vs but also personally to visite the poore oppressed sée that nothyng be lackyng vnto thē but that they haue both ghostly comfort and bodely sustenaunce notwith stādyng the strayte inhibition and terrible manacyng of these worldly rulers euen ready to abyde the extreme ieoperdies that tyraūts can imagine This is an euidence that you haue prepared your selues to the Crosse of Christ accordyng vnto the councell of the wise man which sayth my sonne when thou shalt enter into the way of the Lord prepare thy selfe vnto tribulation This is an euidence that ye haue cast your accomptes and haue wherewith to finish the tower which ye haue begon to builde And I doubt not but that he whiche hath begon to worke in you shall for his glory accōplish the same euē vnto the commyng of the Lord which shal giue vnto euery man accordyng to his déedes And albeit God of his secret iudgementes for a time kéepe the rod from some of them
signification and sought their health and righteousnes in the bodely worke and in the sacrifice it selfe then were they abhominable in the sight of God and then he cryed out of them both by the Prophet Dauid and Esay And likewise it is with our Sacramentes let vs therefore séeke vp the significations and go to the very thing which the sacrament is set to present vnto vs. And there shal we finde such fruitfull foode as shall neuer fayle vs but comfort our soules into life euerlastyng Now will I in order answer to M. Mores booke and as I finde occasion geuen me I shall indeuoure my selfe to supply that thyng which lacked in the first treatise and I trust I shall shewe such lyght that all men whose eyes the Prince of this worlde hath not blynded shall perceiue the truth of the scriptures and glory of Christ And where as in my first treatise the truth was set forth with all simplicitie and nothing armed against the assault of sophisters that haue I somewhat redressed in this booke haue brought bones filte for their téeth which if they be to busie may chaunce to choke them ¶ Thus beginneth the Preface of M. Mores booke IN my most harty wyse I recommende me vnto you and send you by this bringer the wryting againe which I receiued from you Whereof I haue bene offered a cople of copies mo in the mean while as late as ye wot well it was Deare brethren consider these wordes and prepare you to the crosse that Christ shall lay vppon you as ye haue oft bene counsaylled For euen as when the Wolfe howleth y e shéepe had nede to gather thēselues to their shepheard to be deliuered from the assault of the bloudy beast likewyse had you nede to slye vnto the shepheard of your soules Christ Iesus to sell your coates and buye his spirituall sworde which is the word of God to defende and deliuer you in this present necessitie for now is the tyme that Christ tolde vs of Math. x. that he was come by his worde to set variaunce betwene the sonne and his father betwene the daughter and her mother betwene the daughter in lawe and her mother in lawe that in a mans owne householde shall be his enemies But be not dismayde nor thinke it no wonder for Christe those twelue and one of them was y e Deuill and betrayed his master And we that are his disciples may loke for no better than he had himself for the scholer is not aboue his mayster Saint Paule protesteth y e he was in perill among false brethren surely I suppose that we are in no lesse ieopardye For if it be so that hys mastership receiued one copye and had a cople of copyes moe offered in the meane while then may ye be sure that there are many false brethren which pretend to haue knowledge in déede are but pykethankes prouiding for their bellye prepare ye therfore clokes for the weather waxeth cloudy and rayne is like to followe I meane not false excuses and forswearing of your selues but that ye loke substantially vpon Gods worde that you may be able to answere their subtle obiections And rather chuse manfully to dye for Christ and hys worde than cowardlye to deny hym for thys vayne and transitory lyfe cōsidering that they haue no further power but ouer this corruptible bodye which if they put it not to death must yet at y e length perish of it selfe But I trust the Lord shall not suffer you to be tēpted aboue that you may beare but according to y e sprite that he shall poure vppon you shall he also sende you the scourge and make hym that hath receiued more of the sprite to suffer more and him that receiueth lesse thereof to suffer according to his Talent I thought it necessary first to admonishe you of this matter and now I will recite more of M. Mores boke Whereby men may see how gredely these newe named brethren writeit out secretly spread it abroade The name is of great antiquitie although you liste to ieste For they were called brethrē ere our Bishops were called Lordes and had y e name geuen them by Christ saying Math. xxiij all ye are brethren And Luke y ◠xxij Confirme they brethren And the name was cōtinued by the Apostles and is a name that nourisheth loue amitie And very glad I am to heare of their gredy affection in writing out and spreading abroade the worde of God for by that I do perceiue the prophesie of Amos to haue place which sayth In the person of God I will send hunger and thyrste into the earth not hunger for meate nor thurst for drinke But for to here the word of God Now begynneth the kyngdome of heauen to suffer violence Now runne the poore Publicanes which knowledge them selues sinners to the word of God puttyng both goodes and body in ieoperdy for the soule health And though our Byshops do call it heresie and all them heretickes that hunges after it yet do we know that it is the Gospell of the lyuyng God for the health and saluation of all that beleue And as for the name doth nothing offēde vs though they call it heresie a thousand tymes For S. Paule testifieth that the Phariseis and Priestes which were counted the very Church in hys tyme dyd so call it and therefore it foreceth not though they ruling in their rowmes vse the same names Which young mā I here say hath lately made diuers other thynges that yet runne in hoker moker so close amōg the brethren that there commeth no copies abroad I aunswere that surely I can not spynne and I thinke no mā more hateth to be idle then I do Wherfore in such thynges as I am able to doe I shal be diligēt as long as God lendeth me my lyfe And if ye thinke I be to busie you may rid me the sooner for euen as the shéepe is in the butchers handes ready bound and looketh but euen for the grace of the butcher whē he shall shed his bloud Euen so am I bounde at the Byshops pleasures euer lookyng for the day of my death In so much that playne worde was sent me that the Chauncelour of Lōdon sayd it should cost me the best bloud in my body whiche I would gladly were shed to morow if so be it might open the kyngs graces eyen And verely I maruell that any thing can runne in hoker moker or be hyd from you For sith you mought haue such store of copyes concernyng the thyng whiche I most desired to haue ben kept secret how should you then lacke a copye of those thynges which I most would haue published And hereof ye may be sure I care not though you and all the Byshops with in England looke on all that euer I wrote but rather would be glad that ye so dyd
naturall reasons be not worth the reasoning I will alledge you some moe to sée what you can say to them First euery sacrament is the signe of an holy thyng but the sacrament of the altar is a sacrament as all faythfull meÌ„ confesse ergo it must follow that the sacrament of the altar is the signe of an holy thyng Now if it be the signe of an holy thyng then it is not the holy thyng it selfe which it doth signifie and represent Why shoulde we then feare to call that bread a figure that is to say a sacrament of that holy body of our Lord and Sauiour 2. Besides that I woulde know of what necessitie or profite hys fleshe must be present in the sacrament For the presence of hys fleshe can no more profite vs then doth the remeÌ„brance of hys body but thys remembraunce may as well be done by the sacrameÌ„t as though hys bodye were present And therefore â—ith God and nature make nought in vayne it followeth coÌ„sequently y t his naturall flesh is not there but onely a memoriall therof 3. Furthermore the end and finall cause of a thyng is euer better then those thynges which are prouided for the end as the house is better then the lyme stone and timber which are prouided for the house but the ende and finall cause of the sacrament is the remembraunce of Christes body and thereupon it must followe that if the sacrament be hys naturall bodye that the remembraunce of Christes body should be better then hys body it selfe Which thyng is to be abhorred of all faythfull men 4. It were fondnes to fayne that the soule did otherwise eate then do the Angels in heauen and their meate is only the Ioy and delectation that they haue of God and of his glory and euen so doth the soule which is here vpon the earth eate through fayth the body of Christ which is in heauen For it deliteth and reioyceth whiles it vnderstandeth through fayth that Christ hath taken our sinnes vpon him and pacified the fathers wrath Neyther it is necessarie that for that or for this cause that his flesh should be present For a man may as well loue and reioyce in the thing which is from him not present as though it were present by hym of that manner 5. Moreouer the bread is Christes body euen as y e breaking of y e bread is the death of his body Now the breaking of bread at the maundy is not the very death of Christes body but onely a representatioÌ„ oâ— the same al be it the minde through fayth doth spirituallye behold his very death euen likewise that naturall bread is not the very body of our Lord but only a sacrament signe memoriall or representation of this same albeit through the monision therof y e mynde through fayth doth spiritually behold the very body And surely therof if a man be faythfull the sprite of God worketh in his hart very swéetely at his communion 6. Finally it was not lawfull to eate or drinke the bloud not onely of man but also of a brute beaste and the Apostels them selues moued by y e rule of Charitie did institute y â— meÌ„ should abstayne from bloud somewhat sauâ— ring the infirmitie of y â— Iewes Now if the Apostels had taught as ye do that in the sacrament his very fleshe and bloud is eaten and dronke with the téeth and mouth of faythfull and vnfaythfull what could haue bene a greater occasion to haue excluded the Iewes from Christes fayth euen at once Thinke you that Apostles would not haue bene to scrupulous to haue dronkeÌ„ his very bloud seing it was so playne agaynst Moses lawe if they had vnderstand hym so grossely as ye do Peter had a cloth sent downe from heauen in which were all manner of beastes forbidden by y e law and was commaunded to slay eate them And he aunswered God forbid for I neuer eate any vncleane thing meaning therby that he neuer eate any thing forbidden by the law Wherof it must néedes follow that either he neuer receiâ—ed the sacrameÌ„t whiche is playne false or elles that hee more spiritually vnderstode the wordes of Christes maundie then ye falslye fayne For it was plainely forbidden by the law to eate or drinke any maner of bloud And I know but one reason that they haue which they count insoluble how â—e it by Godes grace we shall sone auoyde it There reason is this Paule sayth he that eateth and drinketh this sacrament vnworthely shall be gilty of the body and bloud of the Lord. Now say they how should they be gilty of the Lords body and bloud which receiue it vnworthely except it were the very body and bloud of the Lord This argument I say is very weake and slender For I can shew many examples by the which it may be dissolued for he that despiseth the kinges seale or letters offendeth agaynst his owne person and yet the letter or seale is not his owne person He that violently plucketh downe his graces armes or breaketh his broade seale with a furious minde or violence committeth treason against his owne person And yet his armes and broad seale are not his owne person He that clippeth the kings coyne committeth treason against y e kynges person and the common wealth and yet the mony is neither his graces person nor the common wealth And therfore your argumeÌ„t is but weake and slender For euen as a man doth offende against the princes person by dispising his armes seale or letters So doth a man offend agaynst Christes body and bloud by abusing the sacrament of his body and bloud although he be not there present as y e kinges person is not present in his armes seale or letters Besides that S. Paule saith that euery man which prayeth or prophecieth with couered hed shameth his hed and his hed is Christ shall we therfore Imagin that Christ is naturallye in euery mans hed as your argument coÌ„cludeth For soth that were a prety phantasie Finally S. Austen sayth y â— he doth no lesse sinne which negligently heareth y e worde of God then doth the other whiche vnworthely receiueth y e sacrament of Christes body bloud Now if this be true then is your reason not worth a rishe For Christes naturall body is not in y e word which is preached as all men knowe And yet he sinneth no lesse that negligently heareth it then doth he that vnworthely receiueth the sacrament And thus you see their insoluble argument easely dissolued ¶ But now must this yong man consider againe that him selfe confesseth that the cause for which him selfe sayth that Christ in so saying did so meane is because that if he should haue ment so it was impossible to God to bring his meaning about that is to say that Christes body might be in two places at once And therfore but if he proue that thing impossible for God to doe els he
euē it that I sayd before that it was not possible to stand with the processe of the Scripture which we haue receaued And now hys mastership hath graunted it hym selfe which you may be sure he would not haue done if hee coulde otherwyse auoyde it And here you may see how sore I haue ouerséene my selfe God forbid that any man should be the more prone ready to beleue this yong man in this greate matter because he sayth in the beginning that he will bring all men to a concord a quietnes of conscience for he bringeth men to the worst kinde of quietnes that may be deuised when he telleth vs as he doth that euery man in this matter may without perell beleue which way he list Euery man may in euery matter without any counsell sone set hym self at rest if he list to take that way and to beleue as he list him selfe care not how But and if that way had bene sure S. Paule would neuer haue shewed that many were in perill of sicknes and death to For lacke of discerning reuerently the body of our Lord in that sacrament when they came to receiue hym When Christ should depart this world and go to his Father he gaue his desciples a commaundement that they should loue ech other saying by this shall all men knowe that ye are my disciples if you loue ech other as I haue loued you This rule of charitie wolde I not haue broken which notwithstanding is often in Ieopardie among faythfull folke for this sacrament of vnitie This thing considered I thought necessarie to aduertise both parties to saue this rule of charitie and proued in y e first chapter of my treatise that it was no article of the fayth necessary to be beleued vnder payne of damnatiō and therfore that they were to blame that would be contencious for the matter For sith it is no article of the fayth that may lawfully dissent without all Ieoperdye néede not to breake the rule of charitye but rather to receiue the other like pore brethren As by example Some thinke that the mariage betwéene our most redoubted prince Quéene Katerine is lawfull may stand with y ◠lawes of God some thinke that it is vnlawfull and ought to be disanulled now if we should for this matter breake the rule of charitie and euery man hate his neighbour that would not thinke as he doth then were we greatly to blame and in Ieoperdie of condemnation This I say I proued in y e first chapter against which More maketh no busines and improueth it not whereby you may soone gather that it is very true For els sith his mastership so laboureth in these other pointes he would not haue left y ◠vntouched you may be sure This is the concorde that I woulde bring them vnto And as touching quietnes of conscience I haue knowne manye that haue sore bene combred with it And among all A certaine master of arte which died in Oxford confessed vpon his death bed that he had wept lying in his bed an hundreth nyghtes within one yeares space because he coulde not beleue it Now if he had knowne it had bene no necessarye article what comfort quietnes should it haue bene vnto hym Furthermore euery man can not so quiet him selfe as M. More Imagineth For there are many that thinke them selues no small fooles which when they haue receiued some foolish superstition eyther by their owne Imagination or by beleuing their gossepes gospel and olde wiues tales by and by thinke the contrary to be deadly sinne and vtterly forbidden by Christes Gospell As by example I know an house of Religion wherein is a person that thinketh it deadly sinne to go ouer a strawe if it lye a crosse And if their be on the pauement any paynted picture or any Image grauen on a dead mans graue he will not tread vpon it although he should goe a forelong about What is this but vayne superstition wherewith the conscience is combred and corrupted May not this be wéeded out with the word of God shewing hym that it is none article of the fayth so to thinke then to tell hym that it is not forbidden by the scripture and that it is no sinne Now albeit his conscience be so cankerd that the rust will not be rubbed out yet with Gods grace some other whom he hath enfecte with the same may come agayne to Gods word and be cured full well which shoulde neuer haue bene able to quiet thēselues And likewise there are some which beleue as your superstitious hartes haue informed them and these can not quiet thēselues because they beleue y e you haue fet your doctrine out of scripture But when it is proued to them and they them selues perceiue that scripture sayth not so then can they not be content to thinke the contrary and iudge it no sinne at all And as touching S. Paule suerely ye take hym wrong for I will shew you what processe he taketh and how he is to be vnderstode but because it is not possible to finishe it in fewe words I shall deferre it vnto y e bokes ende and then I shall declare hym at large And what a facion is this to say that we may beleue if we list that there is the very body of our Lord in dede and then to tell vs for a truth that such a fayth is impossible to be true For God him selfe can neuer bring it about to make his body be there Yf a man take the bare wordes of Christ and of simplicitie be deceiued and thinke that his very body be in y e sacrament present to their téeth that eate it I dare not say that he sinneth therein but will referre the matter vnto Gods iudgement and yet without doubt I dare say he is deceaued As by example If a man deceaued by the literall sense would think that men should preach to fishes as Saint Fraunces did because Christ bad his disciples goe preach to all creatures yet would not I thinke y t he sinned therein but will referre hym vnto Gods Iudgment But yet I wene euery woman that hath any wit will say that he was deceiued I am very sure that the olde holy doctours which beleued Christes body and bloud to be there and so taught other to beleue as by there bookes playnly doth apere if they had thought eyther that it could not be there or that it was not ther in dede they would not for all the good in this world haue written as they haue done For would those holy men wene you haue taught that men be bound to beleue that the very body and bloud of Christ is there if thē selues thought they were not bound there to woulde they make men honoure and worship that thing as the very body bloud of Christ which them selues thought were not it this geare is to childish to
dare presume so to depresse hys prerogatiue and not onely to say but also to publishe it in Print that notwithstanding his graces safe conduite they might lawfully haue burnt hym But here he would say vnto me as he doth in his booke that hee had forfayted his safeconduite and therby was fallen into his enemyes handes Whereunto I aunswere that this your saying is but a vayne glose For I my selfe dyd read the safeconduite that came vnto hym which had but onely this one condition annexed vnto it that if he came before the feast of Christmasse then next insueing he should haue frée libertie to departe at his pleasure And this condition I know was fulfilled how should hée then forfayte his safeconduite But M â–ª More hath learned of his masters our Prelates whose proctour he is to depresse our Princes prerogatiue that men ought not to kéepe any promise with heretickes And so his safe conduite could not saue hym As though the Kynges grace might not admitte any man to go and come fréely into his graces realme but that he must haue leaue of our Prelates For els they might lay heresie agaynst the person and so slay hym coÌ„trary to the Kyngs safeconduite which thyng all wise men do know to be preiudiciall to his graces prerogatiue royall And yet I am sure that of all y â— tyme of hys beyng here you caÌ„ not accuse hym of one cryme albeit vnto your shame you say that hee had forfaited his safe conduite These wordes had ben very extreme and worthy to haue bene looked vpon although they had bene written by some presumptuous Prelate But that a lay man so hyghly promoted by his Prince should speake them and also cause them openlye to be published among his graces commons to reiect the estimation of hys royall power doth in my mynde deserue correction Notwithstandyng I leaue the iudgement and determination vnto the discretion of his graces honorable counsell And as for that holy prayer that this deuote young man as a newe Christ teacheth to make at the receiuyng of this blessed Sacrament all his congregation I would not geue the paryng of a peare for hys prayer though it were better then it is pullyng away the true fayth therefro as he doth How beit hys prayer there is so deuised and penned and paynted with laysure and study that I trust euery good Christen woman maketh a much better prayer at the tyme of her housell by faythâ—ull affection and by Gods good inspiration sodenly Frith is an vnmete master to teach vs what we should pray at the receiuyng of the blessed Sacrament when he wil not knowledge it as it is but take Christes blessed body for nothyng but bare bread and so litle esteme the receiuyng of the blessed Sacrament that he forceth litle whether it be blessed or not Where he discoÌ„mendeth my prayer sayth that I am an vnméete master to teach men to pray seing I take away the true faith from it and sayth that euery woman can make a better when she receiueth the Sacrament I would to God that euery woman were so well learned that they could teach vs both And surely I intended not to prescribe to all men that prayer onely but hoped to helpe the ignoraunt that they might either speake those wordes or els takyng occasion at them to say some other to y e laude and prayse of God And as for your fayth which you call the true fayth must I néedes improue For it will not stand with the true text of Scripture as it playnly appeareth But to the fayth in Christes bloud I exhorte all men and teach them to eate hys body with fayth and not with téeth which is by hauyng hys death in continual remembraunce and digestyng it into the bowels of theyr soule And because you so sore improue my prayer to conclude my aunswere agaynst you I will write agayne And let all men Iudge between vs. Blessed be thou most deare mercyfull father whiche of thy tender fauour and benignity notwithstaÌ„ding our greuous enormities committed agaynst thée vouchsauedst to sende thyne owne and onely deare sonne to suffer most vyle death for our redemption Blessed be thou Christ Iesu our Lord and Sauiour whiche of thyne aboundaunt pitie consideryng our miserable estate willingly tookest vppon thée to haue thy most innocent body broken and bloud shed to purge vs and wash vs which are laden with iniquitie And to certifie vs thereof hast left vs not onely thy word which may instructe our hartes but also a visible token to certifie euen our outward seÌ„ses of this great benefite that we should not doubt but that the body and fruite of thy passion are ours through faith as surely as the bread whiche by our senses we know that we haue with in vs. Blessed be also that spirite of veritie whiche is sent froÌ„ God our father through our Sauiour Christ Iesu to lighteÌ„ our darke ignoraunce leade vs through fayth into the knowledge of hym whiche is all veritie Strength we beseech thée our frayle nature and increase our fayth that we may prayse God our most mercyfull father and Christ hys sonne our Sauiour and redemer Amen The Pascall lambe and our sacrament are here compared togither NOw we shall shortly expresse the pith of our matter and borow the figure of the Pascall lambe which is in all pointes so lyke that the offeryng of the Pascall lambe did signisie the offering of Christes body is playne by Paul which sayth Christ our paschall lambe is offered vp for vs. When the children of Israell were very sad and heuye for their sore oppression vnder the power of Pharao for the more myracles were shewed y e worse were they handeled God sent vnto them by Moyses y t euery houshold should kill a lambe to be a sacrifice vnto God and that they should eate him with their staues in their handes their loynes girded showes on their féete eueÌ„ as meÌ„ y t were going an hasty Iorney This lambe must they eate hastely and make a mery maundye Now because they should not say that they could not bee mery for their oppression and what could the lambe helpe them he added glad tydynges vnio it and sayd this is the passing by of the Lord. Which this night shall passe by you and slay all y e first begotten with in the Land of Egipt shall deliuer you out of your bondage and bring you into y e land that hée hath promised vnto yourfathers Marke the processe and conueyaunce of this matter for euen likewise it is in our sacrament The Apostels were sad and heauie partlye coÌ„sidering y e bondage of sinne wherwith they were opressed partly because hee told them that he must departe froÌ„ them in whoÌ„ they did put all their hope of their deliueraunce While they were in this heauynes Christ thought to coÌ„fort theÌ„ to geue them the seale
a coÌ„pany of all them that doe professe Christ that all that haue suffered and confessed his name be Sayntes and that all they doe laâ—de and prayse God in heauen more then I or any mannes tongue can expresse and that alwayes I haue spoken reuerently of Saintes and praysed them asmuch as scripture willed me to doe And that our Lady I say shée was a vergyn immaculate and vndefiled and that shée is the most purest virgin that euer God created and a vessell of God elected of whome Iesus Christ should be borne Then the shriefe somwhat stayeing him and hastening him to make an ende he turned him to the people and desired all men to forgeue him and if he had said any euell at any tyme vnaduisedly wherby he had offended any man or geuen any occasion of euell that they would forgeue it him and amende that euell they tooke of him and to beare witnes that he detested and abhorred all euill opinions and doctrines against the word of God and that he dyed in the fayth of Iesus Christ by whom he doubted not but to be saued And with those wordes he desired them all to pray for him and then turned him about and put of his clothes and made him ready to the fyre where patientlye he suffered the bitter and cruell Martirdome and death And the lyke dyd the other his companioÌ„s that suffered with him Which was in the yeare of our Lorde 1541. A Supplication vnto the most gracious Prince King Henry viij ¶ Grace and peace from God the father of our Sauiour Iesus Christ be with your most noble and excellent grace for euer Amen IN most huÌ„ble wise coÌ„plaineth vnto your grace your continuall oratour Robert Barnes of the intollerable iniuries wronges and oppressions wherwith certaine Byshops of your realme vexe and haue vexed contrary vnto the worde of God and their ownelawes and doctors not onely me but also all true preachers professors of the same in condemning them for heretickes as they did me whiche thing they were not able to proue by the Scripture of God nor yet shall if it would please your grace indifferently according to the office wherein God hath set you to heare the small as well as the great and to sustaine your poore Orator agaynst their violence and strength God I take to recorde that I am right sory to make thys complaint vnto your grace against them if I could coniecture any other meane to cause them to redresse their intollerable oppressions wherewith they dayly oppresse your poore and true subiectes so sore and so violently that without doubt if your grace sée not shortly a remedy God must néedes punishe For I doe not beléeue that euer hée will suffer long so great tyranny against his worde and so violent oppression of true Christen meÌ„ as they doe now vse and that in the name of Christ and hys holy Church For verely wée doe not read in any memoryes that our fathers haue left vs that euer the people were vnder so great tyranny as now your poore subiectes bée vnto theÌ„ Now it is so farre come that what soeuer hée bée hye or lowe poore or riche wise or foolishe that speaketh agaynst them and their vicious liuing hée is either made a traytor vnto your grace or an hereticke agaynst holy Church as though they were Kings or Gods This may your most excellent grace perfectlye know if you call to remembraunce those good men that they haue had to doe with Is it not a maruelous court that they haue wherein there was neuer man accused of heresie were hée learned or not learned but they found him gilty Is not that a maruelous court y e neuer hath innocentes What court within your realme may say thys againe And if any maÌ„ speak of Gods law and right conscience agaynst thys damnable tyranny little will they stick to make him an heretick And if that will not helpe to colour and maintaine their oppression then adde they treason against your grace though hée bée neuer so true a subiect and all vnlikly to make any resistaunce or to thinke any euill vnto your grace Now if it please your grace let vs consider to what ende this vncharitable and vnrighteous accusation of the Byshops yea rather of y e diuell is inuented First if there bée any men y e preach dispute or put forth in writing any thing not towching theÌ„ though it bée neuer so blasphemous against God y e bloud of Christ and his holy worde they will not once be moued therew t the examples thereof are so playne y t it néedeth no proufe Your grace may sée what blasphemous rubrikes they allow against y t bloud of Christ what shamefull abhominable pardoÌ„s they they tollerate admyt what disputations they doe mayntaine to proue y t Pope a God no man hauing these wordes That the Pope is neyther God nor man And whether y e Pope can sinne or not that no man can condemne the Pope though hée bring innumerable soules to hell by his occasion Agayne let vs consider that if any maÌ„ but once speake agaynst their cloked ipocrisie or against neuer so litle a thing y t longeth to them by the which their abhominations shoulde be disclosed And we shall euydently perceaue that their can no scripture no place no maistership nor excuse in the world saue but hée must eyther to open shame or cruell death So that is playne that their cruelnes serueth to no other ende but as they should saye yf that any man wyll take in haÌ„d to preache the verety and the true Gospel of their Maister Christ purely wherby those winnings should be deminyshed wherwith we mayntayne our honour our dignity our worldly promotion our delicious lyuing our gorgious apparel our suÌ„ptuous pallaces our lordships breifly all things that we vse to our pastime pleasure should bée manifest to all meÌ„ y e we not only get these thinges by false fayned holynes in deceyuing and robbing the people of their goodes but also y e dyspendyng of them to bée abhomynable and contrary to the ordynance and worde of God Now rather then this should come to passe we had leuer gather our streÌ„gth togither oppresse by vyoleÌ„ce as many as wil hold w t this learning bée hée King Duke Lorde Baron knight man womaÌ„ or childe So that by there practise it is euident to all that will sée that it is they that goe about to make insurrection to y t mayntayning of their world ly pompe and pride and not the true preacher for hée entendeth to mayntayne nothing but to bring to light the most glorious heauenly word of God which by them hath béene darkened and kept vnder and that with suffering persecution as the nature of the worde is and not with persecuting for he maketh no stryuyng yf bée bée the true preacher of God nor fighting for this worlde but suffereth the children
could vsed all maner of cruelnes to haue destroyed mée Neuertheles at y e last hée deliuered mée y â— roole for to reade TheÌ„ was all y e people y â— stoode there called to heare me For in y e other iij. dayes was there no man suffered to heare one worde that I spake So after their commaundement that was geuen mée I red it adding nothing to it nor saying one word that might make for myne excuse supposing that I should haue founde the Byshoppes the better After this I was commaunded to subscribe to it to make a crosse on it Then was I commaunded to goe knéele downe before the Byshop of Bathe and to require absolution of hym but hée woulde not assoyle mée except I woulde first sweare that I woulde fulfill the penaunce that hée shoulde enioyne to mée So did I sweare not yet suspectinge but theâ—e men had had some cromme of charitie within them But when I had sworne then enioyned hée mée that I should returne that nyght agayne to pryson And the nexte day which was Fastingam Sonday I should doe open penaunce at Paules And that the worlde shoulde thynke that I was a marueylous haynous heretyke the Cardinall came the next day with all y e pompe and pride that hée could make to Paules church and all to bring mée poore soule out of consayte And moreouer were there commaunded to come all y e byshops that were at London and all the abbots dwelling in London that dyd weare miters in so much that the prior of S. Mary spittell and an other moncke which I thinke was of Tower hill were there also in their myters And to set the matter more forth that the world should perfectly know perceiue that the spirituall fathers had determined my matter substancially The byshop of Rochester must preach there the same day and all his sermon was agaynst Lutherians as though they had coÌ„uicted me for one The which of truth and afore God was as farre from those thinges as any man could bée sauing that I was no tyraÌ„t nor no persecutour of Gods worde And all this gorgyous fasing with myters and crostaues abbotts and priors were done but to blinde the people and to outface mée God amend all thinges that is amysse I had béene well content to haue suffered all these thinges so I might haue come to a charitable end But I must returne agayne after this to prison there remayne tyll my Lord Cardinals farther pleasure The which pleasure I did abide fyrst and last â–ª 2. yeares and thrée quarters yet could neuer bée at any poynt with theÌ„ For I sent vnto y â— byshop of London that was then certayne worshipfull men of the Cyty of LoÌ„don whose names bée these Mayster Lambert which hath béene Maior M. Raynold which hath béene shreue M. Palmer M. Petyt M. Iones and M. Pernell And desyred these men in the way of charitie to goe to the Byshop of London and to desire him to bée good and gracious vnto mée And if I had offended I would bée glad to make amends asmuch as hée should reasonably require of mée Desiring hym to shew theÌ„ what hée would of his charitie require me to doe they for to bée bound vnto hym y e I would kéepe it This they dyd But what aunswer y e they had of hym they bée men aliue for the most part they can tell And amongst all other maister Petit sayd vnto the byshop Alas my Lorde it is a petuous case If a man come in the daunger of your lawe there is no remedy to helpe hym out Yes saydâ— the byshop What is that sayd maister Petyt This is a yong man hath good frendes which would bée right lothe to haue him cast away wherefore if there bée any remedy deuise you it and we wil bée bound for him At this the byshop was astonyed and sayde at the last that hée would speake to my Lorde Cardinal for mée Then these meÌ„ offered him to goe with him and to bée bounde for mée Hée sayde it should not néede But neuertheles hée spake so vnto them or they departed that wheÌ„ they came home there was not one of them that durst geue mée so much bread meat as hée durst geue his dog nor yet speake one word to mée Immediatelye after this the byshop founde y e meanes that I was sent to northaÌ„pton there to remayne as in a perpetuall prison Thus most gracious prince haue they handled me your poore Oratour I beseche your highnes to bée good and gracious vnto mée iudge if this bée charitable dealyng thus to coÌ„demne mée for an heretyke not to shew mee the poynt wherefore But euen with a violent tyrannye to compeil mée to doe confesse what they will or els to bée put to death And if there bée any of them yet y e will come forth and proue any of these articles heresye I will not refuse to suffer any payne that your grace shall iudge me worthy Thus our Lord Iesus Christe preserue your noble grace euermore Amen Onely fayth iustifieth before God NOw if your grace doe not take vppon you to heare the disputation the probation of this article out of the grouÌ„d of the holy Scripture my Lordes the Bishops will condeÌ„ne it afore they read it as their maner is to doe with all thynges that pleaseth them not and which they vnderstand not and then crye they heresy heresie an hereticke an hereticke hée ought not to bée heard for his matters bée condemned by the Church by his holy fathers and by all long customes and by all maner of lawes Vnto whom with your graces fauour I make this auÌ„swere I would know of them if all these things that they haue reckened can ouercome Christ and his holy worde or set the holy ghost to schole And if they can not why should not I then bée heards that doe require it in the name of Christ and also bryng for me his holy worde the holy fathers which haue vnderstand Gods worde as I doe Therfore though they will not heare me yet must they néedes heare them In holy Scripture Christ is nothing els but a Sauiour a redéemer a iustifier a perfect peace maker betwene God and man This testimony dyd y e aungell geue of him in these wordes Hée shall saue his people from theyr sinnes And also S. Paule Christ is made our righteousnes our satisfaction and our redemption Moreouer the Prophet witnesseth the same saying For the wretchednes of my people haue I striken him So that here haue we Christ with his properties Now if we wil truly coÌ„fesse Christ then must we grauÌ„t with our hartes that Christ is all our iustice all our redemption all our wisedome all our holynes all alonely the purchaser of grace alonly y e peace maker betwéene God and man Briefely all goodnes that we haue y e it is of hym by him and for his
byshopryke of the kinges grace How will you bée able by your workes to deserue heauen and iustification before the king of all kynges When you haue aunswered to this before the kinges grace then come and dispute with God the iustification of your workes and yet shall they bée farre vnlike Wherfore I conclud of these scriptures and of these doctours that the fayth that we haue in Christ Iesus and his blessed bloude doth onely and sufficiently iustifie vs béefore God without the helpe of any workes And though y e all scripture bee no thing els but a holle probacion of this article that is alonely a perfect commeÌ„dation and a prayse of Christ and of his blessed merites that hée hath deserued for vs yet will I passe ouer to bryng in any moe places For they y e are not coÌ„teÌ„t with these scriptures wyll not bée satisfied nor yet content to geue al onely glory to God though I brought in all the newe testament Yea Christ hym selfe could not satisfie them if hee were here no nor yet though heauen and earth and all creatures therin were nothyng els but probations of this article it would not helpe Wherefore I let such infidels passe and leue them to the iudgement of God alonely certifieng them of this one thyng that is infallible how the day shall come that it shall repent them yea and that sorer then I can either write or thinke that they did not beléeue the lest pricke of this holy article But vnto our purpose The very true way of iustification is this First commeth God for the loue of Christe Iesus alonely of his mere mercy and geueth vs fréely the gift of fayth wherby we doe beleeue God his holy word and sticke fast vnto the promises of God and beléeue that though heauen and earth and all that is in them should perish and come to nought yet God shall bée founde true in his promises for this faythe 's sake bée we the elect children of God This is not such a fayth as men dreame when they beléeue that there is one God and beléeue that hée is eternall beléeue also that hée made the worlde of naught yea and beléeue that the Gospell is true and all thing that God speaketh must bée true and fulfilled with other such thynges This I say is not the fayth that wée bée iustified by for deuils and infidels haue this fayth â—and also wée may attayne to these thynges by strength of reason But the fayth that shall iustifie vs must bée of an other maner of strength for it must come from heauen and not from the strength of reason It must also make mée beléeue that God the maker of heauen and earth is not alonely a father but also my father yea and that thorow the fauour that Christ hath purchased mée from the whiche fauour neither heauen nor earth tribulation nor persecution death nor hell can deuide mée But to this sticke I fast that hée is not alonely my father but also a mercifull father yea and that vnto mée mercifull and so mercifull that hée will not impute my sinnes vnto mée though they bée neuer so great so long as I hang on the blessed bloud of Christ Iesus and sinne not of malice but of frailtie and of no pleasure Hée is also a lyberall father yea and that vnto mée liberall which will not alonely promise mée all thynges but also géeue them me whether they bée necessary to the body or to y e soule Hée is also not alonely lyberall but myghty to performe all thynges that hée promyseth vnto mée Briefely this fayth maketh mée to hang clearely of God and of his blessed promyses made in Christ and in his swéete and precious bloud and not to feare death nor any affliction nor persecution nor tribulation but to despise all these thynges and not alonely these but to despise also myne own lyfe for Christes sake Finally of a fleshely beast it maketh mée a spirituall man of a damnable child it maketh mée a heauenly sonne of a seruaunt of the deuill it maketh mée a frée maÌ„ of Gods both deliuered from the lawe from sinne from death from the deuill and from all myserie that might hurt mée My Lordes this is the fayth that doth iustifie and that wée do preach And because it is geuen from heauen into our hartes by the spirite of God therfore it can bée no idle thing But it must néedes do all maner of things y e bée to the honour of God and also to the profite of our neighbour In so much that at all tymes necessary it must néedes worke well also bryng forth all good workes that may bée to the profite and helping of any man But these workes bée not done to iustifie the man but a iust man must néedes doe them Not vnto his profite but alonely to other mens profites euen as our maister Christ suffered hunger and thyrste and persecution and tooke great labours in preaching of his worde yea and also suffered death All these thinges I say did hée not to further or to profite himselfe but for our merites and for our profite So likewise doth a iust man his workes And as a good trée in tyme of the yeare bryngeth forth good Apples not to make hym good for hée is good afore nor yet this apple is not to his profite but vnto other mens notwithstanding y e good nature that is in hym muste néedes bring it forth So likewise the iust man must néedes doe good workes not by them to bée iustified but alonely in them to serue his brother for hée hath no néede of them as concerning his iustification Wherfore now here haue you the very true cause of iustification that is fayth alonely And also the very true way and maner of doynge good workes And how that no man can doe good workes but a iustified man as our maister Christ sayth Eyther make the trée good and then his fruite good or els the trée euill and his fruit euill for a good trée must néedes bring forth good fruite and a badde euyll fruite But now let mée aunswere to the Scriptures and to the reasons that they bring to prooue that workes doe iustifie First commeth the fleshly and dampnable reason and shée sayth If wée bée iustified alonely by fayth what néede wée to doe any good workes what néede wée to crucifie or mortifie our fleshe for all these wil not profite vs and wée shall bée saued though wée doe none of theÌ„ all Thus did blinde reason dispute with Saint Paule when that hée had proued that God of his mercy had deliuered vs fréely from the damnable bondage of the law Anone hée iudged that he might do what hée would for hée was no loÌ„ger vnder the law To this S. Paule auÌ„swereth y â— if wée obey vnto y â— workes of sinne then are we the seruauntes of sinne if we obey to the workes of iustice
outward workes but neuertheles charitie iudgeth well of all thinges that haue a good outward showe and bée not opēly agaynst the word of God But it is no ieoperdy though charitie bée deceiued for it is opē to all ieoperdies but fayth is neuer deceiued Now to our purpose that where the worde of God is preached truely it is a good a perfite token that there bée some mē of Christes church This may bée prooued by Chrisostomes wordes they that bée in Iudea let thē flée vp into the mountaines that is to say they that bée in Christendome let them geue thē selues to Scriptures Wherfore commaundeth hée that all Christened men in that tyme should flye vnto Scriptures for in that tyme in the which heresies haue crept into the Church there can bée no true probation of Christendome nor no other refuge vnto Christen men willyng to know the veritie of fayth but y e Scriptures of God Afore by many wayes was it shewed which was the Church of Christ and which was the congregation of Gentiles but now there is no other way to them that will know whiche is the very true Churche of Christ but alonely by scriptures By workes first was the church of Christ knowen when the conuersation of Christen men either of all or of many were holy the which holynes had not the wicked men but nowe Christen men bée as euill or worsse then heretickes or Gentiles yea greater continencie is founde among them then among Christen men Wherefore hée that will knowe which is y e very church of christ how shall hée knowe it but by Scriptures onely Wherfore our Lord cōsidering that so greate confusion of thynges should come in the latter dayes therfore commaundeth hée that Christen men which bée in Christendome willing to reserue the stedfastnes of true fayth should flye vnto no other thyng but vnto Scriptures for if they haue respect vnto other thynges they shall bée sclaundered and shall perishe not vnderstandyng whiche is the true Church c. These wordes néede no exposition they bée plaine inough they doe also exclude all maner of learning sauing holy scripture Wherefore sée how you can with honestie saue your holy lawes and defend them against Chrisostome Moreouer if Chrisostome complayne of the incontenency that was in his dayes how would hée complaine if hée now liued sawe the baudry and fornication that is in the Church And also he sendeth men to scriptures that will know the holy Church and not vnto y e holy Church for in the Church were heresyes but not in scripture Also S. Paule witneseth the same saying you are built vpon the foundacion of the Apostles and Prophets heare haue you playnely that the very trewe Church is grounded yea and founded of holy scripture and therefore wheresoeuer that the worde of God is preached that is a good token that there bée some men of Christes Church But now as to the fruites and workes of this Church she doth all onely fetch out her maner of lyuing and all her good workes out of y e holy word of God and she fayneth not nor dreameth any other new holines or new inuented works that be not in scripture but she is content w t Christes learning and beléeueth that Christ hath sufficiently taught her all manner of good workes that bée to the honour of our heauēly father Therfore inuenteth shée no other way to heauen but followeth Christ onely in suffering oppressions and persecutions blaspheminges al other things that may bée layd vnto her which as S. Agustine sayth she learned of our M. Christ Our holy mother y t church throughout all the world scattered far and long in her trew head Christ Iesus taught hath learned not to feare the contumelys of the Crosse nor yet of death but more and more is shée strengthed not in resisting but in suffering c. Now my Lordes compare your selfe to this rule of S. Agustine and let vs sée how you can bring your self into the Church or els to proue your self to bée holy The Church suffereth persecutions for as S. Paule sayth they that will liue deuoutly in Christ must suffer persecution and you with stand all thinges and suffer nothing You oppresse euery mā and you will bée oppressed of no mā You persecute euery man and no man may speake a worde agaynst you no though it bée neuer so true You cast euery mā in prison no mā may touch you but he shal bée cursed You compell euery mā to say as you say you will not once say as Christe sayth And as for your holynes all the worlde knoweth what it is for it standeth in clothing and in decking in watching and sléeping in eating and drinking this meate or y e meate this drynke or that drinke in pattering and mumbling these Psalmes or those Psalmes without deuotion Bréefly all your holines is in books Bels Cādels Challeces oyle creme water horses houndes pallaces all that is mighty and gloryous in the world there on hange you there in glory you there on crake you there on boast you there vpon builde you Is this y e natures of y e church is this holines Of whome haue you learned these maners You can not deny but these bée true and if you would denye it all the world is witnesse agaynst you yea and also your owne factes déedes Of whom haue you learned this holynes not of Christ nor yet of his holy Church but you haue learned it of the Arians y e were the seruauntes of the deuyll Hilarius wryteth in these wordes the Church doth threaten with banyshmentes prysonmentes and shée compelleth men to beléeue her which was exciled and cast in prison now hangeth shée on the dignitye of her fellowship the which was consecrated by the threateuinges of persecutors shée causeth priestes to flye that was encreased by the chasing away of priestes shée gloryeth that shée is loued of y e world y e which could neuer bée Christes except the worlde did hate her How thynke you my Lordes doe not you all these thinges that bée layd to the Arians charge Your owne frendes yea your owne consciences must néedes accuse you of all these thinges and yet will you bée called Christes children I lay nothyng to you but that holy Doctours lay vnto you But let vs sée what S. Barnarde sayth on you they call themselues the ministers of Christ but they serue Antichrist they goe gorgiously arayed of our Lordes goods vnto whome they géeue none honour and of these goods commeth the harlottes decking that thou séest dayly the game players disguising and kynges apparell of thys cōmeth golde in their bridles in their saddles and in their spurres so that their spurres bée bryghter thē the aulters of thys commeth theyr plenteous wine presses and their full sellers bolkyng from thys vnto that of thys cōmeth their tunnes of swéete wynes
small occasions do rise gret euils EnsaÌ„ples for our â—earnâ—ng Learn here how to read vnderstaÌ„d y â— scripture If we herken vnto the voyce of God and bend our selues to do hys wyl he wyll be our God help vs but otherwise he wyl plague vs as he plagued the vnthankful faythlesse Iewes Trust and beleue in God and care not what the world say The world liketh well all wycked lyuers and vngodly people Here is set forth the office of euery good person TemptatioÌ„ is the triall of true christians The excellency of faith which is the gifte of God Those whoÌ„ God scourgeth he dearely loueth A necessary lesson for a good precher God commaundeth that we shold make no images The worshipping of Idoles or Images was abhorred of god Witchcraft sorcery c. abhorred of God Moses often reherseth the benefites of almighty God to moue vsto feare hym and to loue our neighbour God will haue vs to be merciful to our neighbors All the ceremonies of the olde testament weâ—â— but preachers of Christ that was to come The â—ea◠〈◊〉 of the tabernacle was to keepe the Iewes froÌ„ harkenyng to the heathen God had two Testaments that is the olde and the new The old testament was built vpon the obseruatioÌ„ of the law The law could not geue lyfe The law is the vtterer of sinne The law was geuen by God to shewe what sinne was Ceremonies are not geuen to iustify the hart but to signifie our iustificatioÌ„ by Christ Ceremonies cannot iustify The new Testament are the euerlastyng promises made to vs in Christ Faith only iustifieth Good workes spryng out of the loue we haue to God Where true fayth is there good workes do flow and abound The new Testament was from the beginnyng Our temporall lawes spring out of the law of nature Loue counselleth the faythfull to worke We must nor presume in our well doing not coÌ„deÌ„ne others that run astray the last which turneth to god is as farre forward as the first MaÌ„s wisedome is playn Idolatry it scat tereth diuideth and maketh sectes Ceremonies to the Israelites and â—ewts were as good schole masters are to young scholers All thyngs were first reueled in ceremonies and shadowes vntill it pleased almighty God to reuele hys sonne Iesu Christ Small and litle giftes geueÌ„ by the parentes to their children causeth loue obedience Sacrifices and ceremonies serue for allegories to find out Christ Similitudes proue nothyng but doe more playnly lead thee to vnderstand the text Some ceremonies coÌ„teine whole some and profitable doctrine Ceremonies ordeyned to confirme our fayth Gods secrets were opened but to a fewe The ceremonies of themselues saued not but fayth in Gods promise Our nature is so weake that we must be holpen by outwarde signes and tokens No man is holpen by 〈◊〉 promises but sinners that feele their sinne Sacraments truly ministred are profitable Sacraments truly miniâ—â—res preach vnto vs repeÌ„taunce of our sinnes Noâ— naked or dome ceremonies but the holy ghost throughe fayth washeth away sinnes The difference betwene a sacrifice and a Sacrament What slate we dye in the same wee shall rise agayn either of saluation or damnation The Sacramentes are vnto y e dead no Sacramentes at all Sacramentes abused vp y â— Clergy The Papistes haue had no smal frend and good helper of the masse Hipocrites prayers caÌ„ neither profite them selkes nor any maÌ„â—ls Those that are enemies to the worde of God loue neither god nor his people Allegories are to bee wel weyed and considered The greatest cause of the decay of faith and blindnes that wee were in â–ª was thorough Allegories How allegories are to bee vnderstand The ryght vsed of allegories Baptisme is y e commoÌ„ badge of all true professours of Christ Baptisme teacheth vs repentaunce of sinne The bare washyng helpeth not but throrough the worde of fayth it purifieth vs. How christ boroweth figures of the old Testament to make plain the textes of the new testament Our duety is to do good dedes but saluation we cannot chaleÌ„ge therby A good example taken of the Lepers The true preachyng of Gods word doth bynde and lose consciences In allegories is both hony gall that is to say both good euil All good dedes are gods work manship wee hys instrumeÌ„ts wherby he doth them Freewill and vnbeliefe were the ouerthrow of ouâ— for eâ—athers Then cannot they be the childreÌ„ of God which put more trust in their owne workes then in y e bloud of Iesus Christ Faithlesse workes The Pharises by their free-will excluded them selues from the saluatioÌ„ 〈◊〉 Christ Blasphemy to christes death O subtle Foxes thorow pouertie made themselues Lordes of all Wilfull chastitie is wilful wikednes The Papistâ—… wilful obedience is coÌ„mon disobedience to all princes Our 〈…〉 commeth not by our merites but thorow sayth by the bloud of ouâ— sauiour Iesus Christ Fayth only bringeth vs to christ and vnbeâ—… driueth do from Christ Christ rebuâ—… the Pharises for their holy and 〈…〉 The pharises ascribe righteousnâ—… workes therfore were condemned of Christ The iustifiyng oâ— our selues maketh the diuâ—… more buâ—… then he wold be What to meant in the scripâ—… by this 〈◊〉 vâ—… tymeâ— Meritâ—…gerâ— y e more their blindnes is rebuked the more they rebell against Christ and his golyâ—… The doctrine of the pharises and the doctrine of our papists do well agree The Papistes cannot away with iustification by fayth Of vowes God accepteth for vs none other sacrifice but onely Iesu christ his sonne 〈◊〉 holines in our own imaginatioÌ„ is a robbing of christes honor Faith foloweth repentaunce of sinne RepentaÌ„ce goeth before fayth and prepareth the way vnto Christ How our workes are good in the sight of God The work saueth not but the word that it is to say the promise An apt similitude for reward of good workes All vowes must be made for y â— mortifying or tamyng â–ª of our members or the edifying of our neighbours or els they are wicked How we ought to vowe wilfull pouertie Whether fished the Popes prelates with tâ—… nâ—t or no Our workes do not stand in the wisedome of maÌ„ but in the power of God Desert and free gift are contraries The sight of riches is rather a cause of coueteousnes then a meane to honor God Whether dyd the papist so or no Yet y â— spiritualities pillage was more then theyr standing stipeÌ„d A good vowe is to kepe Gods commaundementes Howe thou mayst lawfully goe on pilgrimage God heareth al that call vppon him in all tymes and at al places alyke God regardeth the hart and not y â— place where wee pray Wilfull chastitie is not mete for all persons to vow False fayned chastitie The Pope restrayned that which God permitted and setteth at liberty that which God forbiddeth A good adminition to such as wil make vowes Wherunto and howe we should apply our vowes How a vow is to be made He that fasteth to any other ende theÌ„ to