likenesse truely in deed shalt not make vnto thy selfe shalt not deuise or abuse by the inuention and fantasie of man falsely framing in imagination any grauen image nor the likenesse of any thing any resemblaunce of creatures counterfayted through caruings or coloures in any matter place or time Thou shalt not bowe downe to them nor worship them thou being the liuely image of god created by gods wisdome vnto gods glorie shalt not submit thy self to honor or reuerence counterfeted creatures carued or coloured by the craft of man to satisfie the foolish fantasie of man vnder pretence or purpose to honor God in preferring the deuise of man vnto the wisdome of God a counterfeted resembling of a corruptible creature vnto the liuely image of the eternall god For I the Lorde thy God the maker and louer of all things truely created and made specially of thée o man as most like vnto me best beloued of me am a gelous God am greeuously offended when my beautiful image and amiable creatures bée shamfully abused by thy fowle fashioned fantasies For albeit in thy own conceit thine own work séemeth faire vnto thée yet in deed truth afore my face far fowler is that fashion of an eie which is without all sight than that which is much bleared and likewise that forme or figure of face and body which hath no life no féeling nor no sense is far fowler and worsse thā that which is full of al sicknesse sores Thy idols which haue eyes and sée not eares and heare not be nothing like vnto my creatures which séem as they be and be as they séem in forme and substance true and perfit Therefore I visit the synne I reuēge and punish the sinne of the fathers vpon the children proceding from the elders in their successors vnto the thirde and fourth generation of them that hate mee when as the elders deuise and giue and their successors take and followe occasion and ensample of sinne against mée especially when as they so disdayne mine honor abuse mine image and corrupt my creature as proueth plainly that they hate mee deserue that I shuld so punish them and shewe mercie in thousands and bestowe my mercy in forgiuing the faults and bearing with the infirmities of very many in long succession of them that loue mee liking and allowing in their heartes all my workes better than any of their owne deuises and kepe my commandementes alwayes readie and willing to do or not to do any thing as they be taught bidden of me Wherfore O mortall man sayth the eternall God concerning imagerie in the which is more noysome poison of counterfet corruption than auaileable profit of true representation of my good creatures purely and plentifully made and placed euery where by mée vnto my honour and glorie and vnto thy comforte and commodity if thou do loue and not hate me if thou wouldest escape vengeaunce and purchase mercie of mée take heede and beware that thou do not follow any subtile reason craftie inuention or common custome contrarie vnto this my commaundement Thou shalt not take the name of the Lorde thy God in vaine For the Lorde will not holde him giltlesse that taketh his name in vaine O man lacking light and void of knowledge the Lord thy God that can be resembled by nothing nor named by anie word according vnto the worthinesse of his glorious maiestie and yet wil by many words and works notifie himselfe vnto thée as is for thy capacitie and commoditie hée commaundeth and teacheth thee with suche reuerent diligence to hearken vnto his woord and regarde his workes and such his ordinarie meanes as may make continue and increase in thée vnfayned feare and loue of him by true knowledge and remembrance of him Wherefore Thou shalt not take in vaine without increase of honour vnto him and comforte vnto thée his name in anie of his wordes or workes especially his holy Scriptures and godlie saccraments For the Lorde God which by his woordes and woorkes doth declare and witnesse sufficiently vnto a ll men anye truthe wil not holde him giltelesse will not iudge him out of fault or suffer him escape vnplagued that taketh his name in vaine that taketh and abuseth his holy worde good creature or blessed ordinaunce to couer or confirme any lies and vanities or else refuseth and neglecteth the same as not necessarie and sufficient to teache trie and wytnesse any godlie truthe and veritie so as is most vnto Gods honor and glorie and best for mans comforte ▪ and commoditie Therfore O man being of thy selfe a shameful lier and yet by Gods grace called and ordayned vnto the knowledge and witnesse of God and of his truth vnto his glorie and thy comforte with dreade loue and reuerence to bring and keepe the knowledge of God and his truthe amongst men thou shalt search in the holy scriptures desire of god in faithfull prayers and declare and witnesse in time expedient the truthe of God in the name of god For vpon all such as béeleue blinde prophecies or arrogant Astronomers that call vpon Diuels in coniuring or that abuse the name of GOD in swearing or that fearing to professe the truthe haue hope in dissembling and lying will God bée reuenged when as they by strong illusion wrought by the subtiltie of Sathan bée woonderously deceyued too bée worthily plagued and damned bicause they would not receiue the loue of the truth that they might bée saued Remember that thou kepe holy the Sabbothe daye sixe dayes shalt thou labour and do all that thou hast too do but the seauenth is the sabboth of the Lorde thy god In it thou shalt do no manner of worke thou and thy sonne and thy daughter and thy man-seruant and thy mayde seruant and thy cattell and the stranger that is within thy gates For in syxe-dayes the Lorde made heauen and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seauenth day wherfore the Lorde blessed the seauenth daye and hallowed it O man bannished out of pleasaunt Paradise for thy sinne vnto painfull penance vpon earth to eate there thy breade in the sweate of thy face all the dayes of thy life and yet by the grace of God hauing prouided and graunted vnto thée for release and reléefe a holy sabboth of solace in the Lord thy God now in all trauayle and laboures duely seruing thine owne necessitie thou mayst and shouldest feele cheereful comfort in mindfull remembrance of keping a holy Sabboth vnto Gods glorie And as the last day and ende of the weeke was the sabboth of the Iewes so after all trauayle and labours in this life to bée ended by death beginneth rest and quietnesse in the Lorde eternally to continue wythout any ende or feare of death and in euerie Christen congregation certaine times be appointed for all men to ceasse from bodily labours that they may with more quietnesse of mynde receiue more spiritual comfort yea and euerie man priuately hath
this cōmandement duly Thou shalt not steale Thou hauing of Gods gracious gift body and soule which by reason of Gods plentifull prouision can neuer bee vtterly destitute of any thīg necessary shalt by no craft or crueltie keep or conuay from any man any thing that is his according to law and equitie or that should serue vnto his cōfort or reliefe according to godly charitie For as God the only Lord ouer al hath disposed and giuē vnto al seing prouiding best for euery mans necessitie so should euery man be best contēt to yeld himself vnto gods ordinance prouidence not willing or seking any profit or plesure vnto him self by breking the ordinance and refusing the prouidence of God in getting any thing vncharitably from man Therfore to auoyde the daunger of dispising Gods ordinaunce and prouidence and to liue in the lawe of loue and charitie thou arte charged and taught by this commaundement not vnlawefully to take frō any man any thing that he hath of his owne nor vncharitably to kepe from him any thing that he néedeth of thine Thou shalt not beare false witnesse against thy neighbour Thou hauing a tong and other meanes to wytnesse the truthe vnto the honour of God and profit of men shalt by no manner of meanes denie the truth or forge lies which is alwayes a dishonouring of God with daunger and domage vnto man For as God is the authour of all truthe and the Diuell the father of all lies so all examinations of truthes and occasions of lies be trials causing the children of God and of the Diuell to confesse and vtter the wylles and workes of their fathers Therfore that thou mayst shewe thy selfe a childe of God and not of the diuel thou shalt neuer make or maintain any lies but euer confesse and confirme any truth as shal be expedient for thy neighbour And note that al blind prophesies all forged lies all false reports and vntrue tidings all fayned flatterie and enuious slaunders and all vncharitable dissembling or deceytfull counterfeating of any thing be diuelish contrarying of Gods truthe against thy neighbour against that duty which thou owest of charitie vnto thy neighbour Thou shalte not couet thy neighboures house thou shalt not couet thy neighbours wife nor his seruaunte nor his mayde nor his oxe nor his asse nor any thing that is his Thou walking afore the face of GOD whose eyes behold all secrets euen in the bottome of thy heart shalt not couet shalt not will or wish thy neighbours house any possession of person landes or goods which is thy neighbors to be thine nor any thing that is his nor any thing to be thine which is giuen of god not vnto thee but vnto him Yea the profit or pleasure of any thing that is thy neighbours shal not stirre vp in thée a luste to haue it thy selfe but rather any lacke or néede that thou mayest sée in thy neighboure shall make thée to helpe hym if thou bée able and euer mooue thée hartily to pray and desire of God all goodnesse vnto him euen as vnto thyself according to the lawe of loue and perfection CHAP. IIII. The lawfull vsing of the Lawe is to force men by feare of their owne deseruings to flee vntoo Christ in the comfortable light of the gospel FOR God whiche of his goodnesse did make thée perfect and pure in thy creation doth nowe by his rightuous law require of thée suche holinesse and perfection as is according vnto that integritie whiche thou then receyuedst of his maiestie And also be promiseth blessings and life vnto the kéepers and threatneth cursings and death vnto the breakers of this his righteous good and perfit lawe Therfore considering and comparing thine owne habilitie and obedience with the righteousnesse and equitie of this lawe thou mayst in it as in a glasse afore the maiestie of God vnder blessings and cursings betwixte life and death sée euidently thy face case thy conuersation state and condition But if thou leaue looking into this lawe and follow the flatterie of thine owne fantasie thou shalt deceyue thy selfe daungerously not onely in negligence but also in labouring tóo confesse thy selfe afore God duely For as the Pharisie that compared himself with the Publicane so thou in geuing thankes vnto God for all that thou thinkest good in thy selfe and being bold too preferre thy selfe to some other for the euils which thou knowest in them shalt so deserue to depart lesse iustified and further from the fauor of God and loue of thy neyghboure for the more that thou doest compare thine owne well doings with the euil doings of others the lesse shalt thou dispose and submitte thy selfe to receiue mercie of god to bear the infirmities of thy brother But when as thou doest examine thine owne conscience and iudge thine own déedes by the law of God afore the face of god then shalt thou finde such euils inwardly as shall giue thee greate occasion to be so earnestly occupied in refourming thy selfe that outwardely thou cannot be bolde eyther to glorie in thy self or to iudge any other They which haue not the right vse of the law can haue no true knowledge of sinne but thou that wilt iudge thy self by the law shalt feele what is in thy selfe against the lawe For if thou do not finde thy selfe giltie in hauing any strange God yet shalt thou find many and great faultes in thy self against the first commaundement so often as thou dost consider and remember that thou dost not perfitly with all thy heart wyth all thy minde and with all thy might loue reuerence feare trust praise and confesse the eternall liuing God as thy only Lorde and God. And thou neuer honour or make any Image in any matter carued or painted yet so often as thou doest imagine the diuinitie of God vnder any forme or fashion in thy minde and imagination thou makest such kinde of imagerie as is by the second commaundement forbidden vnto thée Yea and so ofte as thou makest or takest any image carued or painted to be like vnto Christe God and man so ofte thou presumest too liken the foulest abhomination in the world vnto him that is most glorious in estimation afore God for man being a lier maketh and taketh an image that hath eyes seeth not eares and heareth not as though it were like vnto Chryst Iesu but Goddes worde which is truthe witnesseth that all suche images be not like vnto Chryst but vnto idolaters which make them and put their trust in them Undoutedly there is no true knowledge of Chryst learned of Gods worde but a false idoll of Christ forged by imagination in the hearts of them that can be content to say that Chryst their Sauior is like vnto any such vile things And also in imagerie of other things many men do much offende in esteeming more the vaine counterfet made by man than the good creature made by god I meane in imagerie of things belōging to the secōd
imagiue a bodily presence of God too be wyth them at the foote of the mountayne coulde not be contented and comforted with a true spirituall presence of God but were deceiued and plagued for the vaine imagination of a bodily presence Those can haue no cōfortable feeding of the words which be spirite and lyfe at the Lordes supper whiche will haue a wonderfull gasing stocke at a gorgeous Masse Which will desire and imagine Christ to be bodily vpon earth bicause they do not see and knowe by fayth Christes body so glorified in Heauen as causeth his spiritual presence euer to continue most comfortable vnto all the faithfull in any place vpon earth The playne preaching of Gods woorde surely sealed with the Sacramente of the Lordes Supper sheweth and offereth in spirite and truthe to be seene and receyued by faith the body and bloud of Christe glorified in heauen in the forme of man. The strange language secrete whisperings and solemne shew of ceremonies in the masse serue and please the blinde imagination of man in forged vanitie presuming to place the body bloud of Christ vpon the altar there to be honored and sacrificed vnder the forme of breade wine CHAP. VII The euill and daungerous abuses of the good creatures and workes of God. GOd is al truthe and all goodnesse therefore euery thing of gods creation ordinance or institution is true good All men be liers and all the imagination of mannes hearte is nothing but euill therfore man presuming to counterfait the creature and to contrary or amende the ordinaunce and institution of God can deuise and imagine nothing but that which is fained and fantasticall euill and abhominable Some say that they doe not otherwise imagine honor God there but as they be taught and commaunded by their priestes and suche as haue highest authoritie ouer them So mighte the Idolaters in wildernesse with Aaron in Dan and Bethel vnder Ieroboam haue answered For Aaron and Ieroboam did teache and commaund the people to do reuerence ther not as vnto Images or Idols but vnto the God that broughte them out of the land of Egipt Howbeit for all that euer the priest could teach or the king commaund those Images were Idols and all they abhominable Idolatrers which did beléeue that Doctrine of the priest or obey that cōmaundement of the king Wherfore it is not the teaching of prelates nor the commaundement of princes which cā cause Christ to be bodily present after suche sort in any thing as may there be honored as God or that shall excuse any person beléeuing or honouring that which is taughte and commaunded according vnto mannes imagination against the worde of God. They say that Christ said This is my body and Christes saying is Gods worde and not mannes imagination I graūt that Christes saying is gods worde and that he so saide of the bread which he toke and after thankes geuing brake and gaue vnto his Disciples to be eaten in remembrance of him But how agreeth that saying vnto such bread as the prieste taketh and after brethings and blessings lifteth vp and sheweth vnto the people to be honoured and reuerenced in the steade of him The word of God wrongly wrested and not rightly applied is at some times abused to teache Deuilish lies in steade of godly truth The woord written by the spirit of God to raise a man from vnder danger of despaire vnto hope of Goddes helpe vpwardes was wrongly wrested by the Deuill to moue Christ standing vpon the pinacle wilfully to fall downewardes So like wise the woords spoken of Christ vnto his disciples to raise vp their mindes in comfortable remembrance of him glorified in heauen be euil abused of priestes to bring downe his bodily presence amongste them to be sacrificed vpon earth Surely this same saying He shall geue his Angels charge ouer thee c. Which is the woorde of God spoken and applied to raise vp a man frō daungerous sorowes in miseries vnto a comfortable trust in Gods grace and mercies may be abused by the deuil to make a man of presumption in refusing the euident ordinance of God to fall into the danger of tempting god And so such woordes as be good and godly spoken with suche circumstances of Christes supper as teacheth men to keepe a comfortable remembrance of Christes death according vntoo Christes institution may be Diuelishly whispered in suche sorte by the priest at the aulter as shuld séeme to make a bodily presence of Christ to be sacrificed and honored according vnto mannes imagination There is nothing more perillous than to take the woorde or any good gifte of God and to abuse it contrary vnto the will and commaundement of god The vnprofitable seruant which said vp to kéepe safely the talent or treasure of his Lord which was deliuered vnto him to haue bene béestowed in vsurie was by the woorde of his owne mouthe condemned when as he did confesse that he did otherwise keepe the Lords treasure than as the Lord had commaunded And if any man thinke that he may say vnto Christe Lord I knowe that thou did say of the bread and the wine this is my body this is my bloud take eat and drinke in remembrance of mée and therefore haue I euer with suche reuerence honoured them as was due vnto thée surely vnto such a man Christe in conscience wil at some times answer O wicked seruant by these woordes of thine owne mouthe do I condemne thée For thou doest confesse that I bad thée take eate drinke this in remembrance of me why diddest thou then contrary vnto my commaundement imagine this to be kept honored and sacrificed as the bodily presence of me The woordes of Christ be moste true but when as they be pronounced with such circumstances as be moste contrary vnto the custome of the christians then they haue a meaning most contrary vnto the doctrine and commaundement of Christe The giftes of God in all things and especially his sacraments be good and godly but the abuse of them contrary vnto Gods commaundement is diuelish and abhominable The preacher and the coniurer vse bothe the name and the word of God and good praiers howbeit not in like manner nor for one purpose for in beléef behauior and purpose they be cleane cōtrary the one vnto the other There was neuer séene in the world two things so muche contrary the one vnto the other as is the masse the Lordes supper Therefore whatsoeuer is well vsed in the one is euill abused in the other And truely that fault of abuse is no smal offence albeit that which is abused séemeth sometime to be but a little thing For it is a great sin to delight or be occupied in little trifles neglecting or refusing Gods great giftes and benefits in waightie matters So do Priests in their masse abuse gaie garments neglecting the seemely simplicitie of the Lordes supper and therein commit no small sinne preferring their owne imagination vnto Christes institution