Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions to the Holy Scriptures

is verily, as Paul saith in the xith chapter of the second epistle 2 cor. xi. to the Corinthians, "The false apostles are deceitful workers, nation hath and fashion themselves like unto the apostles of Christ:" that out ot his room, and all is, the shaven nation preach Christ falsely; yea, under the SJempSw. name of Christ preach themselves, and reign in Christ's w r> stead: have also taken away the key of knowledge, and wrapped the people in ignorance, and have taught them to believe in themselves, in their traditions and false ceremonies; so that Christ is but a vain name. And after they had put Christ is but Christ out of his room, they gat themselves to the emperor wYr! "' and kings, and so long ministered their business till they proper mihave also put them out of their rooms, and have got their w. T?' authorities from them, and reign also in their stead; so that the emperor and kings are but vain names and shadows, as Christ is, having nothing to do in the world. Thus reign they, in the stead of God and man, and have all power under them, and do what they list.

Let us see another point of our great clerk: a little after Rochester is the beginning of his sermon, intending to prove that which is Ignorantand clearer than the sun, and serveth no more for his purpose w- Tthan Ite missa est serveth to prove that our lady was born without original sin; he allegeth a saying that Martin Luther saith, which is this: " If we affirm that any one epistle of Paul or any one place of his epistles pertaineth not unto the universal church, (that is, to all the congregation of them that believe in Christ,) we take away all St Paul's authority." Whereupon saith Rochester: "If it be thus of the words of Sfc Paul, much rather it is true of the gospels of Christ and of every place of them3." O malicious blindness! First, note his blindness. He understandcth by this word gospel no more but the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and thinketh not that the Acts of apostles, and the The epistics epistles of Peter, of Paul, and of John, and of other like, are tiu? gospel. also the gospel. Paul calleth his preaching the gospel: Rom. iiom. u. ii. and 1 Cor. iv. and Gal. i. and 1 Tim. i. The gospel is iror.iv. every where one, though it be preached of divers, and signi- i Tim. i. fieth glad tidings: that is to wit, an open preaching of Christ, what gospel and the holy testament and gracious promises that God hath w. T. made in Christ's blood to all that repent and believe. Now i is there more gospel in one epistle of Paul, that is to say, I Christ is more clearly preached and more promises rehearsed in one epistle of Paul, than in the three first evangelists, ] Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Consider also his maliciousness; how wickedly and how craftily he taketh away the authority of Paul! ' It is much rather true of the gospels, and of every place in them, than one gospel, Of Paul.' If that which the four evangelists wrote be truer one truth, than that which Paul wrote, then is it not one gospel that they preached, neither one Spirit that taught them. If it be one

Theautho- gospel and one Spirit, how is one truer than the other? Paul and of his proveth his authority to the Galatians and to the Corinthians, because that he received his gospel by revelation of Christ, and not of man; and because that when he communed with Peter and the high apostles of his gospel and preaching, they could improve nothing, neither teach him any thing; and because also that as many were converted, and as great miracles shewed by his preaching as at the preaching of the high apostles; and therefore will be of no less authority than Peter and other high apostles, nor have his gospel of less reputation than theirs.

Rochester Finally: that thou mayest know Rochester for ever, and

PeeP. w. T. all the remnant by him, what they are within the skin, mark how he playeth bo-peep with the scripture. He allegeth the Hcb. x. beginning of the tenth chapter to the Hebrews, Umbram habens lex futurorum bonorum, "the law hath but a shadow of things to come;" and immediately expoundeth the figure clean contrary unto the chapter following, and to all the whole epistle; making Aaron a figure of the pope, whom the epistle maketh a figure of Christ.

iTim.iv. He allegeth half a text of Paul, 1 Tim. iv. "In the latter days some shall depart from the faith, giving heed unto spirits of error and devilish doctrine." But it followeth in the text: "Giving attendance, or heed, unto the devilish doctrine of them which speak false through hypocrisy, and have their con sciences marked with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created f£bfcuon ^° be received with giving thanks." Which two things who therpoPeave evcr did, save the pope, Rochester's god? making sin in the creatures, which God hath created for man's use, to be re- Rom, xiv. ceived with thanks. " The kingdom of heaven is not meat and drink," saith Paul, " but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For whosoever in these things serveth Christ, pleaseth God, and is allowed of men." Had Roches ter, therefore, not a conscience marked with the hot iron of malice, so that he cannot consent unto the will of God and glory of Christ, he would not so have alleged the text; which is contrary to none save themselves.

He allegeth another text of Paul, in the second chapter of his second epistle to the Thessalonians, Erit discessio pri- 2 ihess. «. mum: that is, saith Rochester, before the coming of antichrist there shall be a notable departing from the faith1. And Paul saith, " The Lord cometh not, except there come a departing first.'1 Paul's meaning is, that the last day cometh not so shortly, but that antichrist shall come first and destroy the faith, and sit in the temple of God, and make all men worship him, and believe in him (as the pope doth); and then shall God's word come to light again, (as it doth at this time,) and destroy him, and utter his juggling, and then cometh Christ unto judgment. What say ye of this crafty conveyer? Would he spare, suppose ye, to allege and to wrest other doctors pestilently, which feareth not for to juggle with the holy scripture of God, expounding that unto antichrist which Paul speaketh of Christ? No, be ye sure. But even after this manner-wise pervert they the whole scripture and all doctors; wresting them unto their abominable purpose, clean contrary to the meaning of the text, and to the circumstances that go before and after. Which devilish falsehood, lest the The cause laymen should perceive, is the very cause why that they will %™*°£e not suffer the scripture to be had in the English tongue; neither any work to be made that should bring the people to w% T> knowledge of the truth.

Augustine1, Ambrose2, Jerome3, and Origen4; of which never one knew of any authority that one bishop should have above another. And St Gregory allegeth he, which would receive no such authority above his brethren, when it was proffered o"oryatcorsef 'hi11*5- As the manner is to call Tully chief of orators for his singular eloquence, and Aristotle chief of philosophers, and Virgil chief of poets, for their singular learning, and not for any authority that they had over other; so was it the man ner to call Peter chief of the apostles for his singular activity and boldness, and not that he should be lord over his bre thren, contrary to his own doctrine. Yet compare that chief;' apostle unto Paul, and he is found a great way inferior. This I say not that I would that any man should make a god of Paul, contrary unto his own learning. Notwithstanding yet this manner of speaking is left unto us of our elders; that when we say the apostle saith so, we understand Paul, for his excellency above other apostles. I would he would tellj you how Jerome6, Augustine7, Bede8, Origen9, and other doctors, expound this text, " Upon this rock I will build my congregation:" and how they interpret the keys also. There to, Pasce, pasce, pasce, which Rochester leaveth without any English, signifieth not poll, sheer, and shave. Upon which text behold the faithful exposition of Bede.

2i>ecgefhtepaui Note also how craftily he would enfeoff the apostles of SremoSSf Christ with10 their wicked traditions and false ceremonies, Sv&c0' which they themselves have feigned; alleging Paul, 2 Thess.

ii. I answer, that Paul taught by mouth such things as ho wrote in his epistles. And his traditions were the gospel of Christ, and honest manners and living, and such a good order as becometh the doctrine of Christ: as that a woman obey her husband, have her head covered, keep silence, and go womanly and christianly apparelled; that children and serv ants be in subjection: and that the young obey their elders; that no man eat but he that laboureth and worketh; and that men make an earnest thing of God's word and of his holy sacraments; and to watch, fast, and pray, and such like as the scripture commandeth: which things he that would break were no Christian man. But we may well complain it is not iav/-

J A ' ful for us to and cry to God for help, that it is not lawful, for the pope's tyranny, to teach the people what prayer is, what fasting is, and wherefore it serveth. There were also certain customs Sh? "W'T. alway, which were not commanded in pain of hell, or ever lasting damnation; as to watch all night, and to kiss one another: which as soon as the people abused, then they brake them. For which cause the bishops might break many things now in like manner. Paul also, in many things which God had made free, gave pure and faithful counsel; without tangling of any man^s conscience, and without all manner commanding under pain of cursing, pain of excommunication, pain of heresy, pain of burning, pain of deadly sin, pain of hell, and pain of damnation. As thou mayest see, w- T- 1 Cor. vii., where he counselleth the unmarried, the widows, l Cor- viiand virgins, that it is good so to abide, if they have the gift of chastity: not to win heaven thereby; (for neither circum cision neither uncircumcision is any thing at all, but the keeping of the commandments is altogether;) but that they might be without trouble, and might also the better wait on God's word, and freelier serve their brethren: and saith, as a faithful servant, that he had none authority of the if Paul had

Lord to give them any commandment. But, that the apostles ^uSSf gave us any blind ceremonies, whereof we should not know thenrthhead the reason, that I deny, and also defy, as a thing clean KthoStJ? contrary unto the learning of Paul everywhere.

For Paul commandeth that no man once speak in the church, that is, in the congregation, but in a tongue that all men understand, except that there be an interpreter by11. He Rochester is commandeth to labour for knowledge, understanding, and feeling; and to beware of superstition, and persuasions of worldly wisdom, philosophy, and of hypocrisy and ceremo nies, and of all manner disguising, and to walk in the plain EPh-v- and open truth. "Ye were once darkness," saith he, "but now are ye light in the Lord; walk therefore as the children of light." Eph. v. How doth Paul also wish them increase of grace in every epistle! How crieth he to God to augment their knowledge; that they should be no more children, wavering with every wind of doctrine; but would vouchsafe to make them full men in Christ, and in the understanding of the mysteries or secrets of Christ, so that it should not be possible for any man to deceive them with any enticing reasons of worldly wisdom, or to beguile them with blind ceremonies, or to lead them out of the way with superstitious- Wherefore ness of disguised hypocrisy! Unto which full knowledge are ordCJnedre ^e spiritual officers ordained to bring them. Eph. iv. So EphTiv. far ^s it away that Christ's apostles should give them tra ditions of blind ceremonies, without signification, or of which no man should know the reason; as Rochester, which loveth shadows and darkeness, lieth on them: God stop his blas phemous mouth!

Consider also, how studiously Rochester allegeth Origen, tics for his both for his pope, and also to stablish his blind ceremonies

Icripufre withal l i which Origen of all heretics is condemned to be w< T> the greatest. 'He is an ancient doctor,' saith he; yea, 'and to whom in this point great faith is to be given.' Yea, verily, Ari^otle and Plato, and even very Robin Hood, is to be be- ^eved in such a point, that so greatly maintaineth our holy father's authority, and all his disguisings.

Last of all: as once a crafty thief, when he was espied and followed, cried unto the people, Stop the thief! Stop the thief! and as many, to begin withal, cast first in another man's teeth that which he feareth should be laid to his own charge; even so Rochester layeth to Martin Luther's charge the slaying and murdering of Christian men, because they will not believe in his doctrine: which thing Rochester and his brethren have not ceased to do now these certain hundred years, with such malice, that, when they be dead, they rage, burning their bodies; of which some they themselves, of like lihood, killed before secretly. And because that all the world knoweth that Martin Luther slayeth no man, but killeth only with the spiritual sword, the word of God, such cankered consciences as Rochester hath; neither persecutcth, but suffereth persecution; yet Rochester, with a goodly argument, provcth that he would do it if he could! And mark, I pray Rochester is you, what an orator he is, and how vehemently he persuadeth W.°T. ° it! Martin Luther hath burned the pope's decretals; a ma nifest sign, saith he, that he would have burned the pope's holiness also, if he had had him2! A like argument, which I suppose to be rather true, I make: Rochester and his holy brethren have burnt Christ's testament; an evident sign, verily, that they would have burnt Christ himself also, if they had had him!

I had almost, verily, left out the chiefest point of all. Rochester is Rochester, both abominable and shameless, yea, and stark himself. mad with pure malice, and so adased3 in the brains with spite, that he cannot overcome the truth that he seeth not, or rather careth not what he saith; in the end of his first de struction, I would say instruction, as he calleth it, intending to prove that we are justified through holy works, allegeth half a text of Paul, of the fifth to the Galatians, (as his oai. v. manner is to juggle and convey craftily,) Fides per dilectionem operans. Which text he thiswise Englisheth: " Faith, which is wrought by love;" and maketh a verb passive of the rest? Let Rochester be an example, therefore, to judge them all. W. T.

Faith is the root; and love springeth of faith.

Though Rochester have not the Spirit to judge spiritual things, yet ought reason to have kept him from so shameful verb deponent1. Rochester will have love to go before, and faith to spring out of love. Thus antichrist turneth the roots of the tree upward. I must first love a bitter medicine, (after Rochester's doctrine,) and then believe that it is whole some: when, by natural reason, I first hate a bitter medicine, until I be brought in belief of the physician that it is wholesome, and that the bitterness shall heal me; and then afterward love it, of that belief. Doth the child lovo ' the father first, and then believe that he is his son or heir? or rather, because he knoweth that he is his son or heir and beloved, therefore loveth again? John saith, in the third of his first epistle, " See what love the Father hath shewed upon us, that we should be called his sons." Because we are sons, therefore love we. Now, by faith we are sons, as John saith in the first chapter of his gospel: "He gave them power to be the sons of God, in that they believed on his name." And Paul saith, in the third chapter of his epistle to the Galatians, " We are all the sons of God by the faith which is in Jesus Christ." And John, in the said chapter of his epistle, saith, " Hereby perceive we love, that he gave his life for us." We could see no love, nor cause to love I again, except that we believed that he died for us, and that I we were saved through his death. And in the chapter fol lowing saith John, " Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to make agreement for our sins." So2 God sent not his Son for any love that we had to him; but of the love that he had to us sent he his Son, that we might so2 love, and love again. Paul likewise, in the viiith chapter to the Romans, after that he hath declared the infinite love of God to us-ward, in that he spared not his own Son, but gave him for us, crieth out, saying, " Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall per secution, shall a sword? &c." No, saith he; "I am sure that no creature shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord:" as who should say, We see so great love in God to us-ward, in Christ's death, that though all misfortune should fall on us, we cannot but love again.

Now how know we that God loveth us? Verily, by faith. So therefore, though Rochester be a beast faithless, yet ought natural reason to have taught him, that love springeth out of faith and knowledge; and not faith and knowledge out of love. But let us see the text. Paul saith thus: "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision is any thing worth, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh through love;" or which through love is strong or mighty in working; and not which is wrought by love, as the juggler saith. Faith, that loveth f God's commandments, justifieth a man. If thou believe God's promises in Christ, and love his commandments, then art thou safe. If thou love the commandment, then art thou sure that thy faith is unfeigned, and that God's Spirit is in thee.

How faith justifieth before God in the heart; and how love springeth of faith, and compelleth us to work; and how the works justify before the world, and testify what we are, and certify us that our faith is unfeigned, and that the right Spirit of God is in us; see in my book of the Justifying of Faith3; and there shalt thou see all thing abundantly. Also thecontroof the controversy between Paul and James, see there. jamSeanWdeen

Never thelater, when Rochester saith, if faith only justified, then both the devils and also sinners that lie still in sin should be saved4, his argument is not worth a straw. neither the devils, nor yet sinners, that continue in sin purpose and delectation, have any such faith as Paul speaketh that re of. For Paul's faith is to believe God's promises. "Faith," saith he, Rom. x., " cometh by hearing, and hearing cometh by the word of God." "And how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written," saith he, " How beautiful are the feet that bring glad tidings of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" Now when sent God any messengers unto the devils, to preach them peace, or any good thing? The devil hath no promise; A man may he is therefore excluded from Paul's faith. The devil bechratdied, Hevcth that Christ died, but not that he died for his sins.

•lndenot'ngs' Neither doth any, that consenteth in the heart to continue in.T. sin, believe that Christ died for him. For to believe that

Christ died for us is to see our horrible damnation, and how we were appointed unto eternal pains, and to feel, and to be what u is to sure, that we are delivered therefrom through Christ: in that Christ W.T. we have power to hate our sins, and to love God's command ments. All such repent and have their hearts loosed out of captivity and bondage of sin, and are therefore justified through faith in Christ. Wicked sinners have no faith, but imaginations and opinions about Christ; as our schoolmen/ have in their principles, about which they brawl so fast one with another. It is another thing to believe that the king is rich, and that he is rich unto me, and that my part is therein; and that he will not spare a penny of his riches at my need. When I believe that the king is rich, I am not moved: but when I believe that he is rich for me, and that he will never fail me at my need, then love I; and of love am ready to work unto the uttermost of my power.

But let us return at the last unto our purpose again. why laymen What is the cause that laymen cannot now rule, as well as I w. T. m times past, and as the Turks yet do? Verily, because that antichrist with the mist of his juggling hath beguiled our eyes, and hath cast a superstitious fear upon the world of Christian men, and hath taught them to dread not God and his word, but himself and his word; not God's law and ordi nances, princes and officers which God hath set to rule the world, but his own law and ordinances, traditions and cere monies, and disguised disciples, which he hath set every where to deceive the world, and to expel the light of God's Men fear the word, that his darkness may have room. For we see by Goers coam C^a^y experience, of certain hundred years long, that he which AnTdeTnt> feareth neither God nor his word, neither regardeth father, mother, master, or Christ himself; which rebelleth against God's ordinances, riseth against the king's, and resisteth his officers, dare not once lay hands on one of the pope's anointed: no, though he slay his father before his face, or do violence unto his brother, or defile his sister, wife, or mother. Like honour give we unto his traditions and ceremonies. What devotion have we when we are blessed (as they call it) with the chalice, or when the bishop lifteth up his holy hand over us? Who dare handle the chalice, touch the altar-stone, or put his hand in the font, or his finger into the holy oil? What reverence give we unto holy water, holy fire, holy bread, holy salt, hallowed bells1, holy wax, holy boughs, holy candles, and holy ashes! And last of all, unto the holy candle commit we our souls at our last departing2. Yea, and of the very clout which the bishop, or his chaplain that standeth by, knitteth about children's necks at confirmation, what lay-person dare be so bold as to unloose the knot3? Thou wilt say, Do not such things bring the Holy Ghost and put away sin and drive away spirits? I say that a stedfast faith, or belief in Christ and in the promises that God hath sworn to give us for his sake, bringeth the Holy Ghost, as all the scriptures make mention, and as Paul saith, " Have ye Acts xix. received the Holy Ghost through faith, or believing?" Faith Faith drive* is the rock whereon Christ buildeth his congregation; againsjt awav- w- Twhich, saith Christ, Matt. xvi. hell-gates shall not prevail. {As soon as thou believest in Christ, the Holy Ghost cometh, sin why do not falletli away, and devils fly7[ When we cast holy water at makJhim3 the devil, or ring the bells, he fleeth as men do from young shootm^of^ children, and mocketh with us, to bring us from the true faith, that is in God's word, unto a superstitious and a false belief of our own imagination. If thou hadst faith and threwest an unhallowed stone at his head, he would earnestly flee, and without mocking; yea, though thou threwest nothing at all, he would not yet abide.

ceremonies Though that at the beginning miracles were shewed miracle, but^ through such ceremonies, to move the infidels to believe the word of God, as thou readest how the apostles anointed the sick with oil, and healed them; and Paul sent his pertelet or jerkin1 to the sick, and healed them also; yet was it not the ceremony that did the miracle, but faith of the preacher and the truth of God, which had promised to confirm and stablish his gospel with such miracles. Therefore, as soon as the gift of miracles ceased, ought the ceremony to have ceased also; or else if they needs will have a ceremony to signify some promise or benefit of God (which I praise not, but would have God's word preached every Sunday, for

Leathern teli which intent Sundays and holy days were ordained), then let meane°thy them tell the people what it meaneth; and not set up a bald

W-T- and a naked ceremony without signification, to make the people believe therein, and to quench the faith that ought to be given unto the word of God.

The priest What helpeth it also that the priest, when he goeth to himself with mass, disguiseth himself with a great part of the passion of o£ Christ. Christ, and playeth out the rest under silence, with signs and proffers, with nodding, becking and mowing2, as it were

.jackanapes, when neither he himself, neither any man else wotteth what he meaneth3? Not at all, verily; but hurteth,

Dumb cere- and that exceedingly; forasmuch as it not only destroyeth quench faith the faith, and quencheth the love that should be given unto the commandments, and maketh the people unthankful, in that it bringeth them into such superstition, that they think that they have done abundantly enough for God, yea, and deserved above measure, if they be present once in a day at such mumming4; but also maketh the infidels to mock us and abhor us, in that they see nothing but such apes' play among us, whereof no man can give a reason.

All this cometh to pass to fulfil the prophecy which

Christ prophesied; that there shall come in his name, which shall say that they themselves are Christ. That do verily the pope and our holy orders of religion. For they, under the name of Christ, preach themselves, their own word and their own traditions, and teach the people to believe in them. The pope giveth pardons of his full power, of the treasure of the church, and of the merits of saints. The friars likewise make their benefactors (which only they call their brethren and sisters) partakers of their masses, fasting, watchings, prayings, and wool ward goings5. Yea, and when a novice Thetestaof the Observants is professed, the father asketh him, Will ^servants. ye keep the rules of holy St Francis? and he saith, Yea. Will ye so in deed? saith he. The other answereth, Yea, forsooth, father. Then saith the father, And I promise you again everlasting life. 0 blasphemy! If eternal life be due unto the pilled6 traditions of lousy friars, where is the testament become that God made unto us in Christ's blood? Christ saith, 'That there shall come pseudo-Christi;' which Matt. xxiv. though I, for a consideration, have translated false Christs, Fa'ke anointkeeping the Greek word, yet signifieth it in the English ec ' false anointed/ and ought so to be translated. " There shall come," saith Christ, " false anointed, and false prophets, and shall do miracles and wonders so greatly, that, if it were possible, the very elect, or chosen, should be brought out of the way." Compare, the pope's doctrine unto the word ofj God, and thou shalt find that there hath been, and yet is, al great going out of the way; and that evil men and deceivers 1 worse and worse, beguiling other as they are beguiled them selves. Thou tremblest and quakest, saying, Shall God let

Christ's pro- us go so sore out of the right way? I answer, It is Christ

Sever so ter- that warneth us; which, as he knew all that should follow,

1 fw T so ProPnesie(l he before, and is a true prophet, and his pro phecies must needs be fulfilled.

neuherwas ^OD anomted his son Jesus with the Holy Ghost, and therefore called him Christ; which is as much to say as anointed. Outwardly he disguised him not; but made him like other men, and sent him into the world to bless us, and to offer himself for us a sacrifice of a sweet savour, to kill the stench of our sins, that God henceforth should smell them no more, nor think on them any more; and to make full and sufficient satisfaction, or amends, for all them that repent, believing the truth of God, and submitting themselves unto his ordinances, both for their sins that they do, have done, and shall do. For sin we through fragility never so oft, yet as soon as we repent and come into the right way again, and unto the testament which God hath made in Christ's blood, our sins vanish away as smoke in the wind, and as darkness at the coming of light; or as thou castest a He that doth little blood, or milk, into the main sea: insomuch that who-

Senior" to soeyer goeth about to make satisfaction for his sins to God- hath Shis war(3, saying in his heart, This much have I sinned, this

SK-s much will I do again; or this-wise will I live to make

T' amends withal; or this will I do, to get heaven withal; the same is an infidel, faithless, and damned in his deed-doing, and hath lost his part in Christ's blood; because he is diso bedient unto God's testament, and setteth up another of his own imagination, unto which he will compel God to obey.

If we love God, we have a commandment to love our neigh- i Joh. iv. bour also, as saith John in his epistle; and if we have

TO our offended him, to make him amends; or if we have not wherc-

TmendT ^'l^> to ask him forgiveness, and to do and suffer all things

W.T. for hjg Sake3 to win him to God, and to nourish peace and unity. But to God-ward Christ is an everlasting satisfaction, and ever sufficient1.

Christ, when lie had fulfilled his course, anointed his The apostles apostles and disciples with the same spirit, and sent them shaven nor forth, without all manner disguising, like other men also, to ^^ preach the atonement and peace which Christ had made be- w- Ttween God and man. The apostles likewise disguised no man, but chose men anointed with the same Spirit: one to preach the word of God, whom we call, after the Greek tongue, a bishop or a priest: that is, in English, an overseer and an Bishop, an elder. How he was anointed, thou readest, 1 Tim. iii. "A bishop w. T.

f The true or an overseer must be faultless, the husband of one wife." a Many Jews, and also Gentiles, that were converted unto the w- Tfaith, had at that time divers wives, yet were not compelled to put any of them away; which Paul, because of ensample, would not have preachers, forasmuch as in Christ we return again unto the first ordinance of God, that one man and one woman should go together. " He must be sober, of honest behaviour, honestly apparelled, harborous," that is, ready to lodge strangers; "apt to teach, no drunkard, no fighter, not This on is given to filthy lucre; but gentle, abhorring fighting, abhor- oS ring covetousness, and one that ruleth his own household honestly, having children under obedience with all honesty. For if a man cannot rule his own house, how can he care for the congregation of God? He may not be young in the faith," or, as a man would say, a novice, " lest he swell and when they made it the first article in their list of heresies and errors, that he said, ' We are bound to make satisfaction to our neighbour, but not to God/ And it is certain that Sir T. More, who was one of those commissioners, and probably a leading one, has strongly con demned this paragraph, which ho has quoted from the words, Tor sin we,' to the end, in p. 46 of his answer to the preface of Tyndale's confutation. More speaks of the passage as an encouragement to sin, inasmuch as in his opinion it makes the obtaining of forgiveness an. easy matter. 'But because/ says he, 'Tyndale will that men repent the doing of their sin, and then no more but faith; I would wit of Tyndale what calleth he repenting, a little short sorrow, or a great sorrow and a long? If a little pretty sorrow, and very shortly done; I would as fain ho said true, as I fear he lioth. If a great fervent sorrow, with grief and trouble of mind, not shortly shot over, but kept and continued long, then force I little of his heresy. For no doubt is it, but that Tyndale's tale to such a man shall seem, God wotc, full fond. For he that hath such repentance will to shrift, I wan-ant you, and take penance of the priest, and do much moro thereto, whatsoever Tyndale tell him.']

fall into the judgment of the evil speaker;" that is, he may not be unlearned in the secrets of the faith: for such are at once stubborn and headstrong, and set not a little by themselves. But, alas! we have above twenty thousand that know no more scripture than is written in their portesses; and among them is he exceedingly well learned that can turn to his service l. " He must be well reported of them that are without, lest he fall into rebuke, and into the snare of the evil speaker;" that is, lest the infidels, which yet believe not, should be hurt by him, and driven from the faith, if a man that were defamed were made head or overseer of the congregation.

priests ought He must have a wife for two causes2: one, that it may wjves s^nd^ thereby be known who is meet for the room. He is unapt for so chargeable an office, which had never household to rule. Another cause is, that chastity is an exceeding seldom gift, and unchastity exceeding perilous for that degree; inas much as the people look as well unto the living as unto the preaching, and are hurt at once if the living disagree, and fall from the faith, and believe not the word.

what the This overseer, because he was taken from his own business iTtoSdo:and and labour, to preach God's word unto the parish, hath right, w- T- by the authority of his office, to challenge an honest living of the parish, as thou mayest see in the evangelists, and also in Paul. For who will have a servant, and will not give him

Men are not meat, drink, and raiment, and all things necessary? How the priest in they would pay him, whether in money, or assign him so GodViaw. much rent, or in tithes, as the guise is now in many countries,

£egacon,what Likewise in every congregation chose they another after h?sdoffihre is' ^e same ensample, and even so anointed, as it is to see in the

ActsTvi. said chapter of Paul, and Acts vi.; whom, after the Greek word, we call deacon; that is to say in English, a servant or a minister; whose office was to help and assist the priest, and to gather up his duty, and to gather for the poor of the parish, which were destitute of friends, and could not work. Common NO beggars.

beggars to run from door to door were not then suffered.

On the saints' days, namely such as had suffered death for HOW hoiy the word sake, came men together into the church; and the oaSings priest preached unto them, and exhorted them to cleave fast wmx.up' unto the word, and to be strong in the faith, and to fight against the powers of the world, with suffering for their faith's sake, after the ensample of the saints: and taught them not to believe in the saints, and to trust in their merits, and to saints were make gods of them; but took the saints for an ensample only, w. x.

and prayed God to give them like faith and trust in his word, and like strength and power to suffer therefore, and to give them so sure hope of the life to come; as thou mayest see in the collects of St Lawrence and of St Stephen in our lady matins3. And in such days, as we now offer, so gave they every man his portion according to his ability, and as God put in his heart, to the maintenance of the priest, deacon, and other common ministers, and of the poor, and to find learned men to teach, and so forth. And all was put in the hands of the deacon; as thou mayest see in the life of St Lawrence, and in the histories. And for such purposes gave men lands why lands afterwards, to ease the parishes; and made hospitals, and also untofhlen places to teach their children, and to bring them up, and to office«before we fell from nurture them in God's word; which lands our monks now ^ £ithdevour.

raise anoint- ANTICHRIST of another manner hath sent forth his disci-