Becon's Prayer: Humble Supplication for Restoring the Word of God to the Church of England, pp.223-227

Becon's Prayer: Humble Supplication for Restoring the Word of God to the Church of England, pp.223-227. Becon was Cranmer's Chaplain (1512-1567). He's in earnest against Popedom. This could and should be adapted for revivalism, Finneyism, liberalism as well as that Tractarian disease. Becon prays, but works in his theology....praying his theology.

http://books.google.com/books?id=MkIYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA223&dq=thomas+becon&output=text#PA223
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O Most High, dear, gentle, loving, and merciful Father, Maker, Ruler, Conserver, and Disposer of all things both in heaven and in earth; without whose will, ordinance, and commandment nothing is done that is done; in whose hands all the coasts of the earth, and the hearts of princes and of all others are ruled, ordered, and bent as thy godly wisdom doth appoint; from whom also, as from a most righteous judge, cometh prosperity and adversity, health and sickness, wealth and scarceness, peace and trouble, blessings and plagues, the gift of thy holy word and the taking away of the same, the sending of faithful workmen into thy harvest and the displacing of them again, the appointment of godly magistrates and setting up hypocrites and tyrants for the punishment of the disobedient, ungodly, and stiffnecked people: we feel, we feel, yea, we Englishmen feel, O Father of mercies and God of all consolation, so great a dung-hill of sin within us, such vileness, such corruptness, such unthankfulness, and such disobedience against thee and thy blessed will, that, except thou hadst given us a commandment to pray, and also joined unto the Prayer, same a faithful and loving promise that thou wilt hear us whensoever we call on thee in the name of Jesus Christ, thy dearly-beloved Son, our Lord and our alone.

Our Saviour, we never durst so much as once to lift up our eyes unto thee, and to approach unto the gracious and merciful throne of thy divine Majesty, for a redress of those evils wherewith at this present (alas for sorrow!) we are miserably yet worthily plagued, punished, and tormented.

But, 0 heavenly Father, and our most benign and gentle Lord, thou, graciously considering both our vileness and weakness of conscience, hast notwithstanding given us a commandment by thy servant David, not to fear, but frankly to flee unto thee, as unto a most strong, mighty, and invincible bulwark, by fervent prayer in all our troubles; and hast also promised, " not for any works of righteousness that we have done," but for thine exceeding great and unspeakable mercy's sake, to hear us and to satisfy our requests, saying: " Call on me in the day of thy trouble; and I will deliver thee; and thou shalt honour me." Here have we poor wretches, unto our great comfort, both a commandment of thee to pray, and also a promise that thou wilt hear us.

And thy most dear and only-begotten Son commandeth us not only to ask, to seek, and to knock, but he also promiseth, that whosoever will ask, the same shall receive; whosoever will seek, the same shall find; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened; yea, his promise is that, whatsoever we ask of thee in his name, thou wilt give it us. And, being encouraged, and as it were under-propped with this thy gracious commandment to pray and loving promise to be heard, are bold at this present, in the name of Christ, to come unto the merciful throne of thy godly Majesty, and before the same to pour out the sorrowful griefs of our most sorrowful hearts, most humbly beseeching thee for thy mercies' sake, for thy promises' sake, for thy name's sake, yea, for thy dear Christ's sake, that thou, turning away thine eyes from our sins, wilt behold thine holy Anointed, whom thou hast made our Mediator and Advocate, for whose sake thou hast openly declared, even from the heavens, that thou art well pleased with man, and for his dignity and worthiness graciously hear the lamentable petitions and humble requests of our bruised hearts and troubled consciences.

Ah, most dear Fathe! great are our miseries; but greater are our sins: grievous are our troubles; but more grievous are the wickednesses which we, most wretched sinners, have committed against thy fatherly goodness : intolerable are the plagues that be laid upon us; but those through our unthankfulness and wicked living (we freely confess) have we most worthily deserved, which have so oft deserved the torments of hell-fire; alas, wretches that we are! and yet are we compelled even of necessit (for vain is the help that cometh from man, yea, " cursed be he that putteth his trust in man, and maketh flesh his arm") to flee for succour unto thee, whom we have so oft and so grievously offended ; whose righteousness notwithstanding in punishing sinners when we behold, we begin to despair and to cast away all hope ; but when we behold thy mercy, set forth in the precious blood of thy most dear Son Christ Jesu our Lord, we take a good heart unto us, and, setting before our eyes thy most loving, sweet, and fatherly promises in hearing us for Christ's sake, we are encouraged to believe that, although our sins be never so great and grievous, never so abominable and intolerable, and we were never so wicked and filthy sinners, yet for thy mercy's sake, for thy promise sake, for thy name's sake, yea, for thy dear Christ's sake, thou wilt mercifully hear us and grant us our earnest requests, yea, and that so much the more because the matter is not only ours but thine also ; again, seeing we come not unto thee to desire long life, gold, and riches with the wicked worldlings, nor yet to crave at thy hand wealth and pleasure, bishoprics and benefices, deaneries, prebends, and such other worldly promotions, with the swinish and beastly epicures, " whose God their belly is ;" but our humble supplication, our earnest request, our hearty desire is only that thou wilt consider thine own glory, the hallowing of thy blessed name, the advancement of thy glorious kingdom, the accomplishment of thy heavenly will, the honour of thy only-begotten Son, the setting forth of his holy gospel, the pureness of the Christian religion, the sincere preaching of thy lively word, the true administration of thy wholesome sacraments, and the salvation of such as thy dearly-beloved Son hath bought from the tyranny of Satan with the price of his most precious and dear heart-blood.

These things, these things, O heavenly Father, do we poor wretches crave and beg at thy merciful hand. These things, these things, even with sorrowful groanings and lamentable tears, do we miserable captives desire thee to consider, and not so to suffer thine adversaries to triumph as though there were no God at all, no Christ, no gospel, no faith, no true religion, but whatsoever pleaseth the hypocrites to command thy people to believe.

Thou callest thyself a "jealous God:" why then dost thou suffer thy people, thy congregation, thy flock, thine heritage, to be thus seduced and led away from thee unto all kind of spiritual fornication and abominable whoredom by that antichrist of common- Rome, that great Baal, that stout Nemroth, that false prophet, that beast, that whore of Babylon, that son of perdition, and by his abominable adherents, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, suffragans, archdeacons, deans, provosts, prebendaries, commissaries, parsons, vicars, purgatory-rakers, priests, monks, friars, canons, nuns, anchors, anchoresses, pardoners, proctors, scribes, officials, sumners, lawyers, massmongers, canonists, papists, antichrists, mammonists, epicures, libertines, with all the rabble of beastly hypocrites that have received the beast's mark, which do nothing else than seek how they may establish their antichristian kingdom by suppressing thy holy word and leading the people into all kind of blindness, errors, and lies?

Thou callest thyself a Lord, and thou sayest that thou wilt give thy glory to none other, nor thy praise unto graven images: how cometh it then to pass that thou sufferest thy glory so to decay in the realm of England, so many to steal away thy praise and honour, by saying their idolatrous and devilish masses, by ministering a sort of heathenish and Jewish ceremonies, by praying unto dead saints, by blotting out of the temples thy holy law, there written according to thy commandment for the edifying of thy people, and by setting np in the stead thereof idols and mawmets, clean contrary to thy blessed word?

Thou callest thyself a lion and "a consuming fire," and threatenest utter destructioon unto thine adversaries: why sufferest thou then these antichrists thus to rise, roar, and rage against the testament of thy most dear Son, to beat down thy truth, to call thy holy law heresy, to banish the preaching of the gospel and the true use of the sacrament, and to seek the destruction of so many as unfeignedly love thee and thy blessed word?

Thou promisest that so many as hate Sion, that is to say, thy faithful congregation, shall be confounded and brought to nought: how cometh it then to pass that the wicked now flourish like the green olive-tree, living in all wealth, pomp, and pleasure; and thy people, whom thou hast sealed with thy holy Spirit unto everlasting life, are most miserably entreated, some banished, some in prison, some cruelly murdered, but all in most sorrowful miseries and in miserable sorrows?

Thou promisest that thou wilt deliver thy flock from the hand of the wicked shepherds, and that thou thyself wilt feed them in most pleasant and sweet pastures : ah, good God! how cometh it then to pass that, whereas before thy sheep were fed with the comfortable meat of thy glorious gospel by the ministry of the godly-learned preachers, the faithful shepherds are driven away, and a rabble of ravening wolves are brast into the sheep-fold, which spare not the flock, but cruelly murder, not only their bodies by imprisoning, hanging, heading, and burning them, but their souls also, by teaching them wicked and pestilent doctrine?

Thy most dear Son both promised and prophesied that " every plant" which thou, the heavenly Father, hast "not planted, shall be plucked up by the roots;" but we see it otherwise come to pass in the realm of England. For such plants as the devil and his chaplains had planted were, through the diligence and godly zeal of thy servants, king Henry the eighth and king Edward the sixth, most blessedly King Henry plucked up, and thy holy ordinances again planted, unto the great joy and unspeakable comfort of all the faithful. But now, through the tyranny and blind zeal of the certain [sic, PV], are thy blessed statutes plucked up by the roots, and set in again are the damnable decrees and crooked constitutions of antichrist, unto the exceeding great grief, sorrow, and pensiveness of all faithful Christians. Ah, Lord God! seem these things matters of small importance before the eyes of thy divine Majesty ? Can these outrageous things be done in earth, and thou wink at them in heaven ? Art not thou he that keepeth Israel ? But " he neither sleepeth nor slumbereth," saith the psalmograph, " that keepeth Israel." Arise, therefore, O Lord: why sleepest thou ? Is thy ear so stopped that thou canst no more hear ? and is thy hand so shortened that it can no more help ? O Lord, arise for thy mercies' sake, and help us. Haste thee to deliver us for thy name sake; for great are our troubles, and intolerable are our miseries. Ah, Lord! vouchsafe once again to look down from heaven, and consider the lamentable state of the realm of England, and of the godly inhabitants thereof, which desire nothing so greatly as to see thy true honour perfectly set forth, thy holy word truly preached, the Christian religion highly advanced, and thy holy name sanctified, praised, magnified, and commended for ever.

Ah, Lord God! heretofore in the time of thy blessing thou gavest to the realm of King Henry England a man to reign over it, under whom the church was purged of many enormities and great abuses, and the true religion began to have good success. And when it was thy godly pleasure to call him from this vale of misery unto thy heavenly kingdom, thou gavest unto us his son to be our king, a prince, although young in years and tender in age, yet ancient in the knowledge of thee, of thy Son Christ, and of thy holy word, and, as another Josias, altogether bent utterly to weed out all false religion, superstition, hypocrisy, papistry, &c., and after a most perfect manner to set up thy holy religion and to advance the hearty favourers of the same, unto the great and wonderful example of all Christian princes. But (alas for sorrow!) this most goodly and godly imp, this most Christian king, this noble young Josias was, for our unthankfulness and wicked living, taken away from us before the time, unto our great sorrow and unspeakable heart's disease: whose death was the beginning, and is now still the continuance of all our sorrows, griefs, and miseries. For in the stead of that virtuous prince thou hast set to rule over us a woman, whom nature hath formed to be in subjection unto man, and whom thou by thine holy apostle commandest to keep silence, and not to speak in the congregation. Ah, Lord! to take away the empire from a man, and to give it unto a woman, seemeth to be an evident token of thine anger toward us Englishmen. For by the prophet thou, being displeased with thy people, threatenest to set women to rule over them, as people unworthy to isai. Hi. have lawful, natural, and meet governors to reign over them. And verily, though wefind that women sometime bare rule among thy people, yet do we read that such as ruled and were queens were for the most part wicked, ungodly, superstitious, and given to idolatry and to all filthy abominations; as we may see in the histories of queen Jezabel, queen Athalia, queen Herodias, and such-like. Ah, Lord God we dare not take upon us to judge any creature, for unto thee alone are the secrets of all hearts known; but of this are we sure, that since she ruled (whether of her own disposition, or of the provocation of a certain wild boar, successor to Ananias, that white-daubed wall, we know not), thy vineyard is utterly rooted up and laid waste, thy true religion is banished, and popish superstition hath prevailed, yea, and that under the colour of the catholic church and the old ancient faith, when notwithstanding darkness is not more contrary to light, nor cold unto heat, than their proceedings are contrary to the truth of thy holy word, if the practice and doctrine of the true catholic church (we speak of the patriarchs and prophets, of Christ and his apostles, and of so many godly people as lived from Adam unto the time that antichrist the bishop of Rome set up his kingdom, and " advanced himself above all that is called God") might be the judge, and go for payment. For besides the giving of the kingdom unto the rule of a woman, O Lord, we most humbly beseech thee to consider what outrageous floods of most grievous enormities have brast in and overflowed the realm of England, unto the utter subversion of the same, except thy merciful goodness doth shortly help.

Ah, Lord God heretofore, under the rule of that most Christian king Edward the sixth, we were taught according to thy word to flee with our prayers unto thee alone in all our troubles and necessities, as a Lord plentifully rich for so many as call on thee. But now the antichristian preachers teach that we must also pray to creatures that are dead, that they may pray for us; or else we pray unto thee in vain, and our prayers shall never be heard.

Heretofore we were taught that Christ, God and man, is our alone Mediator, Advocate, and Intercessor. But now the priests of Baal teach that Mary, James, Peter, John, Paul, Andrew, and we know not who, are also our mediators, advocates, and intercessors, and that we must call upon them in our troubles and adversities, whensoever we will have to do with thee, namely if we will have our matter go forward.

Heretofore we were taught that the precious blood of our Saviour Christ is the alone and sufficient purgatory for the sins of all them that repent and believe. But now the papists teach that there is a purging-place after this life, where the souls of the faithful shall be miserably tormented with fiery flames, till either they themselves have made satisfaction for all their sins by suffering due punishment, or else other in this world have made amends for them by praying, by singing of trentals, by going on pilgrimage, by dealing money, by buying the pope's pardons for their redemption, and such-like; when the holy scripture contrariwise teacheth that the faithful, so soon as they depart from this life, go straightways unto glory, the unfaithful unto everlasting pain and damnation; as we may see in the history of the rich glutton and of the poor man Lazarus.

Heretofore we were taught that Christ, thy Son and our alone Saviour, made upon the altar of the cross, when he suffered and died for us, so sufficient, perfect, absolute, and consummate oblation and sacrifice for the sins of the people, that by that one and alone sacrifice grace, favour, mercy, forgiveness of sins, and everlasting life is for ever and ever plentifully obtained of thee for so many as repent and believe. But now-a-days those Baalite massmongers are not ashamed to reprove that sweetsmelling sacrifice of Christ, and to say that it is not so perfect but that they also must offer Christ up again daily in their masses for the sins of the people, and that their oblation is a propitiatory sacrifice, and of no less virtue, strength, efficacy, might, and power, than the passion and death of Christ, than the sacrifice which Christ himself offered on the altar of the cross. Our missal sacrifice, say the massing papists, is propitiatory, satisfactory, expiatory, and necessary ad talutem, both for the o antichrists. quick and for the dead. The people sin daily: therefore must we offer sacrifice for the sins of the people daily in our masses. What other thing is this, O heavenly Father, than to defy the death of thy Son, to despise his most healthful sacrifice, to set at nought his wholesome oblation, to tread under foot the blood of the everlasting testament, and utterly to deface both the kingdom and priesthood of Christ, and to erect and set up a new kingdom and priesthood of their own, a new sacrifice and a strange oblation, invented of the devil, brought in by antichrist, confirmed by such as have received the beast's mark, and frequented, used, and sought of all that have their portion in that "lake that burneth with fire and brimstone," except they repent and amend ? Is not Christ an everlasting Priest ? Doth not his priesthood continue from generation to generation ? Hath he not with one oblation made perfect for ever them that are sanctified? Are we not made holy "by the offering up of the body of Jesu, done once for all?" Did not Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, sit him down for ever on the right hand of God, and from henceforth tarrieth till his foes be made his footstool ? Is not " Jesus Christ yesterday, and to-day, and the same continueth for ever?" What have we then to do with the sacrificing massmongers, or with their missal sacrifice? 0 heavenly Father, suffer us not to be "carried about with divers and strange learning."

Moreover, heretofore we were taught to beat down the idolatrous and heathenish or the holy altars, which antichrist of Rome, intending to set up a new priesthood and a strange sacrifice for sin, commanded to be built up, as though calves, goats, sheep, and such other brute beasts should be offered again, after the priesthood of Aaron, for the sins of the people, and to set in their stead in some convenient place a seemly table, and, Christ, after the examples of Christ, to receive together at it the holy mysteries of Christ's body and blood, in remembrance that Christ's body was broken and his blood shed for our sins. But now the sacrificing sorcerers shame not, both in their private talk or the holy
and in their open sermons, spitefully to call the Lord's table an oyster-board; arid therefore have they taken out of the temples those seemly tables which we, following the examples of thy dearly-beloved Son and of the primitive church, used at the ministration of the holy communion, and they have brought in again their bloody and butcherly altars, and upon those they sacrifice and offer daily, say they, that is, they kill, slay, and murder thy dear Son Christ for the sins of the people. For, as thy holy apostle saith : " Where no shedding of blood is there is no remission" and forgiveness of sins. If through their massing sins be forgiven, then must the sacrifice that there is offered bo slain, and the blood thereof shed. If the massmongers therefore offer Christ up in their masses a sacrifice unto God for the sins of the people, so followeth it that they murder, kill, and slay Christ, yea, and shed his blood at their masses ; and so by this means we must needs confess, that bloody altars are more meet for such bloody butchers than honest and pure tables. But we are taught in the holy scriptures that " Christ, once raised from death, dieth no more. Death hath no more power over him. For as touching that he died, he died concerning sin once ; and as touching that he liveth, he liveth unto" thee, " God" his Father. If Christ therefore dieth no more, then do the papists sacrifice him no more. If they
sacrifice him no more, then are they but jangling jugglers ; and their masses serve for Masses, why none other purpose but to keep the people in blindness, to deface the passion and death of Christ, and to maintain their idle and draffsacked bellies in all pomp and honour with the labour of other men's hands and with the sweat of poor men's brows; so far is it off that they with their abominable massing and stinking sacrificing put away the sins either of the quick or of the dead, as they make the unlearned and simple people to believe.

Ah, Lord God and heavenly Father! if thou were not a God of long-suffering and of great patience, how couldest thou abide these intolerable injuries and too much detestable blasphemies, which the wicked
papists commit against thee and thy Son Christ in their idolatrous masses at their heathenish altars ?

Heretofore we were taught to receive the mysteries of the Lord's body and blood The faithful together, according to the ordinance of Christ. But now no communion is had. For receive the Kicrameni to- the popish and uncharitable massinongers, utterly abusing the Lord's supper, eateth the priest and drinketh up all alone at his idolatrous altar.

Heretofore we were taught to receive the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ aught to under both kinds, according unto Christ's institution, which saith: " Drink of thif, sacrament all ye." And as the holy apostle saith: " So oft as ye shall eat of this bread and kinds. drink of this cup, ye shall remember the Lord's death till he come." But now the i cor. xi. ' Romish sorcerers, contrary to the ordinance and commandment of thy Son, the Master johmiv. of truth, yea, the self truth, and contrary to the practice and usage of the primitive church, like thieves, robbers, and murderers, cruelly take away from thy people the mystical cup of Christ's blood, for the maintenance of their devilish decree, and minister after their sort the sacrament of thanksgiving to thy Christians only under one kind, yea, and that without the preaching of the Lord's death, repentance, faith, amendment of life, &c. And so make they it an idle and dumb ceremony, altogether unprofitable and without fruit, which, being rightly ministered, is to the faithful a sacrament of great joy and comfort.

The Lord's Heretofore we were taught that the Lord's supper, or breaking of the bread, as the apostles term it, is a memorial of the body-breaking and blood-shedding of our death'.' Saviour Christ; and that, as we outwardly feed of the bread and wine, so we inwardly through faith feed of the blessed body and precious blood of Jesus Christ our Lord, The cruelty unto the great and unspeakable comfort both of soul and body. But now the disciples of antichrist, knowing that the whole glory of their kingdom lieth in the false opinion and abuse of this sacrament, in all their sermons and private talk labour, swink, sweat, and seek all means possible, with tooth and nail, with hand and foot, with tongue and pen, with fire and fagot, with sword and halter, to persuade the people that, after they have whispered a few Latin words with one breath over the bread and wine, and have blessed, crossed, conjured, and handled them after their ghostly manner, there remaineth no more bread and wine; although we both see, feel,
and taste very bread and very wine, yea, and although the holy scripture after the words of consecration called the sacrament bread and wine: but, say they, the bread, through the virtue of the words which we holy anointed rehearse, is turned into the natural substance of Christ's body, and the wine is changed into the natural blood of Christ, only the accidents of bread and wine remaining; when notwithstanding the holy scriptures teach us in divers places that thy Christ is ascended into heaven, and " sitteth on thy right hand, and there shall remain, concerning his humanity, till he 'come to judge the quick and the dead.' And after these Capernaites have laboured to persuade the people, that the sacramental bread is the very true, natural, corporal, substantial, real, and sensible body of Christ, even the self-same that was born of Mary the virgin, lived upon the earth, was hanged upon the cross, and died for us; then exhort they the people with all reverence and humility to knowledge and believe it to be their Lord God, their Maker and Redeemer, their Saviour and Defender, and so to fall down before it, to honour and worship it, to praise and call upon it, to flee unto it for succour, and to look for all good things of it, as of the very true and everlasting God.

By these means, O heavenly Father, they bring away thy people, through their vain, fleshly, and sophistical reasons, from the honouring of the alone true, immortal, invisible, and everlasting God unto the worshipping of a piece of bread, yea, of a very idol; whereas thou alone oughtest to have all the honour and glory. " O Lord, arise, and let thine enemies be scattered: let them also that hate thec flee before thee: like as the smoke vanisheth, so drive thou them away; and like as wax melteth at the fire, so let the ungodly" papists " perish" and be confounded; that thy people be no longer seduced and led from the way of truth by their subtile and carnal imaginations, but that they, being truly taught, may "know thee to be the alone true God, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ."

Heretofore we had in the temples, when we came together to pray and to give thanks unto thee, all our prayers and thanksgiving in the tongue that we understood, whereby we received great comfort, and were much edified. But now the papists (which wish thy people to be more rude than asses, more blind than beetles, more ignorant than dastards, that they might make them their riding fools and laughingstocks), contrary to the usage and practice of the primitive church, yea, contrary to to thy commandment given by thine apostle, which willeth all tilings in the congregation to be uttered in such a speech as all might understand and be edified, or else silence to be kept, have brought the matter to this point, that, all English service driven out of the churches, they have stablished their popish Latin service, which the most part of thy people understand nothing at all. And yet so cruel and malignant tyranny. The papists, that they enforce, and with violence compel thy people to come unto their Romish, superstitious, blasphemous, and idolatrous Latin service, to hear it, to reverence and honour it with their presence, and to call it God's service, when they understand not whether Baal's priests, that there bleat and mumble, do bless or curse, praise or blaspheme. Most certain is this, that thy people are altogether without edifying, spend their time in vain, and return home again as unlearned and ignorant as they came thither.

Heretofore we had read in our temples every Sunday, and at divers other times, Homilies in a godly and learned homily or sermon, and certain chapters out of the holy bible in chapters the English tongue, that all the people might understand what was done or said; which gave them occasion to forsake vice and to embrace virtue, to live in thy fear, and diligently to call upon thy blessed name. But now both those godly homilies and comfortable chapters have thine enemies the papists banished out of the temples, unto the great discomfort of all such as unfeignedly love thee and thy blessed word; and, in the stead of them, they have set up blasphemous collations, singing, ringing, Popish piping, censing, holy-water-casting, holy-bread-dealing, palms and candles-bearing, cross-kneeling, bread-worshipping, ashes-dodding, fire and tapers-hallowing, with an infinite number of such-like heathen ceremonies, that the people, being occupied with such childish trifles, lousy traditions, and beggarly ceremonies, might forget the wholesome food of their souls, which is thy holy and blessed word.

Heretofore upon the Sundays, and certain other days in the week, we had the litany many in rehearsed among us in our English tongue, every one of us kneeling devoutly and heartily calling on thee for mercy and grace.

0 heavenly Father, this was set forth in the time of thy servant king Henry the eighth, and continued among us until the death of that most godly and virtuous prince king Edward the sixth, and a little after, unto the singular joy and great comfort of all godly and christian-hearted people. But now the subtile and fleshly papists have so bewitched the queen's eyes, that, whatsoever her father and her brother most godly brought to pass for the advancement of thy glory and for the edifying of thy people, that is utterly subverted and taken for heresy, yea, and spitefully preached against in open sermons; so that this godly and most wholesome litany is not only taken away from us, but in the stead thereof we are compelled to go on procession, following an idol, with singing Ora pro nobis, Salve festa dies, or some other blasphemous Bong, unto the great sorrow and inward heart-breaking of all thy faithful.

Heretofore thy sacraments were so ministered unto us, that we received great comfort by them. But now they are so ministered of these swinish spiritual sorcerers, that they are become dumb and idle ceremonies, altogether without edifying or profit. For besides that they are ministered in an unknown tongue, how be they defiled with men's traditions and beggarly ceremonies! Unto the sacrament of baptism they put j heathenish rites and wicked conjurations. For Baal's priest, before the child can be baptized, bewitcheth the water, shutteth the church-door, conjureth the devil out of the poor young infant, bespueth the child with his vile spittle and stinking slavering, putteth salt in the child's mouth, smeareth it with greasy and unsavoury oil, &c. And without these apish toys they make the people believe that the baptism is nothing worth. Ah, good Lord! is this any other thing than a plain laughing to scorn of thy dear Son's institution? Do these papists, by adding their beggarly ceremonies, any other thing than set thy Son Christ to school, and avance their own fleshly imaginations above the wisdom of the Lord Christ ?

The sacrament also of thy dear Son's body and blood, how have the adversaries profaned and defiled! Thy Son both before and after the ministration of the sacrament preached unto his disciples: the papists preach nothing at all. Thy Son spake the words of the institution openly in that tongue that all the disciples undertacrament stood: the papists utter all things in a strange language, yea, and that so softly that they scarce hear themselves. Thy Son ministered the sacraments without putting on of any disguised apparel: the papists deck themselves like hickscorner in gameplayers' garments. Thy Son ministered the sacrament sitting at the table with his disciples : the papists stand at the altar, and give the bread and wine to the people kneeling. Thy Son gave the sacramental bread to the disciples in their hands, saying: "Take, eat:" the papists thrust the bread into the people's mouths, as though they had not so much wit as to feed themselves. Thy Son ministered the sacrament of his body and blood under both kinds to his disciples: the papists do minister it to the lay people only under one kind, and like thieves steal the other away from them, and reserve it to themselves alone. Thy Son brake the sacramental bread : the papists use no breaking of the bread, as Christ and his apostles and all the primitive church did, for to declare the mystery of Christ's body-breaking on the altar of the cross for our redemption; but they put into the people's mouths a little light white wafer-cake, speaking to them a few words in Latin which they understand not. Thy Son did appoint the sacramental bread to be broken and eaten: the papists keep it whole, and hang it up in the pix, yea, and carry it about for a pageant in their idolatrous, popish, pompous processions.

Thy Son instituted the sacrament to be a memorial of his body-breaking and Bread and blood-shedding. The papists teach that the bread and wine is turned into the natural body and blood of Christ, God and man, even the self-same body that was born of Mary the the virgin, flesh, blood, and bone, so that there remaineth neither bread nor wine; although the holy scripture affirmeth plainly that there is both bread and wine remaining ; the doctors of the Christian primitive church testify the same in their writings; the Greek church, even from the apostles' time unto this day, have so received and believed, utterly denying the popish article of transubstantiation; reason also, and all the senses of man testify that there remain both bread and wine after the words of consecration, as they use to term them; yea, and experience teacheth that, if the sacramental bread he long reserved, it will corrupt, putrify, mould, stink, and breed full of worms, and the wine likewise will change the colour and wax sour.

O heavenly Father! such corruption cannot chance to thy dear Son's body and blood, which is uncorruptible and immortal, sitteth on thy right hand, and reigneth with thee in glory for ever and ever.

This antichristian doctrine, O blessed Lord, was not known in thy holy church, until pope Nicholas, pope Innocent, pope Urban, friar Thomas, and such other ministers of Satan, partly with their tyranny, and partly with their sophistry (as their apish adherents do now again in these our days) brought it in, and compelled the Christians with fire and sword to believe this their monstrous opinion for the maintenance of their belly-kingdom, although it be never so much contrary to the articles of our faith, and to the doctrine of the holy scripture, and of all the ancient writers.

Thy Son at his supper willed the sacramental bread and wine to be eaten and dninken for a remembrance of that one and alone sacrifice which he offered on the altar of the cross for the sins of the people. The papists in their idolatrous and blasphemy make of the sacrament a propitiatory, expiatory, and satisfactory sacrifice for the sins of the people, necessary ad lalutem; affirming that their act in the mass is of equal price, dignity, virtue, might, efficacy, and power before the eyes of thy divine Majesty with the most healthful and sweet-smelling sacrifice that thy Son offered on the altar of the cross, when he gave himself unto the death for the sins of the people. Thy Son ordained the sacrament to be a sign and token of love, when the godly come together to eat all of one bread, and to drink all of one cup. The papists make it a sacrament of dissension, discord, and debate. For if any will not agree to their fleshly, wicked, and devilish opinion, confessing their error of transubstantiation, and affirming that the bread and wine is the very natural body and blood of Christ, God and man, and therefore ought to be kneeled unto,

............and on and on. Mlore to follow