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

Becon's Anglican Catechism: The Law, Second Commandment, pages 73-77)

Becon's Anglican Catechism: Law, Second Commandment (Part Two). This remains a suitable catechism for Reformed Churches in the Anglican way. The underlying thrust is the centrality of the Word of God without distractions of art, images, etc. In American Anglican churches (before the Tractarian heretics arose), there were three tablets allowed: 1) Lord's Prayer, 2) 10 Commandments, 3) Nicene Creed.

http://books.google.com/books?id=-8t6T7EhnXoC&pg=PA75&dq=thomas+becon+catechism&output=text#c_top

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Father. Amen. Let these things suffice for this present concerning the objections of the image-mongers for the maintenance of their idols in churches, and to declare that this precept of not making nor worshipping images appertaineth no less now unto us Christians than it did in times past unto the Jews. But come off, tell me, what is the good pleasure of God in the second commandment?

Son. God, which is the searcher of the heart, and knoweth the corrupt, froward, and wicked nature of man, mindment. and how even from his cradle he is prone, bent, and wholly given unto all that is ungodly, and specially unto new, strange, and counterfeit worshipping of God, invented of his own idle brain, blind zeal, good intent, corrupt judgment, contrary to God's holy ordinance and appointment, which willeth none otherwise to be served, honoured, and worshipped, than he himself hath prescribed in his blessed law; to bridle this evil and corrupt affection of man, and to keep him within the limits of his godly commandments, that he run not a whore-hunting after strange idols, but worship him according to his own appointment, and none otherwise, first of all in this his second commandment—forasmuch as nothing doth so alienate, estrange, and pluck away the heart of man from God and from all godliness, as idols, mawmets, images, and puppets, which be made and set forth before the eyes of the simple and unlearned people, to preach and represent unto them the majesty of God, which by no means can be counterfeit, seeing itself is both infinite and incomprehensible, and cannot be feigned nor set forth, no, not so much as shadowed by the art of man, although never so cunning either of graving or painting, in any corporal substance—chargeth and straitly commandeth his people, even so many as take him for their Lord and God, that they make no graven or carved image, nor the likeness of any tiling that is in heaven above, as the sun, moon, stars, &c.; or in earth beneath, as men, beasts, birds, worms, &c.; or in the waters under the earth, as fishes, and whatsoever liveth in the waters; lest by the making of such things they should go about after the manner of the heathen to counterfeit the majesty of God, and so, by beholding the same, at the last conceive an opinion on godhead and divine power to be in those images, and so fall to the worshipping of them, (as we read of divers nations both in God's and man's histories,) and by this means provoke God unto anger, which is both " a jealous God, and a consuming fire."

Father. Is it not then lawful to make an image of God?

Son. By no means: the image of for it is plainly forbidden of God in this second commandment.

Father. Are there no more scriptures in the holy bible, which bear witness of this thing?

Son. Yes, forsooth, very many.

Father. Recite part of them.

Son. Moses, that most excellent prophet of God, saith: " The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire. The voice of his words ye heard; nevertheless ye saw no image, but heard the voice only. And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to do, namely, the ten verses, and wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me at the same time to teach you his ordinances and laws, that ye might do thereafter in the land into the which ye go to possess it. Keep well your souls therefore, (for ye saw no manner of image in the day when the Lord spake unto you out of the fire upon mount Horeb,) that ye destroy not yourselves, and make you any image that is like a man, or woman, or beast upon earth, or feathered fowl under the heaven, or worm upon the ground, or fish in the water under the earth; that thou lift not up thine eyes toward heaven, and see the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the whole host of heaven, and be deceived, and worship and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath created to serve all nations under the whole heaven."

Again: " Take heed unto yourselves, that ye forget not the covenant of the Lord your God, and that ye make no images of any manner of fashion, as the Lord thy God hath commanded. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire and a jealous God. If when ye have begotten children, and childer's children, and have dwelt in the land, ye mar yourselves, and make you images of any manner of fashion, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke him, I call heaven and earth to record over you this day, that ye shall shortly perish from the land into the which ye go over Jordan to possess it. Ye shall not dwell long therein, but shall utterly be destroyed." Also in another place: " Ye shall not turn yourselves unto images, and ye shall make you no gods of metal; for I am the Lord your God." Item: " Thus shall ye do with those nations unto whom the Lord your God shall send you: ye shall overthrow their altars, break down their pillars, cut down their groves, and burn their images with fire. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. Thee hath the Lord thy God chosen, that thou shouldest be his own peculiar people from among nations that are upon earth." Again: " These are the ordinances and laws which ye shall keep, that ye do thereafter in the land which the Lord God of thy fathers hath given thee to possess, as long as yo live upon earth. Destroy all the places wherein the heathen, whom ye shall conquer, have served their gods, whether it be upon high mountains, upon hills, or among green trees. And overthrow their altars, and break down their pillars, and bum their groves with fire, and hew down the images of their gods, and bring the names of them to nought out of the same place." Once again he
saith: " Cursed be he that maketh any carved image, or molten idol an abomination unto the Lord, a work of the hands of the craftsman), and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen."

The prophet Esay also saith: " To whom will ye liken God ? or what similitude will ye set up unto him ? Shall the carver make him a carved image ? and shall the goldsmith cover him with gold, or cast him into a form of silver plates ? &c. Know ye not this? heard ye never of it? hath it not been preached unto you since the beginning? have ye not been informed of this since the foundation of the earth was laid, that he (God) sitteth upon the circle of the world, and all the inliabiters of the world are, in comparison of him, but as grasshoppers," &c. ?

God himself saith by the aforesaid prophet: " To whom now will ye liken me ? and whom shall I be like, saith the Holy One. Again: " Whom will ye make me like in fashion or image, that I may be like him? which take out silver and gold out of your purses and weigh it, and hire a goldsmith to make a god of it, that men may kneel down and worship it. Yet must he be taken on men's shoulders, and borne, and set in his place, that he may stand and not move. Alas, that men should cry unto him which giveth no answer, and delivereth not the man that calleth upon him from his trouble! Consider this well, and be ashamed. Go into your own selves."

The prophet Esay saith once again: " All carvers of images are but vain, and their labour lost. They must bear record themselves that, seeing they can neither see nor understand, they shall be confounded. Who should now make a god, or fashion an idol that is profitable for nothing ? Behold, all the fellowship of them must be brought to confusion. Let all the work-masters come and stand together from among men: they must be abashed and confounded one with another. The smith taketh iron, and tempereth it with hot coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and maketh it with all the strength of his arms: yea, sometime he is faint for very hunger, and so thirsty that he hath no more power. The carpenter (or image-carver) taketh the timber and spreadeth forth his line: he maketh it with some colour: he planeth it: he ruleth it, and squareth it, and maketh it after the image of a man, and according to the beauty of a man, that it may stand in a temple. Moreover, he goeth out to hew down cedar-trees: he bringeth home elms and oaks and other timber of the wood, or else the fir-trees which he planted himself, and such as the rain hath swelled, which wood scrveth for men to burn. Of this he taketh and warmeth himself withal: he maketh a fire of it to bake bread, and afterward maketh a god thereof .to honour it, and an idol to kneel before it. One piece he bumeth in the fire: with another he roasteth flesh, that he may eat roast his bellyful: with the third he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha! I am well warmed, I have been at the fire. And of the residue he maketh him a god, and an idol for himself. He kneeleth before it, he worshippeth it, he prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my God. Yet men neither consider nor understand, because their eyes are stopped that they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot perceive. They ponder not in their minds (for they have neither knowledge nor understanding) to think thus: I have brent one piece in the fire; I have baked bread with the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh withal, and eaten it: shall I now of the residue make an abominable idol, and fall down before a rotten piece of wood ? Thus he doth but lose his labour, and his heart, which is deceived, doth turn him aside, so that none of them can have a free conscience to think: May not I err ? Consider this, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have made thee, that thou mightest serve mo. O Israel, forget me not. As for thine offences, I drive them away like the clouds, and thy sins as the mist. Turn thee again unto me; and I will deliver thee." The prophet Jeremy saith also: " They hew down a tree in the wood with the hands of the workman, and fashion it with the axe: they cover it over with gold or silver: they fasten it with nails and hammers, that it move not. It standeth as stiff as the palm-tree: it can neither speak nor go, but must be borne. Bo not ye afraid of such; for they can do neither good nor evil. But there is none like unto thee, O Lord: thou art great; and great is the name of thy power." God himsel saith by the prophet Osee: " Of their silver they make them molten images, like the idols of the heathen; and yet all is nothing but the work of the craftsman, &c. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the dew that early passeth away, and like as dust that the wind taketh away from the floor, and as smoke that goeth out of the chimney. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, that thou shouldest know no God but me only, and that thou shouldest have no Saviour but only me."

As I may at the last cease to gather the testimonies of the old testament, which both forbid and condemn the making of such images, as pluck the minds of men from the living God unto dumb mawmets, I would wish all men diligently to read and remember the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of the book of Wisdom, and the sixth chapter of the prophet Baruch; which lively paint and set forth in their true colours theso images, idols, and mawmets, which many have in so great admiration, with all the vanities and abominations of them.

Father. Doth not also the new testament judge of images even as the old?

Son. Yes, verily. The Holy Ghost varieth not in his doctrine. Paul and Barnabas said unto the people: " "We preach unto you, that ye should turn from these vanities (they speak of images and of image-service) unto the living God, which made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein." St Peter likewise said to the congregation of God : " My judgment is, that we trouble not them which from among the gentiles are turned to God, but that we write unto them, that they abstain themselves from the filthiness of images." St John saith : " Babes, keep yourselves from images."

Father. But come off, my dear child, tell me, is it not lawful for the Christians in no condition to have images?

Son. There be some that so think, of whose judgment worthily be resembled to the Turks, which, as they
had. Take this commandment of God so straitly, that they can by no means suffer any image to be made, no, not in profane and civil things.

Fatther. If in politic and worldly matters, why not also in divine and holy things ?

Son. In the one is no peril; in the other, great danger, as we have learned too much by experience.

Father. Did not God command Moses, after that he had given this law concerning images, to make the brasen serpent, and to set it up in the wilderness for the people of Israel to behold ?

Son. I grant. Notwithstanding, that was but a figurative image, serving for the time, prefiguring Christ, as we may see in the gospel, and therefore is now utterly abolished: as all figures, clouds, and shadows of the old testament vanished, when Christ, which is the very truth and light, came. Yea, long before the coming of Christ, that noble and godly king Ezechias, when he saw the»Kings x«u. people abuse this image, kneel unto it, honour it, and burn incense unto it, he threw it down and utterly destroyed it, although set up at the commandment of God: which thing he would never have done, if he had known that commandment of setting up the brasen serpent to be moral (for every moral law is the certain, undoubted, un- 4*9 changeable, and everlasting will of God); but being well assured that it was but a ceremonial law, serving for the time, and a figure or shadow of a better thing to come, when he saw it abused, so that by that means the glory of God was obscured, yea, and that honour given to an image which alone is due to the living God, he plucked it down, burnt it, and utterly destroyed it. For this is diligently to be noted, that no particular commandment takcth away the virtue of a general or universal law, as this law of images is in the book of God.

Father. Thou boldest then, that although it be tolerable, yea, and lawful in politic and worldly things, to have images, yet in matters appertaining unto godliness and religion it is neither tolerable nor lawful.

Son. Not only I, but the holy fathers also of the primitive church were of that opinion, as we have heretofore heard: " God is a spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth." Now, saith Lactantius, " God is never truly worshipped in that place where an image is"*: which thing made that holy bishop St Epiphanius, when he saw an image in the church, to take it away, and to cut it in pieces, affirming, that it is contrary to the authority of God's word to have images in the church of Christ8: which thing also made many noble princes and holy bishops to give commandment, that all images of God, of Christ, of angels, and of saints, should be taken out of churches, and burnt openly, and from henceforth that no images should be made and brought into such places as christian men use to resort unto for to pray unto their Lord God: if any did presume to do the contrary, he should suffer such punishments as was appointed bv the law for such and so grievous offenders4.

Father. If it be not lawful to make images for religion sake, then is it not lawful it i» norther for us to honour and worship them, as the custom was, and yet is, in the pope's church.

Son. No, verily. For as God in this commandment saith, " Thou shalt make thee no graven image," &c.; so likewise saith he, " Neither shalt thou bow down before them, the.m.'p nor worship them.

Father. Here then are we forbidden in the way of religion not only to make images, but also to worship them.

Son. Truth it is.

Father. Declare unto me by other scriptures also, that it is not lawful to worship images.

Son. God saith by his servant Moses: " I am the Lord your God: ye shall make you no idols, nor image in your land, to bow yourselves thereto. For I am the Lord vonr God." Moses also saith : "Beware, that thou make no covenant with the indwellers of the land, that thou comest into, lest they be the cause of thy ruin in the midst of it; but their altars shalt thou overthrow, and break down their gods, and root out their groves. For thou shalt have none other God, (for the Lord is called Jealous, because he is a jealous God;) lest, if thou make any agreement with the indwcllers of the land, when they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, they call thee, and thou eat of their sacrifice, and lest thou take their daughters unto thy sons to wives, and the same go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons to go a whoring after their gods also." Again: " Beware, that your heart be not deceived, that ye go aside and serve other gods, and worship them; and then the wrath of the Lord wax hot upon you, and he shut up the heaven that there come no rain, and the earth give not her increase, and ye perish shortly from the good land which the Lord hath given you." Item: " If there rise up a prophet or dreamer among you, and give thee a token or wonder, and that token or wonder, which he spake of, come to pass, and then say, Let us go after other gods (whom thou knowest not), and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of such a prophet or dreamer. For the Lord your God proveth you, to wit, whether ye love him with all your heart and with all your soul. For ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and hearken unto his voice, and serve him, and cleave unto him. As for that prophet or dreamer, he shall die; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God."

The psalmograph also saith : " Confounded be all they that worship carved images, and they that delight in vain gods." The wise man saith: " The honouring of abominable images is the cause, the beginning, and the end of all evil." God himself saith by the prophet Esay: " I am the Lord, this is my name. I will give my glory to none other, nor my honour to graven images." Hereto pertaineth the saying of St Paul: " Be not worshippers of images." " For no worshippers of images shall inherit the kingdom of God :" yea, as St John saith : " They shall have their part in that lake that burnetb. with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

Besides these sentences of the holy scripture, which utterly condemn the honouring and worshipping of images, we have manifest examples in the word of God of certain holy men, which did rather choose to suffer death, than they would serve, honour, or worship images. What a number of prophets and godly men did that most wicked woman, queen Jesebel, kill and murder, because they would not bow their knee to that foul idol, Baal! Read we not also in the book of Daniel the prophet, that three young men did rather choose to be put into a fiery furnace, and there to be burnt unto ashes, than they would once fall down before the golden image at the commandment of king Nabuchodonosor ? Was not this their answer to the king, "0 Nabuchodonosor, we ought not to consent unto thee in this matter. For why? our God whom we serve is able to keep us from the hot burning oven, 0 king, and can right well deliver us out of thy hands. And though he will not, yet shalt thou know, 0 king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor do reverence to the image which thou hast set up." Read we not again that Daniel was commanded of the king to worship a certain image at Babylon called Bel ? But Daniel answered and said, " I may not worship things that are made with hands, but the living God, which made heaven and earth, and hath power upon all flesh."

What shall I speak of all the holy martyrs which were in the primitive church, and many years after, that suffered most bitter torments, yea, and very death, because they would not bow down before images, and honour them ?

Image-service is such and so great abomination not only before God, but also in the sight of all good men, that we read of certain noble princes, which could by no means abide such wickedness to be used in their kingdoms, and therefore utterly destroyed all those idols, images, puppets, and mawmets, that plucked away the people's hearts from the honour of the living God unto image-service. Read we not, that king Ezechias put away the high places, and brake down the pillars, and rooted out the groves, and brake the brasen serpent, which Moses had made ? " For unto that time had the children of Israel burnt incense unto it." Read we not also, that king Josias destroyed and utterly took away the images and idols, and all the abominations which were seen in the land of Juda and at Jerusalem ; and that he commanded all the vessels to be taken out of the temple, which were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven, and that he burnt them without Jerusalem in the valley of Cedron, and caused the dust of them to be carried unto Bethel ? Again, that he did break down the altars which Manasses had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and caused the dust of them to be cast into the brook of Cedron ; and the altar at Bethel, and the high place that Jeroboam made, which both he destroyed and made them unto dust, and burnt up the grove, &c. ?

Read we not, moreover, that the wicked king Manasses, because that he walked after the abominations of the heathen, builded the high places, which his father Ezechias had broken down, set up altars, made grevous1, worshipped all the host of heaven, caused carved images and idols to be made and set up in the house of the Lord, shed much innocent blood, and did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, was taken of the host of the king of the Assirians, bound with chains, and so led away prisoner unto Babylon ? Which Manasses being in trouble, after that he had humbled himself and prayed unto the Lord his God, his prayer was heard, and the Lord " brought him again to Jerusalem, even to his kingdom; so that Manasses knew that the Lord is God. Afterward put he away the strange gods and idols out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars which he had builded upon the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city, &c."

What shall I speak of Constantine the Great, of Leo III., of Valens and Theodoeius, of Philip, of Constantine, &c, most noble and worthy emperors, and of Sabanus, king of the Bulgarians", with divers other godly princes, which all banished idols, images, or mawmets out of their dominions, and would by no means suffer them to be remaining in those places, where christian men resort and come together to pray; lest the people should fall from the honour of the one and alone true living God, and be allured unto the vain worshipping of most vain images, and so heap the wrath and vengeance of God npon them, which as all sins, so likewise the sin and abomination of image-service, most highly doth detest and abhor?

What shall I here rehearse the most godly and virtuous acts of the reverend and holy bishops, Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus3, and Sirenus, bishop of Massilia*, and such like, which by no means could abide either images or image-service in their diocese ?

I pass over the most holy and christian councils, Agathense, Tolitane, Elibertine8, tic, which decreed that all pictures or images should be had out of the churches, and that nothing that is honoured or worshipped should be painted on the church-walls.

(Various footnotes deleted. See originals at the URL above.)

As respects the council of Arles, the canons, as printed by Labbe, do not seem to contain any thing to the point. Durandus, however, says: Concilium Agathen. de consec. distin. 3. cap. placuit, inhibet pictures in ecclesiis fieri, et quod colitur et adoratur in parietibus depingi.—Gul. Durand. Rat. Div. Offic. Venet. 1609. Lib. i. cap. iii. 4. fol. 9. 2. But as these words are almost identical with the canon of Elvira, quoted above, Durandus was perhaps in error.]

All these things heretofore rehearsed do evidently declare, what is to be thought both of images made for religion sake, and also of the worshipping and honouring of the same.

Fattier. Now, my good child, forasmuch as in this second commandment of God we are not only forbidden to make images, but also to bow down to them, and to worship them; tell me what is meant or understand by the bowing down unto an image.

Son. To bow down to, or before an image, which in Greek is wpoaKuveTv, and in the Latin adorare, is reverently with the body to fall down before it, to kneel unto it, to set it in a place where we use to worship God, to garnish it with costly array and precious jewels, to kiss it, to put off our cap unto it, and to shew any gesture of reverence outwardly unto it. All these things doth God forbid to be given to images in this his second commandment.

Father. Yet all these things are done to images in the pope's churches.

Son. Truth it is. For in divers popish books we read on this manner: " To all them that say this prayer following before the image of the crucifix, pitifully beholding the same, and devoutly kneeling upon their knees, are granted as many days of pardon, by divers popes of Rome, as be gravel stones in the sea, or grasses on the earth'." Moreover, who knoweth not this to be a custom in the synagogues of the pope both on Good Friday, as they call it, and on Easter-day in the morning, to creep unto the cross, to kneel unto it, to kiss it, to offer gifts unto it, &c, while the priests and the clerks sing on this manner, Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine, "We worship thy cross, O Lord;" which is plain and manifest idolatry, and a work directly against the commandment of God ?

St Ambrose writeth on this manner: " Helene found a title or superscription, but she worshipped the king, and not the tree; for this is an heathenish error, and the vanity of the ungodly; but she worshipped him that did hang on the tree, written in the title, &c."* With what conscience then can the papists compel, as they do, the simple Christians to worship the cross, contrary to the doctrine both of the holy scriptures and of the ancient godly writers ? This kind of worshipping required the devil at Christ's hand; but he answered: " Avoid, Satan. For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him alone shalt thou serve." This worship refused Simon Peter to be given unto him of Cornelius the centurion. " Stand up," saith he, " I am a man also." This worship also refused the angel, when John fell down at his feet, and said unto John: " See that thou do it not. For I am thy fellow-servant, and one of thy brethren, and of them that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship thou God." If the apostle of Christ and the angel of God refused to be worshipped with falling down before them, and with kneeling unto them, is it reason that this worship, I mean, kneeling and bowing of the body, should be given to dumb idols and vain images? " Confounded and put to utter confusion and shame mought all they be," saith the psalmograph, " which worship," that is to say, kneel down before, " graven images," or do any outward reverence unto them.

Father. We are not only commanded of God in this his second commandment, that we should not bow down before any image, but also that we should not worship nor honour them. What is meant by worshipping or honouring of images ?

Son. As by bowing down before an image is understand all outward reverence, which with our body we give unto it, whether it be by setting it in that place where we come together to honour God, as in churches, chapels, oratories, &c, or by kneeling unto it, or putting off our cap unto it, or garnishing it, or kissing it, &c; so likewise by worshipping an image is meant to pray unto it, to offer gifts and sacrifices unto it, to go on pilgrimage unto it, to seek health, help, and salvation at it, to flee unto it in our necessities, to put our faith, hope, and confidence in it, and to maku it, as I may so speak, a very God; which is plain idolatry and image-service.

Father. These things also are done at this present day in the kingdom of the pope.

Son. It is the more to be lamented. All good and godly men ought to study, unto the uttermost of their power, to banish these so great and grievous pestilences from the bounds of Christendom, that all the worship, honour, glory, and praise may be given to God alone, as he himself saith by the prophet: " I am the Lord: this is my name. I will give my glory to none other, nor my honour to graven images." In the Acts of the Apostles we read, that when the men of Lystra, with Jupiter's priest, brought oxen and garlands, and would have done sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, because of the miracle that Paul wrought among them, in healing a man which was impotent of his feet, and a cripple even from his mother's womb, and cried out with a loud voice, saying, " The gods are become like unto men, and are come down unto us ; calling Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mcrcurius, because he was the preacher;" the apostles rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying and saying: " Ye men, why do ye this ? We are mortal men also like unto you, and preach unto you the gospel, that ye should turn from these vain things unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that therein is." If the apostles of Christ refused to be honoured, to have gifts and sacrifices offered unto them, &c, is it then seemly that such honour should be given to dumb images, idols, and mawmets? Neither outward worship nor inward honour ought to be given unto such vanities. " Blessed is that man," saith the psalmograph, " whose hope, affiance, and trust is in the name of the Lord, and that hath not regarded these vanities and foolish fond fantasies." These image-mongers may justly be resembled to the priests of Baal, which called on the name of Baal from the morning unto the noon-day, and yet were not heard. So likewise these new Baalites and idolaters, though they cry never so much upon these idols and images, yet shall they never be heard. " For they have ears and hear not, &c. They that make them are like unto them, and so are all such as put their trust in them. But let Israel trust in the Lord; for he is their succour and defence."

Father. Hitherto have we heard what the good will and pleasure of God is in this his second commandment, concerning images. Go forth now, and declare unto me that which followeth in this precept.

Son. The words that follow are these:

" For I the Lord thy God am a strong and a jealous God, punishing the wickedness of the parents in the children, until the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and shew mercy until thousands, unto those that love me and keep my commandments."

Father. Why doth the Lord our God call himself "a strong God"?

Son. To declare whv the Lord that his divine majesty is so great, infinite, immeasurable, and incomprehensible, so wrong God. excellent and far passing the reach and compass of man's wit or reason, that it can by no means be expressed or set forth by any similitude, likeness, or image, that man can devise. For seeing that heaven and earth, and all that ever is contained in them, cannot represent God, much less are vile and vain images able to do this, which are made with man's hand, and have neither life nor moving, nor any thing at all that is like our most strong and mighty God, as both Esay and Baruch do right well testify. He is also called a strong God, to declare that he is of sufficient might and power to help and to defend all those that put their trust in him, with whatsoever kind of adversity they be assailed; and that, as he is able, so likewise he will alway be present with his saving health unto all such as unfeignedly cleave unto him, refusing utterly all false gods, idols, images, mawmets, puppets, &c, and seeking their health and salvation both of body and of soul at his merciful hand only and alone.

Father. But why doth he call himself " a jealous God" ?

Son. To declare that he by no means can abide that that glory which is due from us to him alone should be ifcalota given to any creature, although never so excellent, either in heaven or in earth, much Go
Father. What is it to run a whore-hunting from God ?

Son. To forsake the Lord is to follow creatures; to pluck our faith and love from God, and to give it unto strange gods; to seek health and salvation, remission of sins and everlasting life, at the hand of any, either in heaven or in earth, saving only at the hand of the Lord our God, which alone is the author, beginner, and finisher of our salvation. And to pluck us away from this whore-hunting and spiritual whoredom, which is nothing else than idolatry or image-service, he doth not only call himself a jealous God, but he also addeth, that he will punish the wickedness of the parents " in the children, until the third and fourth generation of them that hate him."

Father. What wickedness is that which God will so extremely punish ?

Son. Every sin is wickedness. God will by no means suffer the transgression and breaking of his holy commandments unpunished: as it is written: " Wo be unto them that sin, and keep not my commandments, saith the Lord; for I will not spare them." Again: " Cursed is every one which abideth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, that he may do them." And albeit all kind of sins do greatly offend tho majesty of God, so that he will leave none of them unpunished; yet this sin of idolatry or image-service do most highly displease him: neither will he by any means suffer the transgression and breaking of this second commandment, which forbiddeth idolatry and image-service, to escape without punishment, as divers histories of the holy scripture do manifestly declare. And therefore it is here to be noted by the way, that God calleth the idolaters, image-servants, or worshippers of strange gods, his enemies and such as hate him. Is it to bo thought that such can escape unpunished? It is not therefore without a cause, that God, tendering our health and salvation, in this his second commandment forbiddeth both the making and worshipping of images. If we will avoid the worshipping of images, let us cease to make them, and place them in our temples, chapels, oratories, &c.; and so shall we easily escape from the danger of idolatry or image-service, which is so grievous an offence, and so wicked and abominable sin before the Lord our God, that he threateneth to punish it in tho children of the idolatrous fathers, until the third and fourth generation.

Father. This seemeth to me very lamentable, that God should punish the wickedness of the parents in their children's children.

Son. This on this wise is to be understand. If the children of the parents, which were wicked idolaters, commit that same idolatry which their fathers have committed, and continue in the same wickedness wherein their forefathers have lived, then will God not only punish the parents which have so offended, but also their children, yea, and their children's children, which commit the like offence, yea, and that so much the more grievously, because they be the idolatrous children of idolatrous fathers, and have more pleasure to walk in the wicked steps of their most wicked fathers, than to give ear to the righteous laws of the most righteous God.

Father. But what if the parents bo wicked and the children godly, as it sometime rhanceth, and as we also find in the holy scriptures, shall the children notwithstanding be plagued and punished for their fathers' offences ?

Son. God forbid. For it is written: " The soul that sinneth shall die. If a man be godly, and do the thing that is equal and right (he eateth not upon the hills: he lifteth not his eyes up to the idols of Israel: he defileth not his neighbour's wife: he meddleth with no menstruous woman: he grieveth nobody: he giveth his debtor his pledge again: he taketh none other man's good by violence: he parteth his meat with the hungry: he clotheth tho naked: he lendeth nothing upon usury: he taketh nothing over: he writhed1 with his hand from doing wrong: he handleth faithfully betwixt man and man: he walketh in ray commandments, and keepeth my laws, and performeth them faithfully); this is a righteous man: he shall surely live, saith the Lord God. If he now beget a son that is a murderer and a shedder of blood; if he do one of these things (though he do not all); he eateth upon the hills; he defileth his neighbour's wife; he grieveth the poor and needy; he robbeth and spoileth; he giveth not the debtor his pledge again; he lifteth up his eyes unto idols, and meddleth with abominable things; he lendeth upon usury, and taketh moreover; shall this man live? he shall not live. Seeing he hath done all these abominations, he shall die: his blood shall be upon him. Now if this man beget a son also, that seeth all his father's sins which he hath done, and feareth, neither doth such like; namely, he eateth not upon the mountains; he lifteth not his eyes up to the idols of Israel; he defileth not his neighbour's wife; he vexeth no man ; he keepeth no man's pledge; he neither spoileth nor robbeth any man; he dealeth his meat with the hungry; he clotheth the naked; he oppresseth not the poor; he receiveth no usury, nor any thing over; he keepeth my laws, and walketh in my commandments; this man shall not die in his father's sin, but shall live without fail. As for his father, because he oppressed and spoiled his brother, and did wickedly among his people, he is dead in his own sin. And yet say ye: Wherefore then should not this son bear his father's sin? Therefore, because the son hath done equity and right, hath kept all my commandments and done them; therefore shall he live in deed. The soul that sinneth shall die. The son shall not bear the father's offences, neither shall the father bear the son's offence. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself; and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself also."

Of these words, which I have borrowed out of the prophet Ezechiel, is it plain and evident, that, although the parents be wicked and idolatrous, yet if their children be not polluted and defiled with the same wickedness and idolatry, but lovers of God, studious of his holy word, and diligent walkers in his laws and commandments; they shall be free from those plagues and punishments which their wicked and ungodly fathers have most justly deserved, and be no partakers of God's displeasure, indignation, and venceance in this behalf. Therefore, where it is said that God will punish the wickedness of parents "in the children, until the third and fourth generation," it is to be understand of those children which, having wicked fathers, follow the steps of their fathers, committing the same wickedness which they tofore have committed, without repentance or amendment of life. The other, which are free from the wickedness of their parents, are also free from the curses and plagues of God, and be in the number of those which are mentioned in the end of this second commandment.

Father. What is that?

Son. "And shew mercy until thousands, unto those that love me and keep my commandments."

Father. What learnest thou of these words ?

Son. Verily, that as God is righteous and severe in punishing the wicked doers, which transgress his commandments, so likewise is he merciful, gentle, and liberal to all such as love him, and study to frame their lives according to his holy word; as the apostle saith : " Unto them that are contentious, and not obedient to the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall come indignation and wrath, trouble and anguish, upon all the souls of men that do evil, of thct Jew first, and also of the Greek. But unto all them that do good (shall come) praise and honour and peace, unto the Jew first, and also the Greek. For there is no respect of persons before God."

Father. What is meant by this, that God, in plaguing the wickedness of the parents in the children, will only extend his punishment until the third and fourth generation, yea, and that none otherwise, except they follow the wickedness of their fathers, as we heard tofore; but in shewing mercy unto those that love him and keep his commandments, he saith, that he will extend and stretch forth his merciful kindness and mercy of kind mercy until thousands, that is to say, infinite generations?

Son. This declareth than the unto us, that the mercy of God is greater than his anger, and that he is more bent to loving-kindness than to severe justice. And with this agrecth the saying of that blessed virgin Mary: " His mercy," saith she, " endureth throughout all generations upon them that fear him." The psalmograph also saith: " The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, long-suffering, and of great goodness. He will not alway be chiding, neither will he keep his anger for ever. He will not deal with us after our sins, nor reward us according to our wickedness. For look how high the heaven is in comparison of the earth ; so great is his mercy also toward them that fear him. Look how wide the cast is from the west; so far will he set our sins from us. Yea, like as a father pitieth his own children, even so is the Lord merciful unto them that fear him, &c. The merciful goodness of the Lord endureth for ever and ever upon them that fear him, and his righteousness upon their childer's children; even such as keep his covenant, and think upon his commandments to do them."

Becon's Anglican Catechism: The Law, Second Commandment

Thomas Becon (1512-1567), catechetist, Chaplain to Thomas Cranmer. Photo is Canterbury Cathedral, UK. This was (and should be) Anglican doctrine. Minimally, this should be used for catechesis in every Anglican Church worldwide. There will be some surprises here, to wit, the triumph of the Word over art and images.

Free and available at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=-8t6T7EhnXoC&pg=PA75&dq=thomas+becon+catechism&output=text#c_top

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Father. Rehearse the second commandment.

Son. "Thou shalt make thee no graven or carved image, nor likeness at all of any thing that is in heaven above, or in earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not bow before them, nor worship them. For I the Lord thy God am a strong and jealous God, punishing the wickedness of the parents in the children until the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shew mercy until thousands unto those that love me, and keep my commandments."

Father. There are some writers, yea, and those of no obscure fame, (as I may speak nothing of the long custom used in the church, which hath utterly left out this commandment, and to supply the number hath divided the tenth commandment into two, that is, into the ninth and tenth, contrary to the mind of the lawgiver, whose words, and the order also of the same, ought by no means either to be corrupted, altered, or changed,) which thrust out of the decalogue or ten commandments this second commandment, as a ceremonial law, serving for the time, but now of none effect concerning us Christians, to whom it is, say they, lawful to have the images of Christ and of saints in churches, private houses, or elsewhere, without any offence or breach of God's commandment; and therefore, to supply the number of the ten commandments, they also divide, as I said before, the tenth commandment into the ninth and tenth, making of one two, according to the custom used in the pope's church. Son. As touching the custom of reciting the ten commandments according to the appointment of the bishop of Rome, in the which is utterly omitted this second commandment concerning the forbidding either of making or worshipping of images, it cannot be denied but it is wicked and ungodly, and left out of the pope and of his adherents of a set purpose for the maintenance of images in churches, brought in by the devil and antichrist contrary to the word of God; and therefore ought this custom utterly to be broken, and every commandment to be restored to his proper place, and so to be recited of the Christians, as it is now used in the best reformed churches.

And as for the judgments, or rather opinions and fancies, of certain learned men in this our age, which in this behalf remain still infected with the dirty dregs of that whore of Babylon, I can by no means approve and allow them. For whereas they say, that the second commandment concerning images is ceremonial, and only served for the people of Israel, and not for us, so that it is lawful for us to have images in our temples, chapels, houses, &c. notwithstanding this commandment; I utterly deny this their doctrine, and affirm it to be most wicked and utterly estranged from the truth of God's word. For if this law be ceremonial, and we set without the limits thereof, then followeth it, that as it is lawful for us to have images in our churches, so is it lawful also to reverence, worship, or honour them: which is so great an absurdity, that I think they themselves will not allow it, except they be sworn chaplains to pope Gregory III., which made a law, that images should not only be had in churches, as laymen's books, according to the doctrine of pope Gregory I., but that they also should be worshipped and had in greater reverence than ever they were before, and that whosoever were of a contrary opinion, he should be excommunicate and condemned for an heretic1. For throughout the whole course of God's law there is not one commandment so fortressed and confirmed with the testimonies of the holy scripture, and so urged to be observed and kept of God's people, as this is, concerning the not having or worshipping of images. Therefore as the first, so likewise the second commandment abideth moral, and requireth like obedience. And whereas they exclude it from the number of the ten commandments, and rack that one tenth commandment into two for to supply the number, they do most unjustly, and contrary to the doctrine of the ancient fathers and old catholic doctors of Christ's church.

For as our catechist declared unto us, Athanasius, Origenes, Chrysostomus, Gregorius Nazianzenus, Hieronymus, Ambrosius, with divers other, both of the ancient and late writers, number this precept among the ten commandments; and hold that it is a moral law, no less appertaining unto us Christians now, than it did in times past unto the Jews. He said, moreover, unto us, that in the church of God among the Jews, in the old law, there was no image suffered neither of God nor of any saint; although who knoweth not, what a great number of godly persons there lived before the coming of Christ, both patriarchs, judges, kings, priests, Levites, prophets, matrons, virgins, &c. ? He added furthermore, that, almost five hundred years after Christ's ascension, images could not be suffered to have any place in the temples of the Christians. He told us also an history of a certain holy bishop named Epiphanius, which, coming into a church to pray, saw a veil there hanging, wherein was painted the image of Christ, or of some saint. So soon as he saw it, being greatly offended thereat, he cut the image away, and said, that " it is contrary to the authority of the holy scripture.

Father. I can none otherwise but praise thee for thy good remembrance concerning the doctrine of your catechist, a man both godly and learned. But the imagemongers object and say, that they are laymen's calendars, and are the very same to the lewd, simple, and ignorant people, that books are to the wise, discreet, and learned men.

Son. What wisdom, knowledge, or learning can a man get of that thing which is a very block or stone, and utterly without sense? Can the dumb teach to speak? the blind to see ? the deaf to hear ? tho lame to go ? tho dead to live ? Can that which hath no understanding, no wisdom, no learning, teach us to understand, to be wise and learned ? O unprofitable schoolmasters! O rude teachers! O too much instructors! "They have mouths," as the psalmograph saith, "and speak not: eyes have they, but they sec not. They have ears, and hear not: noses have they, but they smell not. They have hands, and handle not: feet have they, but they cannot go; neither can they speak through their throat." They aro not ablo to wipe away the dust from their faces. They have sceptres and swords in their hands,
but they are not able to defend themselves. They have candles burnning before them, but they see none of them, neither take they any pleasure of the light. If the house burn over their heads, they are not able to flee that they may escape the danger of burning. If they fall down to the ground, they cannot rise up again. If any man striketh them, they cannot revenge their quarrel. If the worms eat them, they feel it not. If the owls, sparrows, doves, or any other fowls or beasts file upon their heads, they perceive it not, neither are they angry at the matter. In fine, they be utterly unprofitable both to themself and to all other; so far is it off, that such idle idols and mumming mawmets can teach us any good thing. By the lessest creature that ever God made may we leam better to know God than by these dumb images, seem they never so glorious in the eyes of the foolish.

" What profiteth a graven image which the workman hath fashioned ? a vain cast idol, and false lying image ? Because the workman hath put his trust in it, therefore maketh he dumb images. But wo be unto him which saith to a block, Awake; and to a dumb stone, Arise! Can such one teach, or give any good instructions? Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath in it. But the Lord in his holy temple is he whom all the world should fear." The prophet Esay

How can they then be the books of the lewd people ? " The seeking out of images," saith the wise man, " is the beginning of whoredom; and the bringing up of them is the destruction of life. But they were not from the beginning, neither shall they continue for ever. The wealthy idleness of men hath found them out upon earth: therefore shall they come shortly to an end." If the seeking out of images be the beginning of whoredom, that is to say, idolatry, which in the scripture is called whoredom, how can we be taught and brought unto God by them ? If the bringing up of them be the destruction of life, how can they then bring us unto everlasting salvation ? and how can they edify us and teach us the way of truth ? Vain and unprofitable schoolmasters are these blind and dumb images.

When God determined to erect and set up the commonweal of the Israelites, he gave them not his image to look upon, that by the sight thereof they might learn to know him and to do his will (no, he only spake to them, any similitude of him they saw not, lest by this means they should have gone about to make b.is image, and have committed idolatry or spiritual whoredom with the same); but he gave them. his holy word, charging and commanding them to hear and read that diligently, and to write it upon the gates and posts of their houses, that it might be always before their eyes that they might the better frame their lives according to the same, and do that which is pleasant in the sight of God.

The prophet Esay sendeth not them that want the knowledge of God and of his holy word unto idols, images, and mawmets; but he commandeth them to make haste unto the holy scriptures, saying: "To the law and witness; if they speak not according unto this, they shall not have the morning light." The psalmograph callcth not them blessed, which stand all the whole day gazing and looking on images, to see what they can pick out and learn of them; but he calleth them blessed and happy, which " delight in the law of the Lord, and exercise themselves in the studying, reading, pa\. j. and hearing of that day and night." Again, he calleth not them blessed, which hunt and seek after images, but them which " search the testimonies of the Lord, and seek Pai. nix. him with their whole heart."

Furthermore, Christ, our Lord and Saviour, commandeth all those that will come unto the true knowledge of him, not to behold images, but to search the scriptures, saying: " Search the scriptures; for they are those that testify of me." He saith also: My sheep hear my voice." He saith not, My sheep look upon my image. Again: John x. " He that is of God heareth the word of God." He saith not, He that is of God beholdeth the image of the Trinity, or of the crucifix.

Moreover, when the wisdom of God was determined to call all nations of the earth unto the knowledge of the way of salvation, Christ commanded not painters and carvers to be set a work in making images throughout the world, that the people by beholding them may turn from their idolatry unto the worshipping of the true God; but he sent forth his apostles to preach the gospel to every creature, that they believing might be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and so obtain everlasting salvation. For, as St Paul saith: " Faith cometh by hearing; but hearing cometh by the word of God." We are made faithful by hearing and believing the word of God, and not by looking and tooting upon images; which rather draw men from the true faith of God than allure them unto it; so far is it off, that they be meet schoolmasters to lead us unto God.

If the blessed apostle St John had thought images to be profitable books to bring men unto the knowledge either of God or of themselves, he would never have commanded us to " beware and to keep ourselves from images." But he knew right well, that nothing doth so much pluck away the minds of men from the honour of the true and living God (as daily experience teacheth, and as we have manifestly seen under the kingdom of the pope in the time of darkness, when the people went on pilgrimage unto images, sought their salvation of them, gilded them, costly arrayed them, gave gifts unto them, set up burning candles before them, kneeled before them, made vows unto them, prayed unto them, asked all good things of them necessary either for the body or for the soul, gave thanks unto them, censed them, imputed working of miracles unto them, yea, and honoured them as gods, rather going for help unto them with the feet of the body, than repairing unto the alone true helping God with the feet of the mind), as these dumb and deaf idols; and therefore he chargeth us above all things to avoid images, and by no means to have any thing to do with them, but to flee from them as from the plague and pestilence, yea, as from the devil and from everlasting damnation.

" Let them all therefore," as the psalmograph saith, " be confounded, and be brought unto utter confusion and shame, that worship carved idols, and glory in their images." And let us that fear God cast away all such fond fancies and doting dreams, and give diligent attendance to the hearing, reading, and preaching of God's word, and of that learn to know the way of salvation: so shall we be blessed, and come to the true knowledge of that alone true God and of his Son Jesus Christ; which thing bringeth unto us everlasting life, as the Lord himself saith: " This is everlasting life, even to know thee the alone true God, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ."

Father. Thou hast right well answered to the first and principal objection which the image-mongers make for the defence of their vain images, which doctrine they learned of pope Gregory I. as we have tofore heard8. But they say moreover, that images are not only profitable books for the lewd people, but that they also move the beholders of them marvellously unto devotion and true godliness.

Son. This is so vain, as nothing is more vain; so false, as that which is most false; so foolish, as it devotion may worthily be counted the self foolishness. Can that move unto devotion, which itself is without all motion and devotion ? Can the dead corpse of a captain encourage the soldiers unto battle ? Can a featherless eagle teach other birds to fly ? Can a water less whale teach other fishes to swim upon the dry land ? No more can these blockish idols, which are utterly without all senses, affects, and motions, move us unto devotion and unto the true worshipping of God, they themselves also being utterly godless, and most estranged from all that is godly. The holy apostle saith : " Neither he that planteth, nor yet he that watereth, is any thing worth; but the Lord God is altogether, which giveth the increase." If neither the planter nor the waterer (whereby are understand the preachers of God's word) profit nothing, except God giveth the increase, that is to say, worketh with their preaching through the influence of his holy Spirit (which thing to be true, divers places of the holy scripture declare manifestly) ; what are images then able to do, which have mouths, and speak not; eyes, and see not; noses, and smell not; hands, and feel not; feet, and go not?

Father. But God is able, say they, to work no less with the beholding of images in the hearts of men, than with the preaching of his word.

Son. What God is able to do, we will not dispute now; although I know this to be an old refuge of the papists, and a sanctuary unto the which they flee in all their straits. But let them shew by the word of God, that the beholding of images is no less an ordinary way appointed of God to bring men unto the knowledge of God and unto everlasting salvation, than the preaching of the word is, whereof St Paul speaketh on this manner: " Faith cometh by hearing; but hearing cometh by the word of God." The prophet David saith also: " I will teach the wicked thy ways; and the ungodly shall turn unto thee." Again: " The people, whom I knew not, have served me: through the hearing of the ear they were obedient unto me." And God himself saith by the prophet: " Like as the rain and snow cometh down from heaven, and retumeth not thither again, but watereth the earth, maketh it fruitful and green, that it may give corn and bread unto the sower; so the word also, that cometh out of my mouth, shall not turn again void unto me, but shall accomplish my will, and prosper in the thing whereto I send it." Again: " I will watch diligently upon my word, to perform it." Moreover, St Paul calleth " the gospel of Christ the power of God unto salvation for all that believe it." And St James saith, that the word of God is of such efficacy, strength, virtue, might, and power, that " it is able to save the souls " of so many as receive it with meekness. Saith not also the Lord Jesus on this manner, " Now are ye clean, because of the word which I have spoken unto you" ? Let the image-mongers prove by the holy scriptures, that the beholding of images worketh this conversion, this repentance, this faith, this newness of life, this salvation, &c, in the gazers of them, that the word of God doth in the faithful believers; and we will admit them, their doctrine, and images, and suffer them to have place in our churches. But this can they not do : therefore vain are they, vain is their doctrine, and vain are their images, yea, stumbling-blocks are they, thorns and pricks in the eyes of the simple, provoking rather unto abomination than unto devotion, unto wickedness than unto godliness, unto superstition than unto true religion, unto hypocrisy and idolatry than unto pure worshipping and serving of God, as experience hath heretofore taught us.
John xiv. Again, our Saviour Christ saith : " I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me." If no man cometh unto the Father but by Christ, what help then images in this behalf? What make they unto the furtherance of true godliness and true religion ? How move they unto devotion ? Again, he saith: " No man can come unto me, except my Father draw him." If no man can come unto Christ, except the heavenly Father draweth him by his holy Spirit, what profiteth then
in this behalf the beholding of images? Are they of such inward working in the hearts of men, that they are able to convert them unto God, and to bring them unto Christ? Yea, they lead away men from Christ unto vain spectacles, from the living God unto dumb idols, from true religion unto wicked superstition; so far is it off, that they move any man unto godly devotion or devout godliness. It is the office of the
Holy Ghost to bring us unto Christ, and not the part of dumb idols. The Holy Ghost is appointed of God to be our schoolmaster for to lead us into all truth, and not idle images and monstrous mawmets. To place images therefore in the temples of the Christians to this end, that they should be the books of the lewd people, or that .they should move us unto devotion, is nothing else than to make the Holy Ghost, as they use to say, Jack out of office, and to place a rabblemcnt of vile and abominable idols in the stead of God's Spirit to be the teachers and schoolmasters of the faithful. Perish mought all those vain mawmets from the face of the earth, with all such as glory and rejoice in them, that all the honour may be given to our Lord, that living God alone, whose name be praised for ever!

Father. Amen. But these image-mongers have yet another defence for their idols, images grand say, that images are to be placed in churches, if for nothing else, yet for the churches adorning, decking, trimming, beautifying, and garnishing of the temples: which temples otherwise, say they, are more like barns than churches. Son. I answer with St Paul: "How agreeth the temple of God with images?" What concord is there between God's service and idol-service ? Can God be worthily called upon in that place where so many mawmets stand, contrary to the commandment of God? Can God be worshipped there in spirit and truth, where so many idols are seen, which have neither spirit nor truth ? What garnishing of the church is this, to see a sort of puppets standing in every corner of the church, some holding in their hands a sword, some a sceptre, some a spit, some a butcher's knife, some a gridiron, some a pair of pinsons1, some a spear, some an anchor of a ship, some a shoemaker's cutting-knife, some a shepherd's hook, some a cross, some a cup, some a boot, some a book, some a key, some a lamb, some an ox, some a pig, some a dog, some a basket of flowers, some a crosier-staff, some a triple cross, some an arrow, some an horn, some an hawk, &c.; some bearded, some unbearded, some capped, some uncapped, some weeping, some laughing, some gilded, some painted, some housed, some unhoused8, some rotten, some worm-eaten, some coated, some cloked, some gowned, some naked, some censed, some perfumed, some with holy water sprinkled, some with flowers and garlands garnished, &c. ?

But why do I tarry in reciting these vain trifles and trifling vanities, wherewith the churches of the papists are stuffed ? I think verily, that in the temples of the old pagans there was never found so much vanity and so many childish sights, as there be at this present day in those churches which are under the yoke and tyranny of that bloody bishop of Rome. These vain idols therefore do not adorn, but deform; not polite, but pollute; not deck, but infect, the temples of the Christians, and make them of the churches of God the synagogues of Satan; of houses of prayer, the vile cages of all filthy and unclean birds. For, as we heard before, Lactantius, that ancient and noble clerk, affinneth plainly, that God cannot be truly worshipped in that place where an image is.

The primitive church knew no such kind of beautifying and garnishing their temples: all things were then simple, plain, and homely, and altogether without such vain sights, which rather pluck away men's minds from God, than allure them unto the true worshipping of him. For as " God is a spirit, so will he be worshipped in spirit and John \i. truth." The more simply all things are done in the church of Christ, the better is God served: " for that which before men seemeth to be of great estimation is before Luke xvi. God great abomination." The temples of the Christians are then best garnished, when the people that are in them be gathered together in the unity of the Holy Ghost, with strong faith toward God, and with fervent love one toward another, to hear the word of God, to call on the name of the Lord, to thank him for his benefits, to eat the supper of the Lord, to make collections for the poor, and to exercise themselves in such works as are pleasant to God and profitable to the brethren. All other superfluous deckings and trimmings, as they be the daughters of foolish fancy, so likewise serve they rather the fond desires of carnal and superstitious people, than make any thing at all unto the true honour of the Lord our God, to whom alone be all glory for ever.