made, and when we were dead in sin, and his enemies in that we did consent to sin and to live evil, to write with his Spirit two conclusions in our hearts, by which we underlove of our stand all things: that is to wit the faith of Christ, and the neig' bours, love of our neighbours. For whosoever feeleth the just required of damnation of sin, and the forgiveness and mercy that is in a Christian The faith in Christ and is all that is man. The use of signs and ceremonies. Christ's blood, for all that repent and forsake it, and come and believe in that mercy, the same only knoweth how God is to be honoured and worshipped, and can judge between true ser ving of God in the Spirit, and false image serving of God with works. And the same knoweth that Sacraments, signs, ceremonies, and bodily things can be no service to God in his person, but memorials unto men, and a remembrance of the Testament wherewith God ist served in the Spirit. And he that feeleth not that, is blind in his soul, and of our holy father's generation, and maketh God an image, and a creature, and worshippeth him with bodily service. And on the other side, he that loveth his neighbour as himself, understandeth all laws, and can judge between good and evil, right and wrong, godly and ungodly; in all conversation, deeds, laws, bargains, covenants, ordinances, and decrees of men; and knoweth the office of every degree, and the due honour of every person. And he that hath not that written in his heart is popish, and of the spiritualty which understandeth nothing save his own honour, his own profit, and what is good for himself only and when he is as he would be, thinketh that all the world is as it should be. OF WORSHIPPING, AND WHAT IS TO BE UNDER- CONCERNING worshipping or honouring (which two terms are both one) M. More bringeth forth a difference, a distinction or division of Greek words, feigned of our schoolmen, which of late neither understood Greek, Latin, nor Hebrew, called doulia, hyperdoulia and latria. But the difference declareth he not, nor the properties of the words, but with confused terms leadeth you blindfold in his maze. As for hyperdoulia I would fain wete where he readeth of it in all the Scripture, and whether the worship done to his lord the cardinal's hat were doulia, hyperdoulia, or idololatria? And as for doulia and latria, we find them both referred unto God in a thousand places. Therefore that thou be not beguiled with falsehood of sophistical words, understand that the words which the Scripture useth in the worshipping or honouring of God are these love God, cleave to God, dread, serve, bow, pray and call on God, believe and trust in God, and such like. Which words all we use in the worshipping of man also, howbeit diversely, and the difference thereof doth all the Scripture teach. What it is to honour God hath created us and made us unto his own likeness, and our Saviour Christ hath bought us with his blood. And therefore, are we God's possession of duty and right, and Christ's servants only, to wait on his will and pleasure, and ought therefore to move neither hand nor foot, nor any other member, either heart or mind, otherwise than he hath appointed. God is honoured in his own person, when we receive all things both good and bad at his hand, and love his law with all our hearts, and believe, hope, and honour of long for all that he promiseth. The true God. What it is to honour rulers. What it is to honour a bour. THE officers that rule the world in God's stead, as father, mother, master, husband, lord and prince, are honoured, when the law, which Almighty God hath committed unto them to rule with, is obeyed. Thy neighbour that man's neigh is out of office, is honoured, when thou (as God hath commanded thee) lovest him as thyself, countest him as good as thyself, thinkest him as worthy of any thing as thyself, and comest lovingly to help him at all his need, as thou wouldest be holp thyself, because God hath made him like unto his own image, as well as thee, and Christ hath bought him as well as thee. What it is to dishonour God and disho nour our neighbour. help my neighbour is to disho nour him. If I hate the law, so I break it in mine heart, and both hate and dishonour God the maker thereof. If I break it outwardly, then I dishonour God before the world, and the officer that ministereth it. If I hurt my neighbour, then I dishonour my neighbour and him that made him, and him also that bought him with his blood. And even so, if I hate my neighbour in mine heart, then I hate him that commandeth me to love him and him that hath deserved To deny to that I should at the leastway for his sake love him. If I be not ready to help my neighbour at his need, so I take his due honour from him, and dishonour him, and him that made him, and him also that bought him with his blood, whose servant he is. If I love such things as God hath lent me, and committed unto mine administration, so that I cannot find in mine heart to bestow them on the uses which God hath appointed me, then I dishonour God and abuse his creature in that I give more honour unto it than I should do, and then I make an idol of it, in that I love it more than God and his commandment, and then I dishonour my neighbour from whose need I withdraw it. To do that deth is to dishonour In like manner, if the officer abusing his power, compel God forbid the subject to do that which God forbiddeth, or to leave undone that which God commandeth, so he dishonoureth God, in withdrawing his servant from him, and maketh an idol of his own lusts, in that he honoureth them above God, and he dishonoureth his brother in that he abuseth God. him contrary unto the right use which God hath created him for, and Christ hath bought him for, which is to wait on God's commandments. For if the officer be otherwise minded than this, the worst of these subjects is made by the hands of him that made me, and bought with the blood of him that bought me, and therefore, my brother, and I but his servant only, to defend him and to keep him in the honour that God and Christ hath set him, that no man dishonour him: he dishonoureth both God and man. And thereto, if any subject think any otherwise of the officer (though he be an emperor) than that he is but a servant only, to minister the office indifferently, he dishooureth the office and God that ordained it. So that all men, whatsoever degree they be of, are every man in his room, servants to other, as the hand serveth the foot and every member one another. And the angels of heaven are also our brethren and very servants for Christ's sake, to defend us from the power of the devils. 1 A true officer in the sight of God. All crea ordained to And finally, all other creatures that are neither angels nor man, are in honour less than man, and man is lord tures are over them, and they created to serve him, as Scripture testifieth, and he not to serve them, but only, his Lord God and his Saviour Christ. serve man. OF WORSHIPPING OF SACRAMENTS, CEREMO- NOW let us come to the worshipping, or honouring of sacraments, ceremonies, images, and relicks. First, images be not God, and therefore no confidence is to be put in them. They be not made after the image of God, nor are the price of Christ's blood, but the workmanship of the craftsman, and the price of money, and therefore inferiors to man. Images. Images are servants to man, and not man to images. The use of creatures inferiors to man. The wor shipping of the cross. How a man Wherefore of all right, man is lord over them, and the honour of them is to do man service, and man's dishonour it is to do them honourable service, as unto his better. Images then and relicks, yea, and-as Christ saith, the holy day too, are servants unto man. And therefore, it followeth that we cannot, but unto our damnation put on a coat worth an hundred coats, upon a post's back, and let the image of God and the price of Christ's blood go up and down thereby naked. For if we care more to clothe the dead image made by man, and the price of silver, than the lively image of God, and price of Christ's blood, then we dishonour the image of God and him that made him, and the price of Christ's blood and him that bought him. Wherefore the right use, office, and honour of all creatures inferiors unto man, is to do man service, whether they be images, relicks, ornaments, signs, or sacraments, holy days, ceremonies or sacrifices. And that may be on this manner and no doubt it so once was. If (for an ensample) I take a piece of the cross of Christ and make a little cross thereof and bear it about me, to look thereon with a repenting heart, at times when I am moved thereto, to put me in remembrance that the body of Christ was broken, and his blood shed thereon, for my sins, and believe steadfastly that the merciful truth of God shall forgive the sins of all that repent for his death sake, and never think on them more: then it serveth me, and I not it, and doth me the same service as if I read the Testament in a book, or as if the preacher preached it unto me. And in like manner, if I make a cross in my forehead, in a remembrance that God hath promised assistance unto all that believe in him, for his sake that died on the cross, then doth the cross serve me, and I not it. And in likemanner, if I bear on me or look upon a cross of whatsoever matter it be, or make a cross upon me, in remembrance that whosoever will be Christ's disciple, must suffer a cross of adversity, tribulations, and persecution, so doth |