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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.

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 1 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.

help my neighbour is to disho

nour him.

To do that

deth is to dishonour God.

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

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 inded than this, the worst of these subjects is made by he hands of him that made me, and bought with the blood Of him that bought me, and therefore, my brother, and I ut his servant only, to defend him and to keep him in the onour that God and Christ hath set him, that no man shonour him: he dishonoureth both God and man. And thereto, if any subject think any otherwise of the fficer (though he be an emperor) than that he is but a ervant only, to minister the office indifferently, he dishoureth the office and God that ordained it. So that all ¬en, whatsoever degree they be of, are every man in his Dom, servants to other, as the hand serveth the foot and very member one another. And the angels of heaven re also our brethren and very servants for Christ's sake, defend us from the power of the devils.

And finally, all other creatures that are neither angels or man, are in honour less than man, and man is lord ver them, and they created to serve him, as Scripture estifieth, and he not to serve them, but only, his Lord God and his Saviour Christ.

A true of

ficer in the

sight of

God.

All creatures are

ordained to serve man.

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F WORSHIPPING OF SACRAMENTS, CEREMO-
NIES, IMAGES, RELICKS, AND SO FORTH.

NOW let us come to the worshipping, or honouring of
sacraments, ceremonies, images, and relicks. First,
mages be not God, and therefore no confidence is to be
ut in them. They be not made after the image of God,
or are the price of Christ's blood, but the workmanship
the craftsman, and the price of money, and therefore
feriors to man.

Images.

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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 1 bear on me or look upon a cross of whatsoever natter 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

the cross serve me and I not it. And this was the use of the cross once, and for this cause it was at the beginning set up in the churches.

And so if I make an image of Christ, or of any thing that Christ hath done for me, in a memory, it is good and not evil until it be abused.

The worshipping of images.

And even so, if I take the true life of a saint and cause it to be painted or carved, to put me in remembrance of the saint's life, to follow the saint as the saint did Christ, and to put me in remembrance of the great faith of the saint to God, and how true God was to help him out of all tribulation, and to see the saint's love towards his neighbour, in that he so patiently suffered so painful a death, and so cruel martyrdom to testify the truth for to save other, and all to strength my soul withal, and my faith to God and love to my neighbour, then doth the image serve me, and I not it. And this was the use of images at the Images and beginning, and of relicks also.

relicks at the first

were well used, but now shamefully

abused.

ping.

And to kneel before the cross unto the word of God hich the cross preacheth, is not evil. Neither to kneel down before an image in a man's meditations to call the living of the saint to mind for to desire God of like grace to follow the ensample, is not evil. But the abuse of the False thing is evil, and to have a false faith: as to bear a piece worshipOf the cross about a man, thinking that so long as that is about him, spirits shall not come at him, his enemies shall do him no bodily harm, all causes shall go on his side, The abuse ven for bearing it about him, and to think that if it were ot about him it would not be so; and to think, if any nisfortune chance, that it came for leaving it off, or ecause this or that ceremony was left undone, and not ather because we have broken God's commandments, or hat God tempteth us to prove our patience: this is plain dolatry: and here a man is captive, bond and servant unto a false faith, and a false imagination, that is neither God

I

or his word. Now am I God's only, and ought to serve nothing but God and his word. My body must serve the

of images.

My body

must serve

the prince, and my neighbour, but my soul

must serve God only. St. John's gospel.

This is a

true cros sing that we should

use.

rulers of this world, and my neighbour, (as God hath appointed it) and so must all my goods: but my soul must serve God only, to love his law and to trust in his promises of mercy in all my deeds. And in like manner it is that thousands, while the priest pattereth St. John's gospel in Latin over their heads, cross themselves with, I trow a legion of crosses, behind and before, and with reverence on the very arses, and (as Jack of napes when he claweth himself) pluck up their legs and cross so much as their heels and the very soles of their feet, and believe that if it be done in the time that he readeth the gospel (and else not) that there shall no mischance happen them that day, because only of those crosses. And where he should cross himself, to be armed and to make himself strong to bear the cross with Christ, he crosseth himself to drive the cross from him, and blesseth himself with a cross from the cross; and if he leave it undone, he thinketh it no small sin, and that God is highly displeased with him, and if any misfortune chance, thinketh it is therefore, which is also idolatry and not God's word. And such is the confidence in the place, or image, or whatsoever bodily observance it be: such is St. Agathe's letter written in the gospel time. And such are the crosses on palm-sunday made in the passion time. And such is the bearing of holy wax about a man. And such is, that some hang a piece of St. John's tious bag- gospel about their necks. And such is to bear the names of God with crosses between each name about them. Such is the saying of gospels unto women in child-bed. Such is the limiter's saying of In principio erat verbum from house to house. Such is the saying of gospels to the corn in the field in the procession week that it should the better grow. And such is holy bread, holy water, and serving of all ceremonies and sacraments in general without signification. And, I pray you, how is it possible that the people can worship images, relicks, ceremonies and sacraments, save superstitiously, so long as they know not the true meaning, neither will the prelates suffer any man

A great number of supersti

gages.

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