Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

Holy strange

gestures is

play.

for the holiness I will not swear, but the strangeness 1 dare well avow. For every priest maketh them of a sunlike anape's dry manner, and many more madly than the gestures of jack-an-apes. And when he saith that they were left from hand to hand since the apostles' time, it is untrue. For the apostles used the sacrament as Christ did, as thou mayest see 1 Cor xi. Moreover the apostles left us in the light and taught us all the counsel of God, as Paul witnesseth Acts xx. and hid nothing in strange holy gestures, and ape's play, the significations whereof no man might understand.

1 Cor. xi.

Pity.

The true beholding

of the

sign of the

cross.

The church

prayer.

God hear

And a Christian man is more moved to pity, saith he, at the sight of the cross than without it. If he take pity as Englishmen do, for compassion, I say, that a Christian man is moved to pity when he seeth his brother bear the cross. And at the sight of the cross, he that is learned in God, weepeth not with ignorant women, as a man doth for his father when he is dead; but mourneth for his sins, and, at the sight of the cross comforteth his soul with the consolation of Him that died thereon. But there is no sight, whether of the cross, or aught else, that can move you to leave your wickedness, for the testament of God is not written in your hearts.

And when he speaketh of praying at church; who deis a place of nieth him that men might not pray at church, or that the church should not be a place of prayer? But that a man could not pray save at church, and that my prayers were not heard as well elsewhere, if I prayed with like ferventness and strong faith, is a false lie.

eth our prayer in all places.

Acts xvii.
Acts vii.
Reg. viii.

And when he speaketh of the presence of God in the temple; I answer, that the prophets testified how that he dwelt not there, and so doth Paul, (Acts xvii.) and so doth Stephen, (Acts vii.) and Solomon, iii. of the Kings viii. And no doubt as the mad Jews meant, he dwelt not there; and as we, more mad, suppose also. But he dwelled there only in his signs, sacraments, and testimonies, which preached his word unto the people. And

and the

temple is destroyed.

finally for their false confidence in the temple, God de- Jerusalem stroyed it. And no doubt for our false faith in visiting the monuments of Christ, therefore hath God also destroyed them and given the place under the infidels.

of fire.

And when he speaketh of the pillar of fire and The pillar cloud, I answer, that God was no otherwise present there than in all fire and in all clouds, save that he shewed his power there specially by the reason of the miracle, as he doth in the eyes of the blind whom he maketh see, and yet is no otherwise present in those eyes than in other, nor nore there to be prayed to than in other. And in like manner he is no more to be prayed to where he doth a miracle than where he doth none. Neither though we cannot but be in some place, ought we to seek God in any place, save only in our hearts, and that in verity, in faith, hope, and love or charity, according to the word of his doctrine.

And our sacraments, signs, ceremonies, images, relicks and monuments, ought to be had in reverence, so far forth as they put us in mind of God's word, and of the ensample of them that lived thereafter, and no further.

And the place is to be sought, and one to be preferred before another, for quietness to pray, and for lively preaching, and for the preaching of such monuments and so forth. And so long as the people so used them in the Old Testament, they were acceptable and pleasant to God, and God was said to dwell in the temple. But when the significations being lost, the people worshipped such things for the things' selves, as we now do, they were abominable to God, and God was said to be no longer in the temple.

God is pre

sent in all

places

alike.

All places preferred

are to be

where we may wor

ship God most quietly.

M. More teacheth false doctrine.

THE FOURTH CHAPTER.

AND in the fourth he saith, that God setteth more by one place than another. Which doctrine besides that it should bind us unto the place, and God thereto, and cannot but make us have confidence in the place, is yet false. For first, God, unto whose word we may add nought, hath given no such commandment, nor made any such coveNeither is Christ here or there, saith the ScripMatt. xxiv. nant. ture, but in our hearts is the place where God dwelleth by his own testimony, if his word be there.

Miracles were not

done for the place, but for the people.

Siloam. John iv. & ii.

Miracles

done to draw the people to hear the word of God.

And when he proveth it, because God doth a miracle more in one place than in another, I answer, If God will do a miracle, it requireth a place to be done in. Howbeit he doth it not for the place but for the people's sakes whom he would call unto the knowledge of his nanie, and not to worship him more in one place than in another.

As the miracles done in Egypt, in the Red Sea, in mount Sinai, and so forth, were not done that men should go in pilgrimage unto the places to pray there, but to provoke them unto the true knowledge of God, that afterward they might ever pray in the Spirit, wheresoever they were. Christ also did not his miracles that men should pray in the places where he did them, but to stir up the people to come and hear the word of their souls' health. And when he bringeth the miracle of Siloam, I answer, that the said miracle, and that Christ sent the blind thither to receive his sight, were not done that men should pray in the pool but the second miracle was so done to declare the obedient faith of the blind, and to make the miracle more known; and the first for the word of God that was preached in the temple, to move the country about to come thither and learn to know God, and to become a lively temple, out of which they might ever pray, and in all places. Neither was the miracle of Lazarus done, that men should more pray in that place than in another,

but to shew Christ's power, and to move the people, through wondering at the miracle, to hearken unto God's word and believe it, as it is to see plainly.

Moreover God so loveth no church, but that the paish have liberty to take it down and to build it in another Place: yea and if it be timber to make it of stone, and to alter it at their pleasure. For the places, yea, and the images must serve us, and not God which is a Spirit,

and careth for none more than other, nor is otherwise Present in one place than in another. And likewise is it Of saints' bones, we may remove them whither we will, ea, and break all images thereto, and make new, or if hey be abused, put them out of the way for ever, as vas the brazen serpent, so that we be lords over all Such things, and they our servants. For if the saints

It is
The

vere our servants, how much more their bones! the heart, and not the place, that worshippeth God. kitchen page turning the spit may have a purer heart to God, than his master at church, and therefore worship God better in the kitchen than his master at church. But when will M. More be able to prove that miracles done at saints' tombs, were done that we should pray unto the Saints, or that miracles done by dead saints, which alive. neither preached God's word, nor could do miracle, are done of God?

God loveth none angel in heaven better than the greatest sinner in earth that repenteth and believeth in Christ. But contrariwise, careth most for the weakest, and maketh all that be perfect their servants, until as Paul saith (Eph. 4.) they be grown up in the knowledge of God into a perfect man, and into the measure of age of the fulness of Christ; that is, that we know all the mysteries and secrets that God hath hid in Christ, that we be no more children, wavering with every wind of doctrine, through the subtilty and wiliness of men that come upon us to bring us into error or beguile us. So far it is of that he would have us kept down to serve

[blocks in formation]

be served

with bodily

service.

God cannot images. For with bodily service we can serve nothing that is a spirit. And thereto if it were possible that all the angels of heaven could be mine enemies; yet would I hold me by the Testament that my merciful and true father hath made me in the blood of my Saviour, and so come unto all that is promised me, and Christ hath purchased for me, and give not a straw for them all.

Our faith may be grounded upon men:

All true miracles provoke us to faith and

trust in God.

THE FIFTH CHAPTER.

In the fifth chapter he falleth from all he hath so long sweat to prove, and believeth, not by the reason of the miracles, but by the common consent of the church and that many so believe. This man is of a far other complexion than was the prophet Elias. For he believed alone as he thought, against the consent by all likelihood of nine or ten hundred thousand believers. And yet M. More's church is in no other condition under the pope, than was that church against whose consent Elias believed alone under the kings of Samaria.

THE SIXTH CHAPTER.

In the sixth chapter, and unto the eighteenth, he proveth almost nought save that which never man denied him, that miracles have been done. But how to know the true miracles from the false were good to be known, which we shall this wise do if we take those for true sacraments and ceremonies which preach us God's word, even so we count them true miracles only which move us to hearken thereto.

The maid

THE SIXTEENTH CHAPTER.

CONCERNING his sixteenth chapter of the maid of of Ipswich. Ipswich, I answer, that Moses warned his Israelites that false miracles should be done to prove them, whether their hearts were fair in the Lord. And even so Christ

« PoprzedniaDalej »