My reverend, and deare brother,
YOVR doubtfull loue to your owne ancient
and well deserved religion, and your just
feare of this uncouth change was after
manie hard assayes with threatnings,
and terrours strangely enforced, rankles your tender
heart weary of contending with heavie perplexities
of wrath, and temporall losses if ye
shall continue to walk, as ye haue learned, and
are best perswaded; of scandall and defection, if
ye leaue your own old profession, which ye haue
judged, and judge to be most agreeable to the
truth; and of shame, and of gnawing of conscience,
if ye shall pollute your self with practises
different from your faith, and contrary to the
best light, and likeing of your own mind. In
these difficulties, your case is the more lamentable,
that ye are drawn under the displeasure of
high authoritye, which, next to God ye would
fainest please, & under the dislike of some Peers,
and Iudges of the land, hauing such particular
care to their owne charges, giuing them small
leasure to sound the depth of ecclesiastical controversies,
& only for a matter of conformitie, that
known enemy to the vnitie and peace of the kirks

A 2

of Christ in all the world, where it hath found
credit. And surely your griefe must be the greater,
that, in the day of your sorrow the wise men of
your own mind are silent and slack for your help,
and your great opposites in this distressed cause,
your neerest friends, and old acquaintance, but
without equall reason on their part, or iust desert
on yours. Who would not be pierced in heart
with the pittifull lookes of your wearied countenance,
as at the last gaspe of your wonted sinceritie,
and chearfull constancie. In this againe,
if you be left to your selfe, affliction is added to
the afflicted, and our mother the Kirke, and her
mother the Truth are forsaken. And notwithstanding
of this strait, if any friends of a willing
minde shall timously contribute to your comfort,
some Doeg, or some Amazia is euer ready with
their biting censure, and check of high presumption.
But praised be the Lord, there is no small
number of religious and honest men in the kirke
and common-weale, and the hearts of all are in
the hands of the Lord, who may at his pleasure
moue any that hath the tongue of the learned to
speake a word in season to you that are wearie,
also dispose your friends and brethren of their old
ingenuitie, and tender compassion of your bleeding
heart, by their holy wisedom to remoue your
doubts, confirme your faith, and helpe you
to be perswaded in your owne minde, and to advise
you rather now to hold fast that which you
haue heard and receiued, then afterward with
vntimous repentance to change their tune, and
stile, as if you were not a brother, but an aduersarie,
and Apostate, if it shall happen, as God forbid
that you be driven from the bright candle of
your knowne profession to the deepe darknesse of
an unknowne way, and by that unhappy change
so much the more blinded, as your light hath
been greater, and with the purest Ivorie turned
with fire into saddest black, or shal be mis-shapen
in a new face, stained with the contempt of your
first puritie, and blushing at the disparagement
of your new forme. A vile confusion that cannot
bee eschewed if you shall suffer your selfe to bee
drawne back againe to the deformities, for iust
causes casten out of the kirk, and from that beauty
of reformation, which you haue before held,
and with ioy so long professed, and vpon no better
warrant then a bare example, and very authoritie
of mens names, although for the time fathers
and favourers of your profession, but after long
standing now suddenly moved, and so taken with
the novelties of the time, that for ioyning with
them, they dare not onely separate from their old
masters and fellow brethren, but from themselues,
in respect of that which they were. And yet in
this maine current some way to be excused by
their embarking like simple men in a warre ship,

A 3

and miserable mistaking of these base additions,
to be layd downe againe when it should please
them like good schollers to returne to their owne
masters, the standard-bearers in our faith, with
imagined liberty, not onely to concurre, but to
confirme and encourage their owne brethren afresh
for the advancement of the interrupted
worke of the ministry and edification of the body
of Christ, as they are bound in conscience and
calling.
But howsoever men haue been inclined to giue
place to the streame of the time, yet from the day
that the kirk hath been crossed, and many of all
sorts grievously afflicted with the perturbations
daily arising about the violent inbringing of these
intrused alterations: neverthelesse you haue
found some sweet refreshment under the shadow
of a heavenly dispensation so ruling the pathes of
these proceedings, that you haue kept the truth,
suffered reproches and discredit with patience
in standing against these misliked novelties so
long as they remained without the compasse of
your owne practise, esteeming your particular
losses contented gain, and your iniuries excusable
for keeping the liberties of God, service, and the
secret ioy of your owne conscience to be brooked
by your quiet carriage, and sober conversation.
But now if the day of that poore ease be passed,
and patient walking can haue no further fauour,
and if you shall be drawen out to a publick stage
before the Lord, who would keepe you to be his
witnesse, and in the eyes of men, who would gain
you to be their disciples, you must needs by your
owne practise either shamefully recant, or honestly
confesse the religion wherein you haue stood.
Choose you this day whether with humbled Esther
you will wisely resolue to proue constant, and
glad the hearts of many people, by cleaving to
that way wherein you haue found the Saviour
with his blessings and benefits of all sorts; or if
you will against your owne experience of Gods
favour to you, and hard successe seene upon these
novations, where they haue beene most greedily
embraced, hazard by your vnseasonable example
to giue occasion of stumbling to many, and to
loose the patience and labours of your former
constancie, and now like Peter overwhelmed
with feare, adventure to seek your comfort, and
quietnesse in the sway of time, as though the Lord
could be syled, as Absolom was with Chusayes
policie. If you dare suffer committing your soule
to the will of God, as vnto a faithful Creator, it
is his place to temper the cuppe of all your troubles,
and when he shall be pleased to try and determine
your matter before the highest barre. But
if you shall deny before men the Lord, and his
truth once received, he will deny you before his
heavenly father, and will not deliver you from

A 4

the houre of temptation.
It may be that you find not such throng in the
narrow way of suffering, as in the broad way of
common profession, when religion dwelt in the
pleasant land of peace in Halcyone dayes like
the Spouse of Christ commanding all, and subject
to none. For you must thinke, that many
looke well in their owne climate, that haue neither
head nor health to crosse the line, and many
goe brauely with guilded swords about their
owne doores, who flye the campe, and dare not
face the Cannon. To beleeue in Christ is a
great gift, not common to all, but to suffer for his
sake is a greater, and given to few. Perhaps it
may be, that many living by gesse, and more
ready upon their own respects to professe, then
carefull to be informed in a truth, and no small
number of silly spirits by giuing credit to others,
and misled in the by-paths of errour, & some unstable
Camelion-like hypocrites inclined to be died
with the colour of every occasionall profession,
when they shall see the world to frowne, may
take another way. But pitie them, & spare them,
praise God for his favour to you, and increase of
faith, and patience, and let no gall, and bitternes
of speech, scarcely becomming the witnesse of a
truth, make any of whatsoever sort lesse inclinable
to returne to you, and your way, who by memorie
of their former proceedings, in a different
course, may be recalled to loue and honor both you
and your way. The Apostles traine may suffice
you. If Christ be on your side, who can be against
you? You are debter to him that hath
guided the steps of your soule, & all that is within
you to praise him, because in these contentions
you haue done what you could in defense of the
truth, and haue kept it, and never wronged any
man in any matter; so that if it be the pleasure
of God you shall suffer, it is because you dare not
forsake a knowne truth, whereby you haue received
many rich comforts, and looketh for to reape
endlesse ioy, esteeming it your dutie to cleaue to
that which is called in question, as well as to the
rest, which seem to be spared: for your encouragement
you haue a worthy cause to honor you, sufficient
reasons to defend you, and the experience
of your owne conscience to uphold you.
It is true that your large course is so cunningly
covered, that nothing is permitted to appeare
at this time, but a smal point, the gesture of kneeling
at the communion, and receving out of the
ministers hand with such as shall bee at table,
vpon the festivall day appointed. Yet you must
thinke of these particulars, as of members of
the grosse bodie of conformitie, obscuring the
frame of Reformation delivered vnto you
by the Fathers, who begat you in the Lord,
to bee kept in integritie for your owne use,
and for the instruction and comfort of your successors.
For you cannot deny, but you haue seene
your mother the kirk in her gayest dresse, firmly
setled vpon the foundation of the Prophets
and Apostles, and strongly fortified with faire
confessions, her badges famous in the world, and
most meet for keeping vnity among her members
in doctrine, sacraments, kirke-service, discipline,
and in the holy ministrie, and for abiuring of all
poysonable superstition, and damnable confusion.
And with no small joy haue you beheld her
watchmen assembled in her sacred meetings for
managing her affairs, according to the will of
her Lord, and for that effect strongly fenced with
liberties & privileges, the royal testimonies of his
Maiesties loue for strengthening her jurisdiction,
and furtherance of all her causes. How happy
were these dayes, when her painfull Shepheards
were knit together in one minde and judgement
with mutuall encouragements, all feeding their
flockes, and pleasantly marching against all enemies
without exception, as an army with banners.
How bright were then the starres, and how beautiful
the candlestickes? But now alas you are forced
to behold bold mints to draw her off the
old foundation to the sandy heapes of humane
wisedome, her renowned confessions of
faith, the strong barres of her vnitie aforenamed
without just cause reproved, and layd aside, the
doctrine distempered with the vnsavorie mixture
of mans learning, and presented to the people
without relish of the Word and Spirit, like an
egge without salt to a man of a sound taste, yea often
with spleene so misapplied against Christians
for furthering of mens particulars, and worldly
projects, that hearing bringeth no lesse griefe then
edification. By new additions & mutations both
the sacraments are made vncouth, and distastfull
to many a poore Christian fearing to offend God
by passing beyond the measure of their own faith,
if they should receiue any thing in the sacraments
not delivered by the Lord. The necessarie discipline,
and necessarie vse of the same for purging
& preservation, as behoveful for the kirk as physick
for a mans body, diseased, weakned, and almost
rejected. The holy ministry transformed,
rent, and divided by a swelling humour overrunning
that somtime solid body, and restraining
the members thereof from their proper functions;
the kirke-service, prayers, and other exercises,
atled to a new mould, and as farre from former
edification, as pitifully diseased with the daily
fits of restlesse change; the prerogatiue of the
Lords day, and due sanctification thereof miserably
brought low by setting vp of other dayes of
extraordinary respect to be observed with festivall
solemnities, the jurisdiction, liberties, and
priviledges of the kirke her comfortable, and
awfull assemblies, with the whole pretious substance
so wounded and made pale, for setting vp
of some silly circumstances, and that with great
losse of concord and quietnesse among all the
members of the kirke, and no small gaine to
superstition, confusion and prophannesse. And
this is the cause moving you to like the first condition
of the kirke, and to refuse the novations introduced,
as they are prejudiciall in part or in
whole to the religion and order formerlie established.
For this your judgement your speeches are
racked, and made to speake against the State,
and you are brought in the case of Ziterius,
when the Court was against him, making the
Emperour Nebuchadnezar. And when this
flame is kindled against you, if you refuse
to follow the droue in anie new practise, for
to defend your libertie by anie good ancient
order or custome, you are summarilie condemned
of Brownish Separation, singularitie, Puritanisme,
and of blinde and fained zeale.
Yet not by all, but by such, as either hauing
forgot, or never knowne your prefession in her
integritie, take advantage by the advantageous
name of Conformitie to please themselues, and
grieve them who cleaue to the forme of godlinesse
whereunto you were delivered. And
even here we must bee patient, and repent our
own slacknes in following our dutie of good service
toward God, when so manie pains haue been
taken to instruct and strengthen in a contrarie
course, hoping that although Constantine being
at the first for the determination of the Councell
of Nice, whereunto the contrarie parties put their
hands, and afterward by oversight, & negligence
to possesse the minds of them that were about him
with careful remembrance of the truth, he was
by the continuall neernesse & pains of them that
were co~trarie minded, changed to an other course;
yet our most high, wise, & gracious Emperour,
when his majestie shall see that wee are tied by
such affection to our harmles profession, that wee
choose rather patientlie to suffer then rashlie to
change, as his highnes royal clemencie hath refreshed
manie, and rid others out of thrall, will bee
pleased to be our Physitian, & with his own hand
cure the distempered body of this poore kirke, restoring
to Christs spouse in the land of his highnes
happie birth, her priviledges and servants for
her Lords emploiments, that everie one of them
receiving that favour, may enjoy one another for
edification of the kirke, his maiesties better service,
and their mutuall comfort.
For your owne confirmation, and the credite
of your cause in whole and everie part of
it, you haue a sufficient store of strong reasons in
your own hand; yet because you haue adoe with
humbled Christians, who as they are taught of
God, so they would be faine followers of him, and
for their vse loue better the pure fountaines of the
scripture, then the dark compositions, and subtile
distinctions of Philosophicall Schoole-men, you
shall not doe amisse to set before your owne eyes
for your present use the following Articles of the
Lords Supper, as straight rules to rectifie the uncomely
eye-lasts required to be introduced upon
the sound work of this Sacrament.
1 Christs practise in the first Supper, qualified
with his commandement, Doe this in remembrance
of me, and with Pauls precept,
Bee yee followers of me, even as I am of
Christ, together with the common maxime rightly
understood, Every action of Christ is our
instruction, should be the perfect patterne of our
practise.
2 The command, Doe this, being grounded
upon Christs practise, and hauing respect therto,
cannot be understood, but by the understanding of
the particulars practised by him. For as practise
and custome obserued in any matter before a law
be made, are the best exponers of the law, and
not the customes and practises that creepe in afterward,
so in this Sacrament, the things done by
Christ and his Disciples expone the institution
better then the practises & customes in the dayes
of Dionysius Areopagita, of Iustinus Martyr,
of Tertullian, and of the practises of kirkes
in these, or other ages.
3 The example and institution of Christ are
fully set downe by Matthew, Marke and Luke,
Euangelists, and by Paul the Apostle conioyntly.
4 In the night that the Lord was betrayed,
for the eating of the Lords Supper, Christ and
his Disciples came together in one place, prepared
for the eating of the Paschall Lambe, and
that holy banket.
5 In that place where Christ and his Disciples
met, there was a Table prepared both for
the service of the Lambe, and for this Sacrament.
6 For the reverent eating of this Supper,
Christ by choyce and no otherwise sate at that
Table with his Disciples in the most comely and
convenient forme of sitting.
7 For visible Elements he vsed both bread
and wine such as were at hand for the time, and
onely these two without any mixture.
8 To the bread by way of preparation Christ
did foure things: he did take it, he blessed it, he
brake it, he gaue it: and for the right vsing of it,
he spake three things to the Disciples, a commandement,
Take ye, eate yee, a declaration,
This is my body which is given or broken
for you, a second commandement, Doe this in
remembrance of me.
9 When he had supped, for preparation of
the cup he did three things; he did take it, hee
blessed it, he gaue it them; and for right vsing of
it hee spake three things, a commandement,
Drinke ye all of it, a declaration, This is my
blood in the new Testament, which is shed
for many for the remission of sins; a second
commandement, Doe this as oft as yee drink
it in remembrance of me.
10 This service is reco~mended to be continued
in the kirke, and frequently used. For as often
as yee shall eate this bread, and drinke this
cuppe, yee shew the Lords death till hee
come.
11 A warning of a fearful danger, Whosoever
shall eate this bread and drink this cup
of the Lord unworthily, shall bee guiltie of
the body and blood of the Lord.
12 A soueraigne remedy against this danger,
Let every man therefore examine himselfe,
and so let him eate of this bread, and
drink of this cup.
13 This is the truth of this holy sacrament,
and in the most fauourable times this kirke
sought this truth, and by the testimonie and commendation
of other reformed kirkes found it, and
not onely the mind of Iesus Christ anent this sacrament,
but in all the particular heads of religion
aboue rehearsed.
14 If either the sacrament it selfe, the ministers and
receiuers thereof were priviledged from mens corruptions,
there were no feare of craft, negligence, or compulsion
to receiue this sacrament, neither necessity to examine
what were agreeable or dissonant to the measure
of their faith that receiued.
15 It is an infallible observation, that whosoever
after the truth once found, seeketh farther then truth,
shall finde errors and lies.
16 Of these Fathers, who in Christ Iesus begot you,
and brought you up, through the Gospell delivered to
you, as they receiued it from the scriptures, and from
this kirke, being reformed, yee receiued the sound doctrine,
and right use of this sacrament, and other
heads of religion, not as a meere doctrine, and meere
rites, but as the annointing of the holy spirit which
dwelleth in you. If yee shal receiue divers teachers, divers
doctrines and sacraments, you must quite the spirit
that dwelleth in you, and seek another.
As the Corinthians by the distemper of their
members, and corruptions marked among them by the
Apostle, transgressed against the first article aboue
written, so if yee come together in a mixture of nick-named
Puritans and conforme people, standing under
contention, expressed there by the Apostle, and
vnremoved from among you, your comming together,
cannot bee with profite, but with great
hurt.
The first maine difference, and cause of

B

dissension betwixt you and them, ariseth from the
fifth article, anent a Table, and the necessarie
vse of it. For the sacrament, yee holding that
it is necessarie for the eating and drinking the sacramentall
elements, both for the exercise of your
faith toward God, & charitie among your selues,
is necessarily required in that sacramentall and
heavenly banquet, and they thinking it onely
commodious for the people to kneele at in reverence
of the sacrament, and others neither necesry
nor commodious, but a meere Metaphore.
But you doe well, that beleeue, that there was a
Table at Christs supper, as certainly as the hand
of him that betrayed him was with him at the
Table, and as truly for vse as the Apostle Paul
tearmeth the sacrament by the name of the Table
of the Lord, which Table by some Fathers
is called the Holy Table, and by others the
Lords Table, a fit meane to represent our vnion
and communion with Christ, and among our
selues in this life. Thou doest prepare a Table
before me in the sight of my adversaries:
and in the life to come, I haue appointed to
you a kingdome, that ye may eate and drink
at my table in my kingdome; which mysterie
of spirituall fellowship can no wise be so well adumbrate,
nor so sensibly perceiued of any beleeving
Christian by a common Table in any mans
house whosoever.
The second controversie betwixt you & them
ariseth from the sixth Article; yee holding that
Christ and his disciples sate at Table, and they
obscuring that assertion by alledging of a forme of
sitting used by Christ different from your forme,
and by their law of indifferent things rejecting
all forme of sitting, and bringing in kneeling as
a more humble and convenient gesture for the sacrament,
then Christ vsed. By vertue of the first
Article, binding you to Christs patterne, as you
are bound by the Prophet to bee taught of God,
and consequently not to teach God, so by the Apostles
precept, you should be a follower of Christ,
and not a reformer either of his practise, or institution
conforme thereto. And, as for the diversity
of formes of sitting, neither kneeling nor standing
being opposite gestures to sitting, can haue the
name of sitting, and consequently Christs sitting
was no sort of kneeling. As for the alledged indifferencie,
it is taken away by Christs free
choyce of sitting expressed in his owne practise,
when he was neither straited by any occasion,
compulsion, or other inclining cause, but at his libertie
might haue kneeled, it pleased him in his
owne wisedome to choose sitting, as the meetest
gesture for his communicants. As for the humilitie
of kneeling aboue your humility of sitting,
we haue no great warrant in the word: for there,
sitting is vsed in preaching, in praying, & in the

B 2

sacrament, but kneeling onely in prayer. And yet
Christ in his agonie vsed for a more humble
forme, falling on the ground upon his face. Of
the three gestures used by the Christian world in
religious worship, sitting, standing, and kneeling,
Christ did choose sitting. And if a choyce
were to be made of any of the three, kneeling for
us is most dangerous, being the outward badge
of their confession, who contrary to our faith beleeue
Christ to be bodily present, either by transubstantiation,
consubstantiation, or some vnknowne
maner, as also is being the formall adoration
of a person, and not a signe of reverence to
be giuen to the sacramentall elements, or any other
thing which moved the Schoolemen to affirme,
that if there remained the substance of
bread after the consecration, the people would
therefore take occasion of Idolatry, and in stead of
Christs body would giue godly worship to the
bread, and for avoiding of that idolatry, they
thought best to remoue away the bread, and bring
in transubstantiation.
Thirdly, ye differ from them about the distribution
of the bread, you holding that Christ gaue
it to them that were next him, and the disciples
divided it among themselues; and they holding
that it should be given by the minister his hand
delivering it immediatly into the hand of every
single person there present to receiue the communion.

18

Your practise, as it is conforme to the order
of the sacrament, observed in this kirk since reformation
began, so it is most conform to the necessary
order of Christs actions, and forme of words, as
they are set down in the eight article. But their
assertion & practise anent distribution, can neither
agree with the order of Christs actions, the
forme of his words, nor the practise of this reformed
kirk. As for the order of Christs actions, for
preparation of the bread, he doth three things, he
took it, he blessed it, he brake it, which of necessity
must be understood to be a mystical fraction.
And being thus prepared, as he took the bread for
them, he exhibiteth, and giveth it to them, wherby
they may be assured to haue good right to that
bread, and being thus prepared, and made theirs,
he giveth a generall commandement to them all
to take it, and for the particular form of their taking,
that they should divide it among themselues,
according to the direction set downe in Luke for
the right vse of the cup, Divide it among your
selues; which forme of distribution for exercise
of brotherly loue, is as necessarie to be vsed upon
the bread, as upon the cup. And if by the act of
giving the distribution of the cup were perfected
by Christ, giving sigillatim to every single person,
and their sole receiving of it immediatly out
of his hand, what could be the use of the generall
commandement, Divide it among you?

B 3

And to ascribe one sence to the act of giving the
Cuppe, and another of the bread, and to thinke
that the Apostles could boldly take the one or
the other, not knowing what right they had to
it, or what it was, it were amisse to think. And
if the practise of kirkes were a sufficient rule, in
sundry kirkes, in sundry ages, the Deacon delivered
the sacrament to the people.
Since yee professe, and faine would bee
NoValue, and submitting your selfe to bee
NoValue, a follower of God by your profession,
wish, and submission, rather to follow Christ
and his Apostles followers of him, then any other
man, or societie of men, and rather the forme of
our owne kirke observed since reformation, wherin
yee haue gotten the comfort that ever yee had,
or haue by that sacrament, and for thir particulars,
and other causes of contention betwixt you
and them, that would draw you to a mixture
with them in their forme, you must deprecate
favour while you be better informed, and advised,
and they both to the effect that before you
come to communication at the Table, yee may be
one in faith and articles of religion, and of one
consent of heart in Ierome his sence, calling Augustine
of his communion, and of Augustines
meaning, calling a certaine woman of his communion.
As these differences betwixt you and them
are evill in themselues, so are they evill in the alledged
ground, whereby they are occasioned. The
peoples rudenesse, and lack of devotion, which
should be rather removed by diligent instruction,
then established by a practise founded vpon a necessitie
that the sacrament must be alwayes celebrated
to a sort of rude people, void of reverence
to receiue the same in a comely forme. By that
sort of rusticitie, and want of devotion, the communion
table that in primitiue times stood in the
middest of the kirke, was separate from the congregation
by a Chancellarie, since from the middest
of the kirke to the east end, which was called
the Quier, then the minister and table both was
separate from the people, the table turned into an
altar, the sacrament into a sacrifice, the cup simply
removed from the people, and the bread also
by transubstantiation, or some other way. And
so for curing that alledged rudenesse, Christs sacrament
was turned into mans imagination, and
so ceased to bee Christs sacrament, and became
mans.
Yee know the truth, and if yee sinne willingly
after that yee haue received and acknowledged
it, by forsaking all, or any part thereof, fundamentall,
substantiall, or accidentall, all being
copulatiue not to be changed in the meanest circumstance,
but upon a necessarie occasion, good
warrants, and to good ends: you know the danger

B 4

set down by the Apostle, and what it is
to make your owne conscience naked before God,
and by your example to giue offence to many.
Take heed to your selfe, and draw neere to God,
that you may keepe your conscience pure against
the great day.
For this purpose set before you the image of
mans frailtie, and the character of Christian
constancie, that yee may striue to be strengthned,
and stand by grace. In that unhappy division of
the Tribes of Israel, Heresie rooted in Ieroboam,
and spreading it selfe over the people in all the ten
tribes, who were taught in the truth of God before
their fall, found no contradiction in all the ten
tribes, notwithstanding of their forme of religion,
and of the heavie judgements of God powred
out upon that fowle defection, but it continued in
force, and they without sense aboue three hundred
yeares and an halfe.
The Arrian abhomination broched by the
envy and stomack of a man prone to contradiction,
possessing the Emperours heart by subtile suggestion,
made Arrius personall quarrels to produce
reall questions anent the Godhead of Christ,
a filthy blasphemy at the beginning resisted by pastors
& people, and long detested, but by processe
of time, by authority, and by the subtiltie of few
Arrian Apostates, not onely the multitude of
Bishops, very few excepted, some sooner, some
later, some as leaders, and some as common souldiers,
either yeelding through feare, or brought
vnder with penurie; or by flatterie ensnared, or
else beguiled through simplicitie, become subject
to the current of time. Yea Osius the ancientest
Bishop of Christendome, the most forward in
defence of the Catholicke cause, and on the contrarie
part most feared, by whose hand the Nicene
creed was set downe, and framed for the
whole Christian world to subscribe unto, yeelded
in the end with the same hand to ratifie the Arrian
confession, leaving the catholick faith to be
kept and defended against the force of the
world. Whether a fretting cancker enter
in the head, as in Ieroboam, or in the foote,
as in Arrius, it is dangerous for the bodie.
Beware, thou that standest, lest thou
fall.
But you haue before you a faire table, liuely
expressing the amiable portraits of more valorous
Worthies, and better deserving in conflicts
for religion, Christ the righteous, his Apostles,
the Hebrewes, those valorous and worthy people
defenders of the truth against the Arrian heresie,
and terrours of Valence, and Vrsatius, the great
patrons of that impurity. Memorable Athanasius
whose motto is his high honor, Athanasius against
the world, and the world against Athanasius,
and old Eleazar, who being desired by his
old acquaintance to deliver himselfe from death
by eating of flesh which was lawfull for him to
vse, and make as if hee did eate the flesh taken
from the sacrifice, commanded by the king, answered,
that it becommeth not our age in any
wise to dissemble, whereby many young persons
might thinke that Eleazar being fourescore yeare
old and ten, were now gone to a strange religion.
Seeing yee are compassed with such a
cloud of witnesses, cast away the turmoyling of
the world, and every thing that presseth downe,
and run with patience the race that is set before
you, looking unto Iesus the author and finisher of
your faith, who for the joy that was set before
him, endured the crosse, and despised the shame,
and is set at the right hand of the Throne of
God.
If you would be to your wearied brethren the
comfort of their miseries, and the guide of their
difficulties, if yee would liue and dye a warriour
against Sathan, and an enemy against sinne,
and unchangeable servant to your owne master;
and if in this world yee would haue peace, and
in the world to come everlasting joy, take heed
to your conscience, for it is Gods Officer, for the
purpose put into you to keepe you in awe. You
may dye, your conscience cannot dye. The light
of it may be shadowed, because it is not God, but
not quite put out, because it is of God. Howsoever
many be afraied for their fame, and few for
their conscience, yet suffer not your selfe in your
whole life to slippe the breadth of your naile from
your good conscience. It is a diet booke, wherein
the sinnes of everie day are written, and for that
cause to the wicked a mother of feare, but the
children of God though the world should never
credit them, require no better witnesse. Augustine
esteemieth not what Secundinus thinketh
of him, so long as his conscience accuseth him not
before God. It is the secretarie of a mans heart,
a sealed booke, close now, but to bee opened wide
upon the great day. It is the treasure of the
libertie of our spirits, which should be vnto us as
farre aboue the libertie of the body, and things belonging
thereunto, as the soule is aboue that dust
which must goe to the dust. If you would haue
this libertie of your spirit, yee must not stand for
a name among men, but you must striue to store
vp in your conscience, the true testimonies of your
sincere loue to your owne religion, and to your
fellow brethren: for your conscience shall bee for
you, if you doe well, and as you shal stand dissemble,
or revolt without partialitie, it will beare witnesse.
The reformation of our religion was builded
by difficulties, and maintained by patience,
and paines. If our loue of ease, and of wordlie
goods, and if our feare of temporall losses, shall destroy
it, it had been better for us that we had never
sought glory by that faire profession, then by a
foule revolt to staine not onely our owne name
and conscience, but by our hypocrisie to endanger
the people of God. My deare brother,
watch yee, stand fast in the faith, quit you like
a man. The sonne of God sitteth at the right
hand of the Father, and all power is given
vnto him: hee appoynteth and moderateth
all our wrastlings, hee giveth victorie, and
will come shortly, and his reward with him.
As you haue happily begunne, so goe on
your whole course, that nothing may bee observed
in you, other then such as becommeth
a wise man to doe, and a 'righteous man
to suffer. Goe on happily, and loue your
owne religion. If by his grace hee shall strengthen
you to proue a pattern of constancy at this
time, he shall make you an heire of glory for
ever. Feare not, put your selfe, and all that
yee haue in the hands of the Lord, yee shall never
loose ought at his hand, he shall liberally returne
to you your gifts with advantage. Bee
stedfast in the Lord, and let God and man
see, that yee honour him, and your enemies shall
see, and you shall finde that great things shall
be done to the man whom the King of Kings
will honour. To him that overcommeth will
Christ grant to sit with him in his throne. Now
vnto him that is able to keepe you that yee fall
not, and to present you faultlesse before the presence
of his glory with joy, that is, to God onely
wise, our Saviour, bee glorie and
majestie, and dominion and power,
both now and for
ever. Amen.