THE DIVERSITY BETWEEN GOD'S WORD AND MAN'S INVENTION WHEREIN THOU SHALT SEE LIVELY DESCRIBED AND PLAINLY NEFITS THE WORD OF GOD BRINGETH UNTO SET FORTH BY THOMAS BECON. A D. 1563. What have chaff and wheat to do together, saith the Lord? Is pot my word like a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the hard stone ?-Jeremiah xxiii. Ye shall pot nothing to the word which I command you, neither do ought therefrom, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.-Deut. iv. Whatsoever I command you, that take heed ye do only unto the Lord; put thou nought thereto, nor take ought therefrom.- Deut. xii. Take heed and do all that is written in the book of the law of the Lord, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left, but stick fast unto the Lord your God.- Joshua xxiii. All the words of God are pure and clean, for he is a shield unto all them that put their trust in him. Put thou nothing unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.-Prov. XXX. I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book; if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall minish of the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, &c.-Rev. xxii. With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of the Saviour: and then shall ye say, Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, declare his counsels among the people, keep them in remembrance, for his name is excellent: -Isaiah xii. Be astonished, 0 ye heavens, be afraid and abashed at such a thing, saith the Lord. For my people have done two evils; they have forsaken me, the well of the water of life, and have digged • them pits, yea, vile and broken pits, that can hold no water.–Jeremiah ii. To his loving friend Master Paul Johnson, Thomas Becor. wisheth health in Christ. Christ and all his apostles, many years since, prophesied that in the latter age of this old, crooked, brokenbacked and sinful world, there should arise false Christs and false prophets. That is to say, false anointed and false preachers, which earnestly with all diligence, through the wisdom of the flesh, should teach new Christs and new Saviours ; work great signs and wonderful miracles ; so greatly that if it were possible, the very eleet and chosen people of God should be brought into error; like grievous wolves not spare the flock; speak perverse things ; lead away the disciples after them; bring in privily, pernicious and damnable sects, denying the Lord that bought them; blaspheme the way of truth, and in all points resist the verity of God's word as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses. And verily, though this ungodliness and wicked abomination began in Christ's time, and in the days of the apostles, yea, and long before, (for in what age hath falsehood ceased to resist the verity and to obscure it) as we may evidently perceive in the books of holy scripture; yet when the bishop of Rome began to leave the office of a shepherd, and became a wolf, rather ready to devour than to feed ; to kill and slay, than to help and relieve; to be a lord rather than a minister, and a persecutor than a preacher, it was most chiefly exercised and put in practice. For although before the time of Christ and of his apostles, and in their days also, the verity was resisted of the adversaries thereof, yet were there at that time true prophets, faithful apostles, and godly preachers, who always defended the truth, and preserved it without harm from the ravening teeth of those most cruel wolves. But when the fierce tyranny of that Romish bishop began to spring, to flourish, and to have the overhand, and had driven Christ out of his temple, that is, out of the hearts of the faithful who only are the temple of God; as St. Paul saith, The temple of God is holy, which ye are ; and the pope became Christ's vicar, reigning in his stead, banishing God's holy word, and bringing in his own devilish laws, decrees, and traditions ; then began the mouths of the preachers to be stopped, then was the light of the gospel obscured, then was all false apos true godliness exiled. And although divers good men perceived the great abomination that the pope used, and greatly lamented the decay of the christian faith, and the loss of many souls, yet few or none durst rebuke his corrupt manners, so great was his tyranny in all places ; so that in process of time the greatest part of them that professed Christ by name, were utterly fallen from Christ and Christ's religion, and were christians in name, but papists in deed. What marvel ? If the pope had played the open antichrist, and showed himself to be an extreme adversary to God and to his word, then should his kingdom never have continued so long. Then had he and all his popery been contemned, rejected, set at nought, and cast away, many years before our days. But forasmuch as he transfigured himself into an angel of light, and took on him the person of a true apostle, and yet was indeed tle and deceitful worker, pretending always great favour and love to Christ and his word; he, under this cloak, deceived almost all the world, and ruled after his own carnal lusts and beastly pleasures, no man once attempting to resist him. What cannot hypocrisy and feigned holiness bring to pass ? What mastery is it to lead men in darkness where there is no light ? What great pain was it for the bishop of Rome to lead men captive, and to make them miserable slaves, and to stumble them in darkness, clouds, and false imaginations when the lantern of the true light, which is the sincere word of God, was closed up and wrapped about with such manifold mists and clouds, I mean the false and pestilent glosses of the crooked papists? What does the light of a candle profit a man being in a dark house, if it be hid and set under a bushel ? What advantage comes to an infant though he have a nut, if he cannot come to the kernel for the hard shell ? Thus when Christ in his word was brought to sleep, the pope calling himself God's vicar on earth, and Peter's successor, and challenging unto himself so much power and authority, as Christ had ever given to him of his eternal Father, both in heaven and earth—then he, the pope, reigned only as God in men's consciences, by his traditions, decrees, and ordinances. He took upon him to bless, to curse, to make, to mar, to save, to condemn, to wound, to heal, to bind, to loose, to build, to destroy, to lift up, to pluck down, to enact, to dispense, to make white, to make black, to cast down into hell, to lift up into heaven; to conclude, he took upon him to do all things that any man can devise to be done, so great and mighty was he and his authority. Proteus never turned himself into so many fashions as that antichrist of Rome did. He would now for a little displeasure be as fierce as a ramping lion, and straightway (so that money be the advocate and pleader) he would be more meek and gentle than a lamb. To transgress one of his traditions was a greater offence than to break all the commandments of God. To deny or withhold one penny of St. Peter's patrimony, was a greater sin than to deny tribute to the temporal powers. To strike one of his anointed shavelings, was taken for a more grievous offence than to resist the king, or to fight against any worldly prince. So little were the high powers esteemed, regarded, and set by, to whom, notwithstanding, all men without exception ought to be obedient. For a priest to take a wife honestly and lawfully in the fear of the Lord, according to the word of God, if the gift of chastity were not given him, was reputed a more abominable offence than to have a concubine or a harlot. f To eat flesh on one of those days that the pope had prohibited, was a greater sin than to abuse the blessed name of God by swearing, forswearing, or by any other kind of blasphemy; than to envy our christian brethren, to strike father or mother, or to do any other thing that God hath forbidden in his holy scripture. His drowsy dreams must needs be observed. though scripture and reason prove them naught. Poor Christ's commandments must give place to the decrees of so holy and glorious a father, who attempteth nothing in earth, but God confirmeth the same in heaven! The pope with his sophistical and false persuasions, deceived almost all the world, and brought them into such great blindness, that they esteemed his traditions above the precepts of God; not considering what Christ' saith, Ye have destroyed the commandment of God for the establishment of your traditions. Again, They worship me in vain, teaching the doctrines and commandments of men. This has been the cause that darkness, ignorance, and blindness have continued so long in the world. This has been the cause that we have been so greatly deceived these many years. This has been the cause that the wholesome doctrine of * The Romish priests. + See the note to 1 Cor. vii. 9. in the Rhemish testament, ed. 158%, p. 440. where this is openly and plainly asserted. God has been neglected, despised, and nothing set by. Yea, this has been and at present is, the cause of all the hurly burly, of all the contentions and strifes, that are among both the learned and unlearned, while one defends this, another that. Oh lamentable case! For as Christ cannot agree with Belial, nor light with darkness, nor truth with falsehood; so cannot Christ's preachers agree with the popish praters, nor the word of God with the pope's traditions. Therefore when the true preachers, moved with the Spirit of God, declare and set forth Christ and his blessed gospel, then come the papistical prattlers, and with open mouth inveigh against that holy teaching, both by preaching and writing ; affirming it to be plain heresy, new doctrine, and that it will be the cause of much dissension, if it take place and be received; when notwithstanding, who knows not, that where the word of God is truly preached and faithfully received of the hearers, there is true faith toward God, fervent love toward our neighbour, hearty obedience toward the temporal rulers, brotherly care for the poor, innocency of life, and both the study and practice of all goodness and godliness. But contrariwise, where the word of God is not taught, there is neither true faith toward God, nor fervent love toward our neighbour, nor hearty obedience toward the temporal rulers, nor brotherly care for the poor, nor innocency of life, nor yet either the study or the practice of any point of goodness; but all that is ungodly, wicked, and devilish. And whence cometh this, but only of ignorance, which is the mother and nurse of hypocrisy, superstition, idolatry, impure life, &c.; as Solomon saith, When the preaching of God's word creepeth, the people perish. The treasures of God's word have been hidden in the ground a great space, and men's traditions have flourished in the stead of them. Therefore, now when it comes again to light, many account it new learning, some judge it heresy, another sort disdain to hear it or to read it. By this means is God's holy word evil reported, and has few friends, yea it is extremely hated, and persecuted not of a few. No marvel. For they know not what a noble jewel and precious treasure the word of God is. They feel not the sweetness of it. They savour not the great and exceeding profit that ensues of the knowledge of it. They think the doctrine of the gospel no better, nor yet of greater excellency than the writings of the heathen philosophers. |