The Governance of Virtue, Part 2 · Section 8
Against straunge religion or newe found worshipping of God.
IF thou be moued vntounto straunge religion or new found worshipping of God, eyther by Sathan, by the pope, or by any subtue hipocrite, loke that thou by no meanes doest leane vntounto their wicked motions, but rather valiauntly withstād thē, with these sentences and examples of the holy scripture.
☞ Sentences out of the old Testament
HEare Israell, your Lorde God is one God. Thou shalt louelove thy Lord godDeut. 1… with all thy harte, with all thy soule, and with all thy strength. Thou shalt feare thy Lord God, and serue him alone.
And now Israell, what doth the LordeDeut. 6 thy God require of thee, but that thou fearest the Lorde thy God, and walke in hys wayes, and louelove him, and serue the Lorde thy Godwith all thy harte, & with all thy soule, and kepe the commaundementes of the Lorde.
Doe that which is pleasaunt in y• sightDeut. 13 of the Lord thy God. Sacrifice to the Lord the sacrifyce of righteousnesse, and trust in hym.
I will not reproue thee in thy sacrifices,Psal. 5. sayeth the… Lord, for I am full of thy burnt offeringes. Offer to God the sacrifice of prayse, and pay to the most highest thy vowes. Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliuer thee, and thou shalt honour me.
Heare O my people, I will geue theePsalm. 81. a charge O Israel: If thou wilt heare me, there shall be no straunge nor new found God in thee, neither shalt thou worship any foraine God. For I am the Lorde thy God, which brought thee out of the lande of Egipt. To doe mercy and iudgement pleaseth the Lord more than sacrifice.
A sacrifice well pleasing to the Lorde isto attend to hys cōmaundementes, and to departe from all iniquities and vnrighteousnes.
What shall I do with all these your sacrifices,Esay. 1. sayth the Lord: I am full of them. The burnte offeringes of Weathers and fatlynges, the bloude of Calues, Lambes, and Goates, I will none of them. When ye come before my sighte, who requyred these thinges at your handes, that ye shoulde walke in my courtes? Bryng me no more sacrifice on thys manner in vain: Your sensing is abhomination vntounto me. The feastes of the new Moone, and the Sabbothes, and other holy dayes I can not abide. Your congregations are wicked: Your Kalendes and your solemne feastes, my soule hateth. I am euen werye of them. It greueth me to the hart for to suffer them. When ye shall praye many prayers: I will not heare you. For your handes are full of bloude. Bee ye washed and cleane. Take awaye your euil thoughts from myne eyes. Cease to do euill, learne to doe well. Seeke iudgement, helpe the poore oppressed: be fauourable to the fatherlesse, defend y• widdow, and then come & proue me, sayth the lord. If your sinnes bee as redde as scarlet, yet shall they be made as whyte as snow. And if they be made like purpell, yet shall they be made as white as wolle. If that ye will be contented & heare me, ye shall eate the good fruites of y• earth. If that ye will not, but prouoke me to anger, the sworde shall deuoure you, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Put your burnt offerings to your sacrifices & eate the flesh. For when I brought your Fathers out of the lande of Egypt, I spake not one word vntounto them of burnte offeringes and sacrifyces, but thys I commaunded them, saying: heare my voyce, and I shall be your God, and ye shall be my people. See ye walke in all the wayes that I hauehave commaunded you, that ye may prosper.
I hate and vtterly defie your holy daies, and where as ye sense me when ye come together, I will not accept it. And though ye offer me burnt offeringes, yet will not I receaue your giftes. Awaye from me with the noyse of thy songes, for I can not abyde the hearyng of thy playeng at the Organs. Prouide that equitie may followe as the water, and righteousnesse as a mightie streame, for in these thinges hauehave I delight and pleasure sayeth the Lorde.
I will mercy and no sacrifice, sayth theOse. 6. Lord, and the knowledge of God do I set more by, then burnt offeringes.
What shall I offer worthy the Lorde?Mich. 6. Shall I bowe my knee to y• hie god? Shall I offer vntounto him burnt sacrifices & calues of a yeare olde? May the Lorde be pleased with a thousande fat Weathers? Or with many thousandes of lustie Goates? Shall I geue my first begotten for my wickednesse? Euen the fruite of my wombe for the sinne of my soule? I will shewe the… (Oman) what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee: verely to do iudgement, to louelove mercy, and carefully to walke with thy God.
How long will ye halte on both partes.3. Reg. 18. If the Lord be God, follow him. If Baall be God, follow him.
☞ Examples out of the old Testament.
NAdab and Abihu of a good entent offered incense to the Lord wt straungeLeuit. 10▪ fyre, yet for all their good zeale, they were consumed with fyre, so that they dyed before the Lord.
King Saule thought that he had done1. Reg. 13. great worship vntounto God, when in the absence of Samuell he offered burnt offeringes, but Samuell said vntounto him: thou hast done folishly, neither hast kept the cō maundements of the Lord thy God, which I commaunded thee.
Saule also of a good zeale contrarye2. Reg. 15. to the commaundement of God, spared Agag the kyng of Ameleche aliue, with the best and fattest flockes of sheepe, oxen, …c: Pretending, that he reserued them for to offer vntounto the Lorde. But Samuell sayd vntounto him: for asmuche as thou hast caste away the word of the Lord, the Lord hath cast away thee: that thou be no more king. Willeth the Lorde burnt offringes and sacrifices, and not rather that it maye be obeyed vntounto his worde? Obedience is better then sacrifices: and to geue eare to the lordes commaundement, is more then to offer the fatte of Weathers.
Oza thought y• he had done God highe…. Reg. 6. seruice, when he stayed the Arke of God in the waine, being in ieoperdie of falling: but yet was y• Lord angry with him, because he touched it contrarye to hys word, in so muche that he was striken and sodenlye dyed.
King Ozias toke vponupon him to burne incense2. Par. 26. vntounto the Lord, thinking that by this meanes he should highlye please God, but for all his pretensed holines he was strikē with leaprosie: and so being cast out of the house of the Lorde, he continued a leper euen vntounto his death.
¶ Sentences out of the new Testament.
THese people draw nighe vntounto me withMath. 15 their mouthes, & honour me with their lippes, but their hartes are farre from me. Beholde, they worship me in vaine, teaching doctrines, euen the cōmaundements of men.
Woe be vntounto you ye Scribes & Pharisees,Ma. 23. yea very ipocrites: which deuour widowes houses vnderunder the pretence of long prayer, ye shall therefore receiue the more greuous dampnation.
God hath deliuered vsus from the hand ofLuk. 1. our enemies, that we should serue him in holines and righteousnes all the daies of our life.
The houre commeth and now it is, whē Iohn. 4.true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirite and truth, for the father seketh such, that should worship him.
God is a spirite, & they y• worship hym, must worship him in spirite and truth.
The time shall come, that whosoeuer killeth you, shall thinke that they do vntountoIoh. 16. God an hie good seruice.
God is my witnesse whom I serue inRom. 1▪ my spirite.
Be ye fulfylled with the spirit, speakingEphe. 5 with your selues in psalmes and hymnes & spiritual songes, and making melodie to the Lord in your hartes, geuing thankes alwayes for all thinges vntounto God in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ.
Unto god king euerlasting, immortall,…. Tim. 1. inuisible and wise only, be all honour and glory for euer and euer.
Amen.
¶ Examples out of the new Testament.
OUr Sauiour Christ whan he liued in thys worlde, dyd all thinges accordingIohn. 5. to hys heauenly fathers commaundementes as he hym selfe sayth, as my father hath geuen me commaundement, so doe I: thys dyd he to geue vsus example, that in matters of religion we shoulde attempte nothing as due seruice vntounto god, but that only which we hauehave learned out of his holy worde.
The apostles of Christe bothe taughte and wroughte that onelye, whiche they had receaued of their Lorde and maister Iesus Christ.
Of these aforesaid Scriptures & histories, maiest thou learne that God is not worshipped as carnall reason and fleshly wisdome imagineth and prescribeth, but as god by his holy worde biddeth, appointeth, and commaundeth. A Christen man oughte to followe Christes steps and to walke, as he hath walked.