In Liturg. Basilii. Eccles. Hier. "The deacon cry, Doors, doors; and straightways the doors are shut"." "When the ministers have once read the lesson out of the holy bible, the learners, Dionys. in and with them such as be vexed of evil spirits, and the penitents, such as tofore have been public offenders, and afterward repent them of their former life, are put out of the church. They only remain which are worthy both of the sight, and of the receiving of the holy mysteries 12" Matt. Hom. "We celebrate the mysteries, the doors being shut and inclosed, and forbid them Chrys. in to be present which yet are no perfect Christians, not for this purpose, because we 24. perceive any infirmity 13 or imperfection in the mysteries, but because that they whom we put out are as yet weak, and unmeet to be partakers of so worthy and blessed mysteries "4" 14 "We exclude and put them out of the places where the priests celebrate the Id. in 2 Cor. Lord's supper; because they are not meet to be partakers of the holy table '." cap. viii. Hom. 18. ad Eph. “After that the mysteries be finished and done, ye may come nigh and see; Id. in Epist. but so long as the mysteries are in handling get thee hence. For thou hast no more to do here than the learner hath """ Give the glory to God alone. [1] Καὶ ὁ διάκονος...ἐπισυνάπτει ἐκφώνως. Τὰς θύρας, τας θύρας ἐν σοφίᾳ πρόσχωμεν.—Div. Miss. S. Basil. in eod. p. 165.] [12 Dionys. Areop. Op. Antv. 1634. De Eccles. Hierarch. cap. iii. 2. Tom. I. p. 284. See Vol. II. page 256, note 3.] [13 Folio, infynyte.] [14 See before, page 478, note 2.] [16 Chrysost. Op. Par. 1718-38. In Epist. ad Hom. 3. DEUTERONOMY IV. "Ye shall put 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." DEUTERONOMY XII. "Whatsoever I command you, that take heed ye do only unto the Lord: put thou nought thereto, nor take ought therefrom." JOSHUA XXIII. "Take heed, and do all that is written in the book of the law of the Lord, that ye blow not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left, but stick fast unto the Lord your God." PROVERBS XXX. "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." REVELATION XXII. "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. ISAIAH XII. "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." JEREMIAH II. "Be astonished, O ye heavens, be afraid and abashed at such a thing, saith the Lord. For my people hath done two evils. They have forsaken me the well of the water of life, and digged them pits, yea, vile and broken pits, that can hold no water." TO HIS LOVING FRIEND MASTER PAUL JOHNSON', THOMAS BECON WISHETH HEALTH IN CHRIST. CHRIST and all his apostles before many years prophesied that in the latter age Matt. xxiv. of this old, crooked, broken-backed, and sinful world, there should arise false Christs and false prophets, that is to say, false anointed and false preachers, which earnestly and 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 elect and chosen people of God should be brought into error; like grievous wolves, not spare the flock; speak perverse things; lead away the disciples Acts xx. after them; "bring in privily pernicious and damnable sects, denying the Lord that 2 Pet. ii. bought them;" blaspheme the way of truth; and in all points resist the verity of God's word, as Jamnes 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 began 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. 2 Tim. lil. 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 present true prophets, faithful apostles, and godly preachers, which always defended the truth, and preserved it without harm from the ravening teeth of those most cruel wolves. But what time 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, which only are the temple of God; as St Paul saith, "The 1 Cor. iii. temple of God is holy, which ye are ;" and the pope began 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 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 durst few or none 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 indeed. What marvel? If the pope had played the open antichrist, and shewed 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 2 Cor. xi. true apostle, and yet was indeed a false apostle and deceitful worker, pretending always [1 Paul Johnson, a gentleman of respectable family and landed property in the county of Kent, was the son of John Johnson, who acquired, in the 1st of queen Mary, the manor and advowson of Fordwich from Sir Thomas Cheney. This with Upper and Nether Court in the isle of Thanet, and other possessions, passed, on his death in the 8th of queen Elizabeth, into the hands of his son Paul. Paul Johnson married Mary the daughter of Peter Heyman, one of the gentlemen of the bed-chamber to king Edward VI. By this alliance he was connected |