AN EPISTLE OF A CHRISTIAN BROTHER Exhorting an other to keep himself undefiled from the present corruptions brought in to the ministration of the Lords Supper.  
Printed Anno 1624.   

My reverend, and dear brother,  

The present difficulties dangers.  YOUR doubtful love to your own ancient and well deserved religion, and your just fear of this uncouth change was after many hard assays with threatenings, and terrors strangely enforced, rankles your tender heart weary of contending with heavy perplexities of wrath, and temporal losses if ye shall continue to walk, as ye have learned, and are best persuaded; of scandal and defection, if ye leave your own old profession, which ye have judged, and judge to be most agreeable to the truth; and of shame, and of gnawing of conscience, if ye shall pollute yourself with practices different from your faith, and contrary to the best light, and liking of your own mind. In these difficulties, your case is the more lamentable, that ye are drawn under the displeasure of high authority, which, next to God ye would fainest please, & under the dislike of some Peers, and judges of the land, having such particular care to their own charges, giving them small leisure to sound the depth of ecclesiastical controversies, & only for a matter of conformity, that known enemy to the unity and peace of the kirks of Christ in all the world, where it hath found credit. And surely your grief 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 nearest friends, and old acquaintance, but without equal reason on their part, or just desert on yours. Who would not be pierced in heart with the pitiful looks of your wearied countenance, as at the last gasp of your wont sincerity, and cheerful constancy. In this again, if you be left to yourself, affliction is added to the afflicted, and our mother the Kirke, and her mother the Truth are forsaken. And notwithstanding of this straight, if any friends of a willing mind shall timously contribute to your comfort, some Doeg, or some Amazia is ever 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 kirk and commonweal, and the hearts of all are in the hands of the Lord, who may at his pleasure move any that hath the tongue of the learned to speak a word in season to you that are weary, also dispose your friends and brethren of their old ingenuity, and tender compassion of your bleeding heart, by their holy wisdom to remove your doubts, confirm your faith, and help you to be persuaded in your own mind, and to advise you rather now to hold fast that which you have heard and received, then afterward with untimous repentance to change their tune, and style, as if you were not a brother, but an adversary, and Apostate, if it shall happen, as God forbid that you be driven from the bright candle of your known profession to the deep darkness of an unknown way, and by that unhappy change so much the more blinded, as your light hath been greater, and with the purest Ivory turned with fire into saddest black, or shall be misshapen in a new face, stained with the contempt of your first purity, and blushing at the disparagement of your new form. A vile confusion that cannot be eschewed if you shall suffer yourself to be drawn back again to the deformities for just causes casten out of the kirk, and from that beauty of reformation, which you have before held, and with joy so long professed, and upon no better warrant than a bare example, and very authority of men's 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 joining with them, they dare not only separate from their old masters and fellow brethren, but from themselves, in respect of that which they were. And yet in this main current some way to be excused by their embarking like simple men in a war ship, and miserable mistaking of these base additions, to be laid down again when it should please them like good scholars to return to their own masters, the standard-bearers in our faith, with imagined liberty, not only to concur, but to confirm and encourage their own brethren afresh for the advancement of the interrupted work of the ministry and edification of the body of Christ, as they are bound in conscience and calling.  

Resolution to suffer required  But howsoever men have been inclined to give place to the stream 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: nevertheless you have found some sweet refreshment under the shadow of a heavenly dispensation so ruling the paths of these proceedings, that you have kept the truth, suffered reproaches and discredit with patience in standing against these misliked novelties so long as they remained without the compass of your own practice, esteeming your particular losses contented gain, and your injuries excusable for keeping the liberties of God's service, and the secret joy of your own conscience to be brooked by your quiet carriage, and sober conversation. But now if the day of that poor ease be passed, and patient walking can have no further favour, and if you shall be drawn out to a public stage before the Lord, who would keep you to be his witness, and in the eyes of men, who would gain you to be their disciples, you must needs by your own practice either shamefully recant, or honestly confess the religion wherein you have stood. Choose you this day whether with humbled Esther you will wisely resolve to prove constant, and glad the hearts of many people, by cleaving to that way wherein you have found the Saviour with his blessings and benefits of all sorts; or if you will against your own experience of God's favour to you, and hard success seen upon these novations, where they have been most greedily embraced, hazard by your unseasonable example to give occasion of stumbling to many, and to lose the patience and labours of your former constancy, and now like Peter overwhelmed with fear, adventure to seek your comfort, and quietness in the sway of time, as though the Lord could be syled, as Absolom was with Chusayes' policy. If you dare suffer committing your soul to the will of God, as unto a faithful Creator, it is his place to temper the cup of all your troubles, and when he shall be pleased to try and determine your matter before the highest bar. 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 the hour of temptation.  

Impediments arising from other men's persons removed.  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 dwelled in the pleasant land of peace in Halcyone days like the Spouse of Christ commanding all, and subject to none. For you must think, that many look well in their own climate, that have neither head nor health to cross the line, and many go bravely with guilded swords about their own doors, who fly the camp, and dare not face the Cannon. To believe 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 guess, and more ready upon their own respects to profess, then careful to be informed in a truth, and no small number of silly spirits by giving credit to others, and misled in the by-paths of error, & some unstable Chameleon-like hypocrites inclined to be died with the colour of every occasional profession, when they shall see the world to frown, may take another way. But pity them, & spare them, praise God for his favour to you, and increase of faith, and patience, and let no gall, and bitterness of speech, scarcely becoming the witness of a truth, make any of whatsoever sort less inclinable to return to you, and your way, who by memory of their former proceedings, in a different course, may be recalled to love and honour both you and your way. The Apostles train may suffice you. If Christ be on your side, who can be against you? You are debtor to him that hath guided the steps of your soul, & all that is within you to praise him, because in these contentions you have done what you could in defence of the truth, and have 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 known truth, whereby you have received many rich comforts, and looketh for to reap endless joy, esteeming it your duty to cleave to that which is called in question, as well as to the rest, which seem to be spared: for your encouragement you have a worthy cause to honour you, sufficient reasons to defend you, and the experience of your own conscience to uphold you.  

Impediments arising from the quality of the cause removed.  It is true that your large course is so cunningly covered, that nothing is permitted to appear at this time, but a small point, the gesture of kneeling at the communion, and receving out of the ministers hand with such as shall be at table, upon the festival day appointed. Yet you must think of these particulars, as of members of the gross body of conformity, obscuring the frame of Reformation delivered unto you by the Fathers, who begat you in the Lord, to be kept in integrity for your own use, and for the instruction and comfort of your successors. For you cannot deny, but you have seen your mother the kirk in her gayest dress, firmly settled upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, and strongly fortified with fair confessions, her badges famous in the world, and most meet for keeping unity among her members in doctrine, sacraments, kirke-service, discipline, and in the holy ministry, and for abjuring of all poisonable superstition, and damnable confusion. And with no small joy have 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 Majesty's love for strengthening her jurisdiction, and furtherance of all her causes. How happy were these days, when her painful Shepherds were knit together in one mind and judgement with mutual encouragements, all feeding their flocks, and pleasantly marching against all enemies without exception, as an army with banners. How bright were then the stars, and how beautiful the candlesticks? But now alas you are forced to behold bold mints to draw her off the old foundation to the sandy heaps of humane wisdom, her renowned confessions of faith, the strong bars of her unity aforenamed without just cause reproved, and laid aside, the doctrine distempered with the unsavoury mixture of man's learning, and presented to the people without relish of the Word and Spirit, like an egg without salt to a man of a sound taste, yea often with spleen so misapplied against Christians for furthering of men's particulars, and worldly projects, that hearing bringeth no less grief than edification. By new additions & mutations both the sacraments are made uncouth, and distasteful to many a poor Christian fearing to offend God by passing beyond the measure of their own faith, if they should receive any thing in the sacraments not delivered by the Lord. The necessary discipline, and necessary use of the same for purging & preservation, as behoveful for the kirk as physick for a man's body, diseased, weakened, and almost rejected. The holy ministry transformed, rend, and divided by a swelling humour overrunning that sometime 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 far from former edification, as pitifully diseased with the daily fits of restless change; the prerogative of the Lords day, and due sanctification thereof miserably brought low by setting up of other days of extraordinary respect to be observed with festival solemnities, the jurisdiction, liberties, and privileges of the kirk her comfortable, and awful assemblies, with the whole precious substance so wounded and made pale, for setting up of some silly circumstances, and that with great loss of concord and quietness among all the members of the kirk, and no small gain to superstition, confusion and profaneness. And this is the cause moving you to like the first condition of the kirk, and to refuse the novations introduced, as they are prejudicial in part or in whole to the religion and order formerly established.  

The cause in the end will be justified howsoever for the present it be maligned.  For this your judgement your speeches are racked, and made to speak against the State, and you are brought in the case of Ziterius, when the Court was against him, making the Emperor Nebuchadnezar. And when this flame is kindled against you, if you refuse to follow the droue in any new practice, for to defend your liberty by any good ancient order or custom, you are summarily condemned of Brownish Separation, singularity, Puritanisme, and of blind and feigned zeal. Yet not by all, but by such, as either having forgot, or never known your prefession in her integrity, take advantage by the advantageous name of Conformity to please themselves, and grieve them who cleave to the form of godliness whereunto you were delivered. And even here we must be patient, and repent our own slackness in following our duty of good service toward God, when so many pains have been taken to instruct and strengthen in a contrary course, hoping that although Constantine being at the first for the determination of the Council of Nice, whereunto the contrary parties put their hands, and afterward by oversight, & negligence to possess the minds of them that were about him with careful remembrance of the truth, he was by the continual nearness & pains of them that were contrary minded, changed to an other course; yet our most high, wise, & gracious Emperor, when his majesty shall see that we are tied by such affection to our harmless profession, that we choose rather patiently to suffer then rashly to change, as his highness' royal clemency hath refreshed many, and rid others out of thrall, will be pleased to be our Physician, & with his own hand cure the distempered body of this poor kirk, restoring to Christ's spouse in the land of his highness' happy birth, her privileges and servants for her Lords employments, that every one of them receiving that favour, may enjoy one another for edification of the kirk, his majesty's better service, and their mutual comfort.  

The cause is grounded upon sufficient reasons.  For your own confirmation, and the credit of your cause in whole and every part of it, you have a sufficient store of strong reasons in your own hand; yet because you have ado with humbled Christians, who as they are taguht of God, so they would be fain followers of him, and for their use love better the pure fountains of the scripture, than the dark compositions, and subtle distinctions of Philosophical Schoolmen, you shall not do amiss to set before your own eyes for your present use the following Articles of the Lords Supper, 
Rules for right administration of the Lords supper.  as strait rules to rectify the uncomely eye-lasts required to be introduced upon the sound work of this Sacrament.  
1 Christ's practice in the first Supper, qualified with his commandment, Do this in remembrance of me, and with Paul's precept, Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ, together with the common maxim rightly understood, Every action of Christ is our instruction, should be the perfect pattern of our practice.  
2 The command, Do this, being grounded upon Christ's practice, and having respect thereto, cannot be understood, but by the understanding of the particulars practised by him. For as practise and custom observed in any matter before a law be made, are the best exponers of the law, and not the customs and practices that creep in afterward, so in this Sacrament, the things done by Christ and his Disciples expone the institution better than the practices & customs in the days of Dionysius Areopagita, of justinus Martyr, of Tertullian, and of the practices of kirkes in these, or other ages.  
3 The example and institution of Christ are fully set down by Matthew, Mark and Luke, Evangelists, and by Paul the Apostle conjointly.  
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 Lamb, and that holy banquet.  
5 In that place where Christ and his Disciples met, there was a Table prepared both for the service of the Lamb, and for this Sacrament.  
6 For the reverend eating of this Supper, Christ by choice and no otherwise sat at that Table with his Disciples in the most comely and convenient form of sitting.  
7 For visible Elements he used both bread and wine such as were at hand for the time, and only these two without any mixture.  
8 To the bread by way of preparation Christ did four things: he did take it, he blessed it, he broke it, he gave it: and for the right using of it, he spoke three things to the Disciples, a commandment, Take ye, eat ye, a declaration, This is my body which is given (or broken) for you, a second commandment, Do this in remembrance of me.  
9 When he had supped, for preparation of the cup he did three things; he did take it, he blessed it, he gave it them; and for right using of it he spoke three things, a commandment, Drink 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 commandment, Do this as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me.  
10 This service is recommended to be continued in the kirk, and frequently used. For as often as ye shall eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye show the Lords death till he come.  
11 A warning of a fearful danger, Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.  
12 A sovereign remedy against this danger, Let every man therefore examine himself, and so let him eat of this bread, and drink of this cup.  
13 This is the truth of this holy sacrament, and in the most favourable times this kirk sought this truth, and by the testimony and commendation of other reformed kirkes found it, and not only the mind of jesus Christ anent this sacrament, but in all the particular heads of religion above rehearsed.  
14 If either the sacrament itself, the ministers and receivers thereof were privileged from men's corruptions, there were no fear of craft, negligence, or compulsion to receive this sacrament, neither necessity to examine▪ what were agreeable or dissonant to the measure of their faith that received.  
15 It is an infallible observation, that whosoever after the truth once found, seeketh farther than truth, shall find errors and lies.  
16 Of these Fathers, who in Christ jesus begot you, and brought you up, through the Gospel delivered to you, as they received it from the scriptures, and from this kirk, being reform, ye received the sound doctrine, and right use of this sacrament, and other heads of religion, not as a mere doctrine, and mere rites, but as the anointing of the holy spirit which dwelleth in you. If ye shall receive diverse teachers, diverse doctrines and sacraments, you must quite the spirit that dwelleth in you, and seek another.  

the present differences an impediment to communicate here.  As the Cotinthians by the distemper of their members, and corruptions marked among them by the Apostle, transgressed against the first article above written, so if ye come together in a mixture of nicknamed Puritans and conform people, standing under contention, expressed there by the Apostle, and unremoved from among you, your coming together▪ cannot be with profit, but with great hurt.  

The first difference  The first main difference, and cause of dissension betwixt you and them, ariseth from the fifth article, anent a Table, and the necessary use of it. For the sacrament, ye holding that it is necessary for the eating and drinking the sacramental elements, both for the exercise of your faith toward God, & charity among yourselves, is necessarily required in that sacramental and heavenly banquet, and they thinking it only commodious for the people to kneel at in reverence of the sacrament, and others neither necesry nor commodious, but a mere Metaphor. But you do well, that believe, that there was a Table at Christ's supper, as certainly as the hand of him that betrayed him was with him at the Table, and as truly for use as the Apostle Paul termeth 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 mean to represent our union and communion with Christ, and among ourselves in this life. Thou dost prepare a Table before me in the sight of my adversaries: and in the life to come, I have appointed to you a kingdom, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; which mystery of spiritual fellowship can no wise be so well adumbrate, nor so sensibly perceived of any believing Christian by a common Table in any man's house whosoever.  

The second difference.  The second controversy betwixt you & them ariseth from the sixth Article; ye holding that Christ and his disciples sat at Table, and they obscuring that assertion by alleging of a form of sitting used by Christ different from your form, and by their law of indifferent things rejecting all form of sitting, and bringing in kneeling as a more humble and convenient gesture for the sacrament, than Christ used. By virtue of the first Article, binding you to Christ's pattern, as you are bound by the Prophet to be 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 practice, or institution conform thereto. And, as for the diversity of forms of sitting, neither kneeling nor standing being opposite gestures to sitting, can have the name of sitting, and consequently Christ's sitting was no sort of kneeling. As for the alleged indifferency, it is taken away by Christ's free choice of sitting expressed in his own practice, when he was neither straited by any occasion, compulsion, or other inclining cause, but at his liberty might have kneeled, it pleased him in his own wisdom to choose sitting, as the meetest gesture for his communicants. As for the humility of kneeling above your humility of sitting, we have no great warrant in the word: for there, sitting is used in preaching, in praying, & in the sacrament, but kneeling only in prayer. And yet Christ in his agony used for a more humble form, 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 choice 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 believe Christ to be bodily present, either by transubstantiation, consubstantiation, or some unknown manner, as also it being the formal adoration of a person, and not a sign of reverence to be given to the sacramental elements, or any other thing which moved the Schoolmen to affirm, that if there remained the substance of bread after the consecration, the people would therefore take occasion of Idolatry, and in stead of Christ's body would give godly worship to the bread, and for avoiding of that idolatry, they thought best to remove away the bread, and bring in transubstantiation.  

The third difference.  Thirdly, ye differ from them about the distribution of the bread, you holding that Christ gave it to them that were next him, and the disciples divided it among themselves; and they holding that it should be given by the minister his hand delivering it immediately into the hand of every single person there present to receive the communion. Your practice, as it is conform to the order of the sacrament, observed in this kirk since reformation began, so it is most conform to the necessary order of Christ's actions and form of words, as they are set down in the eight article. But their assertion & practice anent distribution, can neither agree with the order of Christ's actions, the form of his words, nor the practice of this reformed kirk. As for the order of Christ's actions, for preparation of the bread, he doth three things, he took it, he blessed it, he broke 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, whereby they may be assured to have good right to that bread, and being thus prepared, and made theirs, he giveth a general commandment to them all to take it, and for the particular form of their taking, that they should divide it amonng themselves, according to the direction set down in Luke for the right use of the cup, Divide it among yourselves; which form of distribution for exercise of brotherly love, is as necessary to be used upon the bread, as upon the cup. And if by the act of giving the distribuoion of the cup were perfected by Christ, giving sigillatim to every single person, and their sole receiving of it immediately out of his hand, what could be the use of the general commandment, Divide it among you? And to ascribe one sense to the act of giving the Cup, and another of the bread, and to think 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 amiss to think. And if the practice of kirkes were a sufficient rule, in sundry kirkes, in sundry ages, the Deacon delivered the sacrament to the people.  

Consent in heart and articles of religion required in communicants.  Since ye profess, and fain would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and submitting yourself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a follower of God by your profession, wish, and submission, rather to follow Christ and his Apostles followers of him, than any other man, or society of men, and rather the form of our own kirk observed since reformation, wherein ye have gotten the comfort that ever ye had, or have by that sacrament, and for their particulars, and other causes of contention betwixt you and them, that would draw you to a mixture with them in their form, 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, ye may be one in faith and articles of religion, and of one consent of heart in Jerome his sense, calling Augustine of his communion, and of Augustine's meaning, calling a certain woman of his communion.  
As these differences betwixt you and them are evil in themselves, so are they evil in the alleged ground, whereby they are occasioned. 
The ground of the alleged differences evil.  The people's rudensse, and lack of devotion, which should be rather removed by diligent instruction, then established by a practice founded upon a necessity that the sacrament must be always celebrated to a sort of rude people, void of reverence to receive the same in a comely form. By that sort of rusticity, and want of devotion, the communion table that in primitive times stood in the midst of the kirk, was separate from the congregation by a chancellary, since from the midst of the kirk to the east end, which was called the Quire, than 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 alleged rudeness, Christ's sacrament was turned into man's imagination, and so ceased to be Christ's sacrament, and became man's.  

No part of the truth is to be forsaken.  Ye know the truth, and if ye sin willingly after that ye have received and acknowledged it, by forsaking all, or any part thereof, fundamental, substantial, or accidental, all being copulative not to be changed in the meanest circumstance, but upon a necessary occasion, good warrants, and to good ends: you know the danger set down by the Apostle, and what it is to make your own conscience naked before God, and by your example to give offence to many. Take heed to yourself, and draw near to God, that you may keep your conscience pure against the great day.  

The falls of backsliders to be set before the eyes of the sufferer.  For this purpose set before you the image of man's frailty, and the character of Christian constancy, that ye may strive to be strengthened, and stand by grace. In that unhappy division of the Tribes of Israel, Heresy rooted in jeroboam, and spreading itself 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 form of religion, and of the heavy judgements of God poured out upon that fowl defection, but it continued in force, and they without sense above three hundred years and an half.  
The Arrian abomination broached by the envy and stomach of a man prone to contradiction, possessing the Emperor's heart by subtle suggestion, made Arrius personal quarrels to produce real questions anent the Godhead of Christ, a filthy blasphemy at the beginning resisted by pastors & people, and long detested, but by process of time, by authority, and by the subtlety of few Arrian Apostates, not only the multitude of Bishops, very few excepted, some sooner, some later, some as leaders, and some as common soldiers, either yielding through fear, or brought under with penury; or by flattery ensnared, or else beguiled through simplicity, become subject to the current of time. Yea Osius the ancientest Bishop of Christendom, the most forward in defence of the Catholic cause, and on the contrary part most feared, by whose hand the Nicene creed was set down, and framed for the whole Christian world to subscribe unto, yielded in the end with the same hand to ratify the Arrian confession, leaving the catholic faith to be kept and defended against the force of the world. Whether a fretting cancer enter in the head, as in jeroboam, or in the foot, as in Arrius, it is dangerous for the body. Beware, thou that standest, lest thou fall.  

The constancy of others t● be set before the eyes of th● sufferer.  But you have before you a fair table, lively expressing the amiable portraits of more valorous Worthies, and better deserving in conflicts for religion, Christ the righteous, his Apostles, the Hebrews, those valorous and worthy people defenders of the truth against the Arrian heresy, and terrors of Valence, and Vrsatius, the great patrons of that impurity. Memorable Athanasius whose motto is his high honour, Athanasius against the world, and the world against Athanasius, and old Eleazar, who being desired by his old acquaintance to deliver himself from death by eating of flesh which was lawful for him to use, and make as if he did eat the flesh taken from the sacrifice, commanded by the king, answered, that it becometh not our age in any wise to dissemble, whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar being fourscore year old and ten, were now gone to a strange religion. Seeing ye are compassed with such a cloud of witnesses, cast away the turmoiling of the world, and every thing that presseth down, and run with patience the race that is set before you, looking unto jesus the author and finisher of your faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame, and is set at the right hand of the Throne of God.  

A good conscience to be regarded in time of trial.  If you would be to your wearied brethren the comfort of their miseries, and the guide of their difficulties, if ye would live and dye a warrior against Satan, and an enemy against sin, and unchangeable servant to your own master; and if in this world ye would have peace, and in the world to come everlasting joy, take heed to your conscience, for it is God's Officer, for the purpose put into you to keep 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 afraid for their fame, and few for their conscience, yet suffer not yourself in your whole life to slip the breadth of your nail from your good conscience. It is a diet book, wherein the sins of every day are written, and for that cause to the wicked a mother of fear, but the children of God though the world should never credit them, require no better witness. Augustine esteemeth not what Secundinus thinketh of him, so long as his conscience accuseth him not before God. It is the secretary of a man's heart, a sealed book, close now, but to be opened wide upon the great day. It is the treasure of the liberty of our spirits, which should be unto us as far above the liberty of the body, and things belonging thereunto, as the soul is above that dust which must go to the dust. If you would have this liberty of your spirit, ye must not stand for a name among men, but you must strive to store up in your conscience, the true testimonies of your sincere love to your own religion, and to your fellow brethren: for your conscience shall be for you, if you do well, and as you shall stand dissemble, or revolt without partiality, it will bear witness. The reformation of our religion was builded by difficulties, and maintained by patience, and pains. If our love of ease, and of worldly goods, and if our fear of temporal losses, shall destroy it, it had been better for us that we had never sought glory by that fair profession, then by a foul revolt to stain not only our own name and conscience, but by our hypocrisy to endanger the people of God. My dear brother, watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like a man. The son of God sitteth at the right hand of the Father, and all power is given unto him: he appointeth and moderateth all our wrestlings, he giveth victory, and will come shortly, and his reward with him. As you have happily begun, so go on your whole course, that nothing may be observed in you, other than such as becometh a wise man to do, and a righteous man to suffer. Go on happily, and love your own religion. If by his grace he shall strengthen you to prove a pattern of constancy at this time, he shall make you an heir of glory for ever. Fear not, put yourself, and all that ye have in the hands of the Lord, ye shall never lose aught at his hand, he shall liberally return to you your gifts with advantage. Be steadfast in the Lord, and let God and man see, that ye honour him, and your enemies shall see, and you shall find 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 unto him that is able to keep you that ye fall not, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with joy, that is, to God only wise, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, and dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen.