desireth to pray upon the top of the house (Acts x.). Paul prayed in prison, and was heard of God, who also commandeth men to pray in all places, lifting up unto God pure and clean hands, as we find that the prophets and most holy men did, wheresoever danger or necessity required. Appointed places to pray in may not be neglected. But public and common prayers should be used in the place appointed for the assembly of the congregation, whence whosoever negligently withdraweth himself is in nowise excusable. I mean not that to be absent from that place is sin, because that place is more holy than another; for the whole earth created by God is equally holy. But the promise made, that "wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name, there shall I be in the midst of them," condemneth all such as despise the congregation gathered in His name. But mark well this word "gathered." I mean not to hear piping, singing, or playing; nor to patter upon beads or books whereof they have no understanding; nor to commit idolatry, honouring that for God which indeed is no god; for with such will I neither join myself in common prayer, nor in receiving external sacraments. For in so doing, I should affirm their superstition and abominable idolatry, which I, by God's grace, never will do, neither counsel others to do, to the end.

What it is to be gathered in the name of Christ. -This congregation which I mean should be gathered in the name of Jesus Christ; that is, to laud and magnify God the Father, for the infinite benefits they have received by His only Son, our Lord. In this congregation should be distributed the mystical and Last Supper of Jesus Christ, without superstition or any more ceremonies than He himself used, and His apostles after Him, in distribution thereof. In this congregation should inquisition be made of the poor among them, and support provided till the time of their next convention; and it should be distributed amongst them. Also in this congregation should be made common prayers, such as all men hearing might understand, that the hearts of all subscribing to the voice of one, might with unfeigned and fervent mind say, Amen. Whosoever withdraw themselves from such a congregation (but alas! where shall it be found?) do declare themselves to be no members of Christ's body.

For whom and at what time we should pray. -Now there remaineth for whom and at what time we shall pray. For all men, and at all times, doth Paul command that we shall pray (1 Tim. ii.), and principally for such as are of the household of faith as suffer persecution; and for commonwealths tyrannously oppressed, incessantly should we call, that God of His mercy and power will withstand the violence of such tyrants.

God's sentence may be changed.—And when we see the plagues of God, as hunger, pestilence,

or war, coming or appearing to reign, then should we with lamentable voices and repenting hearts call unto God, that it would please His infinite mercy to withdraw His hand. Which thing, if we do unfeignedly, He will without doubt revoke His wrath, and, in the midst of His fury, think upon mercy, as we are taught in the Scripture, by His infallible and eternal verity. As in Exodus God saith, "I shall destroy this nation from the face of the earth." And when. Moses addresseth himself to pray for them the Lord proceedeth, saying, "Suffer me that I may utterly destroy them." And then Moses falleth down upon his face, and forty days continueth in prayer for the salty of the people, for whom, at the last, he obtained forgiveness. David, in the vehement plague, lamentably called unto God (2 Sam. xxiv.); and the King of Nineveh saith, "Who can tell? God may turn and repent, and cease from His fierce wrath, that we perish not" (Jonah iii.). Which examples and scriptures are not written in vain, but to certify us that God of His own native goodness will mitigate His plagues, by our prayers offered by Jesus Christ, although He hath threatened to punish, or is presently punishing: which He testifies by His own words, saying, "If I have prophesied against any nation or people, that they shall be destroyed, if they repent of their iniquity, it shall repent me of the evil which I have spoken against them" (Jer. xviii.). This I write, lamenting the great coldness of men who, under such long scourges of God, are nothing kindled to prayer by repentance, but carelessly sleep in a wicked life, even as though their continuing wars, urgent famine, daily plagues of pestilence, and other contagious, insolent, and strange maladies, were not the present signs of God's wrath provoked by our iniquities.

A plague threatened to England. - England, let thy intestine battle and domestic murder provoke thee to purity of life, according to the word which openly hath been proclaimed in thee, otherwise, the cup of the Lord's wrath thou shalt drink. The multitude shall not escape, but shall drink the dregs, and have the cup broken upon their heads; for judgment beginneth in the house of the Lord, and commonly the least offender is first punished, to provoke the more wicked to repentance. But, O Lord, infinite in mercy, if Thou shalt punish, make not consummation; but cut away the proud and luxuriant branches which bear not fruit, and preserve the commonwealths of such as give succour and harbour to Thy contemned messengers, who long have suffered exile in the desert. And let Thy kingdom shortly come, that sin may be ended, death devoured, Thy enemies confounded; that we Thy people, by Thy majesty delivered, may obtain everlasting joy and felicity through Jesus Christ our Savour, to whom be all honour and praise for ever. Amen. Hasten, Lord, and tarry not.

Hereafter followeth a confession by John Knox, Minister of Christ's most sacred Evangel, upon the death of that most virtuous and most famous king, Edward VI., King of England, France, and Ireland; in which confession, the said John doth accuse no less his own offences, than the offences of others, to be the cause of the away-taking of that most godly prince, now reigning with Christ, while we abide plagues for our unthankfulness. Omnipotent and everlasting God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by Thy eternal providence disposest kingdoms as seemeth best to Thy wisdom: we acknowledge and confess Thy judgments to be righteous, in that Thou hast taken from us, for our ingratitude, and for abusing Thy most holy Word, our native king and earthly comforter. Justly mayest Thou pour forth upon us the uttermost of Thy plagues, for that we have not known the day and time of our merciful visitation. We have contemned Thy Word, and despised Thy mercies: we have transgressed Thy laws, for deceitfully have we wrought every man with our neighbour; oppression and violence we have not abhorred, charity hath not appeared among us, as our profession requireth. have little regarded the voices of Thy prophets; Thy threatenings we have esteemed vanity and wind. So that in us, as of ourselves, rests nothing worthy of Thy mercies, for all are found fruitless, even the princes with the prophets as withered trees, apt and meet to be burned in the fire of Thy eternal displeasure.

We

But, O Lord, behold Thy own mercy and kindness, that Thou mayest purge and remove

the most filthy burden of our most horrible offences. Let Thy love overcome the severity of Thy judgments, even as it did in giving to the world Thy only Son, Jesus, when all mankind was lost, and no obedience was left in Adam nor in his seed. Regenerate our hearts, O Lord, by the strength of the Holy Ghost: convert Thou us, and we shall be converted: work Thou in us unfeigned repentance, and move Thou our hearts to obey Thy holy laws.

Behold our troubles and apparent destruction, and stay the sword of Thy vengeance before it devour us. Place above us, O Lord, for Thy great mercies' sake, such a head, with such rulers and magistrates as fear Thy name, and will the glory of Christ Jesus to spread. Take not from us the light of Thy Evangel, and suffer no papistry to prevail in this realm. Illuminate the heart of our sovereign lady, Queen Mary, with pregnant gifts of Thy Holy Ghost, and inflame the hearts of her council with Thy true fear and love. Repress Thou the pride of those that would rebel, and remove from all hearts the contempt of Thy Word. Let not our enemies rejoice at our destruction, but look Thou to the honour of Thy own name, O Lord, and let Thy Gospel be preached with boldness in this realm. If Thy justice must punish, then punish our bodies with the rod of Thy mercy. But, O Lord, let us never revolt, nor turn back to idolatry again. Mitigate the hearts of those that persecute us, and let us not faint under the cross of our Saviour; but assist us with the Holy Ghost, even to the end.

CHALLENGE SERMON AT ST PAUL'S CROSS, ON THE HOLY COMMUNION AND THE MASS.*

ST PAUL, after he was once appointed out by God to be His chosen vessel, to carry His name among all people, having occasion to make his abode for a long time in the city of Corinth, began there to instruct the people, to draw them from the follies and errors that they and their fathers had long lived in aforetime, and to lead them to the Gospel of Christ, which then God of His mercy had newly showed unto the

* 1 Cor. xi. 23. First preached at St Paul's Cross, November 26, 1559, afterwards expanded and preached at Court, March 17, 1560, and also on March 31st. It produced an immense sensation.

world. And therewithal he delivered unto them the sacrament, or holy mystery of Christ's Last Supper, to be practised and continued amongst them as a most certain pledge and testimony of the same.

But after that through the wickedness of the Jews he was driven to depart thence, and to sail into Syria, the false prophets, men full of pride and vain-glory, taking occasion at his absence, sought means to discredit whatsoever he had taught or done: and caused the people not only to mislike the Gospel of Christ, that they had received at St Paul's hand, but also to missense the sacraments. For as touching the Gospel, they were fallen from it into sundry great and horrible heresies concerning the resurrection, and other special points of Christ's religion. And as touching the sacraments, whereas St

Paul had appointed them the holy mysteries of the breaking of Christ's body, and shedding of His blood, that they should all eat and drink together with fear and reverence in remembrance of His death and passion, and so cleave together in brotherly charity, as being all the members of one body, they forgetting the very use and institution thereof, made small account of Christ's death, took each man to himself severally his own supper, despised their poor brethren, rent and divided the Church of God, and so made the holy sacrament of love and charity to serve them as instrument of discord and dissension.

Therefore saith St Paul unto them, "Shall I praise you for thus doing? in this thing surely I may not praise you; for I see your congregations and common meetings are not to the better, but to the worse.'

For a redress hereof he calleth them back to the first original, and to the institution of Christ, from whence they were fallen. "For I," saith he, "being amongst you, delivered you none other thing than that I had received of the Lord. That thing He thought meetest for you; and therefore with the same ought you also to be contented."

Thus St Paul, that the Corinthians might the better understand that they had irreverently missensed the Lord's Supper, and be the more willing to redress the same, laid Christ's first institution before their eyes as a true pattern, whereby the sooner they might redress it. "Look," saith he, "what thing I received of the Lord, the same thing I delivered over faithfully unto you. I gave you not any fancy or device of mine own, but that thing only that Christ had before delivered me. This rule is infallible. Hereby your doings may best be tried." This I judge to be the very true meaning of these words of St Paul. Now, forasinuch as in this last age of the world the same holy sacrament, or mystery of Christ's Last Supper, had been likewise stained with divers foul abuses; and specially for that, notwithstanding it hath pleased Almighty God of His great mercy in these our days to remove away all such deformities, and to restore again the same holy mysteries to the first original, yet there be divers that wilfully remain in ignorance, and not only be unthankful unto Almighty God for His great benefits, but also take pleasure in the errors wherein they have of long time been trained; and that not only the poor and ignorant, but also the rich, and such as should be learned and know God; I have thought it good therefore at this time to stand the longer upon the same words of St Paul, that we may the more clearly see the first institution of the holy sacrament, and how far in these latter days we have strayed from it. It was to be hoped, forasmuch as the glorious light of the Gospel of Christ is now so mightily and so far spread abroad, that no man would lightly miss his way

(as afore in the time of darkness) and perish wilfully.

Yet there are some that whisper in corners, that the mass is a blessed and a catholic thing, and that the holy communion, which now God of His great mercy hath restored to us, is wicked and schismatical; and therefore they murmur against it, therefore they refrain it, and will not come to it.

O merciful God, who would think there could be so much wilfulness in the heart of man? O Gregory! O Augustine! O Hierom! O Chrysostom! O Leo! O Dionyse! O Anacletus! O Sixtus! O Paul! O Christ! if we be deceived herein, ye are they that have deceived us: you have taught us these schisms and divisions; ye have taught us these heresies.

Thus ye ordered the holy communion in your time; the same we received at your hand, and have faithfully delivered it unto the people. And that ye may the more marvel at the wilfulness of such men, they stand this day against so many old fathers, so many doctors, so many examples of the primitive Church, so manifest and so plain words of the Holy Scriptures; and yet have they herein not one father, not one doctor, not one allowed example of the primitive Church, to make for them. And when I say no one, I speak not this in vehemency of spirit, or heat of talk, but even as before God, by the way of simplicity and truth, lest any of you should haply be deceived, and think there is more weight in the other side, than in conclusion there shall be found. And therefore once again I say, Of all the words of the Holy Scriptures, of all the examples of the primitive Church, of all the old fathers, of all the ancient doctors, in these causes they have not one.

Here the matter itself that I have now in hand putteth me in remembrance of certain things that I uttered unto you, to the same purpose, at my last being in this place. I remember I laid out then here before you a number of things, that are now in controversy, whereunto our adversaries will not yield. And I said, perhaps boldly, as it might then seem to some men, but as I myself, and the learned of our adversaries themselves, do well know, sincerely and truly, that none of all them that this day stand against us are able, or shall ever be able, to prove against us any one of all those points, either by the Scriptures, or by example of the primitive Church, or by the old doctors, or by the ancient general councils.

Since that time it hath been reported in places, that I spake then more than I was able to justify and make good. Howbeit, these reports were only made in corners, and therefore ought the less to trouble me. But if my sayings had been so weak, and might so easily have been reproved, I marvel that the parties never yet came to the light, to take the advantage. For my promise was, and that openly here before you all, that if any man were able to prove the contrary, I

Loath I am to trouble you with rehearsal of such things as I have spoken before; and yet, because the case so requireth, I shall desire you that have already heard me to bear the more with me in this behalf. Better it were to trouble your ears with twice hearing of one thing, than to betray the truth of God. The words that I then spake, as near as I can call them to mind, were these: "If any learned man of all our adversaries, or if all the learned men that be alive, be able to bring any one sufficient sentence out of any old catholic doctor or father, or out of any old general council, or out of the Holy Scriptures of God, or any one example of the primitive Church, whereby it may be clearly and plainly proved, that there was any private mass in the whole world at that time, for the space of six hundred years after Christ; or that there was then any communion ministered unto the people under one kind; or that the people had their common prayers then in a strange tongue, that they understood not; or that the Bishop of Rome was then called a universal bishop, or the head of the universal Church; or that the people was then taught to believe that Christ's body is really, substantially, corporally, carnally, or naturally in the sacrament; or that His body is or may be in a thousand places, or more, at one time; or that the priest did then hold up the sacrament over his head; or that the people did then fall down and worship it with godly honour; or that the sacrament was then, or ought now to be, hanged up under a canopy; or that in the sacrament, after the words of consecration, there remaineth only the accidents and shows, without the substance of bread and wine; or that the priest then divided the sacrament in three parts, and afterward received himself all alone; or that whosoever had said the sacrament is a figure, a pledge, a token, or a remembrance of Christ's body, had therefore been judged for a heretic; or that it was lawful then to have thirty, twenty, fifteen, ten, or five masses said in one church in one day; or that images were then set up in the churches, to the intent the people might worship them; or that the lay people was then forbidden to read the Word of God in their own tongue: If any man alive were able to prove any of these articles, by any one clear or plain clause or sentence, either of the Scriptures, or of the old doctors, or of any old general council, or by any example of the primitive Church, I promised then that I would give over and subscribe unto him."

Wherefore, beside all that I have said already, I will say further, and yet nothing so much as might be said. If any one of all our adversaries be able clearly and plainly to prove, by such authority of the Scriptures, the old doctors, and councils, as I said before, that it was then lawful for the priest to pronounce the words of conse

the priest had then authority to offer up Christ unto His Father, or to communicate and receive the sacrament for another as they do, or to apply the virtue of Christ's death and passion to any man by the mean of the mass; or that it was then thought a sound doctrine to teach the people that the mass, ex opere operato, that is, even for that it is said and done, is able to remove any part of our sin; or that then any Christian man called the sacrament his Lord and God; or that the people was then taught to believe that the body of Christ remaineth in the sacrament as long as the accidents of the bread remain there without corruption; or that a mouse, or any other worm or beast, may eat the body of Christ (for so some of our adversaries have said and taught); or that when Christ said, Hoc est corpus meum, this word hoc pointeth not the bread, but individium vagum, as some of them say; or that the accidents, or forms, or shows of bread and wine be the sacraments of Christ's body and blood, and not rather the very bread and wine itself; or that the sacrament is a sign or token of the body of Christ that lieth hidden underneath it; or that ignorance is the mother and cause of the devotion and obedience-these be the highest mysteries and greatest keys of their religion, and without them their doctrine can never be maintained and stand upright. ..

Thus the people of God is deceived and mocked, and instead of precious stones, driven to take counterfeits. For, I assure you, brethren, in the time of Peter and James, neither was there any man that ever heard the name of mass (for missa was never named until four hundred years after Christ, and yet then was it no private mass neither, but a communion), nor yet were the pieces and parts of the mass, as we in our time have seen them, set together. And what mass could that be, that as yet had neither her own name nor her parts? But forasmuch as they affirm so constantly that St James said mass at Jerusalem, and whatsoever it were that he said, will needs have it called by the name of a mass; let us compare their mass and St James's mass both together. St James said his mass in the common tongue, as the people might understand him; they say their mass in a strange Latin tongue, that the people should not know what they mean. St James spake out the words of consecration distinctly and plainly; they in their mass suppress the same words, and keep them close. St James in his mass ministered the communion unto the people; they in their mass receive themselves all alone. St James in his mass ministered the sacrament unto the people under both kinds; they in their mass minister the sacrament unto the people in one kind only. St James in his mass preached and set forth the death of Christ; they in their mass have only a number of dumb gestures and ceremonies, which they themselves understand not, and make