Seven godly and learned sermons preachedSeuen godly and learned sermons preached

Now (good brethren) forasmuch as we have here seen & considered the state of Gods Church before Davids time, & the state whereunto it was restored again in Davids time: Even so let us in like consider the state of Christs Church before our time, & the state & condition of the same in our own time, in those days that we our selves have seen. Let us consider how horrible darkness, what error & confusion hath of late time bin in the Church of god, let us weigh & consider (I say) the deformity & great abuses ye were in the same. For alas, we had the sacraments, we had the holy gospel & word of god, but we had them all in vain. Baptism we had, but we ⟨image 30⟩knew not the Principles of our faith. The Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ we had, but we understood not why Christ left us this Sacrament, we knew not why he said; Take, eat, this is my body &c. It is the greatest Sacrament, and yet we perceived not what it meant. We had Prayers, we had Psalms, we had supplications unto God, and yet we understood them not, we understood no word of them. We worshipped things made with mens hands, Images of blocks and stones, such as had eyes and saw not, ears and heard not, neither had any breath in their mouths: such things we worshipped, and this contrary to the express commandment of God. The Scriptures were rent, were torn, were trodden under foot, were burnt before our eyes. We groped our way in the middest of the day, as said the Prophet Jeremiah. And as the same Prophet of his own time spake, saying; Secundum numerum Civitatum tuarum sunt Dij tui: ¹According to the number of the cities, are thy Gods, O Judah: so might we ⟨image 30⟩of our own time have said. For look how many cities we had, so many Gods had we also. Every Borough, every Town, yea, every village (in a manner) had his proper and peculiar Saint. It was then come to pass that Isaiah prophesied,² saying; Hell hath opened her mouth marvellous wide, Hell hath gaped (saith he) because they have no knowledge of God, because they have no understanding. And so likewise Solomon: ³When Prophecy faileth, the people must needs be scattered. This is the word of God, and this is the misery that we our selves have seen.