A07146:58
The relics of Rome containing all such matters of religion, as have in times…The reliques of Rome contayning all such matters of religion, as haue in times…
The relics of Rome containing all such matters of religion, as have in times past been brought into the Church by the Pope and his adherents: faithfully gathered out of the most faithful writers of chronicles and histories, and now newly both diligently corrected & greatly augmented, to the singular profit of the readers, by Thomas Becon. 1563.The reliques of Rome contayning all such matters of religion, as haue in times past bene brought into the Church by the Pope and his adherentes: faithfully gathered out of the moste faithful writers of chronicles and histories, and nowe newly both diligently corrected & greatly augmented, to the singuler profit of the readers, by Thomas Becon. 1563.
London: printed by John Day, 1563London: printed by Iohn Day, 1563
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Moreover some flee unto Councils, persuading themselves,1 those to be of such authority, that whatsoever is decreed & stablished in them, may by no means be resisted and against said, but obediently received, and faithfully obeyed, yea and that so much the more, because Christ said:2 Wheresoever two or three be gathered together in my name: there am I in the midst of them. Again, Behold, I am with you for ever, even unto the very end of the world.3 I answer: ⟨image 16⟩Christ in deed hath promised to be present with his holy spirit and grace in assemblies of his holy church, which come together for to seek and set forth the glory of God, and to edify Gods people. But such as falsely & unjustly take upon them the name of the Church, and in all their councils seek nothing but their own glory, and to bring the people of God into a most miserable slavery, a thousand times worse than the children of Israel suffered in Egypt under the most cruel Tyrant king Pharaoh,4 such, I say, are not gathered together in the name of Christ, but in the name of Antichrist: neither is Christ in the midst of them, but the devil is among them. Such assemblies and conventicles all faithful Christians ought to flee▪ abhor, & detest, more than the plague and the pestilence, yea, as the devil, and hell fire, according to this saying of the Psalmographe:5 I hate the Church of the malignant, and with the ungodly will I keep no company. Against these ungodly councils, & most wicked counsellors God thundereth, and crieth out by the Prophet on this manner:6 Woe and everlasting damnation hangeth over the heads of those disobedient and shrinking children, which will begin a council without me. Woe▪ be unto them, that will take a secrete advice, and not out of my spirit: and therefore add they sin unto sin.