o those old customs
and ceremonies which God Himself had written out by special words for
Moses.

The prophet Aggaeus, after the temple was repaired again by Esdras, and
the people might think they had a very just cause to rejoice on their own
behalf for so great a benefit received of Almighty God, yet made he them
all burst out into tears, because that they which were yet alive and had
seen the former building of the Temple, before the Babylonians destroyed
it, called to mind how far off it was yet from that beauty and excellency
which it had in the old times past before. For then, indeed, would they
have thought the Temple worthily repaired if it had answered to the
ancient pattern and to the majesty of the first Temple. Paul, because he
would amend the abuse of the Lord's Supper, which the Corinthians even
then began to corrupt, he set before them Christ's institution to follow,
saying: "I have delivered unto you that which I first received of the
Lord." And when Christ did confute the error of the Pharisees, "Ye
must," saith He, "return to the first beginning; for from the beginning
it was not thus." And when He found great fault with the priests for
their uncleanness of life and covetousness, and would cleanse the Temple
from all evil abuses, "This house," saith He, "at the first beginning it
was a house of prayer," wherein all the people might devoutly and
sincerely pray together. And so it were your part to use it now also at
this day, for it was not builded to the end it should be a "den of
thieves." Likewise all the good and commendable princes mentioned of in
the Scriptures were praised specially by these words, that they had
walked in the ways of their father David: that is, because they had
returned to the first and original foundation, and had restored religion
even to the perfection wherein David left it. And therefore, when we
likewise saw all things were quite trodden under foot of these men, and
that nothing remained in the temple of God but pitiful spoils and decays,
we reckoned it the wisest and the safest way to set before our eyes those
churches which we know for a surety that they never had erred, nor never
had private mass, nor prayers in a strange and barbarous language, nor
this corrupting of sacraments, and other toys.

And forsomuch as our desire was to have the Temple of the Lord restored
anew, we would seek none other foundation than the same which we know was
long ago laid by the Ap