The Testament Itself
In the name of God, Amen. I William Tracy, of Toding-ton, in the county of Glocester, esquire, make my testament and last will, as hereafter followeth.
First, and before all other thing, I commit me unto Godand to his mercy, trusting without any doubt or mistrust, that by his grace and the merits of Jesus Christ, and by the virtue of his passion, and of his resurrection, I have and shall have remission of my sins, and resurrection of body and soul, according as it is written, (Job xiv.) “I believe that my Redeemer liveth, and that in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and in my flesh shall see my Saviour.” This my hope is laid up in my bosom.
And as touching the wealth of my soul, the faith that I have taken and rehearsed is sufficient (as I suppose) without any other man’s work or works. My ground and my belief is, that there is but one God, and one mediator between God and man, which is Jesus Christ: so that I do accept none in heaven, nor in earth, to be my mediator between me and God, but only Jesus. Christ; allother be but petitioners in receiving of grace, but none able to give influence of grace. And therefore will I bestow no part of my goods for that intent, that any man should say or do to help my soul: for therein I trust only to the promise of God, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark, the last chapter.) And touching the burying of my body, it availeth me not what be done thereto; wherein St Augustine, De cura agenda pro mortuis!, saith, that they are rather the solace of them that live, than the wealth or comfort of them that are departed?:’ and therefore I remit it only to the discretion of mine executors.
[[! “Of care to be taken for the dead.” Such is the title of a trea-]
[tise written by Augustine, and dedicated to Paulinus, bishop of Nola,]
[one of the most conspicuous characters in the church of that day, who]
[had asked him, Whether it might be profitable to any one, after his]
[death, to have his body buried near the honoured tomb” (memoriam),]
[“of some saint.”—August. De cura agenda, &c. Tom. vr. col. 515. A.]
[Memorize vel monumenta dieuntur ea quse insignita fiunt sepulcra mor-]
[tuorum. Id. col. 519. C. cap. VvI.] [2 Ista omnia, id est curatio funeris, conditio sepulturse, pompa]
[exsequiarum, magis sunt vivorum solatia quam subsidia mortuorum.—]
[Id. col. 517. G.]]
And touching the distribution of my temporal goods, my purpose is, by the grace of God, to bestow them to be accepted as fruits of faith: so that I do not suppose that my merit be by good bestowing of them; but my merit is the faith of Jesus Christ only, by which faith such works are good, according to the words of our Lord, (Matt. xxv.) “I was hungry, and thou gavest me to eat;” and it followeth, “that ye have done to the least of my brethren ye have dono to me,” &e. And ever we should consider the true sentence, that ‘a good work maketh not a good man, but a good man maketh a good work:’ for faith maketh the man both good and righteous; for a righteous man liveth by faith” (Rom. i.), and, whatsoever springeth not out of faith is sin” (Rom. xiv.). And all my temporal goods that I have not given, or delivered, or not given by writing of mine own hand, bearing the date of this present writing, I do leave and give to Margaret my wife, and to Richard my son, which I make mine executors. Witness this mine own hand, the tenth day of October, in the twenty-second year of the reign of king Henry the eighth?.
Tyndale’s Exposition
Now let us examine the parts of this testament, sentence by sentence.
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