And when he maketh so great “difficulty and hardness in Paul’s epistles;” I say, it is impossible to understand either Peter or Paul, or aught at all in the scripture, for him that denieth the justifying of faith in Christ’s blood. And again, it is impossible to understand in the scripture more than a Turk, for whosoever hath not the law of God written in his heart, to fulfil it: of which point, and of true faith too, I fear me that you are void and empty, with all your spiritualty, whose defender ye have taken upon you to be, for to mock out the truth for lucre and vantage.
[4 “I have heard very worshipful folk say, that a man could not]
[hire a few to sit down upon his bible of the old testament.—Whereas]
[we take little regard to sit down on our bible, with the old testament]
[and the new too.”—Dial. Works, p. 246.] [5 Ordinary, or ruler.]]
An Answer to More’s Fourth Book
More:—^ Christ’s church hath the true doctrine already, and the selfsame that St Paul would not give an angel audience unto the contrary.” Tyndale:—But the pope’s church will not hear that doctrine.
More:— Confirmed with such a multitude of miracles, and so much blood of martyrs, and common consent of all Christendom.”
Tyndale: —Who shewed a miracle to confirm his preaching of ear-confession and pardons, with like pedlary? or who shed his blood for them? I can shew you many thousands that ye have slain for preaching the contrary. And again, Grecia, the one half of Christendom, consenteth not unto them; which Greeks, if such things had come from the apostles, should have had them ere ye.
More:— The spiritualty be not so tender-eared, but that they may hear their sins rebuked.”
Tyndale:—They consent not unto the way of truth, but sin of malice and of profession. And therefore, as they have no power to repent, even so can they not but persecute both him that rebuketh them, and his doctrine too, after the ensamples of the Pharisees, and all tyrants that be gone before; namely if the preacher touch any ground whereby they should be reformed, or by what means they maintain their mischief.
The Second Chapter
More:— A friar’s living, that hath married a nun, maketh it easy to know that his doctrine is not good 3.
Tyndale:—The profession of either other is plain idolatry, and deceiving of a man’s soul, and robbing him of his
[1 Not any respect unto his [Luther’s] railing against the clergy]
[is, as some would have it seem, the cause of his condemnation and]
[suppression of his books. For the good men of the clergy be not]
[so sore grieved with them that touch the faults of the bad, nor the]
[bad themselves be not so tender-eared, that for the only talking of]
[their faults they would banish the books that were good in other]
[things beside.”—More’s Works, p. 248.] [2 So C. U. L. ed., D. has begun.] [3 Works, p. 249. This is one of More’s continually recurring]
[sarcasms against Luther’s marriage.]]
good; and taken upon them ignorantly thereto: wherefore, when they be come unto the knowledge of the truth, they ought no longer therein to abide. But the pope’s forbidding matrimony, and to eat of meats created of God for man’s use, which is devilish doctrine by Paul’s prophecy; his giving licence to hold whores; his continual occupying of princes in shedding of christian blood; his robbing of the poor throughout Christendom of all that was given to maintain them; his setting up in Rome a stews, not of women only, but of the male kind against nature, and a thousand abominations too gross for a Turk, are tokens good enough that he is the right antichrist, and his doctrine sprung of the devil.
More:— In penance, Martin saith, there needeth no contrition nor satisfaction.”
. Tyndale:—Call it repentance, and then it is contrition of itself. And as for mends-making with worldly things, that do to thy brother whom thou hast offended; and unto God offer the repentance of thine heart, and the satisfaction of Christ’s blood.
More:— Tyndale saith, that the confessor uttereth the confessions of them that be rich. But yet we see that both rich and poor keep whores openly without paying penny.”
Tyndale:—1f they be very rich, they be suffered, because they may be good defenders of the spiritualty; and if they be very poor, because they have no money to pay; or else they fine with one or other, secretly.
More:— Upon that lie Tyndale buildeth the destruction of the sacrament of penance.”
Tyndale:—Sacrament is a sign, signifying what I should do, or believe, or both: as baptism is the sign of repentance, signifying that I must repent of evil, and believe to be saved therefrom by the blood of Christ. Now, sir, in your penance describe us which is the sign and the outward sacrament, and what is the thing that I must do or believe; and then we will ensearch whether it may be a sacrament or no.
More:— T’yndale saith that confession is the worst invention that ever was.”
[4 That is, Martin Luther. ] [5 Compound the matter by some equivalent to a pecuniary pay-]
[ment. ]]
Tyndale:—As ye fashion it, mean I, and of that filthy, Priapish confession, which ye spew in the ear; wherewith ye exclude the forgiveness that is in Christ’s blood, for all that repent and believe therein, and make the people believe that their sins be never forgiven until they be shriven unto the priest; and then for no other cause save that they have there told them, and for the holy deeds to come, which the confessor hath enjoined them, more profitable oft-times for himself than any man else.
More:—” Never man had grace to spy that before Tyndale.”
Tyndale:—Yes, very many; for many nations never received it. And the Greeks, when they had proved it, and saw the bawdery that followed of it, put it down again! For which cause, and to know all secrets, and to lead the consciences captive, the pope falsely maintaineth it.
More:—” What fruit would then come of penance?”
Tyndale:—Of your juggling term penance, I cannot affirm. But of repentance would come this fruit, that no man that had it should sin willingly; but every man should continually fight against his flesh.
. More:——- He teacbeth that the sacrament hath no virtue at all, but the? faith only.”
Tyndale:—The faith of a repenting soul in Christ’s blood doth justify only. And the sacrament standeth in as good stead as a lively preacher. And as the preacher justi- fieth me not, but my faith in the doctrine; even so the sign, justifieth not, but the faith in the promise, which the sacra-, ment signifieth and preacheth. And to preach is all the virtue of the sacrament; and where the sacraments preach not, there they have no virtue at all. And, sir, we teach not as ye do, to believe in the sacrament or in holy church, but to believe the sacrament and holy church. — More:— He teacheth that faith sufficeth unto salvation without good works.” à
Tyndale:—The scripture saith, that as soon as a man. repenteth of evil, and believeth in Christ’s blood, he obtaineth mercy immediately; because he should love God, and of that S [1 See Sozomen, Lib. vir. cap. 16, and Socrates, Lib. v. cap. 19. The circumstances occurred about A.D. 385.]
[2 So C. U. L. ed. and so More’s text; but D. has by instead of £he.]
love do good works; and that he tarrieth not in sin still, till he have done good works, and then is first forgiven for his works’ sake, as the pope beareth his in hand, excluding the virtue of Christ’s blood. For a man must be first reconciled unto God by Christ, and in God’s favour, ere his works can be good and pleasant in the sight of God. But we say not, as some damnably lie on us, that we should do evil to be Justified by faith; as thou mayest see, Rom. iii, how they said of the apostles for like preaching.
More:—”He calleth it sacrilege, to please God with good works.”
Tyndale:—To refer the work unto the person of God, to buy out thy sin therewith, is to make an idol of God, or a creature. But if thou refer thy work unto thy neighbour’s profit, or taming of thine own flesh, then thou pleasest God therewith.
More:— Item, that a man can do no good work.”
Tyndale:----1 is false. But he saith a man can do no good work, till he believe that his sins be forgiven him in Christ, and till he love God’s law, and have obtained grace to work with. And then saith he that we cannot do our works so perfectly, by the reason of our corrupt flesh, but that there is some imperfectness therein, as in the works of them that be not their crafts-master; which is yet not reckoned, because they do their good wills, and be scholars, and go to school to learn to do better.
More:— Item, that the good and righteous man sinneth alway in doing well.”
Tyndale:——In all his works there lacketh somewhat, and is a fault; until he do them with as great love unto his neighbour as Christ did for him, and as long as there is more resistance in his flesh than was in Christ’s, or less hope in God; and then no longer.
More:— Item, that no sin damneth a man save unbelief?.”
Tyndale:— Whatsoever a man hath done, if he repent and believe in Christ, it is forgiven him. And so it fol-
[3 More’s words are, “Item that no sin can damn a christian man]
[but only lack of belief. For he” [meaning Tyndale] “saith that our]
[faith suppeth up all our sins, how great soever they be.”— Works, Dial.]
[p. 250.]]
loweth, that no sin damneth, save there where there is no - belief.
More:—” Item, that we have no free-will to do aught therewith, though the grace of God be joined thereto; and that God doth all in us both good and bad, and we do but suffer, as wax doth of the workman.” Tyndale:—First, where he affirmeth that we say, our will is not free to do good, and to help to compel the members, when God hath given us grace to love his laws, is false. But we say that we have no free-will to captivate our wits and understanding, for to believe the pope in whatsoever he saith without reason given; when we find in the scripture contrary testimony, and see in him so great falsehood and deeds so abominable, and thereto all the signs by which the scripture teacheth us to know antichrist. no And we affirm that we have no free-will to prevent God grace and his grace, and before grace prepare ourselves thereto; neither can we consent unto God before grace be come. For until God hath prevented us, and poured the Spirit of his grace into our souls, to love his laws, and hath graven them in our hearts by the outward ministration of his true preacher and inward working of his Spirit, or by inspiration only, we know not God as he is to be known, nor feel the goodness or any sweetness in his law. How then can we consent thereto? αι not the text, that we can do no good while we be evil; — and they which seek glory, and to climb in honour above. their brethren, cannot believe the truth; and that whores, — thieves, murderers, extortioners, and such like, have no part in the kingdom of God and Christ, nor any feeling thereof? And who shall take those diseases from them? God only, word.. το through his mercy; for they cannot put off that complexion of themselves, until they be taught to believe and to feel that it is damnable, and to consent unto the contrary living.
And unto the second part I answer, that in respect of God we do but suffer only, and receive power to do all our deeds, whether we do good or bad: as Christ answered Pilate, that he could “have no power against him except it were given him from above;” and no more could Judas neither. But in respect of the thing, wherein or wherewith we work, and shed out again the power that we have received,
m m S d nj RR THE FOURTH BOOK. 175 we work actually: as the axe doth nothing in respect of the hand that heweth, save receive; but in respect of the tree that is cut, it worketh actually, and poureth out again the power that it hath received.
More:— Item, that God is author of good and evil, as well of the evil will of Judas in betraying Christ, as of the good will of Christ in suffering his passion.”
Tyndale:—The power wherewith we do good and evil, is of God; and the will is of God: as the power which the murderer abuseth, and wherewith he killeth a man unrighteously, is of God; and the will wherewith he willeth it. But the wickedness of his will and crookedness or frowardness wherewith he slayeth unrighteously, to avenge himself, and to satisfy his own lusts, and the cause why he knoweth not the law of God and consenteth not to it, (which law should have informed his will, and corrected the crookedness thereof, and have taught him to use his will and his power right,) is Ris blindness’ fault only, and not God’s: which blindness the devil hath poisoned him with. More:— Item, matrimony is no sacrament.”
. Tyndale:—Matrimony is a similitude of the kingdom of heaven, as are many things more: like as it appeareth by Christ in the gospel. But who instituted it to be a sacrament? Or who, at his marriage, was taught the signification of it? Who was ever bound to receive it in the name of a sacrament? I would to Christ’s blood that ye would make a sacrament of it unto all men and women that be married, and unto all other; and would at every marriage teach the people to know the benefit of Christ through the similitude of matrimony. And I affirm, that in the pope’s church, there is no sacrament: for where no signification is, there is no sacrament. A sign is no sign unto him that understandeth nought thereby; as a speech is no speech unto him that understandeth it not. I would to Christ’s passion that ye would let them be sacraments, which Christ institute and ordained for sacraments. And then, if ye make of your own brains five hundred thereto, I would not be so greatly grieved; though I would not give my consent unto so great a multitude, partly for the bondage, and specially lest we should in time to come, the significations of them lost, fall into idolatry again, and make holy works of them, after the example
of the blindness wherein we be now; but I would have the word ever lively preached out of the plain text.
More:— Item, that all holy orders be but men’s invention.”
Tyndale:—The office of an apostle, bishop, priest, deacon, and widow, are of God. But as concerning the shaving, the oiling, and diversity of raiment, and many degrees since added thereto, prove that they be not! men’s traditions. But and ye will make sacraments of the oiling, shaving, shearing, and garments, put their significations unto them, and let the king’s grace compel them to keep them, and I admit them for sacraments; and until that time I hold them for the false signs of hypocrites.
More:—” Item, that every man and woman is a priest, and may consecrate the body of Christ.”
Tyndale:—In bodily service, if the officer appointed be away, every other person not only may, but also is bound to help, at need, even so much as his neighbour’s dog. How much more then ought men to assist one onother in the health of their souls at all times of need! If the man be away, the woman may, and is bound to baptize, in time of need, by the law of love; which office pertaineth unto the priest that only. If she be lady over the greatest ordained by God, that she may baptize, why should she not have power also over the less, to minister the ceremonies which the pope hath added to, as his oil his salt, his spittle, his candle and chrisom-cloth? And why might she not pray all the prayers, except that idol the pope be greater than the very God? If women had brought a child to church, and, while the priest and other men tarried, the child were in jeopardy; might they not baptize him in the font, if there were no other water by? And if other water were by, yet if that holp better one mite, love requireth to baptize him therein. And then why might not women touch all their other oil? If a woman, learned in Christ, were driven unto an isle where Christ was never preached, might she not there preach and teach to minister the sacraments, and make officers? The ease is possible; shew then what should let, that she might not. “Love thy neighbour as thyself,” doth compel. Nay, she may not consecrate. Why? If the pope loved us as -
[1 So has but instead of not
well as Ohrist, he would find no fault therewith, though a woman at need ministered that sacrament, if it be so necessary as ye make it. In bodily wealth, lie that would have me one ace less than himself, loveth me not as well as himself: how much more ought we to love one another in things pertaining unto the soul!
More:— Item, that the host is no sacrifice.”
Tyndale:—Christ is no more killed. It is therefore the sacrament, sign, and memorial of that sacrifice wherewith Christ offered his body for our sins, and commanded, saying, This do in the remembrance of me.” We be not holp with any visible deed, that the priest there doth, save in that it putteth us in remembrance of Christ’s death and passion for our sins. As the garments and strange holy gestures help us not, but in that they put us in remembrance of things that Christ suffered for us in his passion: even so the shewing, breaking, and eating of the host, the shewing and drinking of the cup of Christ’s blood, and the words, and the consecration, help us not a pin, nor are God’s service; save only in that they stir up our repenting faith, to call to mind the death and passion of Christ for our sins. And therefore to call it a sacrifice is but abused speech: as when we call one, that is new come home, to breakfast, and set a capon before him, and say, This is your welcome home;’ meaning yet by that speech that it is but a sign of the love of mine heart, which rejoiceth and is glad that he is come home safe and sound. And even so is this but the memorial of the very sacrifice of Christ, once done for all. And if ye would no otherwise mean, ye shall have my good will to call it so still; or if ye can shew me a reason of some other meaning. And therefore I would that it had been called (as it indeed is, and as it was commanded to be) Christ’s memorial, though that I doubt not but that it was called mass of this Hebrew word Misach, which signifieth a pension-giving, because that at every mass men gave every man a portion according unto his power, unto the sustentation of the poor?:
[3 So Bishop Pilkington observes: They glory much that the name]
[of their mass is missah in Hebrew, and should be written, Deut. xvi.]
[(10.); and thereof should missa come in Latin, or else the Hebrew]
[name to remain still.” Confutation, &c., Bishop Pilkington’s Works,]
[Park. Soc. p. 505. The word in the text cited is ND, the construct [TYNDALE, 111] 12]
which offering yet remaineth; but to a false use and profit of them that have too much, as all other things are perverted.
Finally, it is the same thing that it was when Christ institute it at his last supper. If it were then the very sacrificing of Christs body, and had that same virtue and power with it that his very passion after wrought; why was he sacrificed so cruelly on the morrow, and not held excused therewith, seeing he was there verily sacrificed?
More:— Item, that there remaineth bread and wine in the sacrament.” ΄
Tyndale:—Improve it: what is that that is broken, and that the priest eateth with his teeth? air only? If a child were fed with no other food, he should wax haply as long as his father. Whereof then should his body, his flesh and bones grow? All by miracle, will they say. O what wonof derful miracles must we feign to save antichrist’s doctrine! I might with as good reason say that the host is neither pound nor white, but that as my mouth is deceived in the taste of bread, even so mine eyes are in the sight of roundness, and so is there nothing at all: which all are but the disputations of men with corrupt minds, without spirit to judge. Neverthelater, when the priest hath once rehearsed the testament of our Saviour thereon, I look not on bread and wine, but on the body of Christ broken, and blood shed for my sins; and by that faith am I saved from the damnation of my sins. Neither come I to mass for any other purpose than to fetch forgiveness for Christ’s death’s sake; nor for any other purpose say I Confiteor, and knowledge my sins at the beginning of mass. And if ye have other doctrine, teach us a reason, and lead us in light, and we ὙΠ follow. Christ saith (John vi), “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing at all; the words which I speak,” saith he, “are spirit and life:” that is, the fleshly eating and drinking of Christ’s body and blood profit ποῦ, as his carnal presence profited not, by the reason of his presence only; as ye see by Judas and the Pharisees, and the form of mon tribute. Root DD. On this and other conjectured etymologies of the word mass, the reader may see more in Foxe’s Acts
[and Mon. Book x. at its commencement; or in Bingham’s Chr. Anti=]
[quities, Book xr. Ch. r. $ iv. Vol. 1v. p. 79. Straker’s edition. ]]
soldiers that touched him, and how his bodily presence did let! the disciples to understand spiritually. But to eat and drink in the spirit, that is, to hearken unto his words and with a repenting heart to believe in his death, bringeth us all that Christ can do for us.
More:—’ Item, that the mass availeth no man but the priest.”
Tyndale:—If ye speak of the prayers, his prayers help us as much as ours him. If ye speak of the sacrament, it helpeth as many as be present, as much as him, if moved thereby they believe in Christ’s death as well as he. If they be absent, the sacrament profiteth them as much as a sermon, made in the church, helpeth them that be in the fields. And how profiteth it the souls of the dead, tell me, unto whom it is no sign? If ye mean the carnal eating and drinking, then it profiteth the priest only; for he eateth and drinketh up all alone, and giveth no màn part with him.
More:—-“Item, that a man should not be houselled till he lay a dying.”
Tyndale:—That is too shameless a lie.
More:—” Item, that men and women should not spare to touch it.”
Tyndale:—A perilous case. Why? Because the pope has not oiled them. Nevertheless, Christ hath anointed them with his Spirit and with his blood. But wot ye why? The pope thinketh that if they should be too busy in handling it, they would believe that there were bread; and for that cause, to strength their faiths, he hath imagined little pretty thin manchets that shine through, and seem more like to be made of paper, or fine parchment, than of wheat flour. About which was no small question in Oxford of late days, whether it were bread or none; some affirming that the flour, with long lying in water, was turned to starch, and had lost its nature.
More:—Item, that the sacrament should not be worshipped.” Tyndale:—It is the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood. And Christ calleth it the new and everlasting testament in his blood; and commanded that we should so do in the remembrance of him, that his body was broken and his
[LP [1 Hinder.] 12—2]
wor- blood shed for our sins. And Paul commandeth thereby to shew, or preach, the Lord’s death. They say not, Pray to jt neither put any faith therein. For I may not believe in. the sacrament, but I must believe the sacrament, that it is a for (rue sign, and it true that is signified thereby; which is the only worshipping of the sacrament: if ye give it other worship, ye plainly dishonour it. As I may not believe in Christ’s church; but believe Christ’s church, that the doctrine which they preach of Christ is true. If ye have any other doctrine, teach us a reason, and lead us in light, and we will follow.
More:—Item, that a Christian is not bound to keep any law made by man, or any at all.”
Tyndale:—You say untruly. A christian man is bound to obey tyranny, if it be not against his faith nor the law of God, until God deliver him thereof. But he is no christian man that bindeth him to any thing, save that which love and his neighbour’s necessity requireth of him. And when a law made is no longer profitable, christian rulers ought to break it. But now-a-days, when tyrants have gotten the simple people under, they compel them to serve their lusts and wily tyranny, without respect of any commonwealth; which wily tyranny, because the truth rebuketh it, is the cause why they persecute it, lest the common people, seeing how good they should be, and feeling how wicked they are, should withdraw their necks from their unrighteous yoke: as ye have ensample in Herod, in the scribes and Pharisees, and in many other. ἃ
More:—Item, that there is no purgatory.”
T’yndale:—Believe in Christ, and thou shalt shortly find purgatories enough, as ye now make other feel. ” ^ More:—” Item, that all souls lie and sleep till dooms day”
Tyndale:—And ye, in putting them in heaven, hell, and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. What God doth with them, that shall EL know when we come to them. The true faith putteth the SIL resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers, denying that, did put that the souls did ever live. And the pope joineth the spiritual doctrine of Christ and the fleshly doctrine of philosophers together; things so contrary that they cannot agree, no more than the Spirit
and the flesh do in a christian man, And because the fleshlyminded pope consenteth unto heathen doctrine, therefore he corrupteth the scripture to stablish it. Moses saith in Deut. The secret things pertain unto the Lord, and the things that be opened pertain unto us, that we do all that is written in the book.” Wherefore, sir, if we loved the laws of God, and would occupy ourselves to fulfil them, and would on the other side be meek, and let God alone with his secrets, and suffer him to be wiser than we, we should make none article of the faith of this or that, And again, if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of the resurrection?
More:— Item, no man shall pray to saints.”
Tyndale:— When ye speak with saints that be departed, it is not evil to put them in remembrance to pray for you.
More:—” Why do they not hear us?”
Tyndale:—1f they love you so fervently, and be so great with God, why certify they you not, that they so do?
More:—“So they do, in that we feel our petitions granted.”
Tyndale:—God saved the old idolaters with worldly salvation, and gave them their petitions, which they yet asked of their idols, as ye see throughout all the old Testament. God heareth the erows, fowls, beasts, and worms of the earth, as the text saith, Men and beasts doth God save;” which beasts yet pray not to God. The Jews and Turks doth God save in this world, and giveth them their worldly petitions; which yet worship not God, as his godly nature is to be worshipped, but after their own imagination; not in the spirit, with faith, hope, and love, but with bodily service, as the pope doth. As the popish serve St Appoline for the tooth ache!, and are healed; even so the Jews and Turks be healed, and pray not to her, but serve God after another manner for the same disease. So that God doth save in this world all that keep the worldly laws worldly; that is to wit, outward in the body for bodily reward, and not in the heart of love that springeth out of the mercy that God hath given us in Christ: which
[[! Called in the Roman prayer-book or breviary, Apollonia. The]
[ninth of February is dedicated to her, and the legend in the service,]
[of that day says that she bore the plucking out of all her teeth, rather]
[than renounce Christ.]]
same, though they be Turks, if they break the worldly laws, he rebuketh them, as the Ninevites, and punisheth them diversly. And if they knowledge their sins, and mend, he healeth them again: but and if they harden and sin as beasts, and will not amend, he destroyeth them utterly, as the Sodomites, And yet all such have no part in the life to come.
But with his children, in whose hearts he writeth the faith of his Son Jesus and the love of his laws, he goeth otherwise to work. His law is! their will: and their petitions are his honour and their neighbour’s wealth; and that he will provide them of all things necessary unto this hfe, and govern them that their hearts be not overcome of evil. And he heareth them, unto his honour and their everlasting salvation; and purgeth them, and teacheth them things whereof the popish, and all they whose hearts the god of this world hath blinded, to serve God with works, have no feeling.
And when he saith that the emperor and that council - which decreed that images, for the abuse, should be put out of the church, were heretics;” it is much easier so to say than so to prove. Understand therefore, that images were not yet ~~ Tecelved in the church in the time of St Jerome, at the least way generally; whether in some one place or no, I cannot were tell. For St Jerome rehearseth of one Epiphanius, a bishop in the country of Cyprus? and that the most perfect of all the bishops of his time, how that the said Epiphanius and the bishop of Jerusalem went together to Bethel, and by the way they entered into a church for to pray, and there found a veil hanging before the door, and an image painted thereon, as it had been of Christ or some saint. For the bishop was so moved therewith, because, saith St Jerome, that it was contrary to the scripture, that he cut it?, and counselled to bury. Some dead therein, and sent another cloth to hang in the stead’. And afterward, when they were crept in a little and little, there was no worshipping of them, at the least way generally, until the time of St Gregory: insomuch that when [1 So C. U. L. ed., D. has, work his laws in.]
[2 He was bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, about A. Ὁ. 368.]
[3 So C. U. L. ed., D. wants it.]
[4 Epiphan. Op. Par. 1662. Epist. ad Johan. Episc. Hieros. Hieron.]
[Interp. Tom. 11. p. 317.] e C]
Cirenus the bishop of Massilia, offended with the superstitiousarenus.. ness of the people, burnt them, St Gregory wrote that he should not destroy the images, but teach only that the people should not worship them But when it was so far come that the people worshipped them with a false faith (as we now know no other use), and [they] were no longer memorials only; then the bishops of Greece and the emperor gathered them together, to provide à remedy against that mischief, and concluded that they should be put down for the abuse, thinking it so most expedient; having for them, first, the example of God, whom a man may boldly follow, which commanded in the beginning of all his precepts, that there should be no image used to worship or pray before, not for the image itself, but for the weakness of his people; and having again before their eyes, that the people were fallen unto idolatry and image-serving by the reason of them.
Now answer me, by what reason canst thou make an heretic of him that concludeth nought against God, but worketh with God, and putteth that block out of the way, whereat his brother, the price of Christ’s blood, stumbleth and loseth his soul? They put not down the images for hate of God and of his saints, no more than Hezekiah brake the brasen serpent for envy of the great miracle that was wrought by it, or in spite of God, that commanded it to be kept for a memorial; but to keep the people in the true faith only. Now, seeing we may be all without images, and to put them
[Prseterea indico dudum ad nos pervenisse, quod fraternitas vestra,]
[quosdam imaginum adoratores aspiciens, easdem in ecclesiis imagines]
[confregit atque projecit. Et quidem zelum vos, ne quid manu factum]
[adorari posset, habuisse laudavimus; sed frangere easdem imagines]
[non debuisse judicamus. Idcirco enim pictura in ecclesiis adhibetur,]
[ut hi qui literas nesciunt, saltem in parietibus videndo legant quse legere]
[in codicibus non valent.—Greg. Mag. Pape 1. Op. Par. 1705. Lib. 1x.]
[Indict. ii. Epist. cv. Ad Serenum Massiliens. Episc. Tom. 11. col. 1006.] [6 In the year 754, the emperor Constantine Copronymus sum-]
[moned an ecclesiastical council to meet at Constantinople; where 338]
[bishops, his subjects, assembled accordingly, and condemned image-]
[worship. In the second Nicene council the rulers of the church first]
[gave their formal sanction to image-worship; and affirmed that the pro-]
[hibition of graven images was only binding on the Jews.—See Mosheim.]
[Cent. vin. ch. nr. $ 8-14. Labbe, Tom. vir. pp. 317, 584. Also Spel-]
[manni Concilia; under date of 792, pp. 305-8. London, 1609.]]
down is not against God’s commandment, but with it; namely if they be abused, to the dishonour of God and hurt of our neighbours; where is charity, if thou which knowest the truth, and canst use thine image well, wilt not yet forbear thine image, and suffer it to be put out of the way, for thy weak brother’s sake, whom thou seest perish therethrough? Yea, and what thing maketh both the Turk and the Jew abhor our faith so much as our image-service? But the pope was then glad to find an occasion to pick a quarrel with the emperor, to get the empire into his own hands; which thing he brought to pass with the sword of France, and clamb so high, that ever since he hath put his own authority instead of God’s word in every general council, and hath concluded what him list; as against all God’s word, and against all charity, he condemned that blessed deed of that council and emperor.; More:— They blaspheme our lady and all saints.”
Tyndale:—That is untrue. We honour our blessed lady and all holy saints; and follow their faith and living unto the uttermost of our power, and submit ourselves to be scholars of the same school.
More:— They may not abide Salve regina.” Tyndale:— For therein is much blasphemy unto our blessed lady; because Christ is our hope and life only, and not she. And ye, in ascribing unto her that she is not, dishonour God and worship her not.
More:—“They say, if a woman being alive believe in God, and love him as much as our lady, she may help with her prayers as much as our lady.” 2 Tyndale:—Tell, why not? Christ, when it was told him that his mother and brethren sought him, answered, that his mother, his sisters, and his brethren, were all they that did his Father’s will And unto the woman that said to Christ, Blessed be the womb that bare thee, and paps that — gave thee suck,” Christ answered, Nay, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it:” as Paul saith, (1 Cor. ix.) I have nought to rejoice, though I preach; for necessity lieth upon me, and woe is me if I preach not. If I do it unwillingly, an office is committed unto me; but and if I do it with iy [! Hail, O Queen, Words at the commencement of an address to the Virgin, in the service of the Romish church.] i
a good will, then I have a reward.” So now carnal bearing of Christ, and carnal giving him suck, make not our lady great: but our blessed lady’s greatness is her faith and love, wherein she exceeded other. Wherefore if God gave his mercy, that another woman were in those two points equal with her, why were she not like great, and her prayers as much heard?
More:— Item, that men should not worship the holy cross.”
Tyndale:— With no false worship and superstitious faith; but, as I have said, to have it in reverence, for the memorial of him that died thereon,
More:— Item, Luther hateth the feasts of the cross, and of corpus Christi.”
. Tyndale:— Not for envy of the cross, which sinned not in the death of Christ; nor of malice toward the blessed body of Christ; but for the idolatry used in those feasts.
More:— Item, that no man or woman is bound to keep any vow.”
Tyndale:— Lawful vows are to be kept, until necessity break them. But unlawful vows are to be broken immediately.
More:——- Martin appealed unto the next general council that should be gathered in the Holy Ghost, to seek a long delay.”
Tyndale:— Of a truth that were a long delay. For should Martin live till the pope gathered a council in the Holy Ghost, or for any godly purpose, he were like to be for every hair of his head a thousand years old.
Then bringeth he in the inconstancy of Martin, because he saith in his later book, how that he seeth farther than in his first. Peradventure he is kin to our doctors, which, when with preaching against pluralities they have got them three or four benefices, allege the same excuse. But yet, to say the truth, the very apostles of Christ learned not all truth in one day: for long after the ascension they wist not that the heathen should be received unto the faith. How then could Martin (brought up in the blindness of your sect above forty years) spy out all your falsehood in one day?
More: — Martin offered at Worms, before the emperor and all the lords of Germany, to abide by his book and to
dispute: which he might well do, sith he had his safe conduct, that he should have no bodily harm.” E Tyndale:— O merciful God, how foam ye out your own shame! Ye cannot dispute except ye have a man in your — own danger!, to do him bodily harm, to diet him after your — fashion, to torment him and to murder him. If ye might have had him at your pleasure, ye would have disputed with him: — — first, with sophistry and corrupting the scripture; then with — — offering him promotions; then with the sword: so that ye —— would have been sure to have overcome him, with one argument or other. - Martin. More:— He would agree on no judges.”
T’yndale:— What judges offered ye him, save blind bishops and cardinals, enemies of all truth, whose promotions and dignities they fear to be plucked from them, if the truth — came to light, or such Judases as they had corrupt with money — — to maintain their sect? The apostles might have admitted as — well the heathen bishops of idols to have been their judges, — as he them. But he offered you authentic scripture, and the hearts of the whole world: which two judges, if ye had — good consciences and trust in God, ye would not have refused.
The Fourth Chapter
The fourth chapter is not the first poetry that he hath 1 feigned.
The Fifth Chapter
In the end of the fifth he untruly reporteth, that Martin saith, no man is bound to keep any vow?. Lawful promises are to be kept, and unlawful to be broken.
The Sixth Chapter
In the beginning of the sixth he describeth Martin after the example of his own nature; as in other places he de- ^
[1 At your own mercy.]: [2 It is throughout a criticism on a narrative of the proceedings]
[in the diet at Worms, of which More asserts that Luther composed.]
[it in the third person that he might praise himself, but left internal — -]
[evidence of its being his own composition. ] 1 [3 “He wrote that no vow could bind any man, but that every man — -]
[may boldly break them of his own head.”—More’s Works, Dial.p.256] —]
scribeth God after the complexion of popes, cardinals, and worldly tyrants. More:— Martin will abide but by the scriptures only.” Martin. Tyndale:—And ye will come at no scripture only. And as for the old doctors, ye will hear as little, save where it pleaseth you, for all your erying Old holy fathers.’ For tell me this, why have ye in England condemned The Union of Doctors,” but because ye would not have your falsehood disclosed by the doctrine of them?
[[ The sixth chapter begins as follows: “His inconstant wit, and]
[very devilish intent, specially shewed itself.—In the beginning the]
[man had the mind that commonly such fools have: he reckoned all]
[the world wild geese save himself, and all the wit and learning to]
[stand in his own head.” Id. ibid.] [5 All the old holy fathers of so many years past he [i.e. Luther]]
[nothing would esteem; but with blasphemous words letted not to]
[write, I care not for Austin, &c.”—Id. p. 257.] [$ We shall find Tyndale again mentioning The Union of Doc-]
[tors; and that Foxe has there put in the margin, The union of doctors]
[a good book.” There are no discoverable traces of any work with pre-]
[cisely this title; but Tyndale might thus designate a book whose title]
[is, Unio dissidentium; Libellus ex preecipuis ecclesiee Christians doc-]
[toribus selectus, per venerabilem patrem Herman. Bodium. In England]
[it was briefly called Unio dissidentium, in the public documents of]
[Tyndale’s day. The first list of prohibited books in which it appears]
[is a very short one, appended by Foxe to the order issued by Tonstal,]
[demanding the surrender of Tyndale’s New testaments. See Biograph.]
[notice, Vol. 1. p. xxxii. At an inquisitorial visitation of the diocese of]
[London, held in the following March, 1527, by Tonstal’s vicar-general,]
[Sir Sebastian Harris, curate of the parish-church of Kensington, was]
[induced to confess that he had two books, viz. The New testament in]
[the vulgar tongue, translated by William Hotchyn, priest, and friar]
[Roye, and Unio dissidentiwm, containing in it the Lutheran heresy;]
[which books he was accordingly enjoined to surrender. And in the]
[reply of the martyr, John Lambert, to the forty-five articles of inquiry,]
[he mentions the Unio dissidentiwm, and adds, which I would to]
[Christ, as it is in French and other languages, we had it truly trans-]
[lated into English.” Foxe, Acts and Mon. Vol. v. pp. 183, and 216;]
[and Strype’s Mem. Eccles. Vol. 1. ch. vir. The book appears to have]
[also penetrated Scotland; being mentioned in the eleventh article]
[charged against Sir Jno. Borthwike, Knt., in 1540, when he was cited]
[to appear before David Beaton, Abp. of St Andrew’s, where it is said]
[to contain most manifest and great errors, and heretical assumptions.”]
[Foxe, Acts and Mon. Vol. v. p. 620. An edition had been printed at]
[Antwerp, in 1527.]]
More:— They say, that a christian man is discharged — of all laws spiritual and temporal, save the gospel.” A Tyndale:—Ye juggle: we say that no christian man — ought to bind his brother violently unto any law, whereofhe could not give a reason out of Christ’s doctrine, and out of the law of love. And on the other side we say, that a to christian man is called to suffer wrong and tyranny (though no man ought to bind him), until God rid us thereof; so far yet as the tyranny is not directly against the law of God — — and faith of Christ, and no farther. - More:— Martin was the cause of the destruction of the uplandish! people of Germany.” Tyndale:—That is false; for then he could not have — escaped himself. Martin was as much the cause of their confusion, as Christ of the destruction of Jerusalem. The duke elector of Saxony came from the war of those uplandish — - people, and other dukes with him, into Wittenberg, where Martin is, with fifteen hundred men of arms; so that Martin, if he had been guilty, could not have gone quit. And thereto all the dukes and lords, that cleave unto the word of — God this day, were no less cumbered with their common - people than other men. Then after the loudest manner he setteth out the cruelness of the emperor’s soldiers, which they used at Rome; but he maketh no mention of the treason which holy church wrought secretly, wherewith the men of war were so set on fire.
The Eighth Chapter
More:— What good deed will he do, that believeth Martin, how that we have no free-will to do any good with — - the help of grace?” Tyndale:—O poet, without shame! More:— What harm shall he care to forbear, that believeth Luther, how God alone, without our will, worketh - all the mischief that they do?” Tyndale:—O natural son of the father of all lies! More:— What shall he care how long he live in sin, that believeth Luther, that he shall after this life feel nei- 1 [1 Uplandish: so called to distinguish them from the ether. — landers.] La.
ther good nor evil, in body nor soul, until the day of doom?”
Tyndale:—Christ and his apostles taught no other; but warned to look for Christ’s coming again every hour: which eoming again because ye believe will never be, therefore have ye feigned that other merchandise.
More:— Martin’s books be open, if ye will not believe us.”
Tyndale:—Nay, ye have shut them up, and therefore be bold to say what ye lust.
More: — They live as they teach, and teach as they live.” Tyndale:—But neither teach nor live, as other lie on them.
The Ninth Chapter
More:— Though the Turk offer pleasures unto the receivers, and death unto the refusers of his sect,” (as the pope doth,) yet he suffereth none to break their promises of chastity dedicated to God,” (though haply they use no such vows, and as the pope will not, except it be for money,) “but Luther teacheth to break holy vows.”
Tyndale:— Luther teacheth that unlawful vows, grounded on a false faith unto the dishonouring of God, are to be broken, and no other. And again, constrained service pleaseth not God. And thirdly, your pope giveth licence and his blessing to break all lawful vows; but with the most unlawful of all will ye not dispense.
Then he bringeth forth the ensample of the heathen, to confirm the pope’s chastity: and no wrong; for the same false imagination that the heathen had in theirs, hath the pope in his. Understand therefore, if thou vow any indifferent thing to please God in his own person, he receiveth not thine idolatry; for his pleasure and honour is, that thou shouldest be as he hath made thee, and should receive all such things of his hand, and use them so far forth as they were needful, and give him thanks, and be bound to him; and not that thou shouldest be as thou hadst made thyself, and that he should receive such things of thee, to be bound to thee, to thank thee, and reward thee. And again, thou must give me a reason of thy vow out of the word of God. Moreover, when thou vowest lawfully, thou mayest not do it
190 ANSWER TO SIR THOMAS MORE’S DIALOGUE. ell precisely, but alway except, if thine own or thy neighbour’s..: necessity required the contrary: as if thou hadst vowed never to eat flesh, or drink wine or strong drink, to tame thy flesh, and thou afterward fellest in disease, so that thy body in that behalf were too tame, or that there could no other sustenance be gotten; then thou must interpret such cases except, though thou madest no mention of them at the making of thy vow. Some man would say, other shift might be made: what then? If other drink as hot as wine and our of the same operation, and other meat of the same power and virtue as flesh is, must be had, why shouldest thou forswear wine or flesh, seeing it is now no longer for the taming of thy body? And so forth of all other, as I have above declared.
And when he bringeth in the apostles, martyrs, confessors, and fifteen hundred years, it is clean contrary. For they had no such false imagination of chastity, or of any other Work: but they used it to serve their neighbour, and to avoid
trouble in time of persecution, and to be eased of that burden that was too heavy for their weak shoulders; and not to compel God to thank them for that liberty for which they be bound to thank him.
The Tenth Chapter
In the tenth he inveigheth and raileth against that which neither he nor any fleshly-minded papist can understand, as they have no power to consent unto the laws of God; which herein appeareth, that they compel their brethren, which be as good as they, to do and believe what they lust, and not what God commandeth. He affirmeth that “Martin saith, how that we do no sin ourselves with our own will, but that God sinneth in us, and useth us as a dead instrument, and forceth us thereunto, and damneth us, not for our own deeds, but for his, and for his own pleasure, as he compelleth unto sin for his pleasure, or rather he for his pleasure sinneth in us.” Isay that a man sinneth voluntarily; but the power of the will and of the deed is of God, and every will and deed are good in the nature of the deed, and the evilness is a lack that there is; as the eye, though it be blind, is good in nature, in that it is such a member, created for such a
good use, but it is called evil for lack of sight. And so are our deeds evil, because we lack knowledge and love, to refer them unto the glory of God: which lack cometh of the devil, that blindeth us with lusts, and occasions that we cannot see the goodness and righteousness of the law of Godand the means how to fulfil it; for could we see it, and the way to do it, we should love it naturally, as a child doth a fair apple. For as a child, when a man sheweth him a fair apple, and will not give it him, weepeth; so should we naturally mourn, when the members would not come forward to fulfil the law according to the desire of our hearts. For Paul saith, (2 Cor. iv.), “If our gospel be hid, it is hid unto them that perish, among which the God of this world hath blinded the wits of the unbelievers, that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should not shine to them.” And Christ saith that the birds eat up the seed sown upon the way; and interpreteth by the seed the word, and by the fowls the devil: so that the devil blindeth us with falsehood and lies, which is our worldly wisdom, and therewith stoppeth out the true light of God’s wisdom; which blindness is the evilness of all our deeds.
And on the other side, that another man loveth the laws of God, and useth the power that he hath of God well, and referreth his will and his deeds unto the honour of God, cometh of the mercy of God, which hath opened his wits, and shewed him light, to see the goodness and righteousness of the law of God, and the way that is in Christ to fulfil it; whereby he loveth it naturally, and trusteth to do it. Why doth God open one man’s eyes and not another’s? Paul (Rom. ix.) forbiddeth to ask why; for it is too deep for man’s capacity. God we see is honoured thereby, and his mercy set out and the more seen in the vessels of mercy. But the popish can suffer God to have no secret, hid to himself. They have searched to come to the bottom of his bottomless wisdom: and because they cannot attain to that secret, and be too proud to let it alone, and to grant themselves ignorant, with the apostle, that knew no other than God’s glory in the elect; they go and set up free-will with the heathen philosophers, and say that a man’s free-will is the cause why God chooseth one and not another, contrary unto all the scripture. Paul saith it cometh not of the will nor of the deed, but of
the mercy of God. And they say that every man hath, at the least way, power in his free-will, to deserve that power should be given him of God to keep the law. But the scripture testifieth that Christ hath deserved for the elect, even then when they hated God, that their eyes should be opened, to see the goodness of the law of God, and the way to fulfil it, and forgiveness of all that is past; whereby they be drawn to love it, and to hate sin.; I ask the popish one question, whether the will can prejudgvent a man’s wit, and make the wit see the righteousness of the law, and the way to fulfil it in Christ? If I must first see the reason why, ere I can love, how shall I with my will do that good thing that I know not of? How shall I thank God for the mercy that is laid up for me in Christ, ere I believe it? For I must believe the mercy, ere I can love the work. Now faith cometh not of our free-will; but is the gift of God, given us by grace, ere there be any will in our hearts to do the law of God. And why God giveth it not every
wid Lie
man, I can give no reckoning of his judgments. But well I wot, I never deserved it, nor prepared myself unto it; but ran another way clean contrary in my blindness, and sought not that way; but he sought me, and found me out, and shewed it me, and therewith drew me to him. And I bow the knees of my heart unto God night and day, that he will shew it all other men; and I suffer all that I can, to be a servant to open their eyes. For well I wot they cannot see of themselves, before God hath prevented them with his grace: for Paul saith (Phil i), “He that began a good work in you shall continue,” or bring it unto a full end; so that God must begin to work in us: and (Phil ii.), God it js that worketh both the willing, and also bringing to pass.” And it must needs be; for God must open mine eyes, and shew me somewhat, and make me see the goodness of it, to draw me to him, ere I can love, consent, or have any actual will to come.
And when I am willing, he must assist me, and help to tame my flesh, and to overcome the occasions of the world and the power of the fiends. God therefore hath a special care for his elect, insomuch that he will shorten the wicked days for their sakes, in which no man, if they should continue, might endure. And Paul suffereth all for the elect,
(2 Tim. ii). And “God’s sure foundation standeth,” saith Paul; God knoweth his.” So that refuse the truth who shall, God will keep a number of his mercy, and call them out of blindness, to testify the truth unto the rest, that their damnation may be without excuse,
The Turk, the Jew, and the popish build upon free-will, and ascribe their justifying unto their works. The Turk, when he hath sinned, runneth to the purifyings, or ceremonies of Mahomet; and the Jew to the ceremonies of Moses; and the pope unto his own ceremonies, to fetch forgiveness of their sins. And the Christian goeth through repentance toward the law unto the faith that is in Christ’s blood. And the pope saith that the ceremonies of Moses justified not, compelled with the words of Paul: and how then should his justify? Moses’ sacraments were but signs of promises of faith, by which faith the believers are justified; and even so be Christ’s also. And now, because the Jews have put out the significations of their sacraments, and put their trust in the works of them, therefore they be idolaters; and so is the pope for like purpose. The pope saith that Christ died
not for us, but for the sacraments; to give them power to justify. O antichrist!
The Eleventh Chapter
His eleventh chapter is as true as his story of Utopia, and all his other poetry. He meaneth doctor Ferman, parson of Honey-lane!; whom after they had handled after their
[The eleventh is a chapter of twenty-four closely printed columns,]
[in which More describes the examination of a reformer; and gives his]
[own account of the man’s answers and the replies made to him, re-]
[specting justification by faith only, and some tenets falsely charged]
[upon the reformers. More says: It happed me to be lately present,]
[where as one in the Lutherans books deeply learned, and of truth]
[neither in holy scripture nor in secular literature unlearned (as I]
[perceive not only by the testimony of other men, and the degrees that]
[he had taken in the university, but also by his words and his writing),]
[was in the presence of right honourable, and virtuous, and very cunning]
[persons examined. For he was at that time in ward for heresy, be-]
[cause that being learned and using to hear confessions, and among]
[many folk meetly well allowed in preaching, and thereby growing in]
[good opinion and favour of many good simple people, he abused all]
[the open and apparent good things, to the secret sowing and setting]
[forth of Luther’s heresies.’ —Dial. Works, p. 262. Dr Ferman, or 13 (TYNDALE, 111]]
secret manner, and disputed with secretly, and had made him swear that he should not utter how he was dealt with, as they have made many other; then they contrived a manner of disputations had with him, with such oppositions, answerings, and arguments, as should serve only to set forth their purpose: as M. More throughout all his book maketh, Dr Quod he,’ to dispute and move questions, after such a manner as he can soil them, or make them appear soiled; and maketh him grant where he listeth, and at the last to be concluded and led whither Master More will have him. Wherefore I will not rehearse all the arguments, for it were too long; and is also not to be believed, that he so made them, or 80 disputed with them, but that they added and pulled away, and feigned as they list, as their guise is, But I will declare in light that which Master More ruffleth up in darkness, that ye may see their falsehood. note First, if ye were not false hypocrites, why had ye not disputed openly with him; that the world might have heard and borne record, that that which ye now say of him were true? What cause is there that the lay people might not as well have heard his words of his own mouth, as read them of your writing; except ye were juggling spirits that walk in darkness?
When Master More saith the church teacheth that men should not trust in their works, it is false; if he mean the pope’s church. For they teach a man to trust in dumb cere: monies, and sacraments, in penance, and all manner works that come them to profit; which yet help not unto repentance, nor to faith, nor to love a man’s neighbour. Master More declareth the meaning of no sentence; he describeth the proper signification of no word, nor the difference of the significations of any term; but runneth forth confusedly, in unknown words and general terms. And where one word hath many significations, he maketh a man some time believe that many things are but one thing, and some time he leadeth from one signification unto another, and ^ mocketh a man’s wits: as he juggleth with his term church’;
[Forman, was rector of All-Hallows in Honey-lane. His forced appear- T]
[ance before Tonstal, then bishop of London, is mentioned in, Strype,]
[Eccles. Memorials, Vol. 1. Book i. ch. viii. Seealso Anderson’s Annals, —]
a xij Π ν THE FOURTH BOOK. 195 making us in the beginning understand all that believe, and in the conclusion the priests only. He telleth not the office of the law; he deseribeth not his penance, nor the virtue thereof, nor use; he declareth no sacrament, nor what they mean, nor the use; nor wherein the fruit of confession standeth; nor whence the power of the absolution cometh, nor wherein it resteth; nor what justifying meaneth, nor the order; nor sheweth any diversity of faiths, as though all faiths were one faith and one thing.
Mark therefore, the way toward justifying, or forgiveness of sin, is the law. God causeth the law to be preached unto us, and writeth it in our hearts, and maketh us by good reasons feel that the law is good, and ought to be kept, and that they which keep it not are worthy to be damned. And on the other side I feel that there is no power in me to keep the law; whereupon it would shortly follow that I should despair, if I were not shortly holp. But God, which hath begun to cure me, and hath laid that corosy! unto my sores, goeth forth in his eure, and setteth his son Jesus before me, and all his passion and death, and saith to me: This is my dear Son, and he hath prayed for thee, and hath suffered all this for thee; and for his sake I will forgive thee all that thou hast done against this good law, and I will heal thy flesh, and teach thee to keep this law, if thou learn.” And I wil bear with thee, and take all a worth! that thou doest, till thou canst do better; and in the mean season, notwithstanding thy weakness, I will yet love thee no less than I do the angels in heaven, so thou wilt be diligent to learn. And I will assist thee, and keep thee, and defend thee, and be thy shield, and care for thee, And the heart here beginneth to mollify and wax soft, and to receive health, and believeth the mercy of God, and in believing is saved from the fear of everlasting death, and made sure of everlasting life; and then, being overeome with this kindness, beginneth to love again and to submit herself unto the laws of God, to learn them and to walk in them.
Note now the order: first God giveth me light to see the goodness and righteousness of the law, and mine own sin and unrighteousness; out of which knowledge springeth repentance. Now repentance teacheth me not that the law is good,
[1 Corosy and a worth. See Vol. 1. p. 21, and 463.] 13—2]
and I evil; but a light that the Spirit of God hath given me, out of which light repentance springeth.
Then the same Spirit worketh in mine heart trust and confidence, to believe the mercy of God and his truth, that he will do as he hath promised; which belief saveth me. And immediately out of that trust springeth love toward the law of God again. And whatsoever a man worketh of any other love than this, it pleaseth not God, nor is that love godly.
Now love doth not receive this mercy, but faith only, out of which faith love springeth; by which love I pour out again upon my neighbour that goodness which I have received of God by faith. Hereof ye see that I cannot be justified without repentance; and yet repentance justifieth me not. And hereof ye see that I cannot have a faith to be justified. and saved, except love spring thereof immediately; and yet love justifieth me not before God. For my natural love to God again doth not make me first see and feel the kindness of God in Christ; but faith through preaching. For we love not God first, to compel him to love again; but he loved us first, and gave his Son for us, that we might see love and love again, saith St John in his first epistle: which love of God to us-ward we receive by Christ through faith, saith Paul. ας And this example have I set out for them in divers places; but their blind popish eyes have no power to see it, covetousness hath so blinded them. And when we say, faith only justifieth us, that is to say, receiveth the mercy wherewith God justifieth us and forgiveth us; we mean not faith which hath no repentance, and faith which hath no love unto the laws of God again, and unto good works, as wicked hypocrites falsely belie us. For how then should we suffer, as we do, all misery, to call the blind and ignorant unto repentance and good works; which now do but consent unto all evil, and study mischief all day long, for all their preaching their justifying of good works? Let M. More improve this with his sophistry, and set forth his own doctrine; that we may see the reason of it, and walk in light.
Hereof ye see what faith it is that justifieth us. The faith in Christ’s blood, of ἃ repenting heart toward the law, doth justify us only; and not all manner faiths. Ye must understand therefore, that ye may see to come out of More’s blind maze, how that there be many faiths; and that all faiths be
not one faith, though they be all called with one general name. There is a story faith, without feeling in the heart, wherewith I may believe the whole story of the bible, and yet not set mine heart earnestly thereto, taking it for the food of my soul, to learn to believe and trust God, to love him, dread him and fear him by the doctrine and ensamples thereof; but to seem learned, and to know the story, to dispute and make merchandise, after as we have examples enough. And the faith wherewith a man doth miracles is another gift than the faith of a repenting heart, to be saved through Christ’s blood; and the one no kin to the other, though M. More would have them so appear. Neither is the devil’s faith, and the pope’s faith (wherewith they believe that there is a God, and that Christ is, and all the story of the bible, and may yet stand with all wickedness, and full consent to evil), kin unto the faith of them that hate evil, and repent of their misdeeds, and knowledge their sins, and be fled with full hope and trust of mercy unto the blood of Christ.
And when he saith, If faith certify our hearts that Wor be in the favour of God, and our sins forgiven, and becomegood, ere we do good works (as the tree must be first good, ere it bring forth good fruit, by Christ’s doctrine), then we make good works but a shadow wherewith a man is never the better Nay, sir, we make good works fruits; whereby our neighbour is the better, and whereby God is honoured, and our flesh tamed. And we make of them sure tokens; whereby we know that our faith is no feigned imagination and dead opinion, made with captiving our wits after the pope’s traditions, but a lively thing wrought by the Holy Ghost.
And when he disputeth, If they that have faith, have love unto the law, and purpose to fulfil it, then faith alone justifieth not; how will he prove that argument? He juggleth with this word alone’; and would make the people believe that we said, how a bare faith that is without all other company, of repentance, love, and other virtues, yea, and without God’s Spirit too, did justify us, so that we should not care to do good. But the scripture so taketh not alone, nor we so mean, as M. More knoweth well enough. When an horse beareth a saddle and a man therein, we may well say, that the horse only, and alone, beareth the saddle; and is not holp of the man in bearing thereof. But he would make men understand that
we meant, the horse bare the saddle empty and no man therein: let him mark this, to see his ignorance, which would God Were not coupled with malice. Every man that hath wit hath a will too; and then, by M. More’s argument, wit only giveth not the light of the understanding. Now the conclusion is false, and contrary true: for the wit without help of the will giveth — the light of the understanding; neither doth the will work at all, until the wit have determined this or that to be good or bad. Now what is faith, save a spiritual light of understanding, and an inward knowledge or feeling of mercy? Out of which knowledge love doth spring. But love brought me not that knowledge, for I knew it ere I loved: so that love in the process of nature, to dispute from the cause to the effect, helpeth not at all to the feeling that God is merciful to me; no more than the loving heart and kind behaviour of an obedient ^ wife to her husband maketh her see his love and kindness to her; for many such have unkind husbands: but by his kind — deeds to her doth she see his love. Even so my love and deeds make me not see God’s love to me, in the process of nature; but his kind deeds to me, in that he gave his Son for me, make me see his love, and to love again.
Our love and good works make not God first love us, and change him from hate to love, as the Turk, Jew, and vain popish mean; but his love and deeds make us love, and change us from hate to love. For he loved us when we were evil, and his enemies, as testifieth Paul in divers places; and chose 8, to make us good and to shew us love, and tó draw us to — we him, that we should love again. love, good, and when it must be suffered to run after its own lusts
The father loveth his child, when it hath no power to do without law; and never loveth it better than then, to make it better, and to shew it love, to love again. If ye could see what is written in the first epistle of John, though all the other scripture were laid apart, ye should see all this.
And ye must understand, that we sometime dispute forward, from the cause to the effect; and sometime backward from the effect to the cause, and must beware that we be not therewith beguiled. We say, summer is come, and therefore all is green; and dispute forward: for summer is the cause of greenness. We say the trees be green, and therefore summer is come; and dispute backward from the
effect to the eause: for the green trees make not summer, but make summer known. So we dispute backward: the man doth good deeds, and profitable unto his neighbour; he must therefore love God: he loveth God; he must therefore have a true faith and see mercy. And yet my works make not my love, nor my love my faith, nor my faith God’s mercy: but contrary, God’s mercy maketh my faith; and my faith, my love; and my love, my works. And if the pope could see mercy, and work of love to his neighbour, and not sell his works to God for heaven, after Master More’s doctrine, we needed not so subtle disputing of faith.
And when M. More allegeth Paul to the Corinthians, to prove that faith may be without love, he proveth nothing, but juggleth only. He saith, It is evident by the words of Paul, that a man may have a faith to do miracles without love, and may give all his good in alms without love, and his body to burn for the name of Christ, and all without charity.’ Well, I wil not stick with him: he may so do, without charity, and without faith thereto. Then a man may have faith without faith. Yea, verily, because there be many differences of faith, as I have said; and not all faiths one faith, as Master More juggleth. We read in the works of St Cyprian, that there were martyrs that suffered martyrdom for the name of Christ all the year long, and were tormented and healed again, and then brought forth afresh: which martyrs believed, as ye do, that the pain of their martyrdom should be a deserving, and merit enough, not only to deserve heaven for themselves, but to make satisfaction for the sins of other men thereto; and gave pardons of their merits, after the ensample of the pope’s doctrine; and forgave the sins of other men, which had openly denied Christ, and wrote unto Cyprian, that he should receive those men that had denied Christ into the congregation again, at the satisfaction of their merits: for which pride Cyprian wrote to them, and called them the devil’s martyrs, and not God’s!, Those martyrs had a faith without faith: for had
[[! Amongst Cyprian’s correspondence are several letters on this]
[topic. It was not till some of the apostates had proceeded so far as to]
[say, ‘ Since the martyrs requests are not allowed to suffice for our]
[immediate re-admission to communion, we will have a church and]
[bishop of our own,’ and had acted upon this threat, that Cyprian spoke]
they believed that all mercy is given for Christ’s blood-shedding, they would have sent other men thither; and would have suffered their own martyrdom for love of their neighbours only, to serve them, and to testify the truth of God in our Saviour Jesus unto the world, to save at the least way some, that is to wete, the elect; for whose sake Paul suffereth all things, and not to win heaven. If I work for a ^. worldly purpose, I get no reward in heaven: even so if I work for heaven, or an higher place in heaven, I get there no reward. But I must do my work for the love of my neighbour, because he is my brother, and the price of Christ’s blood, and because Christ hath deserved it, and desireth it of me; and then my reward is great in heaven.
And all they which believe that their sins be forgiven them, and they received, as the scripture testifieth, unto the inheritance of heaven for Christ’s merits, the same love Christ, and their brethren for his sake; and do all things for their sakes only; not once thinking of heaven when they work, but on their brethren’s need. When they suffer themselves above might, then they comfort their soul with the remembrance of heaven, that this wretchedness shall have an end, and we shall have a thousand-fold pleasures and rewards in heaven; not for the merits of our deservings, but given us freely for but Christ’s. And he that hath that love hath the right faith; for and he that hath that faith hath the right love. For I cannot love my neighbour for Christ’s sake, except I first believe that I have received such mercy of Christ. Nor can I believe that I have received such mercy of Christ, but that I must love my neighbour for his sake; seeing that he so instantly desireth me.
And when he allegeth St James, it is answered him in the Mammon!; and St Augustine answereth him?, And St
[of their abettors in any terms of such severity as Tyndale mentions.—]
[Ep. xri-xuir. p. 29-85.— Cyprian. Op. Oxford, 1682.] 4 [1 Parable of Mammon, Vol. 1. p. 119.] 1 [2 More, having previously named Luther and Tyndale, says:.]
[They would we should ween that St James did speak of faith like]
[one that wist not what faith meant, but were deceived by equivo-]
[cation of the word, calling faith the thing that is not faith indeed. 3]
[These Lutherans abuse the word of a malicious mind, to deceive un-]
[learned people with equivocation. For whereas faith signifieth the]
[belief and firm credence given not only to such things as God pro-]
James expoundeth himself. For he saith in the first chapter, God, which begat us with his own will, with the word of truth:” which word of truth is his promise of mercy and forgiveness in our Saviour Jesus; by which he begat us, gave us life, and made us a new creature through a fast faith. And James goeth and rebuketh the opinion and false faith of them that think it enough to be saved by, if they believe that there is but one God, and that Christ was born of a virgin, and a thousand things which a man may believe, and yet not believe in Christ, to be saved from sin through him. And that James speaketh of another faith than at the beginning, appeareth by his ensample. The devils have faith, saith he: yea, but the devils have no faith that can repent of evil, or to believe in Christ to be saved through him, or that can love God, and work his will of love. Now Paul speaketh of a faith that is in Christ’s blood, to be saved thereby; which worketh immediately, through love of the benefit received. And James, at the beginning, speaketh of a faith that bideth trying, saying, The trying of your faith worketh,” or causeth, patience;” but the faith of the devils will bide no trying, for they will not work God’s will, because they love him not. And in like manner is it of the faith of them that repent not, or that think themselves without sin: for except a man feel out of what danger Christ hath delivered him, he cannot love the work. And therefore James saith right, that no such faith, that will not work, can justify a man.’
A Egre
[miseth, but also to every truth that he telleth his church, by writing]
[or without, which thing he will have us bound to believe; and whereas]
[of truth the devils, as James saith, do believe such things, and have]
[them in a reverent dread; now would these heretics blind us with their]
[equivocation, by which they not only restrain the faith unto the pro-]
[mises alone, from all other articles of the faith, of which many bo]
[no promises, but also abuse the word faith altogether, turning it slyly]
[from belief into trust, confidence, and hope; and would have it seem]
[as though our faith were nothing else but a hope we have in God’s]
[promises.”—Works, Dial. p. 266. Conf. August. Op. Paris. 1679—]
[1700. Serm. elxx. xiii. Tom. v. col. 878. Jacobus apostolus cum de fide]
[et operibus loqueretur adversus eos qui sibi putabant fidem sufficere, et]
[opera bona habere nolebant, ait, Tu credis quia unus est Deus; bene]
[facis; et deemones credunt, et contremiscunt. Numquid ideo dsemo-]
[nes ab eterno igne liberabuntur, quia credunt et contremiscunt? Ecce]
[modo quod audistis in evangelio, quod ait Petrus, &e.]]
And when Paul saith, faith only justifieth; and James, that “ἃ man is justified by works and not by faith only;’ there js a great difference between Paul’s only, and James’s only. For Paul’s only is to be understood, that faith justifieth in the heart and before God, without help of works, yea, and ere I can work; for I must receive life through faith to work with, ere I can work. But James’s only is this wise to be understood; that faith doth not so justify, that nothing justifieth Save faith: for deeds do justify also. But faith justifieth in W- T the heart and before God; and the deeds before the world only, and maketh the other seen: as ye may see by the scripture.
For Paul saith (Rom. iv.) If Abraham have works, he hath whereof to rejoice, but not before God.” For if Abraham had received those promises of deserving, then had it been Abraham’s praise and not God’s, as thou mayest see in the text; neither had God shewed Abraham mercy and grace, but had only given him his duty and deserving. But in that Abraham received all the mercy that was shewed him, freely, through faith, out of the deservings of the Seed that was promised him, as thou mayest see by Genesis and by the gospel of John, where Christ testifieth that Abraham saw his day and rejoiced, and of that joy no doubt wrought; it is God’s praise, and the glory of his mercy. And the same mayest thou see by James; when he saith, Abraham offered his son, and so was the scripture fulfilled, that Abrahani believed, and it was reckoned him for righteousness, and he was thereby made God’s friend.” How was it fulfilled? Before God? Nay, it was fulfilled before God many years ” before; and he was God’s friend many years before, even from the first appointment that was made between God and him: Abraham received promises of all mercy, and believed and trusted God, and went and wrought out of that faith. But it was fulfilled before us which cannot see the heart; as James saith, “I will shew thee my faith out of my works;” and as the angel said to Abraham, Now I know that thou dreadest God.” Not but that he knew it before, but for us spake he that, which can see nought in Abraham more than in other men, save by his works.
And what works meant James? Verily, the works of mercy. As if a brother or a sister lack raiment or suste-
nance, and ye be not moved to compassion, nor feel their diseases, what faith have ye then? No faith (be sure) that feeleth the mercy that is in Christ: for they that feel that, be merciful again and thankful. But look on the works of our spiritualty, which will not only be justified with works before the world, but also before God. They have had all Christendom to rule this eight hundred years, and as they only be anointed in the head, so have they only been king and emperor, and have had all power in their hands, and have been the doers only, and the leaders of those shadows that have had the name of princes; and have led them whither they would, and have breathed into their brains what they listed. And they have wrought the world out of peace and unity, and every man out of his welfare; and are become alone well at ease, only free, only at liberty, only have all thing, and only do nought therefore, only lay on other men’s backs, and bear nought themselves. And the good works of them that wrought out of faith, and gave their goods and lands to find the poor, them devour they also alone. And what works preach they? Only that are to them profitable, and whereby they reign in men’s consciences as God: to offer, to give to be prayed for, and to be delivered out of purgatory, and to redeem your sin of them, and to worship ceremonies, and to be shriven, and so forth.
And when M. More is come to himself, and saith, The first faith and the first justifying is given us without our deserving;” God be thanked, and I would fain that he would describe me what he meaneth by the second justifying. I know no more to do than, when I have received all mercy and all forgiveness of Christ freely, to go and pour out the same upon my neighbour.
More:— David lost not his faith, when he committed adultery.”
Tyndale:—No; and therefore he could not continue in sin, but repented as soon as his fault was told him. But was he not reconciled by faith only, and not by deeds? Said he not, Have mercy on me, Lord, for thy great mercy, and for the multitude of thy mercies put away my sin?” And again, [1 “The first receipt of grace in their divinity is the first justification: the increase thereof the second justification.’—Disc. of Just., Hooker’s Works, Vol. 11. p. 435, Oxford, 1807.]
Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice?” that is, let me hear thy voice that my sin is forgiven, and then I am safe and will rejoice. ^ And afterward he knowledgeth that God delighteth mot in we sacrifices for sins, but that a troubled spirit and a broken by heartis that which God requireth. And when the peace was vr made, he prayeth boldly and familiarly to God, that he would be good to Sion and Jerusalem; and saith that then, last of all, when God hath forgiven us of mercy, and hath done us good for our evil, we shall offer sacrifice of thanks to him again: so that our deeds are but thanksgiving. When we have sinned, we go with a repenting heart unto Christ’s blood, and there wash it off through faith. And our deeds are but thanksgiving to God, to help our neighbours at their need, for which our neighbours and each of them owe us as much again at our need. So that the testament, or forgiveness of sins, is built upon faith in Christ’s blood, and not on works. M. More will run to the pope for forgiveness, a pana et culpa. By what merits doth the pope that? By Christ’s. And Christ hath promised all his merits to them that repent and believe, and not given them unto the pope to sell. And in your absolutions ye oft absolve without enjoining of penance. He must have a purpose to do good works,” will of ye say. That condition is set before him to do, out of the mercy that he hath received; and not to receive mercy out Of them. But the popish cannot repent out of the heart; and therefore cannot feel the mercy that faith bringeth; and therefore cannot be merciful to their neighbours, to do their works for their sakes: but they feign them a sorrow for their sin, in which they ever continue; and so mourn for them in the morning, that they laugh in them ere mid-day again. And then they imagine them popish deeds, to make satisfaction to God, and make an idol of him. of And finally, that good works, as to give alms and such like, justify not of themselves, is manifest. For as the good, which are taught of God, do them well, of very love to God and Christ, and of their neighbours for Christ’s sake; even so the evil do them of vain glory and a false faith wickedly, as we have examples in the Pharisees; so that a man must be good, ere he can do good. And so is it of the purpose to do them: one’s purpose is good, and another’s evil; so that we
must be good ere a good purpose come. Now then, to love the law of God, and to consent thereto, and to have it written in thine heart, and to profess it, so that thou art ready of thine own accord to do it and without compulsion, is to be righteous: that I grant, and that love may be called righteousness before God, passive; and the life and quickness of the soul, passive. And so far forth as a man loveth the law of God, so far forth he is righteous; and so much as he lacketh of love toward his neighbour, after the ensample of Christ, so much he lacketh of righteousness. And that thing which maketh a man love the law of God, doth make a man righteous, and justifieth him effectively and actually; and maketh him alive, as a workman and cause efficient. Now what is it that maketh a man to love? Verily, not the deeds; for they follow and spring of love, if they be good: neither the preaching of the law; for that quickeneth not the heart (Gal. lii.), but causeth wrath (Rom. iv.) and uttereth sin only (Rom. ii). And therefore saith Paul, that righteousness springeth not out of the deeds of the law into the heart, as the Jews and the pope mean; but contrary, the deeds of the law spring out of the righteousness of the heart, if they be good: as when a father pronounceth the law, that the child shall go to school; it saith, Nay: for that killeth his heart, and all his lusts; so. that he hath no power to love it. But what maketh his heart alive to love it 2” Verily, fair promises of love and kindness, that it shall have a gentle school-master, and shall play enough, and shall have many gay things, and so forth. Even so the preaching of faith doth work love in our souls, and make them alive, and draw our hearts to God. The mercy that we have in Christ doth make us love only, and only bringeth the spirit of life into our souls. A And therefore, saith Paul, We be justified by faith, and by grace, without deeds:” that is, ere the deeds come. For faith only bringeth the spirit of life; and delivereth our souls from fear of damnation, which is in the law; and ever maketh peace between God and us, as oft as there is any variance between us. And finally, when the peace is made between God and us, and all forgiven through faith in Christ’s blood, and we begin to love the law, we were never the nearer except faith went with us, to supply out the lack of full love; in that we have promises, that that little we have is taken a worth, and
accepted till more come. And again, when our frailty hath overthrown us, and fear of damnation invaded our consciences, we were utterly lost, if faith were not by to help us up again; in that we are promised, that, whensoever we repent of evil, and come to the right way again, it shall be forgiven for Christ’s sake. For when we be fallen, there is no testament! made in works to come, that they shall save us. And therefore the works of repentance, or of the sacraments, can never quiet our consciences, and deliver us from fear of damnation.
And last of all, in temptation, tribulation, and adversities, we perished daily, except faith went with us to deliver us; in that we have promises, that God will assist us, clothe us, feed us, and fight for us, and rid us out of the hands of our enemies. And thus the righteous liveth ever by faith, even “from faith to faith;” that is, as soon as he is delivered out of one temptation, another is set before him, to fight against, and to overcome through faith, The scripture saith, Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, and his sins hid; and unto whom the Lord reckoneth not unrighteousness.” So that the — only righteousness of him that can but sin, and hath nought of himself to make amends, is the forgiveness of sin; which faith only bringeth. And as far forth as we be unrighteous, faith only justifieth us actively; and else nothing, on our part. And as far forth as we have sinned, be in sin, or do sin, or shall sin, so far forth must faith in Christ’s blood justify us only, and else nothing. To love is to be righteous, so far forth as thou lovest; but not to make righteous, nor to make peace. To believe in Christ’s blood with a repenting heart is to make righteous, and the only making of peace and satisfaction to God-ward. And thus, because terms be darkened? to them that be not expert and exercised, we alway set out our meaning with clear ensamples, reporting ourselves unto the hearts and - consciences of all men.
More:—‘The blasphemous words of Luther seem to signify, that both John Baptist and our lady were sinners.”
Tyndale:—John Baptist said to Christ, “I had need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” Whereof did John confess that he had need to be washed and purged by
[1 See Vol. 1. 409.] i
[2 So C. U. L. ed.; D. has be dark.]
Christ? of his holiness and good deeds? When John said, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world,” he was not of that sort, nor had any sins to be taken away at any time, nor any part in Christ’s blood, which died for sinners only! “John came to restore all thing,” saith Christ: that is, he came to interpret the law of God truly, and to prove all flesh sinners, to send them to Christ; as Paul doth in the beginning of the Romans. Which law, if M. More could understand how spiritual it is, and what it requireth of us, he would not so dispute. And if there were no imperfectness in our lady’s deeds, why did Christ rebuke her (John ii.), when he ought rather to have honoured his mother? and why did he make her seek him three days? Chrysostomus dared say that our lady was now and then taken with a little vain-glory?. She looked for the promises of him that should come and bless her; from what? She believed to be saved by Christ; from what? This I grant, that our lady, John Baptist, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and many like, did never consent to sin, to follow it; but had the Holy Ghost from the beginning. Neverthelater, while they followed the Spirit and wrought their best, yet chances met them by the way, and temptations, that made their works come sometimes unperfectly to pass; as a potter that hath his craft never so well, meeteth a chance now and then, that maketh him fashion a pot amiss. So that I think the perfectest of them all, as we have ensamples of some, were compelled to say with Paul, “That good that I would, I do not; and that evil that I would not, that I do.” I would not swear on a book, that if our lady had been let slip as we other were, and as hard apposed, with as present death before her eyes, that she would not have denied some things that she knew true. Yea; but she was preserved by grace, that she was not” No; but though she were kept by grace from the outward deed, yet if there were such weakness? in her flesh, she had sin, And the grace was, that she knew it; and was meek to believe in Christ, to have it forgiven her, and to be [3 kai γὰρ ὅπερ ἐπεχείρησε φιλοτιμίας ἦν περιττῆς” ἐβούλετο ἐνδείξασθαι τῷ δήμῳ, ὅτι κρατεῖ καὶ αὐθεντεῖ τοῦ wadés.—Chrysost. Oper. Tom. vir p. 467. Hom. xlv. in Matt. xii.]
[4 C. U. L. ed. woother.]
[5 So C. U. L., but D. has wickedness.]
preserved that it should not bud forth. John the evangelist when he was as holy as ever was John the Baptist, said, “1 we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.”
Then he compareth faith and deeds together; and wil that faith should stand in no better service, of right, tha: deeds.” Yes, for the deeds be examined by the law; anc therefore it is not enough to do them only, or to do then with love: but I must do them with as great love as Chris did for me, and as I receive a good deed at my need. Bu faith is under no law; and therefore be she never so feeble she shall receive according to the truth of the promiser.
More:—’ What thing could we ask God, of right, becaus we believe him?”
Tyndale:—Verily, all that he promiseth, may we b bold to ask of right, and duty, and by good obligation.
More:—’ Ferman said, that all works be good enough i them that God hath chosen!.’^
Tyndale:—1 am sure it is untrue: for their best be nc good enough; though God forgiveth them their evil, of hi mercy, at the repentance of their hearts.
Then he endeth in his school-doctrine, contrary unto a — the scripture, that God remitteth not the sin of his chose people, because that he hath chosen them; nor of his mercy but of a towardness that is more in one than in another, saying God saw before that Peter should repent, and Judas woul despair; and therefore chose Peter?’ If God chose Pete [1 More has not named Dr Ferman, as may be understood fro: Tyndale’s own words, when commencing his notice of this chapte But he has said of the person examined, “After many shifts he broug] it plainly to this point at last, that he and his fellows, that were: Luther’s sect, were firmly of this opinion, that they believed that Gc worketh all in every man, good works and bad. Howbeit no” [t such as he foreknoweth to be damned, no manner works be profitab to them; for God taketh them for naught, be they never so goo But on the other side, in those he hath chosen from the beginnir and predestinate to glory, all works be good enough.”— Works, Dis 1271.1] 3 [2 More says, “God remitteth not the sins of his chosen pe ple, nor forbeareth not to impute the blame thereof unto them, b cause they be his chosen people: for he accepteth not folk for the persons, but for their merits. God from the beginning, before tI world was created, foreseeing in his divine prescience, or rather ihe eternity of his Godhead presently beholding that Peter wou
because he did repent, why chose he not Judas too, which repented as much as he, and knowledged his sin, and brought the money again? O this blindness, as [if] God had wrought nothing in the repentance of Peter! Said not Christ before, that Peter should fall? And said he not, that he had prayed for him that he should be holp up again? Christ prayed a strong prayer for Peter, to help him up again; and suffered a strong death thereto. And before his death he committed them unto his Father, saying, “I have kept them in thy name, and I depart; keep them now from evil.” Peter had a good heart to God, and loved his law, and believed in Christ; and had the Spirit of God in him, which never left him for all his fall. Peter sinned of no malice, but of frailty and sudden fear of death. And the goodness of God wrought his repentance, and all the means by which he was brought up again, at Christ’s request. And Judas was never good; nor came to Christ for love of his doctrine, but of covetousness; nor did ever believe in Christ.
. Judas was by nature and birth (as we all be) heir of the wrath of God; in whom the devil wrought his will, and blinded his heart with ignorance: in which ignorance and blindness he grew, as he grew in age, and fell deeper and deeper therein; and thereby wrought all his wickedness, and the devil’s will, and perished therein. From which ignorance God purged Peter of his mercy, and gave him light, and his Spirit to govern him; and not of any towardness that was in Peter, of his own birth, but for the mercy that we have, in the birth of Christ’s death.
And how will M. More prove that God chooseth not of his goodness, but of our towardness? What good towardness ean he have and endeavour, that is altogether blind, and carried away at the will of the devil, till the devil be cast out? Are we not robbed of all towardness in Adam; and be by nature made the children of sin, so that we sin naturally; and to sin is our nature? So that as now, though we would do well, the flesh yet sinneth naturally, neither ceaseth to sin, but so far forth as it is kept under with violence; even so once our repent and Judas would despair, and that the one would take hold of his grace, the other would reject it, accepted and chose the one and mot the other; as he would have made the contrary choice, if he had foreseen in them the contrary chance.”—Id. p. 272.]
14
[TYNDALE, m1]
hearts sinned as naturally, with full lust and consent unto the flesh, the devil possessing our hearts, and keeping out the light of grace. What good towardness and endeavour can we have to hate sin, as long as we love it? What good towardness can we have unto the will of God, while we hate it and be ignorant thereof? Can the will desire that the wit seeth not? Can the will long for, and sigh for, that the wit knoweth not of? Can a man take thought for that loss that he wotteth not of? What good endeavour can the Turks’ children, the Jews’ children, and the pope’s infants have, when they be taught all falsehood only, with like persuasions of worldly reason, to be all justified with ~~ works? It is not therefore, as Paul saith, of the running or willing, but of the mercy of God, that a man is called and chosen to grace.
“The first grace, the first faith, and the first justifying is given us freely,” saith M. More: which I would fain wete how it will stand with his other doctrine; and whether he mean any other thing by choosing, than! to have God’s Spirit given me, and faith to see the mercy that is laid up for me; and to have my sins forgiven, without all deserving and preparing of myself. God did not see only that the thief, that was saved at Christ’s death, should come thither; to 4 but God chose him, to shew his mercy unto us that should after believe; and provided actually, and wrought for the bringing of him thither that day, to make him see and to receive the mercy that was laid up for him in store before the world was made.
The Twelfth Chapter.: In the twelfth, in chafing himself, to heap lie upon lie, he uttereth his feelable blindness. For he asketh this ques- tion, Wherefore serveth exhortations unto faith, if the hearers have not liberty of their free-will, by which, together - Ϊ with God’s grace, a man may labour to submit the rebellion of reason unto the obedience of faith and credence of the word of God?” Whereof ye see, that besides his grant, that reason rebelleth against faith, contrary to the doctrine of his! first book, he will that the will shall compel the wit to believe;-
[1 So C. U. L. ed., Day has them.] 1]
which is as much to say as the cart must draw the horses, and the son beget the father; and the authority of the church is greater than God’s word. For the will cannot teach the wit, nor lead her, but followeth naturally; so that whatsoever the wit judgeth good or evil, that the will loveth or hateth. If the wit see and lead straight, the will followeth: if the wit be blind and lead amiss, the will followeth clean out of the way. I cannot love God’s word before I believe it; nor hate it, before I judge it false and vanity.
He might have wiselier spoken on this manner: Wherefore serveth the preaching of faith, if the wit have no power to draw the will to love that which the wit judgeth true and good? If the will be naught, teach the wit better; and the will shall alter, and turn to good immediately. Blindness is the cause of all evil, and light the cause of all good; so that where the faith is right, there the heart cannot consent unto evil to follow the lusts of the flesh, as the pope’s faith doth. And this conclusion hath he half a dozen times in his book, that the will may compel the wit and captivate it to believe what a man lusteth. Verily, it is like that his wits be in captivity, and for vantage tangled with our holy father’s sophistry.
His doctrine is after his own feeling, and as the profession of his heart is. For the popish have yielded themselves to follow the lusts of their flesh; and compel their wit to abstain from looking on the truth, lest she should unquiet them, and draw them out of the puddle of their filthy voluptuousness, As a cart, that is overladen, going up a hill draweth the horses back, and in a tough mire maketh them stand still: and then the earter, the devil, which driveth them, is ever by and whistleth unto them, and biddeth them captivate their understanding unto profitable doctrine; for which they shall have no persecution, but shall reign, and be kings, and enjoy the pleasures of the world at their own will. -
The Thirteenth Chapter
Inthe thirteenth he saith that the clergy burneth no man?, [2 The heading of More’s thirteenth chapter is, “The authorshew- «th his opinion concerning the burning of heretics, and that it is Jawful, necessary, and well done; and sheweth also that the clergy doth not proeure it, but only the good and politic provision of the temporalty.”—Works, Dial. p. 274.]. Wr
14—2
As though the pope had not first found! the law; and as though all his preachers babbled not that in every sermon, Burn these heretics, burn them, for we have no other argument to convince them;’ and as though they compelled not both king and emperor to swear that they shall so do, ere they crown them!
Then he bringeth in provisions of king Henry the fifth. Of whom I ask M. More, whether he were right heir unto England, or held he the land with the sword, as a heathen tyrant, against all right? Whom the prelates, lest he should have had leisure to hearken unto the truth, sent into France, to occupy his mind in war, and led him at their will. And I of ask whether his father slew not his liege king and true inheritor unto the crown; and was therefore set up of the bishops, a false king, to maintain their falsehood? And I ask whether, after that wicked deed, followed not the destruction of the commonalty, and quenching of all noble blood?
The Fourteenth Chapter
In the fourteenth, he affirmeth that Martin Luther saith — 1t 15 not lawful to resist the Turk” I wonder that he shameth not so to lie, seeing that Martin hath written a singular treatise for the contrary; besides that in many other works he proveth it lawful, if he invade us.
The Sixteenth Chapter 3
In the sixteenth he allegeth councils. I ask whether councils have authority to make articles of the faith without God’s word; yea, and of things improved by God’s word?
He allegeth Augustine, Hierome, and Cyprian. Let him put their works in English, and St Prosperus with them?.
[1 Invented.]: [2 “In this opinion is Luther and his followers, which among other]
[heresies hold for a plain conclusion, that it is not lawful to any chris-]
[tian man to fight against the Turk, or to make against him any resist-]
[ances, though he come into Christendom with a great army, and labour]
[to destroy all.”—Works, Dial., p. 277.] [3 Tyndale has not made any remarks on Moze’s fifteenth chapter,]
[the title of which is, That princes be bounden to punish heretics,]
[and that fair handling helpeth little with many of them.”] [4 See Vol. 1. p. 487, n. 2.]]
XIIL XIV. XVI. XVIL] THE FOURTH BOOK. 213 Why damned they The union of doctors, but because the doctors are against them??
And when he allegeth martyrs, let him shew one; and take the calf for his labour.
And in the end he biddeth beware of them that live well in any wise: as though they which live evil cannot teach amiss; and if that be true, then they be of the surest side.
The Seventeenth Chapter
More:—” When Tyndale was apposed of his doctrine, ere he went over sea, he said and sware he meant no harm.” Tyndale:—He sware not; neither was there any man that required an oath of him: but he now sweareth, by him whom he trusteth to be saved by, that he never meant or yet meaneth any other harm than to suffer all that God hath prepared to be laid on his back, for to bring his brethren unto the light of our Saviour Jesus; which the pope, through falsehood and corrupting such poets as ye are (ready unto all thing for vantage), leadeth in the darkness of death.
More:—Tyndale doth know how that St Augustine and St Hierome do prove with holy scripture, that confession is of necessity unto salvation?.”
Tyndale:—That is false, if ye mean ear-confession. Why allege ye not the places where? But ye know by St Hierome and other stories, and by the conversation with Erasmus, how it came up; and that the use was once far other than ΠΟΥ͂ 8,
[5 See p. 189] [6 “Look on Tyndale that translated the new Testament, which was]
[indeed, as ye said in the beginning, before his going over, taken for a]
[man of sober and honest living, and looked and preached holily,]
[saving that yet sometime he savoured so shrewdly that he was once]
[or twice examined thereof. But yet because he glosed these his words]
[with a better sense, and said and swore that he meant no harm, folk]
[were glad to take all to the best. But yet ye see that though he dis-]
[sembled himself to be a Lutheran, or to bear any favour to his sect,]
[while he was here, yet as soon as he gat him hence, he gat him to]
[Luther straight.”—Works, Dial., p. 283.] [7 “Himself well knoweth that they (St Austin and St Hierome and]
[such other) do all with one voice prove that shrift and confession is]
[of necessity requisite to our salvation.”—]Id. ibid.] (8 In an epistle of Jerome to Oceanus, entitled Epitaphium Fa-]
More:—1 marvel that Tyndale denieth purgatory, except he intend to go to hell!.” Tyndale:—He intendeth to purge here, unto the uttermost of his power; and hopeth that death will end and finish his purgation, And if there be any other purging, he will commit it to God, and take it as he findeth it, when he cometh at it; and in the meantime take no thought therefore,: but for this that is present, wherewith all saints were purged, and were taught so to be. And Tyndale marvelleth what secret pills they take to purge themselves, which not only will not purge here with the cross of Christ, but also buy out their there of the pope, for a groat or sixpence.
The Eighteenth Chapter
More:— “The clergy doth nothing unto the heretics, but as the holy doctors did.” Tyndale:—Yes; ye put them in your prisons, and diet them, and handle them after your fashion as temporal tyrants, and dispute with them secretly, and will not come at light. And ye slay them for rebuking you with God’s word: and so did not the old holy doctors. If a man slay his father, ye care not: but if any man touch one of you, though he have never so great an occasion given him, ye curse him; and if he will not submit himself unto your punishment, ye leave him unto the temporal power, whom ye have hired with the spoil
[biolze, he gives an inflated account of a Roman lady, Fabiola, who did]
[not hesitate to make very publie acknowledgment of her sins, and to]
[exhibit the marks of the punishment which she had inflicted on herself;]
[but he says nothing about confession to a priest, nor of her being]
[enjoined such penance. Upon this Erasmus remarks: Apparet Hiero-]
[nymi tempore nondum institutam fuisse secretam admissorum confes-]
[sionem, quam postea ecclesia salubriter instituit, si modo recte utantur]
[ea et sacerdotes et laici. Verum in hoc labuntur theologi quidam]
[parum attenti, quod qu:e veteres illi seribunt de hujusmodi publica et]
[generali confessione, quse nihil aliud erat quam signis quibusdam et]
[piaminibus ab episcopo indictis se peccatorem et bonorum communione]
[indignum agnoscere, trahunt ad hane occultam et longe diversi gene-]
[ris. —D. Hieron. Op. Omn. Basileee, 1537. Tom. 1. p. 201.] [1 All they with one voice teach and prove by scripture too that]
[there is the fire of purgatory; which I marvel why Tyndale feareth]
[so little, but if he be at a plain point with himself to go straight to]
[hell.”—-More, ibid.] at]
of his goods to be your hangman; so that he must lose his life for giving one of you but a blow on the cheek.
More:—St Paul gave two heretics unto the devil, which tormented their flesh, which was no small punishment; and haply he slew them,”
Tyndale:—O expounder of the scripture! like Hugo Charensis, which expoundeth A«ereticum hominem devita, Take the heretic out of his life?” We read of no pain that he had, whom the Corinthians excommunicated, and gave to Satan, to slay his flesh; save that he was ashamed of himself and repented, when he saw his offence so earnestly taken, and so abhorred. But ye, because ye have no power to deliver them to Satan, to blind their minds, ye deliver them to the fire to destroy their flesh, that no more is seen of them after than the ashes.
[2 Properly, Avoid an heretical man. Hugo de Sancto Caro, or]
[Hugh de St Cher, a cardinal of the Dominican order, died 1263. His]
[principal works were Speculum Ecclesize, and Postilla, or a continuous]
[comment on the whole of the scriptures. This exposition of the text in]
[Titus is not found in the Venice edition of his works in 1600, nor that of]
[Cologne in 1621: but that the temper of this popular theologian]
[towards heretics corresponds with what Tyndale has ascribed to him,]
[appears from his Postil. on Luke i. 20, or the angel’s salutation; on]
[which he writes thus: Nota; non sunt digni salutari a nobis excom-]
[municatus, homo alterius legis, hostis. Judzei non sunt occidendi, sed]
[fame et miseria cruciandi. Heeretici vero sunt comburendi igne, quia]
[Spiritui Sancto committendum est, ut revelet in talibus utrum spiritus]
[sint a Deo. Tom. vr. fol. 132, col. 1. Venice, 1600. The exposition]
[attributed to him by Tyndale is introduced as a jest into the Morice]
[encomium by Erasmus, p. 495. Lugduni, 1704.]]
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