To love a man’s neighbour in God is a sure rule to know that we love God: and not to love him is a sure token that we love not God; and to hate our neighbour is to hate God. For to love God is to do his commandments; as Christ saith, Ye are my lovers, if ye do those things which I have como manded you.” And the commandment is, to love our neighbours: then he that loveth not his neighbour loveth not God. And likewise to hate the commandment is to hate God that commanded it: and the commandment is to love our neighbours: he then that hateth his brother, whom God biddeth him love, hateth God.
The Fifth Chapter
All that believe that Jesus is Christ are born of God. And all that love him which begat, love him that is begotten of him. In this we know that we love the sons of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.
Tuis is a sure conclusion, that we be born of God through faith. And that faith maketh us God’s sons, in that we believe that Jesus is Christ: as the first chapter of John also testifieth, He gave them power to be the sons of God, in that they believed in his name.”
What it is to believe that Jesus is Christ, may be understood by that which is above rehearsed. It is a far other thing than as the devil believed it, against his will and to his great pain; or as they believe it, which, to fulfil their sin, envy the glory of Christ, and persecute his gospel, forbidding to preach it or to read in it. To believe that Jesus is Christis to believe in Christ: that is, to believe earnestly, and to put all thy trust therein, and to lay the price of thy soul thereupon; that the son of Mary, whom the angel commanded to be called Jesus, because he should save his people from their sins, is that Christ, that Messias, and that anointed, which God promised the fathers should come and bless all.:.: oa. nations, and anoint them with the oil of his Spirit and with mercy and grace, and to deliver them from death of their souls, which is the consenting to sin, and to make them
alive with consenting unto the law of God, and in certifying them that they be the sons of God; and to put thy whole trust in all that he suffered in his flesh for thy sake, and in all promises of mercy that are in him; and that thou be full: persuaded that there is none other name under heaven, given — — unto men to be saved from sin by, or to purchase forgiveness — of the least sin that ever was committed or ever shall be in this world. love Another conclusion is this, Whosoever loveth God loveth all that believe in God. For all that love him that begetteth, love them that are begotten of him: and all that believe in God are begotten of God through that belief, and made his sons: then all that love God love all that believe in God. E! Another conclusion is this, When we love God and his Jaw, then we love the sons of God. Which is this-wise i proved: The love of God is to keep the law of God: by the text, before and after, the law of God is to love our neigh- bours; and therefore if we love God, in keeping his laws, we must needs love the sons of God. € But John should seem to be a very negligent disputer to — many men, in that he here certifieth us of the love of our Fi neighbours by the love of God, when above he certifieth us that we love God because we love our neighbours. He E seemeth to do as I heard once a great clerk in Oxford stand 1 half an hour in a pulpit, to prove that Christ was a true prophet by the testimony of John Baptist; and another half hour to prove John the Baptist a true prophet by the authority of Christ: as we say, Claw me, claw thee; and as every thief ὁ might lightly prove himself a true man, in bearing record to another as false as he, and taking record of the same again. 3 Which kind of disputing schoolmen call Petitio principii, 1 the proving of two certain things, each by the other; and is no ἡ proving at all: as our holy father proveth the authority of 1 scripture by his decrees, (for the scripture is not authentie, E but as his decrees admit it;) and to make his decrees shine P and appear glorious, and to obtain authority, he allegeth the scripture, after his juggling manner, to make fools stark mad. E But it is not so here: for both the demonstrations are f certain, both the proof of the love of God and his law by the love of my neighbour, and the proof of the love of my J [1 So P. C. L., in D. the paragraph ends with committed.]!
neighbour by the love of God and his law. For when two things are so joined together that they cannot be separated, then the presence of the one uttereth the presence of the other, whethersoever thou first seest: as if I see fire, I am sure that something doth burn; and if I smell burning, I am certified of fire. Even so the love of God is the cause why I love my neighbour; and my love toward my neighbour is the effect of the love of God. And these two loves are ever inseparable; so that whethersoever I feel first, the same certifieth me of the other.
John calleth the love of a man’s neighbour the deeds of love, after the Hebrew speech; as to help at need, though he were even an enemy to me; to give the best counsel I can; to visit and relieve him if he be sick and needy, yea, if need were, to bestow even my life for him2 For the deed declareth what the man is within: neither can my love to God, and faith, be seen to the world, save through the works: and by the works doth Christ command us to judge. So that, if à man have evil works, and continueth therein, he loveth not God, nor knoweth God, no, though he call himself master doctor or God’s vicar: neither understandeth he God’s word, for all his high divinity; but is in all his preaching an hypocrite, a false prophet, and a liar, though his preaching please the world never so well. Nevertheless, a man is certified that he loveth God, ere he come at the work, by the testimony of the Spirit, which is given him in earnest. “The Spirit,” saith Paul, testifieth unto our spirit, that we be the sons of God:” and then it testifieth that we believe in God; for through faith are we sons. And then it certifieth me that I love God; for faith and love are inseparable. The Spirit through faith certifieth my conscience that my sins are forgiven, and I received under grace, and made the very son of God, and beloved of God: and then naturally mine heart breaketh out into the love of God again, and I seek how to utter my love, and to do God some pleasure; and because I can neither do service nor pleasure unto his own person, my neighbour is set before me, to do God service and pleasure in him, and to be to him as Christ is to me, because he is my brother, bought with Christ’s blood as Iam. Andl consent unto that law, and love it, ere I come at [2 So P. C. L., but in D. this sentence concludes with help at need.)
the deed, and long after the deed. And then, when I love my neighbour in the deed, according to this law, I am sure that I love him truly. Or else, if I examined not my love by this law, I might be deceived. For some love their neigh- bours for pleasure, profit, glory, and for their doing service only, as our spiritualty love us, and of that blessed love do - their busy cure! to keep us in darkness: which love is a sign that a man hateth God, and his neighbour thereto, and loveth himself only. But God’s law is, that I should abstain from = mine own pleasure and profit, and become my neighbour’s servant, and bestow life and goods upon him, after the 7 ensample of Christ. Wherefore if I love my neighbour out of 3 the love of Christ, and after the example of his law, I am 1 sure that I love him truly. And his commandments are not grievous. For all that is born of God: overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the 1 world, even our faith. K To love is not painful: the commandments are but love, therefore they be not grievous; because love maketh the = commandments easy. The service that a mother doth unto her child is not grievous, because she loveth it; but if she 3 should do the tenth part unto one that she loved not, her i heart would brast? for impatience. Unto a man that feeleth not the love of Christ it is as impossible to keep the com- $ mandments, as for a camel to enter through the eye of a i needle. But impossible is possible, and easy too, where the ἃ are love of Christ is believed. For it followeth: “All that are 3 born of God overcome the world;” that is to wit, the devil, which is the ruler of the world, and his disciples, which have their lust in his governance, and consent to sin both in body and soul and give themselves to follow their lusts without ] resistance, and their own flesh, which also consenteth to sin, 1 do they overcome, with all that moveth to sin. By what victory? Verily, through faith. For if our souls be truly ἢ underset? with sure hope and trust, and continual meditations ] of Christ’s love, shewed already, and of succour, help and ἢ assistance that is promised in his name, and with the continual
[! Do their office busily.] r [ Burst.] [? Underpropped.] I
memory of their examples which in times past have fought through faith and overcome; then were it impossible for the world, with all his ehivalry, to overthrow us with any assault, or with any ordnance that he could shoot against us. For if that faith and meditation were ever present in us, then love through that faith should easily overcome whatsoever peril thou couldest imagine. Read in the bible, and see what conquests faith hath made, both in doing and also suffering. The eleventh chapter unto the Hebrews ministereth unto thee examples abundantly. How mighty was David, when he came to fight; and how overcame he through faith! And how mightier was he when he came to suffering, as in the persecution of the king Saul! Insomuch that when he had his most mortal enemy, king Saul, (that twelve years persecuted him against all right,) in his hands, to have done what he would with him, through faith he touched him not, nor suffered any man else to do, though he was yet all his life a man of war, and accustomed to murder and shedding of blood: for he believed that God should avenge him on his unrighteous king, upon whom it was not lawful to avenge himself. Who is it that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
If to believe that Jesus is God’s Son be to overcome the world, then our prelates understand not what belief is; which affirm that the best belief and the worst man in the world may stand together. This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that testifieth, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one, And there are three which bear record in earth, the Spirit, water, and blood; and these three are one.
Christ came with three witnesses, water, blood, and Spirit.
He ordained the sacrament of baptism, to be his witness unto us. And he ordained the sacrament of his blood, to be his witness unto us. And he poureth his Spirit into the hearts of his, to testify and to make them feel that the testimony of two sacraments are true. And the testimony of these [4 So D., but P. C. L. has that when he had gotten him in, &c.]
[Tyndale, 11.] 14
three is, as it after followeth, that we have everlasting life in the Son of God. And these three are one full witness; sufficient at the most that the law requireth, which saith two doc- or three, at the most, is one full sufficient witness. But, alas! we are not taught to take the sacraments for witnesses, but for image-service, and to offer! the work of them to Go with such a mind as the old heathen offered sacrifices of beasts unto their gods: so that whatsoever testifieth unto us that we have everlasting life in Christ, that mouth have they stopped with a leavened maunchet of their pharisaieal glosses. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness that God hath borne of his Son.
If the witness of men, so they be three, is to be received; much more is the witness of God to be received. Now the witness that these three, water, blood, and Spirit, bear, is the witness of God, and therefore the more to be believed. He that believeth in the Son of God, hath witness in himself. And he that believeth not God, maketh him a liar, because he doth not believe the witness that God hath testified of his Son. And this is the witness, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. ^ “The true believers have the testimony of God in their hearts, and they glorify God, witnessing that he is true. They have the kingdom of God within them; and the temple of God within them; and God in that temple; and have the Son of God, and life through him. And in that temple they seek God, and offer for their sins the saerifice of Christ’s blood, and the fat of his mercies in the fire of their prayers; and in the confidence of that sacrifice go in boldly to God their father. ~~ But the unbelievers blaspheme God, and make him false, describing him after the complexion of their lying nature.
[So P. C. L., Day has, to fore.]; Ι [2 Maunchet or manchet: a small loaf of fine bread. Tyndale ”]
[presently gives the same name to the thin roll or wafer used in 1]
[the mass.] ἢ [3 Thus D., but P. C. L. has when instead of so.]!]
And because they be so full stuffed with lies that they can receive nothing else, they look for the kingdom of God in outward things, and seek God in a temple of stone, where they offer their image-service and the fat of their holy deeds; in confidence whereof they go in to God, and trust to have everlasting life. And though the text testifieth that this life is only in the Son, yet they will come at no son, nor sunshining; but, as unclean birds, hate the light. These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have everlasting life, and that ye may believe in the Son of God.
They that have the faith of Christ’s apostles know that they have eternal life. For the Spirit testifieth unto their spirits that they are the sons of God (Rom. viii), and received under grace. Our doctors say they cannot know whether they be in the state of grace; therefore they have not the faith of the apostles. And that they know it not, is the cause why they rail on it. This is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask aught according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we ask of him.
Christ saith (Matt. vii) “Ask and it shall be given you;” and John (in chapter xvi), Whatsoever ye ask in my name, he shall give it you.” To ask in the name of Jesus Christ, and according to his will, be both one; and are nothing else but to ask the things contained in the promises and testament of God to us-ward, that God will be our father, and care for us both in body and in soul; and, if we sin of frailty, and repent, forgive us; and minister us all things necessary unto this life, and keep us that we be not overcome of evil, &eNow if they which believe in Christ are bold with God that he heareth them, and sure that he granteth their petitions, it followeth that they which are not bold that he heareth them, nor sure that he granteth their petitions, do not believe in Christ. They that go to dead saints, with which they never spake nor wot where they be, be not bold that God will hear
[4 Thus P. C. L., but D. omits son, nor. In Tyndale’s time it was]
[usual to write sonne alike for son, and for sun: and this is continued in]
[Day’s edition.] 14—2]
PRET, ΠΟΙ sure that he will grant them! their petitions; there- ^ fore they believe not in Christ. That they be neither bold wot nop sure, appeareth first by their deeds, and secondarily by i their own confession; for they say, what should God hear E them or grant them aught, seeing they be unworthy? yea, T and they confirm it with a similitude of worldly wisdom, that they should be put back for their malapertness, and fare the worse; as if a rude fellow should break up into the king’s E] privy chamber, and press unto his own person without knock- ing, or speaking to any other officer: so that they believe it an augmenting of sin to go to God themselves in the confidence of Christ’s blood, as he bade them. 1 If a man see his brother sin a sin not unto death, let him ask; and he
shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a
sin unto death; and for it I say not that thou shouldest pray. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not to death.: - Whatsoever sin we see in the world, let us pray, and not 2 despair; for God is the God of mercy. But for the sin to death, which is resisting grace, and fighting against mercy, and open blaspheming of the Holy Ghost, affirming that Christ’s miracles are done in Beelzebub, and his doctrine to be of the devil, I think that no christian man, if he perceive 7 it, can otherwise pray than as Paul prayed for Alexander the T Coppersmith, (the 2 Tim. the last,) that God would reward Σ him according unto his works.” They that go back again E] after they know the truth, and give themselves willingly to sin for to follow it, and persecute the doctrine of truth by profession to maintain falsehood for their glory and vantage, are remediless: as ye may see Heb. vi. and x. Balaam sinned so; the false prophets in the old Testament sinned so; the Pharisees sinned so; Alexander sinned so; and now many sin so, following their pride and covetousness. We know that all that are born of God, sin not; but he that is born of God keepeth himself; and the wicked toucheth him not. Al are As thou readest in the third chapter, they that are born in. of God cannot sin; for the seed of God keepeth them. They eannot cast off the yoke of Christ, and consent to continue in I sin, nor defy his doctrine, nor persecute it, for to quench it, or to maintain any thing contrary unto it. Butin whatsoever
has them, omitted by
eaptivity they be in the flesh, their hearts yield not; but imagine to break loose, and to escape, and fly away, unto the party and standard of their Lord Christ. And as men of war they ever keep watch and prepare themselves unto war, and put on the armour of God, the which is God’s word, the shield of faith, the helmet of hope, and harness themselves with the meditation of those things which Christ suffered for us, and with the ensamples of all the saints that followed him, and think earnestly that it is their part to live as purely as the best, and come after as fast as they can. And yet, in all their works, they knowledge themselves sinners unfeignedly, as long as one jot of the perfectness, that was in the deeds of Christ, is lacking in theirs: so that the devil cannot touch the hearts of them, neither with pride, nor vain glory of pure living, neither to make them consenting unto the flesh in gross sins, if at a time they be taken tardy, and catch a fall. Whatsoever chance them, the devil can catch no hold of them, to keep them still in captivity; but they will break loose again, and repent and do penance, to chastise their flesh, that they come no more under the devil’s claws. We know that we be of God, and that the whole world is set on mischief.
They that believe, that is to say, put their trust in Christ, see both their own glorious state in God, and also the wretched estate of the world in their wickedness. But the world, as they know not God, nor the glory of the sons of God, even so they see not their own miserable estate in wickedness, and damnation under the law of God; but the worse they are, the bolder they be, and the surer of themselves, the further from repentance, and the more standing in their own conceits, for the darkness that is in them. And therefore, say our doctors, a man cannot know whether he be in the state of grace or no; nor needeth to care therefore. And they be therefore the blind leaders of the blind. We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us understanding to know him that is true: and we be in the truth through Jesus Christ. He is very God, and eternal life.
Christ is all, and the fountain of all; and of his fulness receive we all. And as he poureth the gifts of his grace upon them that believe in him, so he giveth them understanding to
know the very God, and that they be in the very God, and that they have obtained that through his purchasing; and leaveth not his sheep in darkness. And the same Jesus Christ is very God and eternal life: God and eternal life was he from the beginning, and became man for the great love he oy had to us, for to bring us unto his eternal life. And he that - hath any other way thither, whether his own works, or other men’s, or works of ceremonies, or sacraments, or merits of saints, or of aught save Jesus Christ only, shall never come: thither. The world seeth the bishop of Rome, and seeth that they which be in him be lords in this world: and therefore they eare to be in the bishop of Rome; but whether they be in God or not, they say, it is not necessary to know. Little children, beware of images. Serve none image in your hearts. Idolatry is Greek, and the English is image-service: and an idolater is also Greek, z and the English an image-servant. Be not idolaters nor commit idolatry; that is, be none image-servants, nor do any image-service, but beware of serving all manner images. And. think it not enough to have put all the images of false gods out of the way, if ye now set up the image of very God and of his true saints in their rooms, to do the same service unto them which ye did unto the other. For ye may do as strong image-service unto the image of God and of his saints, as unto the images of false Gods: yea, thou mayest commit as great idolatry to God, and yet before none outward image, but before the image which thou hast feigned of God in thine heart, as thou mayest before an outward image of the devil. The Jews in the temple of God, where was none image of God, did as great image-service to God, as the heathen unto their false gods: yea, the Jews, in doing to God the things which God commanded them, did commit worse idolatry, and sinned more grievously against God, than the heathen did in offering unto their false gods; which thing to be true the prophets testify. For when the Jews did their ceremonies and sacrifices (the meaning and signification lost, and the cause forgotten, which God ordained them for) to flatter and please God with the gloriousness of the deed in itself, and to purchase aught of him for the costliness or properness of the present; what other made they of God in their imagination, than a child, whom, if
ο ee TE ΤἈΝ v. 20, 21.] FIRST EPISTLE OF ST JOHN, 215 he cry or be displeased, men still with a puppet, or if we will fave him to do aught, make him an horse of a stick, or such ke?
If thou bring a bowl of blood and set it before God to flatter him, to stroke him, and to eurry and claw him, as he were an horse, and imaginest that he hath pleasure and delectation therein, what better makest thou of God than a butcher’s dog? If thou bring the fat of thy beasts to God, for the same imagination, what makest thou of God, but one that had need of grease to grease shoes or smear boots? If thou burnest blood and fat together to please God, what other thing dost thou make of God, than one that had lust to smell to burnt flotess!?
God commanded a courtesy of all first ripe fruits to be offered: not to be an image-service, but a witness and testimony that he had made them grow, that the people should not forget God, but think on his benefits, and love him, and of love keep his commandments. And likewise, if any had sinned against God’s law, God commanded that they should repent, and then bring a beast and flay it, and offer the blood and the fat of the inwards; not to make satisfaction, but to testify only that God was appeased?, and had of his mercy at the repentance of the heart forgiven the sin. The sacrifices of blood were ordained partly to be a secret prophesying of Christ’s blood-shedding, and partly to be a testimony and certifying of our hearts, that the sin was forgiven, and peace made between us and God; and not to be a satisfaction: for that were image-service, and to make an image of God.
We read in the histories, that when a love-day?, or a truce, was made between man and man, the covenants were rehearsed: and upon that they slew beasts, in a memorial and remembrance of the appointment only. And so were the sacrifices signs and memorials only, that God was at one with us, For the Jew could believe no words, though an angel had spoken, without a token; as we hold up our fingers, and clap hands. And likewise whatsoever they were bid to do, they must have had a token of remembrance, though it had been but a ring of a rush, as it is to be seen in the bible.
[1 Flotess: scum.] [2 So P. C. L., but D. has pleased.] [3 See Vol. 1. p. 440.]]
Even so our images, relies, ceremonies and sacraments, E vere were our memorials and signs of remembrance only; and Li he that giveth in his heart more to them than that, is an Ἧ jmage-servant. But when God is a Spirit, and worshipped in the spirit, we for lack of faith, being spiritless, and having no power to desire of God any spiritual thing, serve God i the body with imagined service, for such wordly things as our 2 profession is to defy. Who kisseth a relic, or beholdeth an — image, for love of the saints’ living, to follow their example? ] Nay, we will fast the saints’ evens, and go barefoot unto their images, and take pain to obtain greater pleasure in the world,: and to purchase worldly things; as to maintain the body in 1 lusts, that the soul cannot once wish for power to live as the saints lived, or to long for the life to come. If we went in pilgrimage to keep the remembrance of the saints’ living in 3 mind, for our example, and fasted and went barefoot to tame; the flesh, that it should not lust after such worldly things 3 which we now desire of the saints; then did our fasting and pilgrimage-going serve us, yea, and the saint were yet our servant to edify us in Christ with the remembrance of his life — left behind, to preach, and to provoke us to follow his example. For our bodily service can be no service unto the saint, which 3 is a spirit, except we imagine him to be an image. E St White must have a cheese once in a year, and that i of the greatest sort; which yet eateth no cheese: it shall be i given to the poor in her! name, say they. First, that to be ” false, we see with our eyes. Secondarily, Christ commandeth: to care for the poor, and give them all that we may spare, in: his name; saying, that what is given them, is given him, and: what is denied them is denied him. If the law of Christ be written in thine heart, why distributest thou not unto thy i brethren with thine own hands, in the name of thy Saviour 1 [1 It appears from the Britannia Sancta, a work published by Meighan, a Romish bookseller, Lond. 1745, that our countrymen were a wont to venerate a St Witta, there said to have been ‘a fellow-labourer of Boniface (or Winfrid the Saxon) in Germany, and consecrated by him bishop of Buraburg near Fritzlar. Some authors call him Albuin, I by changing his name, which signifies White, into a Latin name.” Brit. Sane. par. 1. p. 221. The apparently feminine termination of this
[saint’s Saxon name was probably the cause of his being supposed to be]
[a female by persons who did not know his history. In Bishop Hooper’s]
[works, Park. Soc. ed. p. 320, White is spoken of as a male saint.]]
E] y. 21] FIRST EPISTLE OF ST JOHN. 217 Jesus Christ, which died both for them and thee, as thou hast vowed and promised to him in thy baptism?
Moreover they say? It is given unto St White’s chaplain St White’s chaplain hath a stipend already, sufficient for a christian man, and ought to receive no more, but therewith to be content, and to be an example of despising covetousness. Moreover, that priest that would follow the living of Jesus Christ, as St White did, and teach his parishens to do so, were a right chaplain of Christ. And they have a promise to be fed and clothed, as well as ever was their master, in the name of Christ. And so be they, and ever were; so that they need not to beg in the name of St White.
What shall St White do for thee again for that great cheese? For I wot well it is not given for nought. Shall she give abundance of milk, to make butter and cheese? All we that believe in Christ are the sons of God, and God hath promised to care for us, forasmuch? as we care for the keeping of his commandments; and hath promised that we shall receive whatsoever we ask, to his honour and our need, of his hand. “Τῇ we then be the natural sons of God, why run we from our father a begging to St White? St White sendeth no rain upon the earth, nor maketh the sun shine thereon, nor maketh the grass grow. Neither is there any God’s word that he will now do so much for us at her request. But God hath promised, if we will keep his laws, to do so much for us at our own request, for the blood of his Son Jesus. What other thing then is thy serving of St White, than lack of faith and trust to God-ward in Christ’s name; and a false faith of thy own feigning, to St White-ward, for thine image-service or serving her with cheese, as though she were a bodily thing? And like disputation is it of all other saints. And as we worship the saints with image-service, to obtain temporal things, even so worship we God. And as the Jews turned their sacrifices unto image-service, which were given them of God to be signs to move them to serve God in the spirit, even so have we our sacraments. And for an example let us take the mass, which, after the Romish bishop’s abuse of it, is the most damnable image-service that [2 So P. C. L., but this introductory clause is omitted in D.]
[3 So but in as much, omitting for.]
ever was since it began. Christ, according to the testimony i of the scripture, made in the days of his flesh satisfaction for β all the sin of them that had believed!, or should believe in his ι name; and obtained that they should be the sons of Godand taken from under the damnation of the law, and put under grace and mercy, and that God should henceforth deal with them as a merciful father dealeth with his children that run not away from him, no, though aught be at a time chanced amiss, but tarry ever still by their father and by his doctrine, and confess their trespass, and promise henceforth ’ to enforce themselves, unto the uttermost of their power, that EZ they do no more so negligently. And this purchase made he with the things which he suffered in his flesh, and with the 1 strong prayers which he prayed. And to keep his testament E: ever fresh in mind, that it were not forgotten, he left with us the sacrament or sign of his body and blood, to strength A our faith, and to certify our conscience, that our sins were 3 forgiven, as soon as we repented and had reconciled ourselves unto our brethren, and to arm our souls, through the continual remembrance of Christ’s death, unto the despising of the world, mortifying of the flesh, and quenching of the 1 lusts and thirst of worldly things: as they which have daily conversation with the sick and miserable, and are present at the deaths of men are moved to defy the world, and the lusts thereof. And as Christ had institute the sacrament of his body and blood, so the bishops, in process of time, set signs of all the rest of Christ’s passion in the ornaments and gestures of the mass; so that the whole passion was daily described before our eyes, as though we had presently looked upon it. And mark also?, see for what cause they came unto the sacrament. They reconciled themselves each one to other, if any use man had offended his brother, ere they were admitted into the — congregation or body of Christ, to be members of each other, knit together in one faith and love to eat the Lord’s supper ^ (as Paul calleth it); for the congregation, thus gathered, is T called Christ’s body and Christ their head. And likewise, if 1 a man had been taken in open sin, against the profession of his baptism, he was rebuked openly; and he confessed his
[[! So P. €. L., but D. omits believed.) 3 [2 So D., but P. C. L. omits or sign.] T [3 So P. C. L., but D. has that thou mayest.]]
sin openly, and asked forgiveness of God, and of the congregation, whom he had offended with the example of his evil deed; and took penance, as they call it, of the congregation, that is, certain discreet injunctions how he should live and order himself in time to come, and tame his flesh, for the avoiding of the said vice; because his confession and repentance, which he seemed to have, should be none hypocrisy, but an earnest thing. For if an open sinner be found among us, we must immediately amend him, or cast him out of the congregation, with defiance and detestation of his sin; as thou seest how quickly Paul cast out the Corinthian that kept his father’s wife, and when he was warned would not amend. Or else, if we suffer such to be among us unrebuked, we eannot but at once fall from the constaney of our profession, and laugh and have delectation and consent unto their sin, as it is come to pass throughout all Christendom; which is ten thousand times more abominable, than if we sinned ourselves. For the best man in the world, that hateth sin, might at a time through frailty of the flesh be drawn to sin. But it is altogether devilish, and a sure token that the Spirit of Christ is not in us, nor the profession of our baptism written in the heart, if we laugh at another man’s sins, though we ourselves abstain for shame, or fear of hell, or for whatsoever imagination it be, or that we be so blind that we see no other sin in us than our outward deeds. And the penance enjoined frail persons, that could not rule themselves, was under the authority of the curate, and the sad and discreet men of the parish, to release part, or all at a time, if necessity required, or when they saw the person so grown in perfectness that he needed it not. But see whereto it is now come, and after what manner our holy father that is at Rome dispenseth with all together! And see what our bishops’ officers do, and where the authority of the curate and of the parish is become! If in ten parishes round there be not one learned and discreet to help the other, then the devil hath a great swing among us, that the bishops’ officers, that dwell so far off, must abuse us as they do. And if within a diocese or an whole land we can find no shift, but that the bishop of Rome, that dwelleth at the devil in hell, must thus mock us, what a stroke, think ye, hath Satan among us! And all is because we be hypocrites, and love not the way of truth, for all our pretending the contrary.
And to begin withal, they said Confiteor! and know- ^ ledged themselves to be sinners. And then the priest prayed jn general for all estates and degrees, and for increase of grace, and in especial, if need required; unto which prayers B the people hearkened, and said, Amen. And then the gospel, E and glad tidings of forgiveness of sins, was preached to stir ” up our faith. And then the sacrament was ministered for 4 the confirmation of the faith of the gospel, and of the testament made between God and us, of forgiveness of sins in a Christ’s blood for our repentance and faith; as ye see how, after all bargains, there is a sign thereof made, either clapping of hands, or bowing a penny or a groat, or a piece of gold, or giving some earnest; and as I shewed you how, after a truce made, they slew beasts for a confirmation. And then men departed, every man to his business, full certified that their sins were forgiven, and armed with the remembrance b of Christ’s passion and death for the mortifying of the flesh 3 all the day after. And in all these was neither the sacrament, neither other ceremonies of the mass, image-service unto God; and holy deeds, to make satisfaction for our um sins, or to purchase such worldly things as the gospel teacheth d us to despise. And now compare this use of the mass to EH ours; and see whether the mass be not become the most x damnable idolatry and image-service that ever was in the 1 world. 5 s We never reconcile ourselves unto our brethren which 1 we have offended; we receive unto our mass the open sinners, E the covetous, the extortioners, the adulterer, the backbiter, the common whore, and the whore-keeper, which have no i part in Christ by the scripture; yea, such are suffered to P say the mass, as the use is now to speak; yea, such are we compelled, with the sword, to take for our pastors and curates I of our souls, and not so hardy to rebuke them. Neither do j they repent, and confess their sins, and promise amendment, or submit themselves to wholesome injunctions for the avoiding H of such sins and taming of their flesh. We say Confiteor, and knowledge ourselves to be sinners in Latin?, but never
[1 I confess. The title of a form of public confession of sins.] [2 In the Roman breviary, after the priest has recited the Confiteor]
[for himself, the choir replies for the people: Confiteor Deo omni-:]
[potenti, beatee Marie semper virgini, beato Michaeli archangelo, beato]
repent in English. The priest prayeth in Latin, and saith evermore a stil mass, as we say: for though he sing and strain his throat to cry loud unto them that be by him, yet as long as no man wotteth what he prayeth, or whether he bless or curse, he is dumb and speechless. And so, in that part, we abide fruitless, and untaught how to pray unto God. And the gospel is sung or said in Latin only; and no preaching of repentance toward the law and faith toward Christ had. And therefore abide we ever faithless, and without studying to amend our livings. And of the ceremonies of the mass we have none other imagination than that they be an holy service unto God; which he receiveth of our hands, and hath great delectation in them, and that we purchase great favour of God with them, as we do of great men here in the world with gifts and presents: insomuch that if the priest said mass without those vestments, or left the other ceremonies undone, we should all quake for fear; and think that there were a sin committed, enough to sink us all, and that the priest for his labour were worthy to be put in the bishop of Rome’s purgatory, and there to be burnt to ashes?,
And of the very sacrament itself we know no other thing than that we come thither to see an unseeable miracle, [ which they affirm the angels in heaven have no power to do; sed solis presbyteris, quibus sic congruit, ut sumant, nec dent ceteris: how that bread is turned into the body, and wine into the blood, Johanni Baptiste, sanctis apostolis Petro et Paulo, omnibus sanctis, et tibi pater (that is, to the officiating priest), quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo, et opere; mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Ideo precor beatam Mariam semper virginem, beatum Mi-chaelem archangelum, beatum Johannem Baptistam, sanctos apostolos Petrum et Paulum, omnes sanctos, et te, pater, orate pro me ad Dominum Deum nostrum. In feriali officio ad primam.—Ed. Colon. Agripp. 1680, p. 33—4.]
[3 The papal law says, Cum sacerdos ad solemnia missarum accedit, non aliter accedat quam orario utroque humero circumseptus, ita ut de uno eodemque orario cervicem pariter et utrumque humerum premens, signum in suo pectore prz;paret crucis. Si quis autem aliter egerit, excommunicationi debite subjaceat.—Decret. prima pars, Dist. xxrm. c. 9. Ecclesiastica.]
[4 See Vol. 1. p. 380, n. 4.]
[5 “But [the power belongs] to the priests only, to whom it is so fitted, that they may take [this power], but not give it to others.”]
of Christ, to mock our seeing, smelling, feeling, and tasting; Ἢ which is a very strong faith, and more a great deal (I think) than the text compelleth a man tol.] Nevertheless it were some- A what yet, if they had been as loving, kind, careful and diligent E to teach the people to repent, and to believe in the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, unto the glory of 7 the mercy of God, and of his exceeding love to us, and unto the profit of our souls; and, upon that preaching, to have ministered the sacrament as a memorial, remembrance, sign, token, earnest, the seal of an obligation, and clapping of hands ] together, for the assurance of the promise of God; to quiet, t stablish and certify our consciences, and to put us out of all 1 wavering and doubt, that our sins were forgiven us, and God beeome our father and at one with us, for which cause only Christ ordained it; [as they were zealous and fervent to maintain the opinion of so turning bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, that it ceaseth to be bread and 3 wine in nature, unto their own glory and profit, without help r of scripture, but with subtle arguments of sophistry and with 1 crafty wiles: first, with taking away half the sacrament, lest, if the people should have drunk the blood of Christ, they — should have smelled the savour and felt the taste of wine,, and so have been too weak to believe that there had been no. wine; and secondarily, when they durst not rob the people of all the sacrament, they yet took away common bread, and imagined maunchets which may not be handled, and in sight have no similitude of bread, and in eating very little taste, if there be any at all; and thirdly, whom they could not catch with those crafts, against him they disputed with the sword.] For when they had? taken away the signification =~ and very intent of the sacrament, to stablish the ear-con- $ fession, their merits, deservings, justifying of works, and like 3 invention, unto their own glory and profit; what had the ” sacrament been, if they had not made of that opinion an article of the faith? But now, when they have destroyed,
[[! Those passages in this page and in the remainder of this ex-]
[position which are included within brackets are found in D., but not]
[in the earlier P. C. L. edition.] [2 In P. C. L. now they have.] [3 In P. C. L., what doth the sacrament admonish us, of reconciling]
[us to God?]]
wiles, subtilty, falsehood; guile and with violence, that faith for the nonce, that faith which profited, and have set up with which profiteth not, we have good cause to judge and examine the doctrine of the spirits, whether it be grounded upon God’s word or no.
[But I ask, wherefore we believe that Christ’s body, and his blood, is there present? Verily, as many heads, as many wits; every man hath his meaning.] We take pains to come thither to see strange holy gestures, whereof, say they to their shame, who knoweth the meaning? [yea, or of the other disguising?] and to hear strange holy voices; whereof, say I also, that no man knoweth the understanding; and to look upon the sacrament; and allto obtain worldly things for that service. Why, may not all men desire worldly things of God? Yes, we ought to ask of God only sufficiency of all worldly things, as we do spiritual things, yet not for bodily service, seeing? God is a spirit; but for the goodness and mercy of our Father, and for the truth of his promise and deservings of his Son. And so, when we do men bodily service, we ought to look for our wages of God, lest if he move not the hearts of our masters, we be shrewdly paid; and likewise when we lend or bargain, we ought to desire God for payment, lest through our negligence he forget us, and the appointments be not truly kept. Some there be yet, that ask heaven but for bodily service: which is like abomination. But who cometh thither with repentance and faith, for to obtain forgiveness of his sins, and with purpose to walk in the life of penance for the taming of the flesh, that he sin no more; and to stablish his heart in that purpose, and to arm his soul against all that move to the contrary; and when he goeth home, is certified in his conscience, through that sign and token, that his sins are forgiven him: as Noah was certified by the sign of the rainbow, that the world should no more be overrun with water; and as Abraham was certified by the sign of circumcision, that God would fulfil to him and his offspring all the mercies that he had promised; and as Abraham, when he asked a sign, to be sure that he should possess the land of Canaan, was certified through the sign that God gave him thereof, and of the four hundred years, that his posterity should be in thraldom in Egypt, and of their de-
So but in when is substituted for seeing.]
liverance; and as Gideon was certified, by the sign of his — — fleece, of the victory that God had promised him; and as many other, that believed in God, were certified by the signs — that God gave them, of the promises which God made them? Verily, no man. For our prelates, which lay for themselves, = Compelle intrare!, compel not us to enter into any such feast — — nor will suffer any such meat to be set before us, for fear of overthrowing the foundation of their false building, whereof springeth so great glory and profit unto them; which foun- E dation, to build their lies upon, they could never have laid, except they had first thrust this doctrine, of our soul’s health, clean out of knowledge. And as soon as they had blinded the light, they became leaders in darkness, and made of the mass image-service; so that the strange holy gestures, [and the strange holy voices, and strange holy vestures, with all other strange holy ceremonies, must be meritorious works, to deserve long-life, health, riches, honour, favour, dignity, 4 and abundance of all that we have, forsaking our baptism, and to arm us from bearing of the cross with Christ. And they have made of it a pill, of two contrary operations; so that the same medicine, that preserveth our souls from purgatory, doth purge the body of house, lands, rents, goods and 2 money, [that it is made as bare as Job, and as bald as a coot?.] 1 And the light that rebuketh them, they call seditious, that it Ξ maketh the subjects to rise against their princes: which thing the hypocrites laid some time unto the prophets, as ye: may see in the old Testament; and at last they laid it unto - Christ’s charge, as ye may see in the gospel; and to the charge of the apostles, as ye may see in the Acts. But at: all such times the hypocrites themselves stirred up such a x sword, to maintain their falsehood, that evermore a great 3 part of the world perished through their own mischievous 1 [incensing and] provoking princes to battle. 1 [These hypocrites laid to Wicliffe’s charge, and do yet, A that his doctrine caused insurrection. But they, to quench the truth of his preaching, slew the right king, and set up three false kings a row?: by which mischievous sedition they
[[! Compel them to come in. Luke xiv. 23.] Η [2 A proverb taken from the appearance of this species of water- ἔξ]
[fowl, which has a callous white membrane spread over its forehead.) [3 See Exposition upon Matthew, p. 53. Tyndale charges the 3]
v. 21.] FIRST EPISTLE OF ST JOHN. 225 “X caused half England to be slain up, and brought the realm into such ruin and desolation that M. More could say, in his Utopia, that as Englishmen were wont to eat sheep, even so their sheep now eat up them by whole parishes at once, besides other inconveniences that he then saw. And so the say now likewise, that God’s word causeth insurrection: but ye shall see shortly that these hypocrites themselves, after their old wont and examples, in quenching the truth that uttereth their juggling, shall cause all realms christian to rise one against another, and some against themselves. Ye shall see them run out, before the year come about, that which they have been in brewing (as I have marked) above this dozen years, &oc.]
” This much I have said because of them that deceive you, to give you an occasion to judge the spirits. popish clergy with what he accounted the guilt of deposing Richard 11., and of transferring the crown to the house of Lancaster, when the hereditary right had devolved to the house of York.]
[15 [Tyndale, 1]]
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