[! That is, they bought the gross produce of the tribute; and overcharged the people in the collection of it.]
An Exposition of the Sixth Chapter
Take heed to your alms, that ye do it not before men, to be seen of them, or else ye get no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou givest alms, make not a trumpet to be blown before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, to be praised of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou givest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth, that thine alms may be in secret. And then thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
As he rebuked their doctrine above, even so here he rebuketh their works; for out of devilish doctrine can spring BO godly works. But what works rebuketh he? Verily Such as God in the scripture commandeth, and without which no man can be a christian man; even prayer, fasting, and ὡς alms-deed. For as the scripture, corrupt with glosses, is no more God’s word, even so the deeds commanded in the scripture (when the intent of them is perverted) are no more godly deeds. What said the scribes and Pharisees of him (think ye) when he rebuked such manner of works? No doubt, as they said, when he rebuked their false glosses, how he destroyed the law and the prophets, interpreting the scripture after the literal sense which killeth, and after his own brain, clean contrary to the common faith of holy church, and minds of great clerks, and authentic expositions of old holy doctors; even so here what other could they say than, Behold the heretic! and, Did not we tell you before whereto he would come, and that he kept some mischief behind, and spewed not out all his venom at once? see to what all his godly new doctrine that sounded so sweetly is come! He preached all of love, and would have the people saved by faith, so long till that now, at the last, he preacheth clean against all deeds of mercy, as prayer, fasting, and alms-deed, and destroyeth all good works. His disciples fast no more than dogs, they despise their divine service, and come not to church; yea, and if the holiest of all St Francis’ order ask them alms, they bid him labour with his hands, and get his living, and say that he that laboureth not is not worthy to eat, and that God bade that no such strong lubbers should loiter, and go a begging, and be chargeable to the congregation, and eat up that other poor men get with the sweat of
their bodies: yea, and at the last ye shall see, if we resist him not betimes, that he shall move the people to insurrection, as Caiphas said, and the Romans shall come and take our land from us’ As ye see in the text, Luke xxiii. how, when they could not drive the people from him with those pursuasions, they accused him to Pilate, saying: We have found this fellow perverting the people, and forbidding to pay tribute to Cesar, and saying that he is Christ, a king.” Wherefore “thou canst not be Camsar’s friend, if thou let him escape.” But after all these blasphemies, yet must the Holy Ghost rebuke the world of their righteousness, yea, of their false righteousness and false holiness, which are neither righteousness nor holiness, but colour of hypocrisy.
Christ here destroyeth not prayer, fasting, and alms-deed, but preacheth against the false purpose and intent of such works, and perverting the true use; that is to say, their seeking of glory, and that they esteemed themselves righteous thereby, and better than other men, and so despised and condemned their brethren. With our alms (which is as much to say as deeds of mercy), or compassion, we ought to seek our Father’s glory only, even the wealth of our brethren, and to win them to the knowledge of our Father and keeping of his law. He that seeketh the glory of his good works, seeketh the glory that belongeth to God, and maketh himself God. Is it not a blind thing of the world, that either they will do no good works at all, or will be God for their good works, and have the glory themselves?
Concerning blowing of trumpets, and ringing of bells, or making a cry, to call men to fetch alms, (though the right way be, that we should know in every parish all our poor, and have a common coffer for them; and that strangers should bring a letter of recommendation with them of their necessity, and that we had a common place to receive them into for the time; and though also we ought to flee all occasions of vain-glory,) yet while the world is out of order, it is not damnable to do it. So that the very meaning, both that we blow no trumpets, and that the left hand know not what the right hand doth, is, that we do as secretly as we can, and in no wise seek glory, or to receive it if it were proffered; but. to do our deeds in singleness of conscience to God, because it is his commandment, and even of pure compassion and love
to our brethren; and not that our good deeds, through standing in our own conceit, should cause us to despise them. If thou be tempted to vain-glory for thy good deeds, then look on thine evil thereto, and put the one in the one balance, and the other in the other. And then, if thou understand the law of God any thing at all, tell me, whether weigheth heavier. If that that thou doest do tempt thee, then consider what thou doest not. If it move thee to set up thy comb, when thou givest thy brother a farthing or a halfpenny, ponder in thine heart how far thou art off from loving him as well as thyself, and caring for him as much as for thyself. And be sure how much thou lackest of that, so much thou art in sin, and that in damnable sin, if God for Christ’s sake did not pardon thee, because thine heart mourneth therefore, and thou fightest with thyself to come to such perfection. If a peacock did look well on his feet, and mark the evil-favoured shrieking of his voice, he would not be so proud of the beauty of his tail. ius Finally, that many dispute, Because God hath promised to reward our deeds in heaven, that our deeds deserve heaven; and because he promiseth to shew mercy to the merciful, that with our deeds we deserve mercy; and because he promiseth forgiveness of sins to them that forgive, that our deeds deserve forgiveness of sin, and so justify us: I answer, first, there is enough spoken thereof in other places; so that to them that have read that it is superfluous to rehearse the matter again. Furthermore, the argument is naught, and holdeth by no rule. See ye not that the father and mother have more right to the child and to all it can do, than to an ox ora cow? Itis their flesh and blood, nourished up with their labour and cost. The life of it, and the maintenance and continuance thereof, is their benefit; so that it is not able to recompense that it oweth to father and mother by a thousand parts. And though it be not able to do his duty, nor for blindness to know his duty, yet the father and mother promise more gifts still without ceasing, and that such as they think should most make it to see love, and to provoke itto be wiling to do part of his duty. And when it hath done amiss, though it have no power to do satisfaction, nor lust or corage! to come to the right way again, yet their love
[1 Used as in Vol. I. p. 417, not for bravery, but for the inclination]
[of the heart.)]
and mercy abideth still so great to it, that upon appointment mending they not only forgive that is past, and fulfil their promise nevertheless?, but promise greater gifts than ever before, and to be better father and mother to it than ever were. Now when it cannot do that thousandth part of his duty, how could it deserve such promises of the father and mother, as a labourer doth his hire? The reward thereof cometh of the love, mercy, and truth of the father and mother, as well when the child keepeth the appointment, as when they fulfil their promise when it hath broken the appointment; and not of the deserving of the child.
Even so, if we were not thus drowned in blindness, we should easily see that we cannot do the thousandth part of of our duty to God: no, though there were no life to come. If there were no life to come, it were not right that I should us touch any creature of God otherwise than he hath appointed. Though there were no life to come, it had nevertheless been right that Adam had abstained from the forbidden apple-tree, and from all other too, if they had been forbid. Yea, and though there were no life to come, it were not the less right that I loved my brother, and forgave him to-day, seeing I shall sin against him to-morrow. Because a father cannot give his ehildren heaven, hath he no power to charge them tolove one another, and to forgive, and not to avenge one another? And hath he not right to beat them if they smite each other, because he cannot give them heaven? A bondman that hath a master more cruel than a reasonable man would be to a dog, if there were no heaven, might this bondservant accuse God of unrighteousness, because he hath not made him a master? Now, then, when we cannot do our duty by a thousand parts, though there were no such promises, and that the thing commanded is no less our duty though no such promise were; it is easy to perceive that the reward promised cometh of the goodness, mercy, and truth of the promiser, to make us the gladder to do our duty, and not of the deserving of the receiver. When we have done all we can, we ought to say in our heart, that it was our duty, and that we ought to do a thousand times more; and that God (if he had not promised us merey, of his goodness in Christ,) might yet of right damn us for that we have left undone.
not the later.]
And as touching forgiveness of sin: though forgiveness of sin be promised unto thee, yet challenge it not by thy merits, but by the merits of Christ’s blood; and hear what Paul saith: Concerning the righteousness of the law I was faultless,” or such as no man could rebuke; “but the things that were to vantage, I thought damage for Christ’s sake; yea, I think all thing to be damage, or loss, for the excellent knowledge’s sake of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whose sake I let all go to loss, and count them as chaff or refuse,” (that is to say, as things which are purged out, and refused, when a thing is tried and made perfect,) that I might win Christ, and might be found in him, not having my righteousness that cometh of the law, but that which cometh of faith in Christ Jesus; which righteousness cometh of God through faith, and is to know him and the power of his resurrection,” (how he is Lord over all sin, and the only thing that slayeth and vanquisheth sin), and to know also the fellowship of his passions, that 1 might be made like unto his death.”
So that when righteousness and true merits be tried, we must be content that ours be the chaff, and Christ’s the pure corn; ours the scum and refuse, and Christ’s the pure gold. And we must fashion ourselves like unto Christ, and take every man his cross, and slay and mortify the sin in the flesh; or else we cannot be partakers of his passion. The sin we do before our conversion is forgiven clearly through faith, if we repent, and submit ourselves to a new life. And the sin we do against our wills, (I mean the will of the Spirit; for after our conversion we have two wills, fighting one against the other,) that sin is also forgiven us through faith, if we repent and submit ourselves to amend. And our diligence in working keepeth us from sinning again, and minisheth the sin that remaineth in the flesh, and maketh us pure and less apt and disposed to sin; and it maketh us merry in adversities, and strong in temptations, and bold to go unto God with a strong and fervent faith in our prayers, and sure that we shall be heard when we cry for help at need, either for in ourselves or our brethren. Now, they that be negligent and us sin, are brought in temptation unto the point of desperation, and feel the very pains of hell; so that they stand in doubt whether God hath cast them away or no: and in adversity
VI 1—4.] MATTHEW V. VI. VIL 71 they be sorrowful and discouraged, and think that God is angry, and punisheth them for their sins. When a child taketh pain to do his father’s pleasure, and is sure that he shall have thank and a reward for his labour, he is merry, and rejoieeth in work and pain that he suffereth; and so is the adversity of them that keep themselves from sinning. But a child, when he is beaten for his fault, or when he thinketh his father is angry, and loveth him not, is anon desperate and discouraged: so is the adversity of them that are weak, and sin oft. A child that never displeaseth his father is bold in his father’s presence, to speak for himself or his friend: but he that oft offendeth, and is correct or chid, though the peace be made again, yet the remembrance of his offences maketh him fearful, and to mistrust, and to think his father would not hear him; so is the faith of the weak, that sin oft. But as for them that profess not a new living, however so much they dream of faith, they have no faith at all; for they have no promise, except they be converted to a new life. And therefore in adversities, temptation and death, they utterly despair of all mercy, and perish. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues, and in corners of the streets, that they might be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. Thou therefore, when thou prayest, go into thy chamber, and shut thy door, and pray to thy Father which is in secret. And thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
After alms followeth prayer. For as it is a christian man’s part to help his neighbour, and to bear with him when he is overcharged, and suffer with him, and to stand one by another, as long as we live here on this earth; even so, because we be ever in such peril and cumbrance that we cannot rid ourselves out, we must daily and hourly cry to God for aid and succour, as well for our neighbours as for ourselves,
To give alms, to pray, to fast, or to do any thing at all, whether between thee and God, or between thee and thy neighbour, canst thou never do to please God therewith, except thou have the true knowledge of God’s word to season thy deeds withal. For God hath put a rule in the scripture, without which thou canst not move an hair of thine head, but
that it is damnable in the sight of God. As it is of the Jews, though (as Paul beareth them record) they have a fervent zeal to God, yea, and have the scripture thereto; yet because they have not the true understanding, all is damnable that they do. Hypocrites with scraps of alms get an hundredfold. And with prayer they get praise, (as thou seest here); and pray thereto, and rob widows’ houses, as thou readest Matt. xxiii And with fasting they get fat bellies, full dishes, and ever more than enough. And yet there is none alms, praying, or fasting among them, in the sight of God. With their prayers they exclude all true prayers, and make it impossible that there should be any among them. For prayer is either a longing for the honour and name of God, that all men should fear him, and keep his precepts, and believe in him; and contrary to that, they seek their own honour, that men should fear them and keep their ordinances, and believe in their sweet blessings, prayers, pardons, and whatsoever they promise: if they bid fast, thou must do it or be damned, and be an heretic and rebellious to holy church: if they dispense, and give thee clean remission for to eat flesh on Good Friday, though thou be never so lusty, thou must obey, or else thou art damned, and an heretie, because thou dost not believe in holy church. Either prayer is, to give God thanks for the benefits received: contrary to which, they will first have thanks of the world for their prayers, and rob not only widows’ houses, but also lord, prince, emperor, and all the world, of house and land; yea, and of their wits too. And then they bind God to thank them, and to give them (beside the thanks which they have gotten in the world) not only heaven and a higher place, but that he give heaven to no other man, save through their merits. Either prayer is a complaining and a shewing of thine own misery and necessity, or of thy neighbour’s before God; desiring him, with all the power of thine heart, to have compassion and to succour. Contrary to this, they have excluded with their prayers all necessity and misery from among them. They be lords over all, and do what they will through the whole world. King and emperor are their servants; they need but say the word, and their will is fulfilled. And as for their neighbours, they have no compassion upon them, to bring their complaints before God; but with
their prayers rob them of that little they have, and so make them more miserable.
Of entering into the chamber and shutting the door toI say as above, (of that the left hand should not know what the right hand doth,) the meaning is, that we should avoid all worldly praise and profit, and pray with a single eye and true intent according to God’s word; and [it] is not forbidden thereby to pray openly. For we must have a place to come together, to pray in general, to thank and to cry to God for the common necessities, as well as to preach the word of God in: where the priest ought to pray in the mother tongue, that the name of God may be hallowed, and his word faithfully taught and truly understood, and faith and godly living increased; and for the king and rulers, that God will give them his Spirit, to love the commonwealth; and for peace, that God will defend us from all enemies; for wedering! and fruits, that God will keep away pestilence and all plagues. And the priest should be an example to the people how they should pray. There be, of such things as the priests and other babble (and not pray), many good collects, that should much edify the people, if they were spoken in the mother tongue. And then, while the priests sing psalms, let every man pray privately, and give God thanks for such benefits as his heart knoweth he hath received of God, and commend to God his private necessities, and the private necessities of his neighbours which he knoweth, and is privy io. Neither is there, in all such, any jeopardy of vain-glory. But and if God hath given any man the spirit of praying, as all men have not like gifts, that he pray oft and when other do not; then to have a secret place to pray in, both for the avoiding of vain-glory and speech of people, and that thou mayest be free to use thy words as thou lustest, and whatsoever gestures and behaviours do move thee most to devotion, is necessary and good.
. And, finally: whatsoever necessity thou hast, though thou feel thyself a great sinner, yet if thine heart be to amend, let not that discourage thee: but go boldly to thy Father, seeing thou hast his commandment ever to pray, and promise that he wil hear thee, not for thy goodness, but of his goodness, and for his truth.
Saxon; pzvenunz, inclement weather
Moreover, when ye pray, babble not much as the heathen do. For they think that they shall be heard for their much babbling’s sake. Be not, therefore, like unto them. For your Father knoweth of what things ye have need, before ye ask him. Of this manner, therefore, pray ye: O! Our Father, which art in heaven, honoured be thy name, thy kingdom come. Thy will be fulfilled, even in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our trespassers. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory for ever. Amen.
As before he rebuked their false intent in praying, that they sought praise and profit of that work, which ought to be direct to God alone, either to give him thanks, that is to say, to be aknowen, and to confess in the heart that all we have cometh of him; or to call upon him for aid and succour in temptations and all necessity: even so here he rebuketh the a false kind of praying, wherein the tongue and lips labour, and all the body is pained, but the heart talketh not with God, nor feeleth any sweetness at all, nor hath any confidence in the promises of God; but trusteth in the multitude of words, and in the pain and tediousness of the length of the prayer; as a conjuror doth in his circles, characters, and superstitious words of his conjuration: as ye see now to be among our friars, monks, canons and nuns, and even throughout all the spiritualty; which (as I have proved above) have, with their false intent of praying, excluded all occasions and the whole matter of true prayer, and have turned it into à bodily labour, to vex the tongue, lips, eyes, and throat with - roaring, and to weary all the members; so that they say (and may truly swear it) that there is no greater labour in the world than prayer; for no labour, whatsoever it be, when the body is compelled, and the heart unwilling, can be other than grievous and painful. But true prayer (if they complained and sought help either for themselves, or for their neighbours, and trusted in the promise of God) would so comfort the soul and courage the heart, that the body, though it were half dead and more, would revive and be lusty again, and the labour would be short and easy: as for an ensample; if thou were so oppressed that thou were weary of thy life, and wentest to the king for help, and haddest sped, thy spirits would so rejoice, that thy body would receive her
strength again, and be as lusty as ever it was; even so the promises of God work joy above all measure, where they be believed in the heart.
But our hirelings have no God’s word, but trust in the multitude of words, length of babbling, and pain of body, as bond servants: neither know they any other virtue to be in prayer; as ye may see by the ordinances of all foundations. King Henry the Fifth built Sion, and the Charterhouse of Shene! on the other side of the water, of such a manner that lip-labour may never cease. For when the friars of Sion ring out, the nuns begin; and when the nuns ring out of service, the monks on the other side begin; and when they ring out, the friars begin again, and vex themselves night and day, and take pain for God’s sake; for which God must give them heaven. Yea, and I have known of some ere this, that for very pain and tediousness have bidden the devil take their founders. They call Lent the holiest time of the year: but wherein is that holiness? Verily, in multitude of words, and the tedious length of service. For let them begin at six, and it will be twelve or they can end; in which time they be so wearied, that by the time they have dined, they have lust to nothing save to sleep. And in the end of all they think no farther, than that God must reward their pain. And if you ask how they know it? they will answer: He must reward if, or be unrighteous. Now, God looketh not on the pain of the prayer, but on thy faith in his promise and goodness; neither yet on the multitude of thy words, or long babbling: for he knoweth thy matter better than thou thyself. And though the Jews and the heathen were so foolish, through their unbelief, to babble many words, yet were they never so mad as to mumble and buz out words that they understood not. Thou wilt say, What matter maketh it if I speak words which I understand not, or if I pray not at all, seeing God knoweth my matter already? I answer: He will have thee to open thine heart to him, to inform and edify thine ownself, (that thou mightest know how all goodness is of him,) to put thy trust and confidence in him, and to fly to him in time of need, and to be thankful, and to love him and obey his commandments, and turn and [! Shene; whose name Henry VIL changed to Richmond, his own early title.]
6
[Tyndale, 11.]
[Ἐπὶ]
be converted unto thy Lord God; and not to run wild as the ungodly do, which know not the benefits of God, and therefore be unthankful to obey his commandments.
And that thou mayest know how, and what to pray, he giveth thee a short instruction and ensample, saying, After this manner pray:
Our Father, which art in heaven
First, thou must go to him as a merciful Father; which of his own goodness and fatherly love, that he beareth to thee, is ready to do more for thee than thou canst desire, though thou have no merits, but because he is thy Father, only if thou wilt turn, and henceforth submit thyself to learn to do his will.
Honoured be thy name
Honoured and praised be thy name; or honoured and is ’ praised be thou: for to honour God, and to honour the name of God, is all one. And to honour the name of God is to dread him, to love him, and to keep his commandments. For when a child obeyeth his father, he honoureth and praiseth his father: and when he is rebellious and disobedient, he dishonoureth his father. This is, then, the understanding and meaning of it. O Father, seeing thou art Father over all, pour out thy Spirit upon all flesh, and make all men to fear, and dread, and love thee as their Father, and in keeping thy commandments to honour thee and thy holy name.
Thy kingdom come
must That is, seeing thou art king over all, make all to know nor thee; and make the kings and rulers, which are but thy substitutes, to command nothing but according to thy word, and to them make all subjects obey.
Thy will be fulfilled in earth as it is in heaven
This is all one with that goeth before. Forasmuch, then, as thou art Father and king over all, and all we thy children and brethren among ourselves, make us all as obedient to seek and to do thy will, as the angels do in heaven. Make that no man seek his own will, but all thine. But and if thou withdraw thine hand, to tempt thy children, that the
γι. 7—13.] MATTHEW V. VI. VII. 83 n rulers command ought contrary to thy will, then make the subjects to stand fast by thy word, and to offer themselves to suffer all extremity rather than to obey. Finally, when we pray to thee in our temptations and adversities, desiring thee of whatsoever thing it be, and mean truly; yet if thou, which knowest all, seest a better way to thy glory and our profit, then thy wil be, and not ours: as thy son Jesus gave us an ensample, when he desired (if it had been possible) that that cup of bitter death might have departed from him, saying, “Yet not as I will, but as thou wilt.”
Give us our daily bread
By bread is understood all manner of sustenance, in the Hebrew speech; yea, and here is understood thereby all that 3 ” « qe pertaineth unto the necessity of this life. If we have bread, there is dearth of nothing that can pinch, namely! in that land. Give us our daily bread. Give us all that the necessity of this life daily requireth. Give us it day by day as we need it. We desire not to have store for many years, to exclude all necessity of praying to thee, and to be, as it were, out of thy danger, and to forget thee: but minister it day by day, that we may daily feel thy benefits, and never forget thee. Or if thou give us abundance above that we desire, then give us an heart to use it, and to bestow it for that purpose thou gavest it, and to deal? with our neighbours, and not to love it inordinately; but to think that it is thine, and that thou mayest take it away every hour, and that we be content that thou 80 do at thy pleasure; and so ever to have it but for daily bread.
- Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive our trespassers.
Because he knoweth that our nature is so weak that we cannot but sin daily; therefore he teacheth us daily to repent, and to reconcile ourselves together, and daily to ask God forgiveness. Seeing he commandeth us to ask, we may be bold so to do, and to believe that he will forgive us. No man, therefore, needeth to despair, that ean repent and ask forgiveness, however so deep he hath sinned. And, methinketh, if we looked somewhat nearer to this text, we needed not make
[[! Namely, i. e. especially in the land of Canaan, where Christ was]
[when he spoke this prayer.] {2 Deal, i. e. divide.]]
the pope so great a god, for his pardons. For Christ (which way is a man to be believed) sheweth us here a more sure way; yea, and that a sensible way, by which we may feel that we be pardoned, and our sins forgiven. We can have no experience of the pope’s things, whether they be so or no. He can with all his pardons deliver no man of any purgatory that God putteth us unto in this world. He cannot bless, or heal any man so much as of a poor ague, or tooth-ache; which diseases yet (by his own confession) God putteth on us to purge us from sin. But where we cannot see, feel or have any experience at all, that it so is, there is he mighty. If I were come home out of a land where never man was before, and were sure never man should come, I might tell as many wonders as Master More doth of Utopia, and no man could rebuke me.
But here Christ maketh thee sure of pardon; for if thou canst forgive thy brother, God hath bound himself to forgive thee. What if no man have sinned against me? That were hard in this life; nevertheless yet, if that profession be in thine heart, that thou knowest that it is thy duty to forgive thy brother for thy Father’s sake, and art obedient to thy Father’s ordinance, and wouldest forgive, if any of thy brethren had offended thee, and did ask thee forgiveness; then hast thou that same spirit which God desireth to be in thee. Mark what Christ saith above, in the beginning of the fifth chapter: — Blessed be the merciful, for they shall have mercy.” Dost thou pity thy brethren that sin, and dost thy best to amend them, that thy Father’s name may be honoured? Then hast thou that, whereby thou art sure of mercy as soon as thou desirest it. And again: “Blessed be the peace-makers, for they shall be God’s children.” Lo, if there be any variance among thy brethren, that one have offended the other, do thy best to set them at one, and thou hast the same thing that God desireth of thee, and for which he hath bound himself to forgive thee.
Lead us not into temptation
That is, let us not slip out of thy lease!, but hold us fast; give us not up, nor cease to govern us, nor take thy Spirit
[[! Lease, or Leash; a cord or thong, by which the huntsman held]
[one or more dogs. ]]
from us. For as a hound cannot but follow his game when he seeth it before him, if he be loose; so can we not but fall into sin when occasion is given us, if thou withdraw thine hand from us. Lead us not into temptation. Let no temptation fall upon us greater than thine help in us; but be thou stronger in us than the temptation thou sendest, or lettest come upon us. Lead us not into temptations. Father, though we be negligent, yea, and unthankful and disobedient to thy true prophets; yet let not the devil loose upon us to deceive us, with his false prophets, and to harden us in the way in which we gladly walk, as thou diddest Pharaoh with the false miracles of his sorcerers; as thine apostle Paul threateneth usA little thread holdeth a strong man, where he gladly is. A little pulling draweth a man, whither he gladly goeth. A little wind driveth a great ship, with the stream. A light persuasion is enough to make a lecherous man believe that fornication is no sin; and an angry man, that it is lawful to avenge himself, and so forth, by all the corrupt nature of man. A little miracle is able to confirm and harden a man in that opinion and faith which his blind reason believeth already. A few false miracles were sufficient to persuade the covetousness of Pharaoh, and his greediness to hold the children of Israel in bondage for their service, that thy true miracles, shewed by Moses for their deliverance, were not of thee, but of the same kind, and done by the same craft, as were the miracles of his sorcerers, and so to harden his heart.
Even so, Father, if thou give us over for our unkindness, seeing the blind nature of man delighteth in evil, and is ready to believe lies, a little thing is enough to make them that love not to walk in thy truth, (and therefore never able to understand thy Son’s doctrine, John vii.) for to believe the feignings of our most holy father, all his superstitious popery and invisible and to harden them therein. As a stone cast up into the air ean neither go any higher, neither yet there abide, when the power of the hurler ceaseth to drive it; even so, Father, seeing our corrupt nature can but go downward only, and the devil and the world driveth thereto that same way, how ean we proceed further in virtue or stand therein, if thy power cease inus? Lead us not therefore, O merciful Father, into temptation, nor cease at any time to govern us.
Now, seeing the God of all mercy, which knoweth thine
infirmity, eommandeth thee to pray in all temptation and adversity, and hath promised to help, if thou trust in him; what excuse is it to say, when thou hast sinned, I could not stand of myself; when his power was ready to help thee, if thou haddest asked?
But deliver us from evil. First, as above, let us not fall into temptation. Secondarily, if we be fallen (as who liveth and falleth never? For never to fall were enough to make a man as evil as Lucifer, and to believe that he stood by his own power: if therefore we be fallen) even to the bottom, howsoever deep it be, put in thine arm after, (for it is long and strong enough,) and pluck us out again.
Thirdly, deliver us from evil, and pluck us out of the flesh, and the world, and the power of the devil; and place us in thy kingdom, where we be past all jeopardy, and where we cannot sin any more. For the kingdom, and the power and the glory, is thine for ever. Amen. Because that thou only art the king, and all other but substitutes, And because all power is thine, and all other men’s power but borrowed of thee; therefore ought all honour and obedience to be thine of right, as chief Lord; and none to be given other men, but only for the office they hold of thee. Neither ought any creature to seek any more in this world than to be a brother, till thou have put him in office; then (if brotherliness will not help, which he ought first to prove) let him execute thy power. Neither may any man take authority of himself, till God have chosen him; that is to wit, till he be chosen by the ordinance that God hath set in the world, to rule it. Finally, no king, lord, master, or what ruler he be, hath absolute power in this world, and is the very thing which he is called; for then they ceased to be brethren still, neither could they sin, whatsoever they commanded. But now their authority is but a limited power, which when they transgress, they sin against their brethren, and ought to reconcile themselves to their brethren, and to ask forgiveness; and they are bound to forgive. and Finally, let kings, rulers, and officers remember that God js the very king, and refer the honour that is given to them for their offices’ sake to him, and humble themselves to him,
VL 18—15.] MATTHEW V. VI. VIL 87 and knowledge and confess in their hearts, that they be but brethren, and even no better before God, than the worst of their subjects. So be it!. For if ye forgive men their faults, your heavenly Father shall forgive youalso. But and if ye do not forgive men their faults, no more shall your Father forgive your faults.
This is God’s covenant with us, and a confirmation of the petition above rehearsed in the Pater-noster: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive our trespassers.” If thou wilt enter into the covenant of thy Lord God, and forgive thy brother; then whatsoever thou hast committed against God, if thou repent and ask him forgiveness, thou art sure that thou art so absolved by these words, that none in heaven nor earth can bind thee; no, though our most holy father curse thee as black as coals, seven foot under the earth, and seven foot above, and cast all his lightning upon thee, to burn thee to powder. Keep the covenant of the Lord thy God therefore, and fear no bugs. But and if thou wilt not come within the covenant of God, or if, when thou hast professed it, and received the sign thereof, thou cast the yoke of the Lord from off thy neck, be thou sure thou art bound by these words so fast that none in heaven or in earth can loose thee; no, though our earthish god whisper all his absolutions over thee, and claw thee, and stroke thine head with all his sweet blessings.
Furthermore, though forgiveness of thy sins be annexed to thy work and forgiving thy brother; yet do not (as I said) thy works justify thee before God. But the faith in Christ’s blood, and in the promises made to us for his sake, doth bring righteousness into the heart. And the righteousness of the heart by faith is felt and known by the work: as Peter, in the first of his second epistle, commandeth to do good works, for to make our vocation and election sure; that we might feel our faith, and be certified that it is right. For except a man be proved and tried, it cannot be known, neither to himself or other men, that he is righteous and in the true faith. Take an example, lest thou be beguiled with sophistry. Christ saith, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman taketh and hideth in three pecks of meal till all be leavened,” or sour. Leaven is sometimes taken in an evil
Ww 88 EXPOSITION OF [caar. sense, for the doctrine of the Pharisees, which corrupted the sweetness of the word of God with the leaven of their glosses; and sometime in a good sense, for the kingdom of heaven, that is to say, the gospel and glad tidings of Christ. For as leaven altereth the nature of dough, and maketh it thorough sour; even so the gospel turneth a man into a new life, and altereth him a little and a little, first the heart, and then the members. Faith in Christ first certifieth the conscience of the forgivefuf ness of sins, and delivereth us from the fear of everlasting ^ damnation; and then bringeth the love of God and of his law into the heart, which love is the righteousness of the heart. Love bringeth good works into the members; which works are the outward righteousness, and the righteousness of the members. To hate the will of God is the unrighteousness of the heart; and causeth evil works, which are the unrighteousness of the members: as when I hated my brother, my tongue spake evil, my hands smote, and so forth. To love is the righteousness of the heart; and causeth good works, which are the righteousness of the members: as if I love my brother, and he have need of me, and be in poverty, love will make me put mine hand into my purse, or almonry, and to give him somewhat to refresh him, &c. That the love of God and of his commandments is the righteousness of the heart, doth no man ^ doubt, save he that is heartless. And that love springeth of faith, thou mayest evidently see, 1 John ii.: He that loveth his brother dwelleth in the light. But he that hateth his brother, is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and wotteth not whither he goeth; for darkness hath blinded his eyes.” Why is he that hateth in darkness? Verily, because he seeth not the love of God in Christ: for if he saw that, he could not but love his brother for so kind a father’s sake. If any man hate his brother, be thou sure that the same man is in darkness, and hath not the light of true faith, nor seeth what Christ hath done. If a man so love that he can forgive his brother, assure thyself that he is in the light of the true faith, and seeth what mercy is shewed him in Christ.
This is then the sum of all together: works are the outward righteousness before the world, and may be called the righteousness of the members, and spring of inward love. Love is the righteousness of the heart, and springeth of faith. Faith is the trust in Christs blood, and is the gift of God;
whereunto a man is drawn of the goodness of God, and driven through true knowledge of the law, and of beholding his deeds in the lust and desire of the members unto the request. of the law, and with seeing his own damnation in the glass of the law. For if a man saw his own damnation in the law, he should immediately hate God and his works, and utterly despair, except God offered him Christ, and forgave all that were past, and made him his son, and took the damnation of the law away, and promised that if he would submit himself to learn and to do his best, that he should be accept as well as an angel in heaven; and thereto, if he fell of frailty, and not of malice and stubbornness, it should be forgiven upon amendment, and that God would ever take him for his son, and only chastise him at home when he did amiss, after the most fatherliest manner, and as easily as his disease would suffer, but never bring him forth to be judged after the rigorousness of the law. And as thou couldest not see leaven, though thou brakest up a loaf, except thou smelledst or tastedst the sourness, even so couldest thou never see true faith or love, except thou sawest works; and also sawest the intent and meaning of the worker, lest hypocrisy deceive thee.
Our deeds are the effect of righteousness, and thereto an outward testimony and certifying of the inward righteousness, as sourness is of leaven. And when I say faith justifieth, the
understanding is, that faith receiveth the justifying. God promiseth to forgive us our sins, and to impute us for full righteous. And God justifieth us actively: that is to say, forgiveth us, and reckoneth us for full righteous. And Christ’s blood deserveth it; and faith in the promise receiveth it, and certifieth the conscience thereof. Faith challengeth it for Christ’s sake, which hath deserved all that is promised; and cleaveth ever to the promise, and truth of the promiser; and pretendeth not the goodness of her work, but knowledgeth that our works deserve it not, but are erowned and rewarded with the deservings of Christ. Take an ensample of young children, when the father promiseth them a good thing for the doing of some trifle, and, when they come for their reward, dallieth’ with them, saying: What, that thou hast done is not worth half so much: should I give thee so great thing for so little a trifle?’ they will answer: Ye did promise me: ye said, I
So but delayeth.]
should have it: why did ye promise, and why then did ye say so?’ And let him say what he will to drive them off, they will ever say again, Ye did promise me, so ye did: ye said I should have it, so ye did. But hirelings will pretend! their work, and say, ‘I have deserved it: I have done so much, and so much, and my labour is worth it.’
Now at the first covenant-making with God, and as oft as we be reconciled, after we have sinned, the righteousness cometh of God altogether. But after the atonement is made and we reconciled, then we be partly righteous in ourselves and unrighteous; righteous as far as we love, and unrighteous as far as the love is unperfect. And faith in the promise of God, that he doth reckon us for full righteous, doth ever supply that unrighteousness and imperfectness, as it is our whole righteousness at the beginning. are Finally, our works which God commandeth, and unto which he annexed his promises that he will reward them, are as it were very sacraments, and visible and sensible signs, tokens, earnest obligations, witnesses, testimonies, and a sure certifying of our souls, that God hath and will do according to his promise, to strength our weak faith, and to keep the promise in mind. But they justify us not, no more than the visible works — of the sacraments do. As for example, the work of baptism, that outward washing, which is the visible sacrament or sign, justifieth us not. But God only justifieth us actively, as cause efficient or workman. God promiseth to justify whosoever is baptized to believe in Christ, and to keep the law of God; that is to say, to forgive them their fore sins, and to impute righteousness unto them, to take them for his sons, and to love them as well as though they were full righteous. Christ hath deserved us that promise, and that righteousness. And faith doth receive it; and God doth give it and impute it to faith, and not to the washing. And the washing doth testify it, and certify us of it, as the pope’s letters do certify the believers of the pope’s pardons. Now the letters help not or hinder, but that the pardons were as good without them, as with them? save only to stablish weak souls, that could not believe except
[1 Allege as giving a legal claim; from the use of the word pre-]
[tendo in law Latin. So Gesners Thesaurus, Barbaris pretender est]
[postulare tanquam jure sibi suo debitum.] [280 L., but the last three words are not in D.]]
they read the letters, looked on the seal, and saw the print of St Peter’s keys.
O a merciful God, and a most loving Father, how careth he for us! First, above all and beside all his other benefits, to give us his own Son Jesus, and with him to give us himself and all; and not content therewith, but to give us so many sacraments, or visible signs, to provoke us and to help our weak faith, and to keep his mercy in mind: as baptism, the sacrament of his body and blood, and as many other sacraments as they will have, if they put significations to them (for we destroy none, but they destroy which have put out the significations, or feigned some without), as wedlock, to signify that Christ is the husband and we his wife and partakers with him, as the wife with her husband, of all his riches, &e. And beyond all those visible sacraments, to give us yet more sensible and surer sacraments, and surances of his goodness, even in our ownselves: as if welove and give alms to our neighbour, if we have compassion and pray for him, if we be merciful and forgive him, if we deny ourselves, and fast, and withdraw all pleasures from the flesh, for love of the life to come, and to keep the commandments of God. For when such things being before impossible, and now are easy and natural, we feel and are sure that we be altered, and? a new creature, shapen in righteousness after the image of Christ and God our Father, seeing his laws of righteousness are written in our hearts. When ye fast, be not sad as the hypocrites are. For they fashion them a new countenance, that it might appear unto men how they fast. - Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. Thou therefore, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that it appear not unto men how thou fastest; but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. As above of alms and prayer, even so here Christ rebuketh the false intent and hypocrisy of fasting; that they sought praise of that work that was ordained for to tame the flesh, and used such fashions, that all the world might know that they fasted, to praise them, and to say, O what holy men are these; how pale and pitiful look they, even like death, hanging down their heads, and beholding the earth, as men clean out of the world! If these come not to heaven, what shall become of us poor wretches of the world? If these be not great in the
So but in and of a new
favour of God, and their prayers be heard whatsoever they ask, in what case are we lay people? Happy is he that may be a brother among them, and partaker of their prayers and fastings, and other holy living. In an unhappy (in an happy, I would say) hour was he born that buildeth them a cell or a cloister, or giveth them a portion of his land to comfort them good men in this painful living, and strait penance which they have taken upon them. Blessed were he that might kiss the edge of the coat of one of them. Oh, he that might have his body wrapped in one of their old coats at the hour of death, it were as good to him as his christendom?, &c.” It appeareth also by that they asked Christ, why his disciples fasted not as well as the Pharisees, that they oft fasted when the common people fasted not, and all to appear holy; as ours fast advent, and begin before lent at Septuagesima, when Laus tibi Domine? cometh in. ~~ And concerning the anointing of thy head, &c. is meant, as afore of turning the other cheek, and of that the left hand should not know what the right did: that is, that they should avoid all vain-glory, and fast to God, and for the intent that God ordained it for, and that with a merry heart and cheerful countenanee, thereby to feel the working of God, and to be sure of his favour. Such is the meaning, and not to bind them that will fast to anoint their heads and wash their faces. And the manner or phrase of speaking cometh of an usage, that was among the Jews, to anoint themselves with sweet and odoriferous anointments, when they were disposed to be merry and to make good cheer, as ye see how Mary of Bethany poured a box of precious ointment upon Christ’s head at supper.
As concerning fasting, it were good, that kings and rulers did set an order of soberness among their subjects, to avoid dearth, innumerable diseases, and the great heap of vices that spring of intemperancy; and that they forbid not only riot and excess, but also all manner wanton, delicious, and customable eating and drinking of such things as corrupt the people, and
[[ Christening. ] [2 Praise to thee, O Lord. From Septuagesima to Palm Sunday]
[the Roman breviary directs the omission of Te Deum in the Sunday]
[service; and Laus tibi Domine is then added as a ninth responsorium]
[in its stead.] i]
make the men more effeminate than the women, so that there remaineth no more tokens of a man in them save their beards. Our fashions of eating make us slothful, and unlusty to labour and study; unstable, inconstant, and light-mannered; full of wits, after-witted (as we call it), incircumspect, inconsiderate, heady, rash, and hasty to begin unadvisedly, and without casting of perils, the end not considered what may follow, nor the means well looked upon, how and by what way the matter might be brought to pass, triflers, mockers, rude, unsavoury jesters without all manner of salt, and even very apes and marmosets, and full of wanton and ribaldish communication and lewd gestures. It corrupteth the wit with false judgment, and infeeteth the body with lust, and maketh the whole man so unquiet in himself, that the body cannot sit still and rest in one place, and continue in his work, nor the mind persevere and endure in one purpose.
Let them provide that there be diligent fishing in the sea, and command the sea coast, and towns whither fish may easily come, to fast Friday, Saturday, and Wednesday too, if need be, and.on the Friday to eat no white meat. And let the countries which have none abundance of fish, yet have white meat enough, fast Friday and Saturday from flesh only. And let those countries where scarcity of both is, fast Friday from flesh only, and eat flesh Wednesday and Saturday; but abstain from supper, or from dinner, or eat soberly those days. And let them so moderate their fasts that the people may bear it, a provision made for the old, the sick, and feeble, &c.: which fast shall be a temporal thing, for a temporal commonwealth only, and not a service to God.
Then let the priests preach first the law truly, and teach the people to see their sins, and so bring them to repentance; and secondarily, the faith of Christ, and the forgiveness of sin through faith; and thirdly, alms, prayer, and fasting, which are the whole life of a christian man, and without which there is no christian man alive. And let them preach the true use of their alms, which is to help thy neighbour with counsel, with body and goods, and all that is in thy power; and the true use of prayer, which is to bring his necessity and thine own before God, with a strong faith in his promises; and the true use of fasting, which is to tame the flesh
[3 So but unsavoury jesture.]
unto the spirit, that the soul may attend to the word of God and pray through faith.
By these three we keep the Spirit of God; and both how continue, and also grow in righteousness, and wax perfecter and perfecter in soul and body. And if these fail, or that we understand not the right intent, we lose the Spirit again, and the righteousness of faith, and the true understanding of the scripture, and all our learning shall be but pure darkness. And then what a blindness is that, when the darkness of hell is called the light of heaven!
As it is of alms and prayer, so it is of fasting: judge me like! of all three. Where any one of them is, there are they all three: and where any one is away, there is none at all. We must have the profession of all three ever written in our hearts. I must ever love my neighbour and be ready to help, and when occasion is offered, then do it. I ought to consider and know that all cometh of God; and to knowledge that same to him in mine heart. And whatsoever we need, we ought to know that we must receive that of God, and therefore to call ever to him with a strong faith. Even so I must ever fight against my flesh, and therefore ever withdraw from it all that moveth it to rebel against the Spirit.
0. now fasting standeth not in eating and drinking only, "" and much less in flesh alone; but in abstinence of all that moveth the flesh against the Spirit, as long sleeping, idleness, and filthy communication, and all worldly talking, as of covetousness and promotion and such like, and wanton company, soft clothes, and soft beds, and so forth; which are that right hand and right eye, that must be cut off and plucked out, that the whole man perish not. And as ye can put no general rule of alms or prayer, no more can ye of fasting. But I must be always ready to cut off whatsoever I perceive to strength the flesh against the Spirit. And I must have a diligent eye to the flesh and his complexion; and, if aught escape me in word or deed, seek whence the occasion came, and at once cut off that right hand, and pluck If this fast be truly preached, then is fasting good, and out that eye.
[crtes, if the not afore, for making of hypocrites: as Christ would not let [! So D., but in L. like is wanting. ]]
[w^r his disciples fast before they were learned, lest they should]
thereby have been no better than the Pharisees. And then the outward fasting, ordained by the temporal rulers, helpeth much for the weak’s sake. Yea, and though the land were so plenteous, that it needed not to command such fast for to avoid dearth, yet they ought to set such up, because of them that cannot rule themselves; for whose sakes they ought to forbid excesses of taverns, and alehouses, and rioting out of season, For if the people could rule themselves, what need rulers? Moreover, if any man privately shew the priest his infirmities, and the priest see any manner of abstinence or chastising apt for the person, that let him counsel him to do for the subduing of the flesh; and not command as a tyrant, under pain of damnation, and to make satisfaction. Thuswise let him say: Brother or sister, ye be bound under pain of deadly sin to tame your flesh by some manner of way, that ye sin not against God; and I know no better than this: My counsel and my desire therefore is, that ye use this, till either ye have no more need, or till God shew you some better, &c. And let elders consider diligently the course of their youth, and with wisdom, counsel, and discreet governance help the younger to avoid the perils and jeopardies which they have learned, by their own experience, to be in that dangerous journey.
Moreover, when the people be fallen from their profession, and from the law; as it shall be impossible for the preacher to keep the great multitude together, if the temporal sword be slack and negligent in punishing open offences (as they ever have and will be, save in those points only wherein lieth the pith of their own profit and advantage, and the weight of their honour and maintenance of their dignities); and when God also (as his promise is) hath brought upon them the curses of the law, hunger, death, battle, pestilence and all manner of plagues, with all misfortune and evil luck; then let the true preachers be importune, and shew the people the causes of their misery and wretched adversity; and expound the law to them, and bring them to knowledge of their sins; and so bind their and draw them to repentance, and to the appointament and covenant of the Lord again: as many holy prophets, priests, and kings in the old Testament did call the people back, and brought them again in time of adversity unto the appointment of the Lord; and the priest, prophet, or king,
96 EXPOSITION OF [cnap. in God’s stead smote hands with them, and took an oath of them, to be the Lord’s people, and to turn again to the Lord’s covenant, for to keep his law and to believe in his promises: and God immediately withdrew his hand, and rid them out of all captivity and danger, and became as merciful as ever before. 3 have But we Christians have been very seldom, or never, called again to the covenant of the Lord, the law of God, and io. faith of Christ; but to the covenant of the pope often: as he now clucketh apace for his chickens, and will both prove all his old policies, and seek and imagine new practices. And if the people come again, let the priest or bishop, after the ensample of the prophets and high priests of the Israelites, take an oath, in God’s stead, of the king and lords. And let the king and lords receive an oath of the people, and follow the ensample of the Ninevites in fasting and praying.
Some men will say, Seeing fasting is to withdraw all pleasures from the body and to punish the flesh, then God delighteth in our pain-taking, &c. I answer: God delighteth in true obedience, and in all that we do at his commandment, and for the intent that he commandeth it for. If thou love and pity thy neighbour, and help him, thy alms is acceptable. If thou do it of vain-glory, to have the praise that belongeth to God, or for a greater profit only, or to make satisfaction for thy sins past, and to dishonour Christ’s blood, which hath made it already; then is thine alms abominable. If thy prayer be thanks in heart, or calling to God for help, with trust in him according to his promise, then thy prayer pleaseth. If thou believe in Christ’s blood for the remission of sins, and henceforth hatest sin, that thou punishest thy body to slay! thy lusts, and to keep them under, that thou sin not again; then it pleaseth God exceedingly. But and if thou think that God delighteth in the work for the work itself, the true intent away, and in thy pain for thy pain itself, thou art as far out of the way as from heaven to the earth. If thou wouldest kill thy body, or, when it is tame enough, pain him further that thou wert not able to serve God and thy neighbour according to the room and estate thou art in; thy sacrifice were clean without salt, and altogether unsavoury in the taste of God, and thou mad and out
VI. 14—18.] MATTHEW. VI. VIL 97 PC of thy wit. But and if thou trust in thy work, then art thou abominable.
Now let us look on the pope’s fast. First, the intent should be to tame thy lusts, not lechery only, but pride chiefly, wrath, malice, hate, envy, and covetousness, and to keep the law of God; and therefore standeth not in meat and drink only. But how they keep God’s law, compare it to their deeds, and thou shalt see. Secondarily, the fast of the old law was, to put on mourning clothes, as hair or sack, and neither to eat nor drink until night, and all the while to pray, and to do alms-deeds and shew mercy: and at even they ate flesh, and what God gave, soberly; as little as would sustain the body, &c. The pope’s fast is commonly only to eat no flesh. I say not, look how lean they be; but, consider what a taming of the flesh it is, to eat ten or twenty manner of fishes, dressed after the costliest manner, and to sit a couple of hours, and to pour in of the best wine and ale that may be gotten; and at night to banquet with dew (as they say) of al manner of fruits and confections, marmalade, succade, green ginger, comfits, sugarplate with malmsey and romney burnt with sugar, cinnamon and cloves, with bastado, muscadell and ipocrass, &c. Think ye not that a piece of salt fish or pickerel, with drinking and such dews, doth not tame the body exceedingly?
Furthermore, that the true intent is away, both of their fasting and prayers, it is evident; first, by the multiplying of: them: for when the Jews had lost the understanding of their sacrifices, and did believe in the work, then they were mad upon them, that well was he that could rob himself to offer most; insomuch that the prophets cried out against them, that their offerings stank in the nose of God. And ours had so multiplied their fasting, that they could no longer bear them: at the beginning they were tolerable, for the vantage, quia levis est labor cum lucro?; but when they had purchased enough and enough again, they became intolerable. And therefore all our monks, whose profession was never to eat flesh, set up the pope, and took dispensations, both for that fast, and also for their strait rules, and made their strait rules as wide as the hoods of their cowls And
[2 Because lucrative labour is light. [tyndale, 11] 7
as for the hypocrisy of the fratry!, where they eat but in-: visible flesh, or that is interpret to be no flesh?, [it] is spoken ofin other places. Another proof is that they so long a time have given pardons, of the merits of their fasting, as though: they had done more than enough for themselves; and of that merchandise have gotten all they have, and have brought the — — knowledge of Christ’s blood clean into darkness. And last of all, what shall I say of the open idolatry of innumerable fasts; of St Brandon’s fast?, St Patrick’s fast, of four holy Fridays, of St Anthony’s between St Mary’s days, of our Lady fast, either seven year the same day that her day falleth on in March, and then begin, or one year with bread and water$, and all for what purposes, ye know well enough; and
[1 The fratry, or refectory, was the dining-room of a monastery.]
[Fosbroke has devoted his thirty-fifth chapter to a description of its]
[usages and luxuries.— Brit. Monachism.] [2 The flesh of the otter came under this description; being 1]
[counted no flesh, and therefore lawful food on fast days, because the]
[otter was supposed to live exclusively on fish.—Fosbroke, ch. xxxv.]
[p- 218. n.d. Third edition, 1843.] [3 The wild legend, which tells the tale of this imaginary British]
[x abbot and bishop must have been peculiarly offensive to Tyndale, from;]
[the glaring way in which it teaches that works of charity will be re-]
[warded, irrespective of faith in Christ. For it describes Brandon as]
[deserting the duties of his office to search the ocean for the terrestrial]
[paradise; and as finding Judas Iscariot in the midst of the sea, upheld]
[from drowning by sitting on a stone, which he said that he remembered]
[having put down in a muddy part of Jerusalem to save passengers]
[from falling into the dirt.—Catalogus sanctorum; editus a Rev.:]
[Petro de Natalibus; episc. Equilino, ΜΌΧΙΠ. fol. cv.—See also Legenda 1]
[aurea, CCXXX.] [4 The Fridays of the fasts Quatuor temporum; of which Bing-]
[ham says, Some think Gregory VIL.” (pope Hildebrand) “was the first]
[who ordered that the ordination fasts should concur with them.”—]
[Origin. Eccles. B. xxr. ch. n. $ 1 and 7, Vol. vu. pp. 236 and 243.]
[Lond. 1840.] [5 Antony, an Egyptian monk of the third century, was so popular ”]
[à saint, that it would seem that the fast of his vigil, kept on the six-]
[teenth of January, was of more note than any other occurring between]
[the vigils preceding the festival of the Virgin’s conception, on the]
[eighth of December, and that preceding the festival of the purification]
[on the second of February.—See Vol. 1. p. 91.]: [6 The Lady fast here described seems to have been a species of]
[penance, whether voluntary or enjoined, in which the penitent had the]
v. 1. 19—21.] MATTHEW V. VI. VII. 99 ef such like, I trow, ten thousand in the world? And who E hath rebuked them? Ἔ See that ye gather not treasure upon the earth, where rust and moths corrupt, and where thieves break up and steal: But gather A you treasure in heaven, where neither rust nor moths corrupt, and where thieves neither break up nor steal For where your treasure is, there will be your hearts also.
Note the goodly order of Christ’s preaching. First he restored the true understanding of the law, then the true intent of the works. And here, consequently, he rebuketh the mortal foe and sworn enemy both of true doctrine and true living, which is covetousness; the root of all evil, saith Paul, (1 Tim. vi.) Covetousness is image-service, (Col. iii.) It maketh men to err from the faith, (1 Tim. vi). It hath no part in the kingdom of Christ and God, (Eph. v). Covetousness hardened the heart of Pharaoh, that the faith of the miracles of God could not sink into it. Coyetousness did make Balaam, which knew all the truth of God, to hate it, and to give the most pestilent and poisonful? counsel against it that heart could imagine, even for to destroy it, if it had been possible. Covetousness taught the false prophets in the old Testament to interpret the law of God falsely, and to pervert the meaning and intent of all the sacrifices and ceremonies, and to slay the true preachers that rebuked them. And with their false persuasions they did lead all the kings of Israel out of the right way, and the most part of the kings of Judah also. And Peter, in the second chapter of his second epistle, prophesieth that there should be false teachers among us, that should follow the way of Balaam (that is to say, for covetousness persecute the truth), and through covetousness with feigned words to make merchandise of the people, and to bring in damnable sects too. And here ye have an infallible rule, that where covetousness is, there is no truth; no, though they call themselves the church, and say thereto that they cannot err. Covetousness kept Judas stil in un-
[choice of either fasting once a week for seven years, on that day of]
[the week on which Lady-day happened to fall, beginning his course]
[from that day, or of finishing his penance sooner by taking as many fast-]
[ing-days together, which would obviously amount to one whole year.]]
[7 So D., but L. has poison counsel.—See Vol. I. p. i 4]]
belief, though he saw and did also many miracles in the name of Christ, and compelled him to sell him to the scribes and Pharisees; for covetousness is a thing merciless. Covetousness made the Pharisees to lie on Christ, to persecute him, and falsely to accuse him. And it made Pilate, though he found him an innocent, yet to slay him. It caused Herod to persecute Christ, yet in his cradle. Covetousness maketh hypocrites to persecute the truth, against their own consciences; and to lie to princes, that the true preachers move sedition and make their subjects to rise against them: and the said covetousness maketh the princes to believe their wicked persuasions, and to lend their swords to shed innocent blood.
Finally, covetousness maketh many, whom the truth pleaseth at the beginning, to cast it up again, and to be afterward the most cruel enemies thereof, after the ensample Οὗ Simon Magus; yea, and after the ensample of sir Thomas W.T. More, Kt, which knew the truth, and for covetousness forsook it again, and conspired first with the cardinal to deceive the king, and to lead him in darkness: and afterward, when the light was sprung upon them, and had driven them clean out of the scripture, and had delivered it out of their tyranny, and had expelled the dark stinking mist of their devilish glosses, and had wiped away the cobwebs, which those poisoned spiders had spread upon the face of the clear text, SO that the spiritualty (as they call themselves) were ashamed the. of their part, as shameless as they be; yet for all that, sir covetousness blinded the eyes of that gleering fox more and more, and hardened his heart against the truth, with the confidence of his painted poetry, babbling eloquence, and juggling arguments of subtle sophistry, grounded on his “unwritten verities!,” as true and as authentic as his story of Utopia. Paul therefore biddeth Timothy to charge the rich [ “When they (the Romanists) be not able to prove any of these i doctrines by the word of God written, then they fly to their unwritten verities; that is, to certain things delivered, as they say, from the apostles by word of mouth, without writing. Whatsoever pleaseth them and maketh for their purpose, profit, and lordly ambition, that is
[an unwritten verity, not to be gainsaid or denied.”—The translator’s]
[preface to “A Confutation of Unwritten Verities,” in Archbishop]
[Cranmer’s Remains, Vol. vi. p. 153. Jenkyn’s ed. Oxf. 1833. Vol. τι.]
[p. 10, Park. Soc.]]
to believe in the living God, and not in their uncertain riches; 5 for it is impossible for a covetous idolater, or image-server, that trusteth in the dead god of his riches, to put his trust in the living God.
One misery is, that they which here gather and lay up, cannot tell for whom. Another is rust, canker, moths, and a thousand misfortunes besides; thieves, extortioners, oppressors, and mighty tyrants, to the which the rich be ever a prey. And though they prosper to the end outwardly, yet fear ever gnaweth their hearts inwardly. And at the hour of death they know and feel that they have gathered nought; and then sorrow they, and are like one that dreameth of riches, and in the morning, when he findeth nought, is heavy and sorry for the remembrance of the pleasant dream. And finally, when they be most loth to die, and hope to live long, then they perish suddenly; after the ensample of that rich man, which intended to make him larger barns and store-houses. Happy therefore is he that layeth up treasure in heaven, and is rich in faith and good works; for the reward thereto promised shall God keep sure for him: no man can take it away. Here is not forbidden to have riches; but to love it, to trust in it, and to be careful for it. For God hath promised to care for us, and to give us enough, and to keep that which is gotten, if we will care to keep his commandments. Whatsoever office or degree thou art in in this world, do the duty of thine office diligently, and trust in God, and let him care. If thou be an husbandman, ear? and sow, and husband thy ground, and let God alone for the rest; he will care to make it grow plenteously, and to send seasonable weather to have it in, and will provide thee a good market to sell, &c.
In like manner, if thou be a king, do the office of a king, and receive the duties of the king, and let God care to keep thee in thy kingdom. His favour shall do more for thee than a thousand millions of gold. And so of all other: he that hath but a little, and is sure that God shall keep both him and it, is richer than he which hath thousands, and hath none other hope than that he and it must be kept with his own care and policy.
And, finally, mark one point in Luke xiv: “None of them, that refuseth not all that he possesseth, can be my disciple;
[2 Ear: to plow; as in 1 Sam. viii. 12. Author. version.]
[vem]
that is, he that casteth not away the love of all worldly things, can be no scholar of Christ’s to learn his doctrine. Then he addeth that “salt is good; but, if the salt be unsavoury,” or hath lost his virtue, “what can be seasoned therewith?” Verily, nothing. Now, by salt is understood the doctrine; and σούς the meaning is, if ye be covetous and love worldly things, it will corrupt the salt of your doctrine, so that whatsoever you powder therewith, it shall be more unsavoury than before.
Where your treasure is, there are your hearts.” If your treasure be in the world, so is the love of your hearts. And if ye love the world, and the things of the world, the love of God is not in you; and the love of God is the love of his commandments: and he that loveth not God’s commandments shall never preach them truly, because he loveth them mot; but shall corrupt them with glosses, that they may stand with that which his heart loveth, and until they have another sense than ever God gave them. Ergo,.no covetous person ean be a true prophet. It is not for nought, then, that Christ so oft and so diligently warneth his disciples to beware of covetousness, as of that thing which, he wist well, had ever corrupt the word of God, and ever should. The light of thy body is thine eye: wherefore, if thine eye be single, all thy body shall be full of light; but and if thine eye be wicked, then shall thy whole body be dark. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Note the conclusion with a proper similitude. The eye is the light of the body; and by the light of the eye all other members see and are governed. As long as the eye seeth, hand and foot do their duties; neither is there any fear that a man should stumble, or fall into fire or water. But if the eye be blind, all the body is blind; and that so blind, that there is no remedy at all: set a candle before him, he seeth not; give him a lantern in his hand, and yet he goeth not straight: bring him out into the sun, and point him unto that which thou wouldest have him see; it booteth not. Even so, if covetousness have blinded the spiritual eye, and T. perverted the right intent of the law of God, and of the works commanded by God, and of the sacrifice, ceremonies, and sacraments, and of all other ordinances of God, (which intent is the spiritual eye,) then is all the doctrine dark, and very
blindness: yea, and then how dark is the darkness, when that which is pure blindness is believed to be light! How dark is the doctrine of them that teach that a man may compel. God, with the works of free-will, to give him his favour and. grace; or make God unrighteous! How dark is the doctrine of them which (to the rebuke of Christ’s blood) teach that works do justify before God, and make satisfaction for sins! How blind are they which think prayer to be the pattering of many words; and will therefore not only be praised and paid of the world, but also by the title thereof challenge heaven, and not by the merits of Christ’s blood! How dark is the doctrine of them whose faith is only and altogether in appointments which they themselves have feigned between them and God, unto which yet God never subscribed: in which also they assign what work, and how much they will do, and what reward, and how great, God must give them, or choose whether he will be unrighteous.
How dark is the doctrine of them that say stiffly, that the work of the sacraments in itself (not referring it to stir up the faith of the promises annexed to them) doth justify; and affirm, that bodily pain, for the pain itself, (not referring it either to the love of the law of God or of their neighbour,) doth please God! How dark, damnable, and devilish, is the doctrine of them, which not only think luere to be the service of God, but also are so far past all shame, that they affirm they be the holy church, and cannot err; and all that they decree must be an article of our faith, and that it is damnable once to doubt, or search the scripture whether their doctrine will thereto agree or no; but say their decrees must be believed as they sound, how contrary soever the scripture be, and the scripture must be expounded and made agree to them. They need not to regard the scripture, but to do and say as their Holy Ghost moveth them; and if the scripture be contrary, then make it a nose of wax, and wrest it this way and that way, till it agree.
Faith of works was the darkness of the false prophets, out of the which the true could not draw them. Faith of works was the blindness of the Pharisees, out of the which neither John Baptist nor Christ could bring them. And though John Baptist piped to them with reasons of the scripture invincible, and Christ thereto added miracles, yet the
Pharisees would not dance. For John Baptist, as they thought, was too mad, to live so strait a life, and to refuse to be justified thereby: and as for Christ and his disciples, the Pharisees were much holier themselves, fasted oftener, and prayed thicker; yea, and uttered many more words in their prayer than they. Faith of works is that belief of the Turks and Jews, which driveth them ever away from Christ. Faith of works hath been that light of darkness in which a great part of us Christen! have walked ever since Pelagius and Faustus?, well about twelve hundred years, and ever more and more; and in which all our religious have walked all, and more too, this four or five hundred year; and in which the priests also have walked a long season: the Lord bring them out again! Finally: how dark is the darkness, when a Pharisee and a very Pelagian standeth up, and preacheth against the Pharisees and the Pelagians, and is allowed of all the audience! Andin conclusion, when the world, ever since it began, hath and doth of natural blindness believe in their own works; then, if the scripture be perverted to confirm that error, how sore are their hearts hardened, and how deep is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for he shall either hate the one, and love the other; or cleave to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon,
Mammon is riches, or abundance of goods. And Christ concludeth with a plain similitude, that as it is impossible to serve two contrary masters, and as it is impossible to be retained unto two divers lords, which are enemies one to the other, so is it impossible to serve God and mammon. Two masters of one mind and one will might a man serve: for if one will, one mind, and one accord be in twenty, then are they all but one master. And two masters, where one is under the other and a substitute, may a man serve: for the service of the inferior is the commandment of the superior; as to serve and obey father, mother, husband, master, and lord, is God’s commandment. But and if the inferior be of a contrary will to the superior, and command any contrary thing, then
[[ΠΑ plural, equivalent to Christians.) [2 Pelagius, the noted author of the heresy which bears his name,]
[and Faustus, a defender of Manichzism, were propagators of error at]
[the close of the fourth century.]]
mayest thou not obey: for now they be two contrary masters. So God and mammon are two contrary masters: yea, two contrary gods, and of contrary commandments.
God saith: “I thy Lord God am but one, and me shalt thou serve alone:”” that is, thou shalt love me with all thine heart, or with thine whole heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Thou shalt neither serve, obey, or love any thing save me, and that I bid thee; and that as far, and no farther than I bid thee.
And mammon saith the same: for mammon will be a god also, and served and loved alone.
God saith: See thou love thy neighbour; that thou labour with thine hands to get thy living, and somewhat above, to help him.’
Mammon saith: He is called thy neighbour, because he is nigh thee. Now who is so nigh thee as thyself? Ergo, proximus esto tibi?: that is, love thyself, and make lewd and vile wretches to labour diligently to get thee as much as thou mayest, and some scraps above for themselves. Or wilt thou be perfect? Then disguise thyself, and put on a grey coat, a black or a pied? and give thyself to devotion; despise the world, and take a covetous (I would say a contemplative) life upon thee. Tell the people how hot purgatory is, and what pains there must be suffered for small faults. And then give mercifully a thousand fold for one, spiritual for temporal: give heaven, and take but house and land, and foolish temporal things.’ God saith:Judge truly between thy brethren, and therefore take no gifts.’
Mammon saith: It is good manners, and a point of courtesy to take that is offered. And he that giveth thee, loveth thee better than such a churl that giveth thee nought; yea, and thou art more bound to favour his cause.’
God saith: Sell and give alms.’
Mammon saith: Lay up, to have enough to maintain thine estate, and to defend thee from thine enemies, and to serve thee in thine age, &c.’
[3 Count thyself thy nearest neighbour.] [ Ignorant.] [5 Alluding to the different vestments by which different monastie]
[orders were distinguislied from the laity, and from each other.]]
Forasmuch then as God and mammon be two so contrary οἵ masters, that whosoever will serve God must give up mamWT mon, and all that will serve mammon must forsake God; it followeth that they which are the sworn servants of mammon, and have his holy spirit, and are his faithful church, are not the true servants of God, nor have his Spirit of truth in them, or can be his true church.
Moreover, seeing that God and mammon be so contrary, that God’s word is death in mammon’s ear, and his doctrine poison in mammon’s mouth; it followeth that if the ministers of God’s word do favour mammon, they will so fashion their speech, and so sound their words, that they may be pleasant in the ears of mammon. s Finally, alonely to have riches is not to be the servant of what mammon; but to love it, and cleave to it in thine heart. For if thou have goods only to maintain the office which God hath put thee in, and of the rest to help thy neighbour’s need, so art thou lord over thy mammon, and not his servant. Of them that be rich, how shalt thou know the master of mammon from the servant? Verily, first by the getting: secondarily, when his poor neighbour complaineth, if he be mammon’s servant, mammon will shut up his heart and make him without compassion. Thirdly, the cross of Christ will try them, the one from the other: for when persecution ariseth for the word, then will the true servant of Christ bid mammon adieu; and the faithful servant of mammon will utter his hypocrisy, and not only renounce the doctrine of Christ, but also be a cruel and a sharp persecutor thereof, to put away all surmise, and that his fidelity, which he hath in his master mammon, may openly appear. Therefore I say unto you, Care not for your lives what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; neither for your bodies what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body more than the raiment?
He that buildeth a costly house even to the tiling, will not leave there, and lose so great cost for so small a trifle more, No more will he that gave thee so precious a soul, — and so beautiful a body, let either of them perish again before the day, for so small a thing as food or raiment. God never made mouth, but he made meat for it; nor body, but he
made raiment also. Howbeit, mammon blindeth our eyes, so that we can neither see nor judge aright. Behold the fowls of the air, how they sow not, neither reap, nor gather into store-houses; and yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. And are not ye far better than they? Which of you with taking thought is able to put one cubit unto his stature?
He that careth for the least of his creatures will much more care for the greatest. The birds of the air and beasts preach all to us, that we should leave caring, and put our trust in our Father. But mammon hath made us so dull and so clean without capacity, that none ensample or argument, be it never so vehement, can enter the wits of us, to make us see or judge aright. Finally, what a madness it is to take so great thought for food or raiment, when the wealth, health, life of thy body, and all together is out of thy power! If all the world were thine, thou couldest not make thyself one inch longer, nor that thy stomach shall digest the meat that thou puttest into it. No, thou art not sure that that which thou puttest into thy mouth shall go through thee, or whether it shall choke thee. Thou canst not make, when thou liest or sittest down, that thou shalt arise again; or when thou sleepest, that thou shalt awake again, or that thou shouldest live one hour longer. So that he which cared for thee, when thou couldest not care, must care for thee still, or else thou shouldest perish. And he will not care for thee to thy soul’s profit, if thou mistrust him and care for thyself. And for raiment why take ye thought? Behold the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither spin. And yet I say to you, that even Salomon in all his glory was not apparelled like one of them. Wherefore, if the grass, which is to day in the fields, and to-morrow shall be cast into the furnace, God so clothe, how much more shall he do the same unto you, O ye of little faith!
Not only fowl and beast, but also tree, herb, and all the. flowers of the earth do cry unto us, to trust God; and to cast away care, that is coupled with covetousness of more than sufficient to bear the charges which we have in our hands by the reason of the state we be in the world, and all care that is annexed with mistrust, that God should not minister enough to bear all our charges, if we endeavour ourselves to keep his commandments, and to do every man his craft or office he
is in truly, and (when God, to prove us, suffereth us to have need of our neighbours) we first complain to God, and desire him to prepare the hearts of our neighbours, against we come to desire their help.
But mammon pipeth another song, saying: If thou shouldest make no other manner of labour for a benefice, than as if thou caredst not whether thou hadst it or hadst it not, it would be long ere thou gattest one; all would be taken out of thine hand.’ I answer: As thy labour was to get it, such shall be thy behaviour in it; as thou flatteredst to have it, so shalt thou in it; and as thou boughtest and soldest to get it, so shall thou sell in it, to buy favour and to be set by in the world. If thy principal intent, that thou seekest a benefice for, be lucre, then take heed to the example of thy forefather Simon Magus. Let thy care therefore be to do the office that God putteth thee in truly; and the blessing, that he coupleth thereto, that take with thanks, and neither care nor covet farther. Take no thought therefore, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we put on? All these things the heathen seek. Yea, and your heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, and all these things shall be ministered unto you,
Be not like the heathen, which have no trust in God nor his word, nor believe any life to come. Let them vex themselves, and each be a devil to another, for worldly things. Dut comfort thou thyself with the hope of a better life in he another world, ever assured that thou shalt have here sufwith ficient, only if thou keep covenant with the Lord thy Godand seek his kingdom and the righteousness thereof above all things, The kingdom of God is the gospel and doctrine of Christ. And the righteousness thereof is to believe in Christ’s blood, for the remission of sins: out of which righteousness springeth love to God, and thy neighbour, for his sake; which is also righteousness, as I have said afore, so far as it is perfect, and that which lacketh is supplied by faith in God’s word, in that he hath promised to accept that, till more come, Then followeth the outward righteousness of works, by the which, and diligent recording! of God’s word together, we
Calling to mind; meditating upon.]
grow and wax perfect, and keep ourselves from going back and losing the Spirit again,
And these have our spiritualty with their corrupt doctrine mingled together, (that is to say, the righteousness of the kingdom of God, which is faith in Christ’s blood, and the outward righteousness of the members,) that we ascribe to the one that pertaineth to the other. Seek the kingdom of heaven therefore, and the righteousness of the same; and be sure thou shalt ever have sufficient, and these things shall be ministered unto thee, that is to say, shall come of their own accord, by the promise of God; yea, Christ promiseth thee an hundred fold, even in this life, of all that thou leavest for his sake. If that were true, would some say, who would not rather serve him than mammon? Yet is it true: for first, if thou be servant of mammon, thou must keep thy god, and thy god not thee; and every man, that is stronger than thou, will take thy god from thee. Moreover, God will take either thee from thy mammon, or thy mammon from thee, ere thou wouldest; to avenge himself of thy blind unkindness, that when he hath made thee, and given thee all, thou forsakest him and servest his mortal enemy. But if thou follow Christ, all the world (and let them take all the devils in hell to them) shall not be able to disappoint thee of a sufficient living. And though they persecute thee from house to house a thousand times, yet shall God provide thee of another, with all things sufficient to live by. Now compare the surety of this with the uncertainty of the other; and then the blessed end of this (that heaven is promised thee also) with the miserable departing from the other so sore against thy will, and then the desperation that thy heart feeleth that thou art already in hell. And then may not this be well called a thousand fold more than the other? Care not then for the day following; but let the day following care for itself. For the day that is present hath ever enough of his own trouble.
If thou look well on the covenant that is between thee and thy Lord God, on the one side, and the temptations of the world, the flesh, and Satan on the other, thou shalt soon perceive that the day present hath ever enough to be cared for, and for which thou must cry instantly to God for help
also, though thou do thy best. Now then, seeing the day present is overcharged with her own care, what madness is it to lade upon her also the care of the day following, yea, the care of a year, yea, of twenty years, or as though thou never intendest to die, and to torment and vex the soul through mistrust and unbelief, and to make thy life sour and bitter, and as unquiet as the life of the devils in hell!
Therefore care day by day and hour by hour earnestly (o keep the covenant of the Lord thy God, and to record therein day and night, and to do thy part unto the uttermost of thy power. And as for God’s part, let him care for it himself; and believe thou his words stedfastly, and be sure that heaven and earth shall sooner perish, than one jot bide behind of that he hath promised. And for thine own part also, care not of that manner as though thou shouldest do all alone: nay, God hath first promised to help thee; secondarily, to accept thine heart, and that little that thou art able to do, be it never so imperfect; thirdly, though wind, weather, and the stream earry thee clean contrary to thy purpose, yet, because thou bidest still in thy profession, ready to turn the right course as soon as the tempest is a little overblown, God promiseth to forgive that, and not the less to fulfil his promises of one jot.
Doth Christ so defend his, that they never come in danger of trouble? Yes; they come into such straits oft, that no — wit nor reason can see any way out, save faith only is sure that God hath, and wil make a way through. But that temptation is but for an hour, to teach them, and to make them feel the goodness of their Father, and the passions! of their brethren, and of their master Christ also. It is but as a loving mother, to make her child to perceive and feel her kindness, to love her again and be thankful, letteth it hunger in a morning; and when it calleth for his breakfast, maketh as she heard it not, till for pain and impatience it beginneth to cry agood: and then she stilleth it, and giveth it all it asketh, and more too, to please it; and when it is peaced? and beginneth to eat, and rejoiceth and is glad and fain, she asketh, Who gave thee that, thy mother?’ and it saith, Yea Then saith she, Am not I a good mother, that
[1 Passions: sufferings.] [2 Caused to be at peace.]]
VI. 34.] MATTHEW v. VI. VII. 111 give thee all things?’ And it answereth, Yea.’ And she asketh, Wilt thou love thy mother?” &e. And it saith, Yea.’ And so cometh it to the knowledge of his mother’s kindness, and is thankful. Such is the temptation of Christs elect, and otherwise not.
Here is not forbidden all manner of care, but that worldly and devilish care, that springeth of an inordinate love to worldly things and of mistrust in God. As for an ensample: I covet inordinately more than sufficient, or but even that I have need of; and it (because I mistrust God, and have no hope in him, and therefore pray not to him) cometh not. Then I mourn, sorrow, and pine away, and am whole unquiet in mine heart. Or whether I have too much, or but sufficient, and love it inordinately, then I care for the keeping: and because I mistrust God, and have no hope in him that he will help me; therefore, when I have locked doors, chambers, and coffers, I am never the nearer at rest, but care still; and cast a thousand perils, of which the most part were not in my might to avoid, though I never slept. And where this eare is, there ean the word of God have no resting-place; but is choked up, as soon as it is sown.
There is another care, that springeth out of the love of God (for every love hath her care) and is a care to keep God’s commandments. This care must every man have. For a man liveth not by bread only, but much more by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The keeping of God’s commandment is the life of a man, as well in this world as in the world to come. As, “Child, obey father and mother; that thou mayest long live on the earth.” And by father and mother is understood all rulers; which if thou obey, thy blessing shall be long life; and contrary, if thou disobey, short life, and shalt either perish by the sword, or by some other plague, and that shortly. And even so shall the ruler, if he rule not as God hath commanded. Oppress thou a widow and fatherless children (saith God), and they shall cry to me, and I will hear their voice; and then will my wrath wax hot; so I will smite you with sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.”
Some will say, I see none more prosper, or longer continue, than those that be most cruel tyrants’ What then? Yet say I that God abideth ever true: for where he setteth
[Mu cu]
up a tyrant, and continueth him in prosperity, it is to be a scourge to wicked subjects, that have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God; and unto them his good promises pertain not, save his curses only. But if the subjects would turn and repent, and follow the ways of God, he would shortly deliver them. Howbeit yet, where the superior corrupteth the inferior, which else is disposed enough to goodness, God will not let them long continue.
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