[5 In D. the chapter ends at the word mercy: what follows is found in the P. C. L. edition.]
Chapter
My little children, I write these things unto you, that ye sin not. And though any man sin, yet we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ, which is righteous. I write unto you on the one side, that God is light; and therefore that no man, which willingly walketh in the unfruitful works of darkness, hath any fellowship with that light, or part in the blood of his Son. And this I write and testify unto you, my dear children, that ye sin not: that is, that ye μὰ Consent not unto sin, nor should sin of lust and purpose maliciously; but contrariwise that ye fear God, and resist sin with all your might and power according as ye have promised. For whosoever sinneth of purpose after the knowledge of the truth, the same sinneth against the Holy Ghost remediless.
And on the other side, I testify unto you, that we be always sinners, though not of purpose and malice after the nature of damned devils, but of infirmity and frailty of our flesh; which daly, flesh not only letteth us, that our works cannot be perfect, but also now and then, through manifold occasions and temptations, carrieth us clean out of the right way, spite of our hearts. Howbeit (I say) if, when the rage is past, we turn unto the right way again, and confess our sins unto our Father with a repenting heart, he hath promised us mercy, and is true to fulfil it. So that if we sin not devilishly against the Holy Ghost, refusing the doctrine which we cannot improve that it should not be true, but after the frailty of man, there is no cause to despair: for we have an advocate and an intercessor with the Father, even Jesus Christ that is righteous.
The name of our advocate is “Jesus,” that is to say, a Saviour. “Call his name Jesus,” said the angel to Joseph; “he shall save his people from their sins.” And this advocate, and our Jesus, to save us from our sins, con- tinueth ever, as it is written; and hath sempiternum Sacerdotium?, an everlasting office, to make an atonement for sin: by the reason whereof, saith the text, “he is able ever to save them that come to God through him” with repentance and faith, and liveth ever to speak for us. And
An everlasting priesthood.]
nm 1—2.] FIRST EPISTLE OF ST JOHN. 153 besides that, our Jesus is God, and Almighty. He took our nature upon him, and felt all our infirmities and sicknesses, and in feeling learned to have compassion on us, and for compassion cried mightily in prayers to God the Father for us, and was heard. And the voice of the same blood that once cried, not for vengeance as Abel’s, but for mercy only, and was heard, crieth now and ever, and is ever heard, as oft as we call unto remembrance with repenting faith, how that it was shed for our sins, He is also called Christus, that is to say, king anointed with all might and power over sin, death and hell, and over all sins; so that none that flieth unto him shall ever come into judgment of damnation. He is anointed with all fulness of grace, and hath all the treasure and riches of the Spirit of God in his hand, with which be blesseth all men, according to the promise made to Abra-am; and is thereto merciful, to give? unto all that call on him. And how much he loveth us, I report me unto the ensamples of his deeds.
And he is “righteous,” both toward God, in that he never sinned, and therefore hath obtained all his favour and grace; and also toward us, in that he is true to fulfil all the mercy that he hath promised us, even unto the uttermost jot. And he is the satisfaction for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for all the world’s3.
That I call satisfaction, the Greek calleth Ilasmos, and the Hebrew Copar: and it is first taken for the suaging of
[2 So P. C. L. but D. has orgive.] [3 In this exposition, as well as in that upon the Sermon in the Mount,]
[Tyndale translates as the subject proceeds, without appearing to have]
[had his own previous translation before him. In his first published]
[version he had rendered the first clause, He it is that obtaineth grace]
[for our sins;” and this inaccurate rendering is found in the latest]
[editions of his new Testament, in Coverdale’s Bible, in Cranmer’s,]
[and in the Genevan Bible of 1557, notwithstanding the obviously]
[greater correctness of the rendering which Tyndale had here given.] [4 λασμὸς, ^A propitiation, or rather a propitiatory victim, or]
[sacrifice for sin.” Parkhurst, Lex. If Tyndale’s explanation is to be]