Answer to Thomas More, Part 1

Answer to Thomas More · Part 1

p. vVvhat the church is

THys worde church hath dyuerse significacions. First it signifyeth a place or housse / whether christen people were wont in the olde time to resorte at tymes conuenient / for to heare y^• worde of doctryne / the lawe of God and the faith of oure sauioure Ihesus christ / and how and what to praye and whence to axe power and strength to lyue goodly. For the officers therto appoynted preached the pure worde of god onlye and prayed in a tonge that all men vnderstode. And the people herkened vntounto his prayers / ād said therto Amē and prayed with him in their hertes / and of him lerned to praye at home and every where / and to instructe eueryevery man hys howsholde₊

where now we heare but voyces with out significacion and buzsinges / howlinges ād crienges / as it were the halowēges of foxes or baytinges of beres / and wonder at disguisinges ād toyes wheroff we know no meaninge₊

By reason wherof we be fallē in to soch ignoraūcye / that we know of the merciemercy and promyses which are in christe nothynge at all₊

And of the lawe of god we thinke as do the turkes / ād as did the olde hethen people / how y^t it is a thinge which eueryevery man maye doo of his awne power / and in doynge therof becometh good and waxeth rightuouse and deserueth heven: ye and are yet more mad then that. For we ymagen the same of phantasyes and vayne ceremonies of oure awne makynge / neyther nedefull vn to y^e tamynge of oure awne flesh / neyther profytable vn to oure neyboure / neyther honoure vntounto god₊

And of prayer we thynke / that no man can praye but at church / and that it is nothinge else but to saye pater noster vntounto a post. wherewith yet and with other obseruaunces of oure awne imagininge / we beleue / we deserue to be sped of all that oure blinde hertes desyre₊

IN a nother significacion it is abvsed ād mystaken for a multitude of shaven shorn and oyled whych we now calle the spirytualtye ād clergye. As when we reade in the chronicles Kinge wyllyam was a great tyrant and a weked man vntounto holy church and toke moch landes Kinge willyam Kynge Iohanfrom them. Kinge Iohan was also a perylouse man and a weked vntounto holy church / and wold hauehave had them punyshed for theft / murther and what soeuer mischeue they did / as though they had not hauehave bene people annoynted / but euen of the vile rascall ād comē laye people

And Thomas bekett was a blessed and an holy mā for he died for y^e liberties (to do all mischeue S. Thomas of cāterburyevnpunished) and priuileges of y^• church. Is he a laye man or a mā of the church? Soch is y^e liuynge of holy church. So saye men of holy church. ye must beleue in holy church ād doas they teach you. will ye not obeye holy church? will ye not do y^• penaunce enioyned you by holy church? wyll ye not forswere obedience vntounto holy church? Beware lest ye fall in to the indignacion of holy church / lest they curse you and so forth. In which all we vnderstonde but y^• pope cardēalles / legates / patriarckes / archbisshopes / bisshopes / abbotes / priours / chauncelers / archedecōs / cōmissaries / officiales / prestes / mōkes / freres / blacke / whit / pied / grey / & so forth / by (I trowe) a thousand names of blasphemy & of ypocrisie & as many sundrie faciōs of disgysinges₊

p. viIT hath yet or shuld hauehave a nother signifycacyon litle knowen amonge the comē people now a dayes. That is to witt / it signifieth a congregaciō / a multitude or a cōpany gathered to gether in one / of all degrees of people. As a man wold saye / the church of london / meaninge not the spirituallie only (as they wilbe called for their diligent saruinge of god in the sprite & so sore eschuynge to medle wyth temporall maters) but the hole body of the cytye / of all kyndes condicions and degrees. and the church of bristow / al that pertayne vntounto y^e towne generally. And what congregacion is ment / thou shall all waye vnderstōde by the mater that is entreted of and by the circumstaunces therof₊

And in this thrid significaciō is the church of god or christ taken in the scripture / euen for the whole multytude of all them that receaue the name of christe to beleue in him / and not for the clergye onlye. For paul saith Galatiens. 1. I persecuted the church of God a boue measure. Gala. 1.Gal 1which was not y^e preachers only / but all y^t beleued generally / as it is to se actes. xxii. where he saith / I persecuted this waye / euē vntounto y^e deeth Actes. 22.Acts 22bindinge and puttinge in preson both mē ād we men. And. Galath. 1. I was vnknowen concernynge my person vntounto the congregacyons off Gala. 1.Gal 1the Iewes which were in chryste. And Roma. xvi. I commende vntounto you phebe the deaconysse Ro. xvi.Rom 16of the church of cenchris. And the churches of Asia salute you. 1. Coryn. the laste. And yf a man can not rule hys awne howsse / 1. Cor. 16.1 Cor 16how shall he take the care of the church of God . 1. Tymothe. iii? yf any faythfull man or woman hauehave wedoowes / let them fynde them / 1. timo. 3.that the church be not charged. 1. Tymothe. v. 1. timo. 5.And. Matt. xviij. if thi broter heare the not tell the church or congregacion and so forth. In which places and thorowout al the scripture / y^e church is taken for the hole multitude of them y^t beleue in christ in that place in that parish towne / citie / prouince / londe or thorowout all y^e worlde / and not for the spiritualitie only

Notwithstondinge yet it is some times takē generally for all that embrace the name of Christe A double significaciō of this word churchthough their faythes be nought or though they hauehave no fayth at all. And some times it is taken specially for the electe only in whose hertes God hath writtē his lawe with his holy spirite and geuen them a felinge faith of the mercy that is in christe Iesu oure lorde.

¶ why Tindale vsed this worde congregacion rather thē church in the translacion of the new testament.

VVherfore in as moch (as the clergye as the nature of those hard & indurat adamādstones is / to draw all to them) had appropriat vntounto them selues the terme that of right is comen vntounto all the hole congregacion of them that beleue in christe and with their false and sotle wyles had begyled and mocked the people and brought them in to the ignoraunce of the worde / makynge them vnderstonde by this word church / nothinge but the shauēflocke / of them that shore the hole world: therfore in the translacion of the new testament where I found this word ecclesia / Ienterpretated it / bi this worde congregacion. Even therfore did I it / and not of any mischevouse minde or purpose to stablishe heheresie / as master More vntrulye reporteth of me in his dialoge where he rayleth on the translacion of the new testament

p. viiAnd when. M. More saith / y^e this word church is knowen well ynough / I reporte me vntounto the conscyences of all the londe / whether he saie truth or otherwise / or whether the laye people vnderstonde by church the hole multytude of all that professe christe / or the iuglinge sprytes onlye. And when he saith that congregacion is a moore generall terme / iff yt were yt hurteth not. for the circumstaunce doeth ever tell what congregacyon ys ment. Neuerthelesse yet sayth he not the truth. For whersoeuer I maye saye a congregacyon / there maye I saye a church also as the church of the deuell / the church of sathan / the church of wretches / the church of wekedmen / the church of lyers and a church of turkes therto₊

For. M. More must graūt (if he will have ecclesia translated thorowte all the new testamēt by thys word church) that church is as comen as ecclesia. Now is ecclesia a greke worde and was in vse before the tyme of the apostles and taken for a congregacyon amonge the hethen / where was no congregacion of god or of christ. And also Lucas hym selfe vseth ecclesia for a church or congregacyon of hethen people thrise in one chapther even in the .xix. of the actes / where Demetrius the goldsmyth or syluer smyth had gathered a cōpanie agenst paul for Actes. 19.Acts 19preachynge agenst ymages₊

How be it. M. More hath so lōge vsed hys figures of poetrie / y^t (I suppose) whē he erreth most / he now by the reason of a longe custome / beleueth him selfe / that he saith most true. Or else (as y^e wyse people whych when they daunce naked in nettes beleve that no man seyth thē) even so. M. More thynketh that his erroures be so subtilly cowched that no man can espye them. So blinde he coūteth all other men in cōparison of his great vnderstondinge. But charitablye I exhorte him in chryste to take hede for Iudasthough Iudas were wilier then his felowes to get lucre / yet he proued not most wise at y^• last ende. Nether though Balam the false phophete Balaamhad a clere sighte to bringe y^• curse of God vppō the chyldern of Israel for honoures sake / yet his couetousenesse did so blynd his prophesie / Y^t he coude not se his awne ende. Let therfore. M More and hys company awake be tymes ere ever their sinne be rype lest y^• voyce of theyr wekenesse ascende vp and awake God out of his slepe / to loke vppon them and to bow his eares vntounto their cursed blasphemies agenst the open truth / and to send hys heruestmen and mowares of vengeaunce to repe yt₊

But how happeth it that. M. More hathe not contended inlykewise agaynst hys derelynge Erasm{us} all this lōge while? Doeth not he chaūge this worde ecclesia in to cōgregracyon ād y^t not s…ldē in y^• new testamēt? peraduenture he owithe him fauoure because he made Moria in his housse. which boke if were in englishe / then shulde eueryevery mā se / how y^t he then was ferre other wise minded thā he nowe writeth. But verelie I thinke y^• as Iudas betraid not christ for any louelove y^• he had vntounto the hie prestes / scribes ād phareses / but only to come by y^t wherfore he thirsted: euen so. M. More (as there are tokens evident) wrote not these bokes for any affeccyō y^• he bare vntounto the spiritualtie or vntounto y^• opinions which he so barelie defendeth / but to obtayne only that which he was an hongred fore: I praie God y^t he eate not to hastely lest he be choked p. viijat the later end / but y^t he repent and resyst not the spirite of god whych openeth lyght vntounto the worlde₊

¶ why he vseth thys word elder ād not prest

A Nother thinge which he rebuketh ys that I interprete thys greke word presbiteros by this word senior. Of a truth senior is no veri good english / though senior ād iunior be vsed in the vniuersities: but there came no better in my mynde at that tyme. How be it I spyed my faute sens / longe yer. M. More told it me / and hauehave mended it in all the workes which I sens made ād call it an elder. And in that he maketh heresie of it / to call presbiteros an elder he condemneth their awne olde latine texte of heresye M. More cōdēpneth the laten texte 1. petri. 5.also / which they vse yet dayly in the church and hauehave vsed / I suppose / this .xiiij. hundred yeres. For that texte doeth call it an elder lykewyse. In the .v. chaptre of the first of peter / thus standeth it in the laten texte. Seniores qui in vobis sunt / obsec…o ego consenior / pascite qui in vobis est gr…gem christi. The elders that are amonge you I besech whych am an elder also that ye fede the flocke of christe / whych is amonge you There ys presyteros called an elder And in that he saith fede christes flocke / he meaneth euē the ministres y^t were chosen to teache y^• people ād to enforme them in gods worde and no laye …ersones. And in the seconde epystle of Ihon ij. Iohan…aith the texte / senior electe domine et filijs …e…us. the elder vntounto the electe ladye and to here chylderen. And in. the .iij. epystle of Ihon. Senior Gaio dilecto. the elder vntounto the beloued iij. IohanGaius. In these .ij. pystles presbiteros ys cal…ed an elder. And in the .xx. of the actes / the texte Actes. 20.Acts 20…ayth: paule sent for maiores natu ecclesie / the elders in birth of the congregacion or curch / ād said vntounto them / take hede vntounto youre selves ād vntounto the hole flocke / ouer which the holy gost hath made you episcopos ad regendum ecclesiā dei / bisshopes or ouersears to gouerne y^• church of god▪ There is presbiteros called an elder in birth which same is immediatly called a bisshope or ouersear / to declare what persons are ment. Herof ye se that I hauehave no moare erred thē there awne texte which they hauehave vsed sens the scripture was first in the latine tongue / and that their awne texte vnderstondeth by presbiteros nothinge saue an elder. And they vere called elders / because of their age / grauite and sadnesse / as thou maist se by the texte: and bisshopes or …uersears by the reason of their offices. And all y^t were called elders (or prestes if they so will) were called bisshopes also / though they hauehave diuided the names now / VvhichWhich thinge thou maist evidently se by the first chapter of titus. And the .xx. of the actes and other places moo. And when he layeth Timothe vn to my charge / how he was younge / then he weneth that he hath wonne his gylden spores. But I wolde praye him to shew me where he readeth y^t Paul calleth him presbiteros / preast or elder. I durst not then call him Episcopus propirly. For those ouersears which we now call bisshopes aftir the greke worde / were all waye bydynge in one place / to gouerne the congregacion there. Now was Timothe an apostle. And Paul also writeth that he come shortly agayne. Vvel / will he saye / it cometh yet all to one. For if it becometh the lower ministre to be of a sad and discrete age / moch more it becometh y^e hyer. It is trueth p. ixBut .ij. thinges are with out lawe / god and necessite. Noteyf god to shew his power shall shedeout his grace moare vppon youth then vppon age at a tyme / who shall lett him? wemen be no mete wemenvesseles to rule or to {pre}ach (for both are forbodē thē) yet hath god endoted them with his spirite at sondrie tymes and shewed his power▪ goodnesse vppō them and wrought wonderfull thinges by them / because he wold not hauehave them dispised. Vve reade that wemen hauehave iudged all Israel and hauehave bene greate prophetisses and hauehave done mightie deades. yee and if stories be true / wemen hauehave preached sens the openynge of the new testament.

Doo not oure wemen nov christen and ministre the sacrament of baptim in tyme of neade? Might they not by as good reason preach also / if necessite required? If a woman were dreuen in to some Ilande / where Christ was neuer preached / might she there not preach him / if she had the gyfte therto? Mighte she not also baptise? And why might she not / by the same reason ministre the sacramente of y^• body & bloude of Christe / and teach them how to chose officers & ministres? O pore wemē / how despice ye them? The viler the better welcome vntounto you. An hore had ye lever than an honeste wife. If only shauen & annoynted maye doo these thinges / then Christe did them not ner any of his apostles / ner any …an in longe time after. For they vsed no soch ceremonyes.

Notwithstondinge though god be vnderunder no law & necessite lawlesse: yet be we vnderunder a lawe & ought to preferre the men before the wemē and age before youth / as nye as we can. For it is agenst the lawe of nature that younge men shulde rule the elder / and as vncomely as that wemen shulde rule the men / but when nede requireth. And therfore if paul had had other shifte & a man of age as mete for the rowme / he wold not hauehave put Timothe in the office. he shuld no doute hauehave bene kepte backe vntyll a fuller age and hauehave lerned in the meane tyme in silence. And what soeuer thou be / y^t readest this / I exhorte the in oure lorde / that thou reade both the epistles of Paul to Timothe / that thou maist se how diligently (as a mother careth for hir child / if it be in perell) Paul writeth vntounto Timothe / to enstructe him / to teach him / to exhorte / to corage him / to stere him vpp / to bewise / sobir / diligēt / circumspecte / sad / humble ād meke sayenge: these I write / that thou maist know how to behaue thy selfe in the howsse of god which is y^• church or congregacion Avoyde lustes of youth / beware of vngodly fables and old wiues tales / & auoyde the companye of men of corrupte myndes which wast their braynes aboute wranglynge questions. Let no man dispise thyne youth. As who shulde saye / youth is a dispised thinge of itselfe / where vntounto men geue none obediēce naturally or reuerence. Se therfore that thy vertue excede / to recompence thy lacke of age / and that thou so behaue thy selfe / that no faute be founde with the. And agayne / rebuke not an elder sharpely / but exhorte him as thy father / and yongemen as thy brethern / and the elder wemen as thy mothers / and the yoūgewemen as thy sisters and soch like in euerye chapter. Admitte none accusacion agenst an elder vnderunder lesse then .ij wittenesses. And Paul chargeth him in the sight of god and of the lorde Iesus christe and of his electe angeles / to doo nothynge rashly or of affecciō. p. xAnd shortely where vntounto youth is most prone and ready to fall / therof warneth he him with al diligēce / even al most or all to gether halfe a dosen tymes of someone thynge. And fynally as aman wold teach a childe that had neuer before gone to scole / so tēderly & so carefully doeth paul teach him. It is a nother thynge to teach the people and to teach the preacher. Here Paul teacheth the preacher / younge Timothe.

And when he affirmeth that I saye / how y^• the oylinge and shauinge is no parte of the presthode. That improueth he not ner can do. and therefore I saye it yet. And when he hath enserched thuttermost that he can this is al that he can laye agenst me / that of an hundred there be not .x. that hauehave the propirties which paul requireth to be in them. wherefore if oylinge ād shauinge be no parte of their presthod / then euermore of a thousand .ix. hundred at the lest shuld be no prestes at all. And quod youre frēd wold confirme it with an oth and swere depely / that it wold folowe and that it must nedes so be. which argument yet / if there were no nother shifte I wold solue aftir an oxforde facion / with concedo consequenciam et consequens. And I saye morouer that their annoyntynge is but a ceremonie borowed of y^• Iewes / though they hauehave somewhat altered the maner / & their shauinge borowed of y^• hethē prestes / & y^• they be no more of their presthode / thē y^• oyle / salte / spittell / taper & chresom cloth of y^• substaunce of baptim. which thinges / no doute / because they be of their cōiurynge / they wold hauehave preached of necessite vntounto the saluacion of y^• childe / excepte necessite had dreuen them vntounto the contrarye.

And seinge that y^t oyle is not of necessyte / let .M. More tell me what moare vertue is in the oyle of confyrmacion / in as moch as the bysshope sacrithe the one as well as the other: ye and let hym tell the reason why there shulde be more vertue in the oyle where wyth the bysshope annoynteth hys prestes. Let him tell you frō whence the oyle cometh / how it is made / and why he selleth it to the curates wher with they anoynte the syke / or whether thys be of lesse vertue then the other₊

And finally whi vsed not y^• appostles this greke worde hiereus or the interpreter thys laten ☞worde sacerdos / but all waye thys worde presbiteros and senior / by which was at that tyme nothynge sygnyfyed then an elder? And it was no doute taken of the custome of the hebrues / where the offycers were ever elderly mē as nature requireth. As yt appereth in the olde testament and also in the newe. The scrybes / pharises ād y^• elders of y^• people sayth the texte / which were the officers and rulars / so called by the reason of theyr age₊

¶ why he vseth louelove rather then cheryte

HE rebuketh also that I translate thys greke word agape in to louelove / ād not rather in to charite so holy ād so knowē a terme. Verely charite is no knowē Englesh in y^t sens whych agape requireth. For whē we saye / geue youre almes in y^e worshepe of God ād swete saint charite / ād when y^• father teacheth his sonne to saye blissinge father for saint charite / what meane they? In good faith they wot not. Morouer when we saye / God helpe you / I hauehave done my charite for this daye / doo we not take it for almes? And y^• man is euer chidinge ād out of charyte / p. xiand I beshrew him sauinge my charyte / there we take it for pacyence. And when I saye a charitable man / it is taken for mercifull. And though mercifulnesse be a good louelove or rather springe of a good louelove / yet ys not eueryevery good louelove mercifulnesse. As when a womā loueth her husbonde godly or a man his wife or his frend that is in none aduersitie / it is not allwaye mercifulnesse. Also we saie not this mā hath a greate charite to god / but a greate louelove. wherefore I must hauehave vsed this generall terme louelove / in spite of mine herte often tymes. And agape ād charitas were wordes vsed amonge the hethen yer chryste came / ād signified therfore more then a godly louelove. And we maye saye well ynough and hauehave hearde it spoken y^• the turkes be charitable one to a nother amonge them selues and some of them vntounto the chrysten to. Besydes all thys agape ys comen vntounto all loues₊

And when Master More saith eueryevery louelove ys not charyte / no more is eueryevery appostle chrystes appostell ner every angell gods angell / ner eueryevery hope chrystē hope nor eueryevery faith or beleffe chrystes beleffe / and so by an hūdred thousande wordes. So that yf I shulde all waye vse but a worde that were no moore generall then the worde I enterprete / I shulde interprete nothynge at all. But the mater yt selfe and the circumestaunces doo declare what louelove / what hope and what fayth ys spoken of. And finally I saye not charite god or charite youre neyboure but louelove God and louelove youre neyboure ye and though we saye a man ought to louelove hys neyboures wife ād his doughter / a christen mā doeth not vnderstonde / that he ys commaunded to defyle hys neyboures wife or hys doughter₊

why fauoure and not grace

ANd wyth lyke reasons rageth he because I turne charis in to fauoure and not in to grace / sayenge that eueryevery fauoure is not grace and that in some fauoure there is but litle grace. I can saye also in some grace there is lytle goodnesse. And when we saye / he stondeth well in my ladis grace / we vnderstōde no greate godly fauoure. And in vniuersities manye vngracious graces are goten₊

¶ why knowlege and not confessyon / repentaunce and not penaunce₊

ANd that I vse this word knowlege and not confession / ād this repentaūce and not penaunce. In whych all he can not proue / that I geue not the ryghte englishe vntounto the greke worde. But yt ys a ferre other thynge that payneth them and byteth them by the brestes. There be secret panges that pinch y^• very hertes of them / where of they dare not complayne. The sekenesse that maketh them so impacyent ys / that they hauehave lost theyr iuglinge termes. For y^e doctours preachers were wont to make many deuisyons / distinccyons and sortes of grace / gratis data / gratum faciens / preueniens and subsequens. And wyth confessyon they iugled / and made the people / as ofte as they spake of yt: vnderstonde shryft in the eare. wherof the scripture maketh no mēcyō: no it is cleane agēst y^• scrypture as they vse yt and preach yt / ād vn to god an abhominacyon and a foule stinkynge sacrifice vntounto the filthy ydole priapus The losse of those iuglinge termes ys the mater where of all these bottes brede / that gnawe them by the belies and make them so vnquiet₊

p. xiiAnd in lyke maner / by this word penaunce / penaunce.they make the people vnderstōde holy dedes of their enioynynge / with which they must make satisfacciō vntounto godwarde for their synnes. whē al y^e scripture preacheth y^t christ hath made full satisfaccyon for oure synnes to godwarde / and we must now be thankefull to god agayne and kyll the lustes of oure flesh wyth holy workes of gods enioynynge and to take pacientlye all that god layeth on my backe. And if I hauehave hurte my neyboure / I am bounde to shriue myselfe vntounto hym and to make hym a mendes / yf I hauehave where with / or if not then to axe him forgeuenesse / and he is bounde to forgeue me. And as for their penaūce the scripture knoweth not of. The greke hath Metanoia and metanoite / repentaunce and repente / or forthynkynge and forthynke. As we saye in english it forthynketh me or I forthynke / ād I repent or yt repenteth me and I am sory that I dyd yt. So now the scripture sayeth repent or let yt forthynke you and come and beleue the gospell or glad tydynges that ys brought you in chryst / and so shall all be forgeuen you / and henceforth lyue a new lyfe: And yt wyll folowe yf I repent in the herte / that I shall doo no moore so wyllyngely ād of purpose. And yf I beleued the gospell / what God hath done for me in christe / I shuld suerly louelove hym agayne and of louelove prepare my selfe vntounto hys commaundementes₊

These thinges to be be euen so. M. More knoweth wel ynough. For he vnderstōdeth the greke / ād he knew thē longe yer I. But so blinde is couetousenesse ād drōkē desire of honoure Giftes blinde the eies of the seinge ād peruerte the wordes of the righteous Deut. xvij. Vvhen Deut. 17. ☞Deut 17couetousenesse findeth vauntage in servinge falshed / it riseth vpp in to an obstinat malise agenst the trouth and seketh all meanes to resiste it and to quench it. As Balam the false prophete / though he wiste that god loued Israhel & had blessed them and promised them greate thinges / Balam.and that he wold fulfyll his promises / yet for couetousenesse and desyre of honoure / he fell in to soch malice agenst the trueth of god / that he sought how to resiste it and to curse the people. VvhichWhich when god wold not let him doo / he turned him selfe a nother waye and gaue pestilent counsell / to make the people synne agenst god wherbye the wrath of god felle vppon thē / and many thousandes perished. Notwithstondinge gods trueth abode fast and was fullfilled in the reste. And Balam as he was the cause that many perished / so escaped he not him selfe No moare did any that maliciousy resisted the open trueth agenst his awne conscience / sence y^• world beganne / that euer I red. For it is sinne The sinne agenst the holye gost.agēst the holy gost / which Christ saith shall neyther be forgeuen here nor in the worlde to come / which texte maye this wise be vnderstonde that as that sinne shalbe punished with euerlastinge damnacion in the life to come: even so shall it ☞not escape vengeaunce here. As thou seist in Iudas / in Pharao / in Balam and in all other tirātes which agenst their consciences resisted the open trueth of god.

So now the cause why oure prelates thus rage / and that moueth them to call master More to helpe / is not that they finde iust causes in y^• translacion / but because they hauehave loste their iugglynge and fayned termes / wherwith Peter p. xiijij. Pet. ij.prophisied they shuld make marchaundice of y^• people.

¶ Vvether the church were before the gospell or the gospell before the church. ☜

ANother doute there is / whether y^• church or congregacion be before the gospell or y^• gospell before the church. VvhichWhich questiō is as hard to solue / as whether the father be elder thē y^e sonne or y^• sonne elder then his father. For y^• hole scripture and all beleuinge hertes testifye that we are begotten thorow the worde. Vvherfore j. Petr. y^•.if the worde begette the congregacion / and he that begetteth is before him that is begottē then is the gospell before the church. Paul also Romano. ix. sayth / how shall they call on whom they beleue not? And how shall they beleue with Ro. 9.Rom 9out a preacher? That is / Christ must first be preached yer men can beleue in him. And then it foloweth / that the worde of y^• preacher must be before the faith of the belevar. And therfore in as moch as the worde is before the faith / and faith maketh the congregacion / therfore is the word or gospell before the congregacion. And agayne as the ayre is darke of it selfe and receaueth all hir light of y^• sonne: even so ar all mens hertes of them selfe darke with lies & receaue al their trueth of gods worde / in that they consent therto. And morouer as the darke ayre geveth the sonne no lighte / but contrary wise the light of the sonne in respecte of the ayre is of it selfe ād lighteneth the ayre and purgeth it from darkenesse: even so the lienge herte of man can geue the word of god no trueth / but contrary wise the trueth of gods worde is of hir selfe and lyghteneth the hertes of the beleuers and maketh them true / and clenseth them from lies / as thou readest Ihon. xv. ye be cleane by reason of the word. VvhichWhich is to be vnderstond / in that y^• Iohan. xvword had purged their hertes from lies / from false opinions and from thynkynge evell good / and therfore from consentinge to synne. And Ihon. xvij. sanctifie thē o father thorow thy trueth. And thy word is trueth. And thus thou seist that gods trueth dependeth not of man. It is Iohan. 17not true because man so saith or addmitteth it for true: But man is true because he beleueth it / testifieth and geueth wittenesse in his hert y^t it is true. And Christ also saith him selfe Ihon. v. I receaue no wittenesse of man. For if the multitude of mās wittenesse might make ought true / then were y^• doctrine of Mahomete truer then Christes.

¶ Vvhether the appostles left ought vn written / that is of necessite to be beleued. ☜

BVt did not the appostles teach ought by mouth that they wrott not? I answere / because that many taught one thinge / and everyman the same in diuers places and vntounto diuers people / and confirmed eueryevery sermon with a sondry miracle: therfore Christ and his appostles preached an hundred thousand sermons ād did as many miracles which had bene superfluous to hauehave bene all written. But the pith and substaunce in generall of eueryevery thinge necessarie vn to oure soules health / both of what we ought to beleue & what we ought to doo / was writtē / and of the miracles done to confirme it / as many p. 14as were nedefull. So that what soeuer we ought to beleue or doo / that same is written expresly or drawen out of that which is written.

For if I were bounde to doo or beleue vnderunder payne of the losse of my soule any thynge y^t were not written / ner depended of that which is written / what holpe me the scripture that is written? And therto in as moch as Christ and all his apostles warned vsus that false prophetes shuld come with false miracles / even to disceaue y^• electe / if it were possible / where with shuld the true preacher cōfounde the false / excepte he brought true miracles to confoūde the false or else autentycke scripture of full auctorite all ready amonge the people.

Some man wolde axe / how did god continue his congregacion from Adam to Noe & frō Noe to Abraham / and so to Moses / with out wrytynge / but with teachynge from mouth to mouth. I answere first that there was no scripture all the while / they shall proue / when oure lady hath a new sonne. God taught Adam greater thinges then to write. And that there was writynge in the world longe yer Abraham ye ād yer Noe doo stories testifie.

Notwithstondinge / though there had bene no writynge / the preachers were euer prophetes glorious ī doynge of miracles / where with they confirmed their preachynge. And beyonde y^t god wrote his testament vn to them all waye / both what to doo and to beleue / even in sacramētes. For the sacrifices which god gaue Adams sonnes were no dumme popetrie or supersticious mahometrie / but signes of the testament of god And in them they red y^• worde of god / as we do in bokes / and as we shuld doo in oure sacramētes / if the weked pope had not taken the significaciōs awaye from vsus / as he hath robbed vsus of y^• true sens of all the scripture. The testament which god mad with Noe / y^t he wolde no moare droune the world with water / he wrote in y^• sacrament of the raynebowe. And the appoyntement made betwene him and Abraham / he wrote in y^• sacrament of circumcision. And therfore saide Steuen Actes. vij. he gaue them the testament of circumcision. Not that the outwarde Actes 7Acts 7circumcision was the hole testament / but the sacrament or signe therof. For circumcision preached gods word vntounto them / as I hauehave in other places declared.

But in the tyme of Moyses when the congregacion was encreased / that they must hauehave many preachars and also rulars temporall / thē all was receaued in scripture / in so moch that Christ and his appostles might not hauehave bene beleued with out scripture for all their miracles Vvherfore in as moch as Christes congregaciō is spred a brode in to all the world moch broder … Moseses / and in as moch as we hauehave not the old testamēt only but also the new / wherin all thinges are opened so richly and all fulfilled that before was promised / and in as moch as there is no promise behinde of ought to be shewed moare saue the resurreccion: yee and seinge that Christ and all the appostles with all the angels of heuen / if they were here / coude preach no moare then is preached / of necessite vntounto oure soules: How then shuld we receave a new article of the faith / with out scripture / as profitable p. xvvntounto my soule / when I had beleved it / as smoke for sore eyes. Vvhat holpe it me to beleue y^t oure laidies bodie is in heuen? what am I the better for the beleffe of purgatorye? to feare mē thou wilt saye. Christ & his appostles thought Purgatoryehell ynough. And yet (besydes that the fleshly imaginacion maye not stonde with gods worde) what greate feare can there be of that tereble fire which thou maist quench all most for .iij. halfe pence?

And that the apostles shuld teach ought by mouth which they wold not write / I praye you for what purpose? because they shuld not come in to the handes of the hethen for mockynge / saith M. More. I pray you what thinge moare to be mocked of the hethen coude they teach / then the resurreccion / and that Christ was god and man an died betwene .ij. theves / and that for his dethes sake / all that repent beleue therin / shuld hauehave their sinnes forgeuē them. ye and if the apostles vnderstode therby as we doo what madder thinge vntounto hethen people / coude they hauehave taught then that bred is Christis body and wine his bloude. And yet all these thynges they wrote. And agayne purgatory / confession in the eare / penaunce and satisfaccion for synne to godward with holy deades / and prayēge to saintes with soch like / as dome sacramentes and ceremonies / ar marvelouse agreable vn to the supersticion of the hethen people / so that they neaded not to absteyne from writynge of them / for feare lest the hethen shuld hauehave mocked them.

Morouer what is it y^• the appostles taught by mouth ād durst not write? The sacramētes? As for baptim and the sacrament of the body & bloud of Christ they wrote / and it is expressed Sacramētes hauehave significacionswhat is signified by them. And also all the ceremonies and sacramentes that were from Adam to Christ had significacions / and all that are made mencion of in the new testament. Vvherfore in as moch as the sacramentes of the olde testament hauehave significacions / and in as moch as the sacramentes of the new testament (of which mencion is made that they were deliuered vn to vsus by the verye appostles at Christes commaundement) hauehave also significacions / and in as moch as the office of an appostle is to edifie in Christe / and in as moch as a dumme ceremonie edifieth not / but hurteth all to gether (for iff it preach not vn to me / thē I can not but put confidence therin / that the dede it selfe iustifieth me / which is the denyenge of Christes bloude) & in as moch as no mencion is made of them / as well as of other / ner is knowen what is ment by them: therfore it appereth that the appostles taught them not / but that they be the false marchaundice of wilye ypocrites. And therto presthode was in the tyme of the appostles an office which if they wold do truely / it wold moare profitt then all the sacramentes in the worlde. And ☞agayne gods holinesses striue not one agenst a nother ner defile one a nother. Their sacramentes defile one a nother. For wedlocke defileth preshode moare then horedom / thefte / murther or any sinne agenst nature. They wyll happly demaunde where it is written that wemen shuld baptise. Verely in this cōmaundement louelove they neyboure as thyselfe it is writtē / that they maye and ought to ministre not only baptim / but all other in time of neade / iff they be so necessarie as they preach them.

p. xvjAnd finally though we were sure that god him selfe had geuen vsus a sacrament / what soeuer it were / yet if the significaciō were once lost we must of necessite / ether seke vpp the significacion or put some other significacion of gods word therto / what we ought to doo or beleue therby / or else put it downe. For it is impossibible to obserue a sacrament with out significacion / but vntounto oure damnacion. If we kepe the faith purely and the law of louelove vndefiled / whych are the significacions of all ceremonies there is no ieoperdy to alter or chaunge the facion of the ceremonye or to put it doune / if nede requyre₊ ☜

¶ Vvhether the church can erre

THere is a nother questiō whether y^e church maye erre. VvhichWhich if ye vnderstonde of y^• pope and his generacion / it is verely as hard a question as to axe / whether he which hath both his eyes out be blynd or no / or whether it be possible for him that hath one legge shorter then a nother / to halt. But I said that Christes electe what y^t very church is & what faith saveth.church is the hole multititude of all repentynge synners that beleue in Christ and put all their trust and confidence in the mercye of god / felynge in their hertes / that god for Christes sake loueth them and wilbe or rather is mercifull vn to them and forgeueth them their synnes of which they repent / and that he forgeueth them also all the mocions vn to synne of which they feare lest they shuld therby be drawen in to synne agayne. And this faith they hauehave with out all respecte of their awne deseruynges / yee and for no nother cause then that the mercifull trueth of god the father which can not lye / hath so promised and so sworne.

And this faith and knowlege is euerlastynge life / and by this we be born a new and made the sonnes of god and obtayne forgeuenesse of synnes and are translated from deeth to life ād from the wrath of god vn to his louelove and fauoure. And this faith is the mother of all trueth. and bryngeth with hir the spirite of all trueth. VvhichWhich spirite purgeth vsus / as from all sinne / even so from all lyes and erroure noysome and hurtefull. And this faith is the fundacion layd of the appostles and prophetes wheron Paul saith Ephe. ij. that we are bylt / and therby of y^e household of god And this faith is y^• rocke wheron Ephe. 2Eph 2Christ bilt his congregacion. Christ axed the Mat. 16Matt 16appostles Matth. xvj. whom they toke him for. And Peter answered for them all sayenge I saye that thou art Christ the sonne of the liuinge god y^t art come in to this worlde. That is / we beleue that thou art he that was promised vn to Abraham / shuld come and blesse vsus and deliuer vsus. How be it Peter yet wist not by what meanes. But now it is opened thorow out all the world / that thorow the offerynge of his body and bloude. That offeringe is a satisfaccion for the sinne of all that repent and a purchasynge of what so euer they can axe / to kepe them in fauoure. And that they sinne no moare. And Christ answered vppon this rocke I will byld my congregacion: that is / vppon this faith. And agenst the rocke of this faith can no sinne / no hell / no deuell / no lies nor erroure preuayle.

For what soeuer any man hath committed / if he repent and come to this rocke / he is saffe. And that this faith is the only waye bi which y^• church of Christ goeth vn to god and vn to y^• enheretaunce of all his riches / testifie all the appostles p. xvijand prophetes ād all the scripture / with signes ād miracles / and al the bloud of marters. And who soever goeth vntounto God and vntounto for geuenesse of synnes or saluacion / by any other waye then thys / the same is an heretike out of the rightwaye and not of Christes church.

For this knowlege maketh a man of the church. And the church is christes body Collossen. …j. and every person of the church is a member Col. j.of christ. Ephe. 5. Now it is no member of christ that hath not christes spirite in it. Roma. viii. as Ephe. 5.Eph 5it is no parte of me or member of my body wherin my soule is not present and quikeneth it. Rom. 8.Rom 8And then iff a man be none of christes / he is not of his church

¶ How a true member of christes church synneth not / and how he is yet a synner

FVrthermoare / he that hath this faith cannot sinne / and therfore can not be disceaved with damnable erroures. For by this faith we be (as Isaide) borne of God. Now he that is born of god can not synne / for his seed dwelleth in him / and he can not therfore synne / because he is born of God. j. Ihon. iij. which seed is y^• j. Ioha. 3.holygost that kepith a mans hert from consentinge vntounto sinne. And therfore it is a false conclusion that master More holdeth / how that a Faith ād synne cannot stond to gether.man maye hauehave a righte faith ioyned with all kyndes of abhominacion and synne

And yet every membir of Christes congregacion is a synner and sinneth dayly / some moare and some lesse. For it is written .i. Ihon. i. if we saye we hauehave no synne / we disceaue oure selues and the trueth is not in vsus. And agayne iff we saye / we hauehave not sinned / we make him aliar and his worde is not in vsus. And Paul. Roma. vij. saith / that good which I wold / that do I not / but that evell which I wold not / that do I So it is not I that doo it (saith he) but synne that dwelleth in me. Thus are we synners and no synners. No synners / if thou loke vn to the profession of oure hertes towarde the law of God / on oure repentaunce and sorow that we hauehave / both because we hauehave synned and also because we be yet full of synne still / and vn to the promises of merciemercy in oure sauioure christe / and vn to oure fayth. Synners are we / iff thou loke vn to the frailtie of oure flesh / which is as the weakenesse of one that is newly recouered out of agreate disease / by the reasō wherof oure dedes are imperfect. And by the reasō where of also / when occasions be greate / we fall in to horrible dedes / ād the frute of the synne which remayneth in oure membirs breaketh out. Notwithstondynge yet the spirite leaveth vsus not / but rebuketh vsus ād bringeth vsus home agayne vn to oure profession / so that we never cast off the yocke of God frō oure neckes nether yeld vpp oure selues vn to synne / for to serue it / but fighte afresh ād begynne a new batayle. ☞ ☜ ₊ ₊ ₊

p. xviij¶ How a christen man can not erre / and how he maye yet erre.

ANd as they synne not / so they erre not. And on y^• other syde as they synne / so they erre: but never vn to deeth and damnaciō. For they never synne of purpose ner holde any erroure maliciously / synnynge agenst the holygoste / but of weakenesse and infirmitie. As good obedient childern / though they louelove their fathers cōmaundementes / yet breake them oft / by the reason of their wekenesse. And as they can not yelde them selves bond vn to synne / to serue it: evē so they can not erre in any thynge that shuld be agenst the promises which are in christe. And in other thynges their erroures be not vn to damnacion / though they be neuer so greate / because they hold them not maliciously. As now / if some when they reade in the new testament of Christes brethern / wold thynke that they were oure ladies childern aftir the birth of christe / because they know not the vse of speakynge of the scripture or of the hebrues / how that nye kinsmen becalled brethern / or happly they might be Iosephes childern / by some first wife / neyther can hauehave any to teach him for tiranny y^t is so greate / yet coude it not hurte him / though he died therin / because it hurteth not y^• redempcion y^t is in christes bloude. For though she had none but christ / I am therfore neuer the moare saued / neyther yet the lesse / though she had had. And in soch like an hundred that plucke not a mans faith from Christ / they might erre / and yet beneuer the lesse saued no though the contrary were written in the gospel. For as in other synnes / as sone as they be rebuked / they repent: even so here / assone as they were better taught / they shuld immediatly knowlege their erroure ād not resiste.

But they which maliciously maynetene opinions agenst the scripture / or that that can not be proued by the scripture / or soch as make no mater vn to the scripture and saluacion that is in christ whether they be true or noo / ād for the blinde zele of them make sectes / breakinge the vnite of christes church / for whose sake they ought to suffre all thynge / ād rise agenst their neyboures / whom they ought to louelove as them selues / to slee them (soch men I saye are fallē frō christe and make an Idole of their opinions. For except they put trust in soch opinions and thought them necessarie vn to saluaciō / or with a cākred cōscience went about to disceaue / for some filthie purpose / they wold never breake the vnite of faith or yet slee their bretern. Now is this a playne conclusion / that both they that trust in their awne workes / and they also that put confidence in their awne opinions / be fallen from Christe and erre from the waye of faith y^t is in christes bloude / and therfore are none of christes church / because they be not bilt vppon y^e rocke of faith. ₊ ₊ ✚

¶ Faith is ever assayled and fought with all.

p. xixMOrouer this oure faith which we hauehave in Christ / is euer fought agenst / euer assaylled and beten at with disperacion: not when we sinne only / but also in all temptacions of adversite in to which God bringeth vsus / to nurtoure vsus and to shew vsus oure awne hertes / the ypocrisie and false thoughtes that there lye hidd / oure al most no faith at all and as litle louelove / even then happly when we thought oure selues most perfecte of all. For when temptacions come we can not stond / when we hauehave synned faith is feble / when wronge is done vsus we cannot forgeue / in sickenes / in losse of goodes ād in all tribulacions we be impacient: when oure neyboure neadeth oure helpe / that we must departe with him of oures then louelove is colde. And thus we lerne and fele that there is no goodnesse ner yet power to doo good / but of God only. And in all soch temptacions oure faith perisheth not vtterly neyther our louelove and consent vntounto the law of God / But they be weke / sycke and wounded and not cleane deed. As a Good child whom the father and mother hauehave taught nurtourne and wisdom / loueth his father and all his commaundementes / and perceaueth of the goodnesse shewed him / that his father loueth him and that all his fathers preceptes are vntounto his welth and profitt / and that his father commaundeth him nothinge for any neade that his father hath therof / but seketh his profitt only / and therfore hath a good faith vn to all his fathers promises and loueth al his commaundementes and doeth them with good wyll and with good will goeth to scole. And by the waye haply he seeth companie playe and with the sight is taken and raveshed of his memory and forgetteth him selfe and stondeth and beholdeth and falleth to playe also / forgettynge father and mother / all their kyndes / all their lawes and his awne profitt therto. How be it the knowlege of his fathers kyndnesse / the faith of his promises and the louelove that he hath agayne vn to his father and the obediēt mynde are not vtterly quenched / but lye hyd / as all thynges do when a man slepeth or lieth in a traunce. And assone as he hath played out all his lustes or bewarned in the meane season / he cometh agayne vn to his olde profession. Neuer the later many temptacions goo ouer his herte / and the law as a right hangman tormenteth his conscience ād goeth nye to persuade him that his father will cast him a waye and hange him if he ketche him so that he is like a greate while to runne awaye rather then to returne vn to his father agayne. Feare and dreade of rebuke and of losse of his fathers louelove and of punishment wrastell with the trust which he hath in his fathers goodnesse ād as it were geue his faith a fall. But it riseth agayne assone as the rage of the first brount is past and his mynd moare quiett. And the good nesse of his father and his old kindnesse cometh vn to remembraunce / eyther of his awne corage or by the comforte of some other. And he beleueth that his father will not cast him awaye or destroye him / and hopeth that he will no moare doo so.

And vppon that he geteth him home / dismayed. But not all to gether faythlesse. The old kyndneses wyll not lett him dispayre. How be it all the world can not sett his hert at rest / vntill the payne be past / and vntyll he hauehave herd p. xxthe voyce of his father that all is forgeuen₊

¶ The maner and ordre of oure election₊ ☜

EVen so goeth it with gods electe. God choseth them first and they not god / as thou readest Ihon. xv. And then he sendeth forth and calleth them / and sheweth them his goodwyll Ioan. 15John 15which he beareth vn to them / and maketh them se / both their awne damnacion in the lawe and also the merciemercy that is layd vpp for them in christes bloude / and therto what he will hauehave them doo. And then when we se his merciemercy / we louelove him agayne and chose him and submitte our selues vn to his lawes to walke in them. For when we erre not in witt / reason and iudgement of thinges / we can not erre in wil and choyse of thynges. The choyse of a mans will doeth naturally and of hir awne accorde folowe the iudgement of a mans reason / whether he iudge righte or wronge. So that in teachinge only resteth the pith of a mans liuynge. How be it there be swine that receaue no lerninge but to defile it. And there be dogges that rent all good lerninge with their teth. And there be pope holy whych folowynge a ryghtewesnes of their awne faynynge resiste the rightwesnesse of god in Christe And there be that can not attend to herken vn to the trueth for rage of lustes / which when lustes abate / come and obeye well ynough.

And therfore a Christen man must be pacient and sofre longe to wynne his brother to Christ / that he whych attendeth not to daye / maye receave grace and heare to morowe: we se some at their very later ende / when colde feare of deeth hath quenched the heet of their appetites / lerne ād consent vntounto the trueth / where vntounto before they coude geue none eare / for y^• wylde rages of lustes y^t blinded their wittes₊

And though gods electe can not so faull y^• they rise not agayne / because that the mercy of mercye waiteth euer on y^• electegod euer wayteth vppon them / to deliuer them from euell / as the care of a kind father wayteth vppon his sonne / to warne him ād to kepe him from occasions ād to call hym bake agayne yf he begonne to ferre: yet they forgett them selues oftymes ād synke downe in to traunces ād fall aslepe in lustes for a season. But assone as they be awaked they repent and come agayne wythout resistaūce. God now ād then withdraweth his hande ād leueth them vntounto their awne strength / to make them feale that there is no power to do good but of god only lest they shulde be proude of that which is none of theirs. God layd so sore awaight of persecucion vppon Dauids Dauidbacke that passed his strēgth to beare. So y^t he cried oft out in his psalmes / sayenge that he had liued well and folowed the right waye off God in vaine. For the moare he kepte him selfe from sinne / the worse yt went with hym / as he thought / and the better with his enemie Saull y^e worse he was, yet god left hym not there / but comforted him and shewed him thynges which before he wist not of / how that the saintes must be pacyent and a byde gods heruest / vntyll the wekedenesse of vngodly synners befull ripe / y^t god maye repe it in dew season₊

God also suffered occasyons stronger then p. xxiDauid / to faull vppon him ād to carie him cleane out of the waye. was he not readye for a churlysse answere to hauehave slayn naball and all the males of his housse / so moch as the chyld in the cradell? how be it God with helde hym and kepte him backe frō that evell / thorow the wisdome of Abegall. How longe slomberd he / or rather how hard in slepe was he in the adulterye of Bathseba. And in the murther of her husbond Vriah / But at both tymes assone as he was rebuked and his faulte told him / he repented immedyatly & turned agayne mekely. Now in all that longe tyme / from the adulterye of Bathsabe vntyll the prophete Nathan rebuked him he had not lost his faith nor yet his louelove vntounto the lawes of god / no moare then a man loseth hys wittes when he ys a slepe. He had forgott hym selfe only and had not malycyously cast of the yocke of gods commaundementes from off his necke. There is no man so good / but that there cometh a tyme vppon hym / whē he fealeth in hym selfe no moare faith or louelove vntounto god / then a sycke man oftymes feleth the tast of his meate which he eateth₊

And in lyke maner the apostles of chryst at hys passyon were astonyed and amased and in soch a storme of temptacyons / for the soden chaunge from soo greate glorye in to so vyle and shamfull deeth / that they had forgott all the myracles and all the wordes whych he had told them before / how that he shulde be betrayed and delyuered on the same maner vntounto deeth. Morouer they neuer vnderstode that sayenge of hys deeth because their hertes were all waye hevie and ouer lade wyth erthely thoughtes. For though they saw him reyse vpp other / yet who shulde reyse hym vpp / when he were deed / they coude not comprehende.

Reade what thou reade canst / and thou shalt fynd no temptacyon lyke vntounto that from y^e creacyon of y^e world / or so greate as yt by the hundred parte. So that the wonderfull soden chaunge and the tereble syght of hys passyon and of hys most cruell and most vile deeth / and the losse of whom they so greatly loued / that theyr hertes wolde fayne hauehave died wyth hym / and the feare of their awne deeth / and the impossibilite that a man shulde ryse agayne of his awne power / so occupyed theyr myndes and so astonyed them and amased them / that they coude receaue no comforte / ether of the scrypture or of y^• miracles which they had sene christ doo / nor of the monicions ād warnynge wherewith he had warned them before / nether of the women that brought them tydynges that he was rysen. The swerd of temptacyons wyth feare sorow / mornynge & wepynge / had depely perced theyr hertes / and the cruell syght had so combred their mindes / that they coude not beleue / vntyll chryst hym selfe came / deeth put off and ouercome / ye and when they first saw him / they were astonied for wonderinge ād ioye to gether that thoughtes a rose in theyr hertes / alas ys thys he or doeth some spirite mocke vsus? he was faine to lett them feale him ād to eate with thē / to strength theyr faythes₊

How be yt there was none of them that was fallen in hys hert from chryste. For assone as the wemen brought worde / Peter and Ihon ran vntounto the sepulchre and saw and wonted and wold fayne hauehave beleuen that he was p. xxijrosen and longed for hym? But coude not beleue the wound of temptacyon beinge greater thē that it coude be healed wyth the preachynge of a woman with out any other miracle

Ioseph of Arimathea ād Nicodemus which while he yet liued durst not be a knowē of hym assone as he was deed / bedged his bodie and buried hym boldly. And the wemen assone as yt was lawful to worke prepared their annoyntmētes with all diligence And the hertes of the dysciples that went to Emaus burned in their brestes to heare speake of hym₊

And thomas had not forsaken Christ / but coude not beleue vntyll he sawe hym / and yet desyred and longed to se hym and reioysed whē he saw hym and for ioye cryed out / my lorde my god. There was none of them that euer railed on hym and came so ferre forth / to saye / he was a disceauer and wrought wyth the dyuels craft all thys whyle / and se where to he ys come in the ende? we defye hym and all hys werkes false wretch that he was and hys false doctrine also. And therto must they hauehave come at the last / when feare / sorow ād wonderynge had bene past / yf they had not bene preuented ād holpe in the meane tyme₊

yee and peter assone as he had denied chryst Peters fayth fayled notcame too hym selfe immedyatly and went out and wepte bytterly for sorow. And thus ye se / that peters fayth fayled not / though yt were oppressed for a tyme: so that we neade to seke no gloses for the texte that Chryst sayd to peter how that hys fayth shulde not fayle. yes sayth Master More yt fayled in hym selfe / but was reserued in our ladye. ☜but lat vsus se the texte and their glose to gether. Christ saith Luke. xxij. Simon / Simon / sathan Lu. 11.seketh you to sifte you as men sifte where: but I hauehave prayed for y^• / that thy faith shall not faile / werfore when thou art come vn to thy selfe agayne strength thy brethern. Now put this wise glose therto and se how they agre to gether. Simon / satā seketh to sift you as whete / but I hauehave prayd for the / that my mothers faith shall not faile / wherfore when thou art come to thyselfe agayne / acordynge as my prayar hath obtayned for the / that my mothers faith shall not ☞faile / strength thy brethern. How saye ye / is not this a propir texte and well framed to gether? Do ye not thinke that there is as moch witte ī the heed of mad colens / as in the braynes of soch expositoures?

¶ Vvhether the pope and his secte be Christes church or no

THat the pope and his spirites be not the 1church maye this wise be proued. He that hath no faith to be saued thorow Christe / is not of Christes churche. The pope beleueth not to Popebe saued thorow Christe. For he teacheth to trust in holy workes for the remission of sinnes and saluacion: as in y^• workes of penaunce enioyned / in vowes / in pilgremage / in chastite / in other mens prayars and holy liuynge / in freres and freres cotes / in saintes merites / and the significacions put out / he teacheth to beleue in y^• dedes of the ceremonies and of the sacramētes ordeyned at the begynnynge to preach vn to vsus and to do vsus seruice / and not that we shuld beleue in thē ād serue thē And a thousand such supersticiousnesses setteth he before vsus in steade p. xxiijof Christ / to beleue in / nether Christ ner gods worde / nether honourable to god ner serviceable vntounto our neyboure ner profitable vn to ourselues for the tamynge of the flesh / which all are y^• denyenge of Christes bloud.

A nother rason is this. Vvhosoeuer beleueth 2in Christ / consenteth that gods lawe is good. The pope consenteth not that gods lawe is good. For he hath forboden lawfull wedlocke vn to all his / ouer whom he raigneth as a tēporall tirant with lawes of his awne makynge and not as a brother exhortynge them to kepe Christes. And he hath graunted vnlaufull horedom vn to as many as bringe money. As thorow all doucheland / eueryevery prest payenge a geldē vn to the archedecon shall frely and quietly hauehave his hore and put hir awaye at his pleasure / & take a nother at his awne luste. As they doo in wales / in yerland / Scotland / Fraunce & Spayne. And in Englond therto they be not few whych hauehave licences to kepe hores / some of the pope and some of their ordinaries. And when the parishes goo to law with them to put a waye their hores / the bisshopes officers mocke them / poll them and make them spend their thryftes / and the prestes kepe their hores still. How be it in very dede sens they were re…uked by the preachynge of wicleffe / oure englesh spiritualtie hauehave layd their snares vn to mens wiues / to couer their abhominacions / though they byde not all waye secret.

Ther to all Christen men if they hauehave done amisse repent when their fautes be told them. 3The spiritualtie repent not / but of very lust ād consent to synne persecute both the scripture wherwith they be rebuked and also them that warne them to amend & make heretikes of them and burne them. And besydes that / y^• pope hath mad a playne decre in which he commaundeth sayenge / though y^• pope synne neuer so greuously and draw with him to hell by his ensample thousandes innumerable / yet let no man be so hardye to rebuke him. For he is heed ouer all & none ouer him distinct .xl. Si papa.

And Paul saith Roma. xiij. let eueryevery soule 4obey the hier powers that are ordeyned to punysh synne. The pope will not / ner let any of his.Rom. 13Rom 13

And Paul chargeth. 1. Corin. v. if he that is a brother be an horekeper / a dronkerd / couetouse / 5an extorsioner or a raylar and so forth / that we hauehave no felowsheppe with him: No not so 1. Cor. 5.1 Cor 5moch as to eate in his companie. But the pope with violence compelleth vsus to hauehave soch in honoure / to receaue the sacramentes of them / to heare their masses and to beleue all they saye / and yet they wyll not lett vsus se whether they saye trouth or no. And he compelleth .x. parishes to paye their tithes and offeringes vn to one soch to goo and runne at riott at their cost & to doo noughte therfore. And a thousand soch like doeth the pope contrarie vn to Christes doctrine.

¶ The argumentes where with the pope wold proue him selfe the church / are solued. ☜

NOtwithstondinge because as they be all shauen they be all shamelesse to affirme y^t they by the right church & can not erre / though all the world seeth that not one of them is in y^• right waye and that they hauehave with vtter defiaunce forsaken both the doctrine and livinge of p. xxiiijChriste and of all his appostles / lat vsus se the sophistrie where with they wold persuade it. One of thier hie reasons is this. The church / saye they / was before y^e heretikes / and the heretikes came euer out of the church ād left it. And they Their first reason.were before all them which they now call heretikes and lutherans / and the lutheranes came out of them. & c̄. Vvherfore they be the right church and the other heretikes in dede as they be called. Vvell / I will like wise dispute. First y^• A like reasonright church was vnderunder Moses and Aaron & so forth in whose rowmes satt the scribes phareses and hye prestes in the time of Christ. And they were before Christe. And Christ and his apostles came out of them and departed from them and left them. Vvherefore the scribes phareses and hie prestes were the right church / and Christ and his appostles and disciples heretikes and a damnable secte. And so the Iewes ar yet in the right waye and we in erroure. And of trueth if their blynd reason be good / thē is this argument so to. For they be like and are both one thynge.

But in as moch as the kingdom of god stondeth The solucionnot in wordes / as paul sayth. 1. Co. iiij. But in power / therfore loke vn to the mary and pith of the thinges selfe / and lett vayne wordes passe. VnderUnder Abraham / Isaac / and Iacob was the church greate in faith and small in numbre / And as it encreased ī numbre / so it decreased in faith vntyll the tyme of Moses. And out of those vnbeleuers god stered vpp Moses & brought then vntounto the right faith agayne. And Moses left a glorious church and in faith and cleauinge vn to y^• word of god / and deliuered them vn to Iosuah Eleazer / Phineas and Caleb.

But assone as the generacion of them that saw y^• miracles of god were deed / they fell to Idolatrie immediatly as thou seist in the bible. And god when he had delyuered them in to captiuite for to chastise their wekednesse / stered them vpp a prophete euer moare / to call them vn to his testament agayne. And so he did wellnye an hundred tymes / I suppose / yer Christ came / for they neuer bode any space in the right faith. And agenst the comynge of Christ the scribes / Phareses / Caiphas / Anna / and the elders / were crepte vpp in to the sete of Moses / Aaron and the holy prophetes and patriarkes and succeded them linially and had the scripture of god but euen in captiuite / to make marchaundice of it and to ab vse it vn to their awne glorie & profitt. And though they kepte the people from outward Idolatrie of worshepynge of images with the hethen: yet they brought them in to a worse inward Idolatrie of a false fayth & trust in their awne dedes and in vayne tradicions of their awne faynynge. And they had put out the significacions of all the ceremonies and sacramentes of the olde testamēt and taught the people to beleue in the workes selfe / and had corrupte the scripture with false gloses. As thou maist se in the gospell / how Christ warneth his disciples to be warre of the leuen of the phareses which was their false doctrine and gloses. And in a nother place he rebuked the scribes and the Mat. 16.Matt 16phareses sayenge: wo be to them / because they had taken awaye the keye of knowlege ād had Mat. 23.Matt 23shutt vpp the kingdome of even and neyther wold entre in them selues ner sofre them that wolde. How had they shutt it vpp? verely with their tradicions and false gloses whych p. xxvthey had sowed to the scripture ī playne places and in the takynge a waye the meaninge of the ceremonies and sacrifices and teachinge to beleue in the worke.

And oure ypocrites are in like maner crept vpp in to y^• sete of Christ and of his ppostles / by succession: not to doo the dedes of Christ and his appostles / but for lucre only (as the nature of y^• wilye foxe is / to gett him ā hole made with a nother beestes laboure) and to make marchaundice 2. Pet. 2.2 Pet 2of the people with fayned wordes / as Peter warned vsus before / & to doo acordinge as Christ and all his apostles prophesyed / how they shuld begyle and leade out of the right waye / all them y^t had no louelove to folow and liue aftir y^• trouth.

And in like maner hauehave they corrupte the scripture / and blinded the right waye with their awne constitucions / with tradicions of dō me ceremonies / with takynge awaye the significacions of the sacramentes / to make vsus beleue in the worke of the sacramentes first / where by they might y^e better make vsus beleue in workes of their settynge vpp aftirwarde / and with false gloses which they hauehave patched to the scripture in playne places to destroye y^• litterall sens for to sett vp a false fayned sens of allegories / when there is none soch. And therby they hauehave stopte vpp the gates of heven / the true knowlege of Christ / and hauehave made their awne belies y^• dore. For thorow their belies must thou crepe and there leave all thy fall behynde the. And soch blynd reasons as oures make agēst Ioan. 8.John 8vsus / made they agenst Christe sayenge: Abraham is our father / we be Moses disciples / how knoweth he the vnderstondinge of y^• scripture / seinge he neuer lerned of any of vsus? only the cursed vnlerned people that know not y^• scripture beleue in him. Loke whether any of the rulars or phareses doo beleue in him.

Vvherfore the scripture truely vnderstond aftir the playne places and generall articles of the faith which thou findest in the scripture / ād the ensamples that are gonne before / wyll all waye testifie who is the right church. Though the phareses succeded the patriarkes and prophetes and had the scripture of them / yet they were heretikes and fallen from y^• faith of them & from their lyuynge. And Christ and his disciples & Ihon the Baptist departed from the phareses which were heretikes / vn to y^e right sens Christ. Ioan baptist.of the scripture & vn to the faith & liuinge of the patriarkes & prophetes and rebuked the phareses. As thou seist how Christ calleth them ypocrites / dissimulars / blynd gydes & paynted sepulchres. And Ihon called thē th… generaciō of vipers & serpētes. Of Ihon the angell said vn to his father Luke. j. he shall turne many of y^• childrē of Israel vn to their lord god. which yet before Luce. 1.Ihon beleued after a fleshly vnderstondynge in god & thought thē selues ī the right waye. And he shall turne the hertes of the fathers vn to the childerne. That is / he shall with his preachynge & true interpretynge of the scripture make soch a spirituall hert in the children as was ☞in their fathers / Abraham / Isaac / & Iacob. And he shall turne the disobedient vn to the obediēce of the rightteouse & prepare the lorde a perfecte people. That is / them y^t had sett vpp a rightewysnesse of their awne & were therfore disobedient vntounto the rightewysnesse of faith / shall he conuerte from their blyndnesse vn to the wisdome of them that beleued in god to be made rightewysse p. xxvj/ and with those fathers shall he geue y^• childern egles eyes to spie out Christ & his rightewysnesse and to forsake their awne and so to become perfecte.

And aftir the same maner / though oure popish ypocrites succede Christ and his appostles and hauehave their scripture / yet they befallen from the faith and liuinge of them and are heretikes and had nede of a Ihon Baptist to conuerte them. And we departe from them vn to y^• true scripture and vntounto the faith and liuynge their of / and rebuke them in like maner. And as they which departe from the faith of y^e true church are heretikes / even so they that departe from y^• church of heretikes and false fayned faith of ypocrites / are the true church / which thou shalt all waye know by their faith examined by the scripture and by their profession and consent to liue acordynge vn to the lawes of god.

¶ Another argument.

A Nother like blynd reason they hauehave where Their seconde reasonin is all their trust. Is we come out of them & they not of vsus / so we receaue the scripture of them & they not of vsus. How know we that it is the scripture of god and true but because they teach vsus so? How can we that beleue / excepte we first beleue y^t they be the church and cannot erre in any thynge y^t perteyneth vn to ouresoules health. For if a man tell me of a marvelouse thynge / wherof I can hauehave no nother knowlege then by his mouth only / how shuld I geue credence excepte I beleued that the man were so honest y^t he coude not lye or wold not lye. Vvherefore we must beleue that they be the right church that can not erre or else we can beleue nought at all.

This wise reason is their shoteancre and al their hold / their refuge / to flight and chefe stone in their fundacion / wheron they hauehave bilt all their lies and all their mischeue that they hauehave wrought this .viij. hundred yeres. And this reason do the Iewes laye vn to oure charge this daye / and this reason doeth chefely blynd them and hold them still in obstinacie. Oure spirites first falsifie the scripture to stablish their lyes. And when the scripture cometh to light and is restored vn to the true vnderstondinge and their iuglinge spied / and they like to sofre shippwracke / then they cast out this ancre / they be the church and can not erre / their auctorite is greater then the scripture / and the scripture is not true / but because they saye so and admitte it. And therfore what soeuer they affirme / is of as greate auctorite as the scripture.The solucion.

Notwithstondinge / as I saide / the kingdone of heuen stondeth not in wordes of mans wisdome / but in power and spirite. And therfore loke vn to the ensamples of the scripture and so shalt thou vnderstonde. And of an hundred ensamples betwene Moses and Christe / where y^• Israelites fell from god and were euer restored by one prophete or other / let vsus take one: evē Ihon the Baptiste. Ihon went before Christ to {pre}pare his waye / that is / to brynge men vn to the knowlege of their sinnes and vn to repentaunce / thorow true expoundynge of the lawe / which is the only waye vn to Christe. For excepte amā knowlege his sinnes and repent of them / he can hauehave no parte in Christe / of Ihon Christ saith Matt. xvij. that he was Elias that shuld come Mat. 17.Matt 17and restore all thynge. That is / he shuld restore y^• scripture vn to the right sens agayne / which p. xxvijthe phareses had corrupte with the leuē of their false gloses and vayne fleshly tradiciōs. He made croked thynges streyght / as it is written / and rough smoth. VvhichWhich is also to be vnderstonde of the scripture / which the phareses had made croked wrestynge them vn to a false sens with weked gloses / and so rough that no man coude walke in the waye of them. For when god said / honoure father and mother / meaninge that we shuld obey them ād also helpe them at their nede / the phareses put this glose therto / out of their awne leuen sayenge: God is thy father ād mother. wherfore what soeuer nede thy father & mother hauehave / iff thou offer to god / thou art hold excused. For it is better to offer to god / then to thy father and mother and so moch moare meritorious as god is greater then they: yee ād god hath done moare for the then they and is moare thy father and mother then they. As oures now affirme / that it is moare meritorious to offer to god and his holy deed saintes / then vn to the pore liuynge saintes. And when god had promised the people a sauioure to come and blesse them and saue them from their synnes / the phareses taught to beleue in holy workes to be saued by as if they offered ād gaue to be prayd for. As oures / as ofte as we hauehave a promise to be for geuen at the repentaunce of the herte thorow Christes bloud shedynge / putto / thou must first shriue thy selfe to vsus of eueryevery sillable / & we must laye oure handes on thine heed ād whistell out thy synnes and enioyne the penaunce to make satisfaccion. And yet art thou but loused from the synne only y^t thou shalt not come in to hell / but thou must yet sofre for every synne .vij. yeres in purgatory which is as whott as hell / excepte Purgatory.thou bye it out of the pope. And if thou aske by what meanes the pope geueth soch pardon. They answere out of the merites of christ And thus at the last they graunt agenst themselues / that Christ hath not only deserued for vsus the remission of oure synnes / but also y^• forgeuenesse of that grosse and fleshly imagined purgatory / saue thou must by it out of the pope And with soch tradicions they toke awaye the keye of knowlege and stopped vpp the kingdome of heuen that no man coude entre in.

And as I said / they taught the people to beleue in the dedes of the ceremonyes whych god ordeyned not to iustifie but to be signes of promises by which they that beleued were iustified. But the phareses put out the significaciōs and quenched the faith and taught to be iustified by the worke / as oures hauehave serued vsus.

For oure sacramentes were onse but signes partely of what we shulde beleue / …o stere vsus vp vn to faith / and partely what we shuld doo / to stere vsus vpp to doo the law of god / ād were not workes to iustifie.

Now make this reason vn to Ihon ād vn to many prophetes that went before him & did as he did / ye and vn to Christ him selfe and his appostles / and thou shalt finde them all heretikes / and the scribes and phareses good men / iff that reason be good. Therfore this wise thou maist answere. No thankes vn to the heedes of that church that the scripture was kepte / but vn to the merciemercy of god. For as they had destroyed the right sens of it for their lucre sake / evē so wold they hauehave destroyed it also had they coude / rather then the people shuld hauehave come vn to the right vnderstondinge of it / as they slew p. xxviijthe true interpretours and preachers of it. And even so no thankes vn to oure ypocrites that y^• scripture is kepte / but vn to the botomlesse merciemercy of god.

For as they hauehave destroyed the right sens of it with their leuen / and as they destroye dayly the trewe preachers of it / and as they kepe it frō the laye people / that they shuld not se how they iugle with it / even so wolde they destroye it also / coude they brynge it aboute / rather then we shuld come by y^• true vnderstondynge of it were it not that god prouided other wise for vsus. For they hauehave put the stories that shuld in many thynges helpe vsus / cleane out of the waye / as nye as they coude. They hauehave corrupte the legend and liues all most of all sayntes. They hauehave fayned false bokes and put them forth / some in the name of. S. Hierome / some in the name of saynt Augustine / in the name of. S. Ciprian / S. Deonise & other holy mē. VvhichWhich are proued none of theirs / partly by y^• stile & latine / & partly by autenticke stories. And as y^• Iewes hauehave sett vpp a boke of tradicions called talmud / to Talmud.destroye y^• sens of the scripture / Vn to whych they geue faith & vn to the scripture none at all be it never so playne / but saye it can not be vnderstonde / saue by y^t talmud: even so hauehave oures set vpp their dunce / their Thomas & a thousand Duncelike draffe / to stablish their lies / thorow falsifienge y^• scripture / & saye that it can not be vnderstonde with out them / be it never so playne. And if a man allege an holy doctoure agēst thē they glose him out as they doo the scripture / or will not heare / or saye the church hath other wise determined. Question Now therfore when they aske vsus how we knowe answere that it is the scripture of god / aske them how Ihon Baptiste knew and other prophetes which god stered vpp in all soch times as y^• scripture was in like captiuite vnderunder ypocrites? Did Ihon beleue that the scribes / phareses and hie prestes were the true church of god / ād had his spirite and coude not erre? who taught the egles to spie out their praye? euen so the childrē of god spie out their father and Christes electe spie out their lorde / and trace out the pathes of his fete and folowe / ye though he goo vppon y^e playne and liquide water which will receaue no steppe: and yet there they find out his foote / his electe know him / but y^• world knoweth him not Ihon. 1. If the world know him not / and thou Ioan. 1. ☞John 1call the world pride / wrath / envie / couetousnesse slowth / glotonnye and lecherie / then our spiritualtie know him not. Christes shepe heare y^• voyce of Christ Ihon. x. where the world of ypocrites Ioa. 10as they know him not / even so the wolues heare not his voyce / but compell y^e scripture to heare them and to speake what they luste. And therfore excepte the lorde of Sabaoth had left vsus seed / we had bene all as Sodom and Gommor said Esaias in his first chapter. And even so saide Paule in his tyme And even so saye we Esa. 1.Isa 1in oure tyme / that the lord of the hostes hath saued him seed and hath gathered him a flocke to Rom. 9.Rom 9whom he hath geuen eares to heare / that the ypocritish wolues can not heare / and eyes to se / that the blynde leadars of the blynd can not se / and an hert to vnderstonde / that the generaciō of poysoned vipers can nether vnderstonde ner knowe.

If they allege sent Augustine which saith / I Augustinushad not beleued y^• gospell / excepte the auctorite p. xxixof the church had moued me. I āswere / as they abuse that sayenge of the holy man / evē so they allege al the scripture and all that they bringe for them / even in a false sens. S. Augustine before he was cōuerted was an hethen man and a philosopher full of worldly wisdome vn to whom the preachinge of christe is but folishnesse 1. Cor. 1.1 Cor 1/ saith paul. i. Corin. i. And he disputed with blynd reasons of wordly wisdome agenst the christen. Neuerthelesse the ernest liuinge of the christen acordinge vn to their doctrine and the constant soferinge of persecucion and aduersite for their doctrines sake moued him and stered him to beleue that it was no vayne doctrine / but y^t it must nedes be of god / in y^t it had soch power with it. For it happeneth that they which will not heare the worde at the begynninge / are aftirwarde moued by the holy conuersation of them that belue. As Peter warneth christen wiues y^t 1. P. 3.had hethen husbandes that wold not heare the trueth preached / to liue so godly that they might winne their hethen husbandes with holy conuersacion. And Paul saith how knowest thou christen 1. Cori. 7.wife / whether thou shalt winne thine hethē husbande / with holy conuersacion ment he. For many are wonne with godly liuynge / which at the first ether will not heare or can not beleue. And that is the auctorite that. S. Augustine ment. But if we shall not beleue / tyll the liuynge of the spiritualtie conuerte vsus / we belike to byde longe ynough in vnbeleffe

And when they aske whether we receaved the scripture of them? I answere / that they which come after receaue y^e scripture of them that go before. And when they aske whether we beleue not that it is gods worde by the reason that they tell vsus so. I answere / that there are .ij. maner faythes / an historicall faith and a felynge faith. The historical faith hangeth of the trueth and honestie of the teller or of the comen fame and consent of many. As if one told me that the turke had wonne a citie and I beleved it moved with the honestie of the man. Now if there come a nother that semeth moare honest or that hath better persuasions that it is not so / I thynke immediatly that he lied and lose my faith agayne. And a felynge faith is / as iff a man were there present whan it was wonne and their were wounded and had there lost all that he had and were taken presoner there also. That man shuld so beleue that all the world coude not turne him from his faith. Even like wise iff my mother had blowen on hir finger and told me that the fire wold burne me / I shuld hauehave beleued hir with an historicall faith / as we beleue the stories of y^• worlde / because I thought she wold not hauehave mocked me. And so I shuld hauehave done / if she had told me that the fire had bene cold and wold not hauehave burned / but assone as I had put my fingre in the fire / I shuld hauehave beleued / not by the reason of hir / but with a felynge faith / so that she coud not hauehave persuaded me aftir warde the contrarie. So now with an historicall faith I maye beleue that the scripture is Gods by the teachynge of them / and so I shuld hauehave done though they had told me that roben hode had bene the scripture of God. which faith is but an opinion and therfore abideth euer frutelesse and fauleth a waye / iff a moare gloriouse reason be made vntounto me or iff the preacher liue contrarye.

p. xxxBut of a felynge faith it is written. Ihon. Ioh. 6.John 6vi. They shalbe all taught of God. That is / God shall write it in their hertes with his holy spirite. And Paul also testifieth Romano. viij. Rom. 8.Rom 8the spirite beareth recorde vn to oure spirite / that we be the sonnes off God. And this faith is none opinion / but a sure felynge / and therfore euer frutefull. Neyther hangeth it of the honestie of the preacher but of the power of God and of the spirite / and therfore iff all the preachers of the world wold goo a boute to persuade the contrary / it wold not preualye / no moare then though they wold make me beleue the fire were cold / aftir that I had put my fingre therin.

Of this ye hauehave an ensample Ihon. iiij. of the Samaritanish wife / which left hir pitcher Ioan. 4.John 4and went in to the citie and said / come and se a man that hath told me all that euer I did / is not he Christe and many of the Samaritanes beleued because of the sayenge of the woman / how that he had told hir all that euer she did / and went out vn to him and desyred him to come in which faith was but an opinion and no faith that coude hauehave lasted or hauehave brought out frute / but when they had herd Christ / the spirite wrought and made them fele. whervppon they came vn to the woman and saide: we beleue not now because of thy sayenge / but because we hauehave harde our selues and know that he is christ the sauioure of the worlde. For christes preachinge was with power and spirite y^• maketh a man feale and knowe and worke to / and not as the scribes and phareses preached ād as oures make a mā ready to cast his gorge to heare them raue and rage as mad men. And therfore saith the scripture cursed is he that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme / that is to saye / his strengh. And euen so cursed is he y^t hath no nother beleffe but because men so saye. Cursed were he that had no nother why to beleue then that I so saye. And even so cursed is he that beleueth only because the pope so saith / ād so forth thorow oute all the men in the worlde. ☞

¶ The faith that dependeth of a nother mans mouth is weke.

IF I hauehave no nother fealynge in my faith then because a man so saith / then is my faith faithlesse and frutelesse. For if I hauehave no nother felynge that lecherie is synne then that y^• pope so preacheth / whom I se before my face Lecherye.sett vppe in Rome a stues of .xx. or .xxx. thousād hores / takynge of every pece tribute yerly / and his bisshopes with all other his disciples folowynge the ensample mightily / and the pope therwith not content / but to sett vpp therto a stues of younge boyes agenst nature / the committers of which synne be burnt at a stake amonge the turkes / as Moses also commaundeth in his lawe / ād the pope also to forbid all y^• spiritualltie / a multitude of .xl. or. l. hundred thousand to mary / & to geue them licence to kepe eueryevery man his whore who so wyll: if I saye / I hauehave no nother felynge in my faith that lechery is synne then this mans preachinge / I thynke my faith shuld be to weake to beare moch frute. How coude I beleue a man that wold saye he loued me / if p. xxxiall his dedes were contrary? I coude not beleue God him selfe that he loued me / if in all my trybulacions I had of him no nother comforte thē those bare wordes₊

And in like maner if I had no nother felynge Couetuousnesse.in my fayth that couetousnesse were synne / then that the spiritualtie so sayth / my faith coude be but weake and faintie / when I se how the pope wyth wiles hath thrust downe the emproure / and how the bisshopes ād prelates be cropt vpp an hye in all regyons aboue their kinges and hauehave made thē a seuerall kindome and hauehave goten in to their handes all most the one halfe of eueryevery realme whiche they diuide amonge them selues / geuinge no laye mā ony parte wyth them / and hepynge vpp bisshoperike vppon bisshoperike / promocyon vppon promocion / benefice vppō benefice / with vnions and tot quottes robbinge in eueryevery parish the soules of their Vnions▪ tot quottes.fode and the pore of their due sustynaunce: ye and some preachinge that it were lesse sinne to hauehave .ij. wyues thē .ij. benefices / but whyle they be yet younge & hote / ād therfore thynke couetousnesse ☞greater synne then lecherye: which same / when they be waxed elder and their cōplexcyon some what altered / thinke that couetousnesse is as small a synne as lechery / and therfore take all y^t cometh. And if any man cast theyr preachynge in their tethes / they answere that they be better lerned and hauehave sene further. If I saye / I hauehave no nother felinge that couetousnesse is synne / then the preachynge of these holy fathers / my faith were bilt but vppon a weke rocke or rather on the soft sonde. And therfore oure defenders do ryght well to fome out their awne shame and to vtter the secret thoughtes of their hertes. For as they write / so they beleue. Other felynge of y^• lawes of god ād feyth of chryst hauehave they none / then that theyr God the pope so sayth. And therfore as the pope preacheth with hys mouth only / even soo beleue they wyth theyr mouth only what soeuer he preacheth / with out moare a doo / be it neuer so abhominable / and in theyr hertes consent vntounto all their fathers wekednesse and folow hym in theyr dedes as fast as they can runne₊

The turkes beinge in numbre .v. tymes mo Turkesthen we knowlege one God and beleue many thynges of God moued only by the auctoryte of theyr elders and presume that God wyll not let so greate a multitude erre so longe tyme. And yet they hauehave erred ād bene faythlesse thys viii. hundred yeres. And the Iewes beleue thys daye / as moch as the carnall sorte of them euer beleued / moued also by the auctoryte of theyr elders Iewesonly / and thynke that yt ys impossyble for them to erre / beynge Abrahams seed and the chyldern of them to whom the promysses of all that we beleue were made. And yet they hauehave erred and bene faythlesse thys .xv. hundred yeres. And we of lyke blyndnesse beleue only by y^e auctoryte of our elders and of lyke pryde thynke that we can not erre / beynge soch a multytude. And yet we se how God in the olde testament did lett the greate multitude erre / reseruynge alwaye a litle flocke to call the other backe agayne and to testifie vntounto them the right waye₊

¶ How this word church hath a double interpretacyon

THis ys therfore a sure conclusyon / as paul Ro. 9.Rom 9sayth. Ro. ix. that not all they that are of Israel are Israelites / neyther because they p. xxxiibe Abrahams seed / are they all Abrahams chyldren: but they only that folow the faith of Abraham. Euen so now none of them that beleue wyth theyr mouthes moued wyth the auctoryte of theyr elders only: that ys / none of them y^t beleue wyth Master Mores fayth / the popes fayth and the deuels fayth whych maye stonde (as Master More cōfesseth) with al maner abhominacyons / ☜hauehave the ryght fayth of christ or are of hys church. But they only that repent ād fele that the law is good / And hauehave the law of god written in their hertes and the fayth of oure sauioure Iesus / even wyth the sprite of God. There is a carnall Israel and a spirituall. There ys Isaac ād Ismael / Iacob ād Esau And Ismael persecuted Isaac and Esau Iacob and the fleshly the spiritual. wherof paul complayned in hys tyme persecuted of hys carnall brethern / as we doo in oure tyme and as the electe euer dyd and shall doo tyll the worldes ende. what a multitude came out of Egypte vnderunder Moses of whych the scripture testifyeth that they beleued / moued by the miracles of Moses / as Simon magus beleued by the reason of philippes miracles actes .viii. Neuer the Actes. 8.Acts 8lesse the scripture testyfieth that .vi. hundred thousand of those beleuers peryshed thorow vnbeleffe and lefte theyr carcasses in the wildernesse and neuer entred in to the lond that was promysed them. And euen so shall the childern of Master Mores faythlesse fayth made by the persuasyon of man / leppe shorte of the rest whych oure sauioure Iesus is rysen vntounto. And therfore lett them enbrace thys present worlde as they doo / whose chyldern they are though they hate so to be called₊

And hereby ye se that it is a playne and an evident conclusion as bright as the sonne shyninge that the trueth of gods worde dependeth not of the trueth of the congregacion. And therfore Questiōs whē thou art asked / whi thou beleuest y^t thou shalt be saved thorow christ and of soch like principles of oure faith / answeres answere thou wottest ād felest that it is true. And when he asketh how thou knowest that it is true / answere because it is written in thine herte. And if he aske who wrott it / answere the sprite of God. And if he aske how thou camest first by it / tel him / whether by readynge in bokes or hearynge it preached / as by an outward instrument / but that inwardly thou wast taught by the spirite of God And if he aske whether thou beleuest it not because it is written in bokes or because y^• prestes so preach / answere no / not now / but only because it is written in thine hert and because the spirite of god so preacheth and so testifieeh vn to thi soule. And saye / though at the begynnynge thou wast moued by readynge or preachynge / as the Samaritanes were by the wordes of y^• woman / yet now thou beleuest it not therfore any Ioh. 4John 4longer / but only because thou hast herde it of the spirite of God and red it written in thyne herte.

And concerninge outwarde teachynge we allege for vsus scripture elder thē any church that was this .xiiij. hundred yeres / and old autenticke stories which they had brought a slepe wherewith we confoūde their lies. Remembir ye not how in oure awne tyme / of all that taught grāmer in England not one vnderstode the latyne tongue? how came we then by y^e latyne tongue agayne? not by them / though we lerned certayne p. xxxiijrules and principles of thē by which we were moued and had an occasion to seke further / but out of y^• old auctours. Even so we seke vpp old antiquities out of which we lerne and not of oure church / though we receaved many principles of oure church / at y^e beginninge / but moare falshed amonge then trueth

It hath pleased God of his exceadynge louelove where with he loued vsus in christ (as Paul saith) before the world was made and when wee were deed in synne and his enemies in that we did consent to synne and to liue evell / to write with his spirite .ij. conclusions in oure hertes / by which we vnderstond all thynge: that is to wete / y^• faith of Christ and the louelove of oure neyboures. For whosoeuer feleth the iust damnacion of synne and the forgeuenesse ād merciemercy that is in christes bloud for all that repent and forsake it and come and beleue in that merciemercy / the same only knoweth how God is to behonoured and worsheped and can iudge betwene true seruinge of God in the spirite and false image seruinge of God with workes. And the same knoweth that sacramentes / signes ceremonies and bodyly thynges the vse of signes & ceremonyescan be no seruice to God in his person but memorials vntounto men and a remembraunce of the testament wherewith god is serued in the spirite. And he that feleth not that / is blynd in his soule and of oure holy fathers generacion & maketh god an image and a creature and vorshepith him with bodyly seruice. And on the other syde he that loueth his neyboure as him selfe vnderstondeth all lawes an can iudge betwene good and evell right and wronge / godly ād vngodly in all conuersaciō / dedes / lawes / bargēs / couenauntes / ordinaunces and decrees of mē / & knoweth the office of eueryevery degre and the due honoure of eueryevery person. And he that hath not that written in his herte is popish and of y^e spiritualtie which vnderstondeth nothynge saue his awne honoure his awne profit and what is good for him selfe only: and whē he is as he wold be / thinketh that al the world is as i… shuld be. ☞ ∵