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Contents:
Editors Preface
By Tyndale:
Introduction
The meanings of certain words
The Old Testament
The New Testament
Evangelion (which we call the gospel)
The law
Promises
Those who are deceived in their faith
Adam and Christ contrasted
Diverse types of righteousness
Fuller discussion
The condition and state of the natural man
The redeeming work of Christ
The law and the gospel
The fruits reveal the tree
Christ is to be credited for all good fruits
The place and purposes of good works and spiritual gifts
Things to keep in mind and memory
Conclusion
Editors Preface
The writings of Mr. Tyndale have been largely lost, even to the modern Protestant Church. They
can be found through secular publishing houses. His titles include The Obedience of a Christian
Man, The Parable of the Wicked Mammon, An Answer to Sir Thomas More, and The Practice of
Prelates.
To read Tyndales works is to read fresh expositions of scripture which convict in needful ways,
and is also to gain insight into the terrible times in which he lived, worked and died for the word
of God. Unfortunately, the English is outdated and sometimes difficult. It would be good to have
them faithfully rendered into more modern English.
Following is Tyndales essay Pathway Into the Scripture, written about 1530, and minimally
updated so modern readers can draw from all its wisdom and sweetness. Tyndale wished the
word of God to be plainly available to all, and in that spirit we present this work.
R.M. Davis, 2006.
From the pen of William Tyndale, gently updated by Ruth Magnusson Davis:
Introduction
I marvel greatly, dearly beloved in Christ, that any man would ever contend or speak
against having the scripture available in every language, for every man. For I would
have thought no one so blind as to ask why light [the light of the word of God] should be
shown to those who walk in darknessdarkness where they cannot but stumble, and
where to stumble is the danger of eternal damnation. Nor would I have thought any man
would be so malicious that he would begrudge another so necessary a thing, or so mad as
to assert that good is the natural cause of evil, and that darkness proceeds out of light,
and that lying is grounded in truth and verity. I would think he would assert the very
contrary: that light destroys darkness and truth reproves all manner of lying.
Nevertheless, seeing that it has pleased God to send to our English people (as many
as sincerely desire it) the scripture in their mother tongue, but also that there are false
teachers and blind leaders in every place, and in order that you not be deceived by any
man, I believed it very necessary to prepare this Pathway into the scripture for you. I do it
so that you might walk surely and always know the true from the false. And above all I
write to put you in remembrance of certain points, namely to well understand what
these words mean: the Old Testament, the New Testament, the law, the gospel, Moses,
Christ, nature, grace, working, believing, deeds and faithlest we ascribe to the one that
which belongs to the other, and make Christ to be Moses, or the gospel to be the law, or
despise grace and rob from faith, or fall from meek learning into idle disputes, brawling,
and scolding about words.
The meanings of certain words
The Old Testament is a book in which is written the law of God and the deeds of
those who fulfill it, and, also, of those who do not.
The New Testament is a book wherein are contained the promises of God and the
deeds of those who believe them, and of those who do not believe them.
Evangelion (which we call the gospel) is a Greek word that signifies good, merry,
glad and joyful tidingstidings that make a man's heart glad and make him sing,
dance, and leap for joy. An example is when David had killed Goliath, the giant, and glad
tidings went to the Jews that their fearful and cruel enemy was slain and they were
delivered out of all danger. For the gladness of this they sang, danced, and were joyful.
In like manner the Evangelion of God (which we call the gospel, and the New Testament) is
joyful tidings and, as some say, a good message declared by the apostles throughout all
the world of Christ, the right David, who has fought with sin, with death, and the devil,
and has overcome them. By this all men who were in bondage to sin, wounded with
death and overcome of the devil are, without their own merit or deserving, loosed,
justified, restored to life and saved. They are brought to liberty, and reconciled to the
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favor of God, and set at one with Him again. And those who believe these tidings laud,
praise and thank God, and are glad and sing and dance for joy.
This Evangelion or gospel (that is to say, such joyful tidings) is called the New
Testament because just like a man, when he dies, directs his goods to be dealt and
distributed after his death among his named heirs, so Christ before his death commanded
and appointed such Evangelion, gospel, or tidings to be declared throughout all the
world, to thereby give all his goods to those who repent and believe. His goods are his
life, by which he swallowed up and devoured death, his righteousness, by which he
banished sin, and his salvation by which he overcame eternal damnation. Now a
wretched man (who knows himself to be wrapped in sin and in danger of death and hell)
cannot hear anything more joyous than such glad and comforting tidings of Christ, so
that he cannot but be glad, and laugh from the very bottom of his heart if he believes
these tidings are true.
To strengthen such faith, God promised his Evangelion in the Old Testament, by the
prophets. As Paul says (Romans 1), he was chosen to preach God's Evangelion, which
God had promised beforehand by the prophets in the Scriptures that speak of his Son
who was born of the seed of David. In Genesis 3 God says to the serpent, I will put hatred
between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed; that same seed will tread
your head underfoot. Christ is this woman's seed: he it is who has trodden underfoot the
devil's headthat is to say sin, death, hell and all the devils power. For without this seed
[Christ] no man can avoid sin, death, hell and everlasting damnation.
Again (Genesis 22) God promised Abraham, saying, In your seed all the generations of
the earth shall be blessed. Christ is that seed of Abraham, says the Apostle Paul
(Galatians 3). He has blessed the entire world through the gospel. For where Christ is
not, the curse which fell on Adam as soon as he had sinned remains so that all men are
in bondage under damnation of sin, death and hell. Against this curse the gospel now
blesses all the world, inasmuch as it cries openly to all who acknowledge their sins and
repent, saying, Whosoever believes on the seed of Abraham shall be blessedthat is he
will be delivered from sin, death and hell and will from that time continue righteous and
saved forever. As Christ himself says in the eleventh chapter of John: He who believes on
me shall never die.
The law (says the gospel of John in the first chapter) was given by Moses. But grace
and truth were given by Jesus Christ.
The law, whose minister is Moses, was given to bring us into the knowledge of
ourselvesthat we might thereby feel and perceive who we really are by nature. The law
condemns us and all our deeds, and is called by Paul (in 2 Corinthians 3) the
ministration of death. For it kills our consciences and drives us to desperation,
inasmuch as it requires of us that which is impossible for our natures to do. It requires
of us the deeds of a whole man. It requires perfect love, from the very bottom and ground
of the heart, as much in everything we suffer as well as in the things we do. But, says
John in the same place, grace and truth is given to us in Christ so that when the law has
passed upon us and condemned us to death (which is its nature to do), then in Christ
we have gracethat is to say, favor and promises of life, mercy and pardon, freely by
the merits of Christ. And in Christ we have verity and truth in that God, for his sake,
fulfills all his promises to those who believe. Therefore the Gospel is the ministration of
life. Paul calls it, in the afore-mentioned place in 2 Corinthians, the ministration of the
Spirit and of righteousness.
In the gospel, when we believe the promises we receive the spirit of life and are
justified, in the blood of Christ, from all things in which the law condemned us. And we
receive love for the law, and power to fulfill it, and grow therein daily. Of Christ it is
written, in the afore-mentioned John 1, This is he of whose abundance, or fullness, we
have all received grace for grace or favor for favorthat is to say, for the favor that God
has to his Son Christ, he gives to us his favor and goodwill, and all gifts of his grace, like
a father to his sons. Paul affirms this, saying, He loved us in his beloved [that is, in
Christ] before the creation of the world. Thus Christ brings the love of God to us, and not
our own holy works.
Christ is made Lord over all and is called in scripture God's mercy-stool [or, mercy
seat]: therefore whoever flees to Christ can neither hear nor receive from God anything
other than mercy.
In the Old Testament are many promises, which are nothing other than the Evangelion,
or gospel, to save those who believed them from the vengeance of the law. And in the
New Testament there is frequent mention of the law to condemn those who do not
believe the promises. Moreover, the law and the gospel may never be considered
as if they are separate the one from the other, because the gospel and promises
serve only for troubled consciences brought to desperation by the lawwhich
consciences feel the pains of hell and death under the law and are in captivity and
bondage to the law. In all my doings I must have the law before me to condemn my
imperfectness. For all I do (be I ever so perfect) is yet damnable sin when compared to
the law, which requires the ground and bottom of my heart. I must therefore always
have the law in my sight so I may be meek in the spirit and give God all the laud and
praise, ascribing to him all righteousness and to myself all unrighteousness and sin. I
must also have the promises before my eyes so I do not despairin which promises I
see the mercy, favor and good-will of God upon me in the blood of his Son, Christ, who has
made satisfaction for my imperfectness and has fulfilled for me that which I could not do
myself.
Those who are deceived in their faith
Here you may perceive that two types of people are sorely deceived. First, those who
justify themselves with their outward deeds, by abstaining outwardly from that which the
law forbids and doing outwardly that which the law commands, are deceived. They
compare themselves to open sinners and, as against them, justify themselves and
condemn the open sinners. They set a veil on Moses' face and do not see how the law
requires love from the bottom of the heart, and only such love fulfills the law. If they did see
it, they would not condemn their neighbors. Love hides the multitude of sins, says Peter
in his first epistle. For whomever I love from the deep bottom and ground of my heart I do
not condemn, nor count his sins, but I suffer his weakness and infirmity like a mother
suffers the weakness of her son until he grows up into a perfect man.
Second, they are also deceived who, without any fear of God, give themselves over to
all manner of vices with full consent and full delectation, having no respect to the law of
God (under whose vengeance they are locked up in captivity) but saying that God is
merciful and Christ died for themsupposing that such dreaming and imagination
is the faith so greatly commended in holy scripture. Nay, that is not faith but, rather, a
foolish and blind opinion springing from their own corrupt nature. It is not given to them
by the Spirit of God but, rather, by the spirit of the devilwhose faith, now-a-days, popish
believers1 compare and make equal to the best trust, confidence and belief that a
repenting soul can have in the blood of our Savior Jesus. This is to their own confusion
and shame, and it declares what they are within. But true faith (as says the apostle Paul)
is the gift of God, and is given to sinners after the law has passed upon them and
brought their consciences to the edge of desperation and the sorrows of hell.
They that have a right faith consent to the lawthat it is righteous and goodand
justify God who made the law. And they have delight in the law (notwithstanding that
they cannot fulfill it as they desire, because of their weakness). And they abhor
whatever the law forbids, although they cannot always avoid it. And their great sorrow
is because they cannot fulfill the will of God in the law, and the Spirit that is in them
cries to God night and day for strength and help, with tears (as says Paul) that cannot be
expressed with the tongue. Of which things the belief of popish adherents, or of their
father [the Pope] whom they so magnify for his strong faith, has no experience at all.
The first type of deceived manthat is to say, he who justifies himself with his
outward deeds [works]does not inwardly consent to the law, nor have delight in it;
yea, he would rather there be no such law. So he does not justify God but hates him as
a tyrant. Nor does he care for the promises but would rather, in his own strength, be
savior of himself. In no way does he glorify God, although he seems outwardly to do so.
The secondthat is to say the sensual personlike a voluptuous swine neither fears
God in his law nor is thankful to him for the promises and mercy set forth in Christ to all
who believe.
The right Christian man consents to the lawthat is, that it is righteousand justifies
God in the law in that he affirms that God, who is the author of the law, is righteous and
just. He believes the promises of God and justifies God, judging him true, and believing
that he will fulfill his promises. With the law he condemns himself and all his deeds and
gives all the praise to God. He believes the promises and ascribes all truth to God.
Thus in every way he justifies God and praises God.
we receive of God, and by love we give out again. And this must we do freely after the
example of Christ, without any other consideration except our neighbor's welfare
alone. And we must not look for reward in earth or in heaven based on our merit, or
deserving for our deeds, as friars preach (although we know good deeds are
rewarded both in this life and in the life to come). But of pure love we must bestow
ourselves, all that we have, and all that we are able to do, even on our enemies, to bring
them to Godconsidering nothing but their welfare, as Christ did ours.
Christ did not do his deeds to obtain heaven thereby. That would be madness, for
heaven was his already. He was heir thereof and it was his by inheritance. But he did his
deeds freely for our sakes, considering nothing but our welfare and to bring the favor of
God to us again, and to bring us to God. No natural son who is his father's heir does his
father's will because he wants to be heir, for he is already so by birth; his father gave
him heirship when he was born, and is more loathe that the son should be without it
than he himself has mind to be. Rather, it is from pure love that the son does what he
does. Ask him why he does it and he answers, My father asked me to; it is my
father's will; it pleases my father. Bondservants work for hire, but children for love. For
their father, with all he has, is theirs already.
And so a Christian man freely does all that he does, considering only the will of God and
his neighbors well being. If I live chaste, it is not to obtain heaven thereby, for then I
would do wrong to the blood of Christ. Christ's blood has already obtained that for me:
Christ's merits have made me heir of heaven; he is both the door and the way to it. Nor
is it that I look for a higher room in heaven than they who live in wedlock will have, or
than a whore of the brothel district (if she repents)for such would be the pride of
Lucifer. But I do so freely to wait on the Evangelion, and to avoid the trouble of the
world and occasions that might pluck me from the gospel, and to serve my brother
with it as well, even as one hand helps another, or one member another, because one
feels another's grief and the pain of the one is the pain of the other.
Whatever is done to the least of us (whether it be good or bad) is done to Christ, and
whatever is done to my brother (if I be a Christian man) is done to me. Nor does my
brother's pain grieve me less than my own: nor do I rejoice less at his wealth than at my
own if I love him as well and as much as myself, as the law commands me. If it were not
so, how says Paul? Let him who rejoices, rejoice in the Lordthat is to say, in Christ who
is Lord over all creatures. If my merits obtained heaven for me, or a higher place there,
then I would have something in which to rejoice besides the Lord.
The law and the gospel
Here you see the nature of the law and the nature of the Evangelion: how
the law is the key that binds and damns all men, and the Evangelion is the key that
looses them again. The law goes before and the Evangelion follows. When a
preacher preaches the law he binds all consciences, and when he preaches the
gospel he looses them again. These two salves (I mean the law and the gospel) are
used by God and by his preacher to heal and cure sinners.
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The law drives out the disease and makes it appear. It is a sharp salve and a
fretting corrosive, and kills the dead flesh. It looses and draws the sores out by the
roots with all corruption. It withdraws from a man the trust and confidence that he has
in himself and in his own works, merits, deservings and ceremonies, and robs him
of all his righteousness, and makes him poor. It kills him, sends him down to hell and
brings him to utter desperation, and prepares the way of the Lord, as it is written of
John the Baptist. For it is not possible that Christ should come to a man as long as he
trusts in himself or in any worldly thing or has any righteousness of his own, or riches
of holy works.
Then comes the Evangelion, a more gentle pastor, which supples and assuages
the wounds of the conscience and brings health. It brings the Spirit of God, which
looses the bonds of Satan and joins us to God and his will, through strong faith and
fervent love, with bonds too strong for the devil, the world or any creature to loose.
And the poor and wretched sinner feels such great mercy, love and kindness in God
that he is sure in himself that it is not possible that God would forsake him, or
withdraw his mercy and love from him. He boldly cries out with Paul, saying, Who
shall separate us from the love whereby God loves us? That is to say, What could
make me believe that God does not love me? Could tribulation? anguish?
persecution? Could hunger? nakedness? Could the sword? Nay, I am sure that not
death, nor life, nor angel, nor rule nor power, nor present things nor things to come,
nor high nor low, nor any creature, is able to separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In all such tribulations a Christian believer
perceives that God is his Father and loves him or her even as he loved Christ when
he shed his blood on the cross.
The fruits reveal the tree
Finally, like when I was earlier bound to the devil and his will and wrought all manner of
evil and wickednessnot for hell's sake, which is the reward of sin, but I did evil
because I was heir of hell by birth and bondage to the devil (for I could not do otherwise: to
do sin was my nature)even so now, since I am coupled to God by Christ's blood, I do
goodnot for heaven's sake, although it is the reward of well doing, but freely because I
am heir of heaven by grace and Christ's purchasing and have the Spirit of God (for so is
my nature, as a good tree brings forth good fruit and an evil tree brings forth evil fruit). By
the fruits you will know what the tree is.
A man's deeds declare what he is within, but make him neither good nor bad (although,
after we are created anew by the Spirit and doctrine of Christ, we wax always more
perfect by working and doing according to the doctrine, and not with blind works of our
own imagining). We must first be evil before we do evil, like a serpent is first poisonous,
before it poisons. We must also be good before we do good, as the fire must be first hot
before it heats another thing. Take an example: As the blind and deaf people healed in the
gospel accounts could not see or hear until Christ had given them sight and hearing, and
those sick could not do the deeds of a whole man until Christ had given them health, so
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no man can do good in his soul until Christ has loosed him out of the bonds of Satan
and given him what he needs to do goodyea, and has first poured into him that same
good thing which he later sheds forth upon another.
Christ is to be credited for all good fruits
Whatever is our own, is sin. Whatever is above is Christ's gift, purchase, doing and
working. He bought it dearly, with his blood, from his Fatheryea, with his most bitter
deathand gave his life for it. Whatever good thing is in us has been given to us freely,
without our deserving or merits, for Christ's blood's sake. That we desire to follow the will
of God is the gift of Christ's blood. That we now hate the devil's will (unto which we were
locked so fast and which we could only love) is also the gift of Christ's blood: to him
belong the praise and honor of our good deeds, and not to us.
The place and purposes of good works and spiritual gifts
Our deeds serve us in three ways.
First they assure us that we are heirs of everlasting life and that the Spirit of God, which
is the deposit thereof, is in usin that our hearts consent to the law of God and we
have power in our members to do it, though imperfectly. Secondarily, we tame the flesh
therewith and kill the sin that still remains in us; and thereby we grow daily more and
more perfect in the Spiritensuring lusts do not choke the word of God sown in us, nor
quench the gifts and working of the Spirit, and that we do not lose the Spirit again. And
thirdly, we do our duty unto our neighbors therewith and help them in their need, unto
our own comfort also, and draw all men to honor and praise God.
Whoever excels in the gifts of grace should consider that they are given to him as much
to do his brother service as for himself, and as much for the love God has for the weak as
for him to whom God has given such gifts. And whoever withdraws anything he has
from his neighbors need robs his neighbor and is a thief. And he that is proud of the
gifts of God and by reason of them thinks himself better than his feeble neighbor and does
not rather (as the truth is) acknowledge himself to be, by reason of them, a servant to his
poor neighbor, has Lucifer's spirit in him and not Christ's.
Things to keep in mind and memory
These things are important to know:
We are not to move heart nor hand but at his commandment, because he first
created us from nothing, and heaven and earth for our sakes. And afterwards, when we
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had marred ourselves through sin, he forgave us and created us again in the blood of his
beloved Son.
That we are to hold the name of our one God in fear and reverence, and that we
are not to dishonor his name in swearing by it about light trifles or vanities, or call it to
record for the confirming of wickedness or falsehood or anything that is to the dishonor
of Godwhich is the breaking of his laws or doing what tends to hurt our neighbor.
And inasmuch as he is our Lord and God and we are his double possession, by
creation and redemption, and therefore we ought not (as I said) to move heart or hand
without his commandment, it is right to have needful holy days to come together. These
times are to learn his willboth the law which he will have us ruled by and also the
promises of mercy upon which he will have us place our trust; and to give thanks
together to God for his mercy; and to commit our infirmities to him through our Savior
Jesus; and to reconcile ourselves to him and to each other, if anything has come
between brother and brother that requires it. And only for such purposes, and such as
visiting the sick and needy and redressing peace and unity, were the holy days
ordained, and to this extent they are to be kept holy from all manner of work that may
be conveniently let go for the time, until these be done and no further; but then lawfully
to work.
And that it is right to obey father and mother, master, lord, prince and king and all the
ordinances of the world, bodily and spiritual, by which God rules us and ministers freely
his benefits to us all; and that we love them [father, mother, master, etc.] for the benefits
we receive by them, and fear them for the power they have over us to punish us if we
trespass against the law and good order. Yet the worldly powers or rulers are to be
obeyed only so far as their commandments do not contend against the commandment
of God, and no further. Therefore we must have God's commandments always in our
hearts. And by the higher law we must interpret the inferior, so that we obey nothing
against the belief of one God, or against the faith, hope and trust that is in him only, or
against the love of God whereby we do or leave undone all things for his sake; and
further so we do nothing under any man's commandment that is against the reverence
of the name of God, to make it despised or less feared and followed; and that we obey
nothing to the hindrance of the knowledge of the blessed doctrine of God, whose servant
the holy day is.
Notwithstanding, even though the rulers which God has set over us command us
against God or do us open wrong and oppress us with cruel tyranny, yet because they
are in God's room we may not avenge ourselves except by the process and order of
God's law and laws of man made by the authority of God's lawwhich are also God's
law, ever by an higher powerleaving vengeance to God and, in the meantime,
suffering until the hour has come.
And on the other side, to know that a man ought to love his neighbor as equally and
fully as he loves himself, because his neighbor (be he ever so simple) is equally
created by God and as fully redeemed by the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. Out of
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this commandment of love spring these: kill not thy neighbor; defile not his wife; bear no
false witness against him; and finally, not only do not do these things in deed, but do
not covet in your heart his house, his wife, his man-servant, maid-servant, ox, ass, or
whatsoever is his; so that these laws pertaining unto our neighbor are not fulfilled in
the sight of God, except with love. He who does not love his neighbor does not keep the
commandment not to defile his neighbor 's wife even though he never touches her or
sees her or thinks about her; for the commandment is, even though your neighbor 's wife
be ever so beautiful, and you have an exceptional opportunity given to you, and she
consents or perhaps seduces you (as Potiphar's wife did Joseph), yet see that you love
your neighbor so well that for very love you cannot find in your heart to do such
wickedness.
And even so, he who trusts in anything except God and his Son Jesus Christ keeps
no commandment at all in the sight of God. For he that has trust in any creature, whether
in heaven or in earth, except God and his Son Jesus, can see no reason to love God
with all his heart &c., nor to abstain from dishonoring his name, nor to keep the holy day
for the love of his doctrine, nor to obey lovingly the rulers of this world; nor any reason to
love his neighbor as himself or abstain from hurting him if and when he may get some
profit by him while keeping himself safe. And likewise, I may obey no worldly power
against the law to love my neighbor as myself, if to do anything at any man's
commandment would be to the hurt of my neighbor who has not deserved it, even if he
is a Turk [of a Muslim tribe, generally fierce and marauding].
And to know how contrary this law is to our nature, and understand that it is
damnation not to have this law written in our hearts even though we never commit the
forbidden deeds; and how there is no other way to be saved from this damnation than
through repentance toward the law and faith in Christ's blood, which are the very
inward baptism of our souls. Of these, the washing and the dipping of our bodies in the
water are the outward sign.
The outward plunging of the body under water signifies that we repent inwardly, and
that we profess to fight against sin and lusts and to kill them every day more and more
with the help of God and with our diligence in following the doctrine of Christ and the
leading of his Spirit. It also signifies that we believe ourselves to be washed from the
natural damnation in which we are born and from all the wrath of the law and from all
the infirmities and weaknesses that yet remain in us after we have consented to the law
and yielded ourselves to be students thereof. And we believe ourselves to be washed from
all the imperfectness of all our deeds done with cold love, and from all actual sins which
chance upon us while we try to do differently and fight against them, hoping to sin no
more.
Thus repentance and faith begin at our baptism and when we first profess the laws of
God. They continue unto our lifes end, and grow as we grow in the Spirit: for the more
perfect we are, the greater is our repentance and the stronger our faith. And thus, as
the Spirit and doctrine on God's part and repentance and faith on our part, beget us anew
in Christ, they also make us grow ever more perfect and save us unto the end; and never
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leave us until all sin be put off and we are clean purified and full formed and
fashioned after the similitude and likeness of the perfection of our Savior Jesus,
whose gift all is.
And finally, to know that whatsoever good thing is in us, it is the gift of grace and
therefore not a result of our deserving the samealthough many things are given by God
which otherwise would not be, through our diligence in working his laws and chastising our
bodies, praying for them and believing his promises; still, our working does not mean we
deserve these gifts any more than the diligence of a merchant in seeking a good ship
brings the goods safely to land, although such diligence does now and then assist. But
when we believe in God and then do all we can in our strength, and do not tempt him, then
he is true to his promise to help us. And he will perform alone when our strength is past.
Conclusion
To know these things, I say, is to have all the scripture unlocked and opened before
you, so that if you will go in and read, you cannot but understand. And to be ignorant in
these things is to have all the scripture locked up, so that the more you read it, the
blinder you are and the more contrariety you find in it, and the more tangled you become
in it, to be unable to find the way through it. For if you have a gloss in one place, in
another place it will not serve. And therefore because we are never taught the
profession of our baptism we remain always unlearnedas much the spiritual leaders
for all their great clergy and high learning (so-called) as the lay people.
And now, because the lay and unlearned people are taught these first principles of our
profession, they read the scripture and understand and delight in it. And our great pillars
of the holy church, who have nailed a veil of false glosses on Moses face to corrupt the
true understanding of his law, cannot come in. And therefore they bark and say the
scripture makes heretics. And it is not possible for them to understand the scripture in
English because they do not understand it in Latin. And from pure malice, because they
cannot have their way, they slay their brethren for their faith in our Saviorand thereby
show forth their bloody wolfish tyranny and what they are within, and whose disciples
they are.
Herewith, reader, be committed unto the grace of our Savior Jesus, to whom, and to
God our Father through him, be praise forever and forever. Amen.
By William Tyndale
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The same teachings are widespread today. Many suppose that God is a God of love only, and never a God of
wrath, a holy God who is angry against sin. They are good enough, they say, and God would never require more of
them than they are already giving, for that would be too harsh. They see no serious problem with their lack of love
for His commands (and consequent adulteries, fornications and deceptions), or their lack of love for His word, or
their irreverent friends, whose company they prefer to that of the saints. They imagine faith in Gods love to be a
righteous faith, without concern for Gods law. They decry those who seek to be obedient as legalists who do not
understand the mercy of God. Ed.
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