coldness. For dryth and cold may stand together; and so may heat and moistness. It is not all one to say, the dryth only, and the dryth that is alone; nor all one to say, faith only, and faith that is alone.

Go to then, and desire God to print this profession in thine heart, and to increase it daily more and more; that thou mayest be full shapen like unto the image of Christ, in knowledge and love, and meek thyself, and creep low by the ground, and cleave fast to the rock of this profession, and tie to thy ship this anchor of faith in Christ's blood with the cable of love, to cast it out against all tempests; and so set up thy sail, and get thee to the main sea of God's word. And read here the words of Christ with this exposition following, and thou shalt see the law, faith, and works, restored each to his right use and true meaning; and thereto, the clear difference between the spiritual regiment and the temporal; and shalt have an entrance and open way into the rest of all the scripture. Wherein, and in all other things, the Spirit of verity guide thee and thine understanding. So be it2.

[2 Thus L., but D. has Amen.]

AN EXPOSITION

UPON THE

FIFTH, SIXTH, AND SEVENTH CHAPTERS

OF

MATTHEW.

Poverty in spirit.

Riches. W. T

THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW.

WHEN he saw the people, he went up into a mountain and sat him down, and his disciples came to him; and he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying: Blessed be the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven1.

CHRIST here, in his first sermon, beginneth to restore the law of the ten commandments unto her right understanding, against the scribes and Pharisees, which were hypocrites, false prophets, and false preachers, and had corrupt the scripture with the leaven of their glosses. And it is not without a great mystery that Christ beginneth his preaching at poverty in spirit; which is neither beggary, nor against the possessing of riches, but a virtue contrary to the vice of covetousness, the inordinate desire and love of riches, and putting trust in riches.

Riches is the gift of God, given man to maintain the degrees of this world, and therefore not evil; yea, and some must be poor and some rich, if we shall have an order in this world. And God, our Father, divideth riches and poverty among his children, according to his godly pleasure and wisdom. And as riches doth not exclude thee from the blessing, so doth not poverty certify thee; but to put thy assure us of trust in the living God maketh thee heir thereof. For if

Neither

riches nor poverty exclude or

God's bless

ing.

thou trust in the living God, then if thou be poor, thou covetest not to be rich; for thou art certified that thy Father shall minister unto thee food and raiment, and be thy

[ In these expositions Tyndale appears to have translated the Greek text afresh, as each passage came before him, instead of copying his own previously published version.]

:

defender and if thou have riches, thou knowest that they be but vanity, and that as thou broughtest them not into the world, so shalt thou not carry them out; and that as they be thine to day, so may they be another man's to-morrow; and that the favour of God only both gave and also keepeth thee and them, and not thy wisdom or power; and that they, neither aught else, can help at need, save the good will of thy heavenly Father only. Happy and blessed then are the poor Who are in spirit, that is to say, the rich that have not their confidence nor consolation in the vanity of their riches; and the poor, that desire not inordinately to be rich, but have their trust in the living God for food and raiment, and for all that pertaineth either to the body or the soul; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

poor in

spirit, is here pithily de

clared.

spirit. W. T.

And contrariwise, unhappy and accursed, and that with the first and deepest of all curses, are the rich in spirit; that Rich in is to say, the covetous that, being rich, trust in their riches, or, being poor, long for the consolation of riches; and comfort not their souls with the promises of their heavenly Father, confirmed with the blood of their Lord Christ. For unto Mark x. them it is harder to enter into the kingdom of heaven, than for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle. No; they have no part in the kingdom of Christ and God. There- Eph. v. fore is it evident, why Christ so diligently warneth all his to beware of covetousness; and why he admitteth none to be his disciples, except they first forsake all together. For there was never covetous person true yet, either to God

or man.

is a thing the word of

contrary to

God, and to

the ministers

T.

If a covetous man be chosen to preach God's word, he is Covetousness a false prophet immediately. If he be of the lay sort, so joineth he himself unto the false prophets, to persecute the truth. Covetousness is not only, above all other lusts, those of the same. thorns that choke the word of God in them that possess it; but it is also a deadly enemy to all that interpret God's word truly. All other vices, though they laugh them to scorn that talk godly, yet they can suffer them to live, and to dwell in the country but covetousness cannot rest, as long as there is one that cleaveth to God's word in all the land.

.

ness is a false

Take heed to thy preacher therefore, and be sure, if he By covetousbe covetous and gape for promotion, that he is a false prophet, prophet and leaveneth the scripture, for all his crying,

chiefly known.

'fathers, wor

[TYNDALE, II.]

2

Some cry,

2.

The world is

for their

and others' iniquity; but for waywardness they

cannot enjoy their own lusts.

fathers,' 'holy church,' and 'fifteen hundred years',' and for all his other holy pretences.

Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

This mourning is also in the spirit, and no kin to the sour naught, not looking of hypocrites, nor to the impatient waywardness of those fleshly, which ever whine and complain that the world is naught, because they cannot obtain and enjoy their lusts therein. Neither forbiddeth it always to be merry, and to laugh, and make good cheer now and then, to forget sorrow, that overmuch heaviness swallow not a man clean up. For the wise man saith, "Sorrow hath cost many their lives." Prov. xvii. And, "An heavy spirit drieth up the bones." And Paul commandeth to "rejoice ever." And he saith, And he saith, "Rejoice with them that rejoice; and sorrow with them that sorrow, and weep with them that weep :" which seem two contraries.

Phil. iv.
Rom. xii.

Godly mourning. W. T.

As warmth accompani

eth the sun, so followeth

man.

This mourning is that cross without which was never any disciple of Christ, or ever shall be. For of whatsoever state or degree thou be in this world, if thou profess the gospel, there followeth thee a cross (as warmness accompanieth the sun shining), under which thy spirit shall groan and mourn true christian secretly, not only because the world and thine own flesh carry thee away, clean contrary to the purpose of thine heart; but also to see and behold the wretchedness and misfortunes of thy brethren, for which (because thou lovest them as well as thyself) thou shalt mourn and sorrow no less than for thyself. Though thou be king or emperor, yet if thou knowest Christ, and God through Christ, and intendest to walk in the sight of God, and to minister thine office truly, thou shalt (to keep justice with all) be compelled to do daily that, which thou art no less loath to do than if thou shouldest cut off arm, hand, or any other member of thine own body. Yea, and if thou wilt follow the right way, and neither turn on the right hand nor on the left, thou shalt have immediately thine own subjects, thine own servants, thine own lords, thine own counsellors, and thine own prophets thereto, against thee; unto whose froward malice and stubbornness, thou shalt be compelled to permit a thousand things against thy conscience,

[1 Alluding to the priests' common assertion, that the customs then prevalent in the church were instituted by the apostles fifteen hundred years before Tyndale's time.]

not able to resist them, at which thine heart shall bleed inwardly; and shalt sauce thy sweet sops, which the world weeneth thou hast, with sorrows enough; and still mourning, studying either alone, or else with a few friends secretly night and day, and sighing to God for help to mitigate the furious frowardness of them whom thou art not able to withstand, that all go not after the will of the ungodly. What was David compelled to suffer all the days of his life of his own servants, the sons of Zeruiah2, beside the mischances of his own children! And how was our king John forsaken of King John. his own lords, when he would have put a good and godly reformation in his own land!3 How was Henry the second Henry the compassed in like manner of his own prelates, whom he had W. T. promoted of nought, with the secret conspiracy of some of his own temporal lords with them! I spare to speak of the mourning of the true preachers, and the poor common people which have none other help, but the secret hand of God, and the word of his promise.

W. I.

second.

of God's

comfort of

in this world

sake.

But they shall be comforted of all their tribulation, and The promise their sorrow shall be turned into joy, and that infinite and word is the everlasting, in the life to come. Neither are they without the afflicted comfort here in this world; for Christ hath promised to send for Christ's them a Comforter to be with them for ever, the Spirit of truth which the world knoweth not. And they "rejoice in John xiv. hope" of the comfort to come. And they overcome through faith, as it is written, The saints "through faith overcame Heb. xi.

[2 Seruia, D.]

[3 In so saying, there can be no doubt that Tyndale alluded to what passed in 1207-9, as related by the monkish historian, Matthew Paris, who mentions how John forbade ecclesiastical appeals to Rome; telling Innocent III., that 'Cum archiepiscopi, episcopi et alii ecclesiarum prælati, tam de regno Angliæ quam aliarum terrarum suarum, in omnium scientiarum plenitudine sufficienter abundent, si necessitas coegerit, extra terras suas justitiam vel judicium ab alienigenis non emendicaret': also that by John's orders, 'Presbyterorum et clericorum focariæ per totam Angliam a ministris regis captæ sunt, et graviter ad se redimendum compulsæ:' and that John patronised a preacher who affirmed, 'ad papam non pertinere de regum sive de quorumlibet potentum laica possessione, vel subditorum regimine; cum præcipue principi apostolorum Petro nihil a Domino nisi ecclesiæ tantum ac rerum ecclesiasticarum sit collata potestas.'-Matt. Paris. Hist. Angl. f. 188-92. Lond. 1686.]

Rom. xii.