law is a thing which a man may do of his own strength, even out of the power of his free-will; and that by the deeds of the law thou mayest deserve forgiveness of thy fore1 sins; then died Christ in vain, and is made almost of no stead, seeing thou Gal. ii. art become thine own saviour. Neither can Christ (where that gloss is admitted) be otherwise taken or esteemed of christian men, for all his passion and promises made to us in his blood, than he is of the Turks: how that he was a holy prophet, and that he prayeth for us as other saints do; save that we Christians think that he is somewhat more in favour than other saints be (though we imagine him so proud, that he will not hear us but through his mild mother and other holy saints, which all we count much more meek and merciful than he, but him most of might), and that he hath also an higher place in heaven, as the Grey friars and Observants set him, as it were from the chin upward, above St Francis.

door, the

foundation

scriptures.

And so, when by this false interpretation of the law Christ, Christ is the which is the door, the way, and the ground or foundation of way, and all the scripture, is lost concerning the chiefest fruit of his of all the passion, and no more seen in his own likeness; then is the scripture locked up, and henceforth extreme darkness, and a maze, wherein if thou walk, thou wottest neither where thou art, nor canst find any way out. It is a confused chaos, and a mingling of all things together without order, every thing contrary to another. It is an hedge or grove of briars, wherein if thou be caught, it is impossible to get out, but that if thou loose thyself in one place, thou art tangled and caught in another for it.

glosses of

imagination

the clear

word, then is

the scripture

This wise was the scripture locked up of the scribes and When by Pharisees, that the Jews could not see Christ when he came, our own nor yet can. And though Christ with these three chapters we darken did open it again; yet by such glosses (for our unthankfulness' text of God's sake, that we had no lust to live according) have we Christians locked up lost Christ again, and the understanding of the most clear from us. text, wherewith Christ expoundeth and restoreth the law again. For the hypocrites, whatsoever seemeth impossible to their corrupt nature, unrenewed in Christ, that they cover over with the mist of their glosses, that the light thereof should not be seen. As they have interpreted here the words of Christ, wherewith he restoreth the law again, to be but good [4 Fore, i. e. previous.]

no temporal

regiment. W. T.

Christ used counsels only, but no precepts that bind the consciences. And thereto they have so ruffled and tangled the temporal and spiritual regiment together, and made thereof such confusion, that no man can know the one from the other: to the intent that they would seem to have both by the authority of Christ, which never usurped temporal regiment unto him.

Christ is a gift given

that love the

law, and profess it. W. T.

Notwithstanding, most dear reader, if thou read this exposition with a good heart, only to know the truth, for the amending chiefly of thine own living, and then of other men's (as charity requireth where an occasion is given); then shalt thou perceive their falsehood', and see their mist expelled with the brightness of the inevitable truth.

Another conclusion is this: all the good promises which only to them are made us throughout all the scripture, for Christ's sake, for his love, his passion or suffering, his blood-shedding or death, are all made us on this condition and covenant on our party, that we henceforth love the law of God, to walk therein, and to do it, and fashion our lives thereafter: insomuch that whosoever hath not the law of God written in his heart, that he love it, have his lust in it, and record therein night and day, understanding it as God hath given it, and as Christ not the law, and the apostles expound it, the same hath no part in the promises, nor can have any true faith in the blood of Christ; because there is no promise made him, but to them only that promise to keep the law.

He that professeth

hath no part

in the promises. W. T.

Thou wilt haply say to me again, If I cannot have my sins forgiven except I love the law, and of love endeavour myself to keep it; then the keeping of the law justifieth me. I answer that the argument is false, and but blind sophistry, and like unto this argument: I cannot have forgiveness of my sin except I have sinned; ergo, to have sinned is the forgiveness of sins. And it is like to this also: no man can be healed of the plague but he that hath it; ergo, to have the plague doth heal the plague.

And like sophistry are these arguments: If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments; ergo, the deeds of the law justify us. Item, "The hearers of the law are not righteous in the sight of God, but the doers of the law shall be justified;" ergo, the deeds of the law justify from sin. And again: "We must all stand before the judgment-seat of [1 So D., but L. falshepe.]

Christ, to receive every man according to the deeds which he did in the body;" ergo, the law, or the deeds of the law, justify.

2

These, and all such, are naughty arguments. For ye see that the king pardoneth no murderer but on a condition, that he henceforth keep the law, and do no more so; and yet ye know well enough that he is saved by grace, favour, and pardon, ere the keeping of the law come: howbeit, if he break the law afterward, he falleth again into the same danger of death.

the law we

grace. W. T.

Even so, none of us can be received to grace but upon a By keeping condition to keep the law, neither yet continue any longer in continue in grace than that purpose lasteth. And if we break the law, we must sue for a new pardon; and have a new fight against sin, hell, and desperation, ere we can come to a quiet faith again, and feel that the sin is forgiven. Neither can there be in thee a stable and an undoubted faith that thy sin is forgiven thee, except there be also a lusty courage in thine heart, and a trust that thou wilt sin no more; for on that condition, that thou endeavour thyself to sin no more, is the promise of mercy and forgiveness made unto thee.

and hope are

in this life.

And as thy love to the law increaseth, so doth thy faith Faith, love, in Christ; and so doth thine hope and longing for the life to inseparable come. And as thy love is cold, so is thy faith weak; and W. T. thine hope, and longing for the life to come, little. And where no love to the law is, there is neither faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sin, nor longing for the life to come; but instead of faith a wicked imagination, that God is so unrighteous that he is not offended with sin; and instead of hope a desire to live for ever here, and a greediness of worldly voluptuousness.

love not the

understand

to salvation.

And unto all such is the scripture locked up, and made They that impossible to understand. They may read it, and rehearse law cannot the stories thereof, and dispute of it, as the Turks may; and the scripture as we may of the Turks' law. And they may suck pride, W. T. hypocrisy, and all manner of poison there-out, to slay their own souls, and to put stumbling-blocks in other men's ways, to thrust them from the truth; and3 get such learning therein as in Aristotle's Ethics and Moral philosophy, and in the precepts of old philosophers. But it is impossible for them [2 That is, worth nought.] [3 L. to get.]

Care.

How God ca: eth for the weak. W. T.

Rom. xv.

to apply one sentence thereof to their soul's health, or to fashion their lives thereby for to please God; or to make them love the law, or understand it; either to feel the power of Christ's death, and might of his resurrection, and the sweetness of the life to come: so that they ever remain carnal and fleshly; as thou hast an ensample of the scribes, Pharisees, and Jews, in the new Testament.

Another conclusion is this: of them that believe in Christ for the remission of sin, and love the law, are a thousand degrees and not so few, one perfecter or weaker than another; of which a great sort are so feeble, that they can neither go forward in their profession and purpose, nor yet stand, except they be holpen and borne of their stronger brethren, and tended as young children are by the care of their fathers and mothers. And therefore doth God command the elder to care for the younger: as Paul teacheth, saying, "We that be stronger ought to bear the feebleness of the weaker;" and, Brethren, if any man be caught in any fault, ye that be spiritual," and are grown in knowledge, and have gotten the victory of your flesh, "teach such with the spirit of softness," not calling them heretics at the first chop, and threatening them with fire and fagots: but, alter alterius onera portate (saith he), and sic adimplebitis legem Christi; that is to say, "Bear each other's burden, and so shall ye fulfil the law of Christ." Even so verily shall ye fulfil the law of Christ; and not with smiting your brethren, and putting stumbling-blocks before their weak feet, and killing their consciences, and making them more afraid of shadows and bugs than to break their Father's commandments, and to trust in words of wind Rulers, why and vanity more than in their Father's promise. And for

Gal. vi.
By bearing
each others'
weakness we
fulfil the law
of Christ.

they were ordained.

W. T.

their sakes also he hath ordained rulers, both spiritual and temporal, to teach them and exhort them; to warn them, and to keep occasions from them, that with custom of sin they fall not from their profession.

Now when they that take upon them to be the elder brethren are become hypocrites, and turned to wily foxes and cruel wolves and fierce lions, and the officers be waxen evil and servants to mammon, ministering their offices for their own lucre only, and not for the profit of their brethren, but favouring all vices whereby they may have a vantage;

[1 So L., but D. has for.]

then is God compelled, of his fatherly pity, to scourge his
weak himself, with poverty, oppression, wrong, loss, danger,
and with a thousand manner of diseases, to bring them again,
if they be fallen, and to keep their hearts fast to their pro-
fession. So that diligentibus Deum omnia cooperantur in
bonum: they that love God, that is to say, the law of God Rom. viii.
(for that is to love God), unto them God turneth all to the
best; and scourgeth them with the lusts of their own weak-
ness, to their own salvation.

tions of the

W. T.

Another conclusion is this: God receiveth both perfect and weak in like grace, for Christ's sake, as a father receiveth all his children, both small and great, in like love. He The condireceiveth them to be his sons, and maketh a covenant with covenant. them, to bear their weakness for Christ's sake, till they be waxen stronger; and how often soever they fall, yet to forgive them if they will turn again; and never to cast off any, till he yield himself to sin, and take sin's part, and for affection and lust to sin fight against his own profession to destroy it. And he correcteth and chastiseth his children ever at home, with the rod of mercy and love, to make them better; but he bringeth them not forth, to be judged after the condemnation of the law.

spirit. W. T.

Another conclusion is this: every man is two men, flesh Flesh and and spirit; which so fight perpetually one against another, that a man must go either back or forward, and cannot stand long in one state. If the spirit overcome the temptation, then is she stronger, and the flesh weaker. But and if the flesh get a custom, then is the spirit none otherwise oppressed of the flesh, than as though she had a mountain upon her back and as we sometime in our dreams think we bear heavier than a millstone on our breasts; or when we dream, now and then, that we would run away for fear, our legs seem heavier than lead; even so is the spirit oppressed and overladen of the flesh through custom, that she struggleth and striveth to get up and break loose in vain; until the God of mercy, which heareth her groan through Jesus Christ, come and loose her with his power, and put his cross of tribulation on the back of the flesh, to keep her down, to minish her strength and to mortify her.

Wherefore every man must have his cross to nail his flesh Cross. W. T. to, for the mortifying of her. Now, if thou be not strong

1