even so, sith ye have corrupt the open Scripture
before our eyes, and taken with the manner, that
ye cannot deny, we were mad to believe that
which hath lien fifteen hundred years, as ye say,
in your rotten maws, should now be wholesome
for us, ye have chewed and mingled it with
your poison spittle. Can ye bear us in hand,
and persuade us, think ye, with your sophistry, to
believe that ye should minister your secret tra-
ditions without ground truly, when we see you
minister the open Scripture falsely? Can ye
bewitch our wits with your poetry, to believe
that ye should minister your secret traditions
for our profit, when we see you corrupt the open
Scripture to the loss of our souls, for your
profit? Nay, it is an hundred times more likely
that ye should be false in secret things than in

open.
And therefore in the very sacraments
which the Scripture testifieth, that Christ himself
ordained, them we must have an eye unto your
hand how ye minister them. And as we restore
the Scripture unto her right understanding from
your false glosses, even so deliver we the sacra-
ments and ceremonies unto their right use from
your abuse. And that must we do with the
Scripture, which can corrupt no man that cometh
thereto with a meek spirit, seeking there only to
fashion himself like Christ, according to the pro-
fession and vow of our baptism. But contrari-
wise, he shall there find the mighty power of
God, to alter him, and change him in the inner
man, a little and little in process, until he be full

The papists rupted the

have cor

Scripture,

and abused the Sacra

ments.

The Scripture is the life of

God's elect.

shapen after the image of our Saviour, in know-
ledge, and love of all truth, and power to work
thereafter.

Finally then, forasmuch as the Scripture is the light and life of God's elect, and that mighty power wherewith God created them, and shapeth them, after the similitude, likeness, and very fashion of Christ; and therefore sustenance, comfort, and strength to courage them, that they may stand fast, and endure, and merrily bear their souls' health, wherewith the lust of the flesh subdued and killed, and the spirit mollified and made soft, to receive the print of the image of our Saviour Jesus. And as much as the Scripture is so pure of itself that it can corrupt no man, but the wicked only, which are infect before hand, and ere they come at it, corrupt it with the heresies they bring with them. And forasmuch as the complaint of the hypocrites, that the Hypocrites Scripture maketh heretics, is vain and feigned, the Scrip- and the reasons wherewith they would prove that the lay people ought not to read the Scripture, false, wicked, and the fruit of rotten trees:-therefore are they faithful servants of Christ and faithful ministers and dispensers of his doctrine, and true hearted toward their brethren, which have given themselves up into the hand of God, and put themselves in jeopardy of all persecution, their very life despised, and have translated the Scripture purely and with good conscience, submitting themselves, and desiring them that can, to amend their translation, or (if it please them) to translate it themselves, after their best manner, yea,

say that

ture maketh heretics.

1

and let them sew to their glosses, as many as they think they can make cleave thereto, and then put other men's translations out of the way. Howbeit, though God hath so wrought with them that a great part is translated, yet as it is not enough that the father and mother have both begot the child and brought it into this world, except they care for it and bring it up till it can help itself; even so it is not enough to have translated, though it were the whole Scripture into the vulgar and common tongue, except we also brought again the light to understand it by, and expel that dark cloud which the hypocrites have spread over the face of the Scripture, to blind the right sense and true meaning thereof. And therefore at their diverse introductions ordained for you, to teach you the profession of your baptism, the only light of the Scripture; one upon the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, and another called, The Pathway into the Scripture. And for the same cause, have I taken in hand to interpret this Epistle of St. John the Evangelist to edify the layman and to teach him how to read the Scripture, and what to seek therein, and that he may have to answer the hypocrites and to stop their mouths withal.

And first, understand that all the Epistles that the apostles wrote are the gospel of Christ, though all that is the gospel be not an epistle. It is called a gospel, that is to say, glad tidings, because it is an open preaching of Christ; and an epistle, because it is sent as a letter or a bill to them that are absent.

THE EXPOSITION

OF THE

FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN.

Here beginneth the First Epistle of St. John.

CHAPTER ONE.

1 John 1. THAT which was from the beginning declare we unto you, which we have heard, which we have seen with

St. John witnesseth

our eyes,

which we looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life appeared, and we have seen, and bear witness, and shew unto you that everlasting life, which was with the Father, and appeared unto us.

IN that St. John saith, The thing which was from the beginning, and the everlasting life that was with the Fathat Christ ther, he witnesseth that Christ is very God, as he doth in is very God. the beginning of his gospel, saying: The word or the thing was at the beginning, and the thing was with God, and that thing was God, and all things were made by it.

That Christ

is very man.

And when he saith, Which we heard, and saw with our eyes, and our hands handled him; he testifieth that Christ is very man also, as he doth in the beginning of his gospel, saying: The word, or that thing was made flesh, that is, became man. And thus we have in plain and open words, a manifest article of our faith, that our Saviour Christ is ery God and very man.

Which article, whosoever not only believeth, but also believeth in it, the same is the son of God, and hath

And to

He that believeth that

Christ is

the Son of God, and

also very man, hath

everlasting life.

everlasting life in him, and shall never come into con-
demnation as it is written, John. i. He gave them power
to be the sons of God, in that they believed in his name.
And (John iii.) He that believeth in the Son, hath ever-
lasting life. And a little before in the said Chapter: He
that believeth in him shall not be condemned.
believe in the words of this article is that eating of Christ's
flesh, and drinking his blood, of which is spoken,
John vi. The words which I speak are spirit and life,
and the flesh profiteth not all, meaning of the fleshly eating
of his body, and fleshly drinking of his blood. There is
therefore great difference between believing that there is a To believe
God, and that Christ is God and man; and to believe in Christ.
in God, and Christ God and man; and in the promises

of
mercy that are in him. The first is common to good
and bad, and unto the devils thereto, and is called the faith
and belief of the history.
The second is proper unto
the sons of God and is their life, as it is written: The
righteous liveth by faith, that is, in putting his trust, con-
fidence, and whole hope in the goodness, mercy and help
of God, in all adversities, bodily and ghostly, and all temp-
tations, and even in sin and hell, how deep soever he be
fallen therein.

But, as he which feeleth not his disease, can long for no health, even so it is impossible for any man to believe in Christ's blood, except Moses have had him first in cure, and with his law have robbed him of his righteousness, and condemned him unto everlasting death, and have shewed him under what damnation they are in by birth in Adam, and how all their deeds (appear they never so holy) are yet but damnable sin, because they can refer nothing unto the glory of God, but seek themselves their own profit, honour and glory. So that repentance toward the law must go before this belief, and he which repenteth not, but consenteth unto the life of sin, hath no part in this faith.

And when John calleth Christ the everlasting life that

To believe

that Christ

is God and
man, is to
put
trust, hope,
dence in

all our

and confi

him.

Moses.