our Saviour Jesus Christ. Out of which commandment of love spring these: Kill not thy neighbour: defile not his wife bear no false witness against him; and finally, not only do not these things in deed, but covet not in thine heart, his house, his wife, his man servant, maid servant, ox, ass, or whatsoever is his. So that these laws pertaining unto our neighbour are not fulfilled in the sight of God save with love. He that loveth not his neighbour keepeth not this commandment, Defile not thy neighbour's wife, though he never touch her, or never see her, or think upon her. For the commandment is, though thy neighbour's wife be never so fair, and thou have never so great opportunity given thee, and she content, or haply provoke thee as Potiphar's wife did Joseph, yet see thou love thy neighbour so well, that for very love thou cannot find in thine heart to do that wickedness. And even so he that trusteth in any thing save in God only and in his Son Jesus Christ, keepeth no commandment at all in the sight of God.

For he that hath trust in any creature whether in heaven or in earth, save in God and his Son Jesus, can see no cause to love God with all his heart, &c. neither to abstain from dishonouring 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 cause to love his neighbour as himself, and to abstain from hurting him, where he may get profit by him, and save himself harmless. And in likewise against this law, love thy neighbour as thyself. I may obey no worldly power, to do ought at any man's commandment unto the hurt of my neighbour that hath not deserved it, though he be a Turk.

And to know how contrary this law is unto our nature, and how it is damnation not to have this law written in our hearts, though we never commit the deeds; and how there is no other means 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,

Our baptism signifieth that we repent and profess a new life.

and the washing and the dipping of our bodies in the water is the outward sign. The plunging of the body under the water, signifieth that we repent and profess to fight against sin and lusts, and to kill them every day more and more, with the help of God, and our diligence in following the doctrine of Christ, and the leading of his Spirit, and that we believe to be washed from our natural damnation in which we are born, and from all the wrath of the law, and from all the infirmities and weaknesses that remain in us, after we have given our consent unto the law, and yielded ourself to be scholars thereof, and from all the imperfectness of all our deeds done with cold love, and from all actual sin which shall chance on us while we enforce the contrary and ever fight there against, and hope to sin no more, And thus, repentance and faith begin at our baptism, and first professing the laws of God, and continue unto our lives end, and grow as we grow in the Spirit. For the perfecter we be, the greater is our repentance, and the stronger our faith. And thus, as the Spirit and doctrine on God's The perpart, and repentance and faith in our part beget us anew Christ: : even so they make us grow, and wax perfect and save us unto the end, and never leave us until all sin be put off, and we clean purified and full formed and fashioned after the similitude and likeness of the perfectness of our faith. Saviour Jesus, whose gift all is.

in

And finally, to know that whatsoever good thing is in us, that same is the gift of grace, and therefore not of deserving, though many things be given of God, through our diligence in working his laws, and chastising our bodies, and in praying for them, and believing his promises, which else should not be given us; yet our working deserveth not the gifts, no more than the diligence of a merchant in seeking a good ship, bringeth the goods safe to land, though such diligence doth now and then help thereto. But when we believe in God, and then do all that is in our might and not tempt him, then is God true to abide by his promise, and to help us and perform alone when our strength is past.

fecter we

are, the

greater is our repentance and

the stronger is our

Our works

deserve not the gifts of grace.

The prin ciples of Scripture perfectly learned, all

the rest is more easy.

These things I say to know, is to have all the Scripture unlocked and opened before thee, so that if thou wilt go in and read, thou canst not but understand. And in these things to be ignorant, is to have all the Scripture locked up, so that the more thou readest it, the blinder thou art, and the more contraiety thou findest in it, and the more tangled art thou therein, and canst nowhere through. For if thou had a gloss in one place, in another it will not serve. And therefore because we be never taught the profession of our baptism, we remain always unlearned, as well the spiritualty for all their great clergy and high schools, as we say, as the lay people. And now because the lay and unlearned people are taught these first principles of our profession, therefore they read the Scripture and understand and delight therein. And our great pillars of holy church, which have nailed a veil of false glosses on Moses's face, to corrupt the true understanding of his law, cannot come in. And therefore bark, and say the Scripture maketh heretics, and it is not possible for them to understand it in the English, because they themselves do not in Latin. And of pure malice that they cannot have their will, they slay their brethren for their faith they have in our Saviour, and therein utter their bloody wolfish tyranny, and what they be within, and whose disciples. Herewith, reader, be committed unto the grace of our Saviour Jesus, unto whom and God our Father through him be praise for ever and for ever. Amen.

A

FRUITFUL AND GODLY TREATISE

EXPRESSING

THE RIGHT INSTITUTION AND USAGE

OF

THE SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM,

AND THE

SACRAMENT OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.