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Oil, salt, and spittle

are no

parts of baptism.

Oil hath

in it no vir tue at all, though the bishop hallow it.

The ministers among the Jews

all that he can lay against me, that of an hundred there be not ten that have the properties which Paul requireth to to be in them. Wherefore, if oiling and shaving be no part of their priesthood, then evermore of a thousand, nine hundred at the least should be no priests at all. And quoth your friend, would confirm it with an oath, and swear deeply, that it would follow, and that it must needs so be. Which argument yet, if there were no other shift, I would solve after an Oxford fashion, with Concedo consequentiam et consequens. And I say moreover that their anointing is but a ceremony borrowed of the Jews, though they have somewhat altered the manner; and their shaving borrowed of the heathen priests; and that they be no more of their priesthood, than the oil, salt, spittle, taper and chrisom-cloth, of the substance of baptism. Which things, no doubt, because they be of their conjuring, they would have preached of necessity unto the salvation of the child, except necessity had driven them unto the contrary.

And seeing that the oil is not of necessity, let M. More tell me what more virtue is in the oil of confirmation, inasmuch as the bishop sacreth the one as well as the other; yea, and let him tell the reason why there should be more virtue in the oil wherewith the bishop anointeth his priests. Let him tell you from whence the oil cometh, how it is made, and why he selleth it to the curates wherewith they anoint the sick, or whether this be of less virtue than the other.

And finally, why used not the apostles this Greek word iepeúc, or the interpreter, this Latin word sacerdos, but alway this word presbyteros and senior, by which was at that time nothing signified but an elder? And it was no doubt taken of the custom of the Hebrews, where the were named officers were ever elderly men, as nature requireth. As it appeareth in the Old Testament, and also in the New. The scribes, pharisees, and the elders of the people, saith the text, which were the officers and rulers, so called by the reason of their age.

elders, be

cause of

their age.

WHY HE USETH LOVE RATHER THAN

CHARITY.

HE rebuketh me also that I translate this Greek word ȧyàлŋ into love, and not rather into charity, so holy and so known a term. Verily, charity is no known English, in that sense which agape requireth. For when we say, Give your alms in the worship of God, and sweet saint charity; and when the father teacheth his son to say Blessing, father, for saint charity; what mean they? In good faith they wot not. Moreover, when we say, God help you, I have done my charity for this day, do we not take it for alms? and, The man is ever chiding and out of charity, and I beshrew him saving my charity: there we take it for patience. And when I say, A charitable man, it is taken for merciful. And though mercifulness be a good love, or rather spring of a good love, yet is not every good love mercifulness. As when a woman loveth her husband godly, or a man his wife or his friend that is in none adversity, it is not always mercifulness. Also we say not, This man hath a great charity to God, but a great love. Wherefore I must have used this general term love, in spite of mine heart oftentimes. And agape and charitas were words used among the heathen ere Christ came, and signifies therefore more than a godly love. And we may say well enough, and have heard it spoken, that the Turks be charitable one to another, among themselves, and some of them unto the Christians too. Besides all this agape is common unto all loves.

And when M. More saith, Every love is not charity: no more is every apostle Christ's apostle; nor every angel God's angel; nor every hope Christian hope; nor every faith or belief Christ's belief; and so by an hundred thousand words. So that if I should always use but a

Why Tynthis word love rather

dale useth

than cha•

rity.

Charity

hath divers significa

tions.

Love is also diversly understood.

Every love is not chaevery charity is not love.

rity, nor

word that were no more general than the word I interpret, I should interpret nothing at all. But the matter itself and the circumstances do declare what love, what hope, and what faith is spoken of. And, finally, I say not Charity God, or Charity your neighbour, but Love God, and Love your neighbour, yea, and though we say man ought to love his neighbour's wife and his daughter, a Christian man doth [not] understand that he is commanded to defile his neighbour's wife or his daughter.

WHY FAVOUR AND NOT GRACE.

dale saith

favour, and not grace.

Why Tyn- AND with like reasons rageth he because I turn xáρıç into favour, and not into grace, saying that Every favour is not grace, and that in some favour there is but little grace. I can say also in some grace there is little goodness. And when we say he standeth well in my lady's grace, we understand no great godly favour. And in universities many ungracious graces are gotten.

WHY KNOWLEDGE AND NOT CONFESSION,
REPENTANCE AND NOT PENANCE.

and not confession,

and not penance.

Knowledge AND that I use this word knowledge and not confession, and this word repentance and not penance. In which repentance all he cannot prove that I give not the right English unto the Greek word. But it is a far other thing that paineth them and biteth them by the breasts. There be secret pangs that pinch the very hearts of them, whereof they dare not complain. The sickness that maketh them so impatient is, that they have lost their juggling terms. For the doctors and preachers were wont to make many di

visions, distinctions, and sorts of grace; gratis data, gratum faciens, preveniens, and subsequens. And with confession they juggled, and so made the people, as oft as they spake of it, understand shrift in the ear. Whereof the Scripture maketh no mention: no, it is clean against the Scripture as they use it and preach it, and unto God an abomination, and a foul stinking sacrifice unto the filthy idol Priapus. The loss of those juggling terms is the matter whereof all these bots breed, that gnaw them by the bellies and make them so unquiet.

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Penance was profitable to the papists.

True penance what

it is.

And in like manner, by this word penance, they make Penance. the people understand holy deeds of their enjoining, with which they must make satisfaction unto Godward for their sins. When all the Scripture preacheth that Christ hath made full satisfaction for our sins to Godward, and we must now be thankful to God again, and kill the lusts of our flesh with holy works of God's enjoining, and to take patiently all that God layeth on my back. And if I have hurt my neighbour, I am bound to shrine myself unto him and to make him amends, if I have wherewith, and if not, then to ask him forgiveness, and he is bound to forgive me. And as for their penance, the Scripture knoweth not of. The Greek hath Metanoia and Metanoite, repentance and repent, or forethinking and forethink. As we say in English It forethinketh me, or I forethink; and 1 repent, or It repenteth me, and I am sorry that I did it. So now the Scripture saith, Repent, or let it forethink you, and come and believe the gospel or glad tidings that is brought you in Christ, and so shall all be forgiven you, and henceforth live a new life. And it will follow if I repent in the heart that I shall do no more so, willingly, and of purpose. And if I believed the gospel, what God hath done for me in Christ, I should surely love him again, and of love prepare myself unto his commandments.

These things to be even so M. More knoweth well enough. For he understandeth the Greek, and he knew them long ere I. But so blind is covetousness and drunken

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Faith in Christ bringeth true repentance.

Balaam.

desire of honour. Gifts blind the eyes of the seeing, and Deut. xvii. pervert the words of the righteous. (Deut. xvii.) When covetousness findeth vantage in serving falsehood, it riseth up into an obstinate malice against the truth, and seeketh all means to resist it and to quench it. As Balaam the false prophet, though he wist that God loved Israel, and had blessed them, and promised them great things, and that he would fulfil his promises, yet for covetousness and desire of honour, he fell into such malice against the truth of God, that he sought how to resist it and to curse the people. Which when God would not let him do, he turned himself another way and gave pestilent counsel to make the people sin against God; whereby the wrath of God fell upon them and many thousands perished. Notwithstanding God's truth abode fast and was fulfilled in the rest. And Baalam, as he was the cause that many perished, so escaped he not himself. No more did any that maliciously resisted the open truth against his own conscience, since the world began, that ever I read. For it is sin against the Holy Ghost, which Christ saith shall neither be forgiven here nor in the world to come: which text may thiswise be understood, that as that sin shall be punished with everlasting damnation in the life to come, even so shall it not escape vengeance here. As thou seest in Judas, in Pharaoh, in Balaam, and in all other tyrants which against their consciences resisted the open truth of God.

The sin

against the Holy Ghost.

2 Pet. ii.

So now the cause why our prelates thus rage, and that moveth them to call M. More to help, is, not that they find just causes in the translation, but because they have lost their juggling and feigned terms wherewith Peter prophesied they should make merchandise of the people.

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