The Sermon on the Mount
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About this ebook
In the advertisement prefixed to the first volume of this reprint of the writings of Tyndale, the editor announced the intention of arranging them in three classes, viz. doctrinal and hortatory treatises; helps to a right understanding of the scriptures, consisting of introductory prefaces, expositions, and notes upon the sacred text; and lastly his replies, and exposures of the adversaries of the Reformation.
The first volume has accordingly comprehended the whole of the first class, and of the introductory prefaces, or prologues, as Tyndale styled them. Proceeding, therefore, to the expositions, the present volume will commence with Tyndale’s exposition of the Sermon on the mount, as coming first in the order of the scriptures, though not published till 1532, and consequently some months later than his exposition of the first epistle of St John. For the following reprint, that of Day in 1573, the peculiar readings of which will be marked D., has been collated with a copy of the exposition in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, numbered 401 in Dr Maitland’s account of rare books in that library, and of which he has said that it may be a specimen of the first edition. The readings of the Lambeth edition will be distinguished by the letter L.; and the marginal notes found in it will have the initials W. T. attached to them, to mark that Tyndale is to be held responsible for them alone, the other marginal notes being probably composed by Foxe, as editor for Day.
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The Sermon on the Mount - William Tyndale
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT
an exposition of the
FIFTH, SIXTH, AND SEVENTH CHAPTERS
of
MATTHEW
with
NOTES OR GLOSSES ON ST. MATTHEW’S GOSPEL
EDITED FOR
The Parker Society
BY THE
REV. HENRY WALTER, B.D. F.R.S
Rector of Halisbury Bryan, Dorset;
Formerly fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Professor of Natural Philosophy in the East India Company's College at Haileybury
CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED AT
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
M.DCCC.L
This edition © 2018 CrossReach Publications, Waterford, Ireland
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CONTENTS
Introductory Notice
The Prologue
The Fifth Chapter of Matthew
An Exposition of the Sixth Chapter
An Exposition of the Seventh Chapter
Notes or Glosses
About CrossReach Publications
Bestselling Titles from CrossReach
Introductory Notice
In the advertisement prefixed to the first volume of this reprint of the writings of Tyndale, the editor announced the intention of arranging them in three classes, viz. doctrinal and hortatory treatises; helps to a right understanding of the scriptures, consisting of introductory prefaces, expositions, and notes upon the sacred text; and lastly his replies, and exposures of the adversaries of the Reformation.
The first volume has accordingly comprehended the whole of the first class, and of the introductory prefaces, or prologues, as Tyndale styled them. Proceeding, therefore, to the expositions, the present volume will commence with Tyndale’s exposition of the Sermon on the mount, as coming first in the order of the scriptures, though not published till 1532, and consequently some months later than his exposition of the first epistle of St John. For the following reprint, that of Day in 1573, the peculiar readings of which will be marked D., has been collated with a copy of the exposition in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, numbered 401 in Dr Maitland’s account of rare books in that library, and of which he has said that it may be a specimen of the first edition. The readings of the Lambeth edition will be distinguished by the letter L.; and the marginal notes found in it will have the initials W. T. attached to them, to mark that Tyndale is to be held responsible for them alone, the other marginal notes being probably composed by Foxe, as editor for Day.]
¶ AN EXPOSITION UPON THE 5, 6, 7, CHAPTERS OF MATHEW,
which three chapters are the keye and the dore of the scripture, and the restoring agayne of moses law corrupte by the scribes and pharises. and the exposition is the restoring agayne of christes lawe corrupte by the papistes.
¶ Item before the booke, thou hast a Prologe very necessarie, contayning the whole summe of the couenaunt made betwene God and us, uppon which we be baptised to keepe it.
Set forth by William Tyndall.
The Prologue
Here hast thou, dear reader, an exposition upon the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew, wherein Christ, our spiritual Isaac, diggeth again the wells of Abraham: which wells the scribes and Pharisees, those wicked and spiteful Philistines, had stopped and filled up with the earth of their false expositions. He openeth the kingdom of heaven, which they had shut up that other men should not enter, as they themselves had no lust to go in. He restoreth the key of knowledge, which they had taken away, and broken the wards, with wresting the text, contrary to his due and natural course, with their false glosses. He plucketh away from the face of Moses the veil which the scribes and Pharisees had spread thereon, that no man might perceive the brightness of his countenance. He weedeth out the thorns and bushes of their pharisaical glosses, wherewith they had stopped up the narrow way and strait gate, that few could find them.
The wells of Abraham are the scripture. And the scripture may well be called the kingdom of heaven, which is eternal life, and nothing save the knowledge of God the Father, and of his Son Jesus Christ. Moses’ face is the law, in her right understanding; and the law in her right understanding is the key, or at the least way the first and principal key, to open the door of the scripture. And the law is the very way that bringeth unto the door Christ, as it is written, Gal. 3. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
And the end of the law,
that is to say, the thing, or cause why the law was given, is Christ, to justify all that believe:
that is to say, the law was given to prove us unrighteous, and to drive us to Christ, to be made righteous through forgiveness of sin by him. The law was given to make the sin known, saith St Paul, and that sin committed under the law might be the more sinful. The law is that thing which Paul in his inward man granted to be good, but was yet compelled ofttimes of his members to do those things which that good law condemned for evil.
The law maketh no man to love the law, or less to do or commit sin; but gendereth more lust, and increaseth sin. For I cannot but hate the law, inasmuch as I find no power to do it; and it nevertheless condemneth me, because I do it not. The law setteth not at one with God, but causeth wrath.
The law was given by Moses, but grace and verity by Jesus Christ.
Behold, though Moses gave the law, yet he gave no man grace to do it, or to understand it aright; or wrote it in any man’s heart, to consent that it was good, and to wish after power to fulfil it. But Christ giveth grace to do it, and to understand it aright; and writeth it with his holy Spirit in the tables of the hearts of men; and maketh it a true thing there, and no hypocrisy.
The law, truly understood, is those fiery serpents that stung the children of Israel with present death. But Christ is the brasen serpent; on whom whosoever, being stung with conscience of sin, looketh with a sure faith, is healed immediately of that stinging, and saved from the pains and sorrows of hell.
It is one thing to condemn, and pronounce the sentence of death, and to sting the conscience with fear of everlasting pain: and it is another thing to justify from sin; that is to say, to forgive and remit sin, and to heal the conscience, and certify a man, not only that he is delivered from eternal death, but also that he is made a son of God and heir of everlasting life. The first is the office of the law: the second pertaineth unto Christ only, through faith.
Now if thou give the law a false gloss, and say that the 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 fore sins; then died Christ in vain, and is made almost of no stead, seeing thou 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.
And so, when by this false interpretation of the law Christ, which is the door, the way, and the ground or foundation of all the scripture, is lost concerning the chiefest fruit of his 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.
This wise was the scripture locked up of the scribes and Pharisees, that the Jews could not see Christ when he came, nor yet can. And though Christ with these three chapters did open it again; yet by such glosses (for our unthankfulness’ sake, that we had no lust to live according) have we Christians lost Christ again, and the understanding of the most clear 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 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.
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 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 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.
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 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.
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.
Even so, none of us can be received to grace but upon a condition to keep the law, neither yet continue any longer 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 as thy love to the law increaseth, so doth thy faith in Christ; and so doth thine hope and longing for the life to come. And as thy love is cold, so is thy faith weak; and 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.
And unto all such is the scripture locked up, and made impossible to understand. They may read it, and rehearse the stories thereof, and dispute of it, as the Turks may; and as we may of the Turks’ law. And they may suck pride, 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; and 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 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 and vanity more than in their Father’s promise. And for 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; 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 profession. So that diligentibus Deum omnia cooperantur in bonum: they that love God, that is to say, the law of God (for that is to love God), unto them God turneth all to the best; and scourgeth them with the lusts of their own weakness, to their own salvation.
Another conclusion is this: God receiveth both perfect and weak in like