VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

And finally though we were sure that god him selfe had geuen vs a sacrament / what soeuer it were / yet if the significacion were once lost we must of necessite / ether seke vpp the significacion or put some other significacion of gods word therto / what we ought to doo or beleue therby / or else put it downe. For.it is impossible to obserue a sacrament with out significacion / but vnto oure damnacion. If we kepe the faith purely and the law of loue vndefiled / whych are the significacions of all ceremonies there is no ieoperdy to alter or chaunge the facion of the ceremonye or to put it doune / if nede requyre.

28/1–4 yet . . . downe. Cf. CWM 8/1.83/7–10.

28/4–6 For . . . damnacion. Cf. CWM 8/1.309/17.

¶Whether the church can erre

28/10 ¶ Whether the church can erre. Here Tyndale answers the church's claim of inerrancy on essential matters of belief as set forth in Dialogue, Bk. 1, Ch. 18–21 (CWM 6/1.101–21).

There is a nother question whether the church maye erre. Which if ye vnderstonde of the pope and his generacion / it is verely as hard a question as to axe / whether he which hath both his eyes out be blynd or no / or whether it be possible for him that hath one legge shorter then a nother / to halt. But I said that Christes electe church is the hole multitude of all repentynge synners that beleue in Christ and put all their trust and confidence in the mercye of god / felynge in their hertes / that god for Christes sake loueth them and wilbe or rather is mercifull vn to them and forgeueth them their synnes of which they repent / and that he forgeueth them also all the mocions vn to synne of which they feare lest they shuld therby be drawen in to synne agayne. And this faith they haue with out all respecte of their awne deseruynges / yee and for no nother cause then that the mercifull trueth of god the father which can not lye / hath so promised and so sworne.

28/10–15 ¶ Whether . . . halt. Cf. CWM 8/1.387/3–9. This is the first reference from Confutation, Part II, 1533. With regrettable fulness , More devotes three out of nine books of Confutation to attacking a third of Answer's introductory essay.

28/15–25 I said . . . sworne. Cf. CWM 8/1.391/9–18. Here Tyndale uses the narrow definition of "church," in which the specific mark of its members is living trust in God's merciful promises. Cf. 12/26–29, 112/26–30, 142/30–143/2. (JW)

28/22–25 this faith . . . sworne. Paraphrased at CWM 8/1.400/ 30–32.