VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural
iij.

iij.] The iij. Chapter. 1573

In the thrid chapter and in the chapter folowynge / he vttereth how fleshly minded he is / and how beestly he imageneth of God / as Paule saith .1. corin. 2. the naturall man can not vnderstond the thinges of the spirite of God. He thinketh of God / as he doeth of his cardenall / that he is a monstre / pleased when men flater him / and if of whatsoeuer frailte it be / men breake his commaundementes / he is then raginge mad as the pope is and seketh to be venged. Naye / God is euer fatherly minded toward the electe membres of his church. He loued them yer the world beganne / in Christ. Ephe. 1. He loueth them / while they be yet evell and his enimies in their hertes / yer they be come vn to the knowlege of his sone christe / and yer his law be written in their hertes: as a father loueth his younge sonne / whyle he is yet euell and yer it know the fathers law to consent therto.

And aftir they be once actually of his church and the law of God and faith of christ written in their hertes / their hertes neuer synne any moare / though as Paule saith .Roman. vij. the flesh doeth in them that the spirite wold not. And when they synne of frailte / God ceaseth not to loue them styll / though he be angrie / to put a crosse of tribulacions vppon their backes / to purge them and to subdue the flesh vn to the spirite or to al to breake their consciences with threateninge of the lawe and to feare them with hell. As a father when his sonne offendeth him feareth him with the rod / but hateth him not.

God did not hate paul / when he persecuted but had layd vpp mercy for him in store / though he was angre wyth hym to scorge hym and to teach him better. Nether were those thynges layd on his backe which he after sofered / to make satisfaccion for his foresinnes / but only to serue hys brethern and to kepe the flesh vnder. Nether did god hate Dauid when he had synned / though he was angre with him. Nether did he after sofre to make satisfaccyon to god for hys olde synnes / but to kepe his flesh vnder and to kepe hym in mekenesse and to be an ensample for oure lernynge.

iiij.

iiij.] The iiij. Chapter. 1573

In the fourth saith he if the church were an vnknowen companie / how shuld the infydeles / yf they longed for the faith / come therby?

O whother wandereth a fleshly minde / as though we first sought out god. Nay / God knoweth his and seketh them out and sendeth his mesingers vnto them and geueth them an hert to vnderstonde. Dyd the hethen or any nacyon seke chryste? Nay / christ sought them and sent hys appostles vnto them. As thou seyst in the storyes from the begynnynge of the worlde and as the parables and similitudes of the gospell declare.

And when he saith / he neuer founde ner herd of any of vs / but that he wold forswere to saue his life. Answere / the moare wrath of god will light on them / that so cruelly delite to torment them and so craftely to begyle the weake. Neuer thelesse yet it is vntrue. For he hath hearde of sir Thomas hitton whom the bisshopes of Rochester and caunterbury slew at maydstone and of many that sofered in braband holland and atcolen and in all

vntrue] 1573, vntue 1531