VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

But the power of the will and of the dede is off god and euery will and deed are good in the nature of the dede and the euelnesse is a lacke that there is / as the eye / though it be blinde is good in nature in that it is soch a member created for soch a good vse: but it is called euell for lacke of sighte. And so are oure dedes euell because we lacke knowlege and loue to referre them vn to the glorie of God.

Which lacke cometh of the deuell that blyndeth vs with lustes and occasions that we can not se the goodnesse and rightwysnesse of the law of god and the meanes how to fulfill it. For coud we se it and the waye to doo it we shuld loue it naturally as a chyld doeth a fayre apple. For as a child when a man sheweth him a fayre apple and wyll not geue it hym wepeth / so shuld we naturaly morne when the members wold not come forwarde to fulfyll the law acordynge to the desyre of oure hertes. For paule saith .ij. Cor. iiij. if our gospell be hid / it is hyd vnto them that perish / amonge which the God of this world hath blinded the wittes of the vnbeleuers / that the light of the glorious gospell of christ shuld not shyne to them. And christ saith that the briddes eate vpp the seed sowen vppon the waye and interpreteth by the seed the worde / and by the foules / the deuell. So that the deuel blindeth vs with falshed and lies which ys our worldly wisdome / and therwith stoppethout the true light of gods wisdome / which blindnes is the euellnesse of all our dedes.

And so . . . fulfill it. Cf. 34/6–11n.

20 as] om. [1573]

2. Cor. 4. [1531]

if. . to them. 2 Cor. 4.3–4.

] 2 Corinthians

191/26–29 The deuill is the blinder &/and keper of vs from the vnderstanding of gods/Gods wyll/wil. (In 1573 the same note is found at the bottom of Oo6v, p. 328 and the top of Pp1r, p. 329.)[1573]

briddes . . . the deuell. Cf. Matt. 13.4, 19, Mark 4.4, Mark 4.15, Luke 8.5, 12.

Matt. 13.4, 19; Mark 4.4, 15; Luke 8.5, 12

And on the other syde / that a nother man loueth the lawes of God and vseth the power that he hath of God well / and referreth his wyll and hys dedes vn to the honoure off God / cometh off the mercy off God which hath oppened hys