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GALATIANS
2:3-5
WE FIND WELL ENOUGH what an enemy of our welfare the Devil
is, sith [since] he ceaseth not to labor by all means
to stop the course of the Gospel. And therein we perceive
also, that God hath set all our welfare, joy, and happiness,
in being taught by his word. For the Devil would not be so
hasty to trouble that doctrine, unless he knew that the
whole welfare of men lieth therein. True it is that he
laboreth sore and straineth himself to deface God’s glory:
but they be things that go together. For God of his gracious
goodness hath appointed that to be the mean to reign among
us, and to gather us unto himself: and all our welfare is to
cleave unto him and to join with him. Now therefore the
Devil not only stirreth up many enemies to make war against
the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: but also laboreth to
stir up much strife among ourselves, and to make us enemies
one to another, and that hath been his practice at all
times, as we see by example in the things that Saint Paul
rehearseth to us here. We know what alarms were given him
everywhere, and what a number of battelles [battles,
struggles, controversy] and plunges he was put
unto, by reason that the Heathen and the unbelievers did (to
the uttermost of their power) withstand the preaching of
God’s word: and yet over and besides this, he showeth how
there were deceivers also, which wound themselves in slyly,
and entered in as it were by stealth. For the Greek word
that he useth, importeth so much, and it cannot well be
expressed [by any one word] in our [french] tongue. His
meaning then is that there were Cozeners [deceivers,
frauds] which intermeddled themselves underminingly
with the faithful, and yet all was no more but to cause the
truth of the Gospel to be corrupted. And let us mark, that
those dogs pretended not to reject utterly the whole
doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ: but rather bear the name
and title of Christianity. Howbeit in the meanwhile their
intent was to have a half-assed Gospel, which should be
nother [neither] fish nor flesh (as they say) but a
medley of their own device: like as at this day there are
still too many such folk in the world, who would fain
[happily] forge and build a kind of Religion after their
own fashion, taking a piece of the pure truth, and mingling
many lies and dreams with it. Lo how there have been Neuters
even from Saint Paul’s time hither. And now he saith,
that he yielded not to them so much as one minute in way of
subjection, to the end that the liberty of the Gospel might
continue in his full force.
That is in effect the thing that is rehearsed here. And
first of all we have to arm ourselves against the household
enemies, which labor to turmoil and trouble the doctrine of
the Gospel in such wise, as it may become like a misshappen
[distorted, monstrous] thing, and men may not
discern anymore of it. But let us not be abashed when it
happeneth so: for it is no novelty at all. Wherefore let us
understand, that as it was God’s will to try the constancy
of the faithful in Saint Paul’s time: so it is good reason
that we also should be tried in these days, according as it
is said, that it is necessary that there should be sects and
heresies, to the intent that they which have taken deep root
might be known (1 Corinthians 11:19) by continuing in their
obedience to Godward, and bear their mark that men may know
them have profited truly in the school of our Lord Jesus
Christ, for that they have not suffered themselves to be
misled or thrust out of the way. That therefore is the cause
why our Lord doth always suffer some troublers to sow darnel
[tares] seed, and to labor to turn the pure doctrine
upside down. He could well let it if he thought good: but he
giveth Satan the bridle, that our faith may be the better
tried. Although we see occasions before our eyes, yet let us
not swarve one way nor other, but keep on still in the way
that is showed us, assuring ourselves that we cannot do
amiss in resting wholly upon God’s word. Then if we stand to
that, it is a good trial of our faith. Furthermore let us
fight against such dogs, knowing that they be deadly
plagues, and do much more harm then they that leap quite out
of their sockets, and show themselves manifestly to be
despisers of the Gospel. Those then that are intermeddled
among us are the worser sort, and it standeth us on hand to
resist them manfully. For if we shrink from them in the
battle, surely we shall have so much the greater confusion,
and men shall not be able anymore to put a difference
between white and black….
And we have need to be warned thereof: for in these days we
have the like encounter against the Papists. True it is
that the Papist have less color than had the deceivers of
whom Saint Paul speaketh. For although they were Satan’s
underlings, and sought nothing but to pervert the truth of
the Gospel, yet had they at leastwise this color, that they
brought not in their own dreams and traditions, but alleged
the authority of God, how that the law ought to be kept, and
that was a meetly apparent excuse. But the Papists have no
such foundation: For all their Ceremonies are forgeries of
man’s brain. It is true that they have mingled Jewishness
with them, and made such a gallimaufry [hodgepodge]
as man cannot tell of whom they have borrowed most. But
howsoever the world go, yet are the Ceremonies of men’s
setting up, which are at this day in the Popedom [papal
government]. Now when we strive to abolish them, they
say we trouble the world for nothing. And then step in these
Neuters, which would fain [happily] please both
parties, and make a Bastard Gospel. Those fellows cast us in
the teeth, that we be seditious, and that through our
preciseness we set much trouble in the world. And for proof
thereof (say they) is it meet that there should be such
striving about Ceremonies, seeing they be things
indifferent?…
But now what reason will the Papists bring, when as men
perceive by eyesight, that all their Ceremonies are a
burying of our Lord Jesus Christ, and yet that they bind men
to the keeping of them under pain of deadly sin? And
furthermore when as in all their Ceremonies, they have a
certain opinion, that Baptism is not enough for them, but
that they must have holy water to christen or baptize men
evening and morning: and finally, that when they have
brought in all their pelting trash, and all their gewgaws
[trinkets, showy trifles], there must always be
somewhat in them to draw poor souls into bondage: is it to
be borne withal? On the other side, we see there is so
straight a yoke, as it is able to strangle the poor
wretches. For the seely [silly, pitiable]
souls are bereft of the freedom that was purchased for them
by the death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see
then how it is not without urgent cause, yea and extreme
necessity, that we strive against the Popish tyranny about
ceremonies, considering that our Lord Jesus Christ hath not
his deserved preeminence, so long as men busy their wits
about those small trifles, and that moreover their wretched
consciences are always in unquietness without end or
ceasing: and finally, that on the other side the Papists
think to deserve grace by the things which they term God’s
service, bearing themselves in hand, that that is the mean
whereby men should become righteous to obtain salvation. So
then we see that Saint Paul in his time was driven to
sustain that strife. And forasmuch as our case is altogether
like at this day, so as we cannot hold our peace except we
will betray both god and man: we must fight stoutly against
that hellish tyranny, and against those pelting trash
trumpery and illusions of Satan, whereby he would fain
[happily] either quite deface the Gospel, or else so
turmoil it as a man should not know which is the pure truth.
This in effect is the thing that we have to bear in mind.
And whereas Saint Paul saith, that he yielded not one jot to
such men: it is to confirm us so much the better on the
thing that I touched even now. Peace and friendship are an
amiable thing among men. They be so indeed, and we ought to
seek them to the uttermost of our power. But yet for all
that, we must set such store by God’s truth, that if all the
world should be set on fire for the maintenance thereof, we
should not stick at it. As much as we can possibly, let us
purchase peace: and if the matter concern but our own
persons or goods, let us endeavor to compound with our
adversaries, let us bear with them, and let us labor to
overcome them by our patience: Lo in what manner we ought to
buy peace. But yet in the meanwhile let not God’s truth be
diminished, nor sustain any harm or prejudice. For the peace
that men seek among themselves shall evermore be accursed,
if God be not therewithal acknowledged and magnified as he
ought to be, and his word also continue unimpeached, for
that is the knot of our bond: and if we intend to have it
acceptable to God, and the end of it to be good and for our
welfare, surely God must knit us together. And he hath given
us his Son, who is called our peace (Ephesians 2:14), to the
end we should all of us fall in order under him. Then if we
mind to have good and holy peace, let us aim us at this mark
of yielding ourselves under the obeisance of God’s son, that
he may be our head and we his body, like as there is but one
Church. But if any man go about to withdraw us from our Lord
Jesus Christ: let us rather bear all the hatred, outrages,
and madness of the world, than to seek such agreement. And
let us not be afraid of all the reproach that can be done
unto us according as nowadays we shall be falsely slandered
as stirrers up of many strives. Yea verily, but what can we
do with it? For it behooveth us to abide still in the truth
of the Gospel, or else woe be unto us. If the Papists will
not agree with us, but be utterly willful in the
stubbornness that is seen to be in them: we must be
contented to be at defiance with men, seeing they purpose to
turn us from the peace which we should have with God by the
means of his Son, who not without cause beareth that title
as I told you before. For they that will not agree unto
God, nor hold themselves to his service in such wise as he
hath appointed it in his word: they [say I] are the
troublers of the world, and the parties that ought to be
blamed for all the uproars, variances, and debates that
happen. For (as I have showed already) it is no reason that
God should be robbed of his right, when men seek to knit
themselves together. Ye see then in effect what we have to
think upon, when Saint Paul saith that he would not yield
one minute as in way of subjection, to such as wound in
themselves after that fashion under false colors, to make a
bastard Gospel full of minglemangles and corruptions: for
God’s truth is the thing that was to be known first of all.
Furthermore let us not be afraid of the slander that is laid
upon us [in telling us] that it is pride and presumption
when we will not submit ourselves: like as nowadays the
thing that the Papists allege against us, is that we seem to
take upon us to be wiser than all the world, and that it is
a great pride in us, that we cannot find in our hearts to
submit ourselves to the common fashion. True it is that the
title of obedience is amiable, like as I said even now of
peace: but yet must God be obeyed first of all. For if we
will openly spite God, and play mock holy day with him to
the intent to submit ourselves unto men, and bow down our
neck to bear their yoke, and in the meanwhile give no
audience unto God: what shall become of it? Surely we cannot
frame ourselves to the Papists in way of subjection or
yielding to them, but God must be thrust out of doors, and
his word as it were trodden under foot, so as it shall have
nother [neither] authority nor reverence amongst us.
What is it that the Papists would have us to do? That we
should leave God’s word, and give over our Lord Jesus
Christ, and yet in the meanwhile receive all that ever they
have devised. They will not say in flat terms that God shall
be spoiled of his honor, nor that Jesus Christ shall have no
more authority among them, they will not speak so with open
mouth, but yet it is so in deed. Like as these deceivers
against whom Saint Paul strove, made fair protestations ynow
[enough] that they meant to be Christians, but yet
for all that he was fain [willing] to come to the
touchstone, and to examine all things thoroughly. Now would
the Papists have their traditions received: and what manner
of things are they? We see that our Lord Jesus Christ is as
good as buried there, as I have showed already. Again, there
is nothing but corruption in them: the things that are
contained under them are utter illusions of Satan, tending
all to this end, that there may be no more any certainly,
nor any man know whereunto to stick. Seeing it is so, it is
not for us to make war against God, that men might be
obeyed. And therefore let us have as it were a forehead of
brass to resist them in that behalf. For the greatest
manliness that can be, is to keep ourselves from swarving
aside for men’s sakes, what color of fair show soever be set
upon the matter, and to despise every whit of it as dung and
filth, when it standeth upon reserving God’s sovereignty
unto him, and upon giving ear to our Lord Jesus Christ, to
the end that he may be our head, and govern us, and all of
us from the most to the least continue under his guiding,
and do nothing else but simply give ear unto him, and
receive the things that are for our maintenance in the faith
of the Gospel….
Even so must we do in these days. Let us be peaceable as
near as we can: let us relent of our own right: let us not
strive for these worldly goods, honor, and reputation: let
us bear all wrongs and outrages, rather than be moved to any
debate through our own fault. But in the meanwhile, let us
fight for God’s truth with tooth and nail. Again, if any
body despise us, so as one steppeth up maliciously against
us, and another goes about to deface us: let us not make any
quarrel at all for that. But if any man will draw us from
the obeying of our God, to make us stoop to the tyranny of
men: Let us hold our own in that case, let us withstand him
stoutly to the uttermost, and let us defy all the loftiness
of the world, to the end that our Lord Jesus Christ be not
diminished, but may always reign over us, and we be subject
unto him. Thus ye see in effect how we ought to put this
text in practice, and also how the necessity of the time
ought to steer us thereunto. For nowadays we be not only
persecuted, so as we see the fires kindled to murder the
poor servants of God: but also are fain [willing] to
be accused and condemned as seditious persons, by those
slaves that are in wages with Antichrist, to overthrow the
truth of the Gospel. Moreover they say there is nothing but
pride in us, because we will not receive their traditions.
Well then, do they slander us so seriously? Let us bear it
patiently, and let them rail their fill (as Saint Paul saith)
so our quarrel be always to stand for our part in the pure
truth of the Gospel, and to withstand the Creatures that
will not suffer Christ alone to reign, and all knees to bow
before him, and all men to do him homage. And that is the
cause why Saint Paul saith, that we must hold still the
singleness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore when under color of handling the Gospel, men go
about to make a patched and piedcoted [dressed in many
colored garments] or motley religion (as a man might
term it:) it is no more a true religion, but there is much
falsehood mingled with it. Then let us mark well, that
whereas Saint Paul useth here such speech, he (or rather the
holy ghost by his mouth) warneth us that it is not enough
for us to bear the name of Christians, and to make some fair
show of cleaving to God’s word and to the doctrine of our
Lord Jesus Christ: but that we must stick to it thoroughly,
and take heed that we nother [neither] mingle nor
foist in anything to it, but consider that like as a little
leaven is able to sour a great deal of dough, so all will be
marred, as soon as we give any entrance to the things that
men have devised of their own heads. To be short, the means
to keep the doctrine of the Gospel pure, is that men add not
anything at all to it, nor be so bold and licentious, as to
lay one thing or other upon it, but to content themselves
with the things that our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed us,
so as we become his true disciples, and be not so hardy as
to reply against him, but that all mouths may be shut, and
no man lift up his neb [mouth] to say, this is my
opinion, this think I to be good, but every one of us
receive simply that which is taught us by our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath all dominion of reigning over our souls. Lo
how we may have the truth of the Gospel: And it behooveth us
so much the more to practice this doctrine, of Saint Paul’s
because we see that nowadays many men seek nothing but to
mingle one with another, so as they care not of what
religion they be, so the same be most tolerable and easiest
received of the world, True it is that among the Papists
many be so willful, as they will never abide that a man
should vary one point from them. For they see well, that if
there be never so little a breach made, by and by all their
tyranny decayeth and falls down to the ground. For what hold
have they but by tyranny and violence, to tell us that we
must neither will nor choose, but take it for good. Those
therefore that are flatly on the pope’s side, would have men
to hold throughout, all the filthiness and abominations
which they have had hitherto. But there are a sort of
fantastical heads, which would have a Reformation, wherein
the Pope and Mahumet and Jesus Christ should be mingled
together, so as men might no more discern which is which.
For all is one to them so the world be agreed upon it: They
bear no reverence at all unto God, and that is the cause why
all things have been so turmoiled and confounded in our
days, and the very foundation, whereupon the Interim (as
they term it) was grounded. For seeing that many men could
not find in their hearts to consent to Papistry: they
thought it good to have a reformation between both. And even
at this day a great sort incline still to the like
reformation. It is true (say they) that there are abuses,
and it were meet they should be mended. Yea, but their
meaning is but to pluck away some leaf or little branch, and
to let the rest alone, that the root might grow still: that
is to say, that the Gospel of God might be defaced with all
manner of superstitions that reign in the Popedom [papal
government]. But what for that? here the holy Ghost
condemneth all such neuters, and showeth that their doings
are but crafts of Satan, yea and mere illusions and
mockeries to lead silly souls to destruction, and moreover
also a defacing of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
why? For we have not the Gospel at all, except we have the
pure truth, whereunto it may not be lawful for men to add
anything, but all of us to hold ourselves to that which is
showed us by our master. Ye see then, how that in these days
we be enforced by the necessity of the time, to put this
doctrine in ure [remembrance]. And therefore when
God’s enemies upbraid us that we will not agree with them,
let us always allege for our excuse, that our agreement is
to be knit together in our Lord Jesus Christ, and to be all
obedient to his word and doctrine. If they allege that it is
a pride in us to reject so the things that are commanded by
such men as term themselves superiors. Let us answer that we
must first obey God, and that Jesus Christ must not be
bereft of his right, and men set up in his place. If they
ask why so? Were it not better to have some mean way, and
that every man should show how he intendeth not to separate
himself from the rest, than to strive after that fashion,
and to cause Christendom to be as it were scattered? Let us
answer that the matter standeth not upon knowing who shall
get the upper hand, or who shall be master over his fellows:
but God’s word must continue always unimpeached, or
otherwise all the pretense of concord, that men can make,
shall be but abomination before God. And why? For it were
better that all things should go to havoc and confusion in
the world, than to abide that God’s word (being so precious
and holy a thing as it is) should in any wise be perverted:
yea it were better that heaven and earth should be
confounded together [than that that should be suffered.] So
then let us consider well this doctrine, how it may serve
our turn and do us good, not only to beat back all the
assaults that shall be put to us by the enemies of God’s
truth, but also to frame us to all lowliness and modesty, so
as our whole desire may be to be guided and governed by
God’s word, and by the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Howbeit, therewithal, let us be so stouthearted, as not to
be turned away by men, neither for their credit and
authority, nor for their threatenings, nor for all the pride
and stateliness of the world, but that we may always stick
steadfastly to our Lord Jesus Christ. And if any body come
and lay any new thing before us, let us evermore have a good
eye to the end whereunto they would lead us, and [consider]
that like as Satan hath many wiles and policies, so also
have his underlings too. [And therefore] let us on our side
have the skill to look to ourselves in such wise as we may
always know our Lord Jesus Christ, and be guided thither, so
as he may be our only mark and shoot anchor, and we
understand that he hath all fullness of welfare in him, to
the end that we should seek our wants in him, and all things
be put away that might hinder us from coming unto him.
And now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God
with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to make us
feel them in such wise, as we may crave forgiveness of them
at his hand with true repentance, and profit after such sort
more and more in his word, as it may make us to forsake
ourselves, and lean unto him and his power, that he may hold
us up in our frailness, till he have bought us to the
perfection whereunto he calleth us at this day.
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