Reformation -- England -- Biography; Tyndale, William, -1536
--CHARLES KINGSLEY.
“It is not our business to stand before Scripture and admire it;
but to stand within, that we may believe and obey it. In the way of
inward communion and obedience only shall we see the beauty of its
treasures.”--DR. ANGUS.
THE BOOK OF JONAH TRANSLATED--POWER LENT BY GOD--WANDERING BUT
WORKING--COMFORTING FRYTH--FRYTH’S NOBLE DEFENCE--TYNDALE’S MODE OF
LIFE.
Vaughan, who during the interviews of which we have spoken had become
strongly attached to Tyndale, was recalled by Cromwell in 1532, and a
less scrupulous envoy was employed in his place. Sir Thomas Elyot, the
new tool of Henry’s policy, did not seek for a friendly interview with
Tyndale, as his predecessor had done; but, on the contrary, he sought
by all possible means to apprehend the exile. Whether this indicated
a change in the King’s intention toward Tyndale, or were merely an
unmasking of purposes which it had been deemed expedient to dissemble
while Vaughan was the envoy, the danger to Tyndale was equally as
great. “I gave many rewards,” Elyot wrote to Cromwell, “partly to
the Emperor’s servants to get knowledge, and partly to such as by
whose means I trusted to apprehend Tyndale, according to the King’s
commandment.”
Encompassed as he thus was with snares and perils, Tyndale, however,
did not desist from his heroic efforts. He eluded Elyot’s plots, and
successfully translated and published the Book of Jonah, and even
prefixed his initials to the preface, as he had not done with the New
Testament. So successful, however, were the efforts of the Papists to
suppress this book, that for a long time no copy of it was known to
be in existence; but in the year 1861 one was unexpectedly discovered
in an old library. The Book of Jonah furnished Tyndale with a theme
whereon he preached important truths to his fellow-countrymen. Nineveh
he made a parable of England; and, as did Jonah, Tyndale preached the
need of immediate repentance.
“Christ, to preach repentance,” he wrote, “is risen once more out of
His sepulchre, in which the pope had buried Him, and kept Him down
with his pillars and pole-axes and all disguisings of hypocrisy, with
guile, wiles, and falsehood, and with the sword of all princes, which
he had blinded with his false merchandise. And as I doubt not of the
ensamples that are past, so am I sure that great wrath will follow
except repentance turn it back again and cease it.”
Beside this translation of Jonah, Tyndale also issued an “Exposition
of the First Epistle of St. John” during the same year. From this
“Exposition” we extract the following passage:--
“Preaching of the doctrine which is light,” says Tyndale, “hath but
small effect to move the heart if the ensample of living do disagree....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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