“Until we see some means found by the which a reasonable Reformation may be had, and sufficient instruction for the poor commoners, I assure you I neither can nor will cease to speak. _For the Word of God boileth in my body like a fervent fire_, and will needs have issue, _and breaketh out when occasion is given_. But this hath been offered you, is offered, and shall be offered: _Grant that the Word of God, I mean the text of Scripture, may go abroad in our English tongue, as other nations have it in their tongues, and my brother William Tyndale and I have done, and will promise you to write no more. If you will not grant this condition_, THEN WILL WE BE DOING WHILE WE HAVE BREATH.” Tyndale wrote a second letter to his noble friend, and in it he says:-- “Dearly beloved, be of good courage, and comfort your soul with the hope of this high reward, and bear the image of Christ in your mortal body, that it may, at His coming, be made like to His, immortal; and follow the example of all your other dear brethren which chose to suffer in hope of a better resurrection. Keep your conscience pure and undefiled, and say against that, nothing. Stick at necessary things, and remember the blasphemies of the enemies of Christ, saying, they find none but will abjure rather than suffer the extremity. Moreover, the death of them that come again after they have once denied, though it be accepted with God and all that believe, yet it is not glorious: for the hypocrites say he must needs die, denying helpeth not. But might it have holpen, they would have denied five hundred times; but seeing it would not help them, therefore of pure pride and mere malice together, they speak with their mouths that their conscience knoweth to be false. IF YOU GIVE YOURSELF, CAST YOURSELF, YIELD YOURSELF, COMMIT YOURSELF WHOLLY AND ONLY TO YOUR LOVING FATHER--THEN SHALL HIS POWER BE IN YOU AND MAKE YOU STRONG; and that so strong that you shall feel no pain, which should be to another present death, and His Spirit shall speak in you, and teach you what to answer, according to His promise. “Fear not threatening, therefore, neither be overcome of sweet words; with which twain methods the hypocrites shall assail you. Neither let the persuasions of worldly wisdom bear rule in your heart, not though they be your friends that counsel.” In a postscript Tyndale adds a sentence behind which there lies a breaking heart striving to accept the will of God in heroic faith:-- “Sir, your wife is well content with the will of God, and would not for her sake have the glory of God hindered.” The glory of God was not hindered, for Fryth went to the stake, and three years after his martyrdom, Tyndale was also called upon in like manner to suffer for the truth. Meanwhile Tyndale had quietly settled down at Antwerp, and Foxe has given to us a picture of his life and doings there. The reader will probably prefer to read the narrative in Foxe’s own words:--