The. xxii. chapyter
BUt these heretykes are so sette vppon myschyefe and wysfulnesse, that they wyll not in any wyse vnderstand the truth. And how coulde they vnderstande the trouth, whan they wyll not byleue. For (as the prophete Esaie sayth) but yf you1 byleue you shal not vnderstand. And therfore these heretykes can not vnderstand. For they be in the case now that those dyscyples & those Iewes were, with whom our sauyour foūde that faute than, in his wordes nexte ensuenge & sayd: But there be some of you that byseue not / as though he word say as playnely as I haue told it you and as oftē, yet are there some of you yt byleue it not. But he knewe from the begynnynge who shold byleue, and who also sholde betraye hym.
And so knoweth he lyke wise now to, who be good and who be nought, and who shall amende and who shall neuer amende. Not that hys fore knowlege sorceth them to be nought / but for it is impossyble for them to be nought, but that hys infynite foresyght muste nedes from the begynnynge fore se it. And yet whan he forseeth that it so shall be / it shall so be indede, and can not otherwyse be but that it shall so be yf he fore se that it shall so be. For he sholde not forese that it shall so be, yf it so were that in dede it sholde otherwyse be. But syhewyse as yf I se one syt, it muste nedes be that he sytteth, for ellys sholde I not se hym sytte / and that therfore it well foloweth I se hym sytte: ergo it muste nedes be that he sytteth. And yet my syghte forceth hym not to sytte / nor of that argument the consequent proposycyon of hys nature necessarie but contingent / though of the tone proposycyon inferred vppon the tother, the consequency, or consecucyon be necessary. So beynge presupposed that god forseeth such a […] whyth he shold not forese but yf the thyng shold be, yet hys fore syghte no more forceth the person that doth it in the thynge that is yet to come, than my syghte forceth hym to sytte whom I se syt / of whom no man can say but that he must nedes syt in the whyle in which he wyl presuppose that I se hym syt.
And therfore bycause hys preseyence and hys prouidence, forced them not to contynue in theyr wylfulnes to theyr dampnacyon / he putteth thē onys agayne in remembraunce of the meanes wherby they maye voyde yt wylfull ignoraunce and infrdelyte and thus he sayth vnto them:
Therfore I haue tolde you all redy, that no man can come to me but yf it be gyuen of my father.
Thynke not sayth saint Crysostom2 vppon these wordes, that euery man to whom the father gyueth it, hath it as by waye of a specyall pryuylege / so that they yt haue it not geuen them la cke it onely therfore, bycause god wyll not gyue it them. God(sayth S. Chrysostom) wyll gladly gyue it thē, yf they wolde not by theyr owne delynge make them selfe vnwurthy to receyue it. And therfore sayth saynte Cyryll vppon the same wordes, that those that amonge the Jewys lyued well and were of good condycyons, had the fayth geuen them and came to Cryst. But they that were stu berne, arrogant, malycyouse, & wylfull, as were the scrybes & the pharyseys and the styffenecked bysshoppes they letted them selfe from the gyfte of fayth.
This gyfte of fayth without the helpe of god can not be hadde / nor no man can come to the sone but yf the3 father draw hym. And whom he draweth, and whom he draweth not, and why hym, and why not hym, let vs not seke nor serche as saynt Austayne sayth yf we wyll not erre.
But yet that he reiecteth no man that wyll seke for hys soule helthe, but rather calleth vpon to be sought vppon, that doth the scrypture well wytnesse, where god sayd hym selfe, […] I stande at the dore knockynge, yf any man heare my voyce & open me the dore, I wyll go in to hym and suppe with hym and he with me. And the prophete Esaie sayth, Seke you4 our lorde whyle he may be founden. Call you vppon hym whyle he is nere. Lette the wycked man leue hys way, and the vnrightuouse man leue hys deuyces, and lette hym turne to our lorde and he wyll haue pytie vppon hym. For he is great in forgeuenesse. Our sauyour sayth hym selfe5 also. Aske and you shall haue. Seke and you shall fynde. Knocke and you shall be lette in. And finally that no man sholde take these wordes of our sauyour, that no man can come to hym but yf it be geuen hym of the fa ther, and these wordes of hys also, No man can come to me but yf my father […] hym, that no man I say sholde so take these wordes in suche a presumptuose way of eleccyō, that wenynge he were drawyn into suche a felyng faith that could neuer fayle and so sholde as Tyndale teacheth, make hym selfe so sure of hys owne saluacyon by hys sure and infallyble eleccyon, that he sholde stande out of all feare and wax slouthfull: ye scryp […] cryeth, Lette hym that thynketh6 he standeth, beware lest he fall. And vn the tother syde, that no man shold̄ vppon these wordes, take that imagi nacyō that these heretykes also tech, of desperate ineuitable destyny of dampnacyon, and sytte styll and do no good hym selfe, wenynge that his owne deuour were in vayne, bicause he felyth not god any thynge drawe hym: holy saīt Austayn (whose wordes these heretykes for eleccyon and7 destynye agaynst the […] of mannys fre wyll most lap for them) byddeth euery man for al theyr babeling if yt be not drawē pray god to draw ye.
And therfore to that entēt dyd […] sauyour Cryst putte them agayne in mynde of that he had sayed before, yt they coulde not come to hym but yf it were geuē thē by his father, bycause he wold̄ yt they […] for theyr parte labour to remoue ye […] yt on theyr own parte, letted his father to geue thē yt gyft. And that is that they shold haue lesse cure & care of theyr […]/ the desire of whose fleshely fyllyng with perishable meat, made thē angri to here of ye spiritual fode of his own holy flesh / by the wel eating wherof they myght haue euerlastrng lyfe.
[…] taught thē also by those wordes to perceyue (yf they wolde) that Ioseph was not his father. For whā […] sayd that they could not haue that great gyft but of his fader, nor could not come to him but if his fader drew them: they myght well wyt he ment not Ioseph, but his father of heuyn. And therfore wold he by those wordes geue them warnynge, that they shold leue theyr murmuryng, & pray his father geue them the grace to byleue hym.
Footnotes
Chapter 24 of 70