"By grace I understand the favor of God, and also the gifts and working of his Spirit in us; as love, kindness, patience, obedience, mercifulness, despising of worldly things, peace, concord, and such like. If after thou hast heard so many masses, matins, and evensongs, and after thou hast received holy bread, holy water, and the bishop’s blessing, or a cardinal’s or the pope’s, if thou wilt be more kind to thy neighbor, and love him better than before; if thou be more obedient unto thy superiors; more merciful, more ready to forgive wrong; done unto thee, more despisest the world, and more athirst after spiritual things; if after that a priest hath taken orders he be less covetous than before; if a wife, after so many and oft pilgrimages, be more chaste, more obedient unto her husband, more kind to her maids and other servants; if gentlemen, knights, lords, and kings and emperors, after they have said so often daily service with their chaplains, know more of Christ than before, and can better skill to rule their tenants, subjects, and realms christianly than before, and be content with their duties; then do such things increase grace. If not, it is a lie. Whether it be so or no, I report me to experience. If they have any other interpretations of justifying or grace, I pray them to teach it me; for I would gladly learn it."
React to this quote
More by William Tyndale
See allResonant Thoughts
"It is bold men and women, yearning for freedom and opportunity, who leave their homelands and come to a new country to start their lives over. They believe in the American dream. And over and over, th…"
Explore Further
Related Quotes
"Modern governments, which have long studied methods of social control, no longer view peace as the default …"
— Peter Gelderloos"To understand the relationship between behavior and brain one has to begin by defining the function, or com…"
— David Marr"There is no despair so absolute as that which comes with the first moments of our first great sorrow, when …"
— George Eliot"They can kill you in one second, you understand that you are a very very small person. But in the same time…"
— Oksana Shachko"It might feel safer to stay hidden away, but safer is not always better. We all have things to say. Learnin…"
— Stacey Lee"Pure knowledge is the ultimate emancipator. It equalizes people and sovereign states, erodes the archaic ba…"
— E. O. Wilson