21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.



Ver. 21. It had been better] Nocuit sane Iudae fuisse apostolum, et Iuliano Christianum. To begin well and not to proceed is but to aspire to a higher pitch, that the fall may be the more desperate. Non quaeruntur in Christianis initia, sed finis, The begining of a Christian is not to be sought but the end, saith Jerome. Bp Bonner seemed at first to be a good man, and a favourer of Luther’s doctrines. Harding was once a powerful preacher against Popery, afterwards a cruel persecutor of the truth. Dr Shaxton, bishop of Salisbury, said to William Wolsey, martyr, and to others brought before him, Good brethren, remember yourselves and become new men. For I myself was in this fond opinion that you are now in, but I am now become a new man. Ah, said Wolsey, are you become a new man? woe be to thee, thou wicked new man! for God shall justly judge thee for an apostate. {a} Islebius Agricola, that first Antinomian, condemned his error, publicly recanted it, and printed his revocation. Yet, when Luther was dead, he relapsed into that error.



{a} Queen Ann Boleyn procured Latimer and Shaxton to be made bishops, for the good opinion she had of them both. Acts and Mon. 1558.