254 The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan
[ 247 ] endeavored to destroy his work. Too often they succeeded.“ What is to be done?” he exclaimed.“ While I am sowing in one place, the enemy ravages the field I have just left. I cannot be everywhere. Oh! if Christians possessed the Holy Scriptures in their own tongue, they could of themselves withstand these sophists. Without the Bible it is impossible to establish the laity in the truth.” 362
A new purpose now took possession of his mind.“ It was in the language of Israel,” said he,“ that the psalms were sung in the temple of Jehovah; and shall not the gospel speak the language of England among us?... Ought the church to have less light at noonday than at the dawn?... Christians must read the New Testament in their mother-tongue.” The doctors and teachers of the church disagreed among themselves. Only by the Bible could men arrive at the truth.“ One holdeth this doctor, another that.... Now each of these authors contradicts the other. How then can we distinguish him who says right from him who says wrong?... How?... Verily by God ' s word.” 363
It was not long after that a learned Catholic doctor, engaging in controversy with him, exclaimed,“ We were better to be without God ' s laws than the pope ' s.” Tyndale replied,“ I defy the pope and all his laws; and if God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scripture than you do.” 364
The purpose which he had begun to cherish, of giving to the people the New Testament Scriptures in their own language, was now confirmed, and he immediately applied himself to the work. Driven from his home by persecution, he went to London, and there for a time pursued his labors undisturbed. But again the violence of the papists forced him to flee. All England seemed closed against him, and he resolved to seek shelter in Germany.
362 Ibid. 363 Ibid. 364 Anderson,“ Annals of the English Bible,” p. 19( rev. ed. 1862).