held or accounted of Christian men, the service or the law of God, save it which is grounded in the New Testament, or in the Old, and is not by the New Testament revoked." The Biblemen carried their notions of the sufficiency of the scriptures to an extravagant height, from their opposition to the Romanists, who asserted that the authority of the church is equal to that of sacred writ. The followers of Wicliffe had allowed" that men might accept man's law and ordinancies when they were grounded in holy scripture or good reason, or were for the common profit of Christian people." The bishop contends, and indeed with great reason, that the Bible-men, in departing from that principle, had run into a dangerous His own words are: error. First, It longeth1 not to holy scripture, neither it is his office into which God hath him ordained, neither it is his part for to ground any governance or deed, or service of God, or any law of God, or any truth which man's reason by nature may find, learn, and know. 1. Scripture (he contends,) does not contain all that is necessary for the grounding of moral virtues, and therefore is not properly the foundation on which 1 belongeth. they stand. There may nothing be fundament or ground of a wall, or of a tree, or of an house, save it upon which the all whole substance of the wall, or of the tree, or of the house standeth, and out of which only the wall, tree, or house cometh. 2. All the learning and knowing which holy scripture giveth upon any beforesaid governance, deed, or truth of God's moral law, may be had by doom1 of natural reason, ghe though holy writ had not spoken thereof, &c. 3. The moral law, or judgment of natural reason was, when neither of the New, neither of the Old Testament the writing was, and that fro the time of Adam, &c. 4. For he [the scripture] biddeth a man to be meek, and he teacheth not before what meekness is ; he biddeth a man to be patient, and yet he not before teacheth what patience is; and so forth of each virtue of God's law. Wherefore, no such said governance or virtue or truth, is to be said grounded in holy scripture, no more than it ought be said if a bishop would send a pistle or a letter to people of his diocese, and therein would remember hem, exhort hem, and stir hem, and bid hem, or counsel hem, for to keep certain moral virtues, &c. The conclusion of his fifth argument is cu- rious, from its description of an old custom in the city of London, on Midsummer-eve, prevavalent in the bishop's time. 5. Say to me, good sir, and answer hereto; when men of the country upland bringen into London in Mydsummer-eve*, branches of trees fro Bishop's Wood, and flowers fro the field, and betaken tho to citizens of London, for to therewith array her houses, shoulden men of London receiving and taking tho branches and flowers, say and hold that the branches grewen out of the carts which broughten hem to London, and that tho carts, or the hands of the bringers, weren grounds and fundaments of tho branches and flowers? God forbid so little wit be in her heads. Certes, though Christ and his apostles weren now liv ing at London, and would bring so as is now said branches fro Bishop's Wood, and flowers fro the fields into London, and woulden hem deliver to men, that they make therewith her houses gay, into remembrance of St John Baptist, and of this that it was prophecied of him, that many shoulden joy in his birth; yet though men of London, receiving so tho branches and flowers, oughten not say and feel, that * At this period, on Midsummer night, a watch was kept in London, on purpose to prevent the disorders of the rabble; and was discontinued by the 20th of Henry VIII, and the custom abolished.-Hall's Chro, fol, 181. the branches and flowers grewen out of Christ's hands-tho branches grewen out of the boughs upon which they in Bishop's Wood stooden, and tho boughs grewen out of stocks or trunchons, and the trunchons or shafts grewen out of the root, and the root out of the next earth thereto, upon which and in which the root is buried. So that neither the cart, neither the hands of the bringers, neither tho bringers ben the grounds or fundaments of the branches. 6. The second principal conclusion and truth is this: Though it pertain not to holy scripture, for to ground any natural or moral governance of truth, into whose finding, learning, and knowing, man's reason may by himself and by natural help come, as it is open now before; yet it may pertain well enough to holy scripture, that he reherse such now said governancies and truths, and that he witness hem as grounded somewhere else in the law of kind, or doom3 of man's reason. 7. The third principal conclusion is this The whole office and work into which God ordained holy scripture, is for to ground articles of faith, and for to reherse and witness moral truths of law of kind, grounded in moral philosophy; that is to say, in doom of reason, that the readers be remembered, stirred, and exhorted by so miche1 the better, and the nore, and the sooner for to fulfil them. Of which articles of faith, some ben not laws; as these—that God made heaven and earth in the beginning of time; and that Adam was the first man, and Eve was the first woman; and that Moses lad the people of Israel out of Egypt; and that Zacharia was father, and Elizabeth was mother of John Baptist; and that Christ fasted forty days; and so forth of many like. And some other ben laws; as that each man ought be baptized in water, if he may come thereto; and that each man ought to be hosiled, if he may come thereto. 8. The fourth principal conclusion:-It is not the office longing to moral law of kind, for to ground any article of faith, grounded by holy scripture. For why?—all that the now said moral law of kind, or moral philosophy, groundeth, is grounded by doom of man's reason; and therefore is such a truth and a conclusion, that in his finding, learning, and knowing, man's wit may, by itself alone, or by natural helps, without revelation fro God, rise and suffice. * 9. The fifth principal conclusion :-Though neither the said moral law of kind, neither outward books thereof written, mowe ground any truth or conclusion 1 much.. hosiled, receive the Lord's supper. |