to heaven, and to come to everlasting life, he said, "What is written in the law? How readest thou?" (Matt. xxii.)

Likewise the Sadducees, that denied the resurrection of the dead. "Ye err (said he), not knowing the Scriptures and the word of God." The rich man in hell, that was so desirous that his brothers living in the earth might have knowledge and warning to beware they were not damned in time to come, would gladly have warned them himself, for a more surety (Luke, xvi.) that the message should be done. Abraham answered, "They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them." The Scripture teacheth what heaven, hell, and what man is, and what Christ is therefore Christ sendeth us thither. (John, v.) "Search the Scriptures," said he.

Again, being required in a civil matter concerning tribute and obedience unto the princes of the world (Matt. xxii.), he said, "Give unto the emperor, that that is due unto the emperor, and unto God, that that is due unto God." And under the name of the emperor he understandeth all superior powers appointed over the people by God, and would us to give due honour unto them both, as Paul teacheth. (Rom. xiii. 1 Pet. ii.)

This law teacheth man sufficiently, as well what he is bound to do unto God, as unto the princes of the world. Nothing can be desired necessary for man, but in this law it is prescribed of what degree, vocation, or calling soever he be, his duty is shewed unto him in the Scripture. And in this it differeth from man's laws, because it is absolute, perfect, and never to be changed; nothing to be added unto it, nor taken from it. And the church of Christ, the more it was and is burdened with man's laws, the farther it is from the true and sincere verity of God's word. The more man presumeth and taketh authority to interpret the Scripture after his

own brain and subtle wit, and not as the verity of the text requireth, the more he dishonoureth the Scripture and blasphemeth God, the author thereof.

It is the office of a good man to teach the church, as Christ taught, to revoke all errors, and bring back such as err, unto the fold of Christ only by the word of Christ. For the water at the fountain-head is more wholesome and pure, than when it is carried abroad in rotten pipes or stinking dishes. I had rather follow the shadow of Christ, than the body of all the general councils or doctors since the death of Christ. The devil never slept, but always by his ministers attempted to destroy the verity of Christ's religion, and clean to put out the light of truth, which was perfect in Christ's time and in the time of the Apostles. None since that time so pure. St. Jerome, in vita Malchi, saith, that his time was darkness in the respect of the Apostles' time.

The antiquity of the world doth darken the verity of God's word; as Varro saith the truth," that age corrupteth and taketh away many things;" and "the third century doth not see the same man, which the first saw." The truth of God's verity, the more it is used, practised, and taught after the wisdom of man, the more is the glory and perfection thereof darkened. It is the contrary in all human arts, as Cicero saith: "In human discoveries nothing is invented and perfected all at once, but is improved by use and practice. So that the arts of every kind are the more advanced in excellence, the farther they are removed from their first origin and inventors."

The church of God must therefore be bound to no other authority than unto the voice of the Gospel and unto the ministry thereof, as Isaiah saith (chap. viii.)," Seal the law among my disciples." The Prophet speaketh of such darkness, as should follow his time, concerning the coming of Messias,

the true doctor of the church. Therefore he prayed to preserve the true heirs of the Prophets, and that it would please him to confirm the doctrine of truth in their hearts, lest the word and true understanding of the word by the devil should be put out. And seeing the church is bound unto this infallible truth, the only word of God, it is a false and usurped authority that men attribute unto the clergy, and bind the word of God and Christ's church to the succession of bishops or any college of cardinals, schools, ministries, or cathedral churches.

Paul would have no man to give faith to any person or minister in the church of God, but when he preacheth the word of God truly. (Gal. i.) Men may have the gift of God to understand and interpret the Scripture unto others, but never authority to interpret it, otherwise than it interpreteth itself, which the godly mind of man by study, meditation, and conferring of one place thereof with the other, may find; howbeit some more, some less, as God giveth his grace. For the punishment of our sins God leaveth in all men a great imperfection; and such as were endued with excellent wit and learning saw not always the truth. As it is to be seen in Basilius, Ambrose, Epiphanius, Austin, Bernard, and others, though they stayed themselves in the knowledge of Christ, and erred not in any principal article of the faith: yet they did inordinately and more than enough extol the doctrine and tradition of men, and after the death of the Apostles every doctor's time was subject unto such ceremony and man's decrees, as were neither profitable or necessary. Therefore diligently exhorted Paul the church of Christ principally to consider and regard the foundation of all verity; meaning that doctors of the church had their imperfection and faults. "Other foundation (saith he) can no man lay besides that which is laid,

which is Jesus Christ." In these few words is established all our faith, and all false religion reprehended.

Upon this foundation some men build gold, that is to say, godly and necessary doctrine. As Polycarp, that confuted the heresy of Marcion, "on the being of God;" of the causes of sin, that the devil and man is the cause of sin, and not God, or fatal destiny, nor the influence or respects of the planets. He maintained the true religion of God, and governed the church, as the Scripture taught, which he learned of John the Evangelist, and defended this truth with wonderful constancy and martyrdom.

Basil and many others retained the articles of the faith, but they instituted the life and rule of monks, and preferred that kind of life before the life of such, as govern in the commonwealth the people of God, and persuaded men that such kind of life was a very divine and acceptable honouring of God.

After him followed such as augmented this evil, and said, it was not only acceptable unto God, but also that men might deserve therewith remission

of sin.

Thus a little and a little the devil augmented superstition, and diminished the truth of God's glory: so that we see no where the church of Christ, as it was in the Apostles' time. Though many and godly verities have been brought unto light in our time by men of divers graces, yet is not the truth of necessary verities plainly shewed by them. Lest man should too much glory in himself, he permitted them to err in certain points: as Luther, of blessed memory, who wrote and preached the Gospel of justification, no man better; yet in the cause of the sacrament he erreth concerning the corporal presence of Christ's natural body, that there is no man can err more. I shall have occasion to write the truth concerning

this matter hereafter. It is no reproach of the dead man, but mine opinion unto all the world, that the Scripture solely and the Apostles' church is to be followed, and no man's authority, be he Austin, Tertullian, or either cherubim or seraphim.

Unto the rules and canons of the Scripture must man trust, and reform his errors thereby, or else he shall not reform himself, but rather deform his conscience. The church of the Romans, Corinthians, and others, the seven churches that John writeth of in the Apocalypse, were in all things reformed unto the rule and form prescribed by the everlasting God. The image of these churches I always print in my mind. And wheresoever I come, I look how near they resemble those afore rehearsed, and whether their preachers preach simply without dispensation of any part of God's most necessary word: and whether all the occasions of idolatry be taken away, as images, which Gregory calleth the books of the laymen, though this title be against the second commandment, and never approved by the Old Testament nor the New, by word or example.

Where the occasion is not removed, the word of God must needs stand in hazard: for God will not (say the wisdom of man what it list) have his church pestered with any kind of idolatry; and to make God and the devil agree in one church, it is impossible. St. John hath wonderful words in the Apocalypse. (Chap. iii.) Unto the church of the Laodiceans: "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." These words are very necessary to be borne in mind. For he, that is neither hot nor cold, but indifferent to use the knowledge of God's word and Christ's church with the word and gloss of man; and that teacheth