and that the Grace of God only fits them for this Heavenly Work.

Wickliff.

Through

Love we

tures.

Hear alfo what Wickliff faith to this matter, in his Book entituled, The Path way to Perfect Know ledge; where he fheweth, that it is not Human Learning that helps to understand the Scriptures, and to profit in the ftudy of them, but fomething more High and Heavenly, his own words are thefe. He whofe heart is full of Love, comprehendeth understand • without any Error, the manifold abundance, and the Scrip-largeft Teaching of Gods Scripture; for Paul faith, the fulness of the Law is Charity; and in • another place, the End of the Law is Charity, of Clean heart, and good Confcience, and of Faith unfeigned: And Chrift faith, Thou shalt love thy Lord God, with all thy Heart, and with all thy Soul, and with all thy Mind, and thy Neighbour as thy felf: For in these twoCommandments, hangeth all the Law and the Prophets: And, as the root of all evil is Covetoufnefs, fo the root of all good is Love.

Charity by which we love God, and the Neighbour, holdeth furely all the greatness and ⚫ largenefs of God's Speeches. Therefore, if we have not leifure to fearch all the Holy Scriptures, and to pierce into all the privities of them; hold thou Love, whereon all things hang, and fo fhalt thou hold that which thou learneft there, and alfo that which thou learneft not. For if ⚫thou knoweft Charity, thou knoweft fomething, whereon alfo that hangeth, which thou knoweft not. And in that that thou understandeft in Scripture, Love is open; ; and in that that thou understandeft not, Love is hid. Therefore he that holdeth Love in Vertues or Good Life, holderh both that which is open, and that which is hid in Gods word.

And after speaking to the Clergy, helfaith, There •fore worldly Fools, do ye first repent of your Sins, and for

Jaks

Minifters

fake Pride and Covetousness, and be ye meek, and fear How the ye God in all things, and love your Neighbour as your may come Telf, and then fhall ye profit in the Study of Holy Writ. to underAnd this is a far other way to understand the ftand the Scriptures than Human Learning.

And after, he fpeaking of the Abominations of the University of Oxford, faith thus: "The fourth Abomination is, that it is now purposed to hinder Christian Men from learning freely Gods Law, till they have spent nine or ten Years Cat Art, or Philofophy, which comprehendeth many ftrong Errors of Heathen Men, against the Chriftian Belief. It feemeth well, that God will not ceafe from Vengeance, ⚫ till it and other things be punished fore. For it • feemeth that worldly Clerks and feignedlyReligi

lear

Scriptures.

ous, do this under Pretence, that fimple Men of • Wit and Knowledge, know not God's Law to preach it generally against Sins in the Realm. But wit ye, worldly Clerks, and feignedly Religious, that God both can, and may if it liketh him, speed fimple Men out of the University, as • much to know the Holy Scriptures, as Masters in the University. Wherefore (he faith) it is no great matter, though Men of good Will be not poyfoned with Heathen Mens Error nine or ten Years together; but let them live well, and ftudy the Holy Scriptures, and preach truly and freely against open Sins till Death. Thus he; whereby he declares that the Scriptures are not to be underftood by Human Learning, but by Faith and Love: And that Human Learning doth not prepareMen to the Knowledge of the Word, but rather corrupt them with Heathen Mens Errors. Tindal alfo, that Apoftle of England (as Fox Tindal calleth him) and bleffed Martyr, fpeaks thus to this Matter; They will fay yet more fhamefully (Meaning the Clergy) That no Man can underftand the Scriptures without Philantia, that is

to fay, Philofophy: A Man must first be well feen in Aristotle, ere he can understand the • Scripture, fay they. Now (faith be) Ariftotle's • Doctrine is, that the World was without Be

ginning, and shall be without End, and that the • first Man never was, and the last never shall be: And that God doth all of Neceffity, neither careth what we do. Without this Doctrine (faith he, Ironically) how could we understand the Scripture, that faith, God created the World of • nought, and God worketh all things of his free Will, and for a fecret Purpose; and that we shall rise again; • and God will have Accounts of all that we have done • in this Life!

Ariftotle faith, Give a Man a Law, and he • hath Power of himself to do, or fulfill the Law, ⚫ and becometh Righteous with working Righteously. But Paul and the Scripture faith, That the Law doth but utter Sin only, and helpeth not; neither hath any Man power to do the Law, till the Spirit of God be given him through Faith in Chrift. Is it not a Madness then to fay, ⚫ that we could not understand the Scripture without Ariftotle? Moreover, Ariftotle's - Felicity and Blessedness ftandeth in avoiding all Tribula⚫tions, and in Riches, Health, Honour, Wor'fhip, Friends, and Authority, which Felicity pleaseth our Spirituality well. Now without these, and a Thousand fuch like Points, could' ⚫ thou not understand Scripture, which faith, that • Righteoufnefs cometh by Chrift, and not of Man's Will? And how that Vertues are the ⚫ Fruits and Gifts of God's Spirit, and that Chrift ⚫bleffeth us in Tribulation, Perfecution, and Ad• verfity. How Ifay, Couldft thou understand the

Scriptures without Philofophy, in as much as •Paul, Col, 2. warned them to beware left any man fpoil them (that is to fay, rob them of their • Faith in Chrift) through Philofophy and de

• ceitful

ceitful Vanities, and through the Traditions of 'Men, and Ordinances after the World, and not after Chrift? And after-- But now,

ye drive them from God's Word, and will let

matter.

Zuingl.Libr de certitu

no Man come thereto, until he have been two 'Years Master of Art. Firft they nuzzle them in 'Sophiftry, & in bene fundatum; and there corrupt they their Judgments with apparent Arguments, and with alledging to them Texts of Logick, of Natural Philofophy, of Metaphyfick, and Moral Philofophy, and of all manner of Books of Ariftotle, and of all manner of Doctors, which yet they never faw, &c. Again Huldricus Zuinglius fpeaks thus to this dine Ve'We must needs be taught of God, ritate Ver. ' and not of Men (to wit in the Knowledge of Quod fi non the Gospel) for this is the faying of the Eter-firmiter crenal Truth, which knows not how to lye, Joh. 6. ditis, vos, But and if you do not firmly believe that you Do&rinisdemay be taught of God, Human Doctrines be-fertis, divi'ing utterly rejected, ye are yet deftitute of true poffe, aere Faith. Neither have I my felf devised this fide etiamthing; for Hillarie alfo is of this Opinion; but Bis. there is no need of his Teftimony, when we Theologiæ hear that both Chrift, and all the Apoftles Scholaftica were of the fame mind. And here the whole ufus univerfus, & quic ufe of School-Divinity falls to the Ground, and quid ex Phiwhatsoever is drawn out of the Philofophers. lofophis has "For all these things do lean on Humane Reasons,

which when they have once poffeffed a Mans Mind, he then thinks that the Heavenly Do'trine is wholly to be directed and framed ac⚫cording to the Rule of Human Learning, which Which ⚫he judges to be most firm and infallible.

thing they fufficiently discover in their Words, faying, Ubi ceffat Philofophus, illic incipit Theologus, where the Philofopher ceafes,there the Divine Begins; whereby they fignifie thus much, that he is {able to judge moft rightly in Divine Things, who

comes

humanis

nitus doceri

num vacui

Aum ef.

Bitor en di

sere Sine Ariftotele non Air Turfil Theologus; imo Theologus

non fit, ni id fiat fine

comes moft furnished with Human Learning. As if fo be the Light of our Will were more excellent, and more perfpicuous than the Divine Glory: When yet we hear Chrift faying, I receive not Glory of Men; but I know you, that you have not the Love of God in you, Job. 5. "For they who have the Love of God, cleave to · no Word fo conftantly as to the Word of God; feeing this is the Light, that enlightens every Man that comes into the World. But no Man is able to prove that Philofophy is fuch a Light. For which of the Philofophers inftructed the Apoftles? Thofe fimple, and in the Judgment of the World, thofe foolish Men, unskilful, and unlearned Fifhermen, were e•lected and inftituted of God, and then were fent forth to Preach, that they might become • the Mafters and Teachers of the whole World: To wit, that God, according to the faying of Paul, might make afhamed all the Strength of the World, and all the Wisdom of the World. Thus he.

Luther also faith, It is an Error to fay, that a ⚫ Man cannot be a Divine, but through Ariftotle, Nay, faith he, A Man cannot be a Divine, except he become one, without Ariftotle. And again, A Man becomes a Divine by living, yea by dying, and by being damned (to wit in his own Senfe) not by ftudying, reading, or fpeculating. And again, In Holy Things we mult not difpute or play the Philofophers; but in Divinity we must only hear and believe, and re

Ariftotele. Tom. 1. fol. 10. Vivendo, imo moriendo & dammando fit Theologus, non intelligendo, legendo aut speck. lando. Lath. Tom. 2. fol. 57. In facris rebus non eft difputandum aut Philofo pbandum: In Theologia tantum eft audiendum & credendum, Aatuendum in corde, Deus eft veraz, &c. Re&ius fecerimusfi Diale&ica feu Philofophia in fua fphæra reliais, difcamus loqui Novis Linguis in Regno fidei, extra omnem Sphæram. Af fe&tus fidel exercendus eft in Articulis fidei, non intelle&us Philofophicus. Luther,