III.

CHAP. body of Scripture is, it ought to be understood with this caution, that the advantage of the light of nature or of reason be not excluded as unnecessary, or of no use, because the necessity of a diviner light is magnified. Besides, it is plain matter of fact, that the Scriptures do not express particularly every thing that is to be done in the Church, or in the life of man; the Scripture has not expressed every particular ceremony, order, discipline or kind of government that is to be used in the Church; which occasioned the great Erasmus to wish that St. Paul had treated more copiously and distinctly of those ecclesiastical rites, which he just touches in his two Epistles to the Corinthians; and shews, as it were through a casement, that he had at least explained by whom, at what time, with what worship and ceremony, and with what words that mystical bread and holy cup of the Lord's blood used to be consecrated, whose unworthy treatment, the Apostle shews us, occasioned frequent distempers and deaths.

4. It seems as if these Bible-men, as the Bishop calls them, were led to this extravagant opinion of the Scripture's sufficiency, through an opposition to the schools of Rome, who had now carried the authority of the Church, or the significancy of its determinations, to an unjustifiable height, equalling them with the determinations of holy Scripture; providing, that none should either publicly or privately bring them into dispute; and making it heresy to impugn them; for Dr. Wiclif's followers had allowed, Prologue to" that men might accept man's law and ordinances when "they were grounded in holy Scripture, or good reason, or were for the common profit of Christian people."

Const.
Arundel.

A. D. 1408.

the Bible,

MS. c. i.

с

5. Our Bishop therefore shewed them, that in opposing this, they themselves ran into a dangerous extreme; that the law of nature or reason, as it is before all Scripture, so it is not grounded thereon, but rather the Scripture is grounded on that, though its rules and precepts may in part

-Non solum hæresis incurritur ex hoc quod aliquis impugnat articulos fidei, sed etiam si impugnet ea quæ sunt determinata per Ecclesiam, licet non concernant articulos fidei. Lindwood Provenc.

III.

be conveyed to us by Scripture, but not so fully as by ra- CHAP. tional searches and deep study; from whence he inferred, that men may be obliged to some duties and practices, as taught by the law of nature or reason, of which no mention is to be found made in the Bible. For this purpose the Bishop laid down the following conclusions, which I shall repeat in his Lordship's own words.

First, "It longith not to holi Scripture, neithir it is his Repressour, "office into which God hath him ordeynedd, neither it is part ii. c. 2. "his part for to grounde eny governaunce or dede or ser"vice of God, or eny lawe of God, or eny trouthe which "mannis resoun bi nature may fynde, leerne, and knowe.” This the Bishop defends in the following manner:

I.

"1. Scripture does not contain all that is necessary for "the grounding or supporting of moral vertues, and there"fore is not properly the foundation on which they stand. "There may nothing be fundament or ground of a "wal, or of a tree, or of an house, save it upon which "the al hool substaunce of the wal, or of the tree, or of "the house stondith, and out of which oonli the wal, tree, 66 or house cometh."

2. That is properly the foundation, which is alone sufficient for the purpose, as natural reason in this case is. "Al the leernyng and knowing which holi Scripture geueth cap. 3.

upon eny biforesaid gouernaunce, deed, or trouthe of "Goddis moral lawe mai be had bi doom of natural re"soun, ghe thoug holi Writt had not spoken therof, &c." These reasons the Bishop elsewhere thus expresses; 66 a Inter Frag"truth is not known," saith he, "which is not known

d Two opinions there are concerning the sufficiency of holy Scripture, each extremely opposite unto the other, and both repugnant unto truth. The schools of Rome teach Scripture to be unsufficient, as if, except traditions were added, it did not contain all revealed and supernatural truth, which absolutely is necessary for the children of men in this life to know, that they may in the next be saved. Others justly condemning this opinion, grow likewise unto a dangerous extremity, as if Scripture did not only contain all things in that kind necessary, but all things simply, and in such sort, that to do any thing according to any other law were not only unnecessary, but even opposite unto salvation, unlawful and sinful. Hooker's Eccles. Pol. lib. ii. §. 8.

menta in Bibl. Bodl. MS.

III.

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66

66

CHAP. "either of itself, or in its ground from whence it proceeds “and comes, and into which it may be resolved and re"duced. Now because of all conclusions of written truths, "about which any care is to be taken, or which are of any importance, there are only four grounds, viz. the 66 judgment of reason for a philosophical truth; a positive "constitution for a juridical one; the text of holy Scripture, in its probable sense, for a truth of orthodox faith; "and history for the truth of an historical fact; it ought "to follow, that every matter doubted of, whether it be a "matter of philosophy, law, divinity, or history, it is ne"cessary, if a true knowledge be to be had of that matter, "that it be run up thither where it fundamentally lies, and as it were sprung from the root; and we ought to see "how they stand according to their principles, and funda"mental undoubted evidences, and accordingly to form a 66 judgment of them." This reasoning his Lordship thus * Pius et applies: "Christ," says he, " has revealed to us politics compatiens << or governances which human reason of itself alone could 66 never have found out, so as to know and appoint them; " and we hold them by faith, as experience will teach any 66 one, who inquires into and examines each of them. But "all, or almost all practical governances necessary to be "known and instituted for the salvation of souls, to the "finding and establishing of which human reason can at"tain, Christ has left to the wisdom of his Church to find "out and constitute, and has not himself revealed nor ap"pointed them."

Christus.

cap. 4.

сар. 5.

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3. "The moral lawe or judgment of natural reson was "whanne neither of the Newe, neither of the Old Testa"ment the writing was, and that fro' the time of Adam, " &c."

4. "The most that Scripture does, is only to remind, "exhort, stir up, command, or counsel to the practice of "moral vertue; which supposes the thing to have been "before known, for he biddith a man to be emeke, and

• Thus a celebrated pen of the present age: "There is nothing new in the "Christian institution but matters of faith; there are no new vices forbidden,

"he techith not bifore what mekenes is; he biddith a CHAP.

man to be pacient, and yit he not bifore techith what "pacience is; and so forthe of ech vertu of Goddis law. "Wherefore no such seid governaunce, or vertue, or "trouthe is to be seid groundid in holi Scripture, no more than it oughte be seid if a Bishop woulde sende

a pistle or a lettre to peple of his diocise, and theryn "wolde remember hem, exhorte hem, and stirre hem, and "bidde hem, or counseile hem, for to keepe certayn moral "vertues, &c.'

His Lordship uses a fifth and sixth argument much to the same purpose with this fourth. In the conclusion he has the following comparison, which sets forth his notion in a lively way, and which I have transcribed, for the account it gives of an old custom in the city of London, on Midsummer-eve, in our Bishop's time. "Seie to me, C. 6. 66 good sire, and answere hereto; whanne men of the cun"tree uplond bringen into Londoun in fMydsomer-eve "braunchis of trees fro Bischopis-wode, and flouris fro "the feeld, and bitaken tho to citessins of Londoun, for "to therwith araie her housis, schulen men of Londoun 66 receyving and taking tho braunchis and flouris, seie and "holde, that tho braunchis grewen out of the cartis which 66 broughten hem to Londoun, and that tho cartis, or "the hondis of the bringers weren groundis and funda"mentis of tho braunchis and flouris? Goddis forbode so "litel witt be in her hedis. Certes thoug Crist and his "nor new virtues commanded; the prohibitions of the one and the injunctions "of the other are again indeed enforced by Revelation; but without that, we "are by the moral law under the same obligations, and the same confinements. "And it is observable, when the Scriptures recommend chastity, temperance, "justice, and mercy, they never give any definition of those virtues, but barely "name them, supposing the world was acquainted with their nature, and that "the observance of them, as well as the forbearance of the contrary vices, "were the dictates of the light of reason, and the result of the moral nature of "things." Essay upon the Laws of Nature, by Sir Richard Blackmore.

f A watch used to be kept in the city of London on Midsummer night, to prevent, I suppose, the disorders committed by this rabble, and was first laid down 20 Henry VIII. when Sir James Spencer was Mayor; when, I suppose, this foolish custom was discontinued. Hall's Chron. fol. 181. b.

E

III.

III.

CHAP. " Apostlis weren now lyvyng at Londoun, and wolde 66 bringe, so as is now seid, braunchis fro Bischopis-wode, "and flouris fro the feelde into Londoun, and wolden hem delyvere to men, that thei make therewith her housis gay "into remembraunce of Seint Johnn Baptist, and of this "that it was prophecied of him, that manye schulden joie Luke i. 14. " in his burthe: yet tho men of Londoun, receyvyng so tho "braunchis and flouris, oughten not seie and *feele, that "tho braunchis and flouris grewen out of Christis hondis "and out of the Apostlis hondis-Tho braunchis grewen "out of the bowis upon whiche thei in Bischopis-wode "stoden, and tho bowis grewen out of stockis or tron"chons, and the tronchons or schaftis grewen out of the

* under

stand.

C. 7.

+ nature.

that.

C. 8.

roote, and the roote out of the next erthe therto, upon "whiche and in whiche the roote is buried. So that nei"ther the cart, neither the hondis of the bringers, neither "tho bringers ben the groundis or fundamentis of tho "braunchis."

6. "The secunde principal Conclusioun and trouthe is "this; thoug it perteyne not to holi Scripture, for to "grounde eny natural or moral governaunce, or trouthe "into whos fyndyng, leernyng, and knowyng mannis re66 soun may bi himsilf and bi natural help com, as it is open now bifore ;- -Yit it mai mai perteyne weel ynoug to "holi Scripture, that he reherce such now seid governauncis "and treuthis, and that he witnesse hem as grounded "sumwhere ellis in the law of + kinde, or doom of mannis

66

resoun. And so he dooth, as to ech reder thereyn it mai "be opene, that by thilk rehercing and witnessyng so "doon by holi Scripture to men, tho men schulden be "bothe remembrid, stirid, provokid, and exortid for to the "rathir performe and fulfille the same so rehercid and wit"nessid governauncis and trouthis."

7. “The iiid principal Conclusion is this 8. The hool "office and werk into which God ordeyned holy Scripture,

g The law of God, though principally delivered for instruction in supernatural duties, is yet fraught with precepts of those that are natural. The Scripture is fraught even with laws of nature. Hooker's Eccles. Pol, lib. i. §. 12.