polity of the church, then courtiers were among the first to cry-" Hold, enough!" What Wickliffe's ecclesiastical views were, we shall presently consider. And, in the course of this history, we shall have occasion to remark the same courtly policy in staying the hands of later reformers. For the present, we will pass on to notice the immediate effects of the things to which allusion has just been made. The protection of the great being withdrawn, the whole pack, "The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart * * -The pope, the king, the archbishop, the bishops, the mendicants, and friars-were immediately in full chase. Their noble game was driven from the covert of Oxford by order of the king; the archbishop procured the condemnation of his doctrines in a synod of the clergy; the bishops, by "letters mandatory" to their abbots and priors, clergy and ecclesiastical functionaries, required the immediate suppres sion of the impious and audacious doctrines of the Reformer. In addition to all this, parliament was petitioned to provide a remedy against "the innumerable errors and impieties of the Lollards;" a royal ordinance was surreptitiously obtained by the clergy, empowering “the sheriffs of counties to arrest such preachers and their abettors, and to detain them in prison, until they should justify themselves according to law, and reason of holy Church;" and, to cap the climax, the pope himself summoned the heretic to appear at Rome, and give account of himself to the vicar of God. Well might the good man have adopted the words of his master: They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion." ** "Dogs have compassed me the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. Amidst the gathering storm, the good man labored on. When driven from the university, he found shelter among his affectionate parishioners at Lutterworth. Here he preached and wrote with unflinching boldness and untiring activity. But the servant was doing his last work for his much loved master. God protected him and preserved his life while he had work for him to do; but, having finished his task, he was soon to be called home. The incessant labor of twenty years, had shattered the earthly tabernacle, and brought upon the faithful laborer a premature old age; and finally, produced a paralysis of all his powers, which terminated his invaluable life on the 31st day of December, Anno Domini 1384. When the summons came he was where a soldier would choose to die-at his post. He fell as a warrior would wish, on the field of battle, sword in hand. He was in his church, administering the sacrament when a paralytic shock deprived him of speech and motion. He lingered two days; and then, as we have the best reason to believe-slept in Jesus. Admirable," exclaims the quaint and candid Fuller," that a hare so often hunted, with so many packs of dogs, should die, at last, quietly sit. ting in his form.”+ 66 Thus died John Wickliffe; the most remarkable man of his age; and one of the most distinguished reformers of any age. His name and works have been the subjects of the most unqualified abuse by the violent Papist; and of the semi-hearty praise of the devoted churchman.‡ The * Psalm 22: 13, 19. + Quoted by Le Bas, p. 265. I refer particularly to Mr. Milner, whose extended notice of Wickliffe's life and labors is open to many objections; and in some points is manifestly unjust and injurious to the memory of the Congregational dissenter, while he admits that Wickliffe was subject to human infirmities, and like other men liable to error; that the truth gradually opened upon his mind; and that, even to his death, some of the shreds of popery may have clung around him;-while, I say, he admits all this, still he must revere John Wickliffe as "the modern discoverer of the principles of Congregational Dissent,” CHAPTER VIII. ECCLESIASTICAL OPINIONS OF WICKLIFFE. Having claimed Wickliffe as a remote ancestor of the denomination whose history occupies these pages, it will be expected that I give more fully than has yet been done, the grounds on which this claim rests. In this attempt, I shall labor under the disadvantage of having but a very small portion of the Reformer's own writings to draw from; and of being obliged to depend chiefly upon the representations of those who had no partiality for apostolic simplicity in church polity, for my information. Still, I think it may be made to appear, that the relationship between the Reformer of the fourteenth century, and the Reformers of the seventeenth-is something more than imaginary. 1. The prominent doctrine of Wickliffe's creed which allies him to modern Congregationalists was-THE ALLSUFFICIENCY OF THE SCRIPTURES. Reformer. In reading Milner's account, one is almost provoked to say-He damns Wickliffe with faint praise. Prof. Le Bas' work is a very different affair; he corrects "the historian of the Church" in several particulars; he might have done more. His habit of "postillating," or expounding a portion of Scripture to his parishioners on the Sabbath, instead of "declaring," or preaching a sermon from a single text, or uttering an oration upon a particular subject-is a decisive evidence of his high regard for the Scriptures. His translation of the Bible into English, is a still stronger evidence of his veneration for the inspired writings. Add to the above, the Reformer's own words upon this point. In one place he says: "Scripture is the faith of the church, and the more it is known in an orthodox sense the better."* What he considered an "orthodox sense," so far as religious doctrines were concerned, would now be called—a Calvinistic sense. His views of church polity will present ly appear. In his tract entitled-" Why many Priests have no Benefices," he uses the following language: "Also then shulde priests study holy writt, and be devout in their prayers, and not be carried away with new officers, and mo [more] sacraments than Christ used, and his apostles, that taughten [taught] us all truth."+ The connection in which the italicised words stand to the other part of the sentence, shows conclusively, that Wickliffe supposed that Christ and his apostles, taught us all the truth respecting the order, as well as the faith of the church. This, it will be remembered, is the first great principle of the Congregational system-"The supreme authority and entire sufficiency of the Scriptures." Pierce, in his Vindication of Dissenters, gives the following * "Great Sentence," quoted by Milner, Appendix to second volume, Phil. ed. 1835. + Milner, Cent. XIV. Chap. 3. See Le Bas' "Life of Wiclif," pp. 190, 192, 219, 220. summary of Wickliffe's opinions. 66 "All human traditions, which are not taught in the gospel, are superfluous and wicked-'Tis not lawful for a Christian, after the full publication of the law of Christ, to devise himself any other laws for the government of the church. If the ceremonies of the old law were to cease under the law of grace, because of their burdensomeness and number, how much more should such traditions of men, as are devised without any scripture foundation, cease in the time of the law of grace."* 2. Another principle of Congregationalism, developed in Wickliffe's writings, relates to the character of those who should constitute the church of Christ. He defines the church to be—" The Congregation of just men, for whom Christ shed his blood."+ In another place, "he calls the church an assembly of predestinated per sons."+ From such passages, which abound in Wickliffe's writings, we are authorized to infer that he considered apparent piety an indispensible pre-requisite to real church membership. 3. In reference to the government and worship of the church. He maintained that Christ is the only head of the church; and that "no true man will dare to put two heads, lest the church be monstrous." And, "that we must practice and teach only the laws of Christ ;"**" that all human traditions are superfluous and sinful; that mystical and significant ceremonies in religious worship are unlawful;-and that, to restrain men to a prescribed form of prayer is contrary to the liberty granted by God;"§-that * See Palmer's Protest. Dissenter's Catechism, App. No. 3, 20th Edition. + Milner, Appendix ut sup. Le Bas, p. 299, from Vaughan, Vol. II. p. 273. § Neal's Hist. Puritans, Vol. I, p. 52. |