Wesley Corpus

Ecclesia vera. + Wherefore doth the Council add, “with all their parts; ” unless that all should understand those parts also, about which there was some time a dispute, to belong to the sacred canon of the Bible?--Ibid. c. 7, sec. Denique. Q. 11, Are the people of the Church of Rome permitted to read the Scripture in a tongue vulgarly known? A. No; they were for a time permitted to read it, under the caution of a license, where it could be obtained; (Reg. Ind. Libr. Prohib. Reg. 4;) but since they are forbid it, or to have so much as any summary or historical compendium of it in their own tongue. (Index Libr. Prohib. Auctor. Sixti V., et Clem. VIII. Observat. circa 4 Regulam.) REPLY. Under the Law, the people had the Scriptures in a tongue vulgarly known; and they were required to read the law, and to be conversant in it: “These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart,” &c.; (Deut. vi. 6;) and accordingly our Saviour sends them thither: “Search the Scriptures.” (John v. 39.) So St. Paul requires that his “Epistle be read to all the brethren;” (1 Thess. v. 27;) and, if so, it was wrote in a language they understood. And so it was in the primitive Church; therefore St. Chrysostom exhorts his hearers, though secular men, to provide themselves Bibles, the medicines of their souls, to be their perpetual instructers. (Comment. in Coloss. iii. 16.) Q. 12. For what reason is the Scripture thus prohibited among them? A. “Because,” say they, “if it be permitted to be read every where, without difference, there would more prejudice than profit proceed from it.” (Reg. Ind. Libr. Prohib. Reg. 4.) REPLY. In the Apostles’ times there were some that “wrested the Scriptures to their own destruction;” and yet the Apostle thought of no other expedient than to give the Christians a caution, that they were “not also led away with the error of the wicked.” (2 Pet. iii. 16, 17.) The way to prevent this, therefore, is, not to keep the Scriptures from the people, which “were written for our learning,” (Rom. xv. 4,) but to exhort them to a diligent perusal of them: “Ye err, not knowing the Scriptures.” (Matt. xxii. 29.) “The sheep should not cast away their skin, because wolves sometimes hide themselves under it.” (St.