We have brought to bear
upon them the _scholia_ of the ancients, Greek and Latin: they
have refused them. What then is their refuge? Doctor Martin
Luther, or else Philip (Melancthon), or anyhow Zwingle, or beyond
doubt Calvin and Besa have faithfully laid down the facts. Can I
suppose any of you to be so dull of sense as not to perceive this
artifice when he is told of it? Wherefore I must confess how
earnestly I long for the University Schools as a place where,
with you looking on, I could call those carpet-knights out of
their delicious retreats into the heat and dust of action, and
break their power, not by any strength of my own,--for I am not
comparable, not one per cent., with the rest of our people;--but
by force of strong case and most certain truth.
THIRD REASON
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH
At hearing the name of the Church the enemy has turned pale.
Still he has devised some explanation which I wish you to notice,
that you may observe the ruinous and poverty-stricken estate of
falsehood. He was well aware that in the Scriptures, as well of
Prophets as of Apostles, everywhere there is made honourable
mention of the Church: that it is called the holy city, the
fruitful vine, the high mountain, the straight way, the only
dove, the kingdom of heaven, the spouse and body of Christ, the
ground of truth, the multitude to whom the Spirit has been
promised and into whom He breathes all truths that make for
salvation; her on whom, taken as a whole, the devil's jaws are
never to inflict a deadly bite; her against whom whoever rebels,
however much he preach Christ with his mouth, has no more hold on
Christ than the publican or the heathen.
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