Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/225

 Rh of wicked trafficking, even in defiance of the king*s command, or who have also offered their hands to cancel former unjust writings and subscriptions?

§ 17. And, indeed, we must wonder at the rashness of those foolish men, (or rather we should call them blind, and pity their wretchedness,) who, without any regard to the fear of God, are proved to cancel and set at nought what they, the apostles and prophets, have written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but nevertheless are afraid to erase or annul what themselves, or men like themselves, have written from the dictates of covetousness or luxury, as if, forsooth, it were sacred and sanctioned by Heaven itself. In this, unless I am deceived, they imitate the Gentiles, who despise the worship of God, but bow down before the deities which they have conceived in their own minds, and which their own hands have made. These they fear, worship, adore, and pray to, being indeed worthy of that rebuke of our Lord's whereby he reproved the Pharisees, when they preferred their own secondary precepts to the Law of God: "Why do ye also transgress the word of God through your traditions?" But if they shall even produce writings got up in defence of their covetousness, and sanctioned by the subscription of noblemen, I beseech you never to forget the sentence of our Lord, wherein he says, "Every plantation that my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted out." And I would fain moreover ask you this question, most Holy Prelate? Our Lord protests that "wide is the gate and broad the way which leadeth to destruction, and multitudes there be that enter in thereat; whilst straight is the gate and narrow the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." What, then, do you believe concerning the life or eternal safety of those, who throughout all their lives are known to be walking through the wide gate and broad way, and do not, even in the trifling things, restrain or resist their