Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/290

238 not God, as his spiritual Father, has lost all the virtues." And hence Augustine adds: "Therefore obedience profits more than all the other moral virtues." Far-fetched, therefore, is the proof of the doctors who seek to deduce from this authority what they propose.

Further I lay down this conclusion and in spite of the pretended—prætensa—excommunication, threatened or already issued, that the Christian ought to follow the commandments of Christ. This appears from the conclusion of St. Peter and the other apostles: "We must obey God rather than men," Acts 5:29. From this it follows logically that Christ's priest, who lives according to his law, and has a knowledge of the Scripture and a desire to edify the people, ought to preach, a pretended excommunication to the contrary notwithstanding. This is clear, for to preach the Word of God is a command to priests, as the apostle Peter bears witness, when he says: "God charged us to preach unto the people and to testify," Acts 10:42. Jesus sent out the twelve, commanding them and saying: "Go not into any way of the gentiles and as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matt. 10:5–7. The same appears from Luke, chapters 9 and 10, and also from what Augustine says, Prologue to his Sermons: "Few are the priests who rightly preach God's Word, but many are they who accursedly keep silence—some from ignorance, who refuse to teach and some from neglect, because they spurn God's Word; but neither the former nor the latter may be excused from the guilt of keeping silence, since they ought not to have a place of authority who do not know how to preach, nor ought they to keep silent who know how to preach, howbeit they are not in places of authority."

Likewise is this clear from what St. Jerome says on Ezek. 3:18: "When I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man