Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/405

98* This brought about an ignorance of God and His laws to such an extent that not even the devil could have invented it. He would not be able to produce a trick whereby men, deprived of their true goodness (consisting of obedience to God's laws), would be made to adhere to a false and fallacious goodness glorying in the laws of the great priest and adorned by divine Scriptures (in order to give the impression that they are being fulfilled – but this is only glorious lying underneath the veneer of letters).

It is obvious how much the laws of the Pope contradict those of God: they assume the coloring of the divine law, lacerating it worse than lion's teeth. Yea, the Pope has greatly defiled the laws of God, by multiplying his own laws contrary to those of God, and even rescinding those of divine origin. He regulates faith forasmuch as he is its ruler. In Basel his servants have declared concerning the cup of God that the holy Church can change and abolish the commandment of Christ which says that the common people should drink Christ's blood from the cup; that the holy Church can abolish what the law (of God) commands as well as pass amendments contrary to it. Being the rulers over faith and God's law, (the churchmen) abolish what they do not like and add what they like, and others must accept what they decide. They keep silent about the fact that