[Sidenote: WICKLIFFE'S ECCLESIASTICAL VIEWS.]
If the man is admirable, his teaching is no less so. Scripture, which is the rule of truth, should be (according to his views) the rule of Reformation, and we must reject every doctrine and every precept which does not rest on that foundation.[194] To believe in the power of man in the work of regeneration is the great heresy of Rome, and from that error has come the ruin of the church. Conversion proceeds from the grace of God alone, and the system which ascribes it partly to man and partly to God is worse than Pelagianism.[195] Christ is every thing in Christianity; whosoever abandons that fountain which is ever ready to impart life, and turns to muddy and stagnant waters, is a madman.[196] Faith is a gift of God; it puts aside all merit, and should banish all fear from the mind.[197] The one thing needful in the Christian life and in the Lord's Supper is not a vain formalism and superstitious rites, but communion with Christ according to the power of the spiritual life.[198] Let Christians submit not to the word of a priest but to the word of God. In the primitive church there were but two orders, the deacon and the priest: the presbyter and the bishop were one.[199] The sublimest calling which man can attain on earth is that of preaching the word of God. The true church is the assembly of the righteous for whom Christ shed his blood. So long as Christ is in heaven, in Him the church possesses the best pope. It is possible for a pope to be condemned at the last day because of his sins. Would men compel us to recognise as our head "a devil of hell?"[200] Such were the essential points of Wickliffe's doctrine. It was the echo of the doctrine of the apostles--the prelude to that of the reformers.
[194] Auctoritas Scripturæ sacræ, quæ est lex Christi, infinitum excedit quam libet scripturam aliam. Dialog. [Trialogus] lib. iii. cap. xxx; see in particular chap. xxxi. The authority of Holy Scripture, which is the law of Christ, infinitely surpasses all other writings whatever.
[195] Ibid. de prædestinatione, de peccato, de gratia, etc.
[196] Dialog. [Trialogus] lib. iii, cap. xxx.
[197] Fidem a Deo infusam sine aliqua trepidatione fidei contraria. Ibid. lib. iii, cap. ii.