Page:The Sources of Standard English.djvu/390

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Twelve Hundred Years of English.
361

you trustith to his owne studie in the Bible aloon, and wole have alle treuthis of mennys moral conversacioun there groundid), what iuge mai therto be assiyned in erthe, save resoun and the bifore seid doom[1] of resoun? For thouʓ men schulden be iugis, ʓit so muste thei be bi uce of the seid resoun and doom of resoun; and if this be trewe, who schulde thanne better or so weel use, demene, and execute this resoun and the seid doom, as schulde tho men whiche han spende so miche labour aboute thilk craft? And these ben tho now bifore seid clerkis. And therefore, ʓe Bible men, bi this here now seid whiche ʓe muste needis graunte, for experience which ʓe han of the disturblaunce in Beeme, and also of the disturblaunce and dyverse feelingis had among ʓou silf now in Ynglond, so that summe of ʓou ben clepid Doc­tourmongers, and summe ben clepid Opinioun-holders, and summe ben Neutralis, that of so presumptuose a cisme abhominacioun to othere men and schame to ʓou it is to heere; rebuke now ʓou silf, for aa miche as ʓe wolden not bifore this tyme allowe, that resoun and his doom schulde have such and so greet interesse in the lawe of God and in expownyng of Holi Scripture, as y have seid and proved hem to have.

X.

(A.D. 1550.)

lever's sermons[2]

As for example of ryche men, loke at the merchauntes of London, and ye shall se, when as by their honest voca-

  1. judgement.
  2. Arber's Reprint, page 29.