But how
hath this truth over-rusted with the pope's rust? For he, by this text,
"Whatsoever thou bindeth," hath taken upon him to make what laws him
listed, clean contrary unto God's word, which willeth that every man
should obey the prince's law: and by this text, "Whatsoever thou
loosest," he hath made all people believe that, for money, he might
forgive what and whom he lusted; so that if any man had robbed his
master, or taken anything wrongfully, the pope would loose him, by this
pardon or that pardon, given to these friars or those friars, put in this
box or that box. And, as it were, by these means a dividend of the spoil
was made, so that it was not restored, nor the person rightly discharged;
and yet most part of the spoil came to the hands of him and his
ministers. What is this but a new learning; a new canker to rust and
corrupt the old truth? Ye call your learning old: it may indeed be
called old, for it cometh of that serpent which did pervert God's
commandment and beguiled Eve; so it is an old custom to pervert God's
word, and to rust it, and corrupt it.
We be a great many that profess to be true ministers of the gospel; but
at the trial I think it will come to pass as it did with Gideon, a duke,
which God raised up to deliver the children of Israel from the
Midianites, in whose hands they were fallen, because they had broken
God's commandment, and displeased God: yet at the length he had
compassion on them, and raised up Gideon to deliver them.
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