VOLUME 3

AN ANSWERE VNTO SIR THOMAS MORES DIALOGE

LOCATION
KEY Commentary Side Textual Bibliographic Scriptural

Then they went further in the imagination of their blynd reason sayenge / in as moch as god accepteth these holy workes / that we be made righteous therby / then it foloweth that he whyche offereth most / is most rightewesse and the best man: ye and it is better to offer an oxe then a shepe / because it is more costly. And so they stroue who might offer most / and the prestes were well apayde. Then went they further in their fleshly wisdome sayenge: if I be good for the offeringe of a doue and better for a shepe and yet better for an oxe / and so euer the better thynge I offer / the better I am / Oh how accepted shuld I be if I offered a man / and namelye him that I most loued? And vppon that imaginacion / they offered their awne children and burnt them to asshes before images that they had imagined.

And to confirme their blyndnesse they layde for them (nodoute) the ensample of Abraham which offered his sonne Isaac and was so accepted / that god had promised him / how that in his seed / all the world shuld be blessed. Herof ye se vn to what abhominacion blynd reason bryngeth a man / when she is destitute of gods worde.

And to speake of the sabbath / which was ordeyned to be their saruaunte & to preach & be a signe vn to them / that god thorow his holy spirite & worde did sanctifie them / in that they obeyed his commaundementes & beleued and trusted in his promises (& therfore were charged to leaue workynge and to come on the holy daye & heare the worde of god by which they were sanctified) vn to it also they became captiue and bonde to sarue it / sayenge that they were iustified by absteynynge from bodyly laboure (as oures thinke al so) in so moch that though they bestowed not the