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.

[Hand] [1531]

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

Holyday [1531]

Exo. 31. [1531]