[Sidenote: Scripture to be only beloued.]
S. =Augustine= in his third booke and .6. chapter, writing againste the letters of =Petilianus= saieth thus: If concerning Christe, or any other thing, whiche appartayneth to faith and euerlasting life, (I will not say, we: for comparing with him that said: Albeit that wée) but simply, whereas he going on, sayd: If an Angell from Heauen shall teache you any thing besides that whiche you haue receiued in Scriptures conteining the law and the Gospel, bée he accursed.
S. =Chrisostom= vnto the Epistle to the Galathians the firste chapter: =Abraham= (saith he) when he was desired to send Lazarus, said: They haue =Moises= and the prophets, if they will not heare them, they will not giue care vnto them which rise vp from the dead. And when he bring in Christ vttering these words, he sheweth howe he woulde haue the holy scriptures more worthy of credite than any raised from the dead. S. =Paule= (when I name =Paule=, I name likewise Christ, for he stirred vp his mind) preferreth the Scriptures before Angels descending from Heauen, and that for very iust cause. For albeit Angels are great, yet are they seruants and ministers. For all holy scriptures were not commaunded to be written and sent vnto vs by seruants, but by almightie God yͤ Lord of all things. Thus write these two holy fathers.
[Sidenote: All things necessarie to saluation are cōteined in the scriptures.]
What things soeuer are necessarie for vs to know, are conteined in the holy scriptures: those things which are not expressed in them, we must not curiously enquire of, as things profitable for our saluation. Who will therefore say against the commaundement of God, that these things are to be sought and learned of dead men, and by diuellish visions? These things which are secret and hidden, we shall throughly sée when we come to eternall life. May not God, if we be not content with his holy word, say that vnto vs, which sometimes he spake by the mouth of =Helias= vnto the messengers of king =Ochosias=. Is there no God in _Israell_, that you now go to =Accaron= to aske counsell of Belzebub? Yea =Thomas Aquinas= denieth that diuels are to be heard, whiche deceiue simple menne, feyning themselues to be the soules of dead men: and by that coloure especially terrifie menne, whiche sometimes also happened vnto the Gentiles.