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shape in support of what he believed to be his Master ' s cause . Knowing , as he must have done , the temper of the men he had to deal with , he cannot but have been fully aware that he had already committed offences in their eyes not to be forgiven , and which rendered retreat impossible . The theological sentiments of Wycliffe being mainly derived , like those of Luther , from his familiarity witl \ the writings of Augustine , considerably
resemble the systems which , among Protestants of the present day , have nearly appropriated to themselves the epithet orthodox . Original sin , the election of grace , predestination , and final perseverance , are ail enumerated as parts of his creed . Trinitarian forms and doxologies continually occur ; but in what precise manner he would have expressed his view of this doctrine does not clearly appear . According to our author , he seems at least to have considered it as so far within the range of human reason as to admit
of illustration by a reference to cerlain natural appearances . In the first book of his treatise entitled Trialogus , where he discusses a series of questions relating to the existence and perfections of the Deity , the doctrine of the Trinity , we are told , <( — is of course discussed , and some attention is bestowed on certain natural appearances which was [ were ] supposed to illustrate that mysterious truth . After some remarks on the theories of Plato and Aristotle , respecting ideas , the
writer concludes with a censure on the papal authority ; as b y sanctioning the doctrine which declared the sacred host to be an accident without a subject , it had affirmed that to be true , which no mind may possibly comprehend . In a previous conversation relating to the mystery of the Trinity , the reformer had observed , ' Some men are so strangely mistaken in judging on this subject , as to suppose that the light of faith is contrary to that of nature ; and accordingly , that what may seem impossible to the latter , should be implicitly received upon the testimony of the former . But the truth is , men call their own darkness the light of nature , and hence weakly suppose that the light of
reason and of Scripture are at variance with each other . ' Thus also , in concluding the above observation on the eucharist , it is remarked , that ' God teaches us the truth , and nothing but the truth , and what may be known by us to be such . ' This doctrine is inculcated for the immediate purpose o ^ jycposing the necessary falsehood of transubstantiation ; but it is also urffarin this , and in other instances , to secure to the reason of man its due influence with respect to religious faith in general ; and the ingenuity of the " writer is successfully employed to vindicate his assent to the doctrine of the Trinity , while rejecting the dogmas which had corrupted the eucharist /*—II . p . 211 .
From this passage it would appear , that Wycliffe considered the Trinity as not so inconsistent with the suggestions of natural reason as transubstan tiation . His biographer , too , seems to be of the same op inion ; and it is remarkable that , in another p lace , as the strongest form in which he could express the absurdity of the Komish tenet , he describes it as requiring for its reception precisely that state of the intellectual powers which a late distinguished advocate of the Trinity has demanded from its votaries .
" It is , " says he , " by no means surprising , that a study of the Scriptures , which had been devoutly pursued through so long an interval , and which had produced a renunciation of so many established opinions , should issue in the abandonment of a doctrine containing the grossest of the insults which pr iests , in the insolence of triumph , had bestowed on the prostrate capacities of their victims . "—II . p . 78 . To us the two doctrines seem , in this respect , pretty , nearly on , aJ 0 vel ; and we are glad to perceive that the controversy now , sp actively mantained between the Catholics and the Established Church is leading more and
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Review . O DD —> Life and pinions of John de Jf ycliffe , . . 613
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1828, page 613, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2564/page/29/
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