No man is to be credited for his mere authority's sake, unless he can show Scripture for the maintenance of his opinion.
Interpretation
Authority must be backed by evidence or reasoning, not just by one's position.
This quote emphasizes the importance of providing justification or evidence for one's beliefs or opinions, rather than relying solely on one's authority or position. John Wycliffe suggests that credible arguments should be rooted in foundational texts or principles, encouraging critical thinking and accountability in discussions of opinion.
In practice
During a debate about religion, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for scriptural backing of beliefs.
We should know that faith is a gift of God, and that it may not be given to men, except it be graciously. Thus, indeed, all the good which we have is of God; and accordingly, when God rewardeth a good work of man, he crowneth his own gift.
The New Testament is of full authority and open to the understanding of simple men as to the points most needful to salvation.
By the law of Christ, every man is bound to love his neighbour as himself; but every servant is a neighbour of every civil lord; therefore every civil lord must love any of his servants as himself; but by natural instinct, every lord abhors slavery; therefore, by the law of charity, he is bound not to impose slavery on any brother in Christ.
The higher the hill, the stronger the wind: so the loftier the life, the stronger the enemy's temptations.
The gospel alone is sufficient to rule the lives of Christians everywhere - any additional rules made to govern men's conduct added nothing to the perfection already found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I shall not die, but live; and again declare the evil deeds of the friars.
The four characteristics of humanism are curiosity, a free mind, belief in good taste, and belief in the human race.
Let nothing be done in your life, which will cause you fear if it becomes known to your neighbor.
Imaginative truth is the most immediate way of presenting ultimate reality to a human being... ultimate reality is what we call God.
We tend to think of consecration only as yielding up, when divinely directed, our material possessions. But ultimate consecration is the yielding up of oneself to God. Heart, soul, and mind were the encompassing words of Christ in describing the first commandment, which is constantly, not periodically, operative (see Matt. 22:37). If kept, then our performances will, in turn, be fully consecrated for the lasting welfare of our souls (see 2 Ne. 32:9).
All this creative power of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing the materials afforded us the by senses and experience.
When everything that matters can be bought and sold, when commitments can be broken because they are no longer to our advantage, when shopping becomes salvation and advertising slogans become our litany, when our worth is measured by how much we earn and spend, then the market is destroying the very virtues on which in the long run it depends.
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