The Rule of Ruleless Rules

 

(in the style of Hilaire Belloc)

They prate of Scripture—Scripture sole!
(And wag their fingers, bless their soul.)
No Pope, no Creed, no Sacred See—
The Book alone! Authority!

But when I asked them, meek and low,
“What verse commands it to be so?”
They turned the pages, back and forth,
And found no line of equal worth.

For nowhere does the Bible state
“The Bible is self-arbitrate.”
It speaks of Church, Tradition, Word,
Yet not this slogan oft-preferred.

Thus men invent what text denies,
Then swear their dogma from the skies.
A rule they forge, outside the Book—
And bid us there alone to look.

So note the jest: they disavow
The very thing they practice now.
For “Scripture sole!” is but the cry
Of human wit dressed piously.