Now I know where about you have been:
My elders never taught me so before.
GOOD COUNSEL.
Though your elders were blind, doubt not you therefore;
For Saint Peter saith, vain is the conversations
Which ye receive by your elders' traditions.
JUVENTUS.
I will gladly receive your godly admonitions:
But yet, I pray you, show me the cause
That they, being men of great discretions,
Did not instruct me in God's laws,
According to His will and ordinance.
KNOWLEDGE.
Because they themselves were wrapped in ignorance,
Being deceived by false preachers.
JUVENTUS.
O Lord, deliver me from wicked teachers,
That I be not deceived with their false doctrine.
GOOD COUNSEL.
To God's word you must only incline;
All other doctrine clean set apart.
JUVENTUS.
Surely that I will from the bottom of my heart;
And I thank the living God which hath given me the knowledge
To know His doctrine from the false and pervart,[66]
I being yet young and full tender of age;
And that He hath made me partaker of the heavenly inheritage,
Of his own[67] mercy, and not of my deserving,
For hell I have deserved by my sinful working.
I know right well, my elders and parents
Have of a long time deceived be
With blind hypocrisy and superstitious intents,
Trusting in their own works, which is nothing but vanity;
Their steps shall not be followed for me:
Therefore, I pray you, show me a brief conclusion,
How I ought to live in Christian religion.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42