JUVENTUS.
O sir, this state is so miserable, the which I lie in,
That my comfort and hope from me is separated:
I would to God I had never been!
Woe worth the time, that ever I was created!
GOOD COUNSEL.
Ah, frail[161] vessel, unfaithful and faint-hearted,
Doest thou think that God is so merciless,
That when the sinner doth repent, and is converted,
That he will not fulfil his merciful promises?
JUVENTUS.
Alas, sir! I am in such heaviness,
That his promises I cannot remember.
GOOD COUNSEL.
In thy wickedness continue no lenger;
But trust in the Lord without any fear,
And his Merciful Promises shall shortly appear.
JUVENTUS.
I would believe, if I might them hear,
With all my heart, power and mind.
GOOD COUNSEL.
The living God hath him hither assigned:
Lo, where he cometh even here by,
Therefore mark his sayings diligently.
[_Here entereth_ GOD'S MERCIFUL PROMISES.
The Lord, by his prophet Ezekiel, saith in this wise plainly,
As in the thirty-third chapter it doth appear:
Be converted, O ye children, and turn unto me,
And I shall remedy the cause of your departure;
And also he saith in the eighteenth chapter,
I do not delight in a sinner's death,
But that he should convert and live: thus the Lord saith.
JUVENTUS.
Then must I give neither credit nor faith
Unto St Paul's saying, which this man did allege.
GOD'S MERCIFUL PROMISES.
Yes, you must credit them, according unto knowledge;
For St Paul speaketh of those which resist the truth by violence,
And so end their lives without repentance.
Pages:
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65