Introduction

Master. FORASMUCH as the master ought to be to his scholars a second parent and father, not of their bodies, but of their minds, I see it belongeth to the order of my duty, my dear child, not so much to instruct thee civilly in learning and good manners, as to furnish thy mind, and that in thy tender years, with good opinions and true religion. For this age of childhood ought no less, yea, also much more, to be trained with good lessons to godliness, than with good arts to humanity: wherefore I thought meet to examine thee by certain short questions, that I may surely know whether thou have well bestowed thy study and labour therein, or no.

Scholar. And I for my part, right worshipful master, shall willingly answer your demands, so far as I have been able with wit to conceive or keep in memory, and can at this present call to mind and remember, what I have heard you teach me out of the holy scriptures.

Master. Go to therefore, and tell me what religion it is that thou professest.

Scholar. The religion that I profess, right worshipful master, is the same whereof the Lord Christ is the Author and Teacher, and which is therefore properly and truly called the Christian religion, like as the professors thereof are also named Christians.

Master. Dost thou then acknowledge thyself to be a follower of Christian godliness and religion, and a scholar of our Lord and schoolmaster Christ?

Scholar. I do so acknowledge indeed, and do unfeignedly and freely profess it: yea, I do settle therein the sum of all my felicity, as in that which is the chiefest good that can come to man, and such as without it our state should be far more miserable than the state of any brute creatures.

Master. Well then, I would have the substance and nature of Christian religion and godliness, the name whereof is most honourable and holy, to be briefly expressed, with some definition of it.

Scholar. Christian religion is the true and godly worshipping of God and keeping of his commandments.

Master. Of whom dost thou think it is to be learned?

Scholar. Of none other surely but of the heavenly word of God himself, which he hath left unto us written in the holy scriptures.

Master. What writings be those which thou callest the word of God and the holy scriptures?

Scholar. None other but those that have been published, first, by Moses and the holy prophets, the friends of Almighty God, by the instinct of the Holy Ghost in the old Testament; and afterward more plainly in the new Testament by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and by his holy apostles inspired with the Spirit of God, and have been preserved unto our time whole and uncorrupted.

Master. Why was it God's will so to open unto us his word in writing?

Scholar. Because we of ourselves (such is the darkness of our hearts) are not able to understand the will of Almighty God, in the knowledge of whom, and in obedience towards him, true godliness consisteth. God having pity upon us, hath opened and clearly set it out unto us; and the same so clearly set out he hath left in the book of the two Testaments, which are called the holy scriptures, to the end that we should not be uncertainly carried hither and thither, but that by his heavenly doctrine there should be made us, as it were, a certain entry into heaven.

Master. Why dost thou call God's word a Testament?

Scholar. Because it is evident that in conceiving of religion, it is the chief point to understand what is the will of the everliving God. And since by the name of Testament is signified not only a will, but also a last and unchangeable will, we are hereby admonished that in religion we follow nothing, nor seek for any thing further than we are therein taught by God; but that as there is one only true God, so there be but one godly worshipping and pure religion of one only God. Otherwise we should daily forge ourselves new-feigned religions; and every nation, every city, and every man would have his own several religion; yea, we should in our doings follow for our guide, not religion and true godliness, the beginning and foundation of virtues, but superstition, a deceitful shadow of godliness, which is most plain to see by the sundry and innumerable, not religions, but worse than doting superstitions of the old gentile nations, who otherwise in worldly matters were very wise men.

Master. Dost thou then affirm that all things necessary to godliness and salvation are contained in the written word of God?

Scholar. Yea: for it were a point of intolerable ungodliness and madness to think, either that God hath left an imperfect doctrine, or that men were able to make that perfect, which God left imperfect. Therefore the Lord hath most straitly forbidden men, that they neither add anything to, nor take anything from, his word, nor turn any way from it, either to the right hand or the left.

Master. If this be true that thou sayest, to what purpose then are so many things so oft in councils and ecclesiastical assemblies, decreed, and by learned men taught in preaching, or left in writing?

Scholar. All these things serve either to expounding of dark places of the word of God, and to take away controversies that rise among men, or to the orderly stablishing of the outward governance of the Church, and not to make new articles of religion. For all things necessary to salvation, that is to say, how godliness, holiness, and religion are to be purely and uncorruptedly yielded to God: what obedience is to be given to God, by which alone the order of a godly life is to be framed; what affiance we ought to put in God; how God is to be called upon, and all good things to be imputed to him; what form is to be kept in celebrating the divine mysteries; all these things, I say, are to be learned of the word of God, without the knowledge whereof all these things are either utterly unknown, or most absurdly done; so that it were far better that they were not done at all, as the Lord himself witnesseth that ignorance of the scripture is the mother of all errors; and he himself in his teaching, doth commonly allege the written word of God, and to it he sendeth us to learn of it. For this cause therefore, in old times also, the word of God was openly read in churches, and the help of expounders used when they might have them, as appeareth by the histories of the church. And the Lord himself, immediately before his ascending to heaven, gave principally in charge to his apostles whom he had chosen, that they should instruct all men throughout the world with his word. And Paul following his example, ordained that some should be appointed in every church to teach the people, for that he well knew that faith and all things pertaining to godliness do hang upon the reading and hearing of the word of God, and that therefore, apostles, teachers, prophets, and expounders, are most necessary in the church of God.

Master. Dost thou then think that we are bound to hear such teachers and expounders?

Scholar. Even as the Lord himself if he were present, so far as they teach only those things which they have received of the Lord; which himself witnesseth, saying, "He that heareth you, heareth me; he that despiseth you, despiseth me;" yea, and moreover, to these preachers of his word he hath given the power to bind and loose, that whose sins soever they by the word of God shall pardon or detain in earth, the same shall be pardoned or detained in heaven.

Master. Is it enough to hear them once treat of religion?

Scholar. We ought to be the scholars of Christ to the end, or rather, without end. It is not therefore enough for a man to begin, unless he continue: and such is our dulness and forgetfulness, that we must oft be taught and put in remembrance, oft pricked forward, and, as it were pulled by the ear. For things but once or seldom heard are more likely to slip out of mind. And for this cause (as is afore said) every sabbath-day (as appeareth by the ecclesiastical histories) the people assembling together, the word of God was openly read, and the expounders thereof if any were present, were heard; which custom is also at this day received in our churches by the ordinance of the apostles, and so of God himself.

Master. Dost thou then think that the word of God is to be read in a strange tongue, and such as the people understandeth not?

Scholar. That were grossly to mock God and his people, and shamelessly to abuse them both. For whereas God commandeth that his word be plainly read to young and old, men and women, namely, to the intent that all may understand and learn to fear the Lord their God as he himself in his own word expressly witnesseth, it were a very mockery that the word of God, which is appointed by God himself to teach his people, should be read to the people in a tongue unknown to them, and whereof they can learn nothing. Also St Paul doth treat of this matter, and thereupon concludeth that the unlearned people cannot answer Amen to the thanksgiving which they understand not, but that the readers and hearers should be strangers the one to the other, if anything be spoken in the congregation that is not understood of them that be present; and that he had rather to speak in the church of God five words understood, than ten thousand words not understood.

Master. Shall we then have sufficiently discharged our duties, if we so endeavour ourselves that we hear and understand the word of God?

Scholar. No. For we must not only hear and understand the word of God, but also with stedfast assent of mind embrace it as the truth of God descended from heaven, and heartily love it, yield ourselves to it desirous and apt to learn, and to frame our minds to obey it, that, being once planted in our hearts, it may take deep roots therein, and bring forth the fruits of a godly life, ordered according to the rule thereof, that so it may turn to our salvation as it is ordained. It is therefore certain that we must, with all our travail, endeavour that in reading it, in studying upon it, and in hearing it both privately and publicly, we may profit; but profit in any wise we cannot, if it be set forth to us in a tongue that we know not.

Master. But shall we attain to such perfection as thou speakest of by only reading the word of God, and diligently hearing it, and the teachers of it?

Scholar. Forasmuch as it is the wisdom of God, men should vainly labour in either teaching or learning it, unless God would vouchsafe with the teaching of his Spirit to instruct our hearts, as Paul teacheth, that in vain is the planting and the watering, unless God give the increase; therefore, that we may attain the wisdom of God hidden in his word, we must with fervent prayer crave of God that with his Spirit he lighten our minds, being darkened with extreme darkness. For him the Lord hath promised to us to be our teacher sent from heaven, that shall guide us into all truth.

Master. Into what chief parts dost thou divide all this word of God?

Scholar. Into the law and the gospel.

Master. How be these two known the one from the other?

Scholar. The law setteth out our duties both of godliness toward God, that is, the true worshipping of God, and of charity toward our neighbour, and severely requireth and exacteth our precise obedience, and to the obedient promiseth everlasting life, but to the disobedient pronounceth threatenings and pains, yea, and eternal death. The gospel containeth the promises of God; and to the offenders of the law, so that they repent them of their offence, it promiseth that God will be merciful through faith in Christ.

Master. Hitherto then thou hast declared that the word of God doth teach us his will, and containeth all things needful to salvation, and that we ought earnestly to study upon it, and diligently to hear the teachers and expounders of it; but, above all things, that we must by prayer obtain us a teacher from heaven; and what is the word of God, and of what parts it consisteth.

Scholar. It is true.

Master. Since then Christian religion floweth out of God's word as out of a spring-head, as thou hast before done with God's word, so now divide me also religion itself, which is to be drawn out of God's word into her parts and members, that we may plainly determine whereunto each part ought to be applied, and, as it were, to certain marks to be directed.

Scholar. As of the word of God, so of religion also, there are principally two parts; obedience, which the law, the perfect rule of righteousness commandeth, and faith, which the gospel, that embraceth the promises concerning the mercy of God, requireth.

Master. It seemeth yet, that there are either more or other parts of religion; for sometime, in dividing it, the holy scriptures do use other names.

Scholar. That is true. For sometime they divide whole religion into faith and charity, and sometime into repentance and faith. For sometime for obedience they set charity, which by the law is required to be perfect toward God and men; and sometime because we perform neither obedience nor charity such as we ought, they put in place thereof repentance most necessary for sinners to the obtaining of the mercy of God. Some, which like to have more parts, do set forth first out of the law, the knowledge of our due duty, and damnation by the law for forsaking and rejecting our duty; secondly, out of the gospel, the knowledge and affiance of our deliverance; thirdly, prayer and craving of the mercy and help of God; fourthly, thanksgiving for deliverance and other benefits of God. But howsoever they differ in names, they be the same things; and to those two principal parts, obedience and faith, in which is contained all the sum and substance of our religion, all the rest are referred. For whereas many do add, as parts, invocation and thanksgiving, and the divine mysteries most nearly conjoined to the same, which are commonly called sacraments, these, in very deed, are comprised within those two former parts. For no man can truly perform the duty toward God, either of affiance or of obedience, which will not, when any necessity distresseth him, flee to God, and account all things to come from him, and, when occasion and time serveth, rightly use his holy mysteries.

Master. I agree with thee, that all may be drawn to these two parts, if a man will precisely and somewhat narrowly treat of them. But forasmuch as the most precise manner of dividing is not to be required of children, I had rather that somewhat in plainer sort thou divide religion into more parts, that the whole matter may be made the clearer. Therefore let us handle these things more grossly, so it be more openly.

Scholar. Where you like best to deal with me in plainer sort, I may conveniently of two parts make four, and divide whole religion into obedience, faith, invocation, and sacraments.

Master. Go to, then. Since I desire to have this treating of religion to be as plain as may be, let us keep this order; first, to inquire of obedience, which the law requireth; secondly, of faith, which looketh to, and embraceth the promises of the gospel; thirdly, of invocation and thanksgiving, which two are most nearly joined together; fourthly and lastly of the sacraments and mysteries of God.

Scholar. And I, worshipful master, shall willingly, according to my slender capacity, answer your questions, as I am taught by the holy scriptures.