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. KNOWLEDGE. The first beginning of wisdom, as saith the wise Solomon, Is to fear God with all thy[68] heart and power; And then thou must believe all his promises without any exception, And that He will perform them both constant and sure: And then, because He is thy only Saviour, Thou must love Him with all thy soul and mind, And thy neighbour as thyself, because he hath so assigned. JUVENTUS. To love my neighbour as myself? I cannot be so[69] kind: I pray you tell me, what mean you? KNOWLEDGE. My meaning is, as Christ saith in the sixth chapter of Matthew,[70] To do to Him as you would be done to. JUVENTUS. I pray God give me grace so for to do, That unto His will I may be obedient. GOOD COUNSEL. Here you shall receive Christ's testament To comfort your conscience, when need shall require, To learn the contents thereof, see that you be diligent; The which all Christian men ought to desire, For it is the well or fountain most clear, Out of the which doth spring sweet consolation To all those that[71] thirst after eternal salvation. KNOWLEDGE. Therein shall you find most wholesome preservation Both in troubles, persecutions, sickness, and adversity, And a sure defence in the time of temptation, Against whom the devil cannot prevail with all his army: And, if you persever therein unfeignedly, It will set your heart at such quietness and rest, Which cannot[72] never be turned with storms nor tempest. GOOD COUNSEL. With this thing you must neither flatter nor jest, But stedfastly believe it every day and hour, And let your conversation openly protest, That of your heart it is the most precious treasure: And then your godly example shall other men procure To learn and exercise the same also: I pray God strengthen you so for to do.