M.  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.

      S.  Christian religion is the ^etrue and godly worshipping of God and keeping of his commandments.

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

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

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

      S.  None other but those that have been published, first by ^gMoses 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 ^hLord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and by his holy ⁱapostles inspired with the Spirit of God, and have been ^kpreserved unto our time whole and uncorrupted.

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

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

      M.  Why dost thou call God’s word a Testament?

      S.  Because it is evident that in conceiving of religion, it is the chief point to understand what is the ^rwill of the everliving God.  And since by the name of Testament is signified not only a will, but also a ^slast and unchangeable will, we are hereby admonished that in religion we ^tfollow 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 ^uforge 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 ^xold gentile nations, who otherwise in worldly matters were very wise men.