version; or in Syriac, as St. Luke composed his; or in Persian, as St. Simon preached and composed his; or in Aramaic,[1] as St. Bartholomew wrote;[2] and likewise in other languages. How, then, can you suffer the priests to prevent people reading the holy gospel in Czech or German? Then as to the second point, are you ignorant of the fact that it is impossible for a man to serve both God in virtue and the devil in sin? I know you have heard Christ’s words: No man can serve two masters;[3] and again: You cannot serve God and mammon. You know also that St. Peter saith: By whom a man is overcome, of the same also he is the slave.[4] Christ also saith: Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.[5] St. Paul also writes to the Romans: You were the servants of sin.[6] Why, then, knowing as you do these testimonies of Scripture, do you suffer a priest to preach that no one, though he be living in mortal sin, is a servant of the devil? I know also that you have heard the words of the Lord Jesus that the tares are wicked sons which the devil hath sown in the world;[7] also those which He addressed to evil men: Ye are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do,[8] and He brings forward the cause in these words: Because you cannot hear my word, therefore are ye of your father the devil.[9]
St. John the Apostle also
- ↑ Judaice.
- ↑ See the tale of Eusebius (H.E. v. 10) of a certain Pantænus of Alexandria who went to preach the gospel to the Indians and found that the apostle Bartholomew had left them St. Matthew’s gospel written in Hebrew characters. Hus repeats this argument in his De Arguendo Clero (Mon. i. 150a), which, possibly, was written at this time, and not as is usually assumed, in 1408.
- ↑ Matt. vi. 24.
- ↑ 2 Pet. ii. 19.
- ↑ John viii. 34.
- ↑ Rom vi. 17.
- ↑ Matt. xiii. 38–9.
- ↑ John viii. 44.
- ↑ Ib. viii. 43.
