ANTHONY: No, none at all? Not God?
VINCENT: God? Why, yes, perdy. Who doubteth of that?
ANTHONY: Who? Marry, he who doubteth whether there be any God or
no. And that there lacketh not some such, the prophet testifieth
where he said, "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God."
With the mouth the most foolish will forbear to say it unto other
folk, but in the heart they forbear not to say it softly to
themselves. And I fear me there be many more such fools than every
man would think. And they would not hesitate to say it openly, too,
if they forbore it not more for dread or for shame of men than for
any fear of God. But now those who are so frantic foolish as to
think there were no God, and yet in their words confess him, though
(as St. Paul saith) in their deeds they deny him--we shall let them
pass till it please God to show himself unto them, either inwardly,
in time, by his merciful grace, or else outwardly, but over-late
for them, by his terrible judgment.
But unto you, my Lord, since you believe and confess, as a wise man
should, that though the Turk keep you his promise in letting you
keep your substance, because you do him pleasure in the forsaking
of your faith, yet God, whose faith you forsake, and thereby do him
displeasure, may so take them from you that the great Turk, with
all the power he hath, is not able to keep you them--why will you
be so unwise with the loss of your soul to please the great Turk
for your goods, since you know well that God whom you displease
therewith may take them from you too?
Besides this, since you believe there is a God, you cannot but
believe also that the great Turk cannot take your goods from you
without his will or sufferance, no more than the devil could from
Job.
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