Page xiiii
The Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Ghospell of S. Luke.
The prologue.
¶ For asmuche as many haue taken in hand to sette foorth the declaracion of the actes that are come to passe emong vs, lyke as they deliue••ed them vnto vs that first sawe them themselues, and were ministers of the woorde: I thought good also (now that I had gottē the knowlege of all thynges from the begynnyng) to wryte thē diligentlye vnto the in or∣dre, good Theophilus, to the ende that thou mightest knowe the trueth of those woerdes, of the whiche thou art enfourmed.
IN the histories of worldly affaires, vpon consideraciō, that not a lytle, aswel delectacion as also profite, is takē of the knowlege of thynges: there is customably requi∣red an vpright trueth of reporting thesame. But muche more oughte this vpright trueth to be in makyng rela∣cion of the Ghospell: the whiche not onely doeth muche delite the mynde hauyng litle els to do, or is very com∣modious and profitable vnto this transitory lyfe: but also is necessary vnto true godlinesse, without the which no man atchiueth eternal saluacion, and the blisse that neuer shal decaye of the lyfe euerlastyng. For it were no matier of daungier, thoughe a manne did not knowe what man Hannibal was, or Alexander: what actes Epaminondas or Scipio hath doen: what mat••ers Solon, Lycurgus, or Draco haue writen: what doctrine Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle taughte, albeit the knowleage of these thynges also, after the rate of mans state and case in this world, hath their fruite. But whatsoeuer person shall not knowe the father, the sonne, and the holy ghoste: whosoeuer shall not learne what actes the soonne of God Iesus Christe hath dooen on yearth for the saluacion of mankynde, what he hathe taught, what he hath promised vnto suche as doe constauntely cleue to the doc∣trine of the ghospell, what he hath threatned vnto suche persones as doe either litle regarde, or els doe playnely despise thesame: suche an one shall not possibly bee hable to auoyde, but that beeyng excluded out of the coumpanye of Gods children, and shut out from the ioyes of the heauenly lyfe, he shalbee adiudged with the wicked, to the tormentes of the diepe pitte of hell, whiche neuer shall haue ende.
And in dede at the first, by meane of thapostles beeyng therunto chosen of our Lorde hymselfe, and by the residue of his disciples beyng enspired with the ho∣ly ghost, the ghospell (in dede by liuely voice and by mouth onely, but yet with moost vpright certaintye and assured trueth) is begonne to bee spred abrode throughout all coastes and countreyes of the worlde, and dooeth daylye yet still ferther and ferther renne abrode. Yet forasmuche as the synceritie of repor∣tyng (the whiche goyng from man to man by mouth onely issueth successiuelye to a great noumber) is more lightlye corrupted, then suche reporte as is sette out and left from one to another in writyng: therefore Mathew the Apostle,