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The First Chapter.
FOrasmuch as I have alwaies found my self willingly bent to doe thee service, my beloved Brother, so doe I also still find my self ready prepared thereto, namely, in that wherein I may be serviceable unto thee, to a guiding into the holy understanding, to the end that thou (if God vouchsafe the same) mightest (through my small Service) be a little furthered to the good knowledge in God and his Christ.
2. But seeing I am alwaies carefull, and do stand in fear to write much of the deepe grounds of thea secret knowledges of God and Christ; so am I alwaies carefull, lest that the same (if we should write boldly thereof) might thrust back any one from us and our godly doctrine, or offend him there∣by: or that any one should desire to glory or to boast therein, as in a knowledge of the flesh, and not before all things or with his whole heart, to be partaker in the spirit,b of the beeing whereof we doe write or witness.
3. For albeit that we do know well (accord∣ing to the comprehension of our naturall rea∣son) that there is a God, a Christ, and a holy Ghost, and so do talk of them; and yet do not (through that knowledge) believe, serve, nor love the same God, as he is a God, and his