Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/349

 and  these  four  only  are  to  be  received

in the  orthodox  church,  and  the  others  to  be  rejected,

who wrote  false  writings,  by  themselves  (only),

not by  the  Holy  Ghost,  nor  by  the  Saviour's  choosing.

Thus we  end  this  treatise  here.

Ego sum  alfa  et  co,  initium  et  Jlnis,  dicit  dominus  deus,  qui  est et  qui  erat  et  qui  venturus  est,  omnipotens.  That  is  in English;  'I  am  the  beginning  and  the  end,  saith  the  Lord God, who  is,  and  who  was,  and  who  is  to  come. Almighty.'

There is  One  Almighty  God  in  Three  Persons,  ever  continuing,

Who created  all  things. Now we  have  [our]  beginning  through Him,

because He  created  us  when  we  were  not,

and afterward  redeemed  us  when  we  were  lost.

Now we  have  to  take  care,  with  great  diligence,

that our  life  shall  be  so  ordered,

that our  end  may  end  in  God,

from Whom  came  to  us  our  beginning.

We may  take  good  examples,

first, from  the  holy  patriarchs,

how they  in  their  lives  pleased  God,

and also  from  the  Saints  who  followed  the  Saviour.