Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/403

97* In its ignorance the people take for granted as Christian faith the regulations of the Pope and the practices of worship carried on under the name of God They have never heard anything else concerning religion excepting (the requirement) to take a glance at God in church and not to plough their field on Sundays, they do not know that there exists any other form

Therefore, even though the se laws are resplendent in a great institution, through religiosity reverence, respect to God, they are only for form's and fool's sake. But the truth is that there is no middle way here: either deny God and be a dissenter, or cling to Him with your whole heart. Either step is hard to take by the people; for man is not as bad as to want to deny God and relinquish Him; on the other hand you will find very few who want to cling to God with their whole heart. It is this ac cursed middle way which offers a relaxation to both parties. Fallible and fortuitous are all the advantages hidden in the laws of the Pope who glitters with great orders and outward forms and ceremonies of worship.

Papal laws are very welcome to them that have never experienced God; they are the means whereby they can cunningly stand in the fold of faith and confess God with their lips only, honor and worship Him only outwardly, and debase their bodies by mortification according to the decrees of the great priest.