Proeve vant ware ende valsche gheloove, ... / Sebastianus Castellio ; Uyt 't Lat. overgh. d...

lightly spoken, and so the common man holds it as well, but I fear that it is spoken more recklessly and out of habit than with truth. For I also previously believed the same of myself and of others, but when it came to the test, I saw first how far I was from that. Lod. Do you mean that I have no faith? Wied. I do not mean, Lodewyck, that you have no faith at all, but I mean that you have such a small faith that in truth it cannot be called faith, or that it cannot save you. But I ask you not to be angry, for since you have said you are prepared for all things, God grant, however difficult they may be, it is only fair that you first endure that it be shown to you that you do not possess that which you imagine you overflow with. For the first way to the knowledge of the truth
First way to the knowledge of the truth.

is to dispense with the false, for otherwise there would be no place for the planting of the true, since the thorns occupy everything. Tell me then, in order to examine your faith: Did you also believe in your Father when you were a child? Lod. What do you call believing in my Father? Wied. To truly hold him for a Father and to rely entirely upon him.
What it is to believe in one's father.

Lod. I relied entirely. Wieder. When then you needed any thing, such as shoes, clothes, or food, did you take your refuge only to him, so that you did not doubt in the least his willingness toward you? Lodewyck. Indeed, no more of his good will than of my own.