therefore, to please and obey me before all things, and be not conformed to this wicked world. But if thou desire to please men, thou canst not be my servant.
Besides, if for living well and serving me thou suffer calumny and persecution, thou shouldst rather rejoice than be sorry that thou art accounted worthy to suffer reproach for my name; for that is the true calling of a Christian. But comfort thyself mean time with the consciousness of thy good will: the day will come when I, the supreme Judge, will make manifest the counsels of all hearts, and will convict thy judges of unjust thoughts. Then shall they be troubled themselves with terrible fear; but thou shalt stand with great constancy, if thou but stand with patience now. To him that overcomes will I give the hidden manna and a new name.[1]
Man. Lord, let it be with me a very small thing to be judged by man, or by man’s day.[2] For that great day will bring all things to light. I will desire to please, and fear to displease thee alone.
But yet will it please thee, if, though conscious of my own unworthiness, and of thy majesty, as well as of the reverence due to so great mysteries, I nevertheless presume to come to thee so often? Ought I not to dread that familiarity would produce contempt? For such is the opinion of many, and perhaps I should myself do this more holily and reverently if I were to do it more seldom.
§ 7. Whether we should abstain from frequent Communion, on the plea of humility and reverence.
Christ. I beseech you, my faithful, but in this not faithful enough, no longer to call evil good, and put on sloth and lukewarmness, under the guise of virtue, deceiving your own selves, for it will be hard to deceive my eyes, that are brighter than the sun. Does infrequency, delay, or postponement dispose you to become more worthy of my table? Behold I, who know all the secrets of the heart, know what is in man. But to me your conscience, which I see through and through, is witness how well prepared you come to me after a prolonged delay. I will reprove thee, and set before thy face that this is an impious piety, and an irreligious reverence, which cloaks sluggishness with the assumption of piety, and, under the mask of reverence, knows how to pretend a zeal for religion. But iniquity has lied to itself.[3] Does a patient become the healthier the longer he avoids the phy-
