Preaching God's Word. I have often considered a thorough investigation of the Ten Commandments, but at those very opening words – "I am the Lord thy God," – I stuck fast. That very one word, "I", put me to a non-plus. He that has but one word of God before him, and out of that word cannot make a sermon, can never be a preacher.

Believing God's Word. If I thoroughly appreciated those first words of the Lord's Prayer – "Our Father, which art in heaven," and really believed that God, who made heaven and earth, and all creatures, was really my Father, then, I should certainly conclude that I also am a lord of heaven and earth; that Christ is my brother, Gabriel my servant, and all the angels my attendants, given unto me by my heavenly Father to keep me in His ways lest I knock my foot against a stone.

Guarding God's Word. No greater mischief can happen to a Christian people than to have God's Word taken from them, or falsified, so that they no longer have it pure and clear. God grant we and our descendants be not witnesses to such a calamity.

Privileges. Christ lived three and thirty years and went up thrice every year to Jerusalem, making ninety-nine times He went to that place. If the pope could show that Christ had been but once at Rome, what a bragging and boasting would be made! Yet Jerusalem was destroyed to the ground!

Sin. Original sin, after regeneration, is like a wound that begins to heal; though it be a wound, yet it is in the course of healing, though it still runs and is sore.

Restitution. If thou hast been a murderer, an adulterer, a drunkard, so I have been a blasphemer of God, for, by the space of fifteen years, as a Friar, I blasphemed God by celebrating that abominable idol, the Mass. It had been better for me to have been guilty of another wickedness, but what is done cannot be undone. Yet, "he that has stolen, let him henceforward steal no more."

Free-will. The very name, Free-will, was odious to all the Fathers. I, for my part, admit that God gave to mankind a free will, but the question is, whether this same freedom be in our power and strength, or not. I have often been resolved to live uprightly, and to lead a true Godly life, and to set everything aside that would hinder this. But, it was far from being put into practice – even as it was with Peter, when he swore he would lay down his life for Christ. I will not lie or argue before my God, but will freely confess, I am not able to perform that good which I intended, but await the happy hour when God shall be pleased to meet me with His Grace.

Relics. In may places, the papists boast of having some of the milk of the Virgin Mary, and of the hay on which Christ lay in the cradle. A Franciscan Monk boasted that he had some of this hay in the wallet that he carried with him. A roguish fellow took out the hay and put some charcoal in its place. When the Monk came to show the people his hay, he found only the charred wood. However, he was not at a loss: "My brethren," he said, "I brought out the wrong wallet, and so, cannot show you the hay, but here is some of the wood that St. Lawrence was grilled upon."

Baptism. Some one once sent to Luther's table to know if it was permissible to use warm water in Baptism. Luther replied, "Tell the blockhead that water, warm or cold, is water."

Deceit. There was a miser, who, when he sent his servant to the cellar for wine, made him fill his mouth with water, which he was to spit out on his return, to show that he had drunk no wine. But the servant kept a pitcher of water in the cellar, wherewith, after taking his fill of the wine, managed to deceive his master.

The Pope. The cuckoo takes the eggs out of the linnet's nest, and puts her own in their place. When the young cuckoo grow big, they eat the linnet. The pope is a cuckoo; he robs the church of her true eggs, and substitutes in their place his greedy Cardinals, who devour the mother who has nourished them. The cuckoo, too, has a great antipathy towards the nightingale. The pope, too, cannot abide that nightingale, the preaching and singing of the true doctrine.