Wherefore, grant me your audience, and
hear me patiently. And first, I will assure you, it is not myself,
but you--not mine, but your advantage that I seek by what I now do,
as will full well be made manifest, by that I have opened my mind
unto you. For, gentlemen, I am (to tell you the truth) come to
show you how you may obtain great and ample deliverance from a
bondage that, unawares to yourselves, you are captivated and
enslaved under.' At this the town of Mansoul began to prick up its
ears. And 'What is it? Pray what is it?' thought they. And he
said, 'I have somewhat to say to you concerning your King,
concerning his law, and also touching yourselves. Touching your
King, I know he is great and potent; but yet all that he hath said
to you is neither true nor yet for your advantage. 1. It is not
true, for that wherewith he hath hitherto awed you, shall not come
to pass, nor be fulfilled, though you do the thing that he hath
forbidden. But if there was danger, what a slavery is it to live
always in fear of the greatest of punishments, for doing so small
and trivial a thing as eating of a little fruit is.
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