The. xxiii. chapyter
BUt where as they shold haue ta ken this way & walked forward with hym, they toke the […] way / not onely the other Iewes but many also of hys own discyples, & went away bakward frō hym, & as ye gospel saith walked no more with him
But though that many of hys dis cyples went awaye from hym, bycause hys father brought theym not vnto hym: yet as hym selfe sayd before, all that my father geueth me shall come to me / all went not away. His apostles taried. And yet amōge those twelue taryed one false shrew. And in the stede of those dyscyples yt went away, which were as saīt Austayn1 sayth about thre score & ten / he hose soone after other. iii. score & ten, whome he sent to preche about as he had sent hys twelue apostles before.
But than seynge there were at yt tyme so few lefte & so many gone, he sayd vnto his. xii. apostles, wyll you be gone to? He neyther bode thē go as though he wolde be glad of theyr goynge / nor yet bode them abyde, as though he had nede of theyr abydyng but onely asked theym whyther they wolde go or not / sygnifyeng that for all theyr […] they were in the liberty of theyr owne fre wyll, eyther to go after the tother / or to abide styll wyth hym. Than answered Simon Peter and sayd: Lord to whom shall we go. Thou hast the wordes of euerlastynge lyfe. And we byleue and know that thou arte Chryst the sone of god. As though he wolde saye yf we loue lyfe, to whom sholde we go fro the? For onely thou hast […] not of lyfe onely but also of life euer lastynge / for all thy wordes and thy doctryne drawe men therto. And we byleue, and by bylyef we know, that thou art Cryst the very sone of god. And therby we knowe that thou arte not onely very man, but also very god. And we perceyue well therfore that thou arte the brede that is descen ded from heuen, and that thou shalt ascende thyder agayne, and […] thou arte able and of power to geue vs that meruelouse meate of thyn owne holy fleshe to eate. And that thou so wylt do, we byleue and wote well, bycause thou so doste promyse. And we perceyue well yt thou wylt not geue it vsin dede gobbettes that could not auayle vs / but alyue, & with thyne holy spyryte ye foūtayne of lyfe, wherby thy fleshe shall geue vs yf we wyll eate it euerlastynge lyfe, whan thou shalt resuscytate our bodyes in the last day. But in what meruelouse maner thou wylt geue it vs to eate, that haste thou not yet declared vs / nor we wyll not be to boldely curyouse or inquisytyue of thy meruelouse mistery. But therin abyde the tyme of thyne own determy nacyon, as to whose hyghe heuynly wysedome the season mete and […] is open and knowen, and vn knowen to mortall men. And we wyl therfore obedyently receyue it & eate it, at what tyme and in what wyse yt thy gracyouse pleasure shalbe to cō maunde vs.
Whan saynt Peter as hed vnder Cryst of that cōpany, had made this answere, not onely for hym selfe but also for them all, not sayenge I but we: our lorde to lette hym se that he was somwhat deceyued, & had sayed more than he coulde make good. For one false shrew was there yet styll remaynynge amonge the twelue / wherof. xi. were not ware / our sauyour therfore sayd. Haue not I chosen you twelue & of you twelue yet is there one a deuell? Thys he spake by Iudas Iskariot the sone of Simon for he it was that shold […] hym beyng one of the twelue Our lorde here good […] she wed hym selfe not deceyued. For though Iudas falsed was vnknowē to his felowes, yet was it not vnkno wē to hys mayster / which though he shewed hym selfe not ignoraunt of hys seruauntes […] mynde, & traytorouse purpose towarde his owne persone (to warde whych purpose as it semeth Iudas hart had at thys tyme conceyued some inclinacyon) yet had he pacyence with hym, and continually dyd vse ye wayes to reforme and amende hym / neuer castyng hym out, tyll he clerely caste out hym self, accordynge to the sayenge of our sauiour,2 He that cometh to me I wyll not caste hym out.
Footnotes
Chapter 25 of 70