A Study of Peter Chelčický's Life and a Translation from Czech of Part I of His Net of Faith (1947)/Part 2/Section 1
CHAPTER I
THE MIRACULOUS FISHING
Now when Jesus had ceased speaking, he said to Simon Peter, "Push out into the deep and let down your nets for a haul."The Allegory
of the Net
(Luke 5:4–6) And Simon answering said, "Master,1 we toiled all night and caught nothing, nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net." And when they had done this, they enclosed such a great shoal of fish that their net began to break.
These words written in the Gospel are the foundation of those matters which ought to be profitably taught, to some for usefulness, to others for irritation, provocation, ill-will, and disfavor. In this respect, however, we will, with God's help, deal with nothing else but that we of the latter day desire to see the first things, and to take hold of them, if He will let us do so. For the worst time has come, the time of storm, the time of crying and moaning, the time of all sorts of deception, which makes it possible that every one to the last man be deceived by signs and miracles performed by false Christs. And none would be able to withstand them were it not that God has shortened these times for His chosen people.
Thus we of the latter day are like after the burning out of a house which has fallen down making a pile of ruins;The Allegory
of a Fallen
House here and there we see by some signs that there stood a chamber before – but everything fell onto the foundation (which, buried,) is grown over by a forest where animals graze and dwell. Who will then find the burled foundation of the burned house that is in ruins and which is deeply covered (with de̍bris) and the top of which has long since been overgrown by defiant weeds?
The whole matter of finding the true foundation is made all the more difficult because these defiant weeds which have sprung upon it are called the true foundation by manyj they, pulling to themselves the growth on top of the house ruins, declare; "This Is the foundation and the way, all should follow it." And with many of them we see that their new foundation sinks into soft ground, the floor settling at different levels. This shows the difficulty of finding the true foundation. . . .
There are many who would like to dig in order to find the original foundation, in the like manner as Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, and the prophets have done, when,Difficulty of
Finding the
True Basis of
Christianity after seventy years of their Babylonian captivity, they returned and built the Temple of and the city of the Lord which had been burned down by the Edomites. And they had a great difficulty In rebuilding the city and the Temple on the charred ruins.2 Now there are also spiritual ruins long ago covered up (by weeds); the se, too, shall be mended and rebuilt, and for this no one can give a true foundation save Jesus Christ3 from whom many have run away to other gods, building themselves new foundations, denying and covering up Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by a (layer of) falsehood.
1 Instead of the NT word master the original has the expression "prikazateli," meaning "thou who commandest," "commander."