¶The .iij. Chapter.
1 He taketh for example the fayth of the Corinthians for a probation of the trueth which he preached, 6 and to exalt his apostleship agaynst the braggers of the false apostles, 7.13. he maketh comparison betwixt the lawe and the Gospell.
[unspec A] 1 DO we begyn to prayse our selues agayne? Or neede we [as some other] of epistles of recōmen∣dation vnto you? or [letters] of recommen∣dation from you?
2 Ye are our epistle written in our hear∣tes, whiche is vnderstande and read of all men:
3 Forasmuche as ye declare that ye are the epistle of Christ ministred by vs, and written, not with ynke, but with the spi∣rite of the lyuyng God, * 1.1not in tables of stone, but in * 1.2 fleshly tables of the heart.
4 ☞Such trust haue we through Christe [unspec B] to Godwarde.
5 Not that we are sufficiēt of our selues to thynke any thyng as of our selues: * 1.3but our ablenesse is of God,
6 Which hath made vs * 1.4able ministers of the newe testament, not of the letter, but of the spirite: For the letter kylleth, but the (a) 1.5 spirite geueth lyfe.
7 Yf the ministration of death, through the letters figured in stones, was in glo∣rie, so that the chyldren of Israel coulde not beholde the face of Moyses, for the (b) 1.6 glorie of his countenaunce, whiche [glorie] is done away:
8 Howe shall not the ministration of the spirite be much more in glorie?
9 For yf the ministration of condempna∣tion be glorie: much more doth the mi∣nistration of ryghteousnes exceede in glorie.☜
10 For euen that which was glorified, is [unspec C] not glorified in respect of this exceedyng glorie.
11 For yf that whiche is destroyed was glorious, much more that which remay∣neth is glorious.
12 Seyng then that we haue such truste, we vse great boldnesse:
13 And not as Moyses, which * 1.7put (d) 1.8 a vayle ouer his face, that the chyldren of Israel shoulde not see for what purpose that serued which is put away.
14 *But their myndes were blynded: For vntyll this day remayneth the same co∣ueryng vntaken away in the reading of the olde testament, which [vayle] is put away in Christe.
15 But euen vnto this day when Moyses is read, *the vayle is layde vppon their heart.
16 Neuerthelesse, *when it shall turne to the Lorde, the vayle shalbe taken a∣way. [unspec D]
17 * 1.9The Lorde is a spirite: And where the spirite of the Lorde [is] there [is] li∣bertie.
18 But we all behold [as] in a (d) 1.10 mirrour, the glorie of the Lorde, with his face open, and are chaunged vnto the same similitude, from glorie to glorie, euen as of the spirite of the Lorde.