God be thanked, that though ye wer the seruauntes of synne, ye haue yet obeyed with heart vnto the rule of the doctrine that ye be brought vnto. Ye are then made free from synne, and are becomen the seruauntes of righteousnes, I speake grosly, because of the infirmitie of your fleshe.
Glad am I for your sakes, and for this geue thankes vnto God, that wheras heretofore ye were in this moste miserable bondage, wholly ge∣uen to idolatrie and filthy lustes, ye are nowe departed from the tyranny* 1.1 of the deuil, frely and gladly submittyng your selues to Christes kyng∣dome and gouernaunce, purposyng hencefoorth to liue, not as ye are, either by wylful desyres or by the law moued, but after the new rule of ye gospel, whervnto ye are brought from your olde errours, & so brought that ye are become vnder another lawe, enfraunchised out of the domi∣nion of synne, and thence conueied to serue righteousnes and to do her behestes. Nor thynke it harde and paynefull, because ye are commaun∣ded to serue righteousnes. For as synne and godly life farre differ one from another, so are theyr fruites quite cōtrary, and the fruites of godly life, infinitely more excellente, so that if we weighe and consider, but e∣uen the thyng selfe, muche more cause is there, why men shuld more dili∣gently serue God, then the deuil. For whoso serueth synne, serueth the deuil, but he that serueth innocencie, serueth God.
But yet wyll not I for a whyle so muche require of you, as I might lawfully do, but rather temper and measure my writyng to y• weakenes