The texte.

But nowe haue ye with Moses lawe nothyng to do, synce the same is become to you warde dead, or yf she lyued styll, as she doth not, yet are* ye at the least to her dead. For synce that Christ, whiche is the truthe, hath shewed his glisteryng beames of the gospell, abrogate and abolished is all Moses lawe, at the leaste touchyng the carnall meanyng therof. And forasmuche as ye are now planted into Christes body, coupled vnto hym, as y^• wyfe is to her husbande, & beyng made free frō your former bonde ye are belonging to your newe husbande, suche one (I saye) as is immortal, as whiche once rose from death to lyue hereafter for euer, insomuche that ye cannot in tyme to come either loke to be maried agayne, or to be deuor∣ced, (for a shamefull vilanye and reproche were it to suche a new husbāde, as ye haue gotten, in any poynt to hang vpon the olde,) forasmuche as (I saye) ye are in this case, diligently labour you, that as by the lawe, whiche for the tyme was as it were your husbande, ye brought furth a certayne sorte of fruite, not vnlike your husbande: so endeuour ye to bryng furth nowe beyng muche better maried then ye before were, fruite suche as is conueniente for God youre father in lawe, and Christe youre spouse and husbande.

Page  xviiFor as long as we were subiecte to the grosse and carnal law as it wer to a husbande, the same seamed, as husbandes do, to beare rule ouer vs, because carnall lustes beyng by reason of the lawe more prouoked, had suche power in oure membres, that euen lyke slaues we wer drawen to synne, and so of that vnhappy mariage, vnhappy chyldren had we, when that whiche was borne, was for nothyng good, but to be destroyed and to dye.

But nowe, synce we are delyuered out of y^• bondage of the lawe, vnder* whome we lyued before, or rather because oure lyfe was synfull, we lyued not at all, but were dead, and yet vnder it were we vntyll a certayne time appoynted, agaynst reason is it, that we shoulde anye longer obeye that carnal husbande, that is to wete the letter of y^• law, but rather serue oure newe spouse, whiche is both heauenly and spirituall: not seruyng hym in the olde conuersacion of the letter, but in the newe conuersacion of the spirite, whiche spirite we haue of hym receyued, as a mariage token.