The seconde tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the Newe Testament conteynyng the epistles of S. Paul, and other the Apostles : wherunto is added a paraphrase vpon the reuelacion of S. John.

The texte.

For we knowe that yf oute earthly mansyon of thys dwellyng were destroyed, we haue a byldyng of God, an habitacyon not made with handes, but eternall in heauen. For ther∣fore sygh we, desyryng to bee clothed with oure mansyon whiche is from heauen: so yet, yf that we be founde clothed, and not naked. For we that are in thys tabernacie, sygh and are greued because we would not be vnclothed, but would be clothed vpon, that mortalitie myght be swalowed vp of lyfe. He that hath ordeyned vs for thys thynge; is God: whiche very same hathe geuen vnto vs the erneste of the spirite.

ANd vpon thys sure truste, certaynly lytle regarde we euen oure lyfe, knowinge well, that yf it chaunce our soules in this worlde to be chaced out of the mansion of oure bodye, (whiche I myght more properly call a tent, than a mansion, being suche, as a manne maye not long tary in, though nomanne dryue hym thence) that we haue prepared for vs another howse in hea∣uen, from whence we shall neuer be excluded. As for this howse of oures, because it is made of claye, and buylded by manne, whether we wyll or not, decayeth dayly, albeit no man pull it downe, euen as we see other buyldynges in continuaunce of tyme to be destroyed. Mennes workmanshyp can not be of longe continuaunce, but that, whiche is repayred by god, and once becomen heauenly, is out of all suche ieoperdies, as chaunce by reason of tyme. And so lytle feare we to departe out of this wretched body, that vntyl that be, we sygh, here desyring to be discharged of the burdayne of our mortal carkas, wherewith our soule is here in earth much burdeyned and kept downe, desyrouse to flye hence to another place, and to be clothed with the mansion of a gloryfied body, which shall from heauen be gyuen vnto vs: so that when we bee vnclothed of this bodye, we bee not founde vtterlye naked, but through a confidence of our good lyfe clothed with the hope of lyfe immortall. For we grone in thys meane season for the heuynes of oure bodye thrall and subiecte to so manye miseries, not because it is a thyng of it selfe to bee desyred of any man to de∣parte hence, but because we desyre to haue this bodye restored into a better fourme, and for mortalitie, by rysyng againe to receaue immortalitie, so that we seme not vtterly spoyled of the bodye, whiche we for a tyme forsoke, but better clothed with the same, as who for a corruptible bodye shall receaue an incorruptible.

And albeit this seme neuer so vnlikely, that there shall for a mortall body ryse an immortall, fre from all miseries, yet muste we not mistruste the sonne. It is god, whiche hathe prepared vs to receaue the glory of lyfe immortall, who hathe also in the meane season gyuen vs, as a pledge or an earneste pe∣ny, his holy spirite, to confirme and establyshe vs with his present inspira∣cion, in hope of that, whiche is to come.