The jewes seek
righteousness in their ceremonies which God gave unto them, not for
to justify: but to describe and paint Christ unto them, of which
jewes testifieth Paul saying how that they have affection to God: but
not after knowledge, for they go about to stablish their own justice,
and are not obedient to the justice or righteousness that cometh of
God. The cause is verily, that except a man cast away his own
imagination and reason, he cannot perceive God, and understand the
virtue and power of the blood of Christ. There is the righteousness
of works (as I said before) when the heart is away, they feel not how
the law is spiritual and cannot be fulfilled, but from the bottom of
the heart. There is a full righteousness, when the law is fulfilled
from the ground of the heart. This had neither Peter nor Paul in this
life perfectly: but sighed after it. They were so far forth blessed
in Christ, that they hungered and thirsted after it. Paul had this
thirst, he consented to the law of God, that it ought so to be, but
he found an other lust in his members contrary to the lust and desire
of his mind, and therefore cried out saying: Oh wretched man that I
am: who shall deliver me from this body of death, thanks be to God
thorow Iesus Christ.
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