A14461:1131
The Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Divided into three parts, dialogue wiseThe Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Deuided into three partes, dialogue wise
The Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Divided into three parts, dialogue wise: set out with such grace, that it cannot be, but that a man shall take great pleasure in the reading thereof. Translated out of French into English, by John Brooke of AsheThe Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Deuided into three partes, dialogue wise: set out with such grace, that it cannot be, but that a man shall take greate pleasure in the reading thereoff. Translated out of French into English, by Iohn Brooke of Ashe
London: printed by Thomas East, 1579
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
But if the 1elect, aswell little as great, which have ben among y• Gentiles 2& Paynims, have been saved without exterior circumcision, as it appeareth in y• Ninevites, Nahaman, Job, Nebuchadnezzar & other like, which have had knowledge of God, & have had their recourse unto his mercy, wherefore shall y• same privilege be denied unto those that be hath, not only elected through his eternal election, belonging unto all his servants, but also he hath given unto them y• witness by the exterior sacraments, if they had such lets & excuses, & as reasonable as the Gentiles and Paynims could have? For why were not the elect which were among y• Paynims accused, in being not circumcised, but because that they were not in the land of Israel, nor in the visible church, & among y• people which he had chosen, unto whom he commanded such things. If they had been among the Israelites, and that they might have communicated with them, it had been requisite to be circum•• sed, and to use the same sacraments. But when they were in a place, in which they had not that exterior mym•re, nor could not have it, the Lord was contented with the means that it pleased him to give unto them. Now if such necessity happened unto the Israelites, I doubt not, but that the obligation of the law hath ceased, ⟨p. 230⟩when the causes, for which it was given are ceased: and the spiritual circumcision of the heart, sufficeth for it self & for the exterior, & the spiritual sacrifices, for the material. For when they were in y• wilderness, & that they must be ready every day to remove their host & household stuff every hour, when God commanded them they did well Judge, y• God would not y• they should be murderers of their young children, whom they could not circumcise, but y they would be very sick & in danger of death, if they had not had time & place to look well unto them, as we may presume, by the Sichemytes, who were so sick after