A Christian instruction, containing the law and the Gospel Also a summary of the…A Christian instruction, conteyning the law and the Gospell Also a summarie of the…

T. Is it the like of man?

D. There is no doubt of it, for experience doth so plainly declare it: for sith the time that our first father was poisoned with the venom of the old serpent, he could beget no children but such like as he him self was, and little serpents of the same nature that he was, and infected with the same venom, the which albeit that it doth abide hidden for a certain time in us, doth not let for all that to show it self forthwith at the first occasion that it may find. This is the first spring, the first foundation, and the first cause, as much as doth pertain to man, of all the sins that he may commit. Now if that wicked spring, ⟨p. 524⟩how secret or covert soever it be, doth so much displease God, that it hath already deserved eternal damnation, before that it hath so much as once budded forth: how much more shall it displease him with his buds, his branches, and the whole tree and his fruit?

D. There is no doubt of it, for experience doth so plainly declare it: for sith the time that our first father was poysoned with the venime of the olde serpent, he coulde beget no children but suche like as he him selfe was, and little serpēts of the same nature that he was, and infected with the same venime, the which albeit that it doth abyde hidden for a certen time in vs, doth not let for all that to shewe it selfe foorthwith at the first occasion that it may finde. This is the first spring, the first foundation, and the first cause, as muche as doth pertayne to man, of all the sinnes that he may cōmit. Nowe if that wicked spring, ⟨p. 524⟩how secret or couert soeuer it be, dothe so muche displease God, that it hath already deserued eternall damnation, before that it hath so muche as once budded foorthe: howe muche more shall it displease him with his buddes, his braunches, and the whole trée and his fruit?