The second reply of Thomas CartwrightThe second replie of Thomas Cartwright

But if the heinousness of the sin / be not to be esteemed according to the corporal punishment: whereby is it then to be esteemed? according (say you) unto the commandment of god, according to the threats of god pronounced against it. As though it were not the commandment off God / that there should be bodily punishment: and as though the civill punishments in this world / were not part off those threats / wherewith the lord threateneth the breakers of his law. You make therefore an opposition / where none is: And it is all one as if you had said / the corn may not be moten with a bushel / but with a measure. For as the bushel / is one measure: so is the corporal punishment / both one off the commandments / and off the threats ¹of god / against open sins. Solomon proveth Adultery to be a greater sin / then theft: for that where a these was not / the adulterer was pursued unto death, whereby it is manifest / that She ⟨p. CX⟩lomo was of this judgement / that in open faults / committed against a godly / and honest peace: the greater faults ought to be punished / with more grievous punishment. And if equality of punishment in unequal faults / be injustice: how mich more is it iniuste / to punish greater faults / with less / and lesser with greater punishments? And therefore that nothing should be wanting / to prove the doctor a perfect confounder / and tumbler of things in to the heaps of disorder: he doth not only put no difference / between the things which are separate: but in those also which are joined together / he imagineth such enmity: as if the one standing / the other could not remain. And as for his reason / that we see smaller faults punished with greater torment: the question is not what we see done / but what ought to be done. I grant that one / and the same fault / may be punished sharpelier in one country / then in an other: in the same country also sharpelier at some time / then at an other: But I deny / that thereof it followeth / that in the same country / and at the same time / a greater fault should be punished with light punishment / and a lighter with a great: which thing / seeing you except against a general rule / ought to have been showed.

But if the heynousenes of the synne / be not to be estemed according to the corporall punishmente: wherby is it then to be estemed? accordinge (saie yowe) vnto the commaundemente of god, accordinge to the threates of god pronounced againste yt. As thowghe yt were not the commaundemente off God / that there shoulde be bodylie punishemente: and as thowghe the ciuill punishementes in this worlde / were not parte off those threates / wherwithe the lorde threatneth the breakers of his lawe. Yow make therfore an opposition / where none is: And it is all one as if yow had saide / the corne maye not be moten withe a bushel / but withe a measure. For as the busshell / is one measure: so is the corporall punishemente / bothe one off the commaundementes / and off the threates