Letters to the Churches

Neither giue ye your members, as weapons of vnrighteousnes vnto sinne: but giue your selues vnto God, as they that are aliue from the dead, and giue your members as weapons of righteousnesse vnto God.

For sinne shall not haue dominion ouer you: for ye are not vnder ye Lawe, but vnder grace.

What then? shall we sinne, because we are not vnder the Law, but vnder grace? God forbid.

Knowe ye not, that to whomsoeuer yee giue your selues as seruats to obey, his seruants ye are to whom ye obey, whether it be of sinne vnto death, or of obedience vnto righteousnesse?

But God be thanked, that ye haue beene the seruants of sinne, but yee haue obeyed from the heart vnto the forme of the doctrine, wherunto ye were deliuered.

Being then made free from sinne, yee are made the seruants of righteousnesse.

I speake after the maner of man, because of the infirmitie of your flesh: for as yee haue giuen your members seruants to vncleannes and to iniquitie, to commit iniquitie, so now giue your mebers seruants vnto righteousnesse in holinesse.

For when ye were the seruants of sinne, ye were freed from righteousnesse.

What fruit had ye then in those things, whereof ye are nowe ashamed? For the ende of those things is death.

But now being freed from sinne, and made seruants vnto God, ye haue your fruit in holines, and the end, euerlasting life.

For the wages of sinne is death: but the gift of God is eternall life, through Iesus Christ our Lord.

Knowe yee not, brethren, (for I speake to them that knowe the Lawe) that the Lawe hath dominion ouer a man as long as he liueth?

For the woman which is in subiection to a man, is bound by the Lawe to the man, while he liueth: but if the man bee dead, shee is deliuered from the lawe of the man.

So then, if while the man liueth, she taketh another man, she shalbe called an adulteresse: but if the man be dead, she is free from the Law, so that shee is not an adulteresse, though shee take another man.

So yee, my brethren, are dead also to the Law by ye body of Christ, that ye should be vnto an other, euen vnto him that is raised vp from the dead, that we should bring foorth fruite vnto God.

For when we were in ye flesh, the affections of sinnes, which were by the Law, had force in our members, to bring foorth fruit vnto death.

But now we are deliuered from the Lawe, he being dead in whom we were holden, that we should serue in newnesse of Spirite, and not in the oldnesse of the letter.

What shall we say then? Is the Lawe sinne? God forbid. Nay, I knewe not sinne, but by the Lawe: for I had not knowen lust, except the Lawe had sayd, Thou shalt not lust.

But sinne tooke an occasion by ye commandement, and wrought in me all maner of concupiscence: for without the Lawe sinne is dead.

For I once was aliue, without the Law: but when the commandement came, sinne reuiued,

But I died: and the same commandement which was ordeined vnto life, was found to be vnto me vnto death.

For sinne tooke occasion by the commandement, and deceiued me, and thereby slewe me.

Wherefore the Lawe is holy, and that commandement is holy, and iust, and good.

Was that then which is good, made death vnto me? God forbid: but sinne, that it might appeare sinne, wrought death in me by that which is good, that sinne might be out of measure sinfull by the commandement.

For we knowe that the Law is spirituall, but I am carnall, solde vnder sinne.