13. But they answer and
speak, saying, “If the will of man without any aid of God by
strength of free choice2660
bears so many grievous and
horrible
distresses, whether in
mind or body, that it may
enjoy the
delight of this
mortal life and of
sins, why may it not be that in
the same manner the self-same will of man by the same
strength of
free-choice, not thereunto looking to be aided of
God, but unto
itself by
natural possibility sufficing, doth, in all of
labor or
sorrow that is put upon it, for
righteousness and
eternal life’s
sake most patiently sustain the same? Or is it so, say they, that
the will of the
unjust is sufficient, without aid of
God, for them,
yea even to
exercise themselves in undergoing
torture for
iniquity,
and before they be
tortured by others; sufficient the will of them
which
love the respiting of this
life that, without aid of
God,
they should in the midst of most atrocious and protracted
torments persevere in a
lie, lest confessing their misdeeds they be
ordered to be put to
death; and not sufficient the will of the
just, unless
strength be put into them from above, that whatever be
their pains, they should, either for
beauty’s sake of very
righteousness or for love of eternal life, bear the
same?”
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
