‘As there is nothing good in the root, there is consequently nothing in the fruit that is not tainted with the poison.
‘The maxims of morality which men stitch together are nothing but fig-leaves intended to hide their shame.[[745]]
‘Man is therefore twice dead; once because this is his nature, and yet again because, instructed by philosophy, he dares to assert—I live.
‘The law does not create sin, but it makes it plainly appear, as the sun draws out the foul smell of a corpse.[[746]]
‘The law is a sword which drives us violently out of paradise and kills us.
‘Faith is a steadfast witnessing of the Spirit of Christ with our spirit that we are children of God.’
The hearers had, for the most part, attained in their own experience to a certain knowledge of the truths which the Dutchman avowed; but all of them appreciated the power with which he set them forth, and the picturesque style in which his thought was dressed. He continued:—
‘Christ is the servant and the master of the law. He it is who, while sinking under the burden of sin, takes it away and casts it far from us and destroys it. He is at once the victim of death, and the medium by which death is destroyed. He is the captive of hell, and yet it is he who bursts open its gates.[[747]]
‘Perish the faith which lies slumbering and torpid, and does not vigorously press and drive on to charity. If thou hast faith indeed, fear not, thou hast also charity!’
After having thus delivered a good testimony of his faith, Henry of Zutphen left Wittenberg, came to Dort, and passed thence to Antwerp, where he labored zealously. In the cells of his brethren, the Augustines, in the refectory, as they went to the chapel and returned from it, he did not cease to urge the monks to draw from the Scriptures the treasures which had enriched himself.[[748]] He preached with so much fervor that the church of the Augustines would not hold the multitude that flocked to it. The learned, the ignorant, the magistrates, all classes wanted to hear him. He was the great preacher of the age; Antwerp hung upon his lips.[[749]] It appears that he was at this time nominated prior of the Augustines, as successor to Spreng.