[6-text p 598] be ye fouler ffor your long contynuyng in syn and your synfull vsage / for which ye ben roten in your synne / as a beste in his dung/ [140] Soch maner of thoughtes / maketh man have shame of his [Eg. 2726 folio 243b] Syn/ and no delite / As god seith / by the prophete Ezechiel [141] ye shull remembre yow / of your weyes / and they shull displese yow / Sothely synnes / ben the weyes / that leden folk to hell/
[142] The secunde cause / that ought make a man to haue disdeyne of synne / is this / That as seyth Seint Petir / who-so þat doth synne / is thrall of synne / and synne putteth a man / in grete thraldom [143] And ther|fore seith the prophete Ezechiel / I went sorowfull in dysdeyn of my self / and certes wele ought a man haue disdeyn of synne / and withdrawe hym from that thraldom / and velanye / [144] And loo what seith Senek / in this mater / he seith thus / þough I wost/ þat neyther god ne man / ne shold neuer knowe it / yitte wold I have disdeyn for to do synne / [145] And þe same Seneca seith / Also þat I am born to gretter thyng than to bee thrall to my body / or than/ for to maken of my body a thrall/ [146] Ne a fouler thrall / may no man/ ne womman/ maken of his body / þan for to yeve his body to synne / [147] all were it þe foulest/ cherle / or the foulest womman / that lyueth and leest of value / yitte is he þan more foule / and more in seruitute / [148] euere from þe hier degree / þat man falleth / the more is he thrall/ and more to god vile / and to þe world abhom|ynable / [149] O god wele ought man haue disdeyn / of synne seth þat þurgh synne / þere as he was free / now is he maked bonde / [150] And therfore seith seint Austeyn / yf þow have disdeyn of thy seruaunt yf he agylt/ or synne/ have þou þan disdeyn/ þat þou sholdest do synne [151] take reward of thy value / þat þou ne be / to foule to thy self / [152] Allas wele oughten they than haue disdeyn / to be
