Select English works of John Wyclif; edited from original mss. by Thomas Arnold.

oþer yvel. And þus, ȝif we myȝte lette synne, we shulden be Goddis proctours, al if we dien þerfore, and profiten here no more. But lyve we wel, and God failiþ not to consaile us how we shal do, and þus assente we not to synne but profite we as God biddiþ us. And herby may we answere to þe fendis argument. Suppose we þat Anticrist shall vencushe trewe men for a tyme; but þis is in bodily victory and not in vencushing of treuþe; for þus he vencuschiþ no man, but ever is overcome him silf. And þus trewe men shal ever have mater for to fiȝte goostly, boþe wiþ þe fend and his membris, þat ben wickide men of þis world. And so wiþ þis undir|stondinge fiȝte we wisely wiþ þis world, but algatis loke þat we be armed wiþ pacience and charite; and þan þe fiȝting of þe fend may no wey do us harm. And if þis skile shulde move men to performe Goddis wille, never shulde man fiȝte wiþ synne, for God wole þat synne profite. But what witen we wher tyme be come þat God wole þat þis tare be distryed? And herfore worche we wiseli, and fiȝte we aȝens þe fend, siþ þis stondiþ wiþ Goddis lawe and wiþ fillinge of Goddis wille.

ÞIS gosþel telliþ bi a parable how God haþ ordeyned for his Chirche fro þe bygynnynge of þe world, as longe as it dwelliþ here. The kyngdom of hevene, seiþ Crist, is lyke to a good huse|boonde [Bonde in the Scandinavian dialects has the sense of peasant, or small proprietor.] ; þat wente first eerly to hire werkmen into his vyneȝerde. Þis housbonde is God, and þis vyneȝerde is his Chirche, and at þe bygynnynge of þe world he hyred men to wirche þerynne, for alle þes men þat comen to hevene wirchen wel in þis Chirche; and her hire is a peny þat þei taken, for dai of hir lyf. And þis peny is hadde of men bi godhede and manhede of Crist. And