for levyng of siche proofe synnen men ful grevousely boþe aȝens Crist and his Churche, ȝhe, aȝens freris þat men þenken þei helpen. And þis shulden alle men do in dede, and stire oþer men þerto, sum bi love, sum bi drede; and þus shulden oure bileve be shewid, and rotyn heresie, hid now, shulde come to proof wiþ false lesingis. And here moun men wel assaie wheþer clerkes and knyȝtis wiþ her comunes love God as þei confessen, and doren stonde bi his lawe; for he þat is necligent in so litil þing for to do, wolde soon be necligent in harder þing of more charge.
ÞE GOSPEL OF MANY MARTRIS.
[SERMON LXVIII.]
Descendens Jesus de monte.—LUC. vi. [17.]
ÞIS Gospel telliþ, as we hav seid, how þe peple lovede Crist, and how Crist ȝafe hem loore þat was betir þan al þis world. And so Crist, as a good knyȝt, stood now in hil, and now in pleyn, now in water, and now in erþe, to telle þat he was Lord of alle. But here he stood in the pleyn feld, for þer men miȝten betere heere him; and þus he techiþ, þat he loveþ all men þat holden his lawe, be þei clerkis, be þei kniȝtis, or laborers þat maynteynen tilþe. And þus Crist cam doun of þe hill, and stood in a feldi place, and to him cam dyverse folkis, as sum men þat weren hise disciplis, and a great multitude of oþer folk fro fyve places. Sum men camen fro fer countrees of þe lond of Jude, and sum camen fro Jerusalem, and sum camen fro þe see, and sum men fro þe lond of Tire, and sum fro þe lond of Sidon.
And men seien comunli þat men sueden Crist for fyve causis. Sum men camen to sue Crist, to lerne of him Goddis lawe; and þus sueden þe apostlis Crist þat speciali sueden him, and oþer trewe men, bi riȝt entent to be informed in Goddis lawe, and speciali at þis tyme; for now ȝaf Crist his lawe, and so he ordeynede many folk to here alweie þis newe lawe. Þe secounde cause þat men sueden Crist for, was to be heelid of
