¶ Why? for ye Iewes had [leuēded] the spirituall law of God and with theyr gloses had made it all to gether erthie ād fleshly / and so had sett a vayle or coueringe on Moses face / to shodowe and darken ye glorious brightnesse of his contenaunce. It was synne to stele: but to robbe wedowes howses vnder a coloure of longe prayēge / & to polle in the name of offeringes / and to snare ye people with intollerable cōstitucions agēst all loue / to ketch theyr money out of theyr purses / was no synne at all.
¶ To smyte father ād mother was synn: But to withdraw helpe frō them at theyr nede / for blynde zele of offeringe / vn to the profytt of the holy phareses / was then as meritorious as it is now to let all thy kynne chose wheter they will synke or sweme / while thou byldest and makest goodly fundatiōs for holy people which thou hast chosen to be thy christe / for to sowple thy soule with the oyle of theyr swete blessynges / & to be thy Iesus for to saue thy soule from ye purgatory of the bloud that only purgeth synne / with theyr watchīge / fastīge / wolward goinge & rysynge at mydnyght etc. where wyth yet they purge not them selues from theyr couetousnesse / pryde / lechury or any vyce that thou seyst amonge the laye people.
¶ It was greate synne for Christ to heale the people on the sabboth daye vn to the glorie of God hys father / but none at all for them to helpe theyr catell vnto theyr awne profett.
¶ It was synne to eate wyth vnwashen handes or on an vnwashen table / or out of an vnwashen dish: but to eate out of that purifyed dysh that which came of brybery / theft & extorsion / was no synne at all.
¶ It was exceadynge meritorious to make many dyscyples: But to teach them to feare God in hys ordynaunces / had they no care at all.
¶ The hye prelates so defended the ryght of holy church ād so feared the people with the curse of God & terreble paynes of hell / that no man durst leaue the vilest [herke] in hys gardeyne vntythed. And the offerynge and thynges dedycat vn to God for the profitt of hys holy vycars where in soch estymacion and reuerēce / that it was moch greater synne to sweare truly by them / thē to forswere thy selfe by God: what vengeaunce then of God / and how terreble and cruell damnacion thynke ye preached they to fall on thē that had stolen soch holy thīges? And yet sayth Christ / that ryghtwesnesse ād faith in kepynge promise / mercie and indyfferent iudgement were vtturly troden vnder fote and cleane dispysed of those blessed fathers / whych so mightely mayntened Arons patrimony ād had mad it so prosperous ād enuironed it and walled it aboute on euery syde with ye feare of god / that noman durst twech it.
¶ It was greate holynesse to garnysh ye sepulchres of ye prophetes & to cōdemne their awne fathers for sleynge of them: and yet were they thē selues for blinde zele of their awne cōstituciōs / as ready as their fathers to sle whosoeuer testified vn to them / the same trueth which the prophetes testified vn to theyr fathers. So that Christ cōpareth all the rightwesnesse of those holy patriarkes vn to the outwarde bewtye of a paynted sepulchre full of stench and all vn clennesse wythyn.
¶ And finally to begyld a mans neyboure in sotle bargeninge and to wrappe and cōpase him in with cauteles of the law / was then as it is now in the kingdome of ye Pope. By the reason where of they excluded the law of loue out of theyr hertes / ād cōsequētly all true repentaunce: for how coude they repēt of yt they coude not se to be sinne?
¶ And on the other syde they had sett vpp a rightwesnesse of holy workes / to clense theyr soules with all: as the Pope sanctifieth vs with holy oyle / holy bred / holy salt / holy candels / holy dome ceremonies ād holy dome blessynges / and with what soever holynesse thou wilt saue with the holynes of Gods worde which only speaketh vn to the herte and sheweth the soule hir filthynesse and vnclennesse of synne / and leadeth hir by ye waye of repentaunce vn to ye fountayne of Christes bloude to washe it awaye thorow faith. By the reason of which false rightwesnesse they were dysobedient vn to the rightwesnesse of God / which is the forgeuenesse of synne in Christes bloude and coude not beleue it. And so thorow fleshly interpretynge the law ād false imagined rightwesnesse / their hertes were hardened ād made as stony as clay in an hote furnace of fire / that they coude receaue nether repentaunce ner faith or any moyster of grace at all.
¶ But the hethen Niniuites / though they were blynded with lustes a good / yet were in [thofe] .ii. poyntes vncorrupte and vnhardened / & therfore with the only preachinge of Ionas came vn to the knowlege of their synnes and confessed them & repented truly & turned euery man from his euell dedes & declared theyr sorow of hert & true repentaunce / with theyr dedes which they dyd out of faith & hope of forgeuenesse / chastysinge their bodies with prayer & fastinge & with takinge all pleasures from the flesh: trustynge / as god was angre for their wekedness / even so shuld he forgeue them of hys mercye / yf they repēted & forsoke their mysse lyuinge.