University of Virginia Library

But to you all, I wyll tell sothly
Wherfore the deuylles be all so gresely
For when that they were Aungels bryght
As tho ye be in heauen, before Goddes syght
And from ye place, throughe synne they fell
And anone bycōmen foule fendes of hell
And were horryble fygured throughe synne
And so they were all wrapped therin
For yf synne ne were, they had be styll
Bryght Aungelles, as they were throughe Goddes wyll
And nowe they be horryble, and vnsemely
And that was throughe synne of pryde onely
Than is synne fouler, and more lothsome
Than is the deuyll, that from hell may come
For Clarckes telleth it, that be of cōnynge
That synne is so foule, and so horryble a thynge
That yf a man myght se, before hym his synne
In the same lykenes, that he falleth in
He shulde rather than for drede it fle
Than any deuyll of hell, that he myght se
Than is the soule of a synfull man within
Fouler than the deuyll, yf he be in synne
Therfore a man shulde, where that he wendes
More drede synne, than any syght of fendes
That shall come to hym, at his endynge
For his synnes in dyspayre hym to brynge
Of whiche synnes, he wolde hym nat shryfe
Ne take no repentaunce here in his lyfe
For vs behoueth euerychone, in Goddes owne syght
yelde our accomptes of wronge and of ryght
And of all thynges, that euer we haue wrought
Both in werke, and in wyll, and euery mysthought.