The Multitext Edition > Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales MS. Peniarth 392 D
The Parson's Tale
Folio 240v
19 of 30 folios
oghte make a man haue conticioū / is the sorweful remembrance
of the good / þt he hath left to doon here in erthe / & eek / the good
þt he hath lorn /
soothly / the goode werkes þt he hath left either
they ben the goode werkes þt he wroghte er he fil in to deedly
synne / or ellis / the goode werkes þt he wroghte / whil he lay in
synne /
soothly / the goode werkes þt he dide biforn þt he fil in
synne / ben al mortefied / & astoned / & dulled / by the ofte syn-
nynge /
160
That othere goode werkes
þt he wroghte
/ whil he lay
in dedly synne
/ they ben outrely dede
/ as to the lyf
pardurable
in heuene
thanne thilke goode werkes þt ben mortefied by
ofte synnyng whiche goode werkes he dide while he was in
charitee / ne mowe neuere quyken agayn / wt oute verray peni-
tence /
and ther of seith god
/ by the mowth of Ezechiel
that
if the rightful man returne agayn from his rightwisnesse
/ & werke wikkednesse
/ shal he lyue ;
nay / for alle the goode
werkes þt he hath wroght ne shulle neuere ben in remem-
brance / for he shal dye / in his synne /
and vp on thilke cha-
pitre
/ seith Seint Gregorie thus
that we shul vnderstonde
this
/ p
incipally
/
165
that whan we doon dedly synne / it is for
nawght thanne to reherse / or drawen in to memorie / the goode
werkes þt we han wroght biforn
¶ for certes / in the werkynge
of the dedly synne / ther is no trust to no good werk . þt we
han doon biforn / that is to seyn / as for to haue ther by / the
lyf pardurable in heuene /
but nathelees / the goode werkes
quyken agayn and comen agayn & helpen & Auaylen / to ha-
ue the lyf pardurable in heuene / whan we han Contricion /
but soothly the goode werkes þt men doon / whil þt they been
in dedly synne / for as muche / as they weren doon in dedly
synne / they may neuere quyken agayn /
for certes / thyng þt ne-
uere hadde lyf / may neuere quyken / and natheles / al be it /
þt they ne auayle noght to han the lyf pardurable / yet auay-
len they / to abreggen of the peyne of helle / or ellis / to gete
temporal richesses /
170
or ellis / þt god wole the rather enlumyne
& lighte / the herte of the synful man to han repentance ;
And eek they auailen / for to vsen a man to doon goode werkes /
þt the feend / haue the lasse power of his soule /
and thus
the curteys lord Ihū crist ne wole þt no good werk be lost
for in som what it shal auayle /
but for as muche as the
goode werkes / þt men doon whil they ben in good lyf ben al
amortised by synne folwynge ; / and eek sith þt alle the