[The Pentateuch]

If thou wilt vow of thy goods unto god thou must put salt unto this sacrifice: that is thou must minister knowledge in this dead as Peter teacheth .ij. pet .i. Thou must put oil of gods word in thy lamp & do it according to knowledge / if thou wait for the coming of the bridegroom to enter in with him in to his rest. Thou wilt hang it about the image to move men to devotion. Devotion is a fervent love unto gods commandments and a desire to be with god and with his ever lasting promises. Now shall the sight of such riches as are showed at saint thomas shrine or at walsingham move a man to love the commandments of god better and to desire to be loosed from his flesh and to be with god / or shall it not rather make his poor heart sigh because he hath no such at home and to wish part of it in another place? ⟨image 244⟩The priest shall have it in gods stead. Shall the priest have it? If the priest be bought with christs blood / then he is christs servant & not his own & ought therefore to feed christs flock with christs doctrine & to minister christs sacraments unto them purely for very love & not for filthy lucre's sake or to be lord over them as Peter teacheth .i. pet .v. & paul Acts .xx. Beside this christ is ours and is a gift given us / & we be heirs of christ & of all that is christs Wherefore the priests doctrine is ours & we heirs of it / it is y• food of our souls. Therefore if he minister it not truly and freely unto us with out selling / he is a these & a soul murderer: and even so is he if he take upon him to feed us & have not wherewith. And for a like conclusion because we also with all that we have be christs / therefore is the priest heir with us also of all that we have received of god / wherefore in as much as y• priest waiteth on y• word of god and is our servant therein / therefore of right we are his debtors & owe him a sufficient living of our goods / and even thereto a wife of our daughters owe we unto him if he require her. And now when we have appointed him a sufficient living / whether in tithes rents or in yearly wages / he ought to be con tent & to require no more nor yet to receive any more / but to be an ensample of soberness & of despising worldly things unto the ensample ⟨image 245⟩of his parishioners.