The Parable of the Wicked Mammon

But on this wise goeth it with heaven, with everlasting life, & eternal reward, likewise as good works naturally follow ⟨image 21⟩faith (as it is above rehearsed) so that thou needest not to command a true believer to work or to compel him with any law, for it is impossible that he should not work he tarrieth but for an occasion, he is ever disposed of him self, thou needest but to put him in remembrance, and that to know the false faith from the true. Even so naturally doth eternal life follow faith and good living, with out seeking for, and is impossible that it should not cone, thought no man thought there on. Yet is it rehearsed in the scripture, alleged, and promised to know the difference between a false believer and a true believer, and that every man may know what followeth good living naturally and of it self without taking thought for it. Take a gross example. Hell, that is everlasting death is threatened unto sinners, and yet followeth it sin naturally without seeking for. For no man doth evil to be damned therefore, but had lever avoid it. Yet the one followeth the other naturally, and thought no man told or warned him of it, yet should the sinner find it, and feel it. Nevertheless it is therefore threatened, that men may know what followeth evil living. Now then as after evil living followeth his reward unsought for even so after good living followeth his reward ⟨image 22⟩naturally unsought for or unthought upon even as when thou drinkest wine, be it good or bad, the tayst followeth of it self, thought thou therefore drink it not. Yet testifieth the scripture, and it is true, that we are by inheritance heirs of damnation, and that before we be borne we are vessels of the wrath of God and full of that poison whence naturally all since spring, and where with we can not but sin, which thing the deeds that follow (when we behold our selves in the glass of the law of God) do declare and utter, kill our consciences, and show us what we were and wist not of it, and certify us that we are heirs of damnation. For if we were of God we should cleave to God and lust after the will of God. But now our deeds compared to the law declare the contrary and by our deeds, we see our self both what we be and what our end shall be.

But on this wise goeth it with heauē, with euerlastyng lyfe, & eternal rewarde, lykewyse as good workes naturally folowe ⟨image 21⟩