daies? that is a minde knowyng it selfe cleane & honest and
a name that hath not been defiled at any time. But what
thyng now is more miserable then is agee? Whan it beholdeth,
and loketh backward on thinges that be past seeth plainly
with great grudg of conscience howe fayre thynges he hathe
despiced and sette lyght by, (that is, howe farre he hath
discented and gone astray from the promyses made vnto God in
baptime) & agayn, how foule & noughty thîges he hath clipped
and enbraced, and whã || hee looketh forwarde, hee seeth
then the daye of iudgemente drawe neere, and shortely after
the eternall punyshemente of of hell. _SPVDE._ I esteme
theim most happie whych haue neuer defyled theyr youthe,
but euer haue increased in vertu, til thei haue coomne vnto
the last puincte of age. _HEDO._ Next them thei ar too bee
commended that haue wythdrawne theim selues from the folie
of youth in tyme. _SPVDE._ But what councel wil you yeoue
agee that is in suche great myserie. _HEDO._ No man shoulde
dispayre so long as life endureth, I wyl exhorte him to
flee for helpe vnto the infinitie mercye & gentilnes of God.
_SP._ But the longer that he hath liued || the heape of his
synnes hath euer waxen greate and greater, so that nowe it
passeth the nomber of the sandes in the sea, _HE_ But the
mercies of our lord far excede those sãdes, for although the
sande can not bee numbred of manne, yet hit hath an ende,
but the mercie of God neither knoweth ende, ne measure.
_SP._ Yea but he hath no space that shall dye by and by,
_HEDONI._ The lesse tyme he hath the more feruêtly he should
cal vnto god for grace, that thyng is long inough before
God, whiche is of suche power as too ascende from the yearth
vnto heauê, for a short prayer forsoth streght entreth