he bringeth hym to hys dome. Herfore seyth the wise man. Sonne, thinke on thy last day, and thou shalt neuer sinne. Thefore I rede that thou thinke, that thou shalt geue reconing of thy bayly. I sayd also, that there shall be another doome, to the which all men shall come together, and this shall be vniuersall. Marginalia The day of iudgement. And right as to the other dome, euery man shall be cleped with these three sumnours: so to this dome all this world shall be cleped with three generall clepers. And right as the other three messengers tell a mans end, so these tell the end of the world. The first cleper is the worldly sicknes, the second cleper is feblenes, and the third is the ende. Marginalia The knowen the worlds sicknes. The sicknes of the world thou shalt know by charitie a cooling. His elde and febles thou shalt knowe by tokens fulfilling and hys end thou shalt know by Antichristes pursuing. First I sayd, thou shalt knowe the worldes sicknes by charitie a cooling Clerkes that treate of kynde sayne: that a bodie is sicke, when his bodely heate is to lite, or when his vnkindely heate is too muche. Sythe then all mankynde is one bodye, whose kindly heate is charity (that is loue to God and to our neighbors) vnkindly heate is lustfull loue to other creatures. When therefore thou seest that the loue of men to Godwarde and to their neigbour is litle and faynt, and the loue of worldlye thynges and lustes of the flesh is great and feruent: then wit thou well, that vnkindly heate is too great, and kindly heate is too little. That this be acknowlich of this sicknes, I may proue by autoritie of Christ. Marginalia Math. 21. For he himselfe gaue them as a signe of the drawing to the ende of the world: For that wickednes shall be in plente, charitie shall acoole. Therfore whan thou seest charitie this little in the worlde and wickednes encrease, know well, that this world passeth and hys welth, and that this somner is come. And thus seyth Marginalia 2. Tim. 3. Seint Poule, Wit ye well, that in the laste dayes shall come perilous times, and there shall be men louing them selfe, that is to say, their bodyes, couetous by pride, vnobedient to father and mother, vnkynd fellons, withouten affection, withouten peace, blamers, incontinent, vnmylde, withonten benignitie, traytours, rebels, swelling, louers of lustes more then of God, hauing a lykenes of pietie, and denying the vertue thereof. And these flee thou. If thou seest the people busied wyth such conditions, wyt thou well that the firste sumnour warneth all the world, that the day of reconing draweth towarde.

The second Sumnour, that warneth all the world, is elde or age of the world and hys feblenes, and sheweth tokens fulfillyng. But I know wel, that we be nought suffisaunt to know the times other the whyles that the fader in trinitie hath put on hys owne power, to shew certeinly the day, yeere, other houre of this dome, sith this knowleche was hid fro the priuey Apostles of Christ, and fro Christs manhode as to shew it to vs. Natheles, we inough by authoritie of holy writ, Marginalia Luke. 12. wyth reasons, and expositions of Saints, well and openly shew, that thys day of wrath is nygh: but yet least any man sey in hys hert as it is writen of folie baylies, that they shall seien, my Lord, that is, tarrieth to come to the dome, and vppon hope hereof he taketh to smite seruauntes and hynen of God, eate and drinke and make him dronk: I shall shewe that this day is at the hond, howe ny neuertheles, can I not seie ne wole For if Marginalia 1. Co. 10. Poule sayd now for a thousand and three hundred yeer, and passed moe: we ben thilke, into whome the endis of the worlde ben come, much rather may we seie the same that been so much neere the end than he was. Also S. Chrysostome Marginalia Chrisostom. sayth: thou seest ouer all darkenesse, and thou doutest that the day is go, first on the valeyes is darknesse whan the day draweth downeward: whan therefore thou seest the valeies I derked, why doutest thou whether it be nigh euen, but if thou see the sunne so lowe that derknesse is vpon the hilles, thou wolt seie doutles, that it is night. Right so, if thou see first in the seculers and the lewd christen men begynneth derknesses of sinnes and to haue the maistrie, it is token that this world endeth. Marginalia A proper similitude. But whan thou seest priests that ben put on the high toppe of spirituall dignities, that shulden be as hilles abouen the commune people in perfit liuing, that derknesse of sinnes hath taken them, who douteth that the world nis at the end. And also Marginalia Ioachim Abbot Ioachim in exposition of Ieremye, seyeth: Fro the yeare of our Lord 1200. all times beth suspect to me, and we ben passed on thys suspecte time nigh 200. yeare. Also mayden Marginalia Maide Hildegar. Hyldegare in the booke of her prophecie the third partie, the xj. vision, the vij. chapter, meueth thys reason. Ryght as on seauen dayes God made the world, so in 7000. yeare the world shall passe. And right as in the sixt day man was made and fourmed: so in 6000. yeares he was brought ageine and reformed. And as in the seauenth daye the world was full made, and God left off hys working, right so in the 7000. yeare, the number of them that shullen be saued shall be fulfilled, and rest shall be to Seintes fnll in bodye and soule. If that it be so as it seemeth to followe of this maydens words, that 7000. in passing of the world accordeth to seauen dayes in hys making it, see what lacketh that these 7000. yeares ne beth fulfilled. For if wee reken the number of yeeres fro the natiuitie of Christ, to the yeares fro the beginning of the world, to Christ, and thou wolt folowe Austyne, Bede, and Orosie, and most pro-bable doctours treating of this matter, MarginaliaAugustine. are passed now almost, sixe thousand and sixe hundred as it is open in a booke that is cleped Speculum Iudiciale So it suweth, that this last day is more than a halfe a go, if we shulden geue credence to thys maydens reasun: But if we shull lene to the Gospell, than we shall finde in the Gospell of Mathew, Marginalia Math. 24. that the Disciples axiden of Christ three questions First, what time the Citie of Ierusalem should be destroyed. The second, what token of hys comming to the doome. And the third, what signe of the endyng of the world. And Christ gaue them no certayne tyme of these thinges when they shoulden fall, but he gaue them tokens, by which they myght know when they drew nighe, and so as to the first question of the destruction of Ierusalem, he sayd: Marginalia Note. when the Romaines come to beseege that Citie, then soone after she shall be destroyed.

And as the the second and the thirde, hee gaue manye tokens, that is to say: that Realme shall rise against Realme, and people agaynst people, and pestilences and earthquakinges, the which we haue seene in our dayes. But the last token that hee gaue, was thys: when yee seene the abhomination of elengnesse sayd of Daniel the Prophet, standyng on the Sanctuary: then who so readeth, vnderstand. Vpon which text, thus argueth a Doctour in a booke that he maketh of the end of the world. If the wordes of Daniel hauen autoritie (as God sayth that they hauen) it sufficeth of the number of the yeares of the ende of the world, that Daniell hath written. Now Daniell in the twelfth chapter, speakyng of thys abhomination, putteth betweene the ceasing of the busie sacrifice of the Iewes, the whych fell, when by Titus and Vespasianus, Ierusalem was destroyed, and the people of Iewes were disparkled into all the world. And thys abhomination that Doctors sayne, shall be in the great Antichristes dayes. 1290. Nowe proueth thys Doctour, that a daye must be taken for a yeare, both by autoritie of holy writ in the same place, and in other, and also by reason: Marginalia Antichrist to come an. 1400. This sermon ergo was made, an. 1389. So it seemeth to this clerke, that the great Antichrist shoulde come in the 1400. yeare fro the birth of Christ, the which nomber of yeares is now fulfilled, not fully twelue yeares and a half lacking. And this reason put not I as to shewe anie certayne tyme of hys commyng, sithe I haue not that knowledge: but to shewe that he is nye, but how nygh I wot neuer. But take we heede to the fourth part of the second vision of Saint Iohn, put in the booke of Marginalia Apo. 6. Reuelations, in the which vnder the opening of the seauen seales, is declared the state of the Churche, from the time of Christ into the end of the world. The opening of the foure first seales, shew the state of the Church, fro the tyme of Christ, to the tyme of Antichrist and his foregoers, the whych is shewed in the opening of the other three seales. The opening of the fyrst seale, telleth the state of the Church in the tyme of the preaching of Christ and of hys Apostles. For the first, that is, the Lyon, gaue hys voyce, that betokeneth the preachers of Christes resurrection and hys ascension. For then yede out a whyte horse, and he that sat vppon hym, had a bow in hys hand, and he yede out ouercomming to ouercome. By thys whyte hors we vnderstand, the cleane life and conuersation that these preachers haden: and by the bowe, their true teaching, pricking sorow in mens hartes for their sinnes withouten flatteryng. And they wenten out of Iewry that they comen of, ouercommyng some of the Iewes, and maken them to leaue the trust that they hadden in the olde law, and to beleeue in Iesus Christe, and shewen hys teachynge. And they wenten out to ouercome the Paynemes, shewyng to them that theyr Images were no Gods, but mens woorkes, vnmighty to saue them selfe, or any other, drawyng them to the beliefe of Iesus Chryst God and man. In the opening of the second seale, there cryed the second beast, that is, a calfe, that was a beast wonted to be slayne, and offered to God in the old law. Marginalia Expositio. Thys sheweth the state of the Churche in the time of Martyrs, that for their stedfast preachyng of Gods true law, shed theyr bloud, that is signifyed by the red hors that went out at thys seale opening: and thys estate began at Marginalia Nero. Nero the cursed Emperour, and dured into the time of Marginalia Constatinus magnus. Constantine the great, that endowed the Church. For in thys time, many of Christes seruaunts, and namely the leaders of Gods flocke were slayne. For of xxij. Byshops of Rome that were betwene Peter and Marginalia Siluester. Siluester the first, I reade but of foure, but that they weren Martys for the lawe of Christ. And also in the tyme of Dioclesian the Emperour, the persecution of the Christen men was so great, that in xxx. dayes weren slayne xxij. thousand men and women in diuers countries, for the law of God.

Marginalia The 3. seale. The opening of the third seale, telleth the state of the Church in time of Heretikis that beth figured by the blacke hors, for false vnderstonding of holy write: for than cryed the third beest that is a man, for at that time was it neede to preache the mistery of Christes incarnation, and his passion ayenst these erretikis that feliden mis of these pointis: how Christ tooke verreyly mans kynde of our Lady, hym beyng God as hee was bifore, and hys moder beeyng mayden byfore and after. Marginalia Expositio. The opening of the fourth seale, telleth the state of the Church in tyme of ypocritis,