Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/269

 So and whanne ye schulen se alle these thingis been maad, wite ye that it is in the nexte, in the doris. Treuly I seye to you, for this generacioun schal not passe awey, til alle these thingis be don. Hevene and erthe schal passe, forsothe my wordis schulen not passe. Treuly of that day or our no man woot, neithir aungelis in hevene, neithir the sone, nobut the fadiẛ."

At some date which it is not possible to determine, Wyclif composed a number of sermons on the subject of the Sunday Gospels. The title which he gave to the book was The Sonedai Gospelis, Expowncd in Partie, and these discourses (collected and published with others in 1382) are not so much sermons as skeletons, which a preacher might readily clothe with additional words and thoughts of his own. It is highly probable that Wyclif prepared some homilies of this kind for the use of his Poor Priests, to the less eloquent of whom they would manifestly be a great assistance. They include occasional directions for preachers, which could not be verbally repeated to a congregation. Here, for instance, is the concluding paragraph of the sermon for the first Sunday after Trinity—the Gospel for the day relating to Lazarus and Dives.

"In this Gospel may preestis telle of fals pride of riche men, and of lustful lyf of myghty men of this worlde, and of longe peynes of helle, and joyful blis in hevene, and thus lengthe their sermoun as the tyme axith. And marke we how this gospel tellith that this riche man was not dampned for extorsioun or wrong that he dide to his neighbore, but for he