CAPITULUM IX
HOW ORDAINED SHAME RISETH AND GROWETH IN THE AFFECTION
BUT though all that a soul through grace feel in it perfect hatred of sin,
whether it may yet live without sin? Nay, sikerly;[93] and therefore let no man presume of himself, when the
Apostle saith thus: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourself, and soothfastness is not in us."[94]
And also saint Austin saith that he dare well say that there is no man living
without sin.[95] And I pray thee, who is he
that sinneth not in ignorance? Yea, and oft times it falleth that God suffereth
those men to fall full grievously by the which He hath ordained other men's
errors to be righted, that they may learn by their own falling how merciful
they shall be in amending of others. And for that oft times men fall grievously
in those same sins that they most hate, therefore, after hatred of sin,
springeth ordained shame in a man's soul; and so it is that after Zebulun was
Dinah born. As by Zebulun hatred of sin, so by Dinah is understanden ordained
shame of sin. But wete thou well: he that felt never Zebulun, felt never yet
Dinah. Evil men have a manner of shame, but it is not this ordained shame. For
why, if they had perfect shame of sin, they should not so customably do it with
will and advisement;[96] but they shame more
with a foul cloth on their body, than with a foul thought in their soul. But
what so thou be that weenest that thou hast gotten Dinah, think whether thee
would shame as much if a foul thought were in thine heart, as thee would if
thou were made to stand naked before the king and all his royalme;
and sikerly else wete it thou right well that thou hast not yet gotten ordained
shame in thy feeling, if so be that thou have less shame with thy foul heart
than with thy foul body, and if thou think more shame with thy foul body in the
sight of men than with thy foul heart in the sight of the King of heaven and of
all His angels and holy saints in heaven.
Lo,
it is now said of the seven children of Leah, by the which are understanden
seven manner of affections in a man's soul, the which may be now ordained and
now unordained, now measured and now unmeasured; but when they are ordained and
measured, then are they virtues; and when they are unordained and unmeasured,
then are they vices. Thus behoveth a man have children[97] that they be not only ordained, but also measured. Then
are they ordained when they are of that thing that they should be, and then are
they unordained when they are of that thing that they should not be; and then
are they measured when they are as much as they should be, and then are they
unmeasured when they are more than they should be. For why, overmuch dread
bringeth in despair, and overmuch sorrow casteth a man in to bitterness and
heaviness of kind,[98] for the which he is
unable to receive ghostly comfort. And overmuch hope is presumption, and
outrageous love is but flattering and faging,[99] and outrageous gladness is dissolution and wantonness,
and untempered hatred of sin is woodness.[100]
And on this manner, they are unordained and unmeasured, and thus are they
turned in to vices, and then lose they the name of virtues, and may not be
accounted amongst the sons of Jacob, that is to say, God: for by Jacob is
understanden God, as it is shewed in the figure before.
[93] Assuredly. Pepwell sometimes modernises
this word, but not invariably.
[94] 1 John i. 8.
[95] Cf. St. Augustine's various writings
against the Pelagians, e.g. Epist. clvii. (Opera, ed. Migne, tom.
ii. coll. 374 et seq.), Ad Hilarium.
[96] Deliberate intention.
[97] Warnes in the MSS.
[98] Disposition.
[99] Coaxing, beguiling. Harl. MS. 674 reads:
"glosing."
[100] Madness.
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