GHOSTLY friend in God, as touching thine asking of me, how thou shalt rule
thine heart in the time of thy prayer, I answer unto thee thus feebly as I can.
And I say that me thinketh that it should be full speedful unto thee at the
first beginning of thy prayer, what prayer so ever it be, long or short, for to
make it full known unto thine heart, without any feigning, that thou shalt die
at the end of thy prayer.[185] And wete thou
well that this is no feigned thought that I tell thee, and see why; for truly
there is no man living in this life that dare take upon him to say the
contrary: that is to say, that thou shalt live longer than thy prayer is in
doing. And, therefore, thou mayst think it safely, and I counsel thee to do it.
For, if thou do it, thou shalt see that, what for the general sight that thou
hast of thy wretchedness, and this special sight of the shortness of time of
amendment, it shall bring in to thine heart a very working of dread.
FINIS
[185]The MSS. add: "And bot if thou spede
thee the rather or thou come to the ende of thy prayer."
[186]Pepwell reads: "find."
[187]Coax, beguile.
[188]Falsehoods.
[189]The MSS. read: "behetynges of lenger
leuyng."
[190]Promise.
191Ps. xlvi. 8 (Vulgate), xlvii. 7 (A.V.): "Sing ye praises with
understanding."
192Ps. cxi. 10 (cx. 10 Vulgate).
[193]So Pepwell; Harl. MS. 674 reads: "Bot
forthi that there is no sekir stonding."
[194]Pepwell adds in explanation: "or
amends"; i.e. satisfaction. Cf. Langland, Piers the Plowman, B.
xvii. 237: "And if it suffice noughte for assetz"; and Wyclif, Pistil on
Cristemasse Day (Select English Works, ed. T. Arnold, ii. p. 237): "And
thus, sith aseeth muste be maad for Adams synne."
[195]Ps. xxxiv. 22 (Vulgate xxxiii. 23).
[196]The MSS. read: "fro a lyf."
[197]The MSS. read: "a lyf."
[198]So Harl. MS. 674. Pepwell reads: "Also
the steps of thy staff Hope plainly will shew unto thee if thou do it duly, as
I have told thee before, or not."
[199]Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 82,
A. I: "Devotio nihil aliud esse videtur, quam voluntas quaedam prompte tradendi
se ad ea, quae pertinent ad Dei famulatum."
[200]The whole passage included in square
brackets is omitted in Pepwell, but is identical in the two MSS.
[201]So Harl. MS. 2373; Harl. MS. 674 reads:
"medeful."
[202]The trunk.
[203]Pepwell inserts: "it is but churl's
meat, for."
[204]Not in Pepwell.
[205]Pepwell reads: "and for nothing
else."
[206]Had never received it from Him.
[207]Pure Love, or Charity, which "attains
to God Himself, that it may abide in Him, not that any advantage may accrue to
us from Him" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 23, A.
6). For the whole doctrine of "Pure Love or Disinterested Religion," cf. F. von
Hügel, The Mystical Element of Religion, ii. pp. 152-181.
[208]So both MSS.; Pepwell reads:
"blessedness."
[209]Hindering or marring.
[210]Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 27, A. 3; and F. von Hügel, op. cit.,
ii. p. 167.
[211]In the Divine Essence.
[212]So Harl. MS. 674, I take "it" as the
beatitude of man which is God Himself.
[213]Cf. Dante, Par. xxxiii,
143-145:--
"Ma già volgeva il mio disiro e il velle,
Sì come rota ch' egualmente è mossa,
L'Amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle."
"But already my desire and will, even as a wheel that is equally moved, were
being turned by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars."
2141 Cor. vi. 17.
[215]Pepwell adds: "or sundry."
[216]So Pepwell and Harl. MS. 2373; Harl.
MS, 674 reads: "they ben one spirit."
217Cant. ii. 16.
[218]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "glose." Pepwell
adds: "or flatter."
[219]Heed.
[220]Pepwell adds: "or betokeneth." Cf.
Langland, Piers the Plowman, A. i. 1: "What this mountein bemeneth."
[221]Cf. above, p. 28 note.
[222]Pepwell adds: "or counsel."
[223]Of thyself thou hast nought but sin.
[224]So the MSS.: Pepwell has: "to God."
[225]Pepwell changes to "divers."
[226]Cf. Dante, De Monarchia, iii.
16: "Man alone of beings holds a mid-place between corruptible and
incorruptible; wherefore he is rightly likened by the philosophers to the
horizon which is between two hemispheres. For man, if considered after either
essential part, to wit soul and body is corruptible if considered only after
the one, to wit the body, but if after the other, to wit the soul, he is
incorruptible. . . . If man then, is a kind of mean between corruptible and
incorruptible things, since every mean savours of the nature of the extremes,
it is necessary that man should savour of either nature. And since every nature
is ordained to a certain end, it follows that there must be a twofold end of
man, so that like as he alone amongst all beings partakes of corruptibility and
incorruptibilty, so he alone amongst all beings should be ordained for two
final goals of which the one should be his goal as a corruptible being, and the
other as an incorruptible" (P. H. Wicksteed's translation).
And this working shalt thou feel[186] verily folden in thine heart, but if it
so be (the which God forbid) that thou flatter and fage[187] thy false fleshly blind heart with leasings[188] and feigned behightings, that thou shalt
longer live.[189] For though it may be sooth
in thee in deed that thou shalt live longer, yet it is ever in thee a false
leasing for to think it before, and for to behight[190] it to thine heart. For why, the soothfastness of this
thing is only in God, and in thee is but a blind abiding of His will, without
certainty of one moment, the which is as little or less than a twinkling of an
eye. And, therefore, if thou wilt pray wisely as the prophet biddeth when he
saith in the psalm: Psallite sapienter;191 look that thou get
thee in the beginning this very working of dread. For, as the same prophet
saith in another psalm: Initium sapientiae timor Domini;192
that is: "The beginning of wisdom is the dread of our Lord God." But for that
there is no full sikerness standing[193]
upon dread only, for fear of sinking in to over much heaviness, therefore shalt
thou knit to thy first thought this other thought that followeth.
Me thinketh that the proof of this working is
devotion; for devotion is nought else, as saint Thomas the doctor saith, but a
readiness of man's will to do those things that longeth to the service of
God.[199] Each man prove in himself, for he
that doth God's service in this manner, he feeleth how ready that his will is
thereto. Me thinketh that saint Bernard accordeth to this working, where he
saith that all things should be done swiftly and gladly. And see why: swiftly
for dread, and gladly for hope, and lovely trust in His mercy. [And what more?
Sikerly, I had lever have his meed that lasteth in such doing, though all he
never did bodily penance in this life, but only that that is enjoined to him of
holy Church, than of all the penance-doers that have been in this life from the
beginning of the world unto this day without this manner of doing. I say not
that the naked thinking of these two thoughts is so meedful; but that reverent
affection, to the which bringing in these two thoughts are sovereign means on
man's party, that is it that is so meedful as I say.[200]] And this is only it by itself, without any other
All this manner of working beforesaid of this
reverent affection, when it is brought in by these two thoughts of dread and of
hope coming before, may well be likened to a tree that were full of fruit; of
the which tree, dread is that party that is within in the earth, that is, the
root. And hope is that party that is above the earth, that is, the body[202] with the boughs. In that that hope is
certain and stable, it is the body; in that it stirreth men to works of love,
it is the boughs; but this reverent affection is evermore the fruit, and then,
evermore as long as the fruit is fastened to the tree,[203] it hath in party a green smell of the tree; but when it
hath been a certain time departed from the tree and is full ripe, then it hath
lost all the taste of the tree, and is king's meat [that was before but knave's
meat].[204] In this time it is that this
reverent affection is so meedful as I said. And, therefore, shape thee for to
depart this fruit from the tree, and for to offer it up by itself to the high
King of heaven; and then shalt thou be cleped God's own child, loving Him with
a chaste love for Himself, and not for His goods.[205] I mean thus: though all that the innumerable good
deeds, the which almighty God of His gracious goodness hath shewed to each soul
in this life, be sufficient causes
O how wonderful a thing and how high a thing is
the love of God for to speak of, of the which no man may speak perfectly to the
understanding of the least party thereof, but by impossible ensamples, and
passing the understanding of man! And thus it is that I mean when I say loving
Him with a chaste love for Himself, and not for His goods;[207] not as if I said (though all I well said) much for His
goods, but without comparison more for Himself. For, if I shall more highly
speak in declaring of my meaning of the perfection and of the meed of this
Chaste love is that when thou askest of God
neither releasing of pain, nor increasing of meed, nor yet sweetness in His
love in this life; but if it be any certain time that thou covetest sweetness
as for a refreshing of thy ghostly mights, that they fail not in the way; but
thou askest of God nought but Himself, and neither thou reckest nor lookest
after whether thou shalt be in pain or in bliss, so that thou have Him that
thou lovest--this is chaste love, this is perfect love.[210] And therefore shape thee for to depart the fruit from
the tree; that is to say, this reverent affection from the thoughts of dread
and of hope coming before; so that thou mayst offer it ripe and chaste unto God
by itself, not caused of any thing beneath Him, or medled with Him[211] (yea, though all it
In the ghostly feeling of this onehead may a
loving soul both say and sing (if it list) this holy word that is written in
the book of songs in the Bible: Dilectus meus mihi et ego
illi;217 that is: "My loved unto me and I unto Him";
understanden that God shall be knitted with the ghostly glue of grace on His
party, and the lovely consent in gladness of spirit on thy party.
And therefore climb up by this tree, as I said in
the beginning; and when thou comest to the fruit (that is, to the reverent
affection, the which ever will be in thee if thou think heartily the other two
thoughts before, and fage[218] not thyself
with no lie, as I said), then shalt thou take good keep[219] of that working that is made in thy soul that time, and
shape thee, in as much as thou mayst through grace, for to meek thee under the
height of thy God, so that thou mayst use thee in that working other times by
itself, without any climbing thereto by any thought. And, sikerly, this is it
the which is so meedful as I said, and ever the longer that it is kept from the
tree (that is to say, from any thought), and ever the ofter that it is done
suddenly, lustily, and likingly, without mean, the sweeter it smelleth, and the
better it pleaseth the high King of heaven. And ever when thou feelest
sweetness and comfort in thy doing, then He breaketh this fruit and giveth thee
part of thine own present. And that that thou feelest is so hard, and so
straitly stressing thine heart without comfort in the first beginning, that
bemeaneth[220] that the greenness of the
fruit hanging on the tree, or else newly pulled, setteth thy teeth on edge.
Nevertheless yet it is speedful to thee. For it is no
Nevertheless, if it so be that thy teeth be weak
(that is to say, thy ghostly mights), then it is my counsel that thou seek
slights, for better is list than lither strength.[221]
Another skill there is why that I set this tree
in thy garden, for to climb up thereby. For though all it be so that God may do
what He will, yet, to mine understanding, it is impossible any man to attain to
the perfection of this working without these two means, or else other two that
are according to them coming before. And yet is the perfection of this work
sudden, without any mean. And, therefore, I rede[222] thee that these be thine, not thine in propriety, for
that is nought but sin,[223] but thine given
graciously of God, and sent by me as a messenger though I be unworthy; for wete
thou right well that every thought that stirreth thee to the good,[224] whether it come from within by thine
angel messenger, or from without by any man messenger, it is but an instrument
of grace given, sent and chosen of God Himself for to work within in thy soul.
And this is the skill why that I counsel thee to take these two thoughts before
all others. For as man is a mingled thing of two substances,
No more at this time, but God's blessing have
thou and mine.
Read often, and forget it not; set thee sharply
to the proof; and flee all letting and occasion of letting, in the name of our
Lord Jesu Christ. AMEN.
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