CHAPTER XXIV
OF THE STINK OF LECHERY AND THE PERIL OF TOUCHING: AND OF THE
CURSEDNESS OF COVETOUSNESS: AND OF UNGODLY
GLADNESS
Whiles a man weds not for pure love of God
and virtue and chastity, but is busy to live in chastity and in array of all
virtue, doubtless he gets to himself a great name in heaven; for as he ceases
not to love God here, so in heaven he shall never cease from His praising.
Wedlock soothly is good in itself; but when men constrain themselves under the
band of matrimony for the fulfilling of their lust, they turn forsooth good
into ill, and whereby they ween to profit, thereof they cease not to be worse.
Whosoever loves wedlock for this intent, because by it he trows he may be rich,
is, without doubt, busy to loose the bridle of wantonness; and overflowing in
lust and riches, he joys full mickle to have found medicine for his slippery
flesh.
There are forsooth froward men that love their
wives unmannerly for their beauty; and the sooner their bodily strength is
broken the more loose are they to fulfill their bodily lust. For the more lust
they have the sooner they fail, and whiles they have prosperity they perish;
and whiles they are busy to be fed with lust, they wretchedly lose strength of
body and mind.
Nothing soothly is more perilous, fouler and more
stinking for man than to put his mind on woman's love, and desire her as
blissful rest. No marvel what before he desired with mickly anguish as great
bliss, after the deed straightway waxes foul. Afterward he knows truly that he
has cowardly gone wrong in such lust, when he perceives lust so short and
diseases long. For it is shown that he was strongly bound with a foul band of
feeble vanity. But because he would not turn to God with all his heart, he knew
not his wretchedness until the time he felt it; and therefore he fell into the
pit of bondage, because he beheld not the seat of joy. If truly he had felt one
drop of the sweetness of eternal life, never should fleshly fairness--that is
beguiling and vain grace--have appeared so sweet to his mind. But alas! he
takes no heed how stinking and odious is his wretched lust in the sight of God
Almighty, and in his conscience he sees not himself beguiled.
No man certainly can be given to uncleanness of
the flesh unless he err from the ways of righteousness. Truly whiles the fire
of earthly love ceases not to inflame man's mind, no marvel it wastes in it all
the moisture of grace, and making it both void and dry, it alway increases its
heat; and from the fire of covetousness kindles the fire of lechery. And so the
thrall soul, marvellously mazed, covets nothing but fleshly desires, or to
increase riches, and making his end in them, labours always to get new things;
and he sees not those pains that he goes to because he cared not for God's
words and His commandments. And because he desires only these outward joys, and
is blinded to the inward and unseen, as it were sightless he goes to the fire.
And truly when the unhappy soul shall pass from the body, she shall know
perfectly in the Judgment how wretched she was; the which trowed herself,
whiles she was in the flesh, not only guiltless, but also happy.
In ilk thing therefore cleanness of mind more
than of body is to be cared for; for certain it is less wicked to touch the
flesh of woman with bare hands than to be defiled with wicked lust in mind.
Truly if we touch women and think nothing evil in heart it ought not to be
called sin, although through it temptation of the flesh sometimes arises; for
man falls not into evil whiles his mind is steadfast in God.
Whiles the heart of the toucher is caught by
divers desires, or is bowed in evil sweetness, and he is not straightway
refrained by the love of God and steadfastness in virtue, know without doubt
that that man has the sin of uncleanness within himself, though he be never so
far not only from women but also from men. And forsooth if a true man be untied
with an untrue woman, it is full near that his mind be turned to untruth. Truly
it is the manner of women that when they feel themselves loved out of measure
by men, they beguile men's hearts by cherishing flattery; and they draw to
those things that their wicked will stirred up, the which before they assayed
by open speech.
Solomon soothly was wise and true to God for a
while, but afterward, for the too mickle love by which he drew to women, he
failed most foully in steadfastness and in the commandments of God; the more
worthy to be grievously smitten in that he, set in great wisdom, suffered
himself to be overcome by a fond woman. Let no man therefore flatter himself,
and no man presume to say of himself `I am sicker, I do not dread, the world
can not beguile me,' whilst thou hearest of the wisest man the unwittest
deed.
Covetousness is also ghostly fornication; for the
covetous heart, for the love of peace, opens his bosom to the strumpetry of the
fiend. When God was loved before the love of money, as very Spouse, and
afterward He is forsaken because of unclean love and wicked wooers received,
what else is done but fornication and idolatry? Be we therefore busy to keep
our hearts clean in the sight of God Almighty, and to destroy venomous
delectations; and if anything have been done in our heart by frailty, let
nothing now be shown before God but perfectness.
Sometimes truly we are hated by some men for
mickle mirth, and sometimes we joy in words and laughter, and although this,
and more such, may be done with a clean soul before God, nevertheless before
men we know well it is taken and expounded ill; and therefore moderation is to
be had; and that we keep ourselves wisely nor place ourselves where we trow we
can do ought that is like evil.
It is good for the servants of Christ to be near
God, because in desire for Him they receive the heat of the fire of the Holy
Ghost; and they sing the sweetness of endless love with sweetest heavenly sound
like to honey. Wherefore melliflui facti sunt coeli: that is to say:
`the heavens are made sweet as honey,' that is to mean: saints that so
burningly have loved Christ, knowing that He has suffered so mickle for them.
Whence truly the minds of the saints are knitted to endless love, unable to be
loosed; and although ravished as it were by the sweetness of heavenly life, by
a melody as it were felt before, are gladdened in that.