CHAPTER XXX
OF GOD'S PRIVY DOOM: AND THAT THEY THAT FALL AGAIN BE NOT
DEEMED BY US: AND OF GREAT ARGUMENTS AGAINST
PURCHASOURS
But some are wont to ask how it can be that many
that have led the hardest life and have utterly forsaken this world's joy,
afterwards dread not to slide again into sin; and they shall not end in a good
end.
If we will not err let us be in peace from
proudly deeming. To us it longs not to know God's privy doom: truly after this
life all things as needs shall be shown. All the ways of our Lord's dooms are
merry, that is to say true and righteous; for neither He reproves one withouten
very right, nor another, withouten mercy that is righteous, He chooses unto
life. Therefore we ought to consider, that the clothing of His clearness is as
a groundless pit; wherefore we ought, whiles we are in this way, to dread, and
in no wise to presume unwisely; for man wots not whether he be worthy wrath or
love, or by what end he shall pass from this life. The good ought to dread that
they fall not into ill; and the ill may trow that they can rise from their
malice. Forsooth if they bide in their covetousness and their wickedness, in
vain they hope themselves sicker of mercy, whiles their wickedness is not left;
for sin, before it be forsaken, is never forgiven; nor yet then unless
satisfaction be behight and that a sinner shirt not to fulfill it as soon as he
can.
But the mighty men and the worldly rich that ever
hungrily burn in getting possessions of others, and by their goods and riches
grow in earthly greatness and worldly power--buying with little money what,
after this passing substance, was of great value--or have received in the
service of kings or great lords great gifts, without meed, that they might have
delights and lusts with honours: let them hear not me but Saint Job: Ducunt
inquit in bonis dies suos et in puncto ad infernum descendent; that is to
say: `Their days they led in pleasure, and to hell they fall in a point.'
Behold, in a point they lose all that they
studied all their life to get; with these worldly wisdom has dwelt that, before
God, is called folly, and fleshly wit, that is enmity to God, they knew.
Therefore with mighty torments they shall suffer because knowing God they
glorify not God but themselves and have vanished in their thoughts; calling
themselves wise they are now made fools; and they, that have felt the joy and
delight of this world, are come to the deepness of stinking hell.
And yet forsooth among all that are bound with
the vice of this world, in none, as I suppose, is less trust of salvation than
of these the people call false purchasours. When they soothly have spent all
their strength and youth in getting the possessions of another by wrong and
law; and afterwards in age they rest, sickerly keeping that they with wrong
have gotten. But because their conscience is feared, wickedness gives witness
to condemnation only when they cease from cursed getting; they dread not to use
other men's goods as if they were their own. For if they should restore all,
full few should be left for themselves. And because they are proud they shame
to beg; or they will not fall from their old honour, therefore they say they
cannot dig or labour. Also, deceived by fiends, they choose rather to eschew
worldly wretchedness that they may suffer the endless pain of hell
everlastingly.
Such forsooth whiles they have lordship in this
world oppress the small by the power of their tyranny; forsooth to be raised
into such melody of this exile is not a matter of dread to others but rather
joy; for lest God's chosen should be such they are refrained by God, David
being witness: Ne timueris cum dives factus fuerit homo, etc. `When man
is made rich dread not, nor when joy of his house is multiplied; for when he
dies he takes not all, nor his joy goes not with him; nor the drop of water,
that is to say of mercy, comes not to the tongue of the rich man burning in
hell. In his dying he loses all his joy, and only sin goes with him to the land
of darkness, for the which he shall be punished withouten end.
Explicit liber primus Incendii Amoris Ricardi
Hampole heremite, translatus a latino in Angelicum, per fratrem Richardum Misyn
heremitam, et ordinis carmelitarum, Ac sacre theologie bachalareum, Anno domini
Millesimo ccccxxxv.