Wherefore, that thou may'st be rightly disposed both for thy soul and
thy body, thou shalt understand four things. The first thing is: _what
thing defiles a man_. The second thing: _what makes him clean_. The
third: _what holds him in cleanness_. The fourth: _what thing draws him
for to ordain his will entirely at GOD'S will_. For the first, wit thou
that we sin in three things that make us foul: that is with _heart_ and
_mouth_ and _deed_. The sins of the heart are these: Ill-thought: ill
delight: assent to sin: desire of ill; wicked will: ill suspicion:
undevotion: if thou lettest thine heart any time be idle, without
occupation of the love, of the praising of GOD: ill dread: ill love:
error: fleshly affection to thy friends or to other that thou lovest:
joy in any man's ill-faring, whether they be enemy or none: contempt of
poor or sinful men: to honour rich men for their riches: unsuitable joy
in any world's vanity: sorrow of the world: impatience: perplexity, that
is doubt what to do and what not, for every man ought to be secure
(about) what he shall do and what he shall leave: obstinacy in ill:
annoyance (at having) to do good: sorrow that he did no more ill, or
that he did not have that pleasure or that will of his flesh which he
might have done: unstableness of thought: pain at penance: hypocrisy:
love to please men: dread to displease them: shame of good deed: joy of
ill deed: singular wit: desire for honour or dignity, or to be holden
better than another, or richer, or fairer, or more to be dreaded: vain
glory of any good of nature, of happening, or of grace: shame of poor
friends: pride of rich or of gentle kin, for all we alike are free
before GOD'S face, unless our deeds make any better or worse than
another, in spite of good counsel and of good teaching. _The sins of the
mouth_ are these: to swear oftentimes: forswearing: slander of Christ or
of any of His Saints; to name His name without reverence; gainsaying and
strife against truthfulness; murmuring against GOD for any anguish or
trouble or tribulation that may befall on earth: to say GOD'S Service
undevoutly and without reverence: backbiting; flattering: lying:
abusing: cursing: defaming: quarrelling: threatening: sowing of discord:
treason: false-witness: ill counsel: scorn: unbuxomness in speech: to
turn good deeds to ill: to make them be holden ill who do them: (we
ought to wrap up our neighbours' deeds in the best not the worst);
exciting any man to ire: reprehending in another what one does one's
self: vain speech: much speech: foul speech: to speak idle words: or to
speak words not needful: praising: polishing of words: defending sin:
shouting with laughter: making grimaces at any man: to sing secular
songs and to love them: to praise ill-deeds: to sing more for the glory
of men than of GOD. _The sins of deed are these_: gluttony: lechery:
drunkenness: simony: witch-craft: breaking of the holy-days: sacrilege:
to receive GOD'S Body in deadly sin: breaking of vows: apostacy:
dissipation in GOD'S service: to set example of ill deeds: to hurt any
man in his body, or in his goods, or in his fame: theft: rapine: usury:
deceit: selling of righteousness: to hearken ill: to give to harlots: to
withhold necessaries from the body, or to give it to excess: to begin a
thing that is above our might: custom to sin: falling often into sin:
feigning of more good than we have: for to seem holier, more learned
and wiser than we are: to hold office that we do not suffice to: or to
hold one that cannot be held without sin: to lead dances: to bring up
new fashions: to be rebellious against one's Sovereign: to insult those
who are less: to sin in sight, in hearing, in smelling, in touching, in
handling, in swallowing: in means: in signs: in beggings: writings. To
receive the circumstances, that is to say time, place, manner, number,
person, dwelling, knowledge, age, that makes thee sin more or less. To
desire a sin or to be tempted: to constrain one to sin. Other many sins
there are _of omission_, that is, of leaving good undone: when men leave
the good they should do. Not thinking about GOD, nor dreading, nor
praising Him, nor thanking Him for His gifts: to do not all that one
does for love of GOD: to sorrow not for one's sins as one should do: not
to dispose one's self to receive grace. And if one have taken grace,
not to use it as one ought; not to keep it: to turn not to the
inspiration of GOD: to conform not one's will to GOD'S will: to give not
attention to one's prayers, but mutter on and never reck save that they
be said; to do negligently what one was bound by vow to do, or by
command, or else enjoined in penance: to draw out at length what should
be done soon: having no joy at one's neighbour's profit as at one's own;
not sorrowing at his ill-faring: standing not against temptations:
forgiving not those who have done one harm: keeping not faith with one's
neighbour as one would that he did to one's self: and yielding not a
good deed for another if one can. Amending not those sins before one's
eyes: not appeasing strifes: not teaching them that are unlearned: not
comforting them that are in sorrow, or in sickness, or in poverty, or
in penance, or in prison. These sins, and many others make men foul.
_The things that cleanse us of that filth_, are three, against these
three manners of sins. The first is: _sorrow of heart_ against the sin
of thought: and that it behoves (thee to) be so perfect that thou beest
in full will never to sin more. And that thou mayest have sorrow for all
thy sins. And that all joy and solace, except of GOD and in GOD, be put
out of thine heart. The second is: _shrift of mouth_; against the sin of
mouth. And that shall be _hasty_, without delaying. _Naked_, without
excusing. Whole, without parting. Also (not) for to tell one sin to one
priest and another to another. Say all that thou wottest to one, or else
thy shrift is not worth. The Third is, _Satisfaction_; that has three
parts, Fasting, Prayer, and Alms-Deed. Not only to give poor men meat
and drink: but to forgive them that do thee wrong and pray for them:
and inform them who are at the point to perish what they shall do. For
the third thing, thou shalt wit that cleanness behoves to be kept in
heart, in mouth and in work. _Cleanness of heart_, three things keep:
one is, watchful thought and stable about GOD. Another is, care to keep
thy five wits, so that all the wicked stirrings of them be closed out of
the flesh. The third, honest and profitable occupation. Also, _cleanness
of mouth_, three things keep: one is that thou should'st bethink thee
before thou speakest. Another is that thou beest not of great but of
little speech; and specially ever till thine heart be established in the
love of JESUS Christ: so that men think thou ever lookest on Him,
whether thou speakest or not. But such a grace may'st thou not have on
the first day: but with long travel and great care to love Him from
habit, so that the eye of thine heart be aye upward, shalt thou come
thereto. The third, that thou for nothing, not even for meekness, shalt
lie to any man. For every lie is sin and ill: and not GOD'S will. Thou
needest not tell all the truth always, unless thou willest. But hate all
lies. If thou sayest a thing of thyself that seems to thy praise, but
thou sayst it to the praise of GOD and help of another, thou dost not
unwisely for thou speakest truth. But if thou will have aught private,
tell it to none but such a one that thou beest secure that it should not
be shewed (disclosed) but only to the praise of GOD, of whom is all
goodness, and who makes some better than others, and gives them special
grace, not only for themselves, but also for them that will do well
after their example. _Cleanness of work_, three things keep. One is: _a
careful thought of death_: for the wise man says; "Bethink thee of thy
last ending, and thou shalt not sin." The second: _flee from ill
fellowship_, that gives more example to love the world than GOD, earth
than heaven, filth of body than cleanness of soul. The third is:
_temperance and discretion in meat and drink_: that it be neither to
excess, nor beneath suitable sustenance for thy body. For both come to
one end: excess and over-great fasting: for neither is GOD'S will--and
that many will not suppose, for anything one may say. If you take
sustenance of such good as GOD sends for the time and the day, whatever
it be, I take out no manner of meat that Christian men use; with measure
and discretion, thou dost well; for so did Christ and His Apostles. If
you leave many meats that men have, not despising the meat that GOD has
made for man's help, but because thou thinkest thou hast no need
thereof, thou dost well: if thou seest that thou art stalwart to serve
GOD, and that it breaks not thy stomach. For if thou hast broken it with
over-great abstinence, appetite for meat is reft from thee: and often
shalt thou be in tremblings, as if thou wert ready to give up the ghost.
And wit thou well, thou didst sin that deed. And thou may'st not wit
soon whether thine abstinence be against thee, or with thee. For the
time thou art going, I counsel thee that thou should'st eat better and
more, as it comes, that thou beest not beguiled. And afterward, when
thou hast proved many things, and overcome many temptations, and knowest
better thyself and GOD than thou didst, then if thou seest that it be to
be done, thou mayst take to greater abstinence. And meanwhile thou mayst
do privy penance which all men need not know. Righteousness is not all
in fasting or in eating. But thou art righteous, if contempt and praise,
poverty and riches, hunger and need or delights and dainties be all
alike to thee. If thou takest these with love of GOD, I hold thee
blessed and high before JESUS. Men who come to thee, they love thee
because they see thy great abstinence, and because they see thee
enclosed: but I may not love thee so lightly for anything I see thee do
without, but if thy will be conformed entirely to GOD'S will. And set
not by their praise and blame, and never give thou heed if they speak
less good of thee than they did; but that thou shouldest be more burning
in GOD'S love than thou wert. For one thing I warn thee: I hope that GOD
has no perfect servant in earth without enemies of some men--For only
wretchedness has no enemy. _For to draw us that we conform our will to
GOD'S will_: are three things. One is, example of holy men and women,
who were intent, night and day, to serve GOD, and dread Him and love
Him. If we follow them on earth, we must be with them in heaven. Another
is the goodness of our Lord, which despises none, but gladly receives
all that come to His mercy: and He is homelier to them than brother or
sister, or any friend that they most love, or most trust in. The third
is the wonderful joy of the kingdom of heaven, which is more than tongue
may tell, or heart may think, or eye may see, or ear may hear. It is so
great that, as in hell nothing might live for great pain but that the
might of GOD suffers them not to die; so the joy in the sight of JESUS
in His GOD-head is so great that they must die of joy, if it were not
for His goodness, who wills that His lovers should be living aye in
bliss: also His righteousness wills that all who loved Him not, be aye
living in fire, which is horrible to any man that thinks: look then what
it is to feel. But they who will not think of it and dread it now, they
shall suffer it evermore. Now hast thou heard how thou mayst dispose thy
life, and rule it to GOD'S will. But I wot well that thou desirest to
hear some special point of the love of JESUS Christ, and of
contemplative life, which thou hast taken to thee in all men's sight.
(According) As I have grace and knowledge, I will teach thee.