"Sin is the sharpest scourge.... By contrition we are made clean, by
compassion we are made ready, and by true longing towards God we are
made worthy"
Sin is the sharpest scourge that any chosen soul may be smitten with:
which scourge thoroughly beateth[1] man and woman, and maketh him
hateful in his own sight, so far forth that afterwhile[2] he thinketh
himself he is not worthy but as to sink in hell,--till [that time] when
contrition taketh him by touching of the Holy Ghost, and turneth the
bitterness into hopes of God's mercy. And then He beginneth his wounds
to heal, and the soul to quicken [as it is] turned unto the life of
Holy Church. The Holy Ghost leadeth him to confession, with all his
will to shew his sins nakedly and truly, with great sorrow and great
shame that he hath defouled the fair image of God. Then receiveth he
penance for every sin [as] enjoined by his doomsman[3] that is grounded
in Holy Church by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. And this is one
meekness that greatly pleaseth God; and also bodily sickness of God's
sending, and also sorrow and shame from without, and reproof, and
despite of this world, with all manner of grievance and temptations
that we be cast in,[4] bodily and ghostly.
Full preciously our Lord keepeth us when it seemeth to us that we are
near forsaken and cast away for our sin and because we have deserved
it. And because of meekness that we get hereby, we are raised well-high
in God's sight by His grace, with so great contrition, and also
compassion, and true longing to God. Then they be suddenly delivered
from sin and from pain, and taken up to bliss, and made even high
saints.
By contrition we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready, and
by true longing toward God we are made worthy. These are three means,
as I understand, whereby that all souls come to heaven: that is to say,
that have been sinners in earth and shall be saved: for by these three
medicines it behoveth that every soul be healed. Though the soul be
healed, his wounds are seen afore God,--not as wounds but as worships.
And so on the contrary-wise, as we be punished here with sorrow and
penance, we shall be rewarded in heaven by the courteous love of our
Lord God Almighty, who willeth that none that come there lose his
travail in any degree. For He [be]holdeth sin as sorrow and pain to
His lovers, to whom He assigneth no blame, for love. The meed that we
shall receive shall not be little, but it shall be high, glorious, and
worshipful. And so shall shame be turned to worship and more joy.
But our courteous Lord willeth not that His servants despair, for often
nor for grievous falling: for our falling hindereth[5] not Him to love
us. Peace and love are ever in us, being and working; but we be not
alway in peace and in love. But He willeth that we take heed thus that
He is Ground of all our whole life in love; and furthermore that He is
our everlasting Keeper and mightily defendeth us against our enemies,
that be full fell and fierce upon us;--and so much our need is the more
for [that] we give them occasion by our falling.[6]
[1] "al forbetyth." S. de Cressy: "all to beateth," Judges ix. 53.
[2] "otherwhile."
[3] S. de Cressy: "Dome's-man, _i.e._ Confessarius."
[4] MS. "will be cast in."
[5] letteth not Him to love us.
[6] See chap. lxviii. Inx both passages the Brit. Mus. MS. seems to
have "him," not "hem" = them. The reading here might be: "For we give
_Him_ occasion by our failing"--occasion to keep and defend us: and so
in lxxviii.: "He keepeth us mightily and mercifully in the time that
we are in our sin and among all our enemies that are full fell upon
us;--and so much we are in the more peril. For we give Him occasion
thereto and know not our own need." Or possibly the sense is (1): He
defendeth us "so much [as] our need is the more" [so much more as]; and
(2) "so much [more as] we are in the more peril." But S. de Cressy's
version has in both passages "them," and this reading agrees with chap.
lxxvi.: "We have this [fear] by the stirring of our enemy and by our
own folly and blindness"--we who "fall often into sin."