The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose Treatises Part 2

CHAPTER IX.

If thou wilt be well with G.o.d, and have grace to rule thy life, and come to the joy of love: this name JESUS, fasten it so fast in thy heart that it come never out of thy thought. And when thou speakest to Him, and through custom sayst, JESUS, it shall be in thine ear, joy; in thy mouth, honey; and in thine heart, melody: for men shall think joy to hear that name be named, sweetness to speak it, mirth and song to think it. If thou thinkest (on) JESUS continually, and holdest it firmly, it purges thy sin, and kindles thine heart; it clarifies thy soul, it removes anger and does away slowness. It wounds in love and fulfils charity. It chases the devil, and puts out dread. It opens heaven, and makes a contemplative man. Have JESUS in mind, for that puts all vices and phantoms out from the lover. And often hail Mary, both day and night. Much love and joy shalt thou feel, if thou wilt do after this teaching. Thou need'st not covet greatly many books: hold love in thine heart and work, and thou hast all that we can say or write: for fulness of the law is charity: on that hangs everything.

CHAPTER X.

But now, thou mayst ask me and say, "Thou speakest so much of love; tell me--_What is love, and where is love. And how I shall love G.o.d verily.

And how that I may know that I love Him. And in what state I may most love Him._" These are hard questions to teach, to a feeble man and fleshly as I am. But nevertheless therefore, I shall not delay that I shall not shew my wit, and as I think it may be. For I hope in the help of JESUS, who is the well of love and peace and sweetness. Thy first asking is: _What is love?_ And I answer: Love is a burning yearning after G.o.d, with a wonderful delight and certainty. G.o.d is light and burning. Light clarifies our reason; burning kindles our will, that we desire naught but Him. Love is a life, joining together the loving and the loved. For meekness makes us sweet to G.o.d. Purity joins us to G.o.d.

Love makes us one with G.o.d. Love is the beauty of all virtues. Love is the thing through which G.o.d loves us, and we Him, and each one of us loves others. Love is the desire of the heart, aye thinking on that it loves; and when it has that it loves, then it joys and nothing can make it sorry. (Love is yearning between two, with lastingness of thoughts.) Love is a stirring of the soul for to love G.o.d for Himself, and all other things for G.o.d; the which love, when it is ordained in G.o.d, it does away all inordinate love in anything that is not good. But all deadly sin is inordinate love for a thing that is naught: then love puts out all deadly sin. Love is a virtue which is the rightest affection of man's soul. Truth may be without love: but it cannot help without it.

Love is a perfection of learning, virtue of prophecy, fruit of truth, help of sacraments, establishing of wit and knowledge; riches of pure men; life of dying men. So, how good love is. If we suffer to be slain; if we give all that we have, (down) to a beggar's staff; if we know as much as men may know on earth, all this is naught but ordained sorrow and torment. If thou wilt ask how good is he or she, ask how much he or she loves; and that no man can tell. For I hold it folly to judge a man's heart; that none knows save G.o.d. Love is a righteous turning from all earthly things, and is joined to G.o.d, without departing, and kindled with the fire of the Holy Ghost: far from defiling, far from corruption, bound to no vice of this life. High above all fleshly l.u.s.ts, aye ready and greedy for the contemplation of G.o.d. In all things not overcome.

The sum of all good affections. Health of good manners; goal of the commandments of G.o.d; death of sins; life of virtues. Virtue whilst fighting lasts, crown of over-comers. Mirth[4] to holy thoughts. Without that, no man may please G.o.d; with that, no man sins. For if we love G.o.d in all our heart, there is nothing in us through which we serve sin.

Very love cleanses the soul, and delivers it from the pain of h.e.l.l, and from the foul service of sin, and from the ugly fellowship of the devils; and (out) of the fiend's son, makes G.o.d'S son, and partner of the heritage of heaven. We shall force ourselves to clothe us in love, as iron or coal does in the fire, as the air does in the sun, as the wool does in the dye. The coal so clothes itself in fire that it is fire. The air so clothes itself in the sun that it is light. And the wool so substantially takes the dye that it is like it. In this manner shall a true lover of JESUS Christ do: his heart shall so burn in love, that it shall be turned into the fire of love, and be as it were all fire; and he shall so shine in virtues that no part of him shall be murky in vices.

The second asking is: _Where is love?_ And the answer: love is in thine heart, and in the will of man; not in his hand, nor in his mouth: that is to say, not in his work, but in his soul, "For many speak good and do good, and love not G.o.d: as hypocrites, who suffer great penance, and seem holy in man's sight. But because they seek praise and honour of men, and favour, they have lost their meed: and in the sight of G.o.d, they are devil's sons, and ravishing wolves. But if a man give alms-deed, and take him to poverty and do penance, it is a sign that he loves G.o.d: but therefore loves he Him not, save when he forsakes the world only for G.o.d'S love, and sets all his thought on G.o.d, and loves all men as himself: and all the good deeds that he may do, he does them with intent to please JESUS Christ, and to come to the rest of heaven.

Then he loves G.o.d: and that love is in his soul, and so his deeds shew without. If thou speakest good and doest good, men suppose that thou lovest good: therefore look well that thy thought be in G.o.d, or else thou deceivest thyself, and deceivest men. Nothing that I do without (outside) proves that I love G.o.d.

For a wicked man might do as much penance in body, as much waking and fasting as I do. How may I then ween that I love, or hold myself better, on account of that which any man may do? Certainly, my heart, whether it loves my G.o.d or not, wots no one but G.o.d, for nought that they may see me do. Wherefore, love is in will verily, not in work, but in a sign of love. For he that says he loves G.o.d, and will not do what is in him to shew love, tell him that he lies. Love will not be idle, it is working some good evermore. If it cease working, wit thou that it cools and goes away.

The third asking is: _How shall I verily love G.o.d_? I answer; Very love is to love Him with all thy might, stalwartly: in all thine heart, wisely: in all thy soul, devoutly and sweetly. Stalwartly can no man love Him save he be stalwart. He is stalwart, who is meek; for all ghostly strength comes of meekness;--on whom rests the Holy Ghost? in a meek soul. Meekness governs us and keeps us in all our temptations, so that they overcome us not. But the devil deceives many that are meek, through tribulations, and reproofs, and back-bitings*. But if thou beest wroth for any anguish of this world, or for any word that men say of thee, or for aught that men say to thee, thou art not meek, nor mayst thou love G.o.d stalwartly. For love is stalwart as death, which slays every living thing on earth, and hard as h.e.l.l that spares not them that are dead. And he who loves G.o.d perfectly grieves Him not, whatever shame or anguish he may suffer; but he has delight and covets that he might be worthy for to suffer torment and pain for Christ's love: and he has joy that men reprove him and speak ill of him. Like a dead man, what so men do or say, he answers not. Right-so, whoso loves G.o.d perfectly, they are not stirred for any word that man may say. For he or she cannot love, that cannot suffer pain or anger for their friend's love. For whoso loves, they have no pain. Proud men or women love not stalwartly, for they are so weak, and they fall at every stirring of the wind that is temptation. They seek a higher place than Christ; for they will have their will done, whether it be with right or with wrong: and Christ wills that nothing but well be done, and without harm to other men. But who is verily meek, they will not have their will in this world, but that they may have it in the other fully. In nothing may men sooner overcome the devil than in Meekness, which he much hates. For he may wake, and fast and suffer pain more than any other creature may: but meekness and love may he not have. Also, it behoves thee to love G.o.d wisely, and that thou canst not do save thou beest wise. Thou art wise, when thou art poor without desire of this world, and despisest thyself for love of Christ: and expendest all thy wit and all thy might in His service. For some who seem wise are most fools, for all their wisdom they spill in covetousness and care about the world. If thou sawest a man have precious stones wherewith he might buy a kingdom, if he gave them for an apple, as a child will do, rightly mightest thou say that he was not wise but a great fool. Just so, if we will, we have precious stones: Poverty and penance and ghostly travail, with the which we may buy the kingdom of heaven. For, if thou lovest poverty and despisest riches and delights of this world, and holdest thyself vile and poor, and thinkest thou hast naught of thyself save sin: for this poverty, thou shalt have riches without end. And if thou hast _sorrow for thy sins_, and because thou art so long in exile out of thy country, and forsakest the solace of this life: thou shalt have for this sorrow the joy of heaven. And if thou beest _in travail_, and punishest thy body reasonably and wisely, by wakings, fastings, and in prayers and meditations, and sufferest heat and cold, hunger and thirst, privation and anguish for the love of JESUS Christ; for this travail thou shalt come to rest that lasts aye, and sit on a settle of joy with angels. But some there are who love not wisely, like children who love an apple, more than a castle. So do many; they give the joy of heaven for a little delight of their flesh, that is not worth a plum. Now canst thou see, that whoso will love wisely, it behoves him to love lasting things, lastingly; and pa.s.sing things, pa.s.singly; so that his heart be settled and fastened on nothing but G.o.d. And if thou wilt love JESUS verily, thou shalt not only love Him stalwartly and wisely, but also _devoutly and sweetly_. Sweet love is when thy body is chaste and thy thought clean. Devout love is; when thou offerest thy prayers and thy thoughts to G.o.d with ghostly joy, and burning heart in the heat of the Holy Ghost; so that men think that thy soul is as it were drunken for delight and solace of the sweetness of JESUS; and thy heart conceivest so much of G.o.d'S help that men think thou mayst never be departed from Him: and then thou comest into such rest and peace in soul, and quiet, without thoughts of vanity, (or) of vices, as if thou wert in silence and sleep, and set in Noe's ship, so that nothing may hinder thee from devotion and sweet love. For thou hast gotten His love: all thy life, until death come, in joy and comfort: and thou art verily Christ's lover: and he rests in peace whose place is made in peace.

The fourth asking was: _how thou mightest know that thou wast in love and charity_. I answer: that no man wots on earth that they are in charity; save it be through any privilege or special grace that G.o.d has given to any man or woman: that all others may not take example by. Holy men and women trow that they have truth and hope and charity: and in that do as well as they may, and hope certainly that they shall be safe; they wot it not so quickly; for if they wish, their merit were the less.

And Solomon says it is so with righteous men and wise men, and that their works are in G.o.d'S hand. And nevertheless, a man wots not whether he be worthy hatred or love; but all is reserved uncertain for another world. Nevertheless, if any had grace that he might win to the third degree of love, which is called _Singular_, he should know that he was in love. But in such manner were the knowing, that he might never bear himself the higher, nor be in less care to love G.o.d; but so much the more that he is secure of love, will he be busy to love Him and dread Him, Who has made him so, and done that goodness to Him; and he that is so high, he will not hold himself worthier than the sinfullest man that goes on earth. Also seven experiments are there, that a man be in charity. The first is; when all covetousness of earthly things is quenched in him. For whereso covetousness is, is no love of Christ.

Then, if he have no covetousness, sign is that he has love. The second is, burning yearning for heaven. For when men have felt aught of that savour, the more they love, the more they covet: and he that has not felt, he desires not. Therefore, when anyone is given so much, till he love thereof (so) that he can find no joy in his life: token has he that he is in charity. The third is; if his tongue be changed, that was wont to speak of earth; now speaks of G.o.d, and of the life that lasts aye.

The fourth is: exercise of ghostly profit. As if any man or woman give themselves entirely to G.o.d'S services, and meddle with no earthly business. The fifth is: when the thing that is hard of itself seems light for to do; the which love makes. For as Austin says: "Love it is which brings the far thing near-to-hand, and the impossible to the openly possible." The sixth is: hardness of thought to suffer all anguish and hurt that comes--without this, all the other suffices not.

For whatso befalls him shall not make a righteous man sorry. For he who is righteous, hates naught but sin; he loves naught but G.o.d, before G.o.d: he dreads naught but to anger G.o.d. The seventh is: delectability in soul, when he is in tribulation, and makes praise to G.o.d in the anger that he suffers. And this shews well that he loves G.o.d, when no sorrow can bring him down. For many love G.o.d while they are at ease; and in adversity they grumble, and fall into so great sorriness, that scarcely may any man comfort them: and so slander they G.o.d, striving and fighting against His judgments. And that is caitiff praise that any wealth of the world makes: but that praise is of great price that no violence of sorrow can do away.

The fifth asking was: _In what state men may most love G.o.d?_ I answer, in such state as it be that men are in most rest of body and soul, and least occupied with any needs or business of this world. For the thought of the love of JESUS Christ, and of the joy that lasts aye, seeks outward rest, so that it be not hindered by comers and goers, and occupation of worldly things; and it seeks within great silence from the annoyances of desires, and of vanities, and of earthly thoughts. And especially, all who love contemplative life they seek rest in body and soul. For a great Doctor says: "They are G.o.d'S throne who dwell still in one place, and are not running about, but in sweetness of Christ's love are fixed." And I have loved for to sit: for no penance, nor fantasy, nor that I wished men to talk of me, nor for no such thing: but only because I knew that I loved G.o.d more, and longer lasted within the comfort of love: than going, or standing, or kneeling. For sitting am I in most rest, and my heart most upward. But therefore, peradventure, it is not best that another should sit, as I did and will do to my death, save he were disposed in his soul, as I was.

CHAPTER XI.

Seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are in men and women who are ordained to the joy of heaven and lead their life in this world righteously. These they are: _Wisdom: Understanding: Counsel: Strength: Knowledge: Pity_ and the _Fear of G.o.d_. Begin we at _Counsel_, for thereof is most need at the beginning of our works, which we dislike not afterwards. With these seven gifts, the Holy Ghost touches separate men separately.

_Counsel_ is doing away with the world's riches, delights, and all things with which men may be ensnared in thought or deed: and therewith (i.e. _Counsel_) be drawn inwardly to contemplation of G.o.d.

_Understanding_ is, to know what is for to do, and what to leave (undone): and that which shall be given, to give it to them that have need, not to others that have no need. _Wisdom_ is forgetting of earthly things, and thinking of heaven, with discretion in all men's deeds. In this gift, shines contemplation, that is, as S. Austen says "A ghostly death of fleshly affection through the joy of a raised thought."

_Strength_ is; enduring to fulfil good purpose, that it be not left, neither for weal nor for woe. _Pity is_: that a man be mild: and gainsay no holy Writ when it smites his sins, whether he understand it or not; but with all his might that he purge the vileness of sin, in himself and in others. _Knowledge_ is that (which) makes a man in good hope, not making him quake for his righteousness, but sorrowing for his sin; and that a man gather earthly good only to the honour of G.o.d, and to other men's advantage more than to his own. The _Fear of G.o.d_ is: that we turn not again to our sin for any egging on: and then is fear perfect in us and holy, when we dread to anger G.o.d in the least sin that we can know, and flee it as poison.

CHAPTER XII.

Two lives there are that Christian men live. One is called Active life, for it is more in bodily work. Another, contemplative life, for it is in more ghostly sweetness. Active life is greatly outward, and in more travail and in more peril, because of the temptations that are in the world. Contemplative life is largely inward, therefore it is more enduring and more certain, restfuller, more delectable, lovelier and more rewarding. For, it has joy in G.o.d'S love, and savour in the life that lasts aye, in this present time, if it be rightly led. And that feeling of joy in the love of JESUS pa.s.ses all other merits in earth.

For it is so hard to come to, because of the frailty of our flesh, and the many temptations that we are beset with, which hinder us night and day: all other things that come are light in regard thereof; for that may no man deserve, but only it is given of G.o.d'S goodness to them who verily give themselves to contemplation and to quiet for Christ's love.

To men and women who betake themselves to _active life_, two things befall. One: to appoint their household in fear and in the love of G.o.d, and to find them in necessaries, and themselves keep G.o.d'S commandments entirely. Doing to their neighbours as they will that they do to them.

Another is that they do, so far as they can, the seven works of mercy.

The which are: to feed the hungry: to give the thirsty a drink; to clothe the naked: to harbour them that have no housing: to visit the sick, to comfort them that are in prison; to bury dead men.

All that can and who have property, they may not be quit with one or two of these; but it behoves them to do them all, if they will on Dooms-Day have the benison that JESUS shall give to all who do them. Or else they may dread the malison that all men have who will not do them, when they had goods to do them with.

_Contemplative life_ has two parts: a lower and a higher. The lower part is meditation of holy writing, that is G.o.d'S word, and in other good thoughts and sweet that men have of the grace of G.o.d, about the love of JESUS Christ, and also in praising G.o.d in psalms and hymns and in prayers. The higher part of contemplation is beholding and yearning after the things of heaven, and joy in the Holy Ghost: that men have oft, although it be so that they be not praying with the mouth, but only thinking of G.o.d, and of the beauty of angels, and of holy souls. Then may I say that contemplation is a wonderful joy of G.o.d'S love; the which joy is praising G.o.d, that cannot be told; and that wonderful praising is in the soul: and for abundance of joy and sweetness, it ascends into the mouth; so that the heart and the tongue agree in one, and body and soul joy, living in G.o.d. A man or woman that is appointed to contemplative life, first G.o.d inspires them to forsake this world, and all the vanity and covetousness and vile l.u.s.t thereof. Afterwards He leads them by their lone and speaks to their heart, and as the prophet says "He gives them to suck of the sweetness of the beginning of love": and then He sets them in the will to give themselves wholly to prayers and meditations and tears. Afterwards, when they have suffered many temptations, and when the foul annoyances of thoughts that are idle, and of vanities which will enc.u.mber those who cannot destroy them, are pa.s.sing away, He makes them gather up their heart to them and fasten it only in Him, and opens to the eye of their souls the gates of heaven: and then the fire of love verily lies in their heart, and burns therein, and makes it clean from all earthly filth, and afterwards they are contemplative men, and ravished in love. For contemplation is a sight; and they see into Heaven with their ghostly eye. But thou shalt wit that no man has perfect sight of heaven, whilst they are living bodily here.

But as soon as they die, they are brought before G.o.d, and see Him face to face, and eye to eye, and dwell with Him without end. For Him they sought, and Him they coveted, and Him they loved, with all their might.

Lo, Margaret, I have told thee shortly the Form of Living, and how thou mayst come to perfection, and to love Him whom thou hast taken thee to.

If it do thee good and profit to thee, thank G.o.d, and pray for me. The grace of JESUS Christ be with thee, and keep thee. Amen.

Here endeth "The Form of Perfect Living."

FOOTNOTES:

[3] The text is imperfect here.

[4] Two MSS. subst.i.tute "arms" for "mirth."

Our Daily Work.

(A Mirror of Discipline.)

Our Daily Work.

(A Mirror of Discipline.)

Three things are needful to every man; to increase his reward, through G.o.d'S grace helping, Who shall lead him. The first; that man be in honest work, without losing of his time. The second; that he do his work with a freedom of spirit, in place and in time, as work falls to each.

The third; that his outward bearing, wheresoever he come, be so honest and fair, that praise is (given) to G.o.d, a stirring up of good to all who see him, as the Apostle bids: _Omnia in vobis honesti et secundum ordinem fiant_, that is "That ye do: be it done honestly and in order."

FIRST PART OF THE BOOK.