HERE BEGINNETH THE THREE AND FORTIETH CHAPTER
That all witting and feeling of a man's own being must needs be lost if the
perfection of this word shall verily be felt in any soul in this life.
LOOK that nought work in thy wit nor in thy will but only God. And try for to
fell all witting and feeling of ought under God, and tread all down full far
under the cloud of forgetting. And thou shalt understand, that thou shalt not
only in this work forget all other creatures than thyself, or their deeds or
thine, but also thou shalt in this work forget both thyself and also thy deeds
for God, as well as all other creatures and their deeds. For it is the condition
of a perfect lover, not only to love that thing that he loveth more
than himself; but also in a manner for to hate himself for that thing that he
loveth.
Thus shalt thou do with thyself: thou shalt loathe and be weary with all that
thing that worketh in thy wit and in thy will unless it be only God. For why,
surely else, whatsoever that it be, it is betwixt thee and thy God. And no
wonder though thou loathe and hate for to think on thyself, when thou shalt
always feel sin, a foul stinking lump thou wottest never what, betwixt thee and
thy God: the which lump is none other thing than thyself. For thou shalt think
it oned and congealed with the substance of thy being: yea, as it were without
departing.
And therefore break down all witting and feeling of all manner of creatures; but
most busily of thyself. For on the witting and the feeling of thyself hangeth
witting and feeling of all other creatures; for in regard of it, all other
creatures be lightly forgotten. For, an thou wilt busily set thee to
the proof, thou shalt find when thou hast forgotten all other creatures and all
their works--yea, and thereto all thine own works--that there shall live yet
after, betwixt thee and thy God, a naked witting and a feeling of thine own
being: the which witting and feeling behoveth always be destroyed, ere the time
be that thou feel soothfastly the perfection of this work.
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