HERE BEGINNETH THE EIGHT AND FORTIETH CHAPTER
How God will be served both with body and with soul, and reward men in both; and
how men shall know when all those sounds and sweetness that fall into the body
in time of prayer be both good and evil
I SAY not this because I will that thou desist any time, if thou be stirred for
to pray with thy mouth, or for to burst out for abundance of devotion in thy
spirit for to speak unto God as unto man, and say some good word as thou feelest
thee stirred: as be these, "Good JESU! Fair JESU! Sweet JESU!" and all such
other. Nay, God forbid thou take it thus! For truly I mean not thus, and God
forbid that I should depart that which God hath coupled, the body and
the spirit. For God will be served with body and with soul both together, as
seemly is, and will reward man his meed in bliss, both in body and in soul. And
in earnest of that meed, sometimes He will enflame the body of devout servants
of His here in this life: not once or twice, but peradventure right oft and as
Him liketh, with full wonderful sweetness and comforts. Of the which, some be
not coming from without into the body by the windows of our wits, but from
within; rising and springing of abundance of ghostly gladness, and of true
devotion in the spirit. Such a comfort and such a sweetness shall not be had
suspect: and shortly to say, I trow that he that feeleth it may not have it
suspect.
But all other comforts, sounds and gladness and sweetness, that come from
without suddenly and thou wottest never whence, I pray thee have them suspect.
For they may be both good and evil; wrought by a good angel if they
be good, and by an evil angel if they be evil. And this may on nowise be evil,
if their deceits of curiosity of wit, and of unordained straining of the fleshly
heart be removed as I learn thee, or better if thou better mayest. And why is
that? Surely for the cause of this comfort; that is to say, the devout stirring
of love, the which dwelleth in pure spirit. It is wrought of the hand of
Almighty God without means, and therefore it behoveth always be far from any
fantasy, or any false opinion that may befall to man in this life.
And of the tother comforts and sounds and sweetness, how thou shouldest wit
whether they be good or evil I think not to tell thee at this time: and that is
because me think that it needeth not. For why, thou mayest find it written in
another place of another man's work, a thousandfold better than I can say or
write: and so mayest thou this that I set here, far better than it is here. But
what thereof? Therefore shall I not let, nor it shall not noye me, to
fulfil the desire and the stirring of thine heart; the which thou hast shewed
thee to have unto me before this time in thy words, and now in thy deeds.
But this may I say thee of those sounds and of those sweetnesses, that come in
by the windows of thy wits, the which may be both good and evil. Use thee
continually in this blind and devout and this Misty stirring of love that I tell
thee: and then I have no doubt, that it shall not well be able to tell thee of
them. And if thou yet be in part astonished of them at the first time, and that
is because that they be uncouth, yet this shall it do thee: it shall bind thine
heart so fast, that thou shalt on nowise give full great credence to them, ere
the time be that thou be either certified of them within wonderfully by the
Spirit of God, or else without by counsel of some discreet father.
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