shalt feel everlasting stink: and because
thou lovedst mirkness here, for aye to be in sin, there shalt thou feel
such thick mirkness that thou canst grip it; and because here thou didst
rest thyself in sin against GOD'S will, there shalt thou shed more tears
than there are motes in a sunbeam. Thou shalt suffer pain ever after
pain, ever to renew thy woe."

When GOD'S grace has stirred man and wakened him with these three, and
has made him to know the peril he is in, then he conceives a terror of
GOD'S awful doom: and therethrough, he begins to repent whatever he did
ill, and covets to amend himself through GOD'S grace, that stirs him to
flee ill and give himself to good: and then comes grace following, to
help the goodwill of man to fulfil it in deed. For though man have a
good will to do the good, through grace before stirring the good will,
yet can he not do indeed without GOD'S grace following and helping: and
this the Apostle affirms of himself when he says; "But not I, but the
grace of GOD in me"; that is, "the good which I do is naught, but GOD'S
grace does it with me"; as if he had said, "I can do no good, unless
GOD'S grace help me." GOD'S will is also a handmaiden to grace, to work
all her will. GOD'S grace, wherever it be, will not be useless, but ever
working and growing more and more, to increase thy reward. Therefore do
we as the Apostle counsels us, "We exhort you, brethren, that ye receive
not the grace of GOD in vain"; that is, "I pray you and bid you, my
brothers in GOD, that ye receive not GOD'S grace in vain." He receives
GOD'S grace in vain, that enjoys it not in good, when GOD sends it to
him; and therefore perhaps, he shall never after win thereto. Isidore
tells of a little fly that is called _Saura_, and this fly betokens
grace stirring beforehand. This kind of fly is said to be the enemy of
all venomous worms, so that when he sees any worm (going) toward man to
sting him when he sleeps in the wilderness; he flies before to the man,
and lights upon his face, and bites him a little; and therethrough he
wakes before the beast comes to sting him. By this _Saura_ is understood
grace that GOD sends to man against the temptations of the fiend, who
often stings venomously: it cries unto thee, as the Apostle says;
"Awake, thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall
give thee light." But the unthankful act against this grace, and ruin
it: as Virgil did with this little fly that saved him