ce: to draw out at length what should
be done soon: having no joy at one's neighbour's profit as at one's own;
not sorrowing at his ill-faring: standing not against temptations:
forgiving not those who have done one harm: keeping not faith with one's
neighbour as one would that he did to one's self: and yielding not a
good deed for another if one can. Amending not those sins before one's
eyes: not appeasing strifes: not teaching them that are unlearned: not
comforting them that are in sorrow, or in sickness, or in poverty, or
in penance, or in prison. These sins, and many others make men foul.
_The things that cleanse us of that filth_, are three, against these
three manners of sins. The first is: _sorrow of heart_ against the sin
of thought: and that it behoves (thee to) be so perfect that thou beest
in full will never to sin more. And that thou mayest have sorrow for all
thy sins. And that all joy and solace, except of GOD and in GOD, be put
out of thine heart. The second is: _shrift of mouth_; against the sin of
mouth. And that shall be _hasty_, without delaying. _Naked_, without
excusing. Whole, without parting. Also (not) for to tell one sin to one
priest and another to another. Say all that thou wottest to one, or else
thy shrift is not worth. The Third is, _Satisfaction_; that has three
parts, Fasting, Prayer, and Alms-Deed. Not only to give poor men meat
and drink: but to forgive them that do thee wrong and pray for them:
and inform them who are at the point to perish what they shall do. For
the third thing, thou shalt wit that cleanness behoves to be kept in
heart, in mouth and in work. _Cleanness of heart_, three things keep:
one is, watchful thought and stable about GOD. Another is, care to keep
thy five wits, so that all the wicked stirrings of them be closed out of
the flesh. The third, honest and profitable occupation. Also, _cleanness
of mouth_, three things keep: one is that thou should'st bethink thee
before thou speakest. Another is that thou beest not of great but of
little speech; and specially ever till thine heart be established in the
love of JESUS Christ: so that men think thou ever lookest on Him,
whether thou speakest or not. But such a grace may'st thou not have on
the first day: but with long travel and great care to love Him from
habit, so that the eye of thine heart be aye upward, shalt thou come
thereto. The third, that thou for nothing, not even for meekness, shalt
lie to any man. For every