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.