HERE BEGINNETH THE NINE AND FORTIETH CHAPTER
The substance of all perfection is nought else but a good
will; and how that all sounds and comfort and sweetness that may befall in this
life be to it but as it were
accidents.
AND therefore I pray thee, lean listily to this meek stirring of love in thine
heart, and follow thereafter: for it will be thy guide in this life and bring
thee to bliss in the tother. It is the substance of all good living, and
without it no good work may be begun nor ended. It is nought else but a good
and an according will unto God, and a manner of well-pleasedness and a gladness
that thou feelest in thy will of all that He doth.
Such a good will is the substance
of all perfection. All sweetness and comforts, bodily or ghostly, be to this
but as it were accidents, be they never so holy; and they do but hang on this
good will. Accidents I call them, for they may be had and lacked without
breaking asunder of it. I mean in this life, but it is not so in the bliss of
heaven; for there shall they be oned with the substance without departing, as
shall the body in the which they work with the soul. So that the substance of
them here is but a good ghostly will. And surely I trow that he that feeleth
the perfection of this will, as it may be had here, there may no sweetness nor
no comfort fall to any man in this life, that he is not as fain and as glad to
lack it at God's will, as to feel it and have it.