Page 2: 106
The Remedy Against the Troubles of Temptations [This is the general title of the volume and also of the second and longest piece.]
Ed. Wynkyn de Worde, 1508 and 1519
Four profitable things
THe fyrst: mesure of thy lyf whiche is so shorte that vnnethes it is ony thynge / for we lyue here but in a poynte that is the leest thynge þat may be. And for to saye sothe, our lyfe is lesse than a poynte yf we sholde lyken it to the lyfe euerlastynge. / An other thynge is the vncertaynte of our endynge / for we wote not whan we shall dye nor how we shall dye nor whether we shall goo whan we be deed. And the wyll of god is that it be to vs vncertayne / for he wylleth that we be alwaye redy to dye. / The thyrde is þat we shall answere before the ryghtwyse Iuge of all the tyme þat we haue ben here, how we haue lyued / what our occupacyon hath be / and what good we myght haue done whan we haue ben ydle. Therfore þe prophete sayd: he hath called the tyme ayenst me / that is for euery day he hath lente vs here to spende in good vse as in penaunce and in goddes seruyce. And yf we waste it in erthly loue and vanytees, full greuously must we be demed and punysshed. Therfore it is one of the moost sorowes þat may be to vs / but yf we enforce vs to the contrary / & set our herte to the loue of god, And doo good to all that we may in þe shorte whyle that our tyme lasteth. For eche tyme þat we thynke not of god we may counte it as loste. / The fourth is that we thynke how moche the Ioye is that they shall haue whiche contynueth in the loue of god to theyr endynge / for they shall be bretherne & felowes with aungelles, seynge the kynge of Ioye in his beauty and shynynge maieste the whiche shall be to them aboue all the delytes that ony creature may thynke. Than, to remembre the grete and intollerable sorowe, payne & turmentes whiche they shal haue that loueth not god aboue all thynge as we may se in this worlde many of that dysposycyon whiche set all theyr pleasure in lust and lykynge of this lyf / as in pryde / couetyse / and other synnes / they shall brenne in the fyre of helle with the deuyll whome they serued as longe as god is in heuen with his seruauntes that lasteth euer. —
The remedy ayenst the troubles of temptacyons [A translation of William Flete's De remediis contra temptaciones.]
OUr mercyfull lorde god cryst Ihesu chastyseth his chyldren and suffreth them to be tempted for many proufytable causes to theyr soules helth / & therfore