The. vii. chapyter
WHan that the Iewes had herd oure sauyour speke of suche a meate that wolde not perysshe, but sholde abyde & endure with them into euerlasting lyfe / glad men were they. For yet they hoped to haue som meate that so shold fyll theyr belyes and so satysfye them, that they shold neuer nede to labour for any more.
Now were those iewes yet somwhat lesse glotons thā are many chry sten people now a dayes. For they coulde haue ben content so that they sholde neuer haue felt hunger more, to haue forborne eatyng for euer. As the woman of Samary, so that she myghte haue had of our sauyour one draught of suche water as myghte haue quenched her thyrste for euer, was well cōtented in her own minde, to haue forborne drynke for euer.
But many chrysten men there are, ye wold not I wene be content to take eyther suche meate or suche drynke, though god wold offer it theym. For many men have suche a pleasure in eatynge and drynkynge, that they wolde not gladly lyue but euyn to eate and drynke. And for the pleasure therof, they loue better hunger and thurst thā the harmelesse lacke of thē bothe though god wold gyue it them. For we se that they seke meanes to make theyre apppetyte gredy. And some wyll eate salt meate, purposely to gyue theym a corage to the cuppe. These folke do not longe to eate & drynke to lyue the lenger, but longe to lyue to eate and drynke the lenger. These be those therfore of whom […] 1 apostle sayth, Esca ventri et venter […] deus et hunc et illam bestruet. The meat for the bely & the bely for the meat, god shall destroye both the tone and the tother.
And surely besyd the puny she mēt of god in another world, & besyde all the paynes that euyn in this worlde thorough sykenesse & sorys aryse and sprynge of suche glotonye / they that gladly wold endure a gryese perpetually, to haue the pleasure of the con tinuall swagyng, haue in theyr beste welth but a dysplesaūt pleasure / except men be so mad as to thynke that he were well at ease that […] be euer a hungred & euer eatyng, euer a thurst & euer drynkyng, euer lowly & euer clawig, euer skoruy & euer scrat chyng. These iewes I saye therfore2 & the woman of Samary, were not of this mynd / but so yt they might haue lacked ye grief of hūger & thurst they wold haue ben cōtēt as it semeth to haue for borne meat & drynke.
Now be it to say the treuth, theyr worde well wayed, it semeth yt theyr affecciōs were wurse than they seme at ye fyrst syghte. For as me thynketh they were not so gladde to put away theyr fawte, as to make a chaunge of one fawte for an other / not so glad to lese the pleasure of ye meate that is ye mayntenaunce of glotony, as to gete them to reste and idlenesse that is the mayntenaunce of slowth. And oure lorde to wched thappetyte of slouth in these Jewes, whan he bad them, Operamini non cibum qui perit &c. Worke you for the meate, not yt that peryssheth but that that abydeth into euerlastynge lyfe / notynge therein as sayth saynt Chrysostom ye slouthfull appetyte by whiche they wolde sayne haue had hym fede them stylle by myracle, wythout any labour of3 theyr owne. And the woman of Samary sayd vnto hym: Lord gyue me of yt water that I nede no more to la boure hyther, and draw vppe water here at thys depe welle.
But surely who so put not away his vyce but make a chaunge, maye soone happe to take as euyll as he le ueth, and not a wurse lyghtely than slouth. Whiche vyce god saw so noyouse vnto mankynde, that euyn whā he sette hym in paradyse, he bad hym be occupyed in the kepynge of that pleasaunt gardayn. And after warde4 whan he sholde be dreuynthense into the erth, he gaue hym a necessyte to labour / makyng the erth to be suche as without mannys labour shold not brynge hym forth hys lyuynge.
And therfore an euyll and a perylouse lyfe lyue they, that wyll in this worlde not labour & wurke, but lyue […] in idelnesse or in idle by sinesse, dryuynge forth all theyr dayes in gamyng for theyr passe time, as though that els theyr tyme could neuer passe but the sone wold euer stande euyn styll ouer theyr hedes & neuer draw to nyght, but yf they draue away the daye with dauncynge or some suche other goodly gamynge.
God sent men hyther to wake and wurke / and as for slepe and gamynge (yf any gamynge be good in thys vale of myserye in thys tyme of terys) it muste serue but for a refresshynge of the wery and forewatched body, to renewe yt vn to watche and laboure agayne not all men in bodyly labour, but as the cyrcumstaunces of the persons be, so to be bysyed ī one good bysines or other. For rest & recreacyō shold be but as a sawse. And sawce shold ye wote wel serue for a faynt and weke stomake, to gette yt the more appetyte to the meate, and not for encreace of voluptuouse pleasure in euery gredy gloton that hath in hym selfe sawce malapert all redy inough. And therfore lyke wyse as it were a fond fest yt had all the table full of sawce, and so lytle meate therwyth that the gestes sholde go thense as emptye as they came thyther; so is it surely a very madde ordered lyfe that hath but lytle tyme bestowed in any frute full by synesse, and all the substaunce idely spent in playe.
And therfore to thende that the Jewes shold know that he wold not murysshe them in theyr slouth & idelnesse, he bode them wurke. And yet leste they myght wene that he wold haue all theyr wurke aboute worldy by synes, he bode thē wurke, not for ye meate yt peryssheth, but for the meate that abydeth into euerlastynge lyfe. wherby he ment not to forbede them to labour for the tone, but to teche thē to labour mych more for the tother.
Footnotes
Chapter 9 of 70