meeked God shall not despise";[41] and without doubt such sorrow
bringeth in true comfort of heart.





CAPITULUM III

HOW HOPE RISETH IN THE AFFECTION




BUT, I pray thee, what comfort may be to them that truly dread and
bitterly sorrow for their old sins, ought but a true hope of
forgiveness? the which is the third son of Jacob, that is Levi, the
which is cleped in the story "a doing to."[42] For when the other
two children, dread and sorrow, are given of God to a man's soul,
without doubt he this third, that is hope, shall not be delayed, but
he shall be lone to;[43] as the story witnesseth of Levi, that, when
his two brethren, Reuben and Simeon, were given to their mother
Leah, he, this Levi, was done to. Take heed of this word, that he
was "done to" and not given. And therefore it is said that a man
shall not presume of hope of forgiveness before the time that his
heart be peeked in dread and contrite in sorrow; without these two,
hope is presumption, and where these two are, hope is done to; and
thus after sorrow cometh soon comfort, as David telleth in the psalm
that "after the muchness of my sorrow in my heart," he saith to our
Lord, "Thy comforts have gladded my soul."[44] And therefore it is