CAPITULUM VII

HOW JOY OF INWARD SWEETNESS RISETH IN THE AFFECTION




THUS when the enemy fleeth and the city is peased,[78] then
beginneth a man to prove what the high peace of God is that passeth
man's wit. And therefore it is that Leah left bearing of children
unto this time that Gad and Asher were born of Zilpah, her maiden.
For truly, but if it be so that a man have refrained the lust and
the pain of his five wits in his sensuality by abstinence and
patience, he shall never feel inward sweetness and true joy in God
and ghostly things in the affection. This is that Issachar, the
fifth son of Leah, the which in the story is cleped "Meed."[79] [And
well is this joy of inward sweetness cleped "meed"];[80] for this
joy is the taste of heavenly bliss, the which is the endless meed of
a devout soul, beginning here. Leah, in the birth of this child,
said: "God hath given me meed, for that I have given my maiden to my
husband in bearing of children."[81] And so it is good that we make
our sensuality bear fruit in abstaining it from all manner of
fleshly, kindly, and worldly delight, and in fruitful suffering of
all fleshly and worldly disease; therefore our Lord of His great
mercy giveth us joy unspeakable and inward sweetness in our