CAPITULUM VIII

HOW PERFECT HATRED OF SIN RISETH IN THE AFFECTION




AND therefore it is that after Issachar Zebulun is born, that is to
say, hatred of sin. And here it is to wete why that hatred of sin is
never perfectly felt in a man's affection, ere the time that ghostly
joy of inward sweetness be felt in the affection, and this is the
skill: for ere this time was never the true cause of hatred felt in
the affection. For the feeling of ghostly joy teacheth a man what
sin harmeth the soul. And all after that the harm in the soul is
felt much or little, thereafter is the hatred measured, more or
less, unto the harming. But when a soul, by the grace of God and
long travail, is come to feeling of ghostly joy in God, then it
feeleth that sin hath been the cause of the delaying thereof. And
also when he feeleth that he may not alway last in the feeling of
that ghostly joy, for the corruption of the flesh, of the which
corruption sin is the cause; then he riseth with a strong feeling of
hatred against all sin and all kind of sin. This feeling taught
David us to have, where he saith in the psalm: "Be ye wroth and will
ye not sin";[86] that is thus to mean: Be ye wroth with the sin, but
not with the kind.[87] For kind stirreth to the deed, but not to
sin. And here it is to wete that this wrath and this hatred is not