Part 18

Promise.

191Ps. xlvi. 8 (Vulgate), xlvii. 7 (A.V.): "Sing ye praises with understanding."

192Ps. cxi. 10 (cx. 10 Vulgate).

So Pepwell; Harl. MS. 674 reads: "Bot forthi that there is no sekir stonding."

Pepwell adds in explanation: "or amends"; i.e. satisfaction. Cf. Langland, Piers the Plowman, B. xvii. 237: "And if it suffice noughte for assetz"; and Wyclif, Pistil on Cristemasse Day (Select English Works, ed. T. Arnold, ii. p. 237): "And thus, sith aseeth muste be maad for Adams synne."

Ps. xxxiv. 22 (Vulgate xxxiii. 23).

The MSS. read: "fro a lyf."

The MSS. read: "a lyf."

So Harl. MS. 674. Pepwell reads: "Also the steps of thy staff Hope plainly will shew unto thee if thou do it duly, as I have told thee before, or not."

Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 82, A. I: "Devotio nihil aliud esse videtur, quam voluntas quaedam prompte tradendi se ad ea, quae pertinent ad Dei famulatum."

The whole passage included in square brackets is omitted in Pepwell, but is identical in the two MSS.

So Harl. MS. 2373; Harl. MS. 674 reads: "medeful."

The trunk.

Pepwell inserts: "it is but churl's meat, for."

Not in Pepwell.

Pepwell reads: "and for nothing else."

Had never received it from Him.

Pure Love, or Charity, which "attains to God Himself, that it may abide in Him, not that any advantage may accrue to us from Him" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 23, A. 6). For the whole doctrine of "Pure Love or Disinterested Religion," cf. F. von Hugel, The Mystical Element of Religion, ii. pp. 152-181.

So both MSS.; Pepwell reads: "blessedness."

Hindering or marring.

Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 27, A. 3; and F. von Hugel, op. cit., ii. p. 167.

In the Divine Essence.

So Harl. MS. 674, I take "it" as the beatitude of man which is God Himself.

Cf. Dante, Par. xxxiii, 143-145:--

"Ma gia volgeva il mio disiro e il velle, Si come rota ch' egualmente e mossa, L'Amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle."

"But already my desire and will, even as a wheel that is equally moved, were being turned by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars."

1 Cor. vi. 17.

Pepwell adds: "or sundry."