How THE Dying Creature complaineth Him TO Faith, Hope, and Charity
O ye holy Faith, Hope, and Charity, where have ye been so long ? I have lived in great dread how ye have sped. Have ye been with the Queen of Heaven, Lady of the world, and Empress of hell ? That most glorious, pure, chaste virgin, that bare the Son of God that should redeem all mankind. How will her chaste and pure virginity receive me that am a sinner, and suffer me to come in her presence, and put a supplication to her most high, glorious, and excellent Prince, that have so grievously offended her blessed Son and her. Will she not abhor, nor disdain to look on me that am of all sinners the most horrible and abominable, and have so done that I cannot, without her most abundant grace, find a mean how to make aseth.[1] But I have heard say of old antiquity that she is so merciful and so gracious to sinners [when they call after grace, and hath holpen so many sinners] that of right must have perished n'ere her grace had been. But what comfort ye have of her most abundant grace I pray you let me wit, for certainly I live in great despair. For here hath been with me, sith ye went, my Soul, and complained that he must perish eternally in my default,[2] and crieth and waileth the time that ever he was coupled with thilk ungracious body, that so hath ruled him, and I can give him no comfort without you three.
