CHAPTER V
THE FIFTH CHAPTER CONTAINETH AN INSTRUCTION UNTO THEM THAT SHALL DIE
But it is greatly to be noted, and to be taken heed of, that right seldom (that) any man — yea among religious and devout men — dispose themselves to death betimes as they ought. For every man weeneth himself to live long, and troweth not that he shall die in short time; and doubtless that cometh of the devil's subtle temptation. And often times it is seen openly that many men, through such idle hope and trust, have for-slothed themselves,[1] and have died intestate, or unavised, or undisposed,[2] suddenly. And therefore every man that hath love and dread of God, and a zeal of [the heal of] man's soul, let him busily induce and warn every of his even christians that is sick, or in any peril of body or of soul, that principally and first, over all other things, and withouten delays and long tarryings, he diligently provide and ordain for the spiritual remedy and medicine of his soul.
For often times, as a certain decretal saith, bodily sickness cometh of the sickness of the soul; and therefore the Pope in the same decretal chargeth straitly every bodily leech that he give no sick man no bodily medicine unto the time that he hath warned and induced him to seek his spiritual leech.
