falleth upon thee, devotion passeth out from thee; and the more near they take thee and grip thee, the further fleeth devotion from thee. Sicker this is sooth, I know it by experience; for in sooth thou shalt have little devotion if thou be sore touched with sickness.[1] Therefore if thou wilt not be deceived or err — if thou wilt be sure — do busily what thou mayst while thou art in heal, and hast the use and freedom of thy five wits and reason well disposed, and while thou mayst be master of thyself and of thy deeds.
O Lord God how many, yea without number, (that) have abiden so to their last end have forslothed and deceived themselves everlastingly. Take heed, brother or sister, and beware, if ye list, lest it happen thee in the same wise. But let no man wonder, nor think that it is inconvenient that so great charge and diligence and wise disposition and providence, and busy exhortation should be had and ministered to them that be in point of death, and in their last end — as it is abovesaid — for they be in such peril and in so great need at that time, that, and it were possible, all a city should come together with all haste to a man that is nigh to the death or dying; as the manner is in some religious,[2] in which it is ordained that when a sick man is nigh the death, then every of the brothers shall, when they hear the table[3] smitten — what hour that ever it be, and where that ever they be — all things being left, hastily come
