city, and there" I " will spend a year, and will traffic and make" " gain, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away. For that you should say, If the Lord will, and if I shall live," I " will do this or that [1] for otherwise thou shalt find thyself deceived, if Almighty God have determined the contrary.
ii. The second deceit is, to promise to myself not only long life, but also to assure myself that I shall have healthy strength, and content, with all the goods that I possess, and that they also shall last as long as I; whence it proceeds that upon this I exhort my soul, saying, " Requiesce, comede, bibe, et epulare;" " Take thy rest, eat, drink, make good cheer give thyself to banqueting and pleasure, for thou shall want nothing. And this is a most grievous illusion; for all this depends on Almighty God, who can take from me my goods before my life be ended, and though He take not them away, He may (as Ecclesiastes [2] says) take from me my health and strength, that I may not enjoy them.
iii. The third deceit is, to forget to provide what is necessary for the other life, as if there were no more but this present. And this was the grossest folly of this rich man, who having provided his soul of so much wealth to pass this temporal life, was altogether careless to provide it with those necessary goods for life everlasting; for which it needs be, that the unhappy soul that in this miserable life ate, drank, and banqueted, must afterwards endure perpetual hunger, thirst, and eternal misery.
2. Considering these three deceits, I will examine if my soul be beguiled with them, and will exhort her contrarily to what this rich man did, saying,
Colloquy. — O my soul, promise not to thyself many
