And then he feareth that he is never fully confessed nor
fully contrite, and then that his sins be never fully forgiven
him. And then he confesseth and confesseth again, and cumbereth
himself and his confessor both. And then every prayer that he
saith, though he say it as well as the frail infirmity of the man
will suffer, yet he is not satisfied unless he say it again, and
yet after that again. And when he hath said the same thing thrice,
as little is he satisfied with the last time as the first. And
then is his heart evermore in heaviness, unquiet, and fear, full
of doubt and dullness, without comfort or spiritual consolation.
With this night's fear the devil sore troubleth the mind of many a
right good man, and that doth he to bring him to some great evil.
For he will, if he can, drive him so much to the fearful minding
of God's rigorous justice, that he will keep him from the
comfortable remembrance of God's great mighty mercy, and so make
him do all his good works wearily and without consolation or
quickness.
Moreover, he maketh him take for a sin something that is not one,
and for a deadly sin one that is but venial, to the intent that
when he shall fall into them he shall, by reason of his scruple,
sin where otherwise he would not, or sin mortally (because his
conscience, in doing the deed, so told him) where otherwise indeed
he would have offended only venially.
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