The nine and fourty chapitre. The substaunce of alle perfeccion is not elles bot a good wile; and how that alle sounes, counfortes, and swetnes, that mowe falle in this liif, ben to it bot as it were accidentes.
The Substance of Perfection
The humble stirring of love in the heart is the substance of all good living, a good will that accords with God.
And therefore I ask you: lean eagerly into this humble stirring of love in your heart, and follow it; for it will be your guide in this life, and bring you to bliss in the next. It is the substance of all good living, and without it no good work can be begun or finished. It is nothing else but a good will that accords with God, and a kind of contentment and gladness that you feel in your will toward all that He does.1
Accidents and Substance
Good will is the substance of perfection, while all sweetness and comforts are mere accidents that can be had or lacked without breaking it, and the perfect will is indifferent to them.
Such a good will is the substance of all perfection. All sweetness and comforts, bodily or spiritual, are to this only accidents, so to speak, however holy they may be; and they do nothing but hang upon this good will.2 I call them accidents because they can be had or lacked without breaking it.3 I mean in this life; but it isn't so in the bliss of heaven, for there they will be united with the substance without parting, as the body will be, in which they work with the soul.4 So their substance here is nothing but a good spiritual will. And surely I believe that for anyone who feels the perfection of this will, as it can be had here, any sweetness or comfort that comes to them in this life, they are as glad and willing to lack it at God’s will as to feel it and have it.
Read the original Middle English
And therfore I preie thee, lene listely to this meek steryng of love in thin herte, and folow therafter; for it wil be thi gyde in this liif, and bring thee to blisse in the tother. It is the substaunce of alle good levyng, and withouten it no good werk may be bygonne ne eendid. It is not elles bot a good and an acordyng wil unto God, and a maner of weelpayednes and a gladnes that thou felest in thi wille of alle that He doth.
Soche a good wille is the substaunce of alle perfeccion. Alle swetnes and counfortes, bodily or goostly, ben to this bot as it were accydentes, be thei never so holy; and thei don bot hangen on this good wil. Accydentes I clepe hem, for thei mowe be had and lackyd withoutyn parbrakyng of it. I mene in this liif; bot it nys not so in the blis of heven, for there schul thei be onyd with the substaunce withouten departyng, as schal the body in the whiche thei worche with the soule. So that the substaunce of hem here is bot a good goostly wil. And sekirly I trowe that he that felith the perfeccion of this wil, as it may be had here, ther may no swetnes ne no counforte falle to any man in this liif, that he ne is as fayne and as gladde to lacke it at Goddes wille as to fele it and have it.
Notes
- 1 ↩Middle English weelpayednes is well-pleasedness: the settled contentment of a will glad at whatever God does. Rendered here as contentment.
- 2 ↩accydentes keeps the scholastic sense of non-essential properties, not chance mishaps.
- 3 ↩parbrakyng rendered as breaking (destroying the substance); not the later sense 'vomiting'.
- 4 ↩thei points back to the sweetnesses/comforts: in heaven they become inseparable from the substance, paralleling the body's unparted union in which they operate with the soul.
The Cloud of Unknowing companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent