PHILOLOGUS. O gladsome glass, O mirror bright, O crystal clear as sun, The joys cannot be uttered which herein I behold! Wherefore I will not thee forsake, what evil soever come.
SPIRIT. If needs thou wilt thyself undo, say not but thou art told.
PHILOLOGUS. Hap what hap will, I will not lose these pleasures manifold. Wherefore conduct me once again: here, take me by the hand.
SUGGESTION. That Sensual Suggestion doth lead him, understand.
[CONSCIENCE.] Alas, alas! thou woful wight, what fury doth thee move So willingly to cast thyself into consuming fire? What Circe hath bewitched thee thy worldly wealth to love More than the blessed state of Soul, this one thing I desire? Weigh well the cause with sincere heart, thy conscience thee require, And sell not everlasting joys for pleasures temporal.[56] Resist Suggestion of the flesh, who seeks thee for to spoil; From which thou soon shalt go, or they from thee bereaved shall, And take from thee, which God elect, true everlasting soil. See where confusion doth attend to catch thee in his snare, Whose hands, if that thou goest on still, thou shalt no way eschew.
PHILOLOGUS. What wight art thou, which for my health dost take such earnest care?
CONSCIENCE. Thy crazed conscience, which foresee the plagues and torments due, Which from just Judge, whom thou denyest, shall by and by ensue.
SUGGESTION. Thou hast good trial of the faith which I to thee do bear: Commit thy safety to my charge; there is no danger near.
CONSCIENCE. Such is the blindness of the flesh, that it may not descry Or see the perils which the soul is ready to incur; And much the less our own estates we can ourselves espy, Because Suggestion in our hearts such, fancies often stir: Whereby to worldly vanities we cleave as fast as burr, Esteeming them with heavenly joys in goodness comparable, Yet be they mostly very pricks to sin abhominable. For proof we need no further go than to this present man, Who by the blessing of the Lord of riches having store, When with his heart to fancy them this worldling once began, And had this glass of vanities espied his eyes before, He God forsook, whereas he ought have loved him the more; And chooseth rather with his goods to be thrown down to hell, Than by refusing of the same with God in heaven to dwell.