Page:King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care (2).djvu/107

98 mildheortnesse his arfæstnesse ðæt he teo on hiene selfne oðerra monna scylda, & eac ða heanesse ðære sceawunga his ingeðonces he hiene selfne oferstigge mid ðære gewilnunge ðara ungesewenlicra ðinga, & ðætte he swæ healicra ðinga wilnigende ne forsio his nihstan untrume & scyldige, ne eft for hiera untrymnesse ne forlæte ðæt he ne wilnige ðæs hean. For ðissum wæs geworden ðætte Paulus, ðeah þe he wære gelæded on neorxna wong þær (om.) he arimde ða digolnesse ðæs ðriddan hefones, & swæðeah for ðære sceawunge ðara ungesewenlicra ðinga ðeah he upaðened wære on his modes scearpnesse, ne forhogode he ðæt he hit eft gecirde to ðæm flæsclican burcotum, & gestihtode hu men sceoldon ðærinne hit macian, þa he cwæð: Hæbbe ælc mon his wif, & ælc wif hiere ceorl ; & do ðæt wif ðæm were ðæt hio him mid ryhte don sceal, & he hiere swæ some, ðylæs hie on unryht hæmen. And hwene æfter he cwæð [cuið]: Ne untreowsige ge no eow betweoxn, buton huru ðæt ge eow gehæbben sume hwile, ærðæmþe ge eowru gebedu & eowra offrunga don willen, & eft sona cirrað to eowrum ryhthæmde. Loca nu hu se halga wer, se þe swæ fæstlice geimpad wæs to ðæm hefоnlicum digolnessum, & swæðeah for mildheortnesse wæs ðonon gecirred to smeagenne hu flæsclicum monnum gedafenode on hiera burcotum & on hiera beddum to donne; & swæ swiðe swæ he wæs upahafen to ðæm ungesewenlicum, he ðeah gehwirfde his heortan eage, & for mildheortnesse gebigde his mod to untrumra monna digelnessum. Hefonas he ðurhfor mid his modes sceawunga, & swæðeah ðone ymbhogan ne forlet ðæs flæsclican beddgemanan; forðæm he wæs gefeged mid ðære lufan Godes & monna ægðer ge to ðæm hihstan

on himself the sins of other men, and also by the lofty contemplation of his mind surpass himself with the desire of invisible things, and that aspiring after such lofty things he may not despise his weak and sinful neighbours, nor, on the other hand, through their weakness give up his lofty aspirations. Therefore Paul, though he was taken to Paradise and enumerated the mysteries of the third heaven, and although by the contemplation of unseen things he was exalted in the sharpness of his mind, yet he deigned to direct it to carnal bedchambers, and ordained how men were to arrange it therein, saying: "Let each man have his wife, and each woman her husband; and let the woman do with the man what is lawful, and he with her