Page:King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care (2).djvu/277

268 GREGORY'S PASTORAL. [Cotton MSS. swiðe gnornað on ðære godcundan swingellan, he bið on middum ðæm ofue gecierred to are. Ðæt tin ðonne, ðonne hit mon mid sumum cræfto gemengð, & to tine gewyrcð, ðonne big hit swiðe leaslice on siolofres hiewe. Swæ hwa ðonne swæ licet on ðære swingellan, he bið ðæm tine gelic inne on ðæm ofne. Se bið ðonne ðæm iserne gelic inne on ðæm ofne, se þe for ðære swingellan nyle his ðweorscipe forlætan, ac ofann his niehstan his lifes. Ðæt lead ðonne is hefigre ðonne ænig oðer andweorc. Forðy bið inne on ðæm ofne geworden to leade se se þe swæ bið geðryced [geðrysced] mid ðære hefignesse his synna ðæt he furðum on ðæm broce nyle alætan his geornfulnesse & ðas eorðlecan wilnunga. Be ðæm ilcan is eft awriten: Đær wæs swiðe swiðlic geswinc, & ðær wæs micel swat agoten, & ðeah ne meahte mon him of animan ðone miclan rust, ne furðum mid fire ne meahte hine mon aweg adón. Hie us stiereð mid fyres broce, forðæmþe he wolde from us adon ðone rust urra unðeawa, ac we ðeah for ðæm broce ðæs fyres nyllað alætan from us ðæt rust ðara unnyttra weorca, ðonne we on ðære swingellan nyllað gebetan ure unðeawas. Be ðæm cwæð eft se witga : Idel wæs se blawere, forðæm hiera awiergdan weorc ne wurdon from him asyndrede. Eac is to wietonne ðætte oft ðæm bið gestiered mid manðwærlicre manunga, ðæm þe man mid heardre swingellan gecierran ne mæg, & ða þe ne magon ðrowunga gestieran yfelra weorca, oft hie hie forlætað for lifelicre oliccunga, swæ swæ ða siocan, ða þe man oft ne mæg gelacnian mid ðæm drencium strongra wyrta gemanges, ða ful oft bioð mid wlacum wætre gelacnode, & on ðære ilcan hælo gebrohte þe he ær hæfdon. Swæ

under the divine castigation, is turned into bronze in the midst of the furnace. Tin, when scientifically compounded and made into tin, has a colour deceptively like that of silver. Whoever, then, behaves hypo- critically under his castigation, resembles the tin in the furnace. He is like iron in the furnace, who will not cease from perversity under affliction, but grudges his neighbour his life. Lead is the heaviest of substances; therefore he is turned into lead in the furnace who is so oppressed with the weight of his sins that not even under affliction will he give up his lusts and earthly desires. Of the same is again written : “There was great toil and expenditure of sweat, and yet the great rust could not be cleaned off them, not even with fire." He