evertheless, because you desire to have some kind of practice by which you could approach that reforming more quickly, I shall tell you by the grace of our Lord Jesus what seems to me the shortest and promptest aid that I know in this work. And how that shall be I will tell you in this manner, through the example of a good pilgrim.

There was a man wanting to go to Jerusalem, and because he did not know the way he came to another man who he thought knew it and asked whether he could reach that city. The other man told him he could not get there without great hardship and labour, for the way is long and the perils are great, with thieves and robbers as well as many other difficulties to beset a man on his journey; also there are many different ways seeming to lead in that direction, yet people are being killed and robbed daily and cannot come to the place they desire. However, there is one way, and he would undertake that anyone who takes and keeps to it shall come to the city of Jerusalem, and never lose his life or be slain or die of want. He would often be robbed and badly beaten and suffer great distress on his journey, but his life would always be safe. Then the pilgrim said: 'If it is true that I can keep my life and come to the place I desire, I do not care what trouble I suffer on the journey, and therefore tell me what you will, and I promise faithfully to do as you say'. The other man answered and said this: 'See, I am setting you on the right road. This is the way, and be sure to keep the instructions I give you'.

'Whatever you hear, see or feel that would hinder you on your way, do not willingly stay with it, and do not tarry for it, taking rest; do not look at it, do not take pleasure in it, and do not fear it; but always go forth on your way and think that you want to be in Jerusalem. For that is what you long for and what you desire, and nothing else but that; and if men rob you, strip you, beat you, scorn you and despise you, do not fight back if you want to have your life, but bear the hurt that you have and go on as if it were nothing, lest you come to more harm. In the same way, if men want to delay you with stories and feed you with lies, trying to draw you to pleasures and make you leave your pilgrimage, turn a deaf ear and do not reply, saying only that you want to be in Jerusalem. And if men offer you gifts and seek to enrich you with worldly goods, pay no attention to them, always think of Jerusalem. And if you will keep on this way and do as I have said, I promise you your life - that you shall not be slain but come to the place that you desire'.

According to our spiritual propositions, Jerusalem is as much as to say sight of peace and stands for contemplation in perfect love of God, for contemplation is nothing other than a sight of Jesus, who is true peace. Then if you long to come to this blessed sight of true peace and to be a faithful pilgrim toward Jerusalem - even though it should be that I was never there, yet as far as I know - I shall set you in the way that leads toward it.

The beginning of the highway along which you shall go is reforming in faith, grounded humbly in the faith and in the laws of holy church, as I have said before, for trust assuredly that although you have formerly sinned, you are on the right road, if you are now reformed by the sacrament of penance according to the law of holy church. Now since you are on the sure way, if you want to speed on your travels and make a good journey each day, you should hold these two things often in your mind - humility and love. That is: I am nothing; I have nothing; I desire only one thing. You shall have the meaning of these words continually in your intention, and in the habit of your soul, even though you may not always have their particular form in your thought, for that is not necessary. Humility says, I am nothing; I have nothing. Love says, I desire only one thing, and that is Jesus. These two strings, well-fastened with mindfulness of Jesus, make good harmony on the harp of the soul when they are skillfully touched with the finger of reason. For the lower you strike upon the one, the higher sounds the other; the less you feel that you are or that you have of yourself through humility, the more you long to have of Jesus in the desire of love. I do not mean only that humility that a soul feels as it looks at its own sin or at the frailties and wretchedness of this life, or at the worthiness of his fellow Christians, for although this humility is true and medicinal, it is comparatively rough and carnal, not pure or soft or lovely. But I mean also this humility that the soul feels though grace in seeing and considering the infinite being and wonderful goodness of Jesus, and if you cannot see it yet with your spiritual eye, that you believe in it, for through the sight of his being - either in full faith or in feeling - you shall regard yourself not only as the greatest wretch that there is, but also as nothing in the substance of your soul, even if you had never committed sin. And that is lovely humility, for in comparison with Jesus who is in truth All, you are but nothing. In the same way think that you have nothing, but are like a vessel that always stands empty, as if with nothing in it of your own for however many good works you do, outwardly or inwardly, you have nothing at all until you have - and feel that you have - the love of Jesus. For your soul can be filled only with that precious liquor, and with nothing else; and because that thing alone is so precious and so valuable, regard anything you have and do as nothing to rest in, without the sight and the love of Jesus. Throw it all behind you and forget it, so that you can have what is best of all.

Just as a true pilgrim going to Jerusalem leaves behind him home and land, wife and children, and makes himself poor and bare of all that he has in order to travel light and without hindrance, so if you want to be a spiritual pilgrim you are to make yourself naked of all that you have - both good works and bad - and throw them all behind you, and thus become so poor in your own feeling that there can be no deed of your own that you want to lean upon for rest, but you are always desiring more grace of love, and always seeking the spiritual presence of Jesus. If you do so, you shall then set in your heart, wholly and fully, your desre to be at Jerusalem, and in no other place but there; and that is, you shall set in your heart, wholly and fully, your will to have nothing but the love of Jesus and the spiritual sight of him, as far as he wishes to show himself. It is for that alone you are made and redeemed, and that is your beginning and your end, your joy and your glory. Therefore, whatsoever you have, however rich you may be in other works of body and spirit, unless you have that, and know and feel that you have it, consider that you have nothing at all. Print this statement well on the intention of your heart, and hold firmly to it, and it will save you from all the perils of your journey, so that your will never perish. It shall save you from thieves and robbers (which is what I call unclean spirits), so that though they strip you and beat you with diverse temptations, your life shall always be saved; and in brief if you guard it as I shall tell you, you shall within a short time escape all perils and distresses and come to the city of Jerusalem.

ow that you are on the road and know the name of the place you are bound for, begin to go forward on your journey. Your going forth is nothing else but the work of the spirit - and of the body as well, when there is need for it - which you are to use with discretion in the following way. Whatever work it is that you should do, in body or in spirit, according to the degree and state in which you stand, it if helps this grace-given desire that you have to love Jesus, making it more whole, easier and more powerful for all virtues and all goodness, that is the work I consider the best, whether it be prayer, meditation, reading or working; and as long as that taks most strenghtens your heart and your working; and as long as that task most strengthens your heart and you will for the love of Jesus and draws your affection and your thought farthest from worldly vanities, it is good to use it. And if it happens that the savour of it becomes less through use, and you feel that you savour anothing kind of work more, and you feel more grace in another, take another and leave that one. For though your desire and the yearning of your heat for Jesus should always be unchangeable, nevertheless the spiritual practices that you are to use in prayer or the meditation to feed and nourish your desire may be diverse, and may well be changed according to the way you feel disposed to appply your own heart, through grace.

For it goes with works and desire as it does with a fire and sticks. The more sticks are laid on a fire, the greater is the flame, and so the more varied the spiritual work that anyone has in mind for keeping his desire whole, the more powerful and ardent shall be his desire for God. Therefore notice carefully what work you best know how to do and what most helps you to keep whole this desire for Jesus (if you are free, and are not bound except under the common law), and do that. Do not bind yourself unchangeably to practices of your own choosing that hinder the freedom of your heart to love Jesus if grace should specially visit you, for I shall tell you which customs are always good and need to be kept. See, a particular custom is always good to keep if it consists in getting virtue and hindering sin, and that practice should never be left. For if you behave well, you will always be humble and patient, sober and chaste; and so with all other virtues. But the practice of any other thing that hinders a better work should be left when it is time for one to do this; for instance in a certain way for a particular length of time, or waking or kneeling for a certian time, or doing other such bodily work, this practice is to be left off sometimes when a reasonable cause hinders it, or else if more grace comes from another quarter.

22. The delays and temptations that souls shall feel from their spiritual enemies on their spiritual journey to the heavenly Jerusalem, and some remedies against them.

Now you are on the way and know how you shall go. Now beware of enemies that will be trying to hinder you if they can, for their intention is to put out of your heart that desire and that longing that you have for the love of Jesus, and to drive you home again to the love of worldly vanity, for there is nothing that grieves them so much. These enemies are principally carnal desires and vain fears that rise out of your heart through the corruption of your fleshly nature, and want to hinder your desire for the love of God, so that they can fully occupy your heart without disturbance. These are your nearest enemies. There are other enemies too, such as unclean spirits that are busily trying to decieve you with tricks and wiles. But you shall have one remedy, as I said before: whatever it may be they say, do not believe them, but keep on your way and desire only the love of Jesus. Always give this answer: I am nothing, I have nothing, I desire nothing but the love of Jesus alone. If your enemies speak to you first like this, by stirrings in your heart, that you have not made a proper confession, or that there is some old sin hidden in your heart that you do not know and never confessed, and therefore you must turn home again, leave your desire and go to make a better confession: do not believe this saying, for it is false and you are absolved. Trust firmly that you are on the road, and you need no more ransacking of your confession for what is past: keep on your way and think of Jerusalem. Similarly, if they say that you are not worthy to have the love of God, and ask what good it is to crave something you cannot have and do not deserve, do not believe them, but go forward, saying thus, 'Not because I am worthy, but because I am unworthy - that is my motive for loving God, for if I had that love, it would make me worthy; and since I was made for it, even though I should never have it I will yet desire it, and therefore I will pray and meditate in order to get it'. And then, if your enemies see that you begin to grow bold and resolute in your work, they start getting frightened of you; however, they will not stop hindering you when they can as long as your are going on your way. What with fear and menaces on the one hand and flattery and false blandishment on the other, to make you break your purpose and turn home again, they will speak like this: 'If you keep up your desire for Jesus, labouring as hard as you have begun, you will fall into sickness or into fantasies and frenzies, as you see some do, or you will fall into poverty and come to bodily harm, and no one will want to help you; or you might fall into secret temptations of the devil, in which you will not know how to help yourself. It is very dangerous for any man to give himself wholly to the love of God, to leave all the world and desire nothing but his love alone; for so many perils may befall that one does not know of. And therefore turn home again and leave this desire, for you will never carry it through to the end, and behave as other people do in the world'.

So say your enemies; but do not believe them. Keep up your desire, and say nothing else but that you want to have Jesus and to be in Jerusalem. And if they then perceive your will to be so strong that you will not spare yourself - for sin or for sickness, for fantasies or frenzy, for doubts or fears of spiritual temptations, for poverty or distress, for life or for death - but that you will is set ever onward, with one thing and one alone, turning a deaf ear to them as if you did not hear them, and keeping on stubbornly and unstintingly with your prayers and your other spiritual works, and with discretion according to the counsel of your superior or your spiritual father; then they begin to be angry and to draw a little nearer to you. They start robbing you and beating you and doing you all the injury they know: and that is when they cause all your deeds - however well done - to be judged evil by others and turned the worst way. And whatever you may want to do for the benefit of your body and soul, it will be hampered and hindered by other men, in order to thwart you in everything that you reasonably desire. All this they do to stir you to anger, resentment or ill-will against your fellow Christians.

But against all these annoyances, and all others that may befall, use this remedy; take Jesus in your mind, and do not be angry with them; do not linger with them, but think of your lesson - that you are nothing, you have nothing, you cannot lose any earthly goods, and you desire nothing but the love of Jesus - and keep on your way to Jerusalem, with your occupation. Nevertheless, if through your own frailty you are at some time vexed with such troubles befalling your life in the body through the ill-will of man or the malice of the devil, come to yourself again as soon as you can; stop thinking of that distress and go forth to your work. Do not stay too long with them, for fear of your enemies.

23. A general remedy against wicked stirrings and painful vexations that befall the heart from the world, the flesh and the devil.

nd your enemies will be much abashed, when they see you so well-disposed that you are not annoyed, heavyhearted, wrathful, or greatly stirred against any creature, for anything that they can do or say against you, but that you fully set your heart upon bearing all that may happen - ease and hardship, praise or blame - and that you will not trouble about anything, provided you can keep whole your thought and your desire for the love of God. But then they will try you with flattery and vain blandishment, and that is when they bring to the sight of your soul all your good deeds and virtues and impress upon you that all men praise you and speak of your holiness; and how everybody loves you and honors you for your holy living. Your enemies do this to make you think that their talk is true, and take delight in this vain joy and rest in it; but if you do well you shall hold all such vain jabbering as the falsehood and flattery of your enemy, who proffers you a drink of venom tempered with honey. Therefore refuse it; say you do not want any of it, but want to be in Jerusalem.

You shall feel such hindrances, or others like them - what with your flesh, the world and the devil - more than I can recite now. For as long as a man allows his thoughts to run willingly all over the world to consider different things, he notices few hindrances; but as soon as he draws all his thought and his yearning to one thing alone - to have that, to see that, to know that, and to love that  (and that is only Jesus) - then he shall well feel many painful hindrances, for everything that he feels and is not what he desires is a hindrance to him. Therefore, I have told you particularly of some as an example. Furthermore, I say in general that whatever stirring you feel from your flesh or from the devil, pleasant or painful, bitter or sweet, agreeable or dreadful, glad or sorrowful - that would draw down your thought and your desire from the love of Jesus to worldly vanity and utterly prevent the spiritual desire that you have for the love of him, so that your heart should stay occupied with that stirring: think nothing of it, do not willingly receive it, and do not linger over it too long. But if it concerns some worldly thing that ought to be done for yoruself or your fellow Christian, finish with it quickly and bring it to an end so that it does not hang on your heart. If it is some other thing that is not necessary, or does not concern you, do not trouble about it, do not parley with it, and do not get angry; neither fear it nor take pleasure in it, but promptly strike it out of your heart, saying thus: 'I am nothing; I have nothing; I neither seek nor desire anything but the love of Jesus'. Knit your thought to this desire and make it strong; maintain it with prayer and with other spiritual work so that you do not forget it; and it shall lead you in the right way and save you from all perils, so that although you feel them you shall not perish. And I think it will bring you to perfect love of our Lord Jesus.

On the other hand I also say: Whatever work or stirring it may be that can help your desire, strengthen  and nourish it, and make your heart furthest from the enjoyment and remembrance of the world, and more whole and more ardent for the love of God - whether it be prayer or meditation, stillness or speaking, reading or listening, solitude or company, walking or sitting - keep it for the time and work in it as long as the savor lasts, provided you take with it food, drink and sleep like a pilgrim, keeping discretion in your labor as your superior advises and ordains. For however great his haste on his journey, yet at the right time he is willing to eat, drink and sleep. Do so yourself, for although it may hinder you at one time it shall advance you at another.

[For manuscript transcription in its original Middle English, see Walter Hilton, The Parable of a Pilgrim, from The Scale of Perfection]