VIII.
Yf thou asemble the in jugement, |f. 14.|
Be leke to Saturne in avisement;
Or that thou gyf thy sentence, veryly
Be ware that thou yif it not doutously.
Satyrday is named after Saturne, ande the metall lede is youen therto, and it is a planete of slow condicion, hevy and wyse. And there was a kyng in Grece hadde the same name, the [which] was full wyse, off whom poyetis spake vnder conuerteure of fable, and they seyde that his sone Jubiter kutte from hym his preuy menbres. The which is to vnderstond that he toke ffrom hym his myghte and dysheryted him and drwe[[178]] hym avay. And becawse that Saturne is hevy and wyse, Othea seyth that a good knyght shuld peyse a thynge grettely or[[179]] that he[[180]] shulde yefe his sentence, weythir that it be in pris of armes or of ony othir dede. And euery iuge may not[[181]] the same that hathe offices longgynge to iugement. And to thys purpoise Hermes seith, “Thynkke wele on all thinges that thou hast for to do and in especyall of iugement of othyr.”
As the good knyghte scholde be slowe in the iugement of othir, that is to sey, to peise wele the sentence or þat he gyf it, on the same wyse the goode spiryte shulde doo in that the which longyth to hyme; for to Gode longeth the iugement, the which can discerne cawses ryghtwysly. And Seynt Grigorye seyth in hys Moralles[[182]] that, whan owre frelnes cannot comprehende the iugementes of God, we oughte not to discute them in bolde wordes, but we ought to worchippe thyme wyth ferefull scilens and, how mervelyous that euer we thowght theyme, we shulde holde them iuste. And to this purpoose spekyth Dauid in the Sawter-booke, “Timor [Domini sanctus, permanet in seculum seculi. Judicia Domini vera iustificata in semet ipsa”].[[183]]