Though we may not agree altogether there can be no doubt that modern English writers do lack a sense of assurance. Geoffrey Chaucer is known to us for his good tempered satirising of the evils of his time and his genuine enjoyment of the commonplace things of life. Shakespeare and his contemporaries enjoyed life, too, and in spite of less reputable interludes we are compelled to admire their assurance. Yet both these men ended their lives with a Confiteor and Orate pro me. Chaucer retracts his Tales, “thilke that sounen into sinne,” and begs the reader “that ye preye for me, that Crist have mercy on me and foryeve me my giltes”; and Shakespeare in the person of Prospero appeals to his audience,

Besides what has been said, in the manner of this remedy the plan of divine wisdom and justice is wonderfully evident, since God ordained that our blessings should come to us in the same manner as our ills, so that as by one man came sin and death, justice and life should come through the sanctity of another man. For it was not reasonable that holiness should have less efficacy as a remedy than guilt had for injury, that mercy should not compete with justice, or that if justice condemned the multitude for one man s sin, mercy should not suffice to save the many by the sanctity of one person.

Nor are there wanting other congruities that show how justly sin was exonerated and man redeemed. For as the pride of the first man, who, though but a man, sought to usurp the semblance of God, condemned his whole race, so the humility of the other Man who, though very God, lowered Himself to take on humanity, and saved us all, so far as lay with Him. For no humility could be found so radically opposed to such pride as this. As the man who by the law of nature was subject to God, exempted himself from this duty by his disobedience, thus injuring us all, so the obedience of the second Man, who by the same law was exempt from all subjection, obtained pardon and justification for us all.