AN INSTRVCTION, OR RVLE OF good life, for those that begin to serue God especiallie in Religion
BEFORE we begin to treate of the exercises and vertues, that he must haue, which beginneth to serue God in Religion, it is necessarie to declare the end of this affaire; because the ignorance of the same, is that which maketh manie erre out of the right waie.
The end then of this entreprise so important, is to correct, and mortifie al euil inclinations, and disordred appetites of nature, and to make a man spiritual, and vertuous, in such sort that he obteine the end, for which he was created, which is God. The end is to giue the first being to a new man, not of the earth, but of heauen; not of the flesh, but of the spirite; not conformable to the image of the earthlie Adam, but like to that of the heauenlie; not according to the affections and conditions of the first generation, which was by nature, but according to the second generation, which is by grace. Finallie the end is to dooe that, which God commaunded the Prophet Ieremie, 1 when he saide. I haue set thee this daie ouer nations and kingdoms, that thou maist roote out, and destroie, & disperse, & build vp, & plant. Which is as much as to saie; that thou pluck of from the soule all appetitee & inclinations, that men bring from theirs mothers wombe, & the corruption of sinne; & that thou plant in theire places the plants of vertues, vhich be agreable to the new regeneration, & adoptiō of the sonns of God.
Heerehence it appeareth that like as he, whoe desireth to make a pleasant garden in a hill ful of briars, first diggeth vp whatsoeuer hindereth him, and then planteth in the same al such fruteful trees as he desireth: so one that purposeth to make his sowle a garden shut vp and inclosed, and a paradise of pleasure for almightie God, must first roote out all euil herbs, & al the thornes of vices, and wicked inclinations of nature, and then forthwith set in theire steede, al sweete plants & flowers of vertues and graces. In like sort doe they that mind to make a faire picture; for first they prepare the matter, whereupon it is to be painted, by plaining and polishing the same, and taking from it al roughnes: which being donne, they draw in it whatsoeuer they please. Now the verie like diligence is to be necessarilie vsed in this state, in which nature remained through sinne (which before was needles) to destroye and abolish the remaines of that first generation, and to adorne the sowle with the vertues of the second.
Wherfore, as amongst diuers and sundrie kind of fruites, som there be, that ar fit to be eaten, as soone as they be gathered of from the trees, and som others that first must be boiled, or put in conserue manie daies, to asswage and temper their natural sharpnes and bitternes, with which they grew; so must we vnderstand, 2 that mankind hath had twoe states or conditions of being, the one before he fel, the other after his sinne committed: & that in the first he was so seasoned and ripe, that nothing was to be found in him worthie of blame or amendment; but in the second there is so much to be amended, that scarse he hath anie thing, that needeth not to passe first through the fiar of the holie ghost, that so it maie lose al the wickednes it hath. And this is one of the chiefest points and aduises of this affaire; whence it appeareth, how great an error those bringers vp of nouices commit, whoe being intangled and intricated in other things of lesse importance, imploie not al theire forces in this labour of mortification: whereof it ensueth, that men remaine almost as they were borne, that is in onlie natural goodnes or yll, which is no lesse inconuenience, then to place a piece of timber in a gorgeous palaice, no otherwise prepared, then euen as it was brought cut out of the woode; or to set vppon the table in a delicious banket greene oliues, in such sort as they be gathered from the tree.
Seeing then that the end of this entreprise, is to make a man good and vertuous, that thou be not deceaued with whatsoeuer sort of goodnes, thou must vnderstand that there be twoe kinds of goodnes; th'one is naturall, and is proper to such, as be naturallie gentell and wel condicioned; th'other is spiritual, proceeding of grace, and of the feare and loue of God, which is propre to those that be iust persons. Betwixt these two kinds of goodnes there is so great difference, that with the first, we nether merite grace nor glorie, but with the second we obteine the one and the other. And for this purpose, the chiefest care of a good maister must be, to attend that this spirite of the feare and loue of God, be poured into the sowle of his nouice, procuring the same by all meanes that maie serue to this end, such as ar Praier, Meditation, and Vse of the Sacraments &c. For otherwise, what soeuer he shal doe, wil be a bodie without sowle, an Adam of earth without spirite of life, which is a thing of smal profit for Religion; because by experience we see, that such, as in religion haue nothing els but this natural goodnes, ar no more to be esteemed then seelie soules, or folkes of good past, that ar led by euerie man whither he wil, and can not saie naie to anie bodie, nor hold hand in anie thing that is commended to them. In so much, that a man otherwise yl bent by nature, which striueth alwaies through the feare of God, against his wicked inclinations, is much more worth, then is an other, verie wel inclined by nature, yf he want this feare. For as the wise man saieth, Better is a liuing dogge, then a dead lion: 3 because without spirite of life, not anie one thing, be it neuer so greate, can be grateful and acceptable to God.
Of that, which hitherto hath ben said, it is manifest, how that this end, of which we haue spoken, comprehendeth two things; th'one is to driue out of the soule al kind of vices; the other is to plant in the same al kind of vertues, seeing the one necessarilie goeth before the other. For like as in natural things, there can be no generation without corruption; so vertues can not be engendred and brought forth in our soule, yf our vices be not first dead: nether can the spirit freelie raigne and gouerne, yf the flesh be not before vanquished and ouercom.
These two ends the Apostle had then obteined, when he said, writing to the Galatians, 4 with Christ I am nailed to the Crosse; and I liue, now not I, but Christ liueth in me. For by saying that he was nailed to the Crosse, and that he liued not; he giueth to vnderstand the death of the ould man, with al his wicked inclinations and appetites, which he had ouercom through the fauour of the Crosse of Iesus Christ: and by saying Christ liueth in me, he setteth before our eyes the resurrection, and life of the new man, which was not now conformable to the affections of flesh and bloud, but to the vertues and examples of Christ.
These selfe same two ends, did our Sauiour comprehend in those woords of his, saying. 5 If anie man wil com after me, let him denie him self, and take vp his Crosse, and follow me. For by saying, let him denie him self, he laid before vs the first & immediate end, which is, that a man denie his owne wil, and natural inclination, with al the affections and appetites thereof, and that he haue no law with them, nor in anie wise acknowledge them, thereby to folow and obey them. The second and last end he declared, by saying let him folow me, that is, let him folow all the pases and examples of my life, and al the vertues that he shall find in me. And in that which he saied, Let him take vp his Crosse, to wit of trauail and austeritie, he declared the chiefest meane and instrument, necessarie for the one and the other end: because that neither rooting out of vices and ouercomming of nature, nether planting of vertues, can be donne without trauail and paine, for somuch as there is great difficultie, as wel in the one, as in the other.
By that which hath ben saied, we maie plainelie gather of what condition this new warfare is, to which a man is called, and what sort of profession it is: for he is not called to a delicate and quiet life (as som doe imagin) but to the Crosse, to trauail, to sight against his passions, to pou[…]etie and nakednes, to the sacrifice of him self, and of his oune wil, and finallie to that mortification, of which our Sauiour said; 6 vnles the graine of wheate, falling into the ground, die, it self remaineth alone; but if it die, it bringeth much fruite. He that loueth his life, shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, doth keepe it to life euerlasting. It is no matter of smal importance to win and subdue nature, and to make of flesh spirite, of earth heauen, and of a man an Angel. For if in deede to make of a greene hearbe, fine and delicate linnen cloth, there needeth so much mortifying & trauail about the same, by reason of the greate difference there is, betwixt the one and the other; how much more is it necessarie, for the making of this so greate a change, of a man into an Agel? They report, that when a snake wil change his skinne, he entreth by a verie narow and straite hole, that by this meanes he maie shift of his ould skinne: he then that mindeth to strippe him self of the ould man, & to put on the new, how can he bring this to passe, by leading a large & delicate life? There can be no generation without corruption, nether can a man atteine to be that, which he is not, yf first he leaue not to be that, which he is: a thing that can not be donne without great paine and labour.
The life of a Christian man is ordeined to a supernaturall end, and so presupposeth supernatural forces, and consequentlie this life it self must be supernatural, to which thing flesh and bloud can not arriue. Woe to that Religion, whose manner of life is wide and large, for in it a man shal goe alwaies with a weake and faint stomacke, and one libertie wil ask an other, one delicacie wil draw an other. Religious life ought to be such, that like as the sea casteth from it self all dead bodies, and the pot, that boileth, all the froth and scume, that is within it; so shee should berid her self of all the scume that she hath, & of al the dead carcases which she findeth to be in her. Let the seruant of God then force, and doe violence to him self; let him take a greate courage, and think that God saieth vnto him, that which the Angel said to Elias: Rise vp, 7 eate, because there resteth yet a greate waie for the to goe.
Now to turne back to our purpose, for somuch as there be twoe things, which we must alwaies haue before our eyes in this affaire, which be to extirp vices, and plant vertues: according to these twoe ends, shal this present treatise haue also twoe parts. The first shal be of the mortification of vices, and euil inclinations of nature: the second shall be of vertues, & of al the renewing of the inward man. Not that these twoe parts be different betwixt them selues in practise & vse, seeing vertues can not be planted, vnles vices be first rooted out; but onlie that the matter, of wich we treate, maie be the better vnderstoode: especiallie because we knowe more euidentlie the vices that war against vs, then we doe the vertues, which we haue neede of; and so that which we get not by one waie, we shal obteine by an other.
Footnotes
Chapter 19 of 23