Book II, Part 2, Chapter 10. The Fourth Advice of the Fortitude requisite to the obtaining Virtue

1. The foregoing advice has furnished us with eyes to see our duty. This will furnish us arms, that is, fortitude, to perform it. For since there are in virtue two difficulties, the first whereof consists in distinguishing betwixt good and bad, and separating the one from the other ; the second is overcoming of the bad, and in pursuing of the good ; attention and watchfulness are necessary for that, and diligence and fortitude for this ; and if either of these two be wanting, our virtue will be imperfect ; for either it will be blind, if there is no attention, or else impotent, if fortitude be wanting.

2. This fortitude is not the same whose part it is to moderate boldness and fear, which is one of the four cardinal virtues, but a general fortitude necessary for the overcoming of all those difficulties that may lie in our way to virtue. To this end it always goes along with it, with sword in hand, and makes way for it wherever it goes. Because virtue, according to the philosophers, is a hard and difficult thing ; and, therefore, it is convenient it should always have this by it, to assist it in breaking through these difficulties. For as a smith is always to have his hammer in his hand, because of the hardness of the metal he is to work on, so this fortitude is like a spiritual hammer, which a good man is never to be without, if he designs to overcome the difficulty he shall meet with in virtue. So that, a smith without his hammer can do nothing, neither can he who is in pursuit of virtue, if he has not this fortitude to assist him. To prove this, what virtue is there that has not some particular labor and hardship in it ? Take which of them you please, you will find it so. Prayer, fasting, obedience, temperance, poverty of spirit, patience, chastity, humility, all of them, in short, have ever some difficulty or other joining with them, arising either from self-love, from the world, or the devil. If, then, this fortitude be taken away, what will the love of virtue be able to do when it is disarmed and can do nothing for them ?

3. Whosoever, therefore, you are, that desire to improve yourself in virtue, look on these words, which the Lord of all virtues and strength spoke formerly to Moses, though in another sense, and directed to you : " Take this rod in your hand, for with it you shall do wonders and miracles, by which you shall bring my people out of Egypt ;" Exod. iv. 17. Assure yourself, that as his -/od was the instrument of all those wonders, and that which put an end to so glorious an enterprise, so this rod of fortitude is that which must overcome all the difficulties that either the love of tue flesh or the devil shall lay in their way, and it is by this you dre to bring off your undertaking with success. And, therefore, let it not be out of your hand, for if you once lay it down, you will not be able to do any of these wonders.

4. Therefore, I think fit in this place, to give notice of a great errot those that begin to serve God are apt to fall into ; they, having read in some pious books how great the consolations and delignts of the Holy Ghost are, and how sweet and delightful charity is, persuade themselves immediately that there is nothing but pleasure in the way to virtue, without any mixture of labor and pains. And, therefore, they prepare themselves for it, as if it were an easy and pleasant undertaking, so that they do not think of arming themselves for a fight, but of dressing for some public entertainment. They never consider, that though the love of God is sweet in itself, there is a great deal of bitterness before a man can get to it ; for, first of all, self-love must be overcome ; a man must fight against himself, and what war so hard as this is ? Isaias told us of the necessity of both : " Shake the dust off from you," says he, " O Jerusalem ; rise up, and sit down ;" Isa. lii. 2. There is no trouble, it is true, in sitting down, but there is a great deal in shaking off the dust of earthly affections, and in rising from the sleep of sin. This is what we must do before we are to think of enjoying the rest which the prophet means by sitting down.

5. It is likewise true that God has great comforts in store for those that work hard, and for all such as have parted with the pleasures of this world for those of heaven. But unless this exchange be made, and if a man will not let go what he holds, he may assure himself this refreshment will not be granted him. For we know the children of Israel had not manna given them in the wilderness till they had spent all the flour they had carried out of Egypt.

6. But to come home to our subject: those persons who will not arm themselves with this fortitude must account on what they look for as lost, and never think of finding it, unless they change their affections, and alter their ways of proceeding. They may be assured, that rest is purchased by labor, the victory by fighting, joy by tears, and the most delightful love of God by self-hatred. This is the reason why laziness and sloth are so often condemned in the Proverbs, whereas fortitude and diligence are so highly commended, as we have shown elsewhere ; for the Holy Ghost, who is the Author of this doctrine, knew very well, that the one was no small hinderance to virtue, and the other forwarded it as much. Treatise of Prayer, c. ii. § 2.

§1. Of the Means of acquiring this Fortitude. — 7. You Will ask me, perhaps, what the means are for obtaining of this fortitude, which is no less difficult than other virtues. For the wise man had reason to begin his alphabet that is so full of divine instructions with this sentence : " Who has found a strong woman? She is to be valued more than all treasures and precious stones that are brought from the farthest parts of the earth ;" Prov. xxxi. 10. What means, then, must we use to find out so inestimable a thing as this is ? We must first consider what this value is, because that which contributes to the purchasing so immense a treasure as that of virtue is, must certainly itself be of no small esteem. For what can be the reason why worldly men fly so fast from virtue, but the difficulty cowardly and lazy persons find in it ? The slothful man says, " There is a lion in the way ; I shall be killed in the middle of the street ;" Prov. xxii. 13. And the same wise man says, in another place, " The fool stands with his arms across, and says, A little with ease is much better than a handful with affliction and labor ;" Eccl. iv. 5, 6. Since, therefore, there is nothing that frightens us from virtue but the difficulty of it, if we can gather strength to overcome this difficulty, the conquest of the whole kingdom of virtue follows. Is there any man that will not take courage, and endeavor to acquire this fortitude on the acquisition of which depends the making ourselves masters of the kingdom of virtue, and consequently of that of heaven, which is to be gained by those only that use violence ? This same fortitude overcomes self-love, with all its assistants ; and when once we have routed this enemy, the love of God, or, to speak more properly, God himself, comes in its place ; since, according to St. John, " He that remains in charity remains in God ;" Matt. xi. 12.

8. Another thing that is a great help to us, is the good example of so many holy men as are in the world, poor, naked, barefoot, pale, and worn out with watching and fasting, and deprived of all the conveniences of this life ; some of whom are so desirous of labors and mortifications, and so much in love with them, that, as merchants run to great fairs, and scholars to the most flourishing universities^so they run up and down from monastery to monastery, from province to province, in search of great austerities and rigors, where they find no food, but hunger ; no riches, but poverty; no ease, but the cross and perpetual macerations. What can be more opposite to the practice of the world and to the inclinations of the greater part of mankind, than for a man to go into strange countries to find out a way to suffer more hunger, to be poorer, worse clothed, and more naked than he was before ? This certainly is repugnant to flesh and blood, but extremely consonant to the Spirit of God.

9. But what condemns our ease most is the example of so many martyrs, who have undergone such different and cruel kinds of deaths, for the purchasing of the kingdom of heaven. There is not a day passes in the whole year but we have the examples of some of them set before us by the church, not only to celebrate their memories by the feasts it institutes in honor of them, but to profit by imitation of those virtues they were so famous for. One day we have the example of a martyr that was broiled, another day of one that was impaled alive, another day of one that was thrown into the sea, another of one that was cast down headlong from a rock, another of one that had his flesh torn off with red hot pincers, another of one that was pulled limb from limb, another of one that was shot to death with arrows, another of one that was boiled in a cauldron of oil, with an infinity of other torments they were put to. Nay, several of them have undergone, not one sort of torment only, but all that human nature could possibly suffer. How many have been carried from prison to the whipping-post, from the whipping-post to the stake, from thence to be torn with iron hooks, and, after all, have died by the sword, which was very often the only instrument that could take their lives away, but yet could not hurt their faith nor daunt their courage.

10. What shall I say of the cruel devices and inventions, not of men but of devils, to attack the faith and fortitude of the spirits, by the torture of the bodies ? Some, after having been barbarously slashed and wounded, were laid on beds of nettles and sharp pieces of tiles and stones, that, whilst they lay there, all the parts of their bodies might be wounded at once, and that no member might be free from pain, and their faith thu% assaulted by an army of unheard-of torments. Others they made walk barefoot over hot coals, and tied others to wild horses' tails, and so dragged them through briers and over flint-stones. They had a dreadful invention for others of a wheel that was covered all over with sharp razors, that so the body that was fastened to it, might, on the motion of the wheel, be cut to pieces by the rows of razors set in it. Others were stretched out ^n wooden horses, and, as they lay in this posture, with their bodies tied fast down, the executioner made great furrows in their flesh from head to foot with iron hooks. Nor could the cruelty of those tyrants be satisfied with such barbarous torments ; their fury made them invent another strange one, which was to bend down the branches of two great trees with all the force they could, and to tie the martyrs to them by the feet, that so flying up again with more violence, they might pull the body of the saint into two pieces, and each branch carry one half along with it. There was a certain martyr in Nicodemia, and afterwards a great many were put to the same kind of torments, that had been whipped so barbarously, that not only his skin but the greatest part of his flesh was torn off, so that his very bones might be seen through holes they had made with their whips ; when they had done this, they washed his wounds with vinegar, and sprinkled them over with salt, and not thinking this enough, because they saw the saint was not dead yet, they laid him on a gridiron over a fire, and there turned him from one side to the other with iron forks, till the holy body being scorched and broiled, the soul left it, and went immediately to God. Thus death itself, which is said to be of all things the most terrible, has been in some manner outdone by these barbarous tormentors, because their design was not so much to kill as to torture, by inflicting the most cruel pains they could think of, so as to force the soul to leave the body by the extremity of the sufferings it endured, though they had received no wounds that were mortal.

11. These martyrs had the same kind of bodies that we have, the substance was the same, the composition the same ; they had the very same God to assist them that we have ; nor was the glory they expected different from that which we look for. Now if these persons underwent such severe torments, and such cruel deaths, for obtaining of eternal life, shall we refuse to mortify the irregular desires of our flesh for the same end ? Shall we grudge to fast one day, when these holy men have died of hunger? Why shall we think it much to say a few prayers on our knees with devotion, when we see these saints have continued to pray for their enemies, though they were nailed to the cross? Why shall we be unwilling to mortify and retrench our desires

2K and passions a lit#e, when these persons have so cheerfully given their limbs to be cut and torn in pieces? Why should we be against the taking of a little time every day, to retire ourselves into our closets, to meditate there, when these men have been shut up so long, in dark prisons and dungeons ? And if these, in fine, have held down their backs to be ploughed up and furrowed, why shall we grudge to take a discipline now and then on ours, for the love of Christ ?

12. But if these examples cannot move us, let us lift up our eyes towards the sacred wood of the cross, let us consider who it is that hangs on it, in the greatest pain and torment imaginable for the love of us. " Consider him," says St. Paul, " that endured such contradictions from sinners, for fear you should be tired and lose courage ;" Heb. xii. 3. This is a surprising example, take it which way you will. For if you consider his sufferings, they could not have possibly been greater; you will find also, it was for no crime of his own that he suffered, he being innocence itself; nor for any necessity he was in, because he is Lord of all created beings. It was only an effect of pure goodness and love. And notwithstanding his being so great, he underwent such bitter torments, both in his body and in his soul, that all the sufferings of the martyrs, and of the whole together, are not fit to be put into the balance with them. His torments were such that the very heavens were astonished at them, the earth shook, the rocks were rent asunder, and the most senseless beings were sensible of them. And can man then alone be so hard, as not to be wrought upon by that which moved the very elements ? and can he be so ungrateful, as not to copy something from him who came into the world to give him an example ? For this reason, as our Saviour himself said, " It was requisite that Christ should die, and so enter into his glory ;" Luke xxiv. 16. For, after his coming into the world, to conduct us to heaven, which was to be done by the way of the cross, it was convenient that he himself should be crucified the first, that so the servant, seeing the master so ill dealt with, might have the better courage to suffer.

13. Who, then, can be so ungrateful, so delicate, so proud, or so impudent, as to desire to go to heaven by living at his ease and pleasure, when he sees the Lord of majesty, with all his friends and followers, take so much pains to get thither ? King David commanded Urias, after his coming from the camp, to take nis leave and refresh himself at his own house, and to sup with nis wife ; but the loyal subject replied, " The ark of God, and (srael, and Judah, are in their tents ; and my master Jacob, and my Lord's servants, are in the open field, and shall I then go to my house to eat and drink, and lie with my wife ? By your life, and by the life of your soul, I will not do this thing." 2 Kings xi. 11. O true and faithful servant, who were as worthy of praise, as you were unworthy of death ! How can you, O Christian, choose but have the same respect for your Lord when you see him stretched out on the cross ? The ark of God, that is made of incorruptible cedar, undergoes torments and death itself, and do you seek your own ease and pleasure ? This ark in which the hidden manna was kept, which is the bread of angels, drank gall and vinegar for you, and do you hunt after your sweet morsels and delicacies ? This ark, in which the tables of the law were kept, which are all the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God, is despised and esteemed no better than folly, and do you aim at nothing less than honor and praise ? But if the example of this mystical ark is not sufficient to confound you, take with it the patterns and the sufferings of so many saints, of so many prophets, martyrs, confessors and virgins, who have under-gone such pains and torments, and have lived in such rigors and austerities. The apostle gives us a short view of their sufferings in these words : " They have been mocked, they have been scourged, and put into chains and prisons. They have been stoned, they have been sawn asunder, they have been tempted, they have been slain with the sword, they have wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted and tormented, of whom the world was not worthy ; they wandered in wildernesses, over mountains, in dens, and in caverns of the earth" (Heb. xi. 36, 37, 38) ; and yet, amidst all these miseries, they remained unshaken and constant in their faith.

14. If the saints led such lives, and if, what is much more yet, the Saint of saints himself lived no otherwise, I cannot see what privilege they claim, nor what they propose to themselves, who think of going where these are now, in a road of delights and pleasures. If, therefore, you desire to share with them in their glory, you must, whilst you are here, partake of their labors ; if you intend to reign with them hereafter, you must resolve upon nothing less than suffering with them now.

15. What I have here said is to exhort you to this noble virtue of fortitude, that so you may imitate that holy soul, of whom Solomon has given us this commandment : " She hath girded her loins with strength, and has fortified her arms;" Prov. xxxi. 17.

I will conclude this chapter and the doctrine of this second book, with that excellent sentence of our Saviour: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me ;" Luke ix. 23. Our divine Master has here given us an abridgement, in a few words, of the whole doctrine of the gospel, the design of which is the forming of a perfect and evangelical man, who, though he enjoys a kind of paradise within, is, nevertheless, continually stretched upon a cross without ; so that the sweetness of the one tempers the bitterness of the other, and the pleasure he finds in the one makes him willingly embrace the toils and hardships he is to expect from the other.