效法基督 第 3 章 第 6/6 段

Your grace is needed, and great grace, that nature, always prone to evil from its youth, may be overcome. For having fallen through the first man, Adam, and being vitiated by sin, the penalty of this stain has descended upon all men, so that nature itself, which was created good and upright by you, is now reckoned as the vice and infirmity of corrupted nature, because its movement, left to itself, draws toward evil and lower things. For the slight strength that remained is as it were a spark hidden in ashes. This is that very natural flesh, surrounded by great darkness, still having judgment of good and evil and the distinction of true and false, although it is powerless to fulfil all that it approves, and no longer possesses the full light of truth nor the soundness of its affections. 3.

Hence it is, my God, that I delight in your law according to the inward man, knowing your commandment to be good, just, and holy, reproving also all evil and sin as to be shunned. Yet in the flesh I serve the law of sin, while I obey sensuality more than reason. Hence it is that to will the good is present with me, but to perform it I find not. Hence often I propose many good things, but because grace is lacking to aid my infirmity, at a slight resistance I start back and fail. Hence it happens that I know the way of the perfect, and see clearly enough how I ought to act; but pressed down by the weight of my own corruption, I do not rise to more perfect things. 4.

O how greatly necessary to me is your grace, O Lord, to begin the good, to advance in it, and to bring it to perfection. For without you I can do nothing; but I can do all things in you, when your grace strengthens me. O truly heavenly grace, without which our own merits are nothing, nor are any gifts of nature to be esteemed. No arts, no riches, no beauty or strength, nothing of ardour or of eloquence avail before you, O Lord, without your grace. For the good things of nature are common to good and evil alike; but the proper gift of the elect is grace, or love, by which, marked out, they are held worthy of eternal life.

So pre-eminent is this grace, that neither the gift of prophecy, nor the working of signs, nor any contemplation however lofty, is reckoned anything without it. But neither faith nor hope nor other virtues are acceptable to you without charity and grace. 5. O most blessed grace, which makes the poor in spirit rich in virtues, and renders him who is rich in many goods humble of heart! Come, descend to me, fill me early with your mercy and your consolation, lest my soul faint through weariness and dryness of mind. I beseech you, Lord, that I may find grace in your eyes; for your grace suffices me, even though the other things which nature desires be not obtained. If I am vexed and tempted with many tribulations, I will fear no evil, while your grace is with me.

It is my very strength, it gives counsel and help. It is mightier than all enemies and wiser than all the wise. 6. It is the teacher of truth, the instructress of discipline, the light of the heart, the solace of distress, the banisher of sadness, the remover of fear, the nurse of devotion, the producer of tears. What am I without it but dry wood and a useless stock, fit to be cast away? Therefore, O Lord, let your grace always go before me and follow me, and make me continually intent upon good works, through Jesus Christ your Son. Amen. Chapter 56. That we ought to deny ourselves and imitate Christ through the cross. 1. My son, as far as you are able to go out of yourself, so far will you be able to pass over into me.

As to covet nothing outward makes inward peace, so to forsake oneself inwardly unites one to God. I will have you learn perfect self-denial in my will, without contradiction or complaint. Follow me: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way which you ought to follow, the truth which you ought to believe, the life which you ought to hope for. I am the inviolable way, the infallible truth, the unending life. I am the most straight way, the supreme truth, the true life, the blessed life, the uncreated life. If you remain in my way, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free, and you shall lay hold of eternal life. 2. If you would enter into life, keep the commandments.

If you would know the truth, believe me. If you would be perfect, sell all. If you would be my disciple, deny yourself. If you would possess the blessed life, despise the present life. If you would be exalted in heaven, humble yourself in the world. If you would reign with me, carry the cross with me. For only the servants of the cross find the way of blessedness and of the true light. 3. O Lord Jesus Christ, since your life was strait and despised by the world, grant me to imitate, together with you, the world's contempt. For the servant is not greater than his lord, nor the disciple above his master. Let your servant be exercised in your life, for therein is my salvation and true holiness. Whatever I read and hear outside of it does not refresh nor fully delight me. 4.

My son, since you know these things and have read them all, blessed shall you be if you do them. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and I will love him and manifest myself to him, and will make him sit together with me in the kingdom of my Father. Therefore, O Lord, as you have said and promised, so may it indeed fall to my lot to merit. I have received, I have received the cross from your hand; I will carry it even unto death, as you have laid it upon me. Truly the life of a good monk is a cross, but a guide to paradise. It is begun; it is not permitted to go back, nor ought one to forsake it. 5. Come then, brothers, let us go forward together: Jesus will be with us; for Jesus' sake we have taken up this cross; for Jesus' sake let us persevere in the cross; he will be our helper, who is our leader and forerunner.

Behold, let our King go before us, who will fight for us. Let us follow manfully, let no one dread the terrors; let us be ready to die bravely in battle, and let us not bring reproach upon our glory by fleeing from the cross. Chapter 57. That a man ought not to be too cast down when he falls into some faults. 1. My son, patience and humility in adversities please me more than much consolation and devotion in prosperity. Why does some small thing said against you sadden you? If it had been more, you ought not to have been moved. But now let it pass: it is neither the first nor a new thing, nor will it be the last, if you live long. You are manly enough so long as nothing adverse meets you; you give good counsel too, and know how to strengthen others with words:

but when a sudden tribulation comes to your door, you fail in counsel and in strength. 2. Consider your great frailty, which you too often experience in trifling occasions: yet these things happen for your salvation. When these and the like befall, set yourself, as best you know how, with your whole heart; and if tribulation touches you, let it nevertheless not cast you down nor long entangle you. At the least bear it patiently, if you cannot bear it gladly. And if you hear something less willingly and feel indignation, restrain yourself, and do not suffer anything disordered to go out of your mouth, whereby the little ones may be scandalized. The commotion stirred up will quickly subside, and the inward grief will be sweetened by returning grace. I yet live, says the Lord;

I am ready to help you and to console you more than usual, if you trust in me and devoutly call upon me. 3. Be of greater courage and gird yourself for greater endurance. All is not lost if you often perceive yourself afflicted or grievously tempted. You are a man, and not God; you are flesh, and not an angel. How could you always remain in the same state of virtue, when this failed an angel in heaven and the first man in paradise, who did not stand long? I am he who raises up the mourning to safety, and who summons those acknowledging their own infirmity to my divinity. 4. O Lord, blessed be your word, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth.

What would I do amid such great tribulations and anguishes of mine, did you not strengthen me with your holy words? Provided that I at last reach the harbour of salvation, what does it matter to me what things and how great I have suffered? Grant a good end, and grant a happy passage out of this world. Remember me, my God, and direct me by the right path into your kingdom. Amen. Chapter 58. That higher matters and the hidden judgments of God are not to be scrutinized. 1. My son, beware of disputing about lofty matters and the hidden judgments of God: why this man is so left behind, and that one is taken up to such great grace; why also this one is so greatly afflicted, and that one so exceedingly exalted? These things exceed all human capacity, nor does any reason or disputation avail to investigate the divine judgment.

When therefore the enemy suggests these things to you, or even certain curious men inquire into them, answer with that word of the Prophet: 'You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is just'; and that other: 'The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves.' My judgments are to be feared, not to be discussed, because they are incomprehensible to human understanding. 2. Neither inquire nor dispute about the merits of the saints, who is holier than another, or who is greater in the kingdom of heaven. Such things often beget useless strifes and contentions, and nourish pride and vainglory, whence arise envyings and dissensions, while one tries to exalt this saint and another that, in a proud manner.

To wish to know and investigate such things bears no fruit, but rather displeases the saints, because I am not the God of dissension, but of peace; which peace consists more in true humility than in self-exaltation. 3. Some are drawn by zeal of devotion to these saints or to those, with greater affection, but human rather than divine. I am he who created all the saints; I gave the grace; I bestowed the glory. I know the merits of each one; I went before them in the blessings of my sweetness. I foreknew my beloved before the ages; I chose them out of the world, they did not first choose me. I called them by grace, drew them by mercy; I led them through various temptations. I poured in magnificent consolations;

I gave perseverance; I crowned their patience. 4. I acknowledge the first and the last; I embrace all with inestimable love. I am to be praised in all my saints; I am to be blessed above all things and honoured in each one, whom I have so gloriously magnified and predestined without any preceding merits of their own. He therefore who despises one of my least, does not honour the great: for I made both the small and the great. He who derogates from any of the saints derogates also from me, and from all the rest in the kingdom of heaven. All are one through the bond of charity, think the same, will the same, and all love one another in one. 5. And further, what is far higher, they love me more than themselves and their own merits.

For caught up above themselves and drawn out of their own self-love, they go wholly into love of me, in which they also restfully repose. There is nothing that can turn them away or depress them: since being filled with eternal truth, they burn with the fire of unquenchable charity. Let carnal and animal men therefore be silent about discoursing on the state of the saints: men who know not how to love anything but private joys; they take away and add according to their own inclination, not as it pleases the eternal Truth. 6. In many there is ignorance, especially of those who, being little enlightened, rarely know how to love anyone with perfect spiritual love. Many are still drawn to these or to those by natural affection and human friendship;

and as they behave in lower things, so also do they imagine concerning heavenly things. But there is an incomparable distance between the things that the imperfect think and the things that enlightened men contemplate through revelation, and behold the things above. 7. Beware therefore, my son, of curiously treating those things which exceed your knowledge; but rather be busy and intent on this, that you may be found even the least in the kingdom of God. And if anyone should know who is holier than another, or held greater in the kingdom of heaven, what would this knowledge profit him, unless from this knowledge he should humble himself before me, and rise up to the greater praise of my name?

Far more acceptably to God does he act who thinks on the greatness of his own sins and the littleness of his own virtues, and how far he is distant from the perfection of the saints, than he who disputes about their greater or lesser rank. It is better to entreat the saints with devout prayers and tears, and to implore their glorious suffrages with a humble mind, than to pry into their secrets by vain inquiry. 8. They are well and most fully content, if only men knew how to be content and to check their idle talk. They do not glory in their own merits, since they ascribe no goodness to themselves, but all to me, because I gave them all things out of my infinite charity.

They are filled with such love of the Godhead and with overflowing joy, that nothing of glory is lacking to them, nor anything of felicity. All the saints, the higher they are in glory, the more humble in themselves, and the nearer to me and the dearer they are. And so you have it written, that they cast their crowns before God, and fell on their faces before the Lamb, and worshipped him who lives for ever and ever. 9. Many ask who is greater in the kingdom of God, who know not whether they shall be worthy to be reckoned among the least. It is a great thing to be even the least in heaven, where all are great: for all shall be called sons of God, and shall be so. The least shall be a thousand, and the sinner of a hundred years shall die.

For when the disciples asked who was greater in the kingdom of heaven, they heard this answer: 'Unless you are converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is greater in the kingdom of heaven.' 10. Woe to those who scorn willingly to humble themselves with the little ones, since the lowly gate of the heavenly kingdom will not admit them to enter. Woe also to the rich, who have their consolations here, for while the poor enter into the kingdom of God, they themselves shall stand outside lamenting. Rejoice, you humble, and exult, you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God, if only you walk in truth. Chapter 59. That all hope and trust is to be fixed in God alone. 1.

O Lord, what is my trust which I have in this life, or what is my greater solace out of all things appearing under heaven? Is it not you, O Lord my God, whose mercies are without number? Where was it well with me without you? Or when could it be ill with me, you being present? I would rather be poor for your sake than rich without you. I choose rather to be a pilgrim with you on earth than to possess heaven without you. Where you are, there is heaven; and there is death and hell, where you are not. You are my desire, and therefore I must sigh and cry and pray after you. In nothing, in short, can I fully trust to be helped in my necessities more opportunely, save in you alone, my God.

You are my hope, and my trust, and my consoler, and most faithful in all things. 2. All seek the things that are their own; you alone purpose my salvation and my advancement, and turn all things to good for me. And even if you expose me to various temptations and adversities, all this you ordain to my profit, who are wont to prove your beloved in a thousand ways. In which proving you ought to be loved and praised no less than if you filled me with heavenly consolations. 3. In you therefore, O Lord my God, I place all my hope and refuge; in you I set all my tribulation and my anguish, because I find everything weak and unstable, whatever I behold outside of you.

For many friends shall not profit, nor shall mighty helpers be able to aid, nor prudent counsellors give useful answer, nor the books of the learned console, nor any precious substance deliver, nor any secret place shelter, if you yourself do not assist, help, strengthen, console, instruct, and guard. 4. For all things that seem to make for peace and the having of felicity, you being absent, are nothing, and confer nothing of felicity in truth. You therefore are the end of all good things, and the height of life, and the depth of discourses; and to hope in you above all things is the strongest solace of all your servants. To you are my eyes; in you I trust, my God;

O Father of mercies, bless and sanctify my soul with a heavenly blessing, that it may become your holy habitation and the seat of your eternal glory, and that nothing may be found in the temple of your dignity which may offend the eyes of your majesty. According to the multitude of your tender mercies and the greatness of your goodness, look upon me, and hear the prayer of your poor servant, far in exile in the region of the shadow of death. Protect and preserve the soul of your little servant amid so many perils of this corruptible life, and, your grace accompanying me, direct me by the way of peace to the everlasting fatherland of felicity and brightness.